Relationship, Relationship, Relationship

People matter everywhere, but in Uganda everyone seems to matter just a little bit more.  Community is the number one priority here.  Where the West says "I think, therefore I am" Uganda says "I participate, therefore I am".  In all aspects of life your fellow man still matters more than your own needs. Your purpose in life is to improve the community as a whole, therefore if you have nothing to contribute, you have no sense of belonging....maybe Uganda has a better picture of the Church than we do.

A man is not considered complete until he has a wife.  A marriage is not established until they have a child.  When someone dies there is a time of mourning followed by a community wide celebration of the life lived. The entire community raises a child, not just his father and mother.  If one store does not have what you need, the owner will personally walk you down to someone else's that has what you are looking for.

When looking for a place to live in the West we are told it's all about 'location, location, location', but here you would be told 'relationship, relationship, relationship'.  How does the community show that they care for one another?

These relationships go all across the board.  "Bro-mance" is a popular phrase some of the missions students here has labeled Uganda as due to the affection and care shown by the men for the fellow man.  It's so encouraging to see individuals take a genuine interest in their fellow man.  Even casual acquaintances are more valued.  You greet everyone, because everyone matters.

Uganda has some much more to give me than what I could ever offer them.

Life Is Worth The Living

Today was my first full day at CHAIN and it was absolutely precious!  For the first half of the day I helped teach the creation story and after prayer time and a 30 minute lunch break, we resumed class. The next subject to cover was mathematics.  The class I am helping with is Primary three, which is (roughly) ages 7-10.  In this class of 54 children there are 10 blind children, so I spent the afternoon reading out fractal word problems and helping them solve the questions once they had the problem written out in brail. 

As I mentioned, before lunch time there is an hour set aside for worship and prayer.  The service in predominately in Luganda, but the kids sang a few songs in English.  One of the songs they sang was Because He Lives.  It was so moving to listen to over 100 precious, abandoned orphans sing of hope in the future and life being worth living even though their parents labeled them as worthless. 

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,

Because He lives, all fear is gone;

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living,

Just because He lives!

 It's days like this that make life worth the living to me. 

Word Vomit

The following are incomplete thoughts that somehow explain my exacts feelings (and life) right now:

 If you can't afford the postage, place it in their hands. 

 Peace.  Rejoice.  He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes. 

 My Portion.  Every second counts.  Intentionality.  

Cling to what is good.  Be transformed.

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

My Favorite Part

This week began the best and most precious aspect of my semester.  CHAIN is an organization that offers a home for orphans and the blind while also giving them a quality education. 

Children

Health

Advocacy

Intervention

Network

Every Thursday for the next 10 weeks I will be spending the day with over 100 precious children.  Children with disabilities are often overlooked in Ugandan society, even more so than orphans, so CHAIN has the goal of speaking worth into these children while offering life skills.  They want to ingrain these children with the fact that they matter to God and to society, for we all have something to offer.  I am looking forward to the time we are going to spend together and investing in these precious kids. J

Poverty, Famine, and Joy

  Poverty is the absence of hope. When thinking of poverty in this perspective it is very hard to look at Uganda as a “poverty-stricken” country. Ugandans are very gracious and live life in a way that gives every person (even children) value. The biggest difference between Ugandans and Americans is their humility in times of worship. At Uganda Christian University we have community worship (chapel) twice a week, and it is the highlight of my week.  The way students here approach the throne of God is inspiring. I get chills from attending worship….not because I’m in Africa, but because I experience God in a different way in this place.

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.  Matthew 5:3

Grace is the famine of our lives in America.  I feel that all too often we do not come to God in the humility that is being exemplified by our Ugandan brothers and sisters. When I think of Uganda, I do not think of their lack of financial resources, but their being poor in spirit.  They are able to look at the nothingness we have all arisen from and thank God for bringing them out of it.

 Joy is a response of the heart, not an adaptation of circumstances. The people here have next to nothing, but their lives reflect otherwise.  The joy and love of those I have encountered thus far here in Uganda is overwhelming.  Never before have I experienced such hospitality and humility.

As I prepared to come to Uganda my main thoughts were how I could help while I’m here, not what I could learn or get out of it, but to my surprise, I have learned more in the past three weeks about grace, change, life, and humility than I prepared myself for.  Africa does not need our help; they need our friendship.

Friends encourage in times of poverty, thrive off of mercy in times of famine, and keep love deep within their hearts for one another.  That is what Africa needs….it’s what we all need. 

Just a typical weekend in Uganda :)

This was my first weekend to be at home here in Uganda, and it involved quite a range of activities.  Saturday consisted of helping make lunch and dinner for the day, which is an adventure in itself.  Our kitchen is outside in a small tin building....it consists of two "stoves" (3 bricks with space to put fire wood in between).  I spent a solid hour peeling matooke, which is "the food of Africa and Heaven" according to my Ugandan mother....we eat it for lunch and dinner.  It looks like a weird banana before it's peeled, and once it's cooked it looks like a heavier version of mashed potatoes.  Speaking of potatoes, peeling them is another job I've taken on.  Potatoes, or Irish as we call them here, are also served with the majority of our meals....even for breakfast sometimes.  So after peeling lots of matooke and potatoes, I butchered a chicken...that was an experience in itself :) One that I'm hoping to never relive.  I spent the rest of the day playing with my little brother and doing homework, but even playing is different here.....Enoch has no toys, but views the world as his playground.  I admire the freedom in that.

Life is life no matter where you live it

Although this semester is quite a bit different than my typical time at Williams, it's still life.  I still have to wash clothes....just by hand.  I still eat in a cafeteria for lunch everyday...there's just a lot less options (rice, beans, and bananas).  And I still have a family.  I'm pretty sure my family will be my favorite part about my time in Uganda.

My Father, Reverend Henry is the pastor for the Church of Uganda and looks two times younger than what he is.  My Mothers name is Irene, and she keeps the house all tied together along with Rev. Henry's two sisters: Jessica and Bekah.  Jessica is 24 and Bekah is 22...they do most of the cooking.  Irene and Henry only have 2 actual children: Enoch (age 5) and Elezar (8 months).  Our house has three bed rooms, two bathrooms, one "kitchen" sink, a living room/eating area, and a small room for ironing clothes.   In Uganda it is very common to take in extra children/teens as well, so my family not only has Jessica, Bekah, Enoch, Elezar, and me living there, but 2 young men as well.  The two guys live in a small building behind our house, but shares meals with us.  They are all absolutely precious!

Although I'm used to dorm life, spending the evenings helping make dinner and playng with my little brothers is the highlight of my day.  Life is still life here in Uganda....it just looks a little different.

The Rwandan Birthday

Being right on the equator, it gets bright pretty quickly, but I managed to wake up and make it outside just in time to see the most incredible sunrise…..for some reason everything is just more spectacular in Africa. I cannot possibly think of a better way to spend my birthday than the day that followed. On Sunday, August 28^th our team of students woke up planning to spend the morning worshipping with our Rwandan bothers and sisters.  Having been to several (culturally) different churches, most of Sunday’s activities did not come as a surprise to me.  Just like any church service, we sat and stood multiple times for worship, prayers, scripture reading, and finally sat in expectation of the message. After the sermon, there was a special act of worship; a dance.  After a while the dancers had us join in, sorry my fellow Baptists! ;)  This was awkward and uncomfortable for us, but the act in itself was beautiful.  The freedom these people have in Christ is evident far beyond their time of dancing.

The emphasis of our trip to Rwanda was to learn about the Genocide, and we saw several effects of it first hand at church that morning.  One woman even had a 4 inch long machete slash on her forehead….the people there almost act as if the genocide itself never occurred, but the scars and the memorials remain. 

For the next three nights we stayed at a Catholic guest house outside of Kigali, and there was a memorial right outside our room…..less than 20 years ago people were slaughtered right there.  I don’t understand how people can act as if nothing ever happened.  Even the woman with a gash in her head did not seem to doubt God’s goodness and plan through it all.  

Although this birthday was spent learning about the death of others, I have never before seen so much life.