Why Changing the World is Difficult

The past weekend we went to Lira, Uganda.  Since it was only a weekend trip, our Saturday was full of touring/visiting two different organizations.  These two organizations were Otina-waa and Helen’s shelter. 

Otina-waa is an organization that covers a wide range of things: an orphanage, a vocational training center, and a school.  Otina-waa is run by Bob and Carroll.  They are a retired couple from Oregon and are probably two of the most precious people I have ever encountered.  They did not come to Uganda until after retirement, and have now been living in the Lira district for 12 years.  Bob and Carol came to do pastoral training alongside the natives, but followed God’s guidance over the course of time and felt led to begin vocational training as well. 

The admirable part of Bob and Carol’s story is the way they follow God’s agenda instead of their own.  They did not plan on spending the next 12 years of their life meeting the needs of the Liran community, but they followed God’s lead to where they are today. After being here for so long, I have realized how quickly we as Americans are to do things our own way-assuming that we know best.  This more often than not, does more hurting than helping when it comes to meeting the needs of the people. 

I think it’s a great thing to be willing to go to another country and serve that community, but how you serve said community is very important.  Bob and Carroll sought out to meet the real needs of the people, and that is how Otina-waa came about.  Missions is a beautiful thing when done in this context.  The reason I struggle with the motives and actions of mission groups and other organizations is because there are many things they set out to do that the community itself should be doing.  And when these groups come in and take care of the problems for them, the community becomes dependent upon them instead of working together to achieve a better future.  After leaving Otina-waa, our team went to a local-ran women’s shelter. 

Helen’s Shelter is a safe haven for used and abused women and children.  Helen’s story is much different than Bob and Carols.  Helen is a native and is a female cop.  Being so involved in the community during her work, Helen saw the needs and hurts of these women.  She realized the injustice these women faced simply because it is not “culturally acceptable” for women to speak out.  She saw a need and she sought out of fulfill it. 

In life we all-too-often think changing the world means taking drastic measures and choosing a life of suffering, and in some cases, this may be true, but making a difference is really about seeing the needs of the people and meeting them.  

Reality Check

With just a few days more than a month left in Uganda, I want to share some of my recent realizations and convictions from this semester. 

For starters, there are starving children in Africa, but not to the extent in which American propaganda portrays.  The truth is, Africa-Uganda specifically- does a great job tending to orphans and others that are facing suffering.  When a child is left without parents, the community takes him or her in as their own.  Ugandans appreciate the aid that Americans offer when it comes to the downtrodden, but they are also aware of their own community obligations and biblical mandates.

 Seeing this kind sadness first hand completely changes your perspective on things.  I feel that the media often bombards us with so much pain and suffering in the world that we just become numb to it.  Numbness is our response because the way we are informed leaves us feeling overwhelmed and unable to help…..when we are no longer able to recognize suffering persons as fellow human beings, their pain evokes disgust and anger rather than compassion. 

Living in Uganda for a semester does not turn everyone into a Mother Theresa, but it does force you to live life from a new perspective-being completely aware of the lack and hurt in our surroundings.  Doing life with these people changes your perspective in ways that a “feed the children” commercial could never dream.  I did not understand solidarity with a group of people until this semester.  While being here, I have encountered several NGO’s and other teams that come in for a few weeks in hopes of making a difference, but they wind up doing more harm than good.  The reason they do more hurting than helping is because they do not spend enough time with the people. They do not take the time to understand the real needs of the community.

It’s not that NGO’s are incapable of doing good or being here for the “right reasons”; I’m sure they have the best of motives, but when you give someone a fish instead of the supplies to fish for themselves, where is their next “fish” going to come from once you are gone?  Taking time to understand the real needs of the community and establishing the necessary relationships to meet those needs may take more time, but it will also have a greater impact. 

What does this mean for the Church?

We must face the facts: There is great amount of pain in the world, but we also serve a great God.  When overwhelmed by the needs of the world, we are still expected to make an impact. Not only should we still strive to make an impact, but we need to have the right motives in doing so. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us to “Do everything in love” (16:14). Turning a deaf ear to the pains in this world will not fix anything.  “As long as religious people are well dressed, well fed, and well cared for, words about being in solidarity with the poor will remain pious words more likely to evoke good feelings than creative actions”.  Once you really walk in their shoes and do life together-see the pain, smell the pollution,  hear the stories first hand, it is much harder to use being overwhelmed as an excuse.  The truth is, God often calls us to places we would rather not go…..those places are often stinky, dirty, and dark, but it is in those places that we are called to bring light.  As long as we continue to avoid what God intends for us, we will continue to miss the life that God calls us to.  Faint Not

Extraordinarily Ordinary

One of the biggest frustrations about being here this semester is the pedestal everyone back home seems to place on the idea of being here.  Spending 4 1/2 months in Uganda is not some type of suffering grievance; I came here by choice and out of opportunity.  The truth is, being a Christian in Uganda is even easier than being one in the States....God seems closer as you seem to cling to Him all the more.

The real heros here are the moms that give all their time and affection to ensure a beautiful life for their children, the pastors that make hospital visits even though they are tired, the friend that gives an encouraging word, the dad that works hard to support his family, and the many others that are doing ministry in the here and now; whatever and wherever that may be for each person.

We all want to make a difference in the world, but the world includes where you are right now. As the body of Christ we are all called to be the hands and feet of Jesus rather that be in Camden, Jonesboro,Walnut Ridge, or Uganda-to be the change you want to see in the world. I'm not going to be in Uganda forever.  In fact, I will be back in the U.S. in 41 days.  This semester is just a small season in my life, and according to Ecclesiastics, "there is a time for everything".  What time is it for you?  Are you willing to go wherever He leads?  Are we being Jesus in the here and now?  


Uganda may sound special or adventurous, but everyday life is just as valuable.  Each extraordinarily ordinary day is our opportunity to live the life God has for us.  May we always make the most of it no matter where it may be.  

Mud Huts and Bare Baby Butts

It’s always an adventure going to villages where “muzungu” sightings are rare.  It’s even more of an adventure when you are staying in that village for a week with a native family you have never met before. 

Patrick and Joy are the proud parents of 5 boys (now all young men) and have spent their entire lives in the area of Kapchorwa.  Patrick is the headmaster of a school about 30 minutes (walking distance) from their home, while Joy teaches at a school roughly 45 minutes away if you cut through the coffee beans and cow fields.  While teaching is their career, Patrick and Joy are also subsistence farmers along with 80% of Ugandans. 

You may wonder why Patrick and Joy walk so far to go to work, but having a car is obsolete when you live on the side of a mountain with very few roads. 

Several times over the course of the week I found myself asking “Is this real life”?  Like when I woke up in the middle of the night, climbed out of my mosquito net, walked around the cows, and through the coffee beans to go to the latrine.  Like when I walked half-way up a mountain to fill up a jerry can of water from a small spring flowing off a cliff.  Like when I milked a cow (and got chased by one!).  Like when I walked and walked and walked with two of the neighbor girls that spoke absolutely no English, not knowing where they were taking me until we made it to the top of this incredible rock that over looks the entire city…..I could go on and on about the past week of my life and how adventurous it has been, but that’s not the point at all.  The point is that there are hundreds of beautiful people in a beautiful, mountainous city near Kenya that matter to God.

You may be wondering by now why we went to Kapchowra to begin with, and the answer to that is life.  To live life with these people and share The Life with them.  As I have said before, and I am sure I will say again, God is already present in Uganda.  I did not come to tell them about Jesus, for they already know.  I have come to give, experience, and live Love.  The kind of love that only comes from the Father and His Church. 

The title of this post is what most think of in relation to Africa, and it’s true, there are mud huts (I lived in one this week), and seeing naked babies is like seeing mosquitoes in Arkansas, but there is much more to Africa; just as there is much more to the gospel than simply knowing about Jesus. 

May we never underestimate the value of a person or the richness of the Gospel. 

There's Always Hope

Meet Margaret.  She is a 19 year old University student from Luweero, Uganda, and she is HIV+.  Maggie was born into AIDS and her family had no hope in her surviving.  You see, having a child with AIDS means another mouth to feed, but it's a mouth that won't last.  Most children like Maggie are abandoned by their parents at birth due to their limiting illness, but Margaret was different.  Since both parents were infected, they kept Maggie around along with her four other siblings.
          Maggie's father died "of a long illness" (AIDS) when she was 7.  Unaware of her condition until the age of 10, Maggie faced a challenging and sickly childhood.  Maggie realized that she was HIV+ when her mother was on her death bed.....as her mom lay dying, she instructed Maggie's older sister to "(don't) let her suffer and die in the way I did".  But Maggie's sister was only 21 and already had two children of her own to tend to.  Money was tight, and hospital visits and medications were far too expensive.  In the same year that her mother died, Maggie became exceedingly ill, losing an extreme amount of weight, but the financial demand to tend to Maggie was far too much.  Her sister knew she was going to die soon and decided to toss her off to someone else.
           Father Jerry has been a catholic priest in the Luweero area for the past 17 years, and took Maggie in as his own at the age of 11.  He took her to the clinics, paid for the needed medications, and got her back in school.  "Without him, I would have been dead 8 years ago, but he gave me hope" Maggie claimed.
            Being HIV+ is an embarrassment to Maggie, and she feels that life is very unfair in this manner considering that she inherited it from her parents.  She often found herself wondering why God would allow her to be infected while her four siblings are completely healthy, but she continued in saying "There's always hope".......I am overcoming AIDS and others can too.

Uganda is ranked 14th in the AIDS nation, this is due to lack of knowledge, resources, and people like Father Jerry.  There is hope for Maggie and there is hope for thousands of others suffering from the same cause.  When talking to Father Jerry, he explained why he did what he did.  He looked us in the eyes and told us that that little girl deserved a life, and now she has one...."to me that's all that matters".  He continued in saying that "AIDS victims just want someone to care-someone to look them in the eye and smile-that is what makes life worth it; what makes paying for the drugs and surviving worth it".

What are we doing in response to this?  How can we impact the fight with AIDS?  How can we offer hope?

Decisions, or lack there of....

Life is so different here in Uganda compared to the way a typical day pans out back in the States.  When i wake up in the morning here I spend 5 seconds at the most-picking from my 8 shirts-which one I want to wear for the day.  Back home I would have my clothing picked out the night before and proceed to change my mind at least 4 times the next morning.  Of course having less options makes the decision making process much easier (and shorter), but my limits here are by choice.  I have way too much stuff back home, but that's just it....back home.

For the Ugandans this is home, what you see is all there is: no more, no less.  While living here for the semester even when I miss an abundance of items, I have the comforting reminder that I will return to all my un-needed accessories within a few months..... I guess that is exactly how an American is expected to respond to poverty.

Being here has changed my thoughts on the "necessities" of life.  After being here for over a month simplicity has become a beautiful thing.  Even food options are limited here. During lunch at school we have the choice of rice and beans or rice and beef flavored soup.  I can tell you the variety of foods we have at home in a week on one hand.  If I were back at Williams this semester I wouldn't even eat the same thing within a two week span of time.

Instead of spending so much time deciding on what to wear, or eat or where to go this weekend, I am spending my time trying to figure out how to serve God more, how to love these people more, how to make every day worth while.

"He must become greater and greater and I must become less and less" John 3:30

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.