Uganda 2008

As last Tuesday (June 3^rd) dawned, our team was frantically getting ready to embark on the next phase of our trip to Uganda.  We were heading up to Gulu to work with Jerry and Candis Bingham of Action International Ministries.  Gulu sits in the middle of Northern Uganda, which has seen a considerable amount of war and suffering over the last few decades.  Much of the recent carnage has been caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony.  This group of rebels has been fighting against the government and building its army by abducting children and forcing them into service.  As a result, many children would flock to cities like Gulu at night for protection.  These children—known as “night commuters” were brought more clearly into the eyes of America through the work of Invisible Children.

Before you get too worried, things had improved recently in this region.  Kony has been participating in peace talks with the government, and night commuting has ceased.  But Northern Uganda remains a needy land.  Many still suffer from the effects of the war and HIV/AIDS.  And more than anything else, this area needs the gospel.

Enter Action International.  This mission’s organization exists to spread the gospel in this land.  They run a variety of ministries that aid different victims of the suffering in Northern Uganda, but the gospel is at the center of  all of them.  Amanda has written and discussed much of what we did there.  However, the girls and guys were split up for much of the time there, so I am writing to discuss Gulu from a guy’s perspective.

Hugh, Steve, and I did not remain in Gulu for long before heading out to Attiak, an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp about 15 miles from Sudan.  We travelled there along with Adam (an Action missionary from Massachusetts) and Julius Peter (a Ugandan who heads up Men’s Ministries in Attiak for Action).  The road to Attiak is quite interesting, especially in a car on its third engine but what felt like its first set of shocks.  Imagine riding on Indiana Jones at Disneyland for two straight hours, just without the entertainment of the ride or the music.

Along with Adam and Julius, we stayed in Attiak from Wednesday to Sunday running a conference for Children’s Ministry workers (Wednesday to Friday) and one for pastors (Saturday.)  The initial idea of running these conferences left the three of us mortified at first, but as we continued to prepare, we continued to become more thankful for our training at Master’s and more excited about sharing what we have learned with others.  Our time in these conferences was a mixture of sharing with the people and answering many of their questions.  Especially during the time with the Children’s Ministry workers, we wanted to make sure that they knew the gospel before they started teaching kids.  Therefore, Steve, Hugh, and I all shared our testimonies through Scripture at the beginning.  We eventually got into more practical lessons concerning teaching kids.  All throughout the conference, we fielded quite a variety of questions, from “Where do babies go when they die?” to “Is it acceptable to spank a child?” to “Can a baby who is dedicated to a demon be saved?”.  As we dialogued with these people, we found that tradition controls much of what they think.  As we continued to discuss with them, the theme of the conference became the Bible.  We find our answers in the Bible, not traditions.

During our time with the pastors on Saturday, we discussed some basic areas of theology, trying to tie them all back to the gospel.  Again we fielded many questions from the pastors.  These were more focused on practical aspects of ministry such as discipleship and church discipline.

Living conditions in Attiak made it clear that we were in Middle of Nowhere, Africa.  For starters, Attiak has no power.  This IDP camp is composed mostly of mud huts (the church was a bigger mud hut) except for a stretch about ¾ mile along the main road that is lined by more concrete shops.  Along the main drag also rests a memorial stone that remembers one of the biggest massacres of the Civil War.  In the early 90’s over 300 people were slaughtered by the rebels.

I guess you could say we stayed in the local hotel—a few rooms behind one of the shops.  Steve likened our room to a storage unit.  All three of us shared a room that basically consisted of three beds, three mosquito nets, a chair, and a concrete floor.  Restroom and showers were available outside.  Our diet consisted largely of posho and beans.  I wouldn’t call posho interesting because it is quite bland.  Imagine a glob of compressed rice the size of a Chipotle burrito.  At tea each morning during the conference, we were served chapatti.  The chapatti’s we had previously had were like a greasy burrito, but these were much fluffier.  We found that if you added some of the sugar that was served with tea, they tasted slightly like funnel cake.

Our time in Attiak culminated at church on Sunday morning.  We arrived a little late and were seated at the front of the church.  Julius leaned over and informed us that we were preaching.  That was news to us, so I ended up teaching on Hebrews 11 and Steve spoke on James 1. 

As church ended, Jerry arrived in Attiak along with another missionary named Bob and a few Ugandan Action staff.  Along with them, we headed North and West to Adjumani.  Action is considering opening another office in this town, which is also very close to Sudan.  We briefly met a couple pastors on Sunday afternoon and took a brief trip to the Nile River.  The next morning 5-10 local pastors came to our hotel and participated in a round-table discussion with Jerry and the other Action staff about opening another branch in Adjumani.  It was very encouraging to see these pastors’ passion for the gospel and for discipleship.  I am excited for Action’s future there.

After this meeting in Adjumani, we made our way back to Gulu.  Due to the bumpy nature of the road, we were expecting an interesting trip, but even that expectation did not prepare us for what happened.  As we approached Gulu, it began to rain.   This in and of itself is not too big of a problem, but my window would not roll up.  Shortly after the rain began, our driver attempted to go through a large puddle to fast, and the engine could not endure the large splash and stalled.  After a few minutes of trying, it became clear that the car was not going to start.  At this point, the rain was pouring in my window, so Hugh and I proceeded to hold a trash bag over it and stop the deluge.  Thankfully, the other car in our caravan was not too far ahead of us when we stalled, so they returned to help us.  And by help us, I mean they pushed us the remaining 30-minutes to the office by continually rear-ending us.  The locals found this quite amusing.  Thankfully, the rain stopped, so Hugh and I were able to relax on flood patrol.  We never saw that car work again during our time in Gulu, and the car that pushed us in ended up breaking down as well.

During our remaining time in Gulu, our whole team stayed at the Home of Love Orphanage, a ministry of Action that Amanda has already described.  However, we still split up during the days to serve in various ministries.  On Tuesday, Hugh, Steve, and I went to Men of New Life, a ministry to ex-rebels who are born again.  Our time was them consisted of singing, a sermon, and soda.  Hugh taught on Romans 8.  The next day, we visited Men of Courage, a ministry to those living with HIV/AIDS.  I taught on 1 Peter 1.  The last ministry we visited was a prison ministry.  While every group we encountered in Northern Uganda worshipped with excitement, these prisoners had a particular passion.  Steve shared the gospel with them through the example of the Apostle Paul.  According to the Action staff, many of the men in this ministry have genuinely been born again.  In fact, one of the men we met in Attiak had formerly been in this prison and attended this ministry and was now a faithful church member.

At the orphanage, we enjoyed  playing soccer with the kids, singing with them, leading them and the staff in devotionals, and helping the kids with homework when necessary.  However, the time in the orphanage was somewhat more difficult at sickness hit our group for the first time.  All the guys woke up the same morning with a cold, and a couple girls endured something like a 24-hour stomach flu.  Thankfully, none of these proved to be too severe.  Please continue to pray for our health!

Eventually, our time in Gulu was over.  After spending Thursday night fellowship with Jerry and Candis, Adam, and the other American missionaries, Bob and Angie, (and watching “Return to Me”) we started the long drive back to Mukono and the Hurley’s on Friday morning.

We have enjoyed a restful weekend here.  Yesterday, we went shopping in Kampala with the Graingers, and this morning Steve preached in the Hurley’s home church.  Of course, we enjoyed our weekly Boys vs. Girls soccer match and youth group this evening.

Tomorrow, we head out on a two-day safari which should prove to be a fun time, but later this week we say good-bye to the Hurleys and Graingers and head out on the last leg of our trip which will consist mostly of presenting the gospel in schools throughout the Central Buganda region.

Please keep praying for the team.  Pray for health and safety.  Pray for the missionaries.  And more than anything else, pray that the Lord would be glorified as people come to know and love the gospel here in Uganda.

Peace-
Ben for Team Uganda on 6/15/08

Never has Mukono seemed so safe and comfortable than it did yesterday when we arrived back at the Hurley’s safe and sound after ten days up in Gulu... we definitely had quite an adventure beginning with the pot-hole filled road that kept us a couple inches off our seats throughout the 5.5 hour taxi ride.

Once we arrived in Gulu, we checked into a hotel and met Jerry and Candis Bingham, missionaries of Action International serving in Gulu for the last seven years. They took us to their home where we had a great welcome meal and got to know the three American missionaries serving with them: Adam, Angela and Bob. After asking a lot of questions and hearing more about Gulu’s history, we knew that the next ten days were going to be very stretching.

The next day, Hugh, Ben and Steve headed up to Attiak, a refugee camp about 15 miles from the Sudan border where Action has just begun ministry at.  I’ll let Ben tell you about that experience, but we girls remained at a tiny hotel in Gulu for the next four nights while serving in various ministries of Action.  Our first day of ministry brought us to the Butterfly Club, a club for child-mothers. These women were abducted by the rebels when they were children, trained as women soldiers, and taken as wives of the generals.  They then were released or escaped and all have at least two children by the rebels, some children as old as 7!!! We could not even fathom all that these women have been through, and what they are currently dealing with. Here they are with up to four children to care for, no husband or support, and reminders of their traumatic past looking at them every day. It is rare for them to marry again because of their past and often men take advantage of them and then leave them. They live with traumatic memories haunting them and a bleak future of labor and struggle. What we found incredible was that despite these realities, the Butterflies (members of the club) were able to smile, laugh, play netball with us, and praise the Lord with song! Just as butterflies are new creations, these women have been transformed by the gospel and now live with the hope of Christ in their lives! Praise the Lord, Amen? We were able to do crafts with them, get to know them as best as we could with the language barrier, pray over them, and share with them what we have been learning in the Word.

Action does a lot to help these women. In addition to giving them weekly Bible teaching, they have taught them skills to equip them to support their families. They also raise support from donors to pay the school fees for their children to go to school. Action has ministries at the school to bring the students the gospel, so the children receive an education and hear about the Lord!  School fees are a huge need at Action right now so you can pray that they get more supporters in this area. It costs only $100 per year to put a child through school, so this is a great way to serve the Lord with donations!

After visiting the Butterfly Club located in a village just outside of Gulu, we went to visit a deaf school where Action does a weekly ministry to the class of about 60. It was encouraging to see the gospel preached in so many different areas in Gulu. Action has a staff of over 40 Ugandans who run their ministries. After many conversations with the different staff members, it was encouraging to see how solid their faith and theology is. Action has done a tremendous job of training them to run ministries then letting them take it and run. It is incredible to hear some of their testimonies and seeing the evidence of God’s amazing sovereignty in their lives. One woman used to be one of the most prominent witch doctors in the area until her children were saved. They faithfully preached the gospel to her though she resisted at first, but then God got a hold of her heart and she is a solid born again Christian with a very effective ministry position at Action! God is good.

The day after we visited the deaf school, we piled into the Action van with Candis and two of the Action staff women to translate and minister with us. We drove the very bumpy and pot-hole ridden road out to Awach, a refugee camp about an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Gulu. Action started a Butterfly Club at Awach a couple of months ago so we went to minister to the new club. Awach is a huge refugee camp of 8-10,000 people. They live in little round clay huts with thatched roofs built about 15 feet apart. I can’t really describe the atmosphere because it is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Seeing the people from toddlers to elderly sitting outside their huts sorting food or just staring into the distance just made me wonder what they have been through and what hope they have left to live for.  

I have never felt so white in my whole life when we arrived at the camp and were mobbed by hundreds of children at Awach’s school. They were very curious, but when I extended my hand to them they would all pull back shyly until I made them shake hands with me. While we waited for the Butterflies, we decided to entertain the children with a few choruses of “Father Abraham”, “Making Melodies”, and “Waves of Mercy”. We must have made for a good source of entertainment for them. About 15 Butterflies got there and we had the privilege of doing a craft with them, worshipping with them, sharing with them from the Word, and playing a great game of keep away with them. It is hilarious to watch the women tie their babies to their backs in the traditional Ugandan way (it looks very comfortable for the child) then try to play keep away at the same time! They got so into it! The following day we went back to Awach and more than 20 Butterflies were there. This time, we brought 5 Butterflies from the other club with us and these women shared their testimonies with the new club to encourage and strengthen their faith. It was great watching them interact as sisters in Christ knowing that they have been through similar struggles and are going through a lot of the same difficulties.

We pray that the Butterflies were encouraged by our visit, but something else that encourages them is when we tell them that our families and churches back at home are praying for them. They think that they have been forgotten and that the world has left them to suffer alone, but when they hear of our prayers, and your prayers, Reader, they are encouraged. Please love them by praying for them! Pray that God provides for them and their families and that their faith and trust in the Lord would grow daily!

Sunday was our last day at Awach, and each girl went with a translator to a different church at the camp to share with the congregation. Man, if you have ever seen Ugandans jump when they worship, you will know what I mean when is say that they worship the Lord enthusiastically with all of their might! Each of us got to share with the congregations a little bit about what the Lord is doing in our lives and encourage them. This ended our time at Awach and we said goodbye to our Butterfly friends and looking forward to praying for them diligently in the future. That night, we were excited to have dinner with Candis and Angela and Candis surprised me with cupcakes, a Happy Birthday sign, and had everyone make me cards after dinner!! Monday I turned 21 so it was so much fun to celebrate with the amazing girls on my team.

Every club that we visited and ministry we went to, we tried to present the gospel clearly in at least one of our times of sharing. An unexpected time of sharing was one night after dinner when we met a friendly British lady and were able to share the gospel with her. She was a very nice woman, but very much not interested and seemed to know Christianity as a religion very well. If you think of it, please pray for her. We were excited at the opportunity that God brought to us though and we pray that some seeds were planted.

We were so excited for the guys to arrive on Monday, and we waited anxiously for them at Home of Love, our new home for the next four days. Home of Love is an orphanage of 60 children from less than a year old to age 13. There are 6 rotating “mamas” a few “aunties” and one director named Lucy. The girls got to sleep in a room with five of the older girls and the guys stayed with the boys. Our time at the orphanage was rewarding, the kids were great and we loved singing with them, playing soccer with them, blowing bubbles all over them, helping them with their homework, doing chores with them, and participating in their nightly devotion times. A few of the kids really stole our hearts and there were tears when we left. It is tough knowing that we have parents back at home who love us so much, and though these kids are very very loved and well cared for at Home of Love, it is not the same as the family unit that God designed. Talking with the staff there was very encouraging because they are so devoted to serving the Lord and know that they are doing His work by loving these kids. Please pray for the kids at Home of Love, that they would grow up to love the Lord and that the staff would be encouraged in the Lord to continue in their work.

Our time at the orphanage drew to a close and we spent our last night with the missionaries watching videos that they had made about Uganda. Here I should mention our health problems. At the orphanage, Hugh, Ben and Steve all came down with sore throats. Then Jeannette started having stomach flu symptoms. Well, it turned out to be the 24 hour flu for her and she spent our last day at the orphanage in bed with a bucket by her side and orders from Laura to drink as much water as possible. Friday morning we were supposed to leave Gulu at 9am, and I woke up at 2am with the stomach flu as well. The bumpy and hot 6.5 hour ride home kept my stomach busy and my head light, but Laura, Allison, Michelle and Jeannette are the best caretakers ever.

Coming back to the Hurley’s and the Grainger’s was like coming home and we are excited to be back with them. Please continue to pray for the health of the rest of the team that no one else would get sick for the next couple of weeks. Please also pray that our energy level would stay up for the next two weeks as we are nearing the last leg of our trip and that the Lord would continue to use us! Thank you so much for your prayers and for reading this entire blog. We appreciate you and your prayers are not going unanswered. Praise the Lord for what He is doing in Uganda!

On behalf of Team Uganda,

Amanda Cech

It is hard to believe that today marks the two week mark since we arrived here in Uganda. We have done so much, yet the time seems to go by so fast! This past week with the faculty has been incredible. After the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, we hit the ground running, or rather driving in a huge bus that seated both our team, the faculty team, and various members of the Hurley household. Thursday morning we hopped on the bus and took another trip to Luweero where the faculty got a tour of the Hurley’s property and got to sample the fruits of the land (the Jack Fruit and Pineapples are amazing!). They also got to meet some of the community and the people that the Hurley’s will be showering with the gospel in the upcoming years. It was great for our team to see the kids again and we had a great time playing with them for the afternoon.

After Luweero it was off to another district where we got a tour of an orphanage where the Hurley’s have a connection. The orphanage was incredible. It was clean, well organized, and built on a beautiful hillside with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area. The orphanage consists of several little “homes” that a single church pays for to be built. Each little home is complete with bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. It holds eight children and a “mom”. There is a school built on the property and the place just has a happy and encouraging feel to it! We didn’t get to stay long, but long enough to have several kids clinging to our legs when we boarded the bus again. While the kids were adorable and seemed happy, it is heart-wrenching to think that they don’t have parents and might not grow up with the family unit that God designed to work so well.

Friday was a busy day… it began with a visit to the Commercial Court in Kampala and a meeting with one of the judges. Our teams got a chance to ask him questions about the government and judicial system of Uganda and loved all of the interesting aspects of Ugandan politics. We also got to take a tour of Parliament and visit one of the members of Parliament who is a believer! We got to ask him all kinds of questions and were encouraged by his faith and his goals for keeping a strong moral stand in office. We all got to pray over him and encourage him as brothers and sisters in Christ in that way. Please pray for this Member of Parliament, Otto that God would use him mightily in his position.

Friday night was definitely a highlight for most of us… we got to go to the Passion Conference!!! Worship with hundreds of Ugandans singing and dancing for the Lord is an incredible experience and I was humbled when the whole crowd would spontaneously burst into chants of “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”. It was made clear that that night of worship was about one person alone and that was Christ. Louie Giglio talked about how God has told us who He is on His throne in His Word and how we need to live in light of that. Our team was encouraged by seeing brothers and sisters in Christ all the way in Uganda worshipping the Lord with the same songs we sing back in the states. The night was incredible. Praise the Lord!

Saturday started off at the Armani Baby Cottage in Jinja, the orphanage where Mark Tatlock adopted his children. The place was so cheerful and organized, and the kids were so cute. We played with them for a while and again, it was hard to leave. A few of them even started sobbing when they were pried away from the arms of our team! Throughout the conference and this week, we have been looking at the verses in the Bible that say to take care of the widows and the orphans. This puts places like this in an entirely different light knowing that God has commanded us in His Word to care for the orphans and is pleased when we do! Let’s just say that our interest in adopting has been peaked. J

A more humbling trip was the next when we visited the slums of Jinja with the pastor of the Nile Church. Compassion International works through this church and we got to meet the kids who are sponsored through Compassion! They sang and danced for us in songs of worship and we were amazed at the way that these children were cared for and educated. It is difficult to explain the slums, but I will do my best. The fields are filled with little tiny clay huts where whole families live in tiny rooms with little but pots and pans inside. It is hot and just reeks strongly like garbage and alcohol. The kids are wearing rags and the place is encumbered by poverty so much that it is overwhelming to walk through. The sad thing is that the mothers need to make money to feed their kids, so they work 12 hours a day brewing very strong alcohol only to make 1,000 Ugandan Shillings a day (that’s less than a dollar). When I walked past one of the areas where a woman was making it and I felt like vomiting from the strong smell. Yet this is what they do all day without many other options. We visited the hut of a witch doctor right in the middle of the slum and I know that all I could do was pray for the “patients” and for the witch doctor who are immersed in this evil. The cool thing was that when I walked out of the hut, I saw Laura Stewart five feet away with a crowd of about 12 kids and women and she was sharing the gospel with them! The light of Christ still shone even in this dark place!

Things got even better after that: we took a trip to the prison. About 1,500 inmates are kept there and we were greeted by the women prisoners who were believers as they shared a song of praise with us! Mark Tatlock gave them an encouraging message about Paul and Silas in the prison in the gospel of Luke. We then went into the main prison courtyard where the men were having a worship session and Mark again got to share with them the same message as well as the gospel! The pastor shared with us the poor state of the Ugandan prisons and we met a man who does prison outreach in all of the prisons of the area, sharing the gospel with these over-worked inmates. Praise God that his work is being done through faithful men who desire to see people be born again!!! From the prison, we made a short stop at the source of the Nile then dinner and back to the Hurley’s!

Thank God Sunday is a day of rest because our whole group was pretty tired and our bodies were screaming for some relaxation! We had an incredible encouraging church service and we were humbled by communion, worship, and a time of sharing and asking questions. In the afternoon, half of the team had an opportunity to meet the man who wrote, “A Distant Grief”, written about the persecution during Idi Amin’s rule. After that, a pretty intense game of soccer ensued and our legs are not thanking us for that. Ben led worship and Pete shared a message at youth group that night and it was a great time of fellowship and learning.

Monday we got the opportunity to visit IJM, International Justice Mission, and Mark Tatlock had the chance to share a devotion with the staff there. We also learned a lot about the injustices happening in Uganda and all that IJM is doing to stop it right now. It was exciting to hear about how God is working through these people in big ways as they meet people’s legal needs and also share the gospel.

Tomorrow we get the opportunity to go to Gulu in northern Uganda, which is an area greatly affected by the war and far more impoverished than here. The guys will be teaching about the gospel and basic theology to a group of 60 + pastors from Sudan, so please be praying for wisdom for them!!!  The girls will be staying at an orphanage and doing ministry there. We return on the 13^th so we will blog again then! Thank you so much for keeping up with our team and here are a few more things to be praying for:

·     Safety and protection on the long ride to and from Gulu

·     That the Lord would give the guys wisdom and a reliance on the Word as they answer these pastor’s questions about theology

·     That the Lord would give the girls the right words to share the gospel with the kids and women that they will be meeting and that they might see the fruit of that as the Lord works

·     For the health of our team as we eat differnt foods

·     For our hearts that they would be right before God and purged of sin daily

·     That we would have servants hearts like Christ

Jet-lagged and tired, our team managed to stay up until 8 pm or so the first night at the Hurley’s. An intense game of sardines with the Hurley kids and Danielle kept us awake, even though we were propping our eyelids open for most of the evening and were uncommonly quiet. We all slept through the night and were eager to get going in the morning!

For those of you who might not know much about Shannon and Danielle Hurley, they are the missionaries that we are staying with and the founders of SOS Ministries (Sufficiency of Scripture) here in Uganda. They have four children: Emma (12), Elisa (9), Ethan (5) and Evan (2). It has been so much fun getting to know their family and seeing the way that they keep their home and lives God-centered. It has also been very very exciting to learn more about their current ministry and their vision for ministry in the future. Their ministry is based on and can be summarized in discipleship. Their goal is to go and make disciples for Christ, just as he commanded us to do. You can see their methods the second you step in the door of their home as they have four Ugandan men living with them who have been brought to Christ through their ministry and are now being discipled by Shannon. They have at two Ugandan women living with them as well and their floors are more often than not covered by mattresses with people from the church, people having health problems, people curious about the gospel, or teams from the United States! Their home is a true picture of biblical hospitality and let me just tell you, Danielle is an amazing cook and feeds 20+ people every single meal while our team is here! We are truly blessed and encouraged by staying with them and feel very at-home and well cared for.

Luweero is a big part of the Hurley’s plans for the future, since they just purchased 100 acres of land there and are planning on moving their ministry there over the next couple of years! Luweero is a district about 1.5 hours north of Mukono, where they currently live. It is far more impoverished than Mukono and the need for the gospel as well as mercy and lovingkindness there is great. This brings me back to our team’s wild ride. Monday night we found out we were going to Luweero and cooking for 25+ people with nothing but an open fire to cook with!  Set for an adventure, the girls shopped for pots, food, cooking utensils, and a coal burner (a little mini barbeque to put pots on basically). Not knowing what to expect, we squeezed 13 people (4 Hurley’s, one student who lives with them, and our whole team!) into their 8-seater car and all bonded over the smashed journey to Luweero. Luweero is quite a distance from the main road and basically right in the middle of the Ugandan jungle. We arrived in the dark, but were greeted the next morning by a beautiful African sunrise over the canopy of the jungle when we stepped out of our tents. Shannon took us for a walk around his land and we greeted the kids of the community and had our first real taste of African life in the jungle. Families live in one-room homes that are nothing like “homes” in America. They grow enough food for their family or don’t eat. Many of them basically have no money and their lives are very simple and hard. It is amazing that though these people have nothing, they seem happy and content.  They greeted us warmly and the kids started playing with us right away. The Hurley’s and the Graingers* had already made connections with the families and knew most of the kids names already. Those who didn’t know us called out “muzungu!” (white person) to us as we passed and gave us friendly waves.  Shannon told us his first goal for the land was to build a seminary and dormitories to train Ugandan pastors to be grounded in the Word to make more disciples. After this project, anyone who wants to come and do ministry in Uganda will be welcome to come and help SOS with anything such as medical or educational help. The doors are wide open!

*The Graingers live in the home directly above the Hurley’s and are a great example of a family who followed the Lord’s leading even when it seemed crazy and irrational.  Deane and Sherrilyn  with their kids Zach (15), Sam (14) and Brianna (11) moved here from New Zealand at the beginning of the year to help the Hurley’s clear out the brush and begin building their ministry base in Luweero. They are a great encouragement to us and our whole team is planning a trip to New Zealand in the near future to visit them! J Well, we really love them a lot.

Back to Luweero... we were there from Tuesday night until Saturday afternoon and accomplished a lot over the course of that time. First of all, we got to hack a path from a pineapple plantation to the area where the Hurley’s future home will be. It was hilarious for me to see the team (in particular the girls in skirts) with these huge machetes hacking at the Ugandan jungle! But everyone did a great job and were rewarded at the end with a huge downpour of rain. Speaking of rain, the weather has been absolutely beautiful here! I don’t think it has gotten much hotter than the low 90’s and the humidity has been bearable. Uganda is gorgeous and green and our whole team has been very impressed with its beauty.

In addition to chopping down the jungle, our team also passed out shoeboxes that we received full of gifts from a secular organization in Europe. Community in Uganda is very important, so we passed out the boxes full of goodies to all of the kids in the community for an entire afternoon, telling them about SOS ministries and playing with the kids.  We loved the interaction with the people and it was so great to talk to them and start forming a positive connection between them and SOS. It is our prayer that those people whose hands we shook will embrace the gospel in the upcoming years. As we picked up the kids, hugged them and played with them, we sought to view these people through Christ’s eyes and show them love as well as praying for their souls.

Every morning in the jungle, Shannon sat down our team and the Ugandans and gave us a talk about what the gospel is. Our whole team’s perspective and understanding of the gospel has been radically enforced by Shannon’s emphasis of using Scripture to explain the gospel. The good news of the gospel, according to Romans 1, is the righteousness of God! We do not meet that standard but through the righteous life of Christ and his final sacrifice, God sees us as being righteous in Christ! We used to be enslaved to sin and under its bondage, but now we are slaves of God and have the hope of eternal life! This gospel is very real and exciting and has made us even more excited about being passionate for the gospel and for being here in Uganda to share it.

Joining us in Luweero are several Ugandans that have become friends of our team. Nine Ugandan believers (two women, seven men) who either live with the Hurley’s, work for them, or go to their church accompanied us on our trip. Most of them were saved through the Hurley’s ministry so it was exciting to be living with evidence of God’s work in Uganda. We learned a lot from the Ugandans such as how to get army ants away from tents by pouring hot coals and gasoline all over their gathering areas!  They also taught us to make matokee (a traditional Ugandan dish) the good way as well as how to do dishes and cook with no electricity, kitchens or refrigeration! What an experience. The meals went very smoothly with their help and Sherrilyn’s wisdom and assistance.

When we weren’t hacking down jungles or passing out shoeboxes, we played endless games of jump rope and let the kids climb all over us like a jungle gym as we tried to communicate with them in English. Some understood more than others, but our Ugandan interpreters were never far! The girls tent had quite an experience the second night when we were attacked by big black ants swarming our sleeping bags and biting us pretty hard at 12:30 am! The girls were studs and just got up, systematically killed them, gave our tent floor a firm layer of deet, and went back to bed slapping away any survivors. We love the jungle!

Back to the Hurley’s from Luweero on Saturday, our team was tired and very dirty, but encouraged by seeing just the beginning of the Lord’s work in Uganda and excited to see more! We are praying for the people that we came in contact with that they might embrace the gospel and grow as disciples in Christ under the biblical teaching of SOS ministries. We are also praying for a smooth move for the Hurley’s as they relocate to Luweero. There are so many needs there and they will definitely be Jesus’ hands and feet to the people in the village.

Sorry this blog has been so long! We have been without electricity for a few days and the internet works spontaneously, so it is hard to find opportunities to blog. At one point, we had no electricity or water in the house for a day with 20 people sleeping in the house! But God has been sovereign and good to us, proving His faithfulness every day. Please pray that our team would be able to be more encouraging to the Hurley’s and the Grainger’s as they serve the Lord here and that we would have opportunities to share the gospel. This week the Faculty/Staff team is here from The Master’s doing a conference at Uganda Christian University (a liberal arts school of over 4,000 students) on God, Law and Government. I will leave the blogging on this exciting event to Ben Blakey... but thank you for caring enough about Team Uganda to read this whole thing and we will be keeping you posted as much as possible!

~Amanda Cech

Praise the Lord! Team Uganda is just a few hours away from taking off to the opposite side of the globe for the next 6 weeks! We leave from LAX at 1:00 pm and will fly straight to London then to Kenya then to Entebee, Uganda. Please pray for this journey as it is going to be very long and tiresome, but we are ready!!! Passports, check.  Malerone, check. Bug spray, check. Camera, check. Flexibility, check.  We are ready for an amazing trip!

Tonight was a great kick-off to our trip as we prepared as a team for God to stretch us. Steve shared with us how though this past week has had its stresses and struggles, it is important for us to remember our sole reason for going to Uganda: the Gospel. It is truly the most precious thing that we are bringing to Africa and it is important for us not only to preach ourselves the gospel every day, but to remember that no matter what comes our way in Uganda, the goal remains the Gospel. The whole team then shared about what God has been teaching us as we have prepared for the trip, and we were reminded of our overwhelming weaknesses as humans, but how in this state God is made strong. Praise the Lord for He will never leave us nor forsake us!  The team also spent a good amount of time in prayer, lifting up the missionaries we will visit, the people we will encounter, and asking that our desires to be pure and right.  We are excited to be used and can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do through us!  Already the Lord has been answering prayers and fulfilling needs that we have as well as the missionaries! He is continually proving His faithfulness...

When we arrive in Uganda, we will be staying with the Hurley's, missionaries to Uganda who have been serving there full time for 2 years. We will be acquainting ourselves with the Hurley's ministry there, doing local outreach, and preparing for the conference at Uganda Christian University that will be happening the second week of our stay. More info to come on that!  You can read more information about the Hurley's ministries in Uganda at www.sosministries.com

Please continue to keep the team in your prayers as we head out tomorrow. Pray for safety as we travel and that even in the midst of getting from one country another that we would take advantage of every opportunity to share with those who we meet. Pray that God would continue to prepare our hearts to serve Him in His strength, not our own.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We will keep you in tune!