Never was able to post about driving in Uganda ~ have to now!

I never was able to get on & explain the experience of driving/riding in Uganda...so I am going to attempt to now (with good free internet in Amsterdam where we were stuck last night- hopefully heading home today).

If I can even do this justice: first let me start with the fact that there are basically NO ROAD SIGNS. No signs for street names, no traffic lights or stop signs, no signs...also no dividing lines painted on road...because most every road is red clay dirt roads...even the main highways & thoroughfares...dirt two lanes roads. They are equivalent to what we would consider a back country dirt road...questionable if it is in fact two lane; could be almost a one lane- just a bit wider.

Ok- so you get that part of it, now let me layer on what is happening on these two lane dirt roads & highways. First there is no speed limit, or at least none that anyone follows...so trucks and cars are careening past at 70+, 80 miles per hour on this one/two lane dirt road with no lane dividers. Then there are huge pot holes and craters the size of small sink holes that randomly pop up all over the road. So you may need to go all the way over to the other side of the road to get around them. Oh- and they drive on the other side of the road here- like in the UK.

In addition to the pot holes & craters, they have randomly placed "speed humps" throughout the roadways. And these are not speed bumps...they are HUMPS. You have to slow down to basically roll over them because they bottom out your car- even when you slowly roll over them! They are to slow down the traffic that is going as fast as they like because there seems to be no speed limit.

Now, with all this in the road itself, let me layer on who and what is traveling on the road along with the cars and trucks. There are taxi vans- these are passenger vans that should hold maximum of 12 people, but they are crammed full of 20-30 people. They are about 3X as as prevalent as cars and trucks. They dart to pass and basically play chicken with on coming traffic (traveling 70+ mph on the two lane dirt road), passing on hills, curves, and oncoming traffic; they also dart over to the side whenever they want to drop off passengers or pick them up. No blinkers are used. 

Next layer on Boda Bodas...motorbikes that are taxis as well. They also carry all sorts of cargo- large furniture, sheep, livestock, bananas, three passengers or more...and these are 5X as prevalent as the taxi vans! They are weaving in and out of the trucks, cars, taxi vans, people on bicycles, and people walking. They likewise dart in and out to drop off and pickup passengers.

Also along this two lane dirt road, there are tied livestock all along the road. They are on ropes that just reach the edge of the road. Sheep, goats, cows, and bulls all over the side of the road, grazing.

Then add on the bicycles riding on the side of the road- loaded down with all kinds of goods being transported. Or simply people riding to get places...on the side of the dirt road.

Now last, add on people everywhere walking, crossing the road, babies and children playing right up at the very side of the road (with cars, trucks, taxi vans, boda bodas all careening past at high speeds)...it is insane!

This driving in Uganda...and at night- there are no lights anywhere, no flashlights, bikes with out lights or reflective strips, people wearing dark clothes, dark skin- you cannot see them! Walking, biking, crossing the road. Not all cars & taxis or boda boda's have their headlights on...we tried not to drive at night because it is so difficult to see and so stressful!

Malaria is the number one killer in Uganda, but traffic accidents is the number two killer...I can see why now. There were constant prayers whenever traveling - and I will now pray continually for Tom and Sharon and all the missionaries who are in Uganda traveling on these roads! Prayer is needed for them!!!

God break my heart with what breaks YOURS

Sunday, Jan and I went and taught the 8-11yr olds their Sunday school lesson. The rest of the team was likewise off in pairs teaching lessons to various ages. We were teaching on Exodus 3-15 about Moses going to Pharoh to let his people go- and the 10 plagues that followed until Pharoh said go. It was fun interaction with the children. I have felt so inadequate in ways (my first missions trip), but the Lord allowed us to teach from a workbook that walked us through everything- games, questions, even prayers- so HE provided for me exactly what I needed.

After Sunday school, we all walked over to the nearby village church, The Light of the World church to praise God with everyone and hear Pastor Jonathon preach. The worship was so beautiful, passionate, and spontaneous. I felt so kindred and loved in the little thatch church with a red clay floor, wood benches, and a tin roof crammed full of children, missionaries, our team, and villagers. The Pastor, Jonathon, preached on Exodus 33. He started with Exodus 3 (which we had just taught on earlier that morning) and went on to Exodus 33 and how Moses knew God personally; how he refused to go forward without God; how he asked God to let him know HIS will, so it could be done. I felt so connected to the Lord in that little church in Uganda; how universal praise and worship is to the Lord; no matter the language or location.

We left church, had a quick lunch, and then signed life application bibles to give to Eric, Emma, and Patricia. These are the three teens that Sharon and Tom support with school fees to go to secondary school. Eric is 17yrs old. His mother died and his father left to find work in Kampala and was never heard from again. Eric has built his own mud hut in his village on some family land and lives there taking care of himself. He would like to become an auto engineer. He works during school breaks at GSF to earn money for his school fees. Sharon and Tom, bank that money and keep it to pay the fees. They do this with Emma and Patricia as well. Yet, even with the money they earn, it is not enough to pay for school fees which are very high here. Beyond just paying the "tuition" there are other fees added on like all the text books, papers, uniforms, etc. that must be purchased. GSF has a scholarship program to help those who graduate out of GSF to be able to go on to secondary school (high school) and even university, but Eric, Emma, and Patricia are not GSF kids, they are from the village and cannot afford secondary school. This program helps the village children to go to secondary school or vocational training school.

Emma (Emmanuel) is another village child who Sharon and Tom help support. He is very studious and serious. His father had worked for Meta (a large sugar producer) and he lost his job. He told Emma that he must quit school and go to work for Meta (back breaking work cutting down sugar cane fields with a machete for $2 a day) or else leave home. Emma chose to stay in school and thus was kicked out of his home. He now lives with Eric and goes to school at Nygeya secondary school. He is also 17yrs old.

Patricia is the other village teen in Sharon and Tom's program. She lives just off the GSF campus with her father and step mother. She is 15yrs old and Eric's cousin. Her father works at GSF around the campus and in the maintenance area. Patricia is sweet and kind. Her family would not be able to afford school fees without assistance.

We signed and gave each of them their bibles and then headed to the "Open House" at school with them to see the school and get their mid term grades. Their school is a secondary school in Nyenga, a nearby village.

The way school works here is S1-S3 are day students (equivalent to freshman and sophomore year in the states) and S4-S6 must board at school (junior and seniors). Obviously they have more years in school than in the states. So Patricia is in S3 while Eric and Emma are both in S4, so they board at the school.

S4 is a VERY important year in school here, as there is a large test at the end of the year which determines if you can continue on in school or if you are no longer welcome. If you do not continue, they you pretty much go back to farming, working for a sugar corporation perhaps, or something similar.

We went for a tour of the school campus...it was decaying. Small rooms for hundreds of students. They have very little time off; always expected to be in class or studying. For boarders, they are in classes until 11pm, go to bed and get up at 3am to go back to class until 9am. Have a break for breakfast, and then back to studying and classes until late. We asked when they sleep? Emma really couldn't answer that since it is pretty much here and there cat naps. The school was so poor, compared to our standards, it would have been condemned. They boys sleep in one large room with 50 others- basically it looked like a refugee camp or emergency shelter, except without beds. There were just mattresses on the floor and all their possessions on the mattresses. There was no space between mattresses. It was crammed full- no wonder they do not sleep! Yet they are the lucky ones to be in school at all. It was extremely hard to see.

Then while we were there, we could hear children being caned. If a teacher felt they had not performed will in class, they would recommend caning. Many parents allowed it. We heard the caning going on and the screams of the kids. It felt like Oliver Twist or a Dickinson novel, but it was life here; an accepted practice. Then Eric's math teacher asked to cane him. Tom was against it and was going to speak with the principle and teacher to let him know that was NOT ok. That they did not want Eric, Emma, and Patricia caned EVER.

Then it was time for us to leave. It broke my heart for Eric as we left and the threat of being caned still loomed large. I wanted to hug him and say it was going to be ok, but I don't know that nor can I promise that, so all I could say was trust in Jesus. It made my heart hurt. It made me want to save all the hurting children, forgotten children, thrown away children. How did the school affect me so much when the same thing is happening here in so many places- the forgotten children. GSF takes them in as they can- the orphans. The same thing is happening to the women at Jinja hospital; the same thing is happening to the street children, the teenagers who are pregnant out of wedlock and going to the crisis pregnancy center- all that is happening, but it was the school and Eric, Emma, and Patricia that really got to me. It broke my heart.

I had prayed for God to break my heart and soften my heart for what breaks HIS. And HE did so with all that I have seen here; the school and the caning was the last straw. I came back to GSF and had to simply weep.

Yet, the LORD comforted me in my spirit that HE is in control. That alone I can do nothing, the overwhelm is real, but HE is in control and through HIM ALL things are possible. I don't have to understand HIS ways, but I do need to abide in HIM in order to function in this fallen world. Without abiding in HIM, I am quickly empty, overwhelmed, and hard hearted in order to deal with the overwhelm.

I feel as if the Lord brought me to Africa to break my heart. To overwhelm me. To soften my heart. To open my eyes to what HE sees. So that I can remember and know my complete need for HIM. The need, poverty, darkness crushes me. I am weak and unable to process the magnitude of it all without the LORD and the hope HE, and HE alone, offers.

In my previous travels through the world, I was a non-believer and it was all about the adventure. There was a deep poverty and need in China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia when I traveled through; it was all over the place. But I didn't see it then. It was more of an inconvenience than anything else; it interfered with the adventure of traveling. NOW as a believer, the travel, the adventure is in following Jesus Christ. Seeing where HE leads me and what HE wants me to see.
It is a bigger adventure than I have ever been on before or could even imagine...

Saying Goodbye to GSF and Uganda

We woke up today - our last morning at GSF. We all woke early, had breakfast as a team on the veranda, and went for a missionary devotional on Tom and Sharon's front porch. Then we decided to go and do a prayer walk by every house, the school, the administration building, the staff housing, the maintenance department where the men have spent the last two weeks in fellowship with the men- building relationships and witnessing to them. We prayed over the children, the Aunties, the missionaries, and then went up to the hill overlooking the entire campus to pray over GSF and what GOD is doing through GSF.

GSF really is an oasis in Uganda for babies and orphans. It also educates and feeds the village children from all around. When you walk on to the grounds, there is a peace, joy, and comfort that comes over you. God is at work at GSF. God is ALL over the place. 

The children are full of laughter, giggles, huge smiles, play, and wonder. It is contagious. Whenever the  heaviness of the reality of Uganda hit, the best medicine was to go and simply be around the children of GSF. They may not have much by our standards, yet they are FULL of love, wonder, and joy. The Aunties are likewise full of love, patience, and comfort for these children. 

We saw the example of this first hand. Children arrive from challenging situations, not even knowing the full extent of what they have experienced, some arrive sick, not speaking, afraid, and obviously coming from horrible backgrounds...and once they are at GSF for a several months, they start to smile. They start to interact with the other children, the aunties, and soon they start to eat and talk. It is a miracle to see. 

Just while we were here these past two weeks, there was a child in the toddler house, Praise, who had been found abandoned. She probably has some level of autism and has seizures. She has been through a horrific time in her childhood. No one knows exactly what happened, but she came to GSF not speaking and not allowing anyone to touch her. When she did speak it was in the third person repeating what she has heard most of her young life- cursing, telling "Praise" that she was bad, yelling. We saw the transformation just in the short time that we were with her. The other children interact and play with her. She has a best friend who takes her hand and leads her all over the place; to the swing set, to the table for dinner, to her bed. And Praise went from withdrawn with us, to coming over and sitting on our laps. Allowing us to pray over her and rub her back. Allowing us to sing love songs over her. Before we left, she was asking with words to get up on laps. She is so precious and to think of what she has gone through in her very young life. She is probably only 4 or 5. Yet the love of Christ through the Aunties and through GSF and through everyone coming into contact with her; she has been transformed. In Christ ALL things are possible.  To witness the Power of Love was beyond amazing! 

So we packed up today and before leaving we went to sign the new sidewalk. This is what the men on our team have worked on long and hard in the hot African sun day in and day out. It was needed for the children who have handicaps and are in wheelchairs or slide around on special skateboards. So they can easily get up and down to their houses and school. The men worked very hard and finished a beautiful sidewalk that was so needed. In the process, they were able to build relationships and fellowship with the Ugandan maintenance crew. We went and each signed the sidewalk with chalk messages for the children.  

As we were leaving we also saw the result of the men's hard work around the administration building. Previously when it rained (rainy season), the rain flooded the building. They shoveled rocks, not just shoveled, but broke up the rocks, and as smaller truck loads of rock came in- they moved them all around the building creating drainage from the foundation so the building will no longer flood. They also mulched all around the building. It will be finished and landscaped with lovely plants.

It was an amazing two weeks at GSF. It is hard to describe what GOD has been doing in each of our hearts as we spent time with the missionaries- seeing their sacrifice; with the children- seeing their joy and wonder in the midst of GOD's love; seeing the oasis that has been created at GSF and ALL they are doing to LOVE on and share GOD's love with orphans, the villagers, and everyone they come in contact with...it is amazing to watch GOD at work! 

We now are getting ready to depart for the airport and ask for your prayers for safe travels home as we fly to Amsterdam, then Detroit, then Raleigh, and then home! 

We look forward to sharing more about our experience and more photos with all of you!
Thank you for your prayers and for your support in sending us here. It has been life-changing to say the least...

The Reality of Life in Uganda

I am in Jinja writing from an internet cafe- sharing a plug with another Muzungu (white person) who is from Penn State...I wanted to share this past week some of the reality that we experienced here in Uganda that was VERY sobering...actually beyond sobering, it was downright horrific.

On Friday, the women on the team, myself, Sharon, Jan, Dori and Gracie Holbrook (who has been here for four months living with Tom & Sharon and helping around GSF and with tutoring the secondary students) - we all went into to Jinja to visit Caroline Jacobson's ministry here; a crisis pregnancy center. She explained her ministry and working with pregnant teens and at risk women to keep and care for their babies; making sure they are getting nourishment, medical checkups, and help during delivery. The conditions she described where these women live- in mud hut slums, being beaten regularly, and given an allowance of 80 cents a week to live off of by their husband- it is horrific. What Caroline is doing is so needed- especially the weekly food staples so that the mother and baby can eat. As well as "mama kits" for delivery. Here in Uganda, when a woman goes to the hospital to deliver her baby- she must take all her supplies with her. The water basin, towels, scissors to cut the cord, and someone to assist her because there will be no help. She waits outside the hospital on the grass with a blanket waiting to be called into the hospital for a cot. When she is called into the hospital, it is a huge long room with cots lined up on both sides- at least 30 on each side. On the cots are women in various stages of labor waiting until delivering to be rolled across the compound to the "delivery ward". There is no pain medication, no sanitation, no help. Many of the woman are alone if they cannot afford to bring an assistant or family member with them. Again, it was beyond shocking.

After delivery, the women and babies are brought into a post delivery room, again like the pre-delivery room; 30 women on each side- no sanitation, dirty, no air conditioning, flies...you can perhaps start to get the picture? But some woman are on their cots with babies- newborn that they are feeding or sleeping with- other women are in the next cot with no baby...meaning their baby did not make it through delivery. It is mixed all the way down the aisle- babies crying, the lucky mothers, and women lying alone on their sides staring at the wall, the unlucky ones.

We were very disturbed by what we saw and chose not to go see the baby ward, which we were told was worse than the delivery wards. Three to four babies in a crib, no sanitation, stench, dirt...we chose not to go there as we didn't think we could handle any more. The mental pictures will forever stay with me. Thank GOD that HE is at work here. HE has brought missionaries from all over the world to run schools, orphanages, crisis pregnancy centers- and HE has called congregations from all over with a heart for missions- Westover- to support the missionaries in HIS work. Helping the least of these with the very basics of life. And helping tell those who have never heard the gospel- HOPE exists and they are NOT alone in the trials of life.

I have been encouraged by how many Ugandans I have met who are believers- who smile and JOY shines through their eyes. Yet, there are so many more living in poverty, slums, and just struggling to survive. It breaks my heart to think how they do not know Jesus Christ; they do not know our Savior and they exist each day as the last, in darkness, sickness, hunger, abuse...alone.

Thank you Westover and ALL supporters of missionaries - those who are on the front line & in the trenches- sacrificing to share our Saviors LOVE and HOPE with a dying world.

When I have more time- I will share our experience at a Secondary School in Nyenga during their open house. After that visit, I personally had to go lay down on my bunk when we got back to GSF and just cry. It seemed so overwhelming. But the Lord comforted me that HE is in control, HE loves ALL his children and wants them to know HIM. It hurt so to see the school, to see the kids and the conditions and think that they don't know HIM- how do they survive without HIM? But HE is working...through missionaries here, through changing hearts that witness the need here. But more on the school and what happens at the school as soon as I can get back on and blog...we are moving on from the coffee shop.

Various photos around GSF

 Sunrise

 Practicing the long jump

 Long jump practice

 Making Poshow for the children

(kind of like grits when they are cold & stuck together) 

It is sometimes topped with red beans.

 March of the Toddlers

 They "March" every morning for exercise 

 The monkees around our Guest House

 Red tailed 

Curious George?  

 Children recess & play time

It is the start of rainy season - we can usually see lush hills, trees, and valleys from our Guest House- hope that tells you how HARD this rain is coming down. 

It feels as if everything in Africa is larger than life ~ and wild. 

Our Welcome to GSF

I forgot to post these earlier- attempting to catch up while Internet is working! 

These photos are of our WELCOME to GSF. 

We were not expecting this & it brought tears to all of our eyes. 

God is at work! 

The turn onto GSF land & the drive up the lane...

GSF has about 250 acres (don't quote me on that exact number!)

 EVERYONE waiting to greet us! 

Dancing and Singing

The walk onto campus and to our sleeping quarters

WHAT A WELCOME!!!

Our team and some of what we are doing...

So more photos of our team at work assisting in various ways! 

Loving on the babies

Aunties teaching us crafts

Loving on the Kids

Teaching Bible Study

The men working on new sidewalk in HOT African sun!

 Sorting clothes for the children

Bible study and worship with the Aunties

The children of GSF

We have been amazed at the beauty and JOY that exudes from these precious children ~ even though they have very little (as you can see from the photo of their shoes) ~ thought I would share photos so you can see what we are seeing...there is a light shining through them! We were able to join the children in worship on Wednesday morning and the baby house on Tuesday afternoon...these are photos from those days.

More photos of journey to GSF

Pictures of Uganda ~ as we traveled from Entebbe through Kampala to Good Shepard's Fold

 Road side vendors

and more road side vendors

 and more 

 and more

 and more vendors

and more

 homes near Kampala

and more homes

 Our rest stop...

 Traffic in Kampala

 and more Kampala traffic

 View as we go through Kampala

Why we do not take taxi's...