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...