April 26, 2007


I have not written in a while because I have been very busy and I also feel as though everything will seem dull after the April Fools blog; however, I will provide an update on some recent events.

Everything in this blog is true, so you don’t need to look for any clues or hints.

Collins Birthday
We celebrated Collin’s 6th birthday this past week, and we believe that he had a good time. His birthday fell on Wednesday and we didn’t do much on that day except have a dinner at home of his choice. When we asked him what he wanted, he replied, “I want meat on a bone.” This can be interpreted to mean that he wanted pork ribs, so I grilled some pork ribs for dinner. We are fortunate that we were able to find a place in town that could fill our gas cylinders for our grill. The cylinder valves are very different that the ones from the states and we did not think that we could get our propane tanks filled. But, a couple of weeks ago we visited the main Shell terminal, and they were able to fill our tanks so that we can now use our gas grill. For this we are grateful. Anyway, on Saturday we had Collin’s party and he invited two friends to go with him to DiDi’s World, a local amusement park. We were not sure what to expect of an amusement park in Africa. Amusingly, their advertisements claim that they are Disney World in Uganda. We were quite confident that it would not be Disney in Uganda. We were pleasantly surprised, though, to find a park that had several functioning rides, was quite clean, and pretty fun. The quality of the rides was similar to what you would find at a local fair, and they also had four water slides. All of our boys had a good time. The best part was that the park was almost empty (maybe 50 total customers) and we only paid about $3 per person to get in. When the boys rode bumper cars, they rode for almost an hour straight because no one was waiting in line to get on. We spent the entire day there and did not arrive back home exhausted like we would from an American park. It is only about 5 minutes from our house, so we will probably start doing this more often. It would have been worth the price of admission just to go for the water slides, though the water in the pool at the bottom was green. I hope that they don’t catch any diseases from the dirty water.

Safety
Kampala has had some violence recently, and we are praying that it will not escalate. There is currently lots of controversy over the government giving away forestland to an Indian sugar company. There have been several demonstrations and three people were killed two weeks ago during one of the demonstrations. The demonstrations have all been in the city center and it appears that we are safe as long as we are not downtown when the demonstrations are occurring. It seems that many people are unhappy with the current government and are using this forest issue as an excuse to demonstrate and riot. They have used tear gas on crowds many times since we have lived here. Fortunately, we have not been in the vicinity any time that a riot has broken out.

Monday night was the first time that we have heard gunshots in Uganda. Around 1:30 a.m. we heard a single gunshot somewhere fairly close to our house. I asked a policeman about it this morning, and he said that there were actually two gunshots and that one was farther away and that one was close by. He did not know what happened. We did not feel threatened or terribly frightened, but it was a reminder that this can be a dangerous place. God has protected us thus far, as we have had not any robberies or major sickness. The only thing that we have had stolen were Pamela’s pearls, some tools, and some clothes when we first arrived. We feel like we live in a safe area and that we will be ok. However, we still pray for God’s protection and security from danger and disease.

Helping the Fatherless
Our primary ministry is discipleship of university students, but we still want to help facilitate the starting of a children’s home to care for orphans. We have initiated starting an NGO here, and have begun praying about finding land and the children that God desires for us to help. I don’t want to share too many details here but will provide more information in the near future. Please be praying and know that some important groundwork is being laid and things are beginning to progress very well.

Also, we have set aside the month of April for times of fasting and prayer as we seek God about adoption for our family. We don’t have any direct word from the Lord, but Pamela and I both sense that we are supposed pursue adoption and that it will likely be a girl. God’s Word tells us to commit our ways to Him, and that He will give us the desires of our heart. As we have been praying about this, both of us have had an increasing desire to have a girl and that is what seems to be on our heart. We will not move until we are sure that we have heard from the Lord, but this is where we are for now.

Student Center
Our container from America will be arriving in the next week and we still do not have a place to set up the student center. We are praying about whether we should rent or try to buy land and build a building. I have not found a good place to rent and wondering if we are not supposed to do that. Please pray that God will provide clear direction on His will and that I will not rush out ahead of Him feeling that we have to do something now. Also, pray that God would provide a place to store the gym equipment until we have the center ready to start. In our eight months here, it is very clear that all of the apparent “delays” have actually been God’s hand of protection and direction. We are trusting that this delay will also result in clearly seeing God’s plan.

Work Visas
Huge praise! If we had finalized our work visas when we first arrived, then it would have been $12,000 for just two years of work permits for our family. Just this week, missionary work permits have been reduced greatly, and the cost for our entire family for a two-year permit will be around $800. What a difference! We are so thankful that what appeared to be a delay was once again God’s protection and provision. A family in America had given us $2500 toward our work visas, and we will now coordinate with them to use this money toward ministry instead of taxes and fees.

More Birthdays
Pamela and Christian will celebrate birthdays on the 28th of this month. Pamela is promising to post her own blog on that day and has been writing on it. So, hopefully you will hear from her later this week.

Fuel Shortage
There has been a severe diesel shortage for the last few weeks with no apparent end in sight. Fuel has risen from $4/gallon to over $6/gallon, and if you can find a station with fuel they will often limit you to 2-3 gallons. We are told that it is due to a break in the pipeline that comes here from the coast of Kenya. However, you can never be sure about what the truth is if your only source is the local papers.

Witchdoctors
The reliance on traditional medicine, even among Christians, is quite prevalent and concerning. We had our first real encounter with it this morning. Our helper/guard, Mickey, went yesterday to visit a sick cousin in the hospital. When he arrived, he found that his cousin was seriously ill with his entire upper body extremely swollen and his head almost twice its normal size. He had been in the hospital for 5 days and was getting worse and the “real” doctors at the hospital were telling him that they did not know what to do and that he should go to the village doctors (aka, witchdoctors). Mickey would not agree to this and said for him to stay at the hospital. When Mickey arrived home last night and told us what happened, I told him that I would pay to take his cousin to a better hospital. We left first thing this morning, to take his cousin to the International Hospital, but we found out that an uncle had taken him last night, as soon as Mickey left, to the village that is 8-9 hours away. I am very concerned that by the time that they realize that the village doctors cannot help him, that it may be too late. People continue to believe in traditional medicine and worship, doing sacrifices and rituals, in an attempt to manipulate the spirits. It is such an ingrained part of this culture that it seeps into the church and influences many of their beliefs and practices. It manifests itself primarily in the form of people always looking to God for miracles and riches. They pay money (“sacrifices”) to the pastor who promises that God will answer their prayers to get a new car or a bigger house. Instead, the pastor gets new cars and bigger houses, while the people continue to try to manipulate the spirits, that is now represented by one God instead of many. There is so much junk teaching and prosperity gospel teaching here that it is disgusting. I rarely hear anyone speaking of personal holiness, repentance, or true salvation. Everything is about what God can do for them in a material sense.

Ministry
Ministry is going very well and we continue to get busier and busier. I taught three bible studies, preached once, and did pastoral training in just a 4-day span. This week will be similar, though I will probably only be teaching one bible study.