It’s in the Eyes Update

On May 16th I shared the story of Frank Kato and Ronald Wasswa, the twin brothers with an empty soul. At that time, if you looked into their eyes you would have seen poverty, hardship, lack of hope, sadness, and bitterness. If you remember the story, the boys had to earn money selling grass as cow feed and making straw brooms to sell in order to pay for their schooling and food to help their grandmother who was raising them. They had one shirt and one pair of pants and often went without eating if they were unable to raise money. They were forced to grow up and skip childhood.

I stated that I hoped to share photos of Frank and Ronald at the end of the year when a sparkle returns to their eyes and a smile to their face. Looks like I didn’t have to wait until the end of the year!

Through GGI’s sponsorship program, Frank and Ronald have found hope for their future and the ability to smile and enjoy the simple pleasures of going to school and having a food to eat. A generous sponsor offered to place them in the Fountain of Hope boarding school where they will receive daily meals, a bed and companionship, and the ability to attend school without worrying about selling grass to pay their tuition. On our recent trip to Uganda I was fortunate to meet Frank and Ronald, visit their grandmother and home and see the boys in the boarding house. Life and laughter has returned to their lives and their grandmother is thankful for the opportunities that they now have.

I could write more but the photos below tell the story better than any words I could write.

Enjoy,

Cancer Update on for Pastor Robert Having just returned from Uganda, I wanted to update everyone on Robert's cancer and potential treatment. While we were in Uganda, the Lord gave Robert a bit of grace and relief that allowed him to work with our team and join us in many of our outings and work. Some days were better than others but Robert is not one to show pain or complain. He walks with a slight hitch as he doesn't want to put pressure on the sole of his foot and thus rolls it on the side a bit. His cancer is a positive Christian witness to everyone as he lives out his life giving thanksgiving in all things and showing others how to live a positive life even when things aren't going your way. While a miraculous recovery would be nice, it seems the Lord is asking us to treat the cancer with the resources available. That being said, we learned while in Uganda that the US Embassy has unofficially denied Robert a visa to come to the US for treatment. Unofficially because they will approve the visa only if Robert can obtain health insurance to cover his treatment. Trying to find health insurance for a Uganda citizen with cancer is basically impossible so for now the visa option is closed. As frustrating as that is I think there is another plan that God has in store. Realizing that treatment in Uganda may be our best option we have been fortunate to be introduced to representatives of the company Jannsen who distribute the cancer drug Doxil and work throughout the world including Africa. They are trying to secure a "compassionate" status for Robert meaning they will provide the drug free of charge. This is exciting because the doctor in Kampala is unable to obtain the drug. We haven't received any official word but the doors are at least beginning to open to the option of getting Robert the treatment he needs in Uganda where he will be with family and friends and in his environment. If we succeed, the treatment will be every other week for up to eight months. There are many hurdles to still jump over but we're at least in the race now. One additional hurdle we're facing is that Doxil is in a worldwide shortage! Please pray for Robert's ability to handle the pain and emotional struggles he faces today and that he'll be able to start treatment soon.

Uganda Mission Trip Update If you have a chance, please check out our website blog and read through the blogs the Uganda Mission Team posted on their recent trip. The team's presence in Uganda makes a significant difference to the outreach and ministry of Pastor Robert and Sarah and opens doors and hearts for them to minister to long after the team leaves. Here's a quick list of some of the things the team accomplished this year: - Spent countless hours purchasing and delivering gifts to sponsored children, families, widows, and those in need (I've never given away so many mattresses!) - Were the hands and feet of Christ as they lived out their Christian faith in deeds. With the book of James as our bible study book it was appropriate that we lived out what we believed and showed our faith through actions not just words. - Worked at the Fountain of Hope Sports Festival with 175 student athletes and hundreds more spectators and parents - Visited and worshiped with three churches and provided VBS classes to the children - Learned about the culture and spiritual / demon beliefs - Had a one-on-one experience with a demon attack with a 3rd grade girl and taught her how to invoke the name of Jesus to ward off the demons (it's working for her!) - Baptized 162 people in the Nile River - wow! - Provided gifts to over 700 students and 20 teachers at Fountain of Hope - Purchased the needed supplies to construct two 500 gallon water catchment tanks on the new boarding house to collect rain water for washing - Purchased a bicyle and cell phone for one of the Pastors (his wife loved the cell phone :) ) - Purchased bibles for the new bush churches - Finished the painting and officially opening of the school's new kitchen - thanks Lutheran Women's Mission League! - Brought over 7 laptops as gifts - Two team members spent the night in the bush with local families - Purchased school books for the school - Gifted a young Christian man from the village enough money to pay for his first semester of college (he was Pastor Robert's first convert in Bukeeka and a son of a witch doctor) - Preached, prayed, loved, and laughed with countless Ugandans whom we consider our brothers and sisters There's countless other things the team did individually or as a group and probably many ways they've made an impact that we don't even know about. I hope you'll read through some of the blogs and perhaps consider joining us next year in June/July. Enjoy the photos below from the trip. There's more on the blog as well. Blessings,John

Helping Widows

The team is actually on their way home right now but we still have some stories to share on the blog. One of those stories is about Sarah (Pastor Robert's wife) and her outreach to the community of Bukeeka. Sarah reaches out to anyone in need - Muslim, Christian, traditional belief, widow, child, father, it doesn't matter. Today, she took us with her as she visited a grandmother who life situation wasn't good. Typical of many grandmothers, this one was trying to raise grandchildren that had been left with her by her children. Sometimes parents die and leave their children with the grandparents other times the parents just leave the children and walk away to find a better life elsewhere. No matter the situation, these grandmothers are some of the toughest and strongest faith people I've ever met. Most often than not they do not have anything to support themselves or the children. Today was no different.

The team arrived at the small brick hut and greeted their first widow. She was incredible poor. The team had brought two mattresses as potential gifts and soon realized they would definately leave one here. The grandmother and grandchild had nothing more than a hoe, some clothes, and the brick hut to sleep in. They laid clothes on the dirt floor for their bed - they didn't even have a mat. The grandmother was welcoming to Sarah and surprised but happy that white people had come to visit her. After giving her the mattress, that she would share, she apologized to the team for not having anything to give them. Incredible. One of our ladies began crying.

Sarah shared with the team how she goes out to people's houses and blesses them with gifts whenever she can. One widow, a non-Christian, was one of the recipients of Sarah's visits. Sarah gave her gifts and never mentioned Jesus or tried to convert her. She simply loved the women and helped her out. After about the third visit and gifts, the women finally asked Sarah why she was helping. Sarah explained and the widow finally said she would like to have Jesus in her life as well. Sometimes actions sometimes speak louder than words. Enjoy the photos and may the Lord bless all the widows in the world, John

The new Fountain of Hope kitchen is officially open for business!

Two years ago on this same trip, Becca Klimper saw the primitive cooking conditions FOH was using to try and feed all the children. The cooks were cooking over open fires under a makeshift stick structure on a dirt floor. Not the cleanest conditions nor very appealing if you're the cook. Plus cooking outside without an efficient wood burning stove meant the 50% of the wood and heat was being lost - a financial drain. Becca went home and started to find ways to raise money. She submitted a grant proposal to the Northwest District of the Lutheran Women's Mission League (LWML). The ladies at LWML received numerous submissions but the Lord provided and when they voted on what project they would support they chose the FOH Kitchen. Fast forward to today, two years later. The kitchen if finally finished and open for business! This year's team purchased the final paint needed to complete the job, spent a couple days painting before turning over the job to a local man to finish.

We decided to have the official opening ceremony on the same day we cooked the bull the FOH girl's Netball team won in the Sports Tournament and feed every child at the school. The kids were excited as we gathered together to celebrate. The older students led the rest in praise songs as we waited for the official speeches. Pastor Robert opened and told everyone that FOH now had the nicest kitchen out of all district schools! Since Becca couldn't come with the group this year, we asked her mother, Martha, to address the school on Becca's behalf.

Pastor then led the student's in prayer before announcing the kitchen was open for business. Seeing the students praying was amazing. Not too long ago in the history of FOH, the Bukeeka community forbade the school to pray with students and was threatening the school and teachers with witchcraft. Today, the school openly prays, the students pray with all their heart and worship God and our Savior Jesus. It's amazing what the past seven years has done to this community. And when they pray they really pray. None of this polite 20 second dinner prayer here - they close their eyes, cover their faces, and pray out loud so that the chorus of prayers fills the air - it's praying from the heart, without care for what others think, unashamed prayer to the living God. Wow!

The eating began and with so many children to feed, the shortage of plates meant they used plastic sacks to give food to the smaller children - a true sack lunch! Many thanks go to Becca and her family and friends, LWML for raising the money, and everyone who has prayed for continued protection and advancement of the kingdom in Bukeeka. Today was a true celebration of what God has done in this community. Enjoy the photos.

Blessings, John

Photos: Old kitchen, new kitchen inside, Martha addressing the children with the new kitchen in the background, children clapping their appreciation, children praying fervently, close up of a child praying, lining up for lunch, happy children eating their bag of rice and meat.

Here's a post from Miles on his home stay.

As the school day drew to a close the rest of our party went back to Pastor Robert and Sarah’s house while for the night; John and I each walked home with a student to spend the night in their homes. I got to go home with Brenda and George. Brenda is the cutest little 10 year old, beautiful teeth and a gorgeous smile, she reminds me of Fivel from the Disney movie. Brenda had bragged about how her friend the Muzungu was coming to her house, but then she was too shy to hold my hand. She spent the evening peeking at me from around the corner flashing that beautiful smile. Her older sister Ida speaks fluent English though not as clear as you might expect, and she was my translator. Ida is an enthusiastic bubbly 22 year old with a big heart. Together with her Mama, they care for George, Brenda, Wilberforce and for 4 other orphans Judy, Sharon, Joshua and Brenda #2, all under age 10.

Ida gave me the tour of their place and showed me how they gathered food. We picked a pumpkin, casaba and some avocados. After she showed me how she and Mama had cleared nearly a half an acre of jungle by hand to make ready for a potato garden, her countenance changed as she told me how her daddy had died and left them all alone. I could hardly keep back the tears as she remembered how much she loved him. Later we picked up jerry cans and made the ¾ mile trek to get water. Ida was chattering all the way and George was close behind. I even tried to balange the container on my head as skillfully as Ida could... she just laughed at me and so did all the neighbors that saw it. As it drew dark I sat down it the little hut with Ida to eat. They put before me an enormous plate of steamed pumpkin, casaba and a green soup that had a flavor I cannot describe, it had a sandy texture. You know its going to be different when the best thing theycan say about a dish is, "its good for your gall bladder." Ida had told me earlier that when visitors don’t eat it is because they don’t love you …so I did the best I could. The food was bland but very hot, no spices to tease the taste buds. They all thanked God for his bounty ate it eagerly and quickly because there was much work to do with very little light left.

After dinner, Ida poured out her heart; she prays every day that God would bring her a good godly husband, that she can get money to fix the roof because they have to stand up all night whenever it rains and that she could get enough support to open an orphanage. It was heart breaking as she talked about how she has to travel so far each day for work to make a tiny amount of money to buy things like oil for the lamp and time for her phone which is indespensible, although I think they use it for a flashlight more than anything else. The children gathered round and we looked at pictures on my digital camera until Mama said it was bed time. They sang the most beautiful hymn and then everyone prayed … together… out loud. As I listened to their beautiful voices in song and heard them pray, I couldnt help but think that these are the ones Jesus spoke of when he said, "the kingdom of God is for such as these." The last thing Ida said to me before going to bed was that I shouldn’t be afraid of the rats. I kicked one off my feet about 11:00 pm and they could be heard scurrying across the tin roof throughout the night.

In the morning I awoke to the voices of the children and everyone in the house praying. When they awake each day they sit up and begin to praise God… all together… out loud. I was humbled by their faith, hard work and cheerful attitude. Truly, these people are the ones Jesus meant when he said, “blessed are the poor.” No Breakfast, the children and I were off to school by 6:20 am with Mama and Ida following just behind waving good bye.

Once the children arrive to school an hour early, they immediately pick up brooms and begin cleaning the school grounds. When everything is nice and tidy, they hurry to class 20 minutes before the teachers arrive and begin to study in preparation for the days lessons. So that’s how I spent the 4th of July.

Miles

Photos: Children getting their daily water and fresh gourd for dinner

Home stay in the bush

Days fly by so fast that it's tough to keep up with the blog and get everything done! I'll share a bit about my home stay in the bush on Monday night and hopefully Miles will share about his adventure a bit later.

We offer home stays as an opportunity to experience the culture at ground level. Depending on how adventurous you are we set up a home stay that can range from brick homes with TV (the head of our PTA) or simple mud huts with mattresses and open fire cooking. For most Americans they go camping with more luxury than families living in the bush.

My stay was arranged to be with a single father who was taking care of four children age 6 to maybe 12. It's unusual to find a single dad in the bush. There are many single moms as fathers have either died or left to find jobs elsewhere. In this household the mother died in child birth two years ago. The mother's death led the father to drinking and giving up on life. Pastor Robert came to his aid and helped bring him back to a positive outlook and responsibility for his remaining children. Today, the family would welcome a Mzungu (white man) into their house and they were absolutely excited about it.

I started my journey at Fountain of Hope where the three oldest boys go to school. Wilson, the youngest, has been sponsored for a year or so while the older two brothers, Esau and Emanuel, just recently received sponsorship. The youngest of the family, 6 year old daughter Christine, stays home as the father is waiting for a sponsor for her. Wilson and Esau waited for me at school to finish my other activities and then they walked me to their house. From Fountain it took one hour and 25 minutes to walk to the other side of Bukeeka next to the Nile River. The boys make this commute every day to go to school.

Passing through the dirt paths that few if any white people ever walk was exhilerating. Families were curious, little kids waved, and I felt excited. We arrived at the house and the father was waiting for us with a big smile on his face. He told us that he'd never imagined that a Mzungu would ever stay in a house such as his. Meaning that he figured I would only stay in hotels. The property consisted of a very old brick house, a small square 7' x 7' foot mud brick room that the boys shared with two old thin mattresses on the ground, a round mud hut with thatched roof that was the father's and daughters bedroom, and a mud room store house. About 20 yards away was a stick and mud outhouse. The rest of the property, about 3 acres was being farmed for corn, coffee, pineapple, potatoes, and a few fruit trees.

The father had purchased the land over 30 years ago during the reign of Idi Amin and has kept it ever since. Due to his age he know leases some of the land to others who will cultivate it. We walked out into the corn field and he picked a few fresh ears of corn and gave to Wilson to go and cook over the fire in one of the rooms of the old brick house. The brick house was also over 30 years old and the tin roof was filled with holes and rust. The plan was to tear down the house and rebuild a new one someday, just not sure when someday would come. In the time being, they had already built the pole structure for a new round mud hut to be a kitchen and then they can start thinking of tearing down the old house.

After touring the property we sat down to enjoy some warm ground nuts, tea, and fire cooked corn on the cob. I had brought a bag of rice as a house gift (rice is a luxury for most people) and they had already started to boil some along with beans. The boys and Christine helped cook dinner while I visited with their father. He couldn't help stop thanking me for coming to his house. It was as if the President of the United States had arrived he was so excited. Pastor Robert shared with us how our visits open so many doors and hearts that's it's simply amazing. My visit will be remembered for the rest of their lives. As we visited, two neighbor ladies stopped by to greet me and learn why I was there. I don't think they could even grasp the concept of a Mzungu staying over night in the bush. With the rice and beans cooked, we were

presented with heaping piles of food and I could tell the children were enjoying it.

By now the sun had set and the thin sliver of a moon had slipped behind the trees leaving us almost total darkness. I put my camping headlamp on the father's head and smiled as he walked around the compound with light shining wherever he went. They were amazed how such a small flashlight would work on someone's head. For them their nightly light consists of a kerosene lantern and small kerosene candle wicks. The boys took their candle into their little room and layed down on their mattresses and opened their school note books to study for the night. All three of them read by one candle while Christine sat silently looking over their shoulders probably wondering if she would be able to attend school.

The father then proceeded to take the boy's nice mattress away from them and put it in his mud hut room (Christine usually sleeps on a mat on the floor as she doesn't have a mattress) for my interpreter to sleep on. He then told me that I would sleep on his bed and mattress under a mosquito net. Since I was his special guest he wouldn't have it any other way. The entire family would spend the night sharing one 3' x 6' two inch mattress in the boys room and they were very proud that they could welcome me with such hospitality.

With the darkness of night upon us, a few of the boys washed their feet and legs with water in a plastic bucket. There is no running water at the house and every day the boys go to the community water well and fill up their yellow jerry cans and bring them back to the house. I took photos of the proud family and by 9pm we were all retiring to bed. The night was still and warm and I was a bit restless especially when I heard the rats or mice scurrying through the mud hut looking for food. We had closed the wooden door and placed a one inch stick through a metal ring acting as a brace lock on the door. I prayed a prayer that night amazed at the family's happiness amongst such poverty and how my visit had generated such excitement. The morning sounds brought dish washing to my ears as the boys were washing the nights dishes by the light of the rising sun. The boys share two bicycles to make their daily commute to school much easier. They left the house at 6:30 so they could be at school by 7am to help clean the grounds and begin studying before the first class starts. American students have life so easy. I was treated to morning tea and ground nuts and then we walked down to the Nile River to enjoy the view before I started the long walk back to school.

The experience is something both me and the family will never forget. People living with nothing are willing to happily open their homes and offer everything they have. Amazing. We could learn a lot from them.

Blessings, John

Photos: Esau walking home with the bag of rice on his head, family photo in front of father's mud hut bedroom, appetizers, Children cooking rice by light of the fire and the candle, children studying by candlelight with flash and without flash

I hope you enjoyed Caleb's last blog update. He's keeping us all laughing. The sports tournament was a lot of fun but we did have a bit of tension as one of the boys team did have players that did not go to their school. After being disqualified they decided to protest and the coach had signs made up and they went to the soccer field and protested. After refusing to leave and delaying the tournament the police were brought to the field. The coaches were talked to and the players left allowing the fun to continue. It's sad that such behavior and cheating is common here in Uganda especially when financial gain is at stake.

The participation of the local Muslim school was a great sign that the tournament is accepted as a fun event for all no matter your religion. Miles and I befriended the Muslim girls netball team with a bottle of Coke and felt like we were making a commercial of how Coke can make friends. Before the tournament started I was able to address all of the teams, coaches, referees, and visitors with a message based on the Apostle Paul's analogy about sports and fighting the good fight for an eternal prize. The highlight of the tournament was the championship game for boys soccer between Fountain and the school from Kongo which was a rematch from last year's championship. After a 0-0 game the final was decided by penalty kicks with Kongo winning 4-3. Crowds surrounded the field and stormed in celebration ending in a dance festival up at the school. Like last year, the winning school took home a bull - yes a bull as in cattle. In this culture this is quite a prize and the team ends up having a big bar-b-que.

As for the part that Caleb stated was censored he was speaking of our events on Monday. We had arranged a meeting with a local witch doctor to better understand this aspect of the culture. The witch doctor's name was Emmanuel - yes that's a Christian name - and his son was the first convert to Christianity in Bukeeka from Robert's outreach efforts. Additionally, he lives next door to the school and his father sold us the land for the school. I then realized that Emmanuel was the son that attempted to forge land ownership documents and force us to pay him for the land. The issue was eventually dropped when police showed up in Bukeeka looking for him in conjunction with human sacrifices. He fled Bukeeka for two years and recently returned to his home. The interview should be interesting.

With all eight of us plus Pastor Robert plus Emmanuel's son Elisha coming to the interview we were a bit overwhelming but it was a privilege that foreigners would want to visit him. Knowing his background and previous dealings I wasn't surprised by the interview and personally feel he was lying quite a bit to make his profession and witch craft look good. In fact, he made statements such as the spirits he communicates with are good and the highest level one is actually the Holy Spirit. He see's no problem with attending church and seeking advice and offering sacrifices to the spirits. He claims that all spirits are good but had trouble explaining why spirits would torment people. He claims that only bad witch doctors do bad things but that the spirit itself is good. The more we asked him questions the more we realized he didn't know or wasn't as educated as we thought and the more he contradicted himself and his own beliefs. He also told us that the spirits were on the same level as Jesus. When Miles told him that the one sure way to cofirm that a spirit is from God and is good is to ask the spirit to confess that Jesus is Lord. He laughed and said that wasn't necessary as he knows they are good - basically he avoided the question and knew the spirits wouldn't confess Jesus.

After two hours of talking, Pastor Robert finally told us that Emmanuel was getting tired of our questions and should go. Afterward, Elisha thanked us for talking to his father and said that this was the first time his father had publicly stated he loves his son. Elisha also shared with us that his father is blackmailing him by offering to help pay for college only if Elisha comes and worships his spirits. In the end, Emmanuel has been taken in by demons and he's chosen to follow a false God.

In the end, people here use the services of witch doctors for two things: either to ask for advice or help with things such as healing, financial success, marriage issues, etc. The witch doctor consults the spirits and then tells the person what to do and then to offer something to the spirits for their advice or help in making things come true. The second thing a witch doctor may be used for is to affect a situation or do something to someone else - such as something bad. This was what we found with our second visit of the day to Shamimu's house. The witch doctors act as the intermediary to the spirit world.

Shamimu is a sponsored child who had withdrawn from school while in 6th grade because "the demons had not allowed her to attend school". We had told her father we would like to come and talk to her and see what could be done with the situation. We arrived to find that her family was a Muslim family and her father had posters on his wall addressing how a witch doctor should behave. According to Pastor Robert the father was actively involved with witch doctors as well. We were welcomed into the family's house and Shamimu came in somewhat shyly. We spoke about her situation and she explained that she'd rather go to technical school to learn how hairstyling. I asked her to look my in the eyes and found that she had something bothering her and she couldn't keep eye contact for long without looking away. She was also the only person in the family who had accepted Christ and been baptized. She stated that the demons attacks had become worse after her baptism. At school, when she would try to read school books her eyes would water and she couldn't focus and read anything. She felt ashamed.

Eventually, she requested to speak to Sara, Robert's wife, alone. Afterward Sara shared with us that Shamimu wasn't comfortable talking in front of her father because he was the one behind her troubles. He continually gave her chores to do that kept her away from coming to church and had his brothers (Shamimu's uncles) cast spells and send the demons to attack her. She wanted to come back to school but thought that coming to the boarding house would be the best to keep her away from her family's influence. Sara will go back and speak to the father without all eight of us present. For now, we're praying for Shamimu and that she'll be able to overcome the difficulties she's facing both spiritually and physically with her family. While her father spoke the words we wanted to hear such as supporting Shamimu's decision to go to church and that she should be in school, Robert felt that he was outright lying to us. Again, cultural accepted actions especially for Muslim who use witch doctors.

Monday night Miles and I headed out to spend the night in the bush with a local family. That story will have to wait until the next blog as it's time to go to bed! John