Update Summer

Christmas Prayer Letter 

 

December 1st, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013 SUMMER ROOT, KARAMOJA UGANDA

THE NEED OF A SAVIOR Breaking of the "Etal" As the sun began to dip behind the western horizon, we found ourselves rumbling along dirt roads towards the village of Kassiapus. Ana Abong welcomed us to her home with great enthusiasm. She brought a cow skin and laid it on the ground, sweeping away the goat feces with a smile. We sat with the dignity of royalty amongst the clatter of goats, chicken, women and children. Once we had settled in Ana announced that she had a great treat for us. She had walked over an hour to town to buy a special food for her guests: macaroni! But the problem was she didn't know how to prepare it, so with an embarrassed smile she asked us if we could help her. We gladly pitched in and by the time the sun had set we had prepared a macaroni feast. We ate beneath the vast stars of Karamoja. Then, as the full moon rose and lit up the dark sky, other villagers began to gather around. Jerry cans and sticks were found and used as drums to accommodate the joyful voices of the villagers. Everyone stood around in a circle singing and dancing to the beat of the jerry cans.  After some time they settled down to listen to the story. PRAISES AND PRAYER · Praise for God's direction in showing us how to move forward with sharing the Bible stories · Praise for Loram Emmy who has been a faithful leader · Praise for the members of the local leadership team · Praise for the villages of Napoingae and Kassiapus who are open to receiving God's Word. · Praise the Pioneers East Africa Retreat will be held in Ethiopia this January, so I get two weeks to reconnect with all my Ethiopian friends! · Prayer for continued spiritual growth for the leadership team · Prayer for guidance and wisdom in all that we do · Prayer that God will speak his truth into the hearts of the Karamojong

This story, taken from Mark 7:1-23 was a story that the Lord laid on my heart for this night.  In the story, the religious leaders come to Jesus and asked him "why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They eat with unwashed hands!" And Jesus replied, "And why do you break the commands of God for the sake of human rules? Isaiah was right when he prophesied against you hypocrites. As it is written:  'you honor me with your lips but your heart is far from me. Your worship of me is in vain and your teachings are only human rules.'" Jesus goes on to teach them that nothing from the outside can defile them, but it is from the inside, from the heart that they are defiled. God laid this passage on my heart because the tradition of the elders is the religion of the people. The Karamojong adhere to the "etal" the traditions that have been handed down- the dos and don'ts of Karamojong society which create their moral standards of behavior. But the "etal" is more than just a set cultural tradition, it is the embodiment of belief systems that keep people bound to the rules of humans rather than the standards of God. Sin then, is not defined by the evils that reside within us, but rather by the act of breaking these traditions and going against the societal whole. The punishment of these sins is then only as deep as the society. Sin does not have any impact on the afterlife. You offend the elders, you receive punishment from the elders, make a sacrifice and receive remission for that offence. So as I was telling this story I was praying for conviction to penetrate into the hearts of the Karamojong. Without a right understanding of our own sinful condition and the eternal impact of sin in our lives, we cannot understand the purpose or work of Jesus Christ. Until we recognize our need, we cannot recognize our Savior. The "etal" is only a surface level cleanliness, before the Holy God, the heart remains unclean. This is why we needed Jesus to come. We needed a Savior that offers us a way to receive cleanliness of heart, not just traditions that make us accepted on a societal level. Where do our evil thoughts and actions come from? From the depths of our hearts, the sinful nature of our souls. According to Romans 6:23 "the wages of sin is death", eternal separation from God, eternal condemnation. Jesus' act of love and humility, His coming to earth as a baby to be the Savior who takes the punishment for our sins is the only hope that we have. Jesus came to break the traditions of the elders. He came to replace the surface level cleanliness with the heart cleanliness that ushers us into an eternal relationship with Him. Please pray with me that the Karamojong will see their need for a Savior and find the hope that Jesus Christ is offering them. UPDATE ON LOCAL LEADERS Thank you for your continued prayer Since landing back in Karamoja we have experienced many joys and challenges. The first couple of weeks were spent prayerfully assessing all that had happened while we were out. We were thrilled to find that Loram Emmy, our main leader had been faithful in doing the work while we were out. We were happy to find that five (out of nine) local leadership members had also been faithful in coming to the discipleship trainings (a commitment that involves a three hour walk). But in addition to these joys we found some challenges. The women were intimidated to share the Bible stories in their villages because of cultural pressures from their husbands. The men were asking for payment for attending the meetings. We found that many community members who had attended the Bible storying sessions in the village while we were there had stopped coming while we were out. Sadly we recognized that some of the enthusiasm we had experienced was merely skin deep. So we have faced many challenges. BUT we are not overcome! As we considered all these issues, we decided we needed to extend our story set. We needed to address these issues in Biblical ways and we needed to press forward, in prayer, in love and in faith. So that is what we are doing. I am happy to say that God has been directing us. God has been bringing correction and discipline in the lives of the members of the team. And has been drawing back some of the ones who had fallen away. God has been showing us which stories to share and who to work with. He has been faithful and is showing us the way forward. We want to remain adaptable to the changes that God wants us to make.

Posted by Summer Root at 10:56 AM more here

 

Update Grubers

At the moment they are in germany but will be back soon. here some nice shoots:

Update Ryan

Kwo Manyen Goes Regional

Well it's time for another update on what is going on.  as January concludes and February arrives a shift takes place in my youth ministry here.  From the last blog you know that the outreaches have stopped.  In essence summer break for the Ugandan kiddos has ended and it's back to school.  Let me give you a glimpse into a students life here.  They probably get up around 6 am and some of them start walking then.  The distance really depends on what school in town they go to.  There are no distinctions like school districts here, everyone goes where they think best.  Those who have money send even their 9 years olds half way across the country to get a good education.  Those who dont pick the school closest and hope its a good one.  So they leave at 6 am in the morning and most of them get to come home around 4 or 5pm at night.  When they come home they are taken up by many chores.  So the best time to reach students is summertime.  Now that they are back in, things change a lot.  As some of you know from prior years I go into the schools and do Romans road presentations.  That is what I plan on doing this year.  Oh ya by now some of you are saying why did Ryan say something about being regional.  Well I have friends that I have known for a long time and they have a primary academy that is trying to change all the rules as to how kids are taught in Uganda.  It's a good thing.  Lets just say the system is here is broken but nobody is humble enough to say so, or invested enough to change it.  So year in and year our Uganda pumps out students like Hostess cupcakes.  Its not till they are exposed to the rest of the world that they realize they have been given something much less than they paid for.  Okay off that tangent.  My friends Keith and Lisa Coggins have an academy and it is in Gulu(an hour forty five West of me).  They have asked me to teach twice a month the same program that I've been teaching the kids here in Kitgum.  I am so excited for this opportunity to have an entire year to invest in a group of about 100 kids.  So I would ask for your prayers for these 100 kids, that in the course of this year their hearts can be impacted for eternity.  Pray that they would be the ones that change their country and the world for that matter. 

Posted 2 days ago by Ryan Tomás McCabe

Update Ryan

The End and the Beginning

As some of you well know for the last 6 weeks we've been going to different locations around town and doing Bible studies.  Our target age group has been 9-13.  During the six weeks they were presented the Gospel and various teaching on the fundamentals of the faith.  I think anything can be taught its just the method that you teach.  I am grateful to Richard who translated for all the gatherings.  So last week was the final week.  So how did it go?  Well in all locations we had multiple kids come to Christ.  Secondly from two of our studies we have 15 kids joining us in the main church.  The vision of these Bible studies was firstly exposure to the Gospel and the second was getting them to come to the church to join the others in Kwo Manyen.  I do believe that both of those things have been accomplished.  There were many times when I told the Lord that if he wasn't going before me I wasn't going.  It was an awesome time and I hope that every school break we can do this.  I used to be a huge fan of the youth conference, and I still think they are beneficial.  However I would rather be in a community and get the opportunity of meeting them where they are at, at little to no cost.  I want to thank all of you for making this possible.  The many who support by prayer and financial giving, I wouldn't be able to do this work had it not been for you.  Please keep all the kids in the different areas in prayer, our desire is for them to join us at the church.  So as we end up one program others are in the works to get started.  One of them being school outreaches, again going for the same age ranges.  So pray for favor with the schools.
   Okay so maybe you want to hear a little about the house.  Well its almost finished.  The grass should go on this week.  The interiors walls will be plastered and door frames added next week, then the next week will be the finish on the floor and then I'll move in.  I want to thank everyone again.  I had only put aside 3/4 of the money for the house.  So far the cost has gone far beyond that and God has provided every step of the way.  So thank you for answering His call, whether through prayer or through financial support.  

Posted 1 week ago by Ryan Tomás McCabe

 

Update Ryan

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot.......

Hey Everyone,
    It's that time again when everyone looks back over the year and wonders, how did I do?  The Apostle Paul told us that we forget what lies behind and strain for whats ahead, that being the goal of knowing Jesus even more.  It's easy to hold onto and rejoice in past victories but the important thing is not what was but what will be.  This is easy for most but sometimes hard for me.  I seem to have a super sensitive memory, where things that happened long ago ring in my ears like they were yesterday.  These are good memories and also bad ones.  Anyhow this year has brought me many blessings in the ministry.  In March of this year Kwo Manyen was born.  For almost 7 months I prayed and asked the Lord to let me start a youth ministry.  One day after seeing the kids ministry really struggle with the older kids as well, i decided I would have a program for them that morning.  I didn't even really know what I would teach, I guess I just used a backup sermon.  It was that day that I asked the kids if they would want to come and Saturday and that next weekend Kwo Manyen was officially born.  Since that time it has been an amazing journey.  March thru May we saw few kids unless we invited and when they did come we only shared the Romans road with them not knowing if they would come again.  Sunday was our main group of kids, coming faithfully.  After the summertime when I came back things went back into full gear.  The first few weeks were mainly rebuilding.  Now we have a core group of kids who come every week and the awesome thing I know a lot about them.  I don't say this to credit myself, but I'm excited because I really know them.  It's a step in my ministry moving from being a mentally itinerant pastor to being a shepherd.  It has taken me a long time to move beyond shallow ministry of teaching but not really involving everything to what we're doing now.  God has really blessed Kwo Manyen and I'm excited to see what will happen in this new year.  What's my goal? That these kids who know their stuff and live the life! Uganda is very much like the Bible belt of America.  Everyone's a christian and the culture is supposedly Christians but the truth is people are not living according to the Bible, but its the acceptable lifestyle here.  I want these kids to know that with the Gospel and Salvation comes a changed life.  No life change, no salvation(better said Gods Spirit in us bring about new life and fruit).  And the best part as we know is the Holy Spirit is the one who brings that about and of course in each decision we make a choice for or against sanctification.  The ministry was also allowed to do several outreaches in schools this year hundreds of kids heard the Gospel.
    Okay I know this is going long but bear with me.  This summer was an awesome time for me to spend time in America.  I was blessed by everyone that I had a chance to see.  It was a great time of refreshment.  As with any year there are always emotional dips and swings.  Coming to America I was in a relationship with a really sweet girl, but as some of you know it didn't work out.  The details are unimportant.  God blessed me with an awesome care team while I was there, and I got to spend some quality time with a lot of new and old faces. okay I've grown tired of writing :)
    Thanks to everyone who made 2013 great!
Here's a quote:
Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.  ~Quoted in Benjamin Franklin's 1755 Poor Richard's Almanac, December

Posted 1st January by Ryan Tomás McCabe

 

more here 

Update Ryan

A Week of Crazy

Hey Everyone,
    Well today marks the end of our first week doing Kwo Manyen programs all over town.  We did a total of 4 programs, probably getting to share with over 75 kids.  Some lessons from the first week: Make sure there are no adults around.  Okay why is this a lesson?  Mainly because on Monday our program in Lolojo had three adults.  They treated it like a home fellowship and even took over my leading of worship.  While its cool that they wanted to worship the Lord like that, this program caters to a certain age group.  Part of my ministry philosophy is to be a little goofy as I communicate the truths of the Bible.  That is really hard to do with adults around.  Lesson #2 Kids under 10 are out of control.  In two separate places we had a hard time keeping the attention of the older kids because the younger ones or as I call them Matidis(an anglicized form of the acholi word for small).  Yesterday they were out of control in a place called Munbunyo.  Hopefully in all the noise the kids got the Word and that's what's important.   Well next week we'll be at it again.  So keep these kids in prayer, that many kids would come to know Jesus.

Posted 21st December 2013 by Ryan Tomás McCabe

 

more here 

Update Melissa

Ministry in Peace Villages

Sunday 19th - Monday 27th January 2014

Sorry it's been a while since our last post. We have experienced so much over this last week! We are currently sitting on the floor of Summer's house in Nabilatuk, Karamoja, babysitting the newest member of the team. The new member is named "Tangles" and is a 3 day old ostrich! Possibly the cutest thing in the world.

On Saturday the 18th we met up with Summer in Kampala and spent an evening out being encouraged by her and Jean and Roger Tripp (who are a British couple that act as the country coordinators for Pioneers International in Uganda - the mission organisation that Summer is with).
The next morning we gathered up our packs, threw them into Summer's newly tuned up 4wd and headed off to Jinja to visit Sarah and her daughter Naomi and the 13 foster children who stay there! After a brilliant day of relaxing, chatting, volleyball and general hanging with the kids we headed off to town to stay the night at Calvary Chapel with Bev and Jesse Rich (friends of Melissa's and the church Summer has her visa here with). Brenton found it cool how, if he had still been in Australia, he would probably have been doing the exact same thing at 3pm in the afternoon whilst on holidays - playing volleyball in the lake up in Forster with lots of people!
After a great evening and morning of fellowship we once again jumped into the 4wd and headed off to Soroti to meet up with Daniel and Rachel Graham from the NGO CLIDE (Community Livestock Integration and Development) and to meet the E3 (Equip, Evangelise, Establish) mission team from America with whom we were linking up for the next week in Karamoja. By the way, organisations over here really like acronymns!

It was so awesome to meet the team from America. It's amazing how God calls people from all over the world together to serve in His mission. We had a brief orientation as to what the plan was for the week, had some dinner together, spent some time in getting to know one another and headed off to Nakayot the next morning (we made sure to throw in some true blue Aussie phrases to entertain). We all worked together setting up camp and were quite suprised by the sudden rain storm which came flying in to rain cats and dogs upon us. It was a great team building time.
Nakayot is the central village of the Peace Villages that were established by Dr Val and some key Karamojong elders in the middle of the 'raiding corridor'. This is a strip of valley between two mountains (very beautiful) that men from one tribe wishing to steal cattle from another, pass through. By placing the Peace Villages in this corridor, the men are discouraged from coming through and are sometimes even stopped and told about Jesus! Pretty cool.
We all gathered together with Dr Val and Waffle (married couple whose main ministry this area is) and went through some methods of presenting the gospel in Karamoja for the culture (e.g. tribalism is obviously massive so this can be used in explaining the gospel, e.g. God invites us into his tribe!) as well as looking at what we were all hoping to achieve over the week.
Brenton found it really interesting to learn about the different culture here and how that would alter the way the gospel could best be presented. The plan for the week was to meet with the churches in the surrounding villages and spend time with them encouraging them in their walk with God and to present them with tools to help them gain access to God's word as the communities are mostly illiterate. We were blessed to be given the opportunity to serve the village 'Alakas'.
Each morning we would be up by 6:30am and have a morning devotion surrounded by a lot of worship songs, most of which were in Ngakaramajong. The Karamojong people sing their songs so enthusiastically with lots of clapping and jumping. Their songs are sung with call and reply; the song leader will sing a verse for you to repeat after they sing a section. Devotions were followed by a breakfast of porridge made from corn flour with tea (sometimes coffee!) and a banana.
After breakfast we headed out with our team of 13 on foot to Alakas along rocky paths, up and over a hill, a bit steep in parts, and just over 5km for a round trip. The church in Alakas is led by a young man named Micky who can read and understand both english and ngakaramojong! What a blessing. We split up for our time at Alakas with Brenton teaching with the men and Melissa teaching with the women.
The tools we had at our disposal were mp3 players with the Bible on them in ngakaramojong and some other languages that they could play through and listen to, booklets with study questions that go along with each Bible story on the mp3 player, a cloth with about 30 pictures on it that depicted each Bible story so they could see a picture and be reminded of the Bible story, ngakaramajong Bibles for anyone who could read (these were first printed in 2011 so are recently translated which is cool) and evangelism cubes if people wanted to use them as well. None of the women could read but a few of the men could which was neat so Brenton could give out and use a lot of the resources.
Melissa and the other people in the women's group went through a Bible story (the stories are chronologically in order), using the cloth as an aid and asked 4 questions that could be reproduced for every story to learn, as they couldn't read the study booklet. These were; what was the story about/retell the story, what did we learn/hear about God, what did we learn/hear about people (in the story) and how will we change/be different, after hearing this story. Over the four days of meeting up, we did this again and again as we progressed through the stories (with prayer and a lot of singing accompanying each session as well of course) so that by the 3rd and 4th day, the women were leading the group and using the mp3 player without us as we sat back and enjoyed.
The men's group, Micky included, spent the first day learning about why it is important for christians to be looking at God's word. They spent some time sharing testimonies with each other and Brenton was amazed and greatly encouraged by what was shared by the men; it is a big thing to be willing to share your testimony within a group and be open and vulnerable. The mens group then all listened to the first story on the mp3 player; the creation account. It was awesome to see the men all listening intently to the story of creation; how exciting that those who were iliterate were now able to have access to God's word. Brenton was able to spend time showing Micky and the men in the group how to ask questions of the story using the study book and was very encouraged by the responses of the men in the group to the questions. It was amazing to see these warriors sitting together and allowing themselves to be vulnerable to attack or ridicule from the others as they gave their responses. All throughout the week the people involved with the men's group were encouraged by the willingness of the men to respond to the studies. It was particularly encouraging to be able to help Micky learn how to help the men to learn truths from God's word without having to preach to them.
The E3 group had a 'pass the baton' philosophy for the week; start the week off walking with the Karamojong church in your village and gradually pass the baton off running besides them until they take the baton to finish the race. The long term missionaries and local pastors will keep visiting the village churches to encourage and for accountability.
We both loved the entire week, it was an exercise in faith to leave the men and women at the end in the arms of God and trust the Holy Spirit to complete the work in the hearts of the people. It is God who teaches us and changes us, so prayer is so important for these new friends and brothers and sisters in Christ we have come to love over this last week.

"So what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." 1 Corinthians 3:5-7
Points for Prayer:

Ø That the people in the villages we ministered to over this week would remain faithful to God.

Ø That they would be using the tools and resources that E3 provided them with to learn more about the awesome God who created them, loves them and seeks a relationship with them.

Ø For the long term missionaries serving these villages; that God would hold them in His hands and give them the strength needed to keep carrying out His mission and desire for all peoples to know Him.

Ø Praise God for such an amazing opportunity to be able to serve with the team from E3 and to be able to serve the Karamojong people.

Ø Praise God for all the members of the teams who went out to the villages and through the sharing of the gospel over 100 people were saved; including a Commander of the warriors in a village who had killed 25 people. He is a changed man and is actively sharing the gospel with those he meets! What a great victory for the gospel!

Ø Safety as the E3 team returns to America and that this time in Karamoja will stay with them and give them courage to share their faith and the good news of Jesus there as well.

Update Melissa

Lake Mburo National Park!

Thursday Jan 16th 2014 - Saturday 18th Jan: Day 2 - 4 in Uganda
Mel:
Waking up to the African sunrise, the Ankole cattle and chirping Ugandan birds has got to be one of the best ways to awaken. It is so similar to back home with all the sounds of nature surrounding you as you lie in bed, yet as you listen you slowly realise that this is a different place and the sounds all around you are that little bit different. The birds singing aren't the magpies, kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets or cockatoos you grew up hearing. The frogs sound so foreign, almost like the shattering of glass. The insects you can hear buzzing and calling out are still grasshoppers but have that slightly different pitch. Yet the familiar steadfast call of the cicadas (pronouned: cic-ar-das or circ-a-das) knits all these new sounds together and serves as an auditory interface between home and here. I walked out onto the balcony to watch the sunrise and saw a big grey monkey in the tree closest just chilling having breakfast (not mine thankfully).

Brenton:
Upon awakening and visiting my bathroom, which has large windows of flyscreen so you can look out, I was quite suprised to look up and see an Impala standing on top of a rock right outside the window staring me down! Goodmorning Africa! Today we did a lot of relaxing, went for a few walks to see some wildlife, swam in the pool that overlooks the animal's water hole and did a night game drive.

________________________________________________________________________________________
At this park around Lake Mburo in the west of Uganda we saw a lot of beautiful, graceful zebra, adorable warthog, flighty impala, fast topi, hippo near the water that have come out for the night, shy eland, the bush buck, water buck, buffalo (buffalo baby calves are THE cutest!), predator genet cat and the little mongoose! Sadly the lion, hyena and leopards didn't come out to pose but we heard the hyenas when we went for a walk in the early morning of day 3 (Friday). It was so amazing to just walk out and see so many animals that usually you only see on National Geographic or in books!!
I (Mel - although I am sure Brenton is too) am constantly amazed at the creative genius of God to have made so many animals (including us) so very different and in such a clever ways. The Topi for example has longer front legs than hind legs so that they can run very fast. The warthog's tail stands completely upright when it runs so that its offspring can follow it when it runs. The eland is a very shy animal that have fat humps on its back like camels and zebu cattle so it can go for a long time without water. The waterbuck however gets its name because it is always found near water and are quite good swimmers. The hippo have very small ears in proportion to its head but they still have a good sense of smell. They are in water all the day to keep them cool as they have no sweat glands. All the animals are also very instinctive in searching out rock near the water hole that is salty so they can replace their electrolytes as they drink.

It was really cool to see the animals at night, I (Mel) loved seeing the buffalo and watching their body language. They would put their noses high in the air smelling us and some would come forward and then drop back as if deciding amongst themselves who will attack first and keeping the youngster calves in the centre of the mob away from us. The most adorable thing was a month old buffalo calf clinging to the side of its mother. It was so small and round!
What a blessing to experience such a place and how awesome to get to know the people who live and work here and hear stories of the animlals they love from their perspective too. Our ranger guide, Azaria, said his favourite animal is the zebra. Although many like the lion, he said, he thought them to be wasteful killers that will take a zebra for dinner and not finish the meal. It is not good, he said, if you are going to kill your zebra, you eat your zebra!

It has been so amazing to be here and begin our trip here in such a way. On day 3 (Friday) we went on an early morning walk while the grass was still wet and the hyena were still gathering themselves to find a den to sleep the day away. This was a highlight for me (Mel) to see the animals in the early hours. At 11am we left the lodge and did a boat trip around Lake Mburo. We saw a lot of really cool birds; Pide Kingfisher, Fish eagle, Water Thickenee, Golias Heron, African Finfoot, etc. I (Brenton) loved to see the amazing capabilities of the fish eagle as it dived out of sky like a jet with wings folded and snatched what would have been a rather surprised fish out of the water! It's awesome to think of Job 38:39-39:30 where we see how God cares and provides for his creation! It's also amazing to think that this is happening everywhere in creation; whether we see it or not God is providing for His amazing creation and the abilities of His creation are amazing!
We saw a lot of hippos that just poked their heads above the water to see who was coming. Did you know they can hold their breath under water for 6 minutes? We also (much to Brenton's delight) saw one big crocodile and three baby ones! Although the Nile crocodiles aren't nearly as pretty (Brenton's words) as our salties back home! We then drove the 5 hours back to Kampala (capital city of Uganda) and are here now (day 4 - Saturday) til we meet up with Summer my old teammate from Karamoja around lunchtime. Our driver for the past few days was a guy called Nasser, he was really nice and did a great job. One of the great things about Africa is everyone's openness to speak about God. He is a Muslim and when we told him we were Christians we had a great chat about that and what it means to be Christian and the importance of the Bible in our faith, how we can talk to God anytime, not just in church and that with the Bible we know God's exact words to us! Pretty cool.

Also it is so cool how a lot of the cars and trucks along the way have signs on them saying things such as "God is Good" "God is there" "Jesus is Lord" "God bless u" "Jesus is the way to heaven" spirituality is such an integral part of life as a Ugandan, very different to back home.
We'd love you to pray for us over the next few days, here are some points:
 - Pray that God would give us the words to speak into the hearts of the people we meet here. That we would make the most of every opportunity to share our faith.
 - Praise to Him for those we met in Lake Mburo, particularly Azaria, Nasser and the Lodge manager Clemmi and prayer that God would be revealing himself to them.
 - Praise to Him for those we've met in Kampala, particularly Rainer who is staying at the Guest house we are at in Kampala and has been involved in mission in Uganda for some time.
 - Praise and gratitude for keeping us safe so far in our travels and expeditions and for safety as we continue to travel over the next few days.
 - For nerves here that God would give us peace and know His absolute control over all things in all places.
 - For good fellowship as we re-unite with old friends (for me) and new friends (for Brenton).
*From here we drive north to Soroti and Karamoja with Summer, meeting up with friends on the way which will be really fun but also as we enter Karamoja the internet connection is definately less reliable so although we'll try to post something new for you to read, don't worry if you haven't heard anything for a few days.
God bless, Mel & Brenton.

Update Melissa

Arriving in Uganda

Wednesday 15th Jan 2014 - Day 1 in Uganda
Mel:
Having travelled 11,000ish km over 36 hours and getting little sleep during that time, there was more than one reason it felt good to finally walk on Ugandan soil when we arrived at 12:40pm Wed 15th Jan. All of our flights and airport adventures went smoothly, getting to each gate on time while still having being able to to explore the different wonders of Singapore and Dubai airports. We are so grateful for safe travels, everything is in God's hands and wherever we are, he is keeping us. We had the blessing to meet up with Sonja Graml in Singapore, a friend from Australia who is doing ministry work in Singapore for the church and AFES uni student group there. She is so encouraging, it was awesome to hear of her work for God and to get excited together for what we will be doing in Uganda for God as well.
As I walked out of the airport in Entebbe, Uganda and began remembering this place from 2 years ago when I first came, it felt amazing to be back. We were picked up by a friendly Ugandan man named Nasser and we drove straight to Lake Mburo National Park, stopping only twice, once for petrol and twice to get photos crossing over the equator :) It took 5 hours to drive, Brenton got to see a lot of Uganda for the first time. I tried to see too but I confess I was so tired I slept a bit! When we got to the park however everyone was wide awake as we drove through herds of beautiful Impala, water buck, warthogs, zebra and Ugandan cattle (Ankole - see photos) with their amazingly massive horns!
When we got to our Lodge we were shown around by the host and taken to our rooms which are spectacular. Both our rooms are made out of the original rock and have views of the entire park from the balconies. We were warned a few times and very emphatically to lock our doors as the monkeys are "very cute but very naughty" and will come in search of food and find it wherever it is! No food in the rooms then!
After a delicious dinner we both went to our rooms and crashed.
Looking forward to the next few days, greetings from here, Mel.

Update Melissa

Returning to Karamoja 2014 

Hey everyone, it's been a year since I have used this blog but I am pleased to write that in just over 3 days I'll be beginning a new journey to Karamoja! I'll be returning to Uganda for four weeks with Brenton Kilby (see photo below) to visit KACHEP, CLIDE, old friends, meeting new friends and laying some ground work for potential future ministry parterships.
Watch this spot for updates on what we are getting up to, what we are learning (which will be LOTS) and what you can be praying for as we strive to glorify God and worship him, as we seek to encourage and support those serving God in Uganda and helping people to understand the gospel & the good news that is!
Love, Melissa & Brenton.

 

 

view this video

i urge you and Joshua and the KACHEP staff and BOT to view this video - excellent. I would think it wise for your team to look into this -we shall share more when i visit.

listen here