Tom's story update

Just an update on Okutot and storying – we’ve been “out of town” for a while (most of Dec) – we have a retreat with KACHEP every four months, the last was in the Jinja area (at Mto Moyonyi on the Nile River – discussed Jim Collins’ “Good To Great”) and we have been a bit fragmented with coming and going – but the last time we storied was pretty cool – “David & Goliath” is always a favorite among pastoralists, telling as it does the story of a shepherd boy who cleverly defeated a great warrior leading an enemy raid – the first time I told this (recently) was at a spraying event in Kasyapus (walking distance from Nabilatuk) and the shepherds got very excited and said, “that’s exactly how it is with us” and laid out a large number of parallels – so, I was pretty confident of a good response, but how to connect it to Jesus (the ultimate goal of all our work)??
 - well, Jesus was not only Son of God and “Son of Man” but “Son of David” – and he did at the cross, and will do at his 2nd coming, what David did here: go into battle for us – then I remembered something I learned about the military (and police) from my brothers: they put their bodies in between the enemy and their homeland (“In Harm’s Way,” as it were) – this is a fundamental act of substitution – not only does the champion represent the nation but he offers himself as a potential sacrifice for those in whose place he fights – Saul was supposed to be the champion of Israel but neither he nor any other soldier was willing to go out to face Goliath, the possibility of “sacrifice” was far too great – David’s question was to the point, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" [1 Sam 17:26] and his counter-taunt to Goliath was meant for Israel “after I cut off your head, then all the world will know … and all Israel will know …” – the ones who didn’t fight only saw the giant but the kid who did, saw the God who had delivered him from lion and bear – Jesus did this for us, though on that occasion, unlike David, he won by dying rather than by killing, so that “all the world would know ...”
 - we’re getting good responses to events but not yet getting the depth of response that comes from putting it all together – part of that is because we’ve been inconsistent for the last number of months; the other part is, when we are consistent, we only go once a week – hard to build on such thin foundations
Tom
PS - We're back in Karamoja -together with Simon and Carina Gruber from Pioneers Germany- we'll take an overnight in Okotoot in a couple of days as we finish off the meeting room foundation for KACHEP. We pray that next month a small team from USA (Wis, Fla) will join us to finish up this last Nabilatuk project....

Team (minus one) plus visitors head back up to Karamoja

The team left Jinja at 7am, alas allowing me to rehab in Jinja. Tom and Miriam are joined by Simon and Carina Gruber, whom will be with us for 2 months on a survey visit. Ideally, they would join us in the ministry. They have worked with Campus Crusade in Germany, Simon with a theology background and Carina a newly qualified (January) PhD veterinarian. They've both been in Uganda before and came across our team description thru their sending agency, DMG, and Pioneers. Pray that the Lord would reveal to them the plans He has for them, pray that they eyes and hearts would be open to the Karamojong. Meanwhile, I keep getting stronger- even venturing out for church and lunch with the team on Sunday- a break from my seemingly constant sleeping, staccato-ed by food so I can keep my medicines down. Unfortunately, Monday I regressed a bit- so Miriam had me tested again. It was positive. With all the meds I've been on, I would've thought the antigens would have cleared...but, will follow up with a microscopic test that looks for parasites. Thanks for your prayers. Jean

Valentine

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were expounded briefly in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Since Legenda Aurea still provided no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by American Greetings to History.com, and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved,as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."

All a happy Valentines Day!