Melissa Graham

15^th July 2012 Prayer Points

Please be praying for Summer and I as we head back to Karamoja for:

            - safe passage and fair roads

             - solid learning as we visit the OPC missionaries again on Monday and spend the day learning the ins and outs of our wonderful 4WD vehicle from Bob the amazing handyman mechanic there.

            - me as I work with 10 women from the community next week to revive ethnoveterinary medicine in KACHEP starting with Neem oil production. Wisdom to make this project sustainable and something the community can take on themselves and benefit from with the eventual aim of not needing KACHEP to fund them in it.

            - opportunities to speak truth and light into our community and where God places us every step of the way, continued storying and bible study groups; that God would open the doors for us to spend more time in the manyatas/villages than we have been.

           - praise and glory to God for our Thursday Bible study with all the KACHEP members, that it is going really well and that as we read the Bible together in English and Karamajong, the Word is speaking into the lives of everyone who comes and is clearly growing them in their faith and knowledge of our great God and Saviour.

            - the growing friendships between us and the Karamojan people of Nabilatuk

             - Miriam, as she heads back to Germany and for wisdom and guidance and fun times with friends and family as she finishes her studies there.

             - Alyce and the blessing she was and the fun we had together (love you sis)

            - Tom and Jean in America

            - partnerships with new friends at OPC and CLIDE (Dr Val)

             - raising up new team members for the harvest of Karamoja

             - praise and immense gratitude for everyone here in Uganda supporting us and for everyone overseas supporting us; Calvary Chapel, esp. Bev and Jesse Rich, CVM, esp. Fred Van Gorkom, Pioneers International, Unichurch (Wagga Wagga) and our friends and families.

Alyce in Karamoja

14 July 2012
Last week my sister Alyce came to visit us in Nabilatuk! I want to thank her for being an amazing help and blessing to me and to the team. She arrived to find Summer and Miriam malaria stricken and most of KACHEP out or sick too. It was such a crazy week with so many fun things that happened!

I had just spent the week with Dr Val and upon hearing that my beloved teammates were practically dying in Nabilatuk and so probably wouldn't make it to come get us, Val and I went and picked Alyce up (Mon 2nd) from the small airstrip in Moroto where she was flying into. So 2 hours from Nabilatuk and not sure how we're going to get back there, we hear that Miriam had driven up to a hospital near us to get tested for malaria and bruscellosis. So we spent the morning in Moroto, Alyce did some souvenir shopping and we had lunch while we waited to get another update of the situation. Miriam came to Moroto, picked us up and somehow we arrived safely in Nabilatuk later that afternoon.

Miriam's malaria count was 180. People have malaria at anything higher than zero. People feel sick and unable to get out of bed at a count of 4. Miriam had 180 and drove 240 km that day, she shouldn't have been walking or talking let alone driving. Hmm the things you discover after the fact.

The day after, Miriam was on an intravenous drip with malaria medication and fluids for extreme dehydration, rotated for three days. On the second night the IV line came out and when she went back to the clinic to get it put back in, the nurse had to jab her in about 10 different places because her main veins had mostly all collapsed. It was a scary time for all of us, especially Summer and I in fear for her, let's put it that way.

So Alyce came in perfect timing and we were still able to spend quality time together despite the crazy circumstances.

Alyce came bearing gifts. I've got a licorice allsort in my mouth.
(in case you were wondering)

 Wednesday was, for all who are American or who have ever watched an American TV show would know, 4th of July, aka Independence Day. Alyce and I tried to make the day as special as we could for Summer. We have of course never celebrated the day so didn't really know what to do but we still had fun. Together the three of us (between checking on Miriam) drew an American flag (50 stars & 13 stripes and all!), made garlic bread and pizza for dinner and cinnamon rolls and a peach pie for dessert (which took most of the afternoon to do as all we have in the way of a kitchen here is a small fire), had fun singing national anthems together, Summer sung hers very passionately and played cards (4 corners, which became a game Alyce loved to play but never won until the last day she was here :). 

Summer, Alyce and I making the American flag

Alyce's swishy skirt.

On Friday we started a project that we'd been wanting to do for a while but was catalysed by the fact that we wanted to share it with Alyce who would be leaving the following Wednesday and Miriam who would be leaving the following weekend. So we got together with our Karamojan girls (Nabor, Valentina and Christine) and we all sewed traditional K'jong skirts! See photos :) We bought 7 large cloths of blanket-like material all of different patterns to make 7 skirts for us all. Working together we cut the blanket in rectangle panels and sat down and made 7 skirts that had 14 panels in each, all completed in a day! It was sooooo much fun! We are officially Karamajong now with our swishy skirts :) The best part about it was seeing Valentina, Nabor and Christine really get into it as well. They were just as excited, if not more excited about the whole thing!

This is me choosing the best cuts of donkey meat for dinner.

On Saturday we went to a local market and bought donkey meat for dinner. We were planning to go out to a nearby mountain and have a picnic under the great expanse of K'jong stars but then Miriam (who was on the mend by this stage) got a message inviting us to another 4th of July celebration (only it was the 7th of July) with some missionaries from America with the Presbyterian church who live about an hour away. From now on I will refer to them as the OPC missionaries for convenience :)

Our cooking stove.

So change of plans! We took our donkey meat with us but they had prepared hotdogs, so there was plenty of food to go around :)

Sunday was another crazy fun out of the blue opportunity in which Summer, Alyce and I went to a prison in Namalu, about 1hr from Nabilatuk. I gave my testimony of how Jesus has changed my life and Summer spoke about Zacchaeus the tax collector and how, although he was a thief,  he was forgiven when he made the choice to change his life and give back what he had stolen, asking Jesus for forgiveness, (Luke 19:1-10) "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost." I won't mention that we didn't get home til around 9:30pm because we put petrol in our diesel land cruiser and then had to empty and replace it all again. Fun times!!

On Tuesday the three of us went to a local primary school and we were warmly welcomed with a song from the students with bongo drums and impressive harmonies. Alyce is a primary school teacher at home and so had brought 200 pencils that the students from her school had donated to give to this Karamajong school. We spent some time with the whole school (around 200 students) in their assembly and then we went into a classroom that had 20 kids of equivalent grading to Alyce's Australian students.

 Alyce's students had all drawn pictures for these children and wrote a few sentences about themselves. Alyce had taken photos of each of her students and attached them to the drawings so the K'jong could see their Australian student counterparts. It was nice to see their faces devouring these photos of fair, blonde haired, blue eyed children and read about their families and pets and favourite sports. We got the kids to write messages back to the Aussies with things like, My name is..., I have... people in my family, In my garden is... (all the children will have family gardens they work in with maize or sorghum or beans in them, etc.), at home we have...animals, etc. Then they also drew drawings and we took photos of them with their pictures. It was really fun to have such a reciprocal activity and I can't wait to hear what Alyce's Australian students say when they see cute Karamojan children holding up the drawings they have drawn! It'll probably blow their minds to think of their drawings all the way in Africa!

Tuesday night we had a massive party together with the KACHEP members and the four of us singing and dancing.

 We were not really celebrating but commemorating Miriam for her time serving in Karamoja and also saying goodbye to Alyce as well, as she flew out the following morning. I'm not going to lie, I cried when she left; having family visit you in such a place as Karamoja gives you a teasing taste of home that is both wonderful and horribly sad when the time comes to an end.

For a short time we were four! Now as I write this I am down country in Jinja and when we return to Karamoja tomorrow (Sunday), we will be two.

Melissa Graham 18.june

Back in Nabilatuk

18 June 2012

So we arrived back in Karamoja after our break and had a great week being welcomed warmly back by everyone and slowly getting into the swing of our lifestyle here again. Some of the highlights included:

            - Castrations of bulls over 4 years old with only a burdizzo at hand.

            - Abscess lancing on a goat and squeezing out soooo much pus that was inside.

            - Having tea with random people in the community, something everyone loves to do here and of more value to the people than most anything else you could do.

On Friday morning the local tailor (Peter) dropped by after sewing some curtains for our new stone house abode which Summer is making into a home away from home. Peter speaks relatively good English and is one of those old men who just love to tell stories about anything even when they have no relevance to the topic of discussion at the time, often leaving you confused. At one point we were talking about where we all originate from, discussing that America and Australia are on the other side of the world but Germany is only halfway on the other side of the world.
Peter got really excited when I said I was from Aus and said "You are the land of the kangaroos! Tell me, is the kangaroo more like a cow or a baboon?" Hmm... haha, how do you reply to that? I said well it doesn't stand on 4 legs like the cow but it doesn't walk like a baboon either, it hops, and unlike either, it carries it's young in a pouch on its front but like a cow it eats grass, etc, etc. haha :) So you can imagine how the conversation continued until I was told to go and get a picture of a kangaroo for him to see it instead of trying to explain. Probably the funniest question I have been asked here though!

            - Anaesthetic practice with Mojo: So our cat, Mojo, appeared to have broken her leg the other morning. As I am still the only 'vet' person here I figured I should probably try to do something about this. I spoke to Jean in America and she gave me some advice on sedatives to put her to sleep so that I could fix and set the bone, put a splint on the leg and she also suggested a reversal drug to bring her up out of sedation again. I got the medications that she suggested were good for cats (you have to be careful with cats more than dogs); a cocktail of ketamine, butorphanol and domitor with antisedan as the reversal. I weighed Mojo and did the calculations for the correct dosages and pretended to have confidence in what I was doing (more for the sake of mama Miriam than for anyone else) as I prepared everything for the surgery and administered the sedatives. Of the vet things I have done alone here so far, this was the coolest. That is until Mojo woke up again.

So to begin with, within 2 minutes of injecting the sedatives, Mojo was fast asleep. I had Miriam listening to her heart and Summer helping me with the leg. In half an hour the splint was on her hindleg and it was all bandaged. Then she was moved to a quieter place and was given the 'wake up' injection (the technical term). Then within another 5 minutes she had her head up and was looking around the room from the floor where we'd put her on a towel. She seemed shocked at the turn of events that suddenly she had this bulky thing wrapped around her leg but to our suspense she remained still. It didn't take her long to get up and start staggering around the room. It also didn't take her long to bite into the splint and her leg furiously to try and get the splint off. A feat she soon achieved.

 So we had an angry and confused cat on our hands, recently relieved of the weight of the splint, she suddenly turned into a bouncy ball. Man, I have never seen a cat in such a frenzy. It appeared the pain-killer effects of the sedative were still in use as she threw herself around the room trying to escape. If you've ever seen a youtube video of a cat leaping around the room even to the extent of jumping onto a ceiling fan you'll be able to picture the situation. She jumped a metre off the ground in her drowsy state, with her broken leg, onto the window sill, through the metal bars, between the glass louvers, trapping herself between the window and us. Not happy Jan. It took an hour and a half or holding her still, wrapped in a towel to calm her down. I now understand why vets put animals in cages after surgeries!

So in some ways, we are back to square one with poor Mojo. In another light it was not a complete waste of time. I learnt a lot about sedating a cat, about fixing a broken bone and about restraining a cat. But still... poor Mojo.

    - Village life
 On Wednesday evening we went to Kasiapus, a village about 20 minutes drive away that we often go to visit and tell Bible stories. They are very eager to have us pray for their village and we are very eager to oblige and disciple them to know more about our amazing God and for their lives to change from the heart outwards. When we arrived, we realised that we were not the only visitors there! Three Kenyan missionaries had come for a few days as one of them knew the village elder Olum (who works with KACHEP) from ages back. We had a lot of fun altogether chatting, I helped the elder’s wife Maria with milking the cows that had just come into manyata for the night.
  Miriam played dressups with an old woman who brought out her traditional Karamajong skirt-like heirloom that is worn on special occasions. The woman had worn it for her wedding ceremony so it was very old and unique. It isn't commonly worn anymore by the young women of this generation when they are wed. It was a soft leather wrap-around cloth, similar to the material of cowboy chaps with beautiful African beads all over it. After all of this quirkiness, we sat down and Summer told the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal from 1 Kings 18. We had been discussing with Mukisa over lunch the past couple of days the issue in Africa of 'witch doctors' and people calling on other spiritual forces in nasty rituals and practices. In our area it is not commonly talked about but it is there. The topic arose because one of the women who makes lunch for KACHEP, stole 70,000 Ugandan shillings from the office till. This is not the first time she has taken items from KACHEP but grace & warnings were issued and usually she brings things back. Olum, who is one of the local animal health workers for KACHEP said to Mukisa when he heard of the theft, that he could put his herbs around her manyata to curse her. Mukisa then sternly asked what he meant and that he didn't want any of that business here.

So through our discussions and some prayer, Summer came on this story which talks about people who were worshipping a man-made god they called Baal as well as pretending to worship our God, the God of the Israelites. LORD, Father, Son Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit.

So Elijah puts the prophets of Baal to the test and basically says right, stop wavering between 2 opinions, if the LORD is God, follow him, but if Baal is God follow him. They say nothing. Elijah then suggests they get 2 bulls to sacrifice, one for the prophets of Baal and the other for Elijah, but not burn them straight away. They are to both prepare their sacrifices and then pray to their opposing Gods; Elijah for the LORD and the prophets for Baal, praying that their God would answer them and send fire from heaven to burn the sacrifice up. Whichever bull-offering is burnt, that is the true God of the world. The prophets of Baal spend all day praying to Baal to burn the offering they have made for him. At noon, Elijah even taunts them by saying "Shout louder! Surely he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or travelling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened!" So it becomes evening and they've still received no answer.

Then Elijah says, ok, it's my turn. He restores the altar that had been torn down by the prophets of Baal. Putting 12 stones, for the 12 tribes of Israel, around it and digging a trench for the wood and bull-offering, Elijah then fills 4 jars of water and pours it over the bull and wood, he does this three times til the whole area and even the trench is soaked and filled with water.

Elijah then steps forward and prays to God "LORD God, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and I am your servant. Answer me so that these people will know you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then fire from God the LORD falls and burns up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil and also the water in the trench. When all the people see this they fall to the ground and cry, "the LORD - he is God! the LORD - he is God".

This is a story about the impossibility of worshipping multiple gods. If you are worshipping something else in your life, as well as God, then you are not really worshipping God at all. You are either with God or against him. There are lessons to be learnt about God, humanity and ourselves from this story.

Next week I am visiting another Christian Veterinary Missionary who works 2 hours from where we live. She has just come back from furlough in America and I hope to learn heaps about how she mixes vet work and mission work :) She is currently organising to do a study on the number of animals affected by brucellosis in the area and also the effects of a local plant on milk production. She is working alongside the Karamajong to turn the knowledge that they have known and used for centuries into studied and published results to commercialise local plant products and have them seen as recognised effective medicine for humans and animals, protecting the intellectual property of the Karamajong people so it is they who reap the benefits of the work.

Update Miriam

Update Miriam

"Today is my last day on treatment. I've been on meds and drips since monday. I guess it was really a bit severe. Tuesday & wednesday we were not so sure how this would work out and I guess I wasn't the only one wondering if I make it to heaven or not... I'm still sleeping most of the day and my mescles are very sore and I feel dizzy/drugged, but I started eating again. So, I'll be fine in some days."

Newsletter Summer

This time its Summer writing the letter!

Newsletter July

Update Miriam

Slowly recovering from a severe malaria. Thanx to the girls who were my nurses and put me on drips, and thanx to god for being alive. Akuj eyai!

other Blog

Vorstellung / Introducing

today i want to show you the KKAB team:
heute stelle ich Euch KKAB vor:

From Sarah's Blog 

Update Truck team

Network is really bad! Melissa is with Dr Val and yesterday her sister came to visit for 10 days. Summer is down with Malari and has taken the meds for it. Miriam also had high fever and went yesterday to the Matany Hospital, she was found with Malaria and again a Brucellosis. At the moment Summer and Miriam are in Nabilatuk!

Sarah

Update Miriam

Heading to Moroto and Kangole today. Seems it'll be a nice day to cruise Karamoja.... ;-)

Today we shall say good-bye to Melissa Graham for a week as she will be working with Dr. Val Shean in Kangole for a week or so. I am a bit envious ;-)
She came by a couple of days ago and we chatted a bit. To hear what God is doing through her ministry was really encouraging!
So, Melissa, please enjoy this time and bring us back some new insight, encouragement and maybe even strategies....
God bless!

 

For Tom and Jean

Dear Lord,
You know our friends so much better than I do. You know their sicknesses and the burden they carry. You also know their heart. Lord, we ask you to be with our friends now as you work in their life. Lord, let your will be done in our friend's life. If there is a sin that needs to be confessed and forgiven, please help them to see their need and confess.
Lord, we pray for our friends just as your Word tells us to pray, for healing.We  believe you hear this earnest prayer from our hearts and that it is powerful because of your promise. We have faith in you, Lord, to heal our friends, but we also trust in the plan you have for their life.
Lord, we don't always understand your ways. We don't know why our friends have to suffer, but we trust you. We ask that you look with mercy and grace toward our friends. Nourish their spirit and soul in this time of suffering and comfort them with your presence.
Let our friends know you are there with them through this difficulty. Give them strength. And may you, through this difficulty, be glorified in their life and also in ours.
Amen.

Written by Sarah,
and I am sure also in the Name of Ryan, Mukisa, Miriam, Summer and Melissa

Summer robbed Part 3

Miriam just send a text they have arrived safely in Nabilatuk the roads are dry and Summer got back everything the purse, the cards etc except for the cash money!

Summer robbed.

Summer got robbed in mbale just today, They went to police. She is fine but all the credit cards, Project money, telephone is gone. Please pray

Update Miriam 10.6.2012

So all of us ( Summer Root, Melissa Graham and Miriam Lejeune, the remaining "truck team") had some good days and weeks out of Karamoja. Melissa had been a week at the Indian Ocean south of Mombasa, Summer stayed in Jinja and did some personal orga stuff, and I (Miriam) went to Zanzibar's east coast.
Hopefully all of us are a bit more relaxed and strengthened now and ready to head back home to Nabilatuk. Tomorrow is shopping day, tuesday we head to Mbale for a Truck check-up and then we continue.
So, updates for all of us will be rare again. keep praying for us. And also keep praying for Tom & Jean as they're still in the States. Jean is facing some more cardiology tests and other stuff. For all of us it is an extraordinary situation, but God is in control...

Melissa Graham - PEAR: (Pioneers international East Africa Retreat)

PEAR: (Pioneers international East Africa Retreat)

The last week of May I spent attending a retreat/conference run by the mission organisation Pioneers International, called Pioneers because they specialise in sending missionaries into communities that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ or into 'unreached' people groups, i.e. they are pioneering that place.

It was on the theme of disciple making ministries; Matthew 28:18-20 'Then Jesus came to them [the disciples] and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" '

I was incredibly encouraged and energised to get back to Karamoja and continue our work there. I'd love to see a regular Bible Study of interactive, deeper learning of God, started up with some of the people we know who may be interested.

I am being challenged to look at the whole picture of a ministry like ours. To see that we all must play a part and work together to do the best we can. I am important to the team for the vet work even when I wish I could be doing more of the ministry side, I need to remember that what I am doing is just as important as the ministry side, because it opens the door for that to take place.

Over the week we heard from each country represented about the work they do there; from Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia. Although not in East Africa, from South Africa, an Aussie woman is working with vulnerable women and children exposed to the trafficking industry there, helping them heal through group counselling with other women who have been through the same experiences and may still be living with the horror of it today. It was amazing to talk to her and to gain a small understanding of the incredible work she does. It is very emotionally draining for her as you can imagine and some of the stories she hears just break her, but she said to me 'what right do I have to say, "no don't tell me!" when these women have to face it every day and sometimes are even trapped in this life'. She is an ear, a shoulder, and when she can be, a refuge of escape for women in danger. Not only that, she, like all of us are voices of hope into the lives of the oppressed people we live with. Jesus is the hope, not the wishy washy word for hope you might use if you are hoping to win the lottery but the confident hope of knowing that there is victory over death, conquest over the sin and pain of this world that human-kind brings everyday with our actions. Victory by the grace of God, the gift of life and love, fought and won for us by our loving Father God. Every tear that falls, he feels more deeply than we know. 

I am now going to Kenya for a short holiday and a time of rest. 

PEAR 

PI conference

PI conference was just great and a huge encouragement to all of us. Thanx guys. We had people from east and west Africa, USA, europe, New Zealand and Australia.... great fun! I cant post the group pictures, since some of the PI people live and work in tough areas and would really get in trouble if they had an "outing" as missionaries... so let me just post the uganda team... — with Melissa Graham and Summer Root here: Kingfisher Safaris Resort, Jinja.

Melissa Graham 23/04/12 and 2/05/12

Ostentatious owners

23/04/12

I am a person who really doesn't like it when people are all up in my space. However, it seems that you cannot survive as a white vet in Karamoja if you stay with this attitude. Today a man came to our doors saying he had sick cattle that we needed to see, all he could tell us was one symptom for each of them. It was our day off, a day to ourselves when we don't treat animals, but this man would not take no for an answer, every time we'd say please come on Monday we can treat them then he would say, ‘ok I come at 4:30 this afternoon?’ Um… No. ‘5 o'clock then? Ok I'll come then’. No!

At 5pm he came and I went out to see that he had brought every cow he owns to us. I waited for them to get a hold of the sick animal (we have no cattle crush here so they just whistle and grab the horns) and then as I started the physical examination and tried to work out what was wrong with the bull, the owner wouldn't stop repeating the one symptom he knew. He could speak English, which is a rare thing, but he wasn't the best at it :) I somehow also suspected, as time went on, that he liked the sound of his own voice. It turned out that the one symptom he was repeating, the cow did not have, changing the diagnosis completely.

In addition to that, imagine trying to listen to lung sounds, the heart rate and rumination noise while you have three to five men talking loudly around you. However, as soon as I told them to be quiet, they were, which was good. I think somehow they knew that you don't want to upset the young, white, animal doctor girl with a rectal thermometer in her hand. Worst was still to come for me though as I told the owner the treatment, saying the bull needed an oral dewormer and then he replied "no you give vaccination for antibiotics".

Firstly, that sentence makes no sense as vaccination and antibiotics are two different things and secondly, the bull needs neither. I struggled to know how to tell him this though. Lesson of the day, how do you keep your cool and stay respectful when you are becoming frustrated to the core of your being?

Then, haha, as I ignored the men all around me trying to tell me what to do I gave it the treatment for intestinal worms, having to tell the boy holding the bull’s head "quap, quap, quap!!!", which means 'down', maybe I had become the one liking the sound of my own voice but I tried to explain to them that you cannot hold the animal's head to the sky when inserting medicine into the mouth as it may go into the lungs. It sounded better in my mind than when I tried to explain it to them. Language can really be a barrier here, as can owners, who do what this man did next.

We looked at the next poor cow that was sick and it had severely laboured breathing and a fever, looking like a form of pneumonia. So, as I am giving the treatment, injecting an antibiotic into the hindlimb muscles, the owner actually tried to take the syringe from me! Seriously! I was so shocked I am surprised I got all the medicine in. For the first time in my life I had to defend my position and tell an elder man to back away and let me do what I came here to. Miriam, who was watching, said she was impressed, she said, you know that's what you got to do around here, you gotta be tough, even when you don't feel like you are.

It was honestly a very stressful half hour to hour long treatment time, and the longer I was out there, the more people came to watch including a group of shepherd boys who unfortunately did not knowing the meaning of personal space, all trying to get a good look at what the thermometer says or 'where will she stick that needle' or 'ooh what is in that hoof there?' So... it turns out I need personal space. Who knew? ;)

 

My time to story: Sitting under a tree relaxing with some Karamojans

2/05/12

Wednesday the 2nd May was a great day. Miriam and I, with Joshua (a local guy and friend who has worked with KACHEP for most of its time, with animal work, agroforestry work and evangelism work, plus translates for us) and Olum (local animal health worker and traditional healer) drove down to Lolachat, where we would be doing the spraying that day. Summer had malaria (not a great part of this story) and so had to stay home, sick in bed :(

Usually each Wednesday spraying consists of three parts; tick-spraying cattle, sheep and goats, vet treatments and a Bible story at the end. With Summer not there she asked if I would like to tell the story. I jumped at the opportunity and I told the story of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32). I love this story for what it tells us of both God and humanity in the characters of the father and the sons. I feel it's applicable to all ears that may hear it because everyone rebels against God, whether they live in Aus or here in K'jong, just like the younger son in the story rebels against his father. Just like in the story, as soon as we ask for forgiveness and turn away from living life our own way, God forgives. He loves us so much, he is waiting for this, in fact! He wants us to come back into relationship with him just like the father in the story waited for his son to come home.

The people were very interactive with the story, in the usual Karamojong way and although I wish I could be telling the story in their language without needing a translator, I was also glad to have Joshua there. He often gets really excited about acting stories out and so when the part of the story came where the son returns home he got up and acted out the father looking out across the land and seeing the son and then racing out to greet him, ha ha he is really good value for that! Even as an older man he still gets youthfully excited when it comes to telling people about God.

I really loved sitting around with the people, sharing with them and then listening to their thoughts on it afterwards. It just feels so natural to sit under a tree here and talk about God together, I may look really different to them but somehow they accepted me, listened to the story and were even interested to know more. Afterwards the conversation took a really cool turn into explaining how it is that God can forgive us, like the father does in the story. How is it that God can forgive everyone's sins, every wrong thing done against him, and all we have to do is ask for our record of wrongs to be metaphorically wiped clean? What a great question and segue into talking about Jesus. The Karamojans understand the idea of sacrifice probably better than we do the first time we hear it because, in many ways the people here live like they are in the pages of the old testament. When wrong is done, a price must be paid, blood of an animal is shed, for justice, they “get” that, it's how life is here. Like us they may not understand how it could be that God could love us that much to send his son to take on the weight of such a sacrifice, all the sins of the world paid, once for all but they can believe. Jesus died that death so we don't have to.

Afterward we prayed to our powerful God for anything that was on their hearts. A lot of the people there had lost cattle to 'enemies' recently and this is a massive blow to them, their livelihoods, their sustainability and even their ability to provide for their families. I feel so sad for them I can't even put it into words. Some of them have people come and attack their villages and homes every week. I cannot imagine how that must feel for them; that insecurity and worry. But the crazy thing is when I talk to them about it they often repeat 'mam nache, iyey akutch' to me, 'God is there, we do not worry', the faith of those who believe out here is such an encouragement to me. It is true God is here, God is in every situation and God takes on our worries and troubles. I also asked Joshua to pray for Summer, who is really feeling horrible. Turns out malaria sucks. Thank God he has given the world an effective and relatively pain free treatment for it. If she had brucellosis (another common disease out here) she would have to have 5ml of antibiotic injected into her thigh muscle daily for 14 days! There's a silver lining for everything.

Later in the afternoon we returned home and got stuck into some language learning, it is fun to be able to say more and more to the people around you each week. You really take language for granted when you are back home and can speak to everyone easily.

Since writing the above, Summer has finished her malaria treatment and apart from stomach upsets and remaining fatigue (malaria destroys red blood cells= iron depletion= muscle weakness), she has recovered :) PTL

All my love, Mel.

 

Update from Miriam

Tom & Jean are still in the states and are requested by their leaders to stay some more months to recover fully. So keep lifting them up, since it is hard for them to be away from Karamoja so long...

For us, the "truck team" (Summer Root, Melissa Graham and me) we are in Mbale now, waiting for the truck to be repaired again, then heading down to Jinja for a pioneers' conference...

 

Miriam

 

Miriam Update

Es gibt mich noch und ich bin auch noch sehr lebendig, auch wenn es manchmal erscheinen mag, als wäre ich verschollen. Ein bisschen stimmt das ja auch, denn ich oftmals habe ich tagelang noch nicht mal Telefon und Internet ist noch bescheidener.

Wow, was für Wochen und Monate. Ich weiss gar nicht, wo ich anfangen soll… Na, ich werde Euch nach und nach auf den neuesten Stand bringen. Jetzt erstmal nur so viel:

Miriam update german 

From Miriam on 10.5.2012: 

We definetely have far too many shootings around us. Every single night. Sometimes as close as within a hundred meters, but most times the manyattas around us. One worker had lost already more than 40 cows which is REALLY MANY! 2/3 of his wealth is lost. Every day one of our staff comes up with a story of raiding either their own or their neighbours animals...
Rain season brings a lot of challenges to all of us...

Sunrise

At this moment tempetatures in oldenburg, germany and papenburg, germany are higher than here..... Wow!

...just having latte macchiatto, boiled on fire.... We had a beautiful sunrise here. I love those moments, when people and animals wake up and start making noises and the sky turns orange...The sun just came over the horizon, and next to me people are already ploughing. I love those sounds... Ugh, ah, ey, heya, hugh, (singing), ah, ah, (whistleing), eyaloolooh, wadyooo,...ahh-eyyhh,... (whistling) yalolo-ey....

 Miriam

 

 

 

Review from Ryan

Last week after 6 months I returned to visit the town I once lived in, in Karamoja. It is a blessing to see so many faces that I know. On the flip side there is always a different feeling when you revisit the past. Almost like when you work somewhere like a restaurant and stop working there, whatever it was before is never the same afterwards. It's like entering Disneyland through the service entrance. I realize now that Karamoja was training for what I'm doing now. It was the beginning of a treacherous journey to find what God wants me doing. Aside from all that reflection the Lord allowed me to lead Mariano(the boy who translated for me while I was there) to saving faith. It was truly exciting seeing as he was the first person I led to Christ in Karamoja. Since coming to Kitgum I've found God has me to be on the harvest side of His kingdom. Anyhow I digress the trip down was great. It was good to be there for Miriam's Birthday and to encourage the team. The next section of my trip was not so great. I had to visit OPC to pick up some panels and batteries. While I love seeing the gang at OPC I dread the roads that have worsened greatly. The whole trip was like driving over a lake not knowing what was below. At one point a dip in the road took my vehicle to new depths(on the hood to be exact). That was enough for me after getting the panels we headed back the scenic and long way. After two days myself and Godfrey headed back to Kitgum. As we move forward in time a bit we come to Saturday. As some of you know started a youth ministry in the village around a month ago. Since that time we've seen over 11 you give their lives to Christ. It's truly an exciting time and a huge opportunity for discipleship. In fact the discipleship has already begun. So far we've covered the two natures, forgiveness of sin, repentance and faith. It's an honor to lay those foundational truths in the lives of the youth here in the village.
The work on the Bible training continues. I've finished the rough draft of the Old testament Survey and have moved onto the New Testament. As for my training with Jonah(the Ugandan guy I live with) we're also wrapping up in the minor prophets. In these few weeks he's gone from little to no knowledge of the old testament to knowing the order of the books and a basic summary of them. My goal for this last month and May is to take him through the survey course and the introductory teaching course. It's a lot to attempt but I think it's possible. I think that's enough for now. Enjoy