Friday, March 14, 2014

Update Summer

February 26, 2014

SUMMER ROOT

KARAMOJA, UGANDA

GROWING TEAM

We are very happy to welcome Samantha (“Sam”) Dekker to our team. Sam came for a short two week visit over Christmas and felt that the Lord was calling her to come back long-term. She hopes to utilize her skills in small business management to create sustainable development opportunities for communities within Karamoja. This opens many new doors of ministry for our team. She hopes to arrive sometime in October of this year. Please pray for her as she begins her preparations for coming. Pray that she will be able to raise the support she needs to come out long-term. Pray for peace, grace and strength as she faces the transitions and changes ahead of her. Pray that she will remain physically and spiritually healthy.

BIBLE STORYING

Moving towards the Gospel

My heartbeat quickens in anticipation as I look forward to the next few weeks. After seven months of chronologically storying in Napoingae and Kassiapus, we are finally getting to the Gospel. This week Simon told the story of Jesus’ arrest, next week will be the story of His crucifixion and then comes the story of His resurrection. After this we will do a Gospel presentation. We will remember the stories of the Old Testament, showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all promises, that Jesus is the final sacrifice that can save us from our sins. We will look at our need for a Savior in light of a Biblical perspective of sin. In my personal quiet times I have been reading through Hebrews, marveling once again at the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. In a culture where animal sacrifices are still a part of their relationship with God, how powerful it is that Jesus’ blood nullified all other sacrifices (see Heb. 9-10). I pray that this is truly understood by those who are listening. I pray that hearts will recognize the truth of the Gospel and will submit to God. I pray that they will not “accept” Jesus to please us, bu that they will have true hearts of repentance. I pray that they will not “add” Jesus to their cultural religion (syncretism), but that they will turn from the old and follow after Jesus alone. Please join me in prayer during this critical time. Pray that many will respond, that they will follow after Jesus with all of their hearts, minds and strength.

I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL, BECAUSE IT IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR THE SALVATION OF EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES… FOR IN THE GOSPEL A RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD IS REVEALED, A RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT IS BY FAITH.

ROMANS 1:16-17

LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

Teaching literacy in Napoingae

On Fridays we make our way to the village of Napoingae, into Esther’s household. In typical Karamojong hospitality, she lays out the cow skin for us to sit on and then scurries outside, leaving us blinking in the darkness of the mud hut. After about twenty minutes, Esther reappears in the doorway, and shyly offers us a cup of tea and some freshly roasted g-nuts. Esther disappears again as we sip the tea. Another twenty minutes passes. The American within me gets slightly frustrated, I don’t want tea, I want to teach a literacy lesson! But, I remind myself that receiving Esther’s hospitality is just as important as achieving my goals of literacy lessons. It shows value, love and appreciation for her. Nearly an hour after arriving we start the lessons. We divide the group according to ability level, I take the lower group so that I can use my basic language skills to teach basic literacy concepts (mainly letter and sound recognition). Whereas Lina works with the more advanced group, reading at a basic level. We are encouraged by the progress that they are making. These men and women have had little or no formal education. Reading is as foreign a concept to them as Ng’Karamojong is to me. But together we are learning. I have the literacy skills, I can teach this skill to them. They have the knowledge of Ng’Karamojong. They can teach the language to me. It is good to be both teacher and learner.

To practice letter recognition, my group plays “go fish”. There was something delightful in this moment. My group consists of Samuel, Rapiiel and a couple other warriors, all of them are over six feet tall wrapped in the traditional blankets of the Karamojong, sitting on their traditional stools in the midst of a traditional village… playing “go fish”! We had a lot of fun together (learning should always be fun).

Samuel, Rapiiel, Esther and Ana are all part of our discipleship group. On Mondays they walk 1 ½ hours to our office for Bible lessons, leadership development and more literacy training. I have come to love and appreciate each one of them. It is my desire that they would someday be able to read God’s Word on their own. It is good for us to teach God’s Word orally, but there is something powerful about reading and studying it for oneself. As I read through the Old Testament, I see several times when God’s Word has not been faithfully passed from one generation to the next. Though storying is the method that is used, it gets degraded over time. But when the people are able to read God’s Word, there is a revival of spiritual understanding, there is an accountability to the written Word. Though it is not necessary for someone to be able to read in order to know God, it is helpful for the sustainability of the work to have local leaders who are rooted and grounded in God’s written Word. We share broadly the oral Word of God. We chronologically story, knowing that this develops a right concept of God. In fact, when we finished the literacy lesson we gather members of the community under the tree to sing songs, pray and tell a Bible story. It is good, glorious even, to see God’s Word shared with the people here. But what happens in the future, when God calls us to another region of Karamoja? The source of the oral stories will also leave. But if the people can read God’s Word, then the stories could continue. Please pray for Esther, Ana, Rapiiel and Samuel as well as the other members of the discipleship group (Toto Joyce, Lucy, Leah and Ana Abong) as they endeavor to learn to read. This is not an easy task, pray that the Lord will open their minds to receive instruction. Pray that they will be willing to apply their hearts to learning. This is very difficult. Life is so full challenges. How can one find time to practice letters and phonemes when one has to gather water, feed the children, care for the cows, plow the fields, grind the pocho, deal with sickness… Learning to read is a luxury in the midst of the grind of daily survival. Pray that despite these challenges, God will give them a motivation to keep working at it. Pray that they will desire to read God’s Word and that this will push them through the difficulties.

Please also pray for me, that I would have wisdom and insight to know how to teach them in the most effective manner. Pray also for my language skills to increase, that I will grow in my fluency of speaking and reading so that I can a more efficient worker in this area.

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Monday, February 17, 2014

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.