Still here..

I know.  I've been quiet.  But I'm still here!  So I'm going to attempt a significant update here - both personal and work-related..

Kaberamaido

We went back to Kaberamaido last month to officially get things rolling on the agriculture trainings for the widows and Arrow Boys there.  We had an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signing ceremony, and it was pretty exciting for me to see the things we’ve talked about for so long put on paper and to take steps toward implementing those ideas.  The two groups are also very excited and anxious to begin, but we haven’t yet been able to begin the trainings due to drought in the region.  

Please pray for rain.  Drought and famine have been pretty severe in some parts of Uganda, and the local news reported a while back that at least 40 people have died of starvation in areas hit worst by the drought.  The rains have begun to fall again here; please pray against flooding, but that this land would receive the right amount of rain.

Kapchorwa/Greek 

I also traveled back to Greek last month to do more net distributions and to see the progress on the multi-purpose community center we’re helping to build there.  Construction is coming along well on this center that will serve as a hall for community meetings, church services, education opportunities, etc, and we hope for it to be completed in the next month or so.  For a couple photos and to read more, click here.

Sudanese Guys

I was excited to have the opportunity to go to Kenya a couple weeks ago and meet the four Sudanese guys we sponsor in school there.  The others are here in Uganda, and I’ve gotten to spend a good bit of time with them, but this was my first time to see Taban, Al Jehli, Mubarak and Jacob.  I was primarily there to interview and photograph them for a book project that I really hope I’m able to do.  We want to make a sort of coffee table book telling the guys’ history as former child soldiers in the civil war in Sudan who met Jade and Shelah in a demobilization camp and ended up being taken out to Kenya (then Uganda for the others) to go to school.  The book would serve not only to tell the stories, but sales of the book would also go toward paying their school fees.  Their stories are pretty fascinating, and I’m looking forward to interviewing the rest of the guys while they’re home now with Jade and Shelah on school holiday.

DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)

We’re working with a local Christian ministry to implement a school sponsorship program for children in Eastern DRC, which has been plagued by terrible fighting.  One of the pastors has just met with us to show us photos and give us background about the nearly 20 students that they’ve identified to be sponsored.  They should start school over the next month, then once things are rolling I hope to travel there in October or November.  We also hope to have a seminar during that time for pastors, health workers and community leaders to receive training to counsel victims of rape, former child combatants, and people suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).  

Me

I have been back in Kampala for two whole consecutive weeks now, which seems like the longest I've been here in months!  I've been busy in the office getting lots of materials designed and ready for Refuge & Hope's fundraiser in Alabama next month.  (If you're around the area, you should come out!)  I've also been blessed by my friends here - both the ones I've made here in Uganda and friends who have come to visit over the past couple months.  God's timing is perfect; even the day that my friends that lived here with me left Uganda, a friend arrived to visit, and I had people here visiting constantly until my roommates were back.  Now we're anticipating the new group of interns at eMi (where I live) to arrive on Wednesday.

Alrighty then.  I think that'll do for now.  Thank you for being faithful to read, pray and encourage me.  I WILL post again soon, I promise!

Checking In

Hi friends,

Just a quick update - a lot has been going on!  My friend, Jason, was visiting here in Uganda all of last week, and he was able to do a lot with us the whole time he was here - including a trip just outside of Kampala to take mosquito nets to a school for blind children and a trip up to Kaberamaido with Jade, Harriet and myself.  We went out there to meet up with the ten widows and ten "Arrow Boys" who we are investing in over the next year to do agriculture training, and to formally begin the program with a nice little MOU signing ceremony.  It was so exciting for me to see the things we have been discussing and praying about for so long put down on paper and to know that they are being put into motion!  We also feel good about the people from the community who will be leading the trainings and helping facilitate things.  It really seems like they genuinely want to see change in the community, starting with these two small groups, and that they have caught the vision of how this small number of people can extend the benefits to the larger community.  So it was a great trip up to see them, and I was able to take individual portraits of each of the participants, which I hope to upload soon so you can see who you can be praying for.

But that's not all!  My three great friends - Kristen, Will and John - arrived on Monday, and we've also been moving around just in the few days they've been here.  We went out to Kapchorwa on Tuesday morning and stayed a couple days.  We met up with the pastors there and went out into the rural areas to distribute 200 more mosquito nets (left over from the team's visit last month) in new locations and went out to Greek to check on the community center we are helping build out there.  Phase one of the construction is completed, and the foundation is laid!  The work is going along quickly, and the engineer I spoke with hopes to complete the building just as soon as we can get the resources out to them.  The center will serve as a meeting place for church and for other community meetings, area church functions, etc.  Look out for photos of the construction site on here soon!

So John and Will have been on a whirlwind around-the-world (literally!) trip, which has taken them to Malaysia, Ethiopia and Uganda so far.  Their next stop is Rwanda, and Kristen and I are tagging along for the ride!  We board the bus for Kigali bright and early tomorrow morning, and we'll stop in a town in northern Rwanda to visit with a church that's actually the sister church of the church that Will attends in DC (which I also attended when I lived there!).  Then we'll move down to Kigali and find whatever awaits us there!  I'm excited.  And tired.  I only have a couple of hours before it's time to get up and go, so I'll end here with the promise of photos and more stories to come when I get back to the computer... and life as usual.  If there is a "life as usual" here. : ) 

Presenting: The Longest Post of My Blogging Career!

I'm the type of person who likes to have all of her stuff together.  Before I present anything on here, I'd really like to have all my photos and everything in order.  But I'm realizing that with the speed of internet here, I might keep you waiting until Christmas for this update on the past month.  So against my best instincts I'm just going to go with what I've got now.  It feels kind of liberating, actually.  Like my own personal freedom on Independence Day.  God bless America.

Ok, anyway.  Speaking of the US, this past month we had a small group come from the States to do some ministry here.  It was three students - Carson, Abby and Anna - and also my mom, Debbie!  They came primarily to do distributions of mosquito nets and to do sports camps/VBS activities.  They stayed for three and a half weeks, and they were really fantastic!  Their time here was very packed, so I definitely won't be able to sufficiently cover everything in just one post.  But here are the high points.

First off, after arriving at the beginning of June, they went out to a slum area here in Kampala to meet a widows group that makes beaded jewelry to generate income.  Many beads were bought.  Then we headed out for Kapchorwa district near the Kenyan border and ended up doing four different mosquito net distributions and a day of playing with the local children in the community of Greek, which I think I've talked about before.  My mom also found a ladies' sewing group and stayed with them for a day - getting a beautiful, authentic African outfit out of the deal, which all the Ugandan ladies said was "very smart."  

All in all, we were in Kapchorwa for a few days, finishing it off with a hike around beautiful Sipi Falls, and then we headed out to Kaberamaido district.  Our time was very full there!  We spent each afternoon that week at the orphanage, playing with the children, doing Bible story skits, and giving them enough mosquito nets so that each child can now sleep under a net.  We moved around each morning doing different things, including going to a fishing village on the lake to do a net distribution, meeting with the widows group we're working with there to pray with them and distribute 2,000 notebooks and 500 pens for their children and orphans they care for to use in school, and meeting with the Arrow Boys group we're working with to pray for them and hear more about their stories.  We finished off our time there with a youth conference we organized for 100 secondary school students.  Our friend who is actually from Kaberamaido led the conference on issues of character and developing a vision for their life, and it went really well!  It was a great way to end our time in Kaberamaido.

Next, we headed back to Kampala and joined up with a ministry called Sports Friends International.  Sports Friends combines Christian ministry with sports activities for several different communities around Kampala - many that target at-risk children.  We spent one morning with a group of street boys, for example, which was a rather moving experience for me.  But more on that later!  We also got to do a few more mosquito net distributions along the way (the team has provided nearly 2,500 nets - an amazingly large number!  We're still working on getting them all out to people..).  Then, to wrap up the "ministry" portion of the team's trip, we helped facilitate a games tournament called Kids Games for about 800 orphans and other vulnerable children, which was a really wonderful experience.  A great way to top off their ministry here.  

Before the team left, we all took a quick trip up to Murchison Falls in northwest Uganda and went on a fun little safari tour.  A rather momentous occasion for me, actually, as I discovered that the warthog could possibly be one of my new favorite animals!  

So the team left out for the U.S. the last week of June, and we are just so grateful for them and their willingness to come out and serve.  I could say so much more about them and their time here, but this is quickly becoming a mini-novel, and I know all too well (being one myself) that blog readers are not known for having the longest attention span.  : )  So I'll stop here for now.

But not without showing some photos!  I'll post one below, but I'm also working on uploading several hundred photos to my photo site online - a gargantuan task, given how slow internet is here.  So here's the deal.  I'm going to go ahead and give you the link so you can begin looking through the photos, BUT there is one quid pro quo: you must promise to go back later after I've uploaded all of the photos, because I have so many more to share and have very ambitious plans of also adding captions later!  So class, if I let you know when everything's up can you promise to go back and look?  Please and thank you?

Ok, now that we have that settled I'm going to continue killing mosquitos with my own bare hands.  Ha.  They're all over our house, and they really are nasty little suckers!

Thanks so much for reading and for supporting me here.  And thanks for the many well wishes for my birthday yesterday.  It was a great day!  I've been so encouraged in so many ways lately.  I love and appreciate you all, my family and friends.  Now go eat some barbecue and set off lots of fireworks for me!

From L to R: Carson, Abby, Anna, me, Debbie (aka "Mama Jennifer")

"You have been quiet!"

Here in Uganda, whenever it's been a while since I've talked to or seen a person, they will tell me, "You have been so quiet!"  This happens to me quite often, actually, as I'm still not quite used to calling someone simply to greet them and then hang up.  But I'm working on it! 

Anyway, I wanted to explain why I've been quiet lately.  We had a small team arrive from the U.S. on May 31st, and since then life has been a ridiculous whirlwind of activity and traveling.  It has been so busy!  We spent a couple weeks traveling out to Kapchorwa and Kaberamaido; we've been doing ministry in Kampala, and we leave again for Murchison Falls in northwestern Uganda on Sunday.  Tomorrow we're helping facilitate a kids' sports ministry camp for 800-900 children, which could be either extremely terrifying or really awesome.  

So I just wanted to toss out a quick update and to let you know that you can be looking out for lots of new photos and stories on here after the team leaves on the 24th.  Please continue praying for us as we travel and the group finishes its time here!

Back in the Pearl

Well, I'm back from an amazing week in Ethiopia, and rather than trying to explain it in words here on the blog, I thought I'd take you through a little journey of photos.  I've uploaded some pictures along with captions to my Picasa site.  Check it out here!

I hope to do the same with photos from my recent trip out to Kaberamaido and Kapchorwa the week before I left for Ethiopia, so be on the lookout!  In other news, we're gearing up for a small group coming from the U.S. in two weeks to do sports camp, VBS activities and distribute mosquito nets in both Kaberamaido and Greek, and there's lots to do to get prepared!  Please pray for us as we finalize all the details and for the three students (plus my mom!) coming to minister here for three and a half weeks.