Day 6: Serve. Proclaim. Disciple.

All day I've had a flurry of emails talking about this summer's RP Mission team coming to Karamoja. I'm really looking forward to being the team leader and showing some new friends around this place I call home. We're still working out the details: the official dates the team will be here (we're aiming for a 6-week trip) and how many will be on the team. Sounds like we're pretty sure we have four already, possibly seven or eight.

I really enjoy leading mission teams. I've only done it twice (White Lake 2006 and 2012) -- both times were really challenging but rewarding experiences. I'd say this past summer I worked with the best mission team I've ever been on, and would rate it the best mission trip experience I've ever had. Our team really clicked, we had so much fun together, we encouraged each other, genuinely enjoyed each other's company, and were constantly pointing each other back to Christ. I was a few years older than most of my teammates -- I was 24, most of them were around 19 -- and many of my teammates had just made the switch from camper to counselor. It was so encouraging to see a new generation rising up to serve the church.

I like the "mother hen" aspect of being a team leader. I love showing people around, encouraging them, trying to keep spirits up, helping such an eclectic group of people not just get along for six weeks, but become friends and truly approach things as a team. I've still got a lot to learn; I made plenty of mistakes at White Lake. I decided from the start that I wanted to lead by example, so I worked hard, whether that meant gathering firewood, cooking, cleaning, planning lessons, or taking over cabins and activities. My teammates were wonderful and they jumped right in alongside me. But I got so exhausted, and then got the sickness that was going around camp; finally I had to go home a week early, which was devastating. But I learned a lot about myself through that experience, and I was so blessed to see my wonderful teammates stepping up to make sure things would keep running smoothly even without a team leader. I'm sad I missed that last week of camp, but I'm so thankful for the encouragement the Lord gave me as I watched my friends so willingly carry my load. And I learned that I can't do everything myself!

Leading a team in Karamoja will be quite different, but I'm excited for the challenge. It will be strange to have this place, which is normally so quiet, buzzing with visitors, but the enthusiasm, probing questions, and boundless energy that short-termers bring will be refreshing.

We're still looking for guys for the team to Karamoja this summer! The girls slots are already full, but we have room for 2-3 more guys.

And there's ALWAYS a need for counselors at White Lake Covenanter Camp in the Catskill Mountains of New York. I won't be working at White Lake this year (for the first time in 7 years!) but I'll be at Family Camp, fresh off the plane from Uganda. I couldn't recommend that team highly enough if you enjoy working with kids and teens.

Go to the RP Missions website to learn more about either of these trips (and lots of other trips across the US and around the world!).

Day 5: "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

This week I've been on vacation while the Wright family went to Kenya to drop their daughter off at boarding school. Anna's in the 11th grade at Rift Valley Academy, a fantastic Christian school where missionary kids from all over Africa come to get a great high school education and enjoy the benefits of school - extracurriculars, broader course offerings, friends that aren't hours away -- that are hard if not impossible to come by when you live in the middle of nowhere.

The family said their goodbyes and had just left the school in Kijabe an hour before getting pulled over by the  Kenyan police. The same thing happened when I was travelling back from Kijabe with the Wrights a couple months ago. To be honest, it's a corrupt system, and the police are looking for bribes. Last time, Bob was charged with speeding, our van was impounded, and we had to sit in the police station for about an hour while Bob talked with the officials. The thing is, that old van can't speed. It starts vibrating violently at 80 kph (the speed limit), and their charges that we were driving over 100 kph are simply impossible.  

Today, however, Bob actually got arrested and put in a jail cell for a few hours, while the family had to wait in the station for him. I don't have all the details yet, but from what I understand they got pulled over between 8 and 9AM and were there till after lunchtime. Thankfully they let Bob go and didn't keep him overnight.

We were all buzzing about it at lunch here in Karamoja, but we weren't overly concerned. We stopped to pray for them. We trusted that God had the situation all under control, and we figured that Bob would at the most have to spend one night in jail. When we told our short term visitor Rebecca what had happened, her face was priceless. She couldn't believe how nonchalant we were. "So, why are you guys not freaking out right now?"

What can I say? TIA -- This Is Africa! Expect the unexpected. Flexibility is key. And all those other schnazzy mottos that sound so nice and easy till you're standing in a Kenyan jail cell on false charges. Yup. 

Day 4: Book Recommendation

Tonight, after our group dinner, Chris and Chloe Verdick, our college-break visitor Rebecca, and I had some really deep discussions about all kinds of difficult issues -- the death penalty, spanking, singles adopting, gay marriage, building relationships with unbelievers, the signs of true conversion, how believers deal with besetting sins, politics, alcoholism -- pretty much you name it, we covered it. Our discussions got heated at times, but it was good for us; iron sharpening iron. It's not easy having your thoughts on certain subjects stretched, but it's so beneficial to talk these things out with other believers.

I wanted to share one particular article which has to do with one topic we discussed at length: homosexuality, and what it looks like when a GLBT person comes to faith in Christ. I haven't yet read Rosaria Butterfield's book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert but it has been receiving great reviews, including this one by Carl Trueman. Rosaria was a radical feminist lesbian Queer Theory specialist and English professor at Syracuse University before becoming a Christian and marrying a Reformed Presbyterian pastor. I heard her speak at the Rose Point RP Church while I was in college, and I was so impressed and inspired by her story. This review is well worth a read, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book (Kindle version!).

There's a lot we can learn from Rosaria about how to be loving to GLBT people we may meet at work, at school, in church.  According to Carl Trueman, every pastor should be required to read this book, especially the two chapters in which she describes with brutal honesty what she thought of Christians before she met the RP couple who would later lead her to Christ. I hope this book might be a blessing to some of you.

~Emily

Day 3: Girls' night under the stars!

Erika, Leah and I, along with our short term visitor Rebecca, are going to sleep on the Wright's roof tonight. The Wrights have a flat roof over Bob and Martha's office, with a wall all the way around and a good sturdy ladder (don't worry Mom, I won't roll off the roof!). When the Wrights are travelling and I'm looking after their house, Erika and I like to drag mattresses up there and sleep under the stars. However, when we slept up there a couple months ago the screeching bats were so loud I hardly slept at all, so tonight I'll be bringing a trusty pair of ear plugs! 

I wish you could see the African sky on a clear night. It's stunning. Last year Erika, Leah and I watched The Lion King on the roof -- the setting of the movie looks a LOT like Karamoja, and watching Simba look up at the stars was a bit surreal. I'm a firm believer that you're never too old for a Disney movie! 

It gets quite cold up there at night, so the cold air wakes us up early enough that we can watch the sunrise. I'll bring my camera and try to snap a couple pictures. Unfortunately the power lines they installed a year or two ago kinda ruin the view (which I wouldn't be too upset about, except that they don't actually work, and it may be years before the electricity is actually turned on!).

In the meantime, here a couple more pictures from recent months :)

Day Two: All the Single Ladies... Christmas Photo!

Left to right: Leah Hopp, village health instructor, me, and Erika Hopp, the Okken's teacher.

I didn't have true Ugandan Christmas clothes, so I put on the only red clothes I own. Chris and Chloe gave me my first ever I <3 NY t-shirt; they found it in an Mbale market, and it's actually clean and fits perfectly! I was amazed.
There's our Christmas tree: four cypress branches tied together. Leah bought the branches and Christmas lights in Kampala. We have a few Christmasy-colored Karimojong blankets and some ornaments and tinsel that Erika brought from America.
We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope you did, too.

Add caption

New Years Resolution: Day 1

I'm not one for resolutions, probably because I never succeed in keeping them. I can't remember the last time I bothered even making a resolution.

I read somewhere that it takes 14 days to form a habit. I did succeed in establishing one important habit this year (beginning in October) -- I wake up every morning around 6AM and read my Bible. My motto is "no Bible, no breakfast." Waking up early was really hard for me at first, but I forced myself to do it, and now it's no problem. I can see now why everyone says it's best to read your Bible in the morning, rather than haphazardly later in the day like I used to do.

Forming that habit has inspired me to try another challenge. My resolution is to blog every day for 90 days, no matter what (unless I come down with a horrible case of malaria, in which case I hope you'll excuse me!). I don't expect to blog daily after the 90 days are up, but I think this jump start will help. I'm going to take Sundays off, as a day of rest. The internet here in Karamoja may occassionally fail, but I think I'll be able to keep up with this pretty consistently if I make it a priority.

I haven't written on here in a while. To tell you the truth, after you've spent a certain amount of time in the same place overseas (I've spent almost 12 months in Karamoja since 2009), everyday life no longer seems blog-worthy. The things I do, day in and day out, are just the mundane routines of life -- baking bread, snotty babies trying to pull out my arm hair, killing cockroaches, pulling ticks off my legs, walking to the clinic, teaching Sunday school with a translator, dinner and games and movies with my fellow missionaries. I've fallen out of touch with people, because I can't imagine anyone would care to know about these little things. But I've been reminded that a lot of my friends and family don't really have a good idea of what constitutes "everyday life" on the African savannah, so my goal is to share a little snapshot with you every day.

For instance, today I walked up to the Wright's house with Caleb Okken, who's ten. He wanted to visit Jadu's kittens. We strolled up and saw Jadu munching on something bright green - a baby snake (I think it was a boomslang). You know you've been here for a while when you hardly flinch at such a sight! [I started writing a fun fact about baby snakes, but I don't want to terrify anyone... just rest assured that this is actually the first baby snake I've ever seen here, and I'm thankful for that!]

Speaking of Caleb, he's reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time, and he's getting REALLY into it. My brother, sister and I are total LOTR fans (books and movies), so I love all the intense questions Caleb throws at me. This afternoon he and his teacher, my friend and former hut-mate Erika Bulthuis, were having a little LOTR review time at the end of school, and they invited me to join them. Erika had a list of study guide questions that she couldn't answer, so she thought I might know. I'm not quite a walking encyclopedia (unlike some people I know) so I couldn't answer every burning question, but it was such fun to dig into the books with them. I'm hoping that from now on Erika, Caleb and I will read portions of The Silmarillion aloud every Wednesday when Caleb's school day is finished. He's not ready to read it on his own -- the names alone would slow him down too much, and the language is more difficult to understand --  but he's so eager to learn more that I think he'll enjoy delving into the history of Middle Earth with the two of us.

I spent most of the day lesson planning, and I made three loaves of bread. Now it's 5:00 -- where did the day go? My to-do list is insane right now. Funny how many tasks get put aside in the midst of the holiday craziness, and now they're staring me in the face. The holidays are over... time to get back to business. The Wrights are on their way to Kenya, driving Anna back to boarding school, so I'm on vacation until next Wednesday.

Much love to all my friends and family,
Ngakiru (Emily)

Mourn with those who mourn

Death has loomed over our community here in Nakaale for the past couple months. In late August, the week before I arrived, two people died: a young man named Luomo Gabriel, who suffered horribly before he died, and an old woman who was a relative of one of our translators (links are to the blog of a summer pastoral intern, David Landow). Now, in just the last two weeks, we've faced three more deaths. The wife of our employee Markson was beaten to death (Chris Verdick describes this in his blog). The son of the "Big Man" Mose Athio died last Sunday after years of alcoholism, and today the Mose's wife also died of alcohol-induced liver failure. The Mose has now lost five of his seven children and his wife.

Markson is not a believer, as far as we can tell - please pray for the death of his wife to be a spiritual wake-up call for him. Pray that we will know how to minister to him. The Mose is a believer who faithfully attends church despite his age and poor health. Please pray for him at this time as he mourns two family members. His wife died last night, and as of this morning he had not been told the news. His family requested that Pastor Dave Okken visit him and inform him of his wife's passing.

Martha told me this morning that the wife of Mose Athio, Nakiru, was a very strong, capable, beautiful woman. Soon after her marriage to Athio, she took to drinking heavily. Death is a horrible thing to face, regardless of the causes. But to hear of people dying of alcohol abuse, being beaten to death, being stabbed to death -- the circumstances are simply heartbreaking.

As missionaries, we're not here to wipe out Karimojong culture and "Americanize" these people. But we do hope to have a positive influence and change some aspects of the culture here, because they are so destructive. The amount of drunkenness here, and the violence that erupts from this drunkenness, is staggering. Lord, help us to be a light in this dark place.


~Emily

For all you prayer warriors...

We're now in Mbale, with plans to travel up to Karamoja on Monday. We've had a great time in the cities, enjoying civilization and spending time with loads of quality people, but I'm feeling ready to get back "home" to Nakaale. 

I'd really appreciate your prayers. Some doors are opening here for longer term work for me, and I need wisdom and prayer to know how to go forward. I want to stay in Karamoja! It seems like my dream job is right in front of me, but going down this road will mean at least two more years here in Uganda. I would love to spend the rest of my life here, but realistically I need to take things one year at a time. So please pray that I wouldn't rush into any decisions, but would be wise, patient, and responsible as I think about the road I'm headed down.

You can also pray for our Mission right now as we deal with some really discouraging trials in the Nakaale church, particularly with regards to church members taking second wives. In some cases the men who have taken second wives were men we'd hoped would step into church leadership roles eventually; they're now ineligible for church office. This has been a hard blow to our mission and we'd appreciate your prayers during this time. We know the Lord will raise up a people for Himself from among the Karimojong, but it's a long and bumpy road and right now it seems like there's little fruit for our labors. Please pray for the Karimojong church members - that they would have a sincere faith, that they would understand the life Christ calls them to as believers, and that they would not cave in to cultural pressures. We can't do these things for them. We're praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to do his work among our brothers and sisters.

Thank you for standing alongside us as we struggle to bring the Gospel to this dark place. Your prayers and encouragement mean more than you know! God bless you all,

In Christ,

Emily

Around Town

I spent about three hours on Tuesday afternoon wandering around the town of Namalu with my students Mary and Kipsy Wright. Namalu is less than half an hour from our mission (if the roads are somehow ok) and we buy most of our produce and cooking staples (flour, oil, sugar, milk, etc) from the tiny grocery store and street side vendors. It's nice to just spend a couple hours wandering around with my two adopted little sisters. The Wright family moved to Uganda when Kipsy was only one year old, so these girls have grown up here. They speak ngaKarimojong, know how to bargain with sellers, and know this little town inside out.

We went to a stall where a man was selling necklaces and earrings. While the girls were picking out beads to make into necklaces, a very drunk man wandered up to us demanding money. We ignored him and told him no several times and he eventually staggered away. A crowd gradually grew around us. They didn't recognize me so they asked for my name, which is Nakiru Emily. Over the course of the afternoon my name spread around town and several people shouted it at me. Thanks for yelling at me; yes, I do know that's my name; no, I'm not going to marry you, drink beer with you or give you money!

We bought some tomatoes and twenty mandazi, which are like bite-size fried dough. Delicious. We walked over to the Noah's Ark Hotel, a brightly colored building with a covered veranda, and sat down to eat and talk.  I had a great chat with the girls about how much they're looking forward to going to boarding school next year, and lots of other things. They are such sweet girls and really encouraged me that as much as they can't wait to go away to a "real" school in Kenya, they're glad I'm here and that I'm part of the "family" while their two big sisters are away at school. We determined to make the most out of this year and have tons of fun together while we can.

We had been there for about half an hour when a large, older, respectable looking man came up to the veranda. A group of warrior-age young men had been hovering near the door of the hotel watching us and talking about us; we ignored them the whole time. This man walked up to the crowd of men and demanded to know why they had not given us chairs to sit in. "This is a disgrace! These are visitors!" We tried to explain to him that we were not patrons of the hotel. The men explained that we are not visitors, we are those of Nakaale. Mary and Kipsy told him that we are not visitors, we live here, and we chose to sit on the ground. Don't blame these men. He was smiling while he said it, but he was sincere -- you are our visitors, you are shaming us when you sit on the ground, you make us look like bad hosts, and you boys -- where are your manners? Get chairs for these ladies! Kipsy then blurted out, "We have buttocks for sitting!" which caused roars of laughter. Chuckling and shaking his head, the man walked away. No one brought us chairs. The young men greeted us, and one asked Mary to go to an edonga (dance) with him. He said that the next day he would come to Nakaale and that Bob, Mary's dad, should have a dance in his yard. Um, no thanks. We walked away. 

As we were heading back to meet Martha and Pastor Dave, an old man on a bicycle stopped to greet us. He was very nice. Just then the local crazy lady (sorry... not sure how else to put it) walked up to us shouting and demanding money. He said "her head is broken" and quickly rode away on his bike. We ignored her and kept walking; she's been known to snatch at purses.

The mzungu show is interesting when you're a short term visitor. It's exciting to have everyone waving and staring at you. It's kind of fun to be the center of attention. But those feelings are fleeting, and now I usually find it to be a nuisance. It's awkward to have people stalking you, pointing, yelling at you, constantly begging from you just because you're white. Young women have a particularly bad time of it -- we are constantly whistled at, offered cows for marriage, and receive many other unwelcome advances. But we stick together and we're perfectly safe. It's just uncomfortable. I've gotten fairly good at firmly saying "emam jik" (absolutely not) and walking away straight-faced when yelled at by men. 

Yet, despite the hassle, I love hanging out with my "little sisters" in the bustling metropolis of Namalu :)

Namatala

Today Martha and I went to visit JENGA, a Christian NGO here in Mbale. There we met a woman named Rose who took us to visit Namatala, an Mbale slum where at least a thousand (probably more?) Karimojong  live. It was a fascinating, eye-opening trip.

Many Karimojong go to the cities looking for work. Often married couples will split up, with one staying in Karamoja and one moving to Mbale; other times they'll send their kids away to the cities, and these Karimojong kids make up most of the street kid population in Mbale and Kampala. These transplanted people move into the slum of Namatala.

Truth is, although Namatala is one of the poorest areas in the city of Mbale, the people there are living much more comfortably than their families up north. Most have stone or brick homes or huts, rather than mud huts; the homes are pretty well spaced out, and they keep their living areas fairly neat. Of course, city life presents plenty of its own challenges, but from a basic quality of life standpoint they seem slightly better off. Still, it's a slum. Not an easy place to thrive... it would be very hard for any family in that slum to become prosperous enough to move into a better situation. Hard, but not impossible.

We met lots of lovely people who were thrilled when we greeted in ngaKarimojong and Martha struck up conversations. The kids literally PLASTERED themselves to me, which was sweet. I felt bad because one little girl was clearly sick and covered in sores. She was following me around, wouldn't let go of me, and when we sat down to talk to some women she just put her head face down in my lap for a long time and was breathing really hard. Her back and head were extremely hot; we told the ladies there, but no one seemed too eager to help her. I'm such a softy mzungu; my heart just melts over these kids. I didn't care that they were sneezing, licking, and rubbing their sore-infested faces all over my arms... I loved having them follow me around! But at one point Rose had to drive them all away because Namatala is so big, she was fearing that some of the children would become lost, and the parents would blame it on "those of Bob"!

We prayed with a few women, and then Rose took us to visit the Child of Hope school in the slum. The school is run by a man named Moses who has a wonderful vision for pulling these people out of poverty through education and small business grants in the slum. The school was absolutely beautiful! He took us to each of the four grades (Primary 1 - P4) and as we entered each classroom the children stood to welcome us:

"We wel-o-come you, visitors. This is Child of Hope Primary School. This class is Primary 4 and our teacher is Teacher Mike. We love learning and have hope." Then they would do a clapping routine before sitting down.

 Moses and Martha did introductions (I mostly waved and smiled). The children looked clean and happy, the classes were organized, with very nice paintings and alphabet/number charts on the walls, and the teachers seemed professional. Martha and I came away hopping with ideas and dreaming of all the possibilities for a Christian school in Nakaale....

Rose, who was showing us around, lives in Namatala. As Tiff, another JENGA worker, said, Rose is a hero. Her first husband was shot and killed by rebels in 1994. She moved away from the area where the rebels were (I'm assuming she was referring to the LRA) to Mbale and remarried. Her second husband at the time of their marriage could only see out of one eye. One day, their son was hit by a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and knocked unconscious. Her husband demanded that the driver take the boy to the hospital and pay for him to be looked at, but the driver refused. Some time during the heated discussion her husband was hit in his good eye and it was destroyed; the doctors had to completely remove the eye. Now he is blind and can't work, although he can walk around and go to the market on his own. Rose works for JENGA and is the primary breadwinner. She has six children of her own, and has adopted 4 Karimojong kids and 5 other children into her family -- so she is living with and supporting a family of 17. She is very involved in the church located there in Namatala and kids all over the slum call her Auntie. What an example to all of us.

Erae ayong akitataman!

I'm a teacher!

So I figured I'd share the "rough draft" of my schedule with you - subject to change, but basically the way my daily life will look until January, when the Tricarico family gets back from furlough. 

I'll be teaching history, English and Bible to Bobby, Mary and Kipsy Wright. We're continuing a world history curriculum (every day), a Bible curriculum (M/W/F), and for English we're using a writing textbook and a literature textbook which we'll intersperse with a more in-depth study of several novels (M/W/F). I'll be done with teaching by lunchtime. After lunch, Chloe, Erika and I will be doing "gym class" (i.e. exercise videos -- kickboxing! Zumba! etc) with Mary and Kipsy.

On Mondays Erika and I will continue our Bible study with the kids down at the clinic ward. As soon as I arrived in Karamoja, kids began excitedly greeting me. At one point I walked up to a group of kids and they called me "amusugut kosi" - "our mzungu". Talk about heartwarming. I missed these kids! I'm so glad they remember me and are "ever greeting" me.

On Tuesday mornings Martha, Mary, Kipsy and I will go to the clinic for devotions with the clinic staff, and then we'll go on to the village of Moru Athia to lead a Bible study. On Tuesday afternoon we may go to Namalu to do some shopping at the market, or just take the afternoon off. On Thursday, after clinic devotions, the four of us will go to Nakaale Primary School to teach Bible stories and some literacy classes for the kids. I'm REALLY looking forward to gaining experience teaching in a Ugandan public school. I know it will be a challenge, but I'm sure it will be a rewarding experience.

On Wednesday and Thursday I will be going down to the clinic to teach the children of Kyalo and Elizabeth, two Kenyan members of the clinic staff. Faith has returned from boarding school in Kenya and will not be returning this year, so Erika and I will be picking up some of her schooling. I also plan to continue helping James and Stacey with their English.

Along with all this, I will be taking piano lessons from Erika and guitar lessons from Martha Wright, and I'll need to find time for ngaKarimojong language lessons with Rose. I've lost so much of the language in just the four months I was gone! I also have the Mission's Wednesday night Bible study, a Bible study for young lady MAs one evening, dinners with different families several nights a week, lesson prep and cooking/baking from scratch (bread, making and freezing tomato sauce, etc) to fill up my free time. I'm also anticipating doing a fair amount of travelling all over Uganda and Kenya with the Wright family, which will be such a good time!

So, as you can see, I've got a pretty full schedule, although it is quite a bit different from last year's schedule. I'm excited to be spending more time teaching the Karimojong in addition to the missionary kids. I feel completely at home here... I was able to basically to hit the ground running and am adjusting to life here pretty quickly. I would love to stay more than a year (and the missionaries would like me to stay longer) but it may not be financially responsible for me to do so. I'm going to get as much as I can out of this year and trust the rest with the Lord.

I'm with the Wrights in Mbale until Tuesday or Wednesday, and we'll start school later next week. Thanks for all your prayers! 

Mbale

I've been down in Mbale, Uganda's 3rd largest city, with the Wrights for a couple days now, and I'm enjoying city life, electricity, warm showers, shopping in the markets with Mary and Kipsy, and amazing food.


 I asked the Wrights what they miss most about living in Mbale, and they said they miss the people. Karamoja is quite isolated. However, I'm learning that being a mzungu (foreigner) here in the city can also be extremely isolating and discouraging. No matter what we wazungu do, we will always stand out in a crowd. You could live in Mbale for ten years and taxi drivers would still try to charge you double. Young mzungu women shouldn't go out into town alone. So both rural and urban missions have their ups and downs.

Yesterday I was blessed to be able to go with Martha to a Bible study of expat/missionary women here in Mbale. A couple of them I'd met before -- Julie and her husband Derek run Cure Children's Hospital, and Dianna Tuininga and her Missionary Associate teacher, Tess, are the new OPC missionaries in Mbale. Nada Eid and MJ McCollum are lovely women who are married to local businessmen, and Lexi and Natalie are young women who do adoption work/orphan care. Three others are women who are visiting short term while they and their husbands do ministry work in Mbale for a while. It is really encouraging to meet all these women who love the Lord and love the work they've been called to do here. 

Unfortunately Martha and I probably won't be going to that study

again for a long time, but at least I met lots of new friends. 

At one point in the conversation we started talking about Karamoja, and the whole room was determined that they could never handle life up there. Truth is, I love Karamoja, and I've never lived anywhere else in Africa, so I guess I don't really know what I'm missing. I don't know if I'd want to live in an African city. It's wonderful to visit occasionally, but I really like the quiet, slow pace of Karamoja. Of course, ask me again at the end of my trip and I may think differently!

 The topic of the Bible study is building up a commitment to daily devotional time with the Lord. Let me dispel any rumors right now that being here makes you feel spiritually "on fire." It's simply not true. I remember last year soon after I arrived, I shared with the other missionary ladies that I felt completely spiritually deflated and dead. I thought that being surrounded by Christians, on the mission field, going to Bible studies and teaching the Bible to Karimojong kids all the time would make me feel more intensely devoted to God.

 It would be an overstatement to say that the opposite is true, but honestly, this is a battlefield. The surest way that Satan can cause our work to fail is if each of us missionaries individually "fall off the wagon" and stop spending time alone with the Lord. It's easy to make excuses not to read the Bible, especially when we are going to Bible studies and teaching Bible stories almost every day. So please pray for me, and for everyone on the mission, that we would not neglect our prayers and time in the Word. It's a FIGHT every day... but communion with God is something worth fighting for. Pray that we would have the strength for the fight, not in ourselves, but in Christ and the promises of the Word.

Road Pictures :)

British Airways, I love you

I'm way too tired to even try to write coherently, so I'm going to bullet point this.

 I usually fly KLM or Lufthansa, but this time I flew BA. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

 1) Touch screen entertainment system (compared to my last international flights which had NOTHING... not even MUSIC!... for two 9 hour daytime flights. Shoot me.) I watched The Hunger Games. Epic.

 2) Chicken tikka masala for dinner. Mmmhmmm. They don't mess around.

 3) The adorable Indian toddler who squealed as we were landing, "Mama, I'm giving you all of my love!"

 4) The British kid next to me talking to his big brother: "Are you sure you can lift them onto the trolley? They're like 21... 21 stone." Basically the fact that people around me are speaking in British accents is excellent. It's much more comforting than being in Dutch airports where everyone is so tall and all the signs are in like 3 languages.

 5)Heathrow airport is full of a diverse population of two year olds at their squat/squishy peak, and they're speaking all different languages. Sorry, I notice these things. Be still my heart.

 6)I have yet to get seriously lost in either Newark or Heathrow.

 7) I have a Yotel (http://www.yotel.com) in Heathrow. It's like a tiny train compartment with a bed, bathroom, free wifi and a tv. I reserved it for 5 hours since I have a 10-hour-ish layover. So I'm going into the next long flight clean, rested, not stressed out. Lovely.

 What I do NOT love is the fact that my friend and fellow teacher, Erika, wasn't able to get a seat on her standby flight from Chicago to London. We were going to fly on together from Heathrow to Entebbe. Instead, she had to fly back to LA from Chicago, is going to rest up a bit and book another flight. Poor Erika! I don't mind going on alone (done it lots of times) but I'm mostly just bummed that she had to go through that. Talk about a stressful situation :/

 I have the Yotel for another 70 minutes, then I have to make my way back to Terminal 5 and find my next flight, but it doesn't depart for a few hours still. Not sure when I'll have internet access when I get to Uganda, but I'll write as soon as I can. Thanks for all your prayers for me!

Jonathan Edwards on Christian Love and Charity

"If you will devote yourself to God, as making a sacrifice of all your own interests to him, you will not throw yourself away. Though you seem to neglect yourself, and to deny yourself, and to overlook self in imitating the divine benevolence, God will take care of you; and he will see to it that your interest is provided for, and your welfare made sure. You shall be no loser by all the sacrifices you have made for him. To his glory be it said, he will not be your debtor, but will requite you a hundred-fold even in this life, beside the eternal rewards that he will bestow upon you hereafter. His own declaration is, “Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundred-fold” (the other evangelist adds, “in this present time”), “and shall inherit everlasting life” (Mat. 19:29); and the spirit of this declaration applies to all sacrifices made for Christ, or for our fellowmen for his sake. The greatness of the reward for this life Christ expresses by a definite number; but he does not God make use of numbers, however great, to set forth the reward promised them hereafter. He only says they shall receive everlasting life, because the reward is so great, and so much exceeds all the expense and self-denial persons can be at for Christ’s sake, that no numbers are sufficient to describe it.

"If you are selfish, and make yourself and your own private interests your idol, God will leave you to yourself, and let you promote your own interests as well as you can. But if you do not selfishly seek your own, but do seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s, and the things of your fellow-beings, then God will make your interest and happiness his own charge, and he is infinitely more able to provide for and promote it than you are. The resources of the universe move at his bidding, and he can easily command them all to subserve your welfare. So that, not to seek your own, in the selfish sense, is the best way of seeking your own in a better sense. It is the directest course you can take to secure your highest happiness. When you are required not to be selfish, you are not required, as has been observed, not to love and seek your own happiness, but only not to seek mainly your own private and confined interests. But if you place your happiness in God, in glorifying him, and in serving him by doing good, — in this way, above all others, will you promote your wealth, and honor, and pleasure here below, and obtain hereafter a crown of unfading glory, and pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand. If you seek, in the spirit of selfishness, to grasp all as your own, you shall lose all, and be driven out of the world at last, naked and forlorn, to everlasting poverty and contempt. But if you seek not your own, but the things of Christ, and the good of your fellowmen, God himself will be yours, and Christ yours, and the Holy Spirit yours, and all things yours. Yes, “all things” shall be yours; “whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).

 

 

"Let these things, then, incline us all to be less selfish than we are, and to seek more of the contrary most excellent spirit. Selfishness is a principle native to us, and, indeed, all the corruption of our nature does radically consist in it; but considering the knowledge that we have of Christianity, and how numerous and powerful the motives it presents, we ought to be far less selfish than we are, and less ready to seek our own interests and these only. How much is there of this evil spirit, and how little of that excellent, noble, diffusive spirit which has now been set before us! But whatever the cause of this, whether it arise from our having too narrow notions of Christianity, and from our not having learned Christ as we ought to have done, or from the habits of selfishness handed down to us from our fathers, — whatever the cause be, let us strive to overcome it, that we may grow in the grace of an unselfish spirit, and thus glorify God, and do good to men."

(http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/charity8.htm)

Packing... oh joy.

Finally! Almost time for me to go back. I've had a WONDERFUL summer at home, but I'm so excited to get back to my new "family" in Karamoja.

There's a lot involved in preparing to go back. First off, packing. Ugggh. Packing for almost a year in two 50-pound trunks isn't easy, but I'm getting there. One thing I really want to do this time is bring a few more "homey" things for my hut. Last time I only brought one suitcase of my own stuff (the other suitcase was stuff I brought for the mission). I could only fit clothes, shoes, some food, and six months worth of deodorant and shampoo :) Thankfully Erika had thought ahead and brought some things to cheer up our banda (hut) and kitchen - a calendar, candles, Christmas decorations, pictures, etc. This year Erika and I will each have our own hut, so the decorations are up to me. I'm trying to fit as many pictures, candles and reminders of home as I can in my trunks. Some people might look at that as a waste of space, but I think it will cheer me up.

Kampala and Mbale shops have pretty much all the basic things I need (it's just a matter of knowing where to look!), so I'm trying to talk myself out of a lot of the stuff I've packed so far. But there are some things that you just need to survive... like a huge bag of pretzel M&Ms. I don't care what else I have to leave behind, the M&Ms are coming with me!

For those who have asked, my mailing address is:

PO Box 1307
Mbale, Uganda
East Africa

I can't receive packages, but you can send flat envelopes (and fill them with drink mixes, photos, anything else small and flat!). I would LOVE to get mail. I will try to reply, although it will probably take a while since the post office is a few hours away!

The Karamoja Superhighway!

I stole this picture from the Wrights (taken yesterday on their trip to Mbale) so that you'd see what it is I'm asking you to pray for. The road to Karamoja is very difficult to drive right now because of heavy rains -- it's in the worst condition the missionaries have ever seen. Please pray that the rains would STOP (at least for a few days!) and that the roads would dry out enough to make it slightly easier by the time Pastor Dave drives down to Kampala next week to pick up me and Erika. Even if this was to dry out it would still be very hard to maneuver through, but at least with drier roads we won't be slipping all over the place or having water come over the hood into the Land Cruiser windows (which happened yesterday!) Please also pray that the government will quickly fix a collapsed bridge which is nearly impassable, and that the many many many large trucks which have been stuck in the road for days will be able to get out of the mud.

No end of adventures in Karamoja!

WHITE LAKE! Family Camp

Kids camp ended on Friday morning, and in the afternoon the counselors went to Bubba's for BBQ and just to get off the hilltop. At that point several of us were starting to get sick and were utterly exhausted (kids camp was fun, but tiring, too!). Family Camp started off well (though wet and muddy!), with Roger Blevins as this years' family camp president. We had an international theme for the week.


Counselors look at family camp as a mixed blessing. On the one hand, there are lots more adults to help keep an eye on the kids, which makes our job a bit more relaxed. On the other hand, after two or three weeks as the only adults on the hilltop, it feels strange to be "invaded" by grown-ups! But after you adjust to the entirely different vibe of family camp, it is really enjoyable.


The weekend was very rainy, which altered our plans a bit, but the campers still had a good time. However, by Saturday I was so sick that I wasn't too aware of what was going on. I was completely exhausted, had a horrible cold and sore throat, and was basically walking around like a zombie and skipping all the activities to lie down (but, as team leader, I had so many responsibilities swirling around in my head that I could never actually fall asleep during these "naps"). On Monday morning several people told me I looked "horrible!!" and that afternoon the Camp Director Bob Allmond sat me down and asked me to consider going home. He was concerned that I wouldn't recover in time for Uganda and he knows that it generally takes team leaders a couple weeks to recover after camp. So, as hard as it was, I agreed that I needed to leave, so I went home from camp on Monday night. So if you want to hear how the rest of family camp went, you'll have to ask someone else :)


I knew it was the right decision to leave (and I made the decision, it wasn't forced on me), but as the evening came and I started saying goodbye I got pretty sad knowing that I'm leaving for Uganda and won't see any of these dear friends for at least a year, some maybe two years. They sent me off with lots of love and bear hugs. I love you all so much! This is only the second time in 24 years that I haven't been there for the full week of family camp, so it feels strange. I'm going through serious White Lake withdrawal! But I'll be back from Africa in time to be at camp next year. I'm already looking forward to it :)


White Lake is still the happiest place on earth :)

WHITE LAKE! Kids/Teen Camp

I spent a little over two weeks at White Lake Covenanter Camp, serving as the team leader for the RP Missions team. This was seriously the best mission team/counselor team I have ever served with! My teammates were Stasia Finch, Debbie Shafer, Evelyn Ashleigh, Kayla Milroy, Jackie Werts, Sidney Camery, Gabi Chamberlain, David Pinkerton, James Allmond, Nate Oliveiri, Quinn Coulton, David Donath, Josh Donath, Peter Merkel, and Connor McCracken.

Never before has a team of counselors gotten along as well as we did. Nobody was an outsider, nobody was badly behaved or causing trouble. There were no schisms or cliques. We all got along GREAT. We laughed, sang, danced, teased and played our way through everything. Not to say it was always easy. We tackled a lot of jobs during prep week, including gathering TONS of firewood from the woods, cleaning most of the buildings from top to bottom, and planning all the kids camp lessons. Thankfully, with such a big group of counselors, we were able to check jobs off the list very quickly. We also spent time during prep week sharing our testimonies with each other. This was a great way to learn about each other, recognize where everyone was coming from, and, as a team leader, notice how I could encourage and support my teammates in particular ways.

Kids and Teen Camp went so well. We had about 50 campers altogether, which meant that with such a huge staff keeping track of the kids wasn't too difficult. Pastor Micah Ramsey was the teen camp speaker and he was very well-received by the kids. He spoke on the person and work of Christ. The kids camp counselors taught on various miracles and parables of Jesus, and did lots of fun activities and crafts. In the evenings we played Humans vs. Zombies (a big hit!), had a dress-up the counselor night (I was a pirate -- I'll post pictures soon!), and had a carnival one night run by Mike Tabon. Another night everyone was so relaxed and having fun that we ditched the evening activity altogether! Several counselors and campers pulled out instruments they'd brought (a banjo, violin, ukulele, and guitar) and we spent the evening just sitting around listening to them having an impromptu jam session, while others played volleyball, basketball, and ping pong, or just sat and talked. It was such a relaxing night and I think it speaks volumes for the counselors that the kids were happy to just spend time with their counselors and friends.

Summer Travels

Hey everyone!
The countdown is on... 12 days till I fly back to Uganda!

I spent the last month traveling all over the place. First stop: my dear friend Brenda Gladfelter's wedding to her Northern Irishman, Stephen McCollum. Brenda and I have been friends since we were awkward little kids running around making fairy houses at White Lake. Stephen is a quality guy and I'm so glad to invite him into the family :) Their wedding was beautiful and I enjoyed helping Mr. G in the kitchen, along with Kathryn and Stasia. I don't know when I'll ever get used to her being Mrs. McCollum though! Stasia, Kathryn and I stayed with Jenny and Jason Panella for a couple days, which was a fantastically good time, although poor Jenny had just returned from her mission trip to France and was completely jetlagged!

The day after the wedding I met up with my friends Andrew, Adam and Rachel, and we camped our way to the International Conference in Marion, Indiana. We stayed at KOA's both nights so we weren't roughing it too much, but it was a ton of fun. We went to Cedar Point (although the rain closed most of the big rides!! sadness) and went to see The Dark Knight Rises at a drive-in movie theater. Besides a leaky tent that didn't quite survive the thunderstorms one night, the trip was a great success. So glad I spent that time with friends instead of just driving straight out to the conference!

The RP International Conference was held at Indiana Wesleyan University, a really beautiful campus. Joel Beeke was the main speaker. Amazingly, he gave all his lectures that week despite the fact that his mother passed away the Monday morning of the conference. His talks and the breakout sessions were great. I tended to go to all the missions talks... I can't help myself :P Jim and Jenny Knox shared about Karamoja, and I also got to hear a presentation on Cush4Christ. So encouraged to hear how the Lord is blessing so many ministries around the world!

One of the difficult parts of the conference was simply that there were SO MANY PEOPLE. Over 2,200 RPs = craziness. So many times I'd see someone as I was on my way somewhere and say, "We'll catch up later!" never to see them again. I did get to spend a lot of quality time with old and new friends. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life! I'm looking forward to the next stateside conference in 2016 (I'll be 28 -- WHAT).

At the end of the conference, 11 of us began the journey to White Lake Covenanter Camp in Bob Allmond's 15-passenger van. White Lake deserves its own post :)