Hello
from Moroto, Ingrid here.
As I
write this, I am thinking of all the Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States on the 27th of November. Here the 27th seemed like just
another day. A turkey here in Moroto
right now costs $40.00 because fowl is the only meat available as foot and
mouth disease continues and the ban on butchering hoofed meat remains. And yet,
even before that Thursday I had begun reflecting on some of the things I was
thankful for and expressing my gratitude to our Lord for.
In
my present world, this is a true saying: “Some things can’t be truly understood
until they have been lived.” The life I
am living here is allowing me a gratitude for many of the things that I took
for granted in the USA; things not within easy reach or even in reach at all
for most of the people I am serving here.
- I am grateful for water! At this point, the municipality of Moroto has been without running water for over three weeks. I am grateful for boreholes, jerry cans to carry the water, and rain that can be harvested in any open container available.
- I am grateful for electrical power! We do not know why, but lately we have been living in an environment of having power for a few hours and then it “getting lost”, as they say here, for many hours.
- I am grateful for a clothesline! Having a place to hang wet clothes other than in our room has been quite exciting for me. Most wet clothes around here are hung on grass, bushes, fences or the ground to dry.
- I am extremely grateful for the provision of the house the Lord has given us!!
- I am thankful for the relationships that are deepening for us here in Moroto and in the Manyattas around Moroto district! Through the doors that the Lord has opened for us, we are developing friends in the Karimojong community, relationships that have shifted from us being seen as a potential source of a handout to one where we are being engaged for who we are not what we represent as Westerners.
- Most of all I am grateful that the God of all Creation has chosen me, to be His daughter and to reveal Himself to me ever increasingly. To say that He has shown Himself ever present and abundant in these last few months would be an understatement. Oh how grateful I am, as I continually am allowed to see my need for the ever present Lord and Savior Jesus; in my times of joy, in my struggles, where I wrestle with fear, lack of control or anger, He never leaves me nor forsakes me.
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| Exiting Manyatta |
Our
life has been full of ministry here both one on one and in groups. One event
that continues to encourage me and cause me to worship God is what I came away
with from a trip to a manyatta. We
recently returned to the Manyatta where we had left a proclaimer (a recording of the New Testament in Ngakarimojong) with a
precious lady named Rose (not my language helper), who is illiterate but wants
to learn more about Jesus. The Church of
Uganda has made her a deputy warden in her area. Background story on this is: She
had walked all the way into Moroto town (a brisk 30 minute walk) while we were
in the states, to inform the mothers union at the Church of Uganda, that the
proclaimer we had given her had been broken.
We found this out a few weeks after we returned to Moroto in September. The
story is that a small child dropped it, but when Rose showed it to us, on a
trip without an interpreter, it had been split in half with what looked like a
great deal of force. We were not sure we
should give this manyatta another one, as the proclaimers cost us $100.00 each.
So as we returned to visit Rose with Pastor Noah to interpret, we found a group
of people surrounding us pleading to hear God’s word. There were men and women speaking to Pastor
Noah, and he spent about an hour and a half ministering the Word of God to them
in Ngakarimojong. We were able to ask
how they would prevent another proclaimer from being broken again. They had already worked out strategy for
keeping it from harm, so we gave them a second one, but told them this was the
last one.
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| Lyle w/warrior outside of a school in the bush |
While
we were there sitting with the people, a woman came up to the group and
starting speaking rapidly and pointing at me and then covering the top of her
head with her hand. This went on for
some minutes, and when Pastor Noah finally interpreted, he told us this woman
was the mother of the teenager who had the rock thrown at him many months ago
by a teen-aged girl. I wrote of this
back in June, I believe. This woman said
that because I had intervened between her and the mother of the girl and had
asked them to forgive each other, she believed my faith was sincere. She said they had forgiven each other, which
is amazing to me because Rose (my language helper) and I were sure that after
we left, a fight would ensue.
Tempers were high and we left them with arms crossed and glaring at each
other and me. This was such an
encouragement to me and to Rose when I shared it with her. Oh Praise to God, Whose Truth has the power
to evaporate the power of anger. This
lady was coming to the manyatta to listen to the proclaimer as well since then,
and has asked us to allow her to have one for her manyatta. She said she would be responsible for taking
care of it. We are praying about
it. Please join us in this intercession
where we are actually seeing a hunger for God and His Word in people. Our first experience with this.
This
manyatta is one site that may have an AIM team living along side them. Our Vision and Strategy Paper has had one
edit and we have turned it back in for a second edit before it goes to AIM
leadership for final approval. We are
working on the Team descriptions as well.
What we feel God desires is for people totally in love with Him to live
in a manyatta setting, but demonstrating how to live in this environment in a
way different than the mindset of “its always done this way”; to demonstrate
transformation as stated in Romans 12:1-2, so that the Word does dwell among
the people.
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| Prison guard Sarah & her little girl Peace |
As
we work on this, the Lord has graciously allowed us to become more a part of
the church He has directed us to as a home church. We were invited to a three-day leadership
conference, and while there, made and solidified some good relationships. Also Lyle is ministering every Sunday
afternoon to the guards at the regional prison, and I have been asked to join
him there. I have had a bible study with
K’jong women at the same time, and so haven’t been able to attend yet, but will
try to do so if I can shift this study to a different day. I also am having a Bible study with a female
prison guard every week.
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| Filling tower with jerry cans (Luke below, Simon above) neighbor at fence. |
One
of the benefits of having no running water is that Lyle has really been able to
work along side the guards we have at the house. For the “Muze” (word of respect for an old
guy) to work and not just boss is unheard of and we believe very welcomed. Our full time guard, Simon, has been
wonderfully motivated to find ways to work and improve the place and together
we have started a vegetable garden, which Lord willing, will produce greens for
us to eat. They have already sprouted
and I can’t tell you the delight I have in this.
We
are encouraged by our developing relationships with our new neighbors as well. We
were concerned about our closest next-door neighbors as our homes sit very
close to each other and they had not demonstrated any kind of restraint for personal
privacy while the place was being built and after we moved in. After a couple of gentle talks with them,
they have become very gracious and respectful neighbors and we are growing to
know each other in ways that works for all of us. They appreciate very much me
feeding their little dog bones through the cyclone fence. The young dog really likes us and has dug her
way into our compound twice already. We
did challenge them a bit as they were beating her over and over and we told
them to stop. Lyle was very good at
explaining to them what a gift a dog is and how loyal they are and how treating
them well increases the dog’s desire to protect them. We have not heard them abusing her again.
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| Neighbor children |
Our
language skills do continue to improve slowly and we understand a lot more of
what is said as long as it isn’t spoken too quickly. Please pray for us to have
the discipline and determination to continue to study and persevere in becoming
fluent in Ngakarimajong.
Our
boys have finished the last term of school for the year. We had them over for a game night along with all
the other boys in the house, so there were 15 boys, Bill the 84 year old man
from Texas who stays with them, three AIM guests who were staying with us (our
first guests!!) and two young women from the Moroto expat community. It was a great time!!! The noise level was a few decimals above
Lyle’s comfort level, but he jumped in and played games anyway. We cooked and served beans, rice, posho, and
chapattis with fruit for dessert. The
boys were ecstatic. We were ecstatic cause we actually had power that night J.
The
two boys, Thomas and Joseph, who were in boarding this last term are going to
become day students when the new term beings in February. We are continuing to work with them so that
they are being raised and not just growing up.
This is a challenge when you don’t live with them, but they have been so
honest with us and their desire for someone to care about them is so obvious. The teenager, Mark, whose school fees we had
paid for out in a trading center, about a 20 minute drive from Moroto town, is
going to come in and become a boarder at the school where the other boys are
next year. He had walked into town two
weekends in a row to ask us about this, and when we were out with Pastor Noah
we stopped at his school to verify his attendance and to see how he was doing at
school. His teacher told us he was there
every day which was amazing to us cause his manyatta was a very long walk away
from the school. We found out that he
ended up living at the school free of charge, again unheard of, because of the
challenge of walking in every day. We
picked him up at school and with the headmaster’s permission and drove out to
the manyatta where he is from to talk to his grandmother. She gave her
permission for him to move into town for the next school year. This next year
for Mark is very important as he will be in P7, if he doesn’t do well on the
tests at the end of the year, he will not be allowed to continue on to senior
level classes. Also, I had the opportunity to pray for a little baby girl while
at this manyatta. She was sitting on a warrior’s lap (unusual to see) and her
eyes were just running with mucus. They
said she had drops to put in, but she was miserable. I do pray for her even
now. The people in this manyatta were
very grateful to us for helping Mark and didn’t bring any additional demands to
us for help with things, which is new for us.
In
fact, we are seeing this habit of the people demanding us to give things has
almost disappeared. So please join us in
thanking the Lord for breaking this pattern for us. This realization became really clear to me when
I walked to the market this last weekend with our AIM guests who were
visiting. It was the first time I had
absolutely no begging!!! NONE!!!! I am
so grateful for this; I was only greeted as one who lives here with warmth, not
with a demand to “give” to them. Oh
thank you for your prayers for us in this regard.
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| Playing chess w/Kul |
As I
close this blog, I must say I am also so very grateful to Our Lord and Savior
for ALL of you who join us in
serving Jesus here in Karamoja through prayer, communication and finances. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! For all who are going to or have been led to
give to us before the end of the year please know that this act of worship to
our Lord has been used to deepen our faith in the Him. His ability to provide
for us has amazed us and filled us with joy and hope. This has been a fiscally challenging time for
us, as setting up a new home has required money. We are content with two beds, one for guests
and one for us, and a working kitchen and trust the Lord for the timing
regarding purchasing furniture for the sitting room and a kitchen table (we have a borrowed plastic table). As nothing
appears simple or easy to do here, the result of that is, our contentment with
what we have and our patience is continuing to develop deeply. Furniture must
be made here or hauled from Kampala, which is very expensive as many are afraid
to come up here. So we desire to move slowly and make sure the Lord is leading
what we fill our home with, and not just fill it in ways that seem familiar to
us.
Please
continue to pray for us in every way, spiritually, physically and emotionally. We recently read this quote from Jim Elliot
and even at our age find this truth to be more clearly necessary for us to embrace
and understand than at any time in our lives: “One does not surrender his life
in an instant. That which is lifelong
can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”
We request you all pray that we would not only never cease in
surrendering our lives, but that we would increase in this act of worship for
the rest of the time we walk this earth.
As
the time approaches to celebrate, The only real Blessing-Jesus Christ- born to
die-that we might have eternal life, may we truly grasp in our inner person the
reality of the truth of eternity and what truly matters in this life. God is passionate about peoples’ souls and
where they spend eternity—either with Him or apart from Him forever. May we beat with the heart of our Heavenly
Father: Matthew 6:21: Wherever your treasure is, there the
desires of your heart will be as well. Oh
that our treasure would be to see souls saved from an eternity apart from their
Creator.
As
CHRISTmas approaches, we wish each of you a deeper receptivity of the gift of
salvation Christ came to give. May the peace
given by Jesus, the peace that passes all understanding, fill your hearts and
minds in ways that last eternally.
We
love you and genuinely do pray for each of you.
With
love in Christ,
Ingrid
and Lyle
