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| "Karamoja Culture Day" prior to convocation |
Prior
to our vacation, our unit leaders ask us to pray about how and when our home
assignment should happen, so as not to leave new team members up here alone for
many months. So in discussion with them we have agreed with their wise council to
not try to get team members here before we leave for our home assignment the
last half of 2016. So this means on the third year anniversary of us arriving
in Moroto, we hope to be welcoming team members to our Moroto Focus team, that
is in mid-February, 2017!!! While with
our human eyes, that seems a long way off, our Father has been busy in our
land. We have gotten the privilege of
witnessing a unity of those who identify with Christianity in Karamoja that I
hadn’t ever expected. The middle of
August, the Catholic and Protestant churches united and came together to
dedicate Karamoja to the one and only living God, Jehovah/Yahweh. The Convocation, as it was called, was a 5-day
event, topped off with the President of Uganda confirming and witnessing this
dedication.
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| Different Karimojong Clans gathering to repent and then to forgive each other |
While
it was a serious miracle to have unity among all the different denominations
representing Christ Jesus, it was also a huge miracle to have elders and youth from
each clan of the Karimojong there willing to repent and ask for forgiveness on
behalf of the clan for what had been done to the other clans. So the Karimojong
tribe has 6 clans and up to about 3 years ago, these were violently
slaughtering each other and stealing from each other, many times just for
revenge of things that may have happened decades ago or months ago. There were also neighboring tribes that were
invited to the Convocation, as well as neighbors in the border countries of
Kenya and South Sudan and all of these came and were well represented as the
Karimojong had raided all these areas and left tragedy in their wake. Forgiveness was asked for by all and was
received by all. One example of this
reconciliation follows: A man from a tribe in Kenya, who hadn’t worn a shirt
for 29 years, which was when the Karimojong stole his shirt and raped and
killed his wife and his children, finally put on a shirt once again. What happened here was, I believe, in the
spiritual world a very powerful thing. Nothing
went completely smooth during the 5 days and I am sure that much grace had to
be extended on all sides for each other, but the fact that it happened
successfully, to me is very promising for this land to change who is the
spiritual ruler over it.
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| View from our room while on vacation |
The
Convocation was sandwiched in between our vacation, which proved to be more of
a glorified survivor camp for us; Lyle’s facilitation at the first Ugandan
organized mission conference (which took place at the same time as the
Convocation); and our immediate travel after the Convocation ended, to fly to
Kigali, Rwanda for a conference. So the
month of August was mostly a blur with lots of prayer for each day. We just returned to Moroto on Sept. 9th
and have been busy enrolling boys into school, which started this past
Monday. For the past 5 terms, as each
term has started, we have felt led to help one or two more boys, and each time
we look at each other and say this is all we can do, and so that was our
mindset as we set out to pay school fees for our boys, all 13 of them, but in
the process we deeply felt the Lord leading us to help another two. Lyle and Simon (for discernment and
interpretation purposes) went out to the village of the two new ones, to see if
their stories were true. (I was involved
with a complicated situation at our neighbors.) One of the two boys is
completing P7 this term, which would be like 8th grade in the
USA. He had told Lyle and me that his
grandmother had been gathering firewood and making charcoal to pay for his
school fees, but has recently gone blind, and can no longer cater for him. When Lyle got to this boy’s village, and met
the grandmother, he said it looks like she has cataracts; he said there was a thick
grey white over the colored part of her eyes.
And so he agreed to help this grandmother with the boy’s school fees, we
will be investigating whether or not cataract surgery is available here, and
hopefully we can at some point help this lady regain her eyesight. The other boy, from the same area, walks with
several other children, 45 minutes to an hour, each way every day, to go to
school here in Moroto town. He is in P5,
like 7th grade. The schools in the town have better educators than
the ones out in the bush. So Lyle agreed
to pay his day fees as well, and made a plan with this boy, that if his grades
improve this term, we will put him into boarding school next year, so he
doesn’t have to walk every day. It is so
amazing to me that these children are so dedicated, I lived 3 miles from the
town where my school was and would have gladly not gone, if I had to
walk!!! Oh how I ache for these precious
people. We are hoping to have a bit of a
leveling off of the demands each day, but trust the Lord with each day.
On a
personal level, while on our, not planned to be a challenge but was, vacation,
we did come to the realization upon reflecting on our daily life here in
Moroto, that just as all money is not ours but God’s, and we are to steward it
well, all time is God’s as well. So we
were challenged to ask ourselves if we were being cheerful and good stewards of
God’s time. Of course, we had to answer,
not so much! (esp. at times on the cheerful part). So of course, on getting back to Moroto the
first part of August, our recent convictions were greatly put to the test. We had, it felt like, double the
interruptions and requests as before; and yet the Lord gave us the grace and
strength to joyfully respond to each one. Rejoice with us on the joyful part,
cause that is truly Jesus and not us. We are continuing to consciously work at
having this attitude become our own. So
prayers for us in this regard are greatly appreciated. During that holiday trip, we also acquired a
generator. Some friends that the Lord
has given us in Kampala, who are very familiar with Karamoja, bought a
generator for us at a very good price, and when we got the funds to pay for it,
we picked it up. We are so grateful for
this love and God’s provision for us, as we had to use it for the five days
after arriving, because of the power being off so often. As I write this, our trusty generator is
keeping our battery charged as we have been without power now going on two
days. So again please, please rejoice
with us as our Lord through His people more than provides for our needs. We are very humbled by His love and grateful
for it.
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| Helping thresh sorghum in manyatta |
As
we were sharing with people here in Moroto and in Kampala that we were going to
Rwanda and the local people in Uganda would speak of the place, we realized
that we have been saying the name of this country wrong. We have added an o, so it sounds like we are
saying Rowanda, but the correct way combines the Rw, which makes it sound very
different and is a challenge for English speakers not used to combining two
consonants like Rw. I have been
practicing this seriously, and am now a good African in how I pronounce it,
even Lyle has applauded me for my pronunciation. Our time in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali,
was made delightful by the hospitality of several AIM missionaries who are
serving there. We were picked up from
the airport by a precious friend from France, and we stayed with a delightful
couple, who are Australian/Kenyan or vice versa, and their wonderful
children. We got to meet the whole team,
as they had a unit get-together while we were there. One of the wives even made Lyle a birthday
cake and brought it to our conference, to celebrate his birth on Sept. 4th. We were warmly treated by everyone there,
nationals as well as ex-pats, and I don’t think I would have understood the
tension that is really underneath the surface of this beautiful country, if two
Rwandese had not had the courage to individually share with me, about their
past, and what happened to them and their families during the genocide about 20
years ago. My heart just broke for their
suffering that continues inside even today.
They both have forgiven and are allowing Jesus to heal, but the ache for
what happened to their loved ones is still there. It is soooooo tough to hear what humanity
does to each other in the name of superiority.
This sickness is so much deeper than the color of the skin, as all these
had the same color but different tribes.
Oh how we need the humility and love that only Jesus Christ, God
Himself, can give us through the Holy Spirit.
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| One of many new friends we met in Kigali, Rwanda (no "o") |
As I
continue to ponder on all these things, and seek the Lord, He is so good to
remind me of His promises to me. One of ones that continues to touch me as my
body lets me know that I have been walking this earth for more than 6 decades
is Isaiah 46:4 which says: I will be your God through out your lifetime—until
your hair is white with age. I made you and
I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. This brings such comfort to me especially on
the days my legs are very weak or my back and neck rebels.
I
have downloaded an eBook on early missionary journeys and after reading of one
person’s experience on the South Pacific islands in the 1800’s, with cannibals
and the lives lost without having been able to share one word about their Creator
God, I found myself questioning whether these people were really led by God to
go there or if they just thought it was a good idea and that was why they lost
their lives. This morning in my quiet
time, I was reading a devotional sent to me by a very precious friend, called
Streams in the Desert, an apt description of Karamoja. It was speaking of the wonder of suffering,
and the divine mystery connected with suffering. It stated: “No one has ever developed a deep
level of spirituality or holiness without experiencing a great deal of
suffering.” It suddenly hit me regarding
the men in the South Pacific; they were living out Romans 12:1 “And so dear
brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of
all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He
will find acceptable. This is truly the
way to worship Him.” Perhaps these men,
were only after pleasing God, and not about productivity in ministry, they were
simply giving their bodies to Him and desiring to please the One Who made them
and gave them salvation. Perhaps their
choices were only about their relationship with God and not outcomes.
So
much food for thought for me, I desire to completely give my body, soul and
spirit to God as a holy and living sacrifice, the kind He will accept, and to
have that be my only reason for anything I do.
I would ask for you to pray for me in this as well. That here in Karamoja, I would allow my body,
my time, my emotions, everything about me to come from a place of true love for
and love received from my Creator, my Savior, my Lord.
We
have 5 weeks before we fly to the USA and make our way from Florida to
Washington State, to Montana visiting each of our daughters and their families
and welcoming into this world our eighth grandchild. I AM SOOOO excited. We will be away from our place here in Moroto
for 8 weeks, a long time. We would ask
you to keep Simon, Esther, and Losike Paul, who help us here, in prayer as they
hold down the fort. We are hoping to
have someone staying here if they get approval from their organization, a young
woman from Germany who was here, went back to Germany, and is coming back for 6
months more. Prayer for our travel is
always appreciated, on the roads here in Uganda as well as in the air. We definitely feel like pilgrims that do not
have “a” home. Our hearts are with our
families in the USA and with our people here in Karamoja, and so we feel a dual
but conflicting tug of where we would desire to be. Maybe one day we will get used to this, but
for now leaving is hard, no matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean we are on.
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| Our chicken additions |
On a
lighter note, our Teso hen, featherless neck and all, laid 12 eggs, sat on them
for weeks and hatched 9 chicks. Two of them were snatched by a bird of prey
called a Kite, kind of looks like a chicken hawk, and for obvious reasons. So with 7 chicks left, Namoni has taken it on
herself to be the chick watchdog.
Between her announcing the alarm of Kites and the mother hen being very
watchful, the chicks are doing well.
Three of them look just like mama, a black cap on top of the head with a
featherless neck and a black-feathered body.
They are very cute!!
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| Lyle's gratuitous bird photo. Blue Turaco seen on vacation |
We
are grateful to have each of you here with us on this journey, thank you for
serving in Karamoja with us!!!! I hope
you are rejoicing with me in the answered prayers I shared, amazing answers
that I didn’t have the vision to even pray for.
Please pray that as the Karimojong have renounced shrines where demons
are lord, that the churches would not make shrines out of sanctuaries or
denominations, or teaching that is unbiblical and so create more spiritual
havoc in the area. We have seen hints of
this and are trying to address them as led by the Holy Spirit.
As
always, we treasure your communication with us, and we desire to pray for you
as well; in fact We do pray for you
and if you have specifics, please, please let us know.
We
give thanks to God for each and everyone of you!!!
