July 28, 2016

View From Deck

Hello, I (Ingrid) am writing this, overlooking lovely evergreen trees from the balcony of the home we are at. I had forgotten just how tall these trees are, reaching way up in the sky (80-100 feet).   We have been in the USA for 3 weeks, have slept in 4 different beds in 4 different locations, and now have a full week plus a few days here in Woodinville, Washington which will be our home base while we are in the US for furlough. 

The cries of our hearts reflect Psalm 136:

Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. 

We had put out our need for lodging while on furlough and the need for a vehicle to use while here, and the Lord has shown us such generosity in so many reaching out to us to help provide for us while here.  We wish to thank everyone who looked to help us, who offered help and for all the love and generous care we have already been shown even before putting a foot on US soil.  We have places to stay and the generous use of a car for our entire time here.  We do give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy and loving-kindness truly does endure!!!  We are also giving God thanks and all of you who joined us in praying for our future team.  We will be having people joining us after we get back to Uganda.  We know of five teammates coming and in the months ahead, more could be added.  We are sooooo stoked for this to come to fruition.  While here we have already been able to meet with one of our new teammates in person.  She "just happened" to live about 10 minutes away from where we are staying; we will be having a FaceTime call with another family who will be joining us; and finally, on our way to Montana we will be spending a night in Idaho to meet another teammate.  This is such a wonderful blessing to be able to spend even this little bit of time with those who God has called to Karamoja.  From what we understand being able to do this is very atypical.  We are so thankful and do not take these opportunities for granted. 

We didn’t get around to blogging in June, as the busyness and interruptions of our daily lives in Moroto continued and continued. Busyness was the norm. Most was unexpected and some was planned and welcomed. Ones we welcomed were:

Going away party for Thomas

• We had a farewell party for Thomas, who was heading back to Canada to finish his last year of Bible College.  He was able to invite the people he felt closest to, and so we hosted a gathering of about 20+ people to love on him, pray for him and see him off.  Farewells are one of the most consistent bittersweet occasions we experience as missionaries.

• We were honored to welcome for a brief visit the head of AIM for our region, Joel and Jill Skinner and the head of USA AIM, Wade Ewing.  They flew in to the airport outside of Moroto, where we met them and were able to give them a brief tour of manyattas and the town of Moroto.  I then joined Wade in
  the AIM airplane and was able to give a brief aerial tour of the District.  It was encouraging for Lyle and me to be able to have these people take the time to come and see firsthand what our lives look like as far as the road conditions, the isolation from the rest of the country and the precious people the Lord has sent us to.  They were with us maybe 3-4 hours only, but we
  really thank the Lord for this time.

• We are part of a couples group that meets every other Friday and we are finding this a wonderful place to deepen relationships and to hear culturally how people are viewing life and marriage and parenthood.

• We picked up at the airport an 83 year-old man, Bill, from Texas who has a home in the bush outside of Moroto town.  He had been on holiday in Kampala and we were happy to give him a ride back to his place in Rupa 20 minute drive outside of Moroto town).  This is where 5 of our boys live.

Girls from Alakara Girls Home praying for Suzanne

• Shortly after this, our unit leaders and the head of personnel for our region (six countries) visited us for three days.  They arrived the day we had a farewell gathering for Suzanne, our last Short termer.  She was going to head out of the bush with them when our meetings were over.  Suzanne’s farewell, like Thomas’, was for her to invite those she had come to have relationship with in her 2 months in Moroto.  We hosted a group of 25+ for this occasion.  The girls’ home where Suzanne spent much time, had created a song for her and made jewelry as gifts for her.  It was a very touching time lasting many hours. It was a treasure to see how the Lord had moved and worked in Suzanne as well as through her, during these few months.

Now we get to the part that we embrace though difficult because we trust in the Sovereignty of our Lord.

Bill from April of 2016

• As you know from above, our unit leaders came to spend some time with us. This happens periodically so that we can just spend some time together and conduct necessary business. This was a most unusual visit as it was characterized by constant interruptions. The most significant of these was medically evacuating Bill by airplane, who we had just recently picked up. We are still not sure what went on with him medically. It spanned from Typhoid Fever to Septicemia, depending on whom you talked to.  It began when we got a call that Bill was not well and assistance was needed to get him to a local clinic to get checked out. Next we got another call that Bill was not improving and so we coordinated getting a medical officer (there are no doctors in Moroto) out to see him. The determination was that he needed to be in the hospital. We transported him Moroto Referral Hospital. His condition improved to the point of him being able to walk, but then for some reason deteriorated to the point of unconsciousness.  It became clear that if he remained in Moroto he would most likely die and that a higher level of care was needed. We then began working on setting up a medical air evacuation. I received one quote of $4,500 cash up front. Wow!! Who carries that kind of money around? This is where we really see God’s hand in all of this. Our unit leaders are in charge of all of Northern Uganda and AIM Air is part of their unit! Krys was able to talk to AIM Air and set the whole thing up at a much lower cost and deferred payment. What a blessing!  Bill was transferred to Kampala, stabilized, and subsequently was able to fly back to the USA with a mission team who “just happened” to be returning at the same time. We really got to see God’s provision first hand as He intervened in this most difficult situation and pulled all the loose ends together.  Bill is convalescing in Texas at this point.

• At the same time that all of this is happening with Bill we received a phone call from one of Bill’s boys that one of the boys we sponsor, Joseph, is sick, falling down, and unconscious at times.   Lyle went to the school and picked him up and took him to the hospital. Just as a side note, taking someone to the hospital is not as straightforward as it might seem. Once someone is admitted it also involves making sure there is someone to remain at the hospital to care for them and it also involves making sure meals are provided for the patient as well as the caretaker. So making the long story short it was eventually determined that Joseph had gone out and drank too much of the “local brew.” From what we can determine this was highly unusual behavior for him. They kept him over night and gave him IV fluids as he was vomiting. This also necessitated some follow-up counseling with him.  Lyle contacted Pastor Noah, and the two of them were able to follow up.

• While these other two issues were unfolding simultaneously another one of our boys, Ariang, came to the house to seek our assistance. Evidently Moroto Referral Hospital had gone to all of the schools and tested the students for Hepatitis B.  He was informed that his test was positive and that he needed to report to the hospital.  He had been reporting day after day to sit all day waiting to be seen and was continually being told he needed to come back the following day.  So he had been missing school for almost a week. He is a serious student and working hard to make 1^st grade (the highest ranking one can have – very few achieve this), which would ensure his acceptance into his choice of secondary school. He is right on the cusp and missing school could mean not making 1^st grade.  Lyle was able to ask questions a youth wouldn’t be allowed to ask and sorted things out.  Evidently there is a huge backlog for blood testing and then to complicate matters, the only machine in Moroto was broken.  Instead of telling the people waiting, they were just told to come back the next day.  He was able to put off going back until the following week. We left for the USA shortly after this, and have no idea of the result.  Please pray for Ariang’s health. Subsequent to this we have read a news report that the drugs needed for treatment aren’t available in Moroto.

Boys from MIPP homes (Bill's ministry) supervising jump start

• And finally, just to ensure everything was over the top, the one month old used alternator on our car broke. We discovered this when we went to start the car and it wouldn’t start. We called our unit leader who was able to come and give us a jump-start. We charged our dead batteries (we run a dual battery system) on his vehicle to enable Lyle to take the car to the auto electrician who was able to find another used alternator.  This process took most of one day.  The astounding thing is, the batteries did not go flat until after we had gotten Bill to the airstrip for his evacuation flight. If this would have happened anytime sooner, it would have made it all the more difficult to get Bill taken care of.  You might ask yourself why we just don't buy a properly refurbished alternator.  The simple answer is, they don't exist in Uganda.  We can have a new one imported, but it would cost about $1,000.

These are just a few examples of how our last couple of months went before we left for our furlough. It just seemed to be one thing after another! Yet, by our Lord’s grace everything was taken care of and we left on time not forgetting a thing (at least that we can remember J).   And so we find ourselves back in Washington State, desiring to spend time with our family, friends as well as our sending church from here, RAG, and the one from Montana, FCC, as they are the ones who commissioned us to go to the field in Karamoja, Uganda in 2013.  We will be deepening our relationships in these two churches as well as with other supporters, and to provide a glimpse of what their prayers and finances are doing on the field.  We have found that while not called furloughs in the Bible, the first one is documented at the end of Acts 14:

“They (Paul and Barnabas coming to the end of their first mission journey) gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them….and they stayed there a long time with the disciples.”

Moses & Napeyok

Please pray for our time in the States to be well used by our Lord. And pray also for our 16 boys and one girl back in Moroto as well as our home and the ones caretaking for us, that things will go smoother now than whilst we were there.  Thanks so much for your prayers for us and for the karimojong. We have just found out that two of the prisoners we had asked prayer for, a husband and wife, who have been held for over two years without a charge, have been declared not guilty by the high court and released.  They are now going to be reunited with their two young daughters. 

Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endures forever. Oh give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. Oh give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.  

Beautiful Karamoja Sunset

We will come to understand in the days to come how His goodness works in their false imprisonment.  I already know that He used them inside the prison to point people to Jesus.

We are in the USA for 6 months and would love to connect with any of you who would desire to.  Our email address is lilathrop@aimint.org, so send us a line and we will do our best to get together. 

Love,

                                                                                          Ingrid & Lyle

May 3, 2016

In our last blog, we were writing from extreme heat, we have now moved into the cool rainy season, and we are praising the Lord for the rain.  It has been here for about 5 weeks now, which is the best spring rains Moroto, Karamoja has seen in our 3 springs here.

Thomas

We are happy to say our short-term team has grown by one so we are now a team of four, which is so encouraging for Lyle and me.  Suzanne Betts, from the UK, has joined us for about 3 months. It is my first experience having another woman who loves Jesus and who I can share my heart with here in Moroto.

Suzanne

Suzanne is concentrating her ministry time here at a girls’ home in one of the slums here in Moroto.  The name of the home is called Project Moroto.  A woman from New Zealand started it last year, and houses 20 girls that are orphans aged from 8 years old to 16 years of age.  Lyle and I had spent one night a week there doing basic Sunday school lessons with them prior to our compassion leave in October 2016.  It has been so precious watching these sweet girls getting to know Suzanne and to hear from her about the God who created them, and His love for them in the midst of their suffering circumstances.  She is also presenting to many children on Saturdays lessons from scripture union, on good choices, and hygiene and basic things.  She has joined me in ministering to the women in prison and also serves with Thomas and Lyle at a local high school.  On one of our trips to the girls

Girls from Project Moroto

home, following a heavy downpour, the car slid off the road in the slick mud and the right side of the car lodged deep into the mud on the side of road. We were all quite a sight as Thomas, Suzanne, and Lyle and I were desperately struggling to free the car. We was also throwing rocks under the car tires and eventually we attached a strap to tow hook on the front of the car and myself along with some Karimojong teenagers helped pull the car free. Lyle and I rushed home after this to clean both ourselves and the car as we needed to go to the Bible study with the prison guards.

Part of the ministry team

Reverend Raymond, the pastor Thomas (our missionary from Canada) was working with left right after Easter for 6 weeks. Lyle assumed Raymond’s supervisory role over the ministry team (Thomas is a part of this team).  This has entailed team meetings and devotions four days a week as well as planning for ministry in prisons and at secondary schools and in other parish churches. In addition Lyle continues to be part of a Bible study with the prison guards on Sunday along with me.

Esther

Our Easter Sunday was lovely with four of our older boys here and one family from our church.  We spent time worshipping the Lord and Lyle shared a bit on what Easter means to humankind.  It was also our last peaceful day up to the present.  We have had a very challenging time since that day: from me once again having malaria and secondary problems from it which I am still battling, to our precious friend and house help Esther dying suddenly that Monday night following Easter.  Culturally we were plunged into a huge lesson on how death is treated here and we were invited to be deeply involved in the process.  She leaves 6 children, two young girls and a boy who are not yet grown who are now total orphans as their father died several years ago and three adult children.  Understanding deep within my heart that God is good even though I know only He could take Esther from this earth, required a bit of processing for me.

While trying to live well with all of that, the rains came, just after the Chinese, who have contracted to build paved roads here in Moroto and in Karamoja, had deconstructed our road.  The roads had been bulldozed with nothing but fine dirt remaining. They had destroyed all the ditches that were used to hold the runoff water during these heavy rains.  As a result, all the water from the hills and mountain above us washed into our yard.  The water was so deep that it was about one inch from coming into the house.  The downward side of our yard had a solid wall that kept the water from continuing to run downhill, so Lyle was trying to put a hole in the wall with a pick axe to allow it to drain and I was wading in the water trying to save guinea fowl, chickens and a turkey that had just started sitting on eggs. We couldn’t believe how swift the water came in. Lyle was able to break a big enough hole in the wall to keep the runoff from entering the house, the rain abated and he jumped into the car to go to the Chinese headquarters to get them to do something before the next downpour.  They actually did respond quickly for this part of the world, and got a backhoe out and created a bit of a ditch, which worked well until yesterday when it collapsed and we again had runoff but not so severe.  We were left with about 4-5 inches of fine silt all over the yard and on our plants, we are still cleaning up!!

Esther, Shamin, and Mwanaisha

Then our car quit running, needing a new alternator and starter but guess what, there are none in Uganda!!!   Our friend and mechanic in Kampala located used ones and got them working within a few days, sent up a mechanic on a bus, a 12-14 hour trip, he got here at 3 am.  The next morning, Lyle and he worked on changing them out, and the car still wouldn’t run, the batteries were spoiled as well.  We needed two batteries that have opposite connections; there was only one type of battery available in Moroto, so as I write we are waiting for batteries to come up from Kampala with the same mechanic. 

The crew going on for a hike

So for the last 12 days, we have been navigating the muddy roads on foot and praising the Lord that we have feet with which to walk these roads J. During this time, Lyle, Suzanne and Thomas took the 20 girls from Project Moroto and a few others up the mountains and the vistas were spectacular from that height. Lyle FaceTime’d me from the mountain so I could share the view.  I wish I was able to join them, but my legs will not allow that. The incline was much more severe that any of the three of them had imagined and the hike was enjoyed for days with the sore muscles reminding them all of what they had done.  The children enjoyed having adults spending time with them and I think everyone involved will remember this day for a long time.

Esther and Simon

We do not take lightly all the many challenges we have faced this past month and as we are studying 1st and 2^nd Peter with the prison guards, we have had a month worth of putting into application, 1 Peter 1:6-7  So be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine.  It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. 

We truly do believe this verse, and we trust the wonderful joy ahead is the privilege of seeing lives changed from broken ones to new life in Christ, with the destruction of sin having lost it’s power.  We are greatly encouraged by the Karimojong that the Lord has us investing into, as we see them coming to understand more and more Who Jesus is and who they have been promised to be in Christ.

On the hike: View from the top of the mountain

It is difficult for us to believe that in two months we will be boarding a plane and heading back to the USA for a six-month furlough.  This is our first furlough and so we wanted you to understand better as we are learning to understand what this term exactly means.  The dictionary definition of furlough is: “a period of time where a soldier is allowed to be absent from service, especially to return temporarily to their own town or country.”   Now we do feel like soldiers, seriously!!  But that is where the definition takes a turn, we are never absent from the Lord’s service, whether we are in Uganda or the USA. We are told that part of a furlough is meant for us to have a break from the culture we are immersed in, to have a time to rejuvenate in ways one cannot on the field, but we are still in active service working and doing ministry while in the country of our origin.  It is also a time for us to joyously spend with our families, reacquainting ourselves with our many grandchildren. And oh are we looking forward to that part!!!  We will share more about what our six months will look like in our last blog in Uganda for 2016, probably in June.  But we do ask you to please be praying with us and for us, that our supporters who are on the field with us through their financial support will understand that we do need this to continue while on furlough. 

As I close this, the mechanic has arrived and put two new batteries into the car and I heard the sound of the engine roaring to life for the first time in almost two weeks.  Praise the Lord!!

March 14, 2016

Hello all, Ingrid here greeting everyone from a very hot dry Moroto, Uganda.  Our average temperature since early January has been in the mid to high 90’s with little relief.  This has been the hottest February/March we have experienced in our three years here. We traveled from Moroto to Kampala in early March for a week and traded the dry sauna for a steam bath as Kampala was experiencing high heat as well, just with the added touch of humidity.  It is amazing how little motivation there is for a lot of activity when one is producing a lot of sweat just in sitting. 

One scripture that continues to clearly be an active part of our lives here comes from 1 Thessalonians 2:8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives as well.  We are definitely a part of the community and this continues to be demonstrated in so many ways.  Even in communities several hours away, we meet people we know from Moroto.  On our way back to Moroto last week, we ran into a man we have gotten to know from Moroto who warned us the bridge was out on the road back to here and explained how to go a different way to reach the main road after the broken bridge. 

Ingrid & friend making bracelets at girls home

Without his kindness we would have traveled one hour only to have to turn back and drive one hour back to Soroti and then another hour back another way.  This is one example of the small things that encourage me so much these days.  Another encouragement to me is the generator that we have, purchased for us by our Italian mechanic in Kampala at a price that we could afford.  He bought it and waited months until we had the money to reimburse him and pick it up.  Right now we are going on three days without power and it looks to be many more before it is restored.  All the power lines along our road are being replaced and put into new locations so that roadwork can happen.  Without the generator everything in our freezer and frig would be spoiled by now in this heat.  What kindness God shows us.

Lyle with deaf attendees at recent youth gathering

We experienced our first presidential elections here and hunkered down in our home with other ex-pats for the day.  There was a huge police presence in Moroto and because of that there was very little violence.  We cannot speak a lot about what is happening here with regard to outcomes but our requests for prayer are ongoing.  This isn’t over yet.  Sorry to be so cryptic but have been encouraged to be very subtle.  Because of the elections in mid-February, schools didn’t begin their first term until after the election on the 18^th; they should have started the beginning of February.  It is a very different system; you as an adult must be in your own village of origin to vote, even if you work in another part of the country, so many teachers were gone and the schools didn’t really start for a week or so after the elections.

Getting permission from village elder to help a boy in school

We are now up to 18 children, 17 boys and one girl, which was very challenging to get into school.  We had several new boys and the girl as well, which meant purchasing mattresses for boarding, all the supplies they would need to live there such as a metal box which holds all their worldly goods, a cup and plate and spoon, soap for clothes and body, sugar, books, pens, mathematic kits, for secondary students calculators and then we would move with all this to the various schools and register them and move them in when allowed.  This was our first experience enrolling students into secondary schools, and we felt the challenge of a learning curve we don’t understand.  Our first boy in one of these wasn’t even one of ours but we were helping another man who was in the USA.  If this boy hadn’t shown up on the 19^th, the school would have given his spot to another student on a waiting list.  No one is guaranteed passage into a secondary school even with top grades.  This school wasn’t in Moroto and we think this boy was the first to register for the year at this school, cause it was with us they figured out that they hadn’t put on the registration paper all the fees and requirements.  Because of this we had to drive back to Moroto, and finish getting all the things including passport photos, for this young man, and then they made him take off his trousers and put on shorts????  I asked the deputy head teacher to help me understand this, and he said it was for disciplines sake, which seems contrary to me that gym shorts reflect more discipline than trousers.

Getting permission at another village. Pastor Noah is helping

Our one young woman is named Miriam, and I first came to meet her over a year ago in a hospital in a village about 45 minutes from here at the Catholic Italian Hospital there.  She had just had her leg amputated above the knee, and was understandably very upset.  What I didn’t know is that she had very little support as her mother is dead and the father remarried and as so often happens in these cases, the children born to a previous mother are not welcome.  She had some distant relatives of her mother taking care of her, while in the hospital. Here in Uganda, the hospital only supplies medicine, the family must supply all food, bedding, water, bathing supplies, etc.  So if a person doesn’t have a family member willing to stay and help them, they often don’t go to the hospital and death usually is the result of serious illness then.  Miriam wouldn’t engage with me at the hospital and I didn’t think about her until I saw her walking with her crutches down the street in Moroto.  I would always try to greet her and finally she would greet me back instead of ignoring me.  Then I started seeing her at the church we attend and I would go out of my way to greet her, as the culture would have her be invisible because of her handicap.  She finally got up the courage to approach me and ask if she could come see me.  Of course I said yes, and through getting to know her found out her story.  She is staying with a family from another tribe on the same grounds as her father and stepmother, and has been supported by this other Christian family who could not afford to help her with secondary school. 

Reading to a friend's child (no glasses - big squint)

So after prayer, with the Holy Spirit’s confirmation, we agreed to help her go to school.  By a miracle, she was accepted into Moroto Secondary School, as her grades were not up to their levels, and together Lyle, Miriam and I have learned the process for enrolling in this particular school.  Please keep her in your prayers, she has been extremely appreciative and shared with me that she now has hope where as before she felt hopeless and couldn’t understand why God had allowed her life to go the way it did.  I have no concrete answer for her, but was able to confidently share with her, that God loves her, hears her prayers and finds her so valuable that He sent His Son Jesus to die in her place so that she could have a complete relationship with God the Father. 

Tapac Primary School (where our friends a moving to)

We also helped another organization get their 12 boys settled into school as the driving force of that organization was out of the country at the beginning of the term.  It has been a challenging few weeks, but everyone is settled now and we have come to know many more people as a result.  Another interesting thing about schools in this country is that teachers can be transferred to other places without warning.  Two of our good friends here, from a different tribe, found out on the 19^th of Feb. that they were being transferred to a school in the bush about an hour from here on extremely rough roads.  We took them out to see the school, they became excited as they are now viewing this as God’s will for a people to hear about Jesus and that God is sending them to do this work as well as teach.  It was a privilege to watch the Holy Spirit move in them as we visited this very isolated place.  How they are to get their belonging out there still remains to be seen.  They will have to leave children back here in Moroto which is difficult for them to do, and difficult for me to think about, as they are one of few couples who actually live as a family.

Ingrid with friend and Shalom 

Ministry wise, we continue to see the Lord moving in the Bible study with the prison guards, taking cultural truths such as women can only be saved by bearing children (1 Tim 2:15) being taking out of context, and all of us together examining many scriptures to see what is truth.  Another one is that women are spiritually weaker, because of Eve’s being deceived by satan, and together as a group wrestling with Adam’s sin since he wasn’t deceived and still ate the fruit and was punished as well.  For the men in this group, I felt I got to see sacred work taking place in minds, and for the women in this group, watching them see men’s eyes opened to their own deception was an amazing honor for Lyle and me.  I also minister to the female prisoners, both on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I would ask for prayer for some of these prisoners as the charges against them are ones that can only be seen by the high court, and the high court never comes to Moroto, I am told it is too expensive.  They have been held for over two years without seeing a judge and no one outside seems to care that they say they are innocent but are losing years of their lives waiting for a court that will not come.  They have been told, and I have been told, that they should just plead guilty and then they would get a sentence and know there is an end.  Please pray for a miracle that the court would come to Moroto!!!  Justice isn’t a reality here, in sooooo many ways.

At a workshop (Thomas is on the left and closest to the front)

We have been blessed to have a young man join us here for ministry for a few months.  His name is Thomas and he is a third year Bible college student from Alberta, Canada.  We cannot tell you what a breath of fresh air he is to us, as he really loves Jesus and wants to serve Him.  He will be here through May and we will be sad to see him go.  We also are getting a young woman from the UK here for two and a half months, to work with us in ministry.  She arrives the first part of April.  Her name is Suzanne, so a prayer for these two precious people is appreciated as well as continuing to pray for us.  We treasure this!!

Getting ready to cook up an ostrich egg with friends

God continues to remind us that it is He that brought us to the Karimojong and it is He that sustains us and surrender to Him and His plan for these precious people is never to leave our minds.  We believe that it is His will for a Moroto Focus Team to join us here in 2017 and we have the privilege of watching Him organize and put together a group of people who love Him and are willing to serve Him as a team.  What a privilege and honor it is to be where we are: both in relationship with our Lord God and with others.  He demonstrates and affirms this in so many ways, not the least of these are the gifts flowing in to our compound.  We have received the gift of two guinea fowl (male and female) via a general in the Uganda military, a pair of turkeys, (male and female), and another female which just flew in and we are waiting for the owner to come claim her, and most recently two tortoises.  Lyle was thinking maybe this was a Karimojong type of the ark.