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| Our house is progressing! |
This
will be our last blog post from Moroto for a couple of months. In a week we will travel to Kampala to attend
a workshop and then board a plane to fly back to the USA to greet a new grandson,
Joshua Patrick, in Florida. Needless to
say we are very excited and are getting to exercise extra discipline staying
present here and continuing to learn and grow.
Sometimes it is hard to continue to force my brain to try to learn
another sound or word that is very foreign to me, and to not focus on looking
forward to a time where every situation doesn’t have to be carefully processed culturally,
which conflicts with my present day reality.
In the four months since we have settled into Moroto, we feel we have
learned so much culturally and language wise, and yet I was just reminded this
week that I know very little and really need to keep my learners mind foremost
in my thoughts. I am thinking that this
will be a good philosophy even back in the states as I am not returning the
same and things back there have not remained the same either.
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| Lyle and Peter (building engineer) standing on front porch |
I
have had the last five days with lots of time to ponder things as I developed
what I thought at first was a strip of sunburn on my neck (it would have been
my first) about Tuesday of last week. I then drove and the seatbelt stretched
over this very painful area and rubbed it.
I am very good at ignoring this kind of discomfort so I just let it rub,
silly girl that I am. By Tuesday evening it was very much hard to ignore and by
Wednesday others were commenting on my red strip. I thought then maybe I had been bitten, as
there were several red welts along with an open one from the seat belt dance.
Wednesday night I knew I had better start some medicine as this was rapidly
crossing my windpipe and also going up my jaw.
Needless to say by Thursday I was very sick and had a fever, was
diagnosed with either contact dermatitis or cellulitis. I could not believe that such a small
seemingly superficial thing could make me so ill, but ill I was until
today. I was forced by my
non-functioning body to lie in bed, sleeping day and night a lot and not being
able to really function even for critical thinking.
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| School room being used for church |
God
has taken me to James 5:7-8: Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you
wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the
farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They
eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.
You, too, must be patient. Take courage
for the coming of the Lord is very near.
He reminds me that He is also patiently waiting for the harvest
in Karamoja and He alone knows when the rains will fall and the grain will
ripen. It is such a comfort to rest in
the merciful, patient hands of my Lord as I live for Him here in a land where I
am not sure about anything.
The
Lord has opened the door a crack for Lyle in his desire to see the police and
the prison staffs have a chance to know the Lord better or learn who He is
through Bible study. A Pastor and he
were able to meet with the administration of the police force here and have
been invited back to meet with staff at times set up for people to come
together for unofficial business. We are
hoping that this will be sustained while we are gone so that when we come back,
Lyle can just join an ongoing fellowship.
We have both been given wonderful opportunities to grow in relationship
with some of the Karimojong people the Lord has allowed us to know. We are really growing to understand that
bridges of trust and true character take time and must be in place if what one
says is to be received. We want to be
able to deeply know our new friends and to receive what they say to us and pray
that this will be reciprocated. We
have also been encouraged to hear a couple of young adults lead church in the
manyattas with very sound Biblical messages.
These are not pastors, but just young people wanting those in the bush
to know that God sees them and hears them and loves them. These glimmers of God’s goodness are so
wonderful to us.
We
were given the opportunity to meet several Ministers of Parliament (like our
U.S. Congress) who came up on a weekend to Moroto. They were with the Ministry of Education and
were here to see education in action with a surprise visit. Since they came on a weekend they didn’t get
to see much in the form of education, but we were able to share our hearts
regarding the gap in aide to street children.
They seemed surprised that no NGO is addressing this need, and we were
happy to share with them the little we knew.
We drove them around and some of our street boys crowded the car and
they saw first hand some of the challenges these precious souls struggle to
survive in. We are praying that the Lord
will touch one or two hearts out of these politicians and that somehow advocacy
for these, “the least of these,” children can be formed.
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| Peter is holding "First Writing Book" |
Our
boys that are attending school are doing well.
Peter has blended well with the other boys at Pastor Noah’s. We put two boys in boarding school so that
they would not be on the street. They are settling in well once Lyle and Pastor
Noah and I had a talk with them. They
had been in school about two weeks when I was notified by a teacher that they
were beating up the other children L. They had been disciplined by the school but
were still responding to teasing and meanness with their fists. How does one leave the street out of the boy
when that is all the boy knows? The Lord
laid on Lyle’s heart that he needed to share some of his personal testimony
with them, and we wanted them to know the consequences of their actions if they
did not stop. So we met them at Pastor
Noah’s and he interpreted for us. You should
have seen their eyes as Lyle shared that he had been a liar, a thief, etc. and
how he couldn’t change this behavior on his own even when he wanted to. He really shared from his heart how only
Jesus was able to give him the strength to change and that Jesus would do the
same for them if they wanted. We made
sure they knew that the school would kick them out if they continued with
fighting, and that if they fought they were choosing not to be in school. We also made it clear that each one had his
own choice to make and while one might choose to fight and get kicked out it
didn’t mean the other one left as well.
One of these little ones, Joseph was so willing to listen and really
took in all that Lyle and Pastor Noah said, the other one, the leader, was much
more closed, but still listening.
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| Thomas and Joseph |
Since
then, I am happy to say, there are no more reports of fighting. We do get stopped so often by boys on the
street begging us to go to school. There
are so many!! One in a wheelchair, who left the chair on the other side of the
ditch and crawled over the little wood bridge on his knees, came over to us and
I asked in my best Kjong what his name was.
He replied in very good English, “you want to know my name? It is
Samuel.” I was impressed. He very much wants to continue school; he is
very bright. Please pray with us for
this very real need here, whether the Lord would have AIM work with local
leaders to meet this need or if there is another way. It is huge and God keeps
reminding me of James, that faith without works is dead.
He
is also reminding me that He has called me to be faithful to His leading for
me, which doesn’t equal productive as in doing, without obedience to Him. I hope that makes sense. Lyle and I are called to love Christ with a
passionate love and to know that the only true missionary method that is
effective is the method of love. This we
are joyously doing, loving each and everyone we have the privilege of
interacting with. We are clinging to this hope, that only God’s love has the
power to shine in the darkness, to change lives, to melt the heart of stone, to
give true life. Our role is to abide in
Him. Jesus said over and over in John 14 “those who love Me, obey Me.” Our prayer is that we would be obedient to
Him, to truly love Him!! We keep ever
mindful that we are to look to see the places where the Lord would place AIM
team members in this land as we deepen our roots as well. We thank the Lord for Paul’s prayer: 2
Thessalonians 3:5 – “May the Lord
lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God
and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.” We believe he prayed this for us as
well and we are on the learning curve of the patient endurance here as there is
nothing romantic about missionary work.
The encouragement He gives us each day keeps us desiring to be alert and
disciplined to continue to complete what He has called us to.
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| Adam with his mother and siblings |
Some of you may recall I had measured a young boy, Adam, with cerebral palsy a while ago for a new wheelchair. Another AIM missionary, July Probst, who works with special needs children, was able to order it for him. Here he is in his new chair with his mama and siblings. A foot rest went missing during transport (fell off on the road somewhere), but Lord willing a replacement will be located.
Thank you for being with us here in Karamoja and for your patient endurance as well, as you encourage us greatly in so many ways. We hope to see may of you in our travels across the USA in 7 weeks as we go from the east coast to the west coast to spend time with each of our children and their families.
This last photo simply could not be resisted. We were leaving the market and saw that some of the local goat population decided that the unoccupied shopping stalls would be a splendid spot for a noon time rest.
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| Goats enjoying a noontime rest! |
Love,
Ingrid & Lyle
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