December 3, 2014

Hello from Moroto, Ingrid here.

As I write this, I am thinking of all the Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States on the 27^th of November.  Here the 27^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. The Karimojong are very direct people and we are so glad God has led us to them as they are not easily offended which is helpful as we grow and learn to engage and interact with them.

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.

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