November 4, 2014

Hello All,

Lyle here...

Wow, how time has gone by. Can't believe we are in November already. It has been a month and a half since our last post. 

Have you ever had a time where life was so full you struggle to remember everything and in the end you feel like you have done little? But then, when you take the time to reflect you see God's hand so clearly involved in everything?  It seems to me these past six weeks or so have been exactly that. 

Peter, Daniel, & Thomas

In the last update Ingrid talked about Daniel and how he had come with his grandmother to our hotel on September 20th. Ingrid had treated wounds to the feet of the grandmother caused by rats nibbling on them at night while she was passed out from drinking. We believe she has leprosy, which is why she feels nothing in her feet and is missing so many toes. Daniel also had malaria, so we took both Daniel and his mother to the Moroto referral hospital. Daniel was to get his treatment and then go to Pastor Noah's and Bill Behrman's home for boys. This is the same home where Peter lives. Short story is he never showed up, so we were of course very concerned. We kept looking for him wherever we went and did not find him. This all leads us to Monday the 22 of September. What a day. First of all God answered our prayers for Daniel. He showed up alone outside our hotel, but with an extremely high fever and sicker from malaria then he had been two days earlier. He told me he was thirsty so I gave him some water, which he immediately vomited up. Ingrid and I took him to a local clinic where they were able to immediately begin treatment. His blood work showed he also had some sort of a general infection somewhere as his white blood cell count was elevated as well as the malaria. He was able to get hydrated through an IV, he received injections for his malaria for five days, as well as antibiotics through the IV for five days for an unknown infection. What a remarkable transformation. Today this young boy's countenance bears no resemblance to the boy we encountered so many times on the street. He is now enrolled in school, living with Pastor Noah, and is extremely healthy. The joy in his smile is unmistakable! He is not just surviving - he is thriving. His transformation is a miracle.  He delights in showing us his schoolwork. If you remember, Daniel was the street boy we were concerned about, whether he was regularly sniffing glue. He seemed slow and we wondered if he had damaged his brain. May I say this young boy is not slow in any way. He is integrating well with the other boys and is excelling in school. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness in Daniel's life!!! Please continue praying for Daniel. While he is thriving physically, our heart is that spiritually he thrives just as dramatically.

Rose and elderly man

Soon after we got Daniel settled (same day) we went to a manyatta where an elderly man with a dislocated hip lives. Ingrid's language teacher, Rose, had asked her to visit him to see if she could offer any insights as to how the man might be treated. As it turned out this man's injury was over two month old. We were able to pray with him before leaving. After consulting with a Doctor, Ingrid learned, that nothing could really be done. This man must now live with a permanently dislocated hip. Ingrid was also able to confirm with the Dr. that based on his complaints of where his pain was, he most probably also had a fracture. Even in the States, a surgery would be very challenging for a man his age, but here in Karamoja, impossible. 

While we were in the Manyatta there was a drunk man waving a ponga (machete) around. We were not quite sure what was going on, but we were already in the process of leaving. As we were driving away Rose began explaining to us that man with the ponga was the husband of one of the old man's daughters. His wife was in the process of hanging herself in her hut. He was basically saying, let her die. We were not quite sure we were hearing correctly and asked Rose, "You mean she is trying to commit suicide at this very moment?" Her response was, "Yes and nobody is willing to go into the hut to cut her down in case she is already dead." I immediately turned the car around and we quickly returned to the manyatta. We were relieved to discover that a young girl had gone into the hut and cut the woman down. The woman who had tried to kill herself was alive and as drunk as her husband. She was showing us the scars where her husband beats her and wounds where he has shot her with arrows. I asked Rose what would have happened if she had died. Would the Police have been called? She said, probably not. They simply would have disposed of her body. Nothing more. This is the unfortunate tragedy of so many. They live life with no hope and numb themselves with alcohol. The darkness and hopelessness in this manyatta is palatable. 

Listening to Proclaimer

We have been able to visit this manyatta several times since then. Ingrid was able to get a crutch for the elderly man along with tylenol. He is able, with assistance, to stand up and use the crutch and a walking stick to move around very painfully and slowly. Not an ideal solution, but all that can be done for now that we are aware of. On one of the visits we were able to share and talk about John chapter one with many from this manyatta. We had brought a proclaimer with us and were able to play John 1 in Ngakaramojong as many gathered and listened intently. Through the help of Ingrid's language teacher, Rose, we were able to talk about God's love for us and how His desire is be intimately involved in each of our lives and that He is not some distant and impersonal god, as their traditional god, akuj, is. We asked if we could come back and share in the future. We were told this would be fine. People all around this elderly man are eating, but they are not his family, so they will eat in front of him and not share. He is dependent on his two daughters for food and evidently they have very little. And since he does not contribute to getting food, he only gets some if there is enough after everyone else's needs are met. This is so far from how the west portrays cultures like this as idyllic with everyone carrying for each other and joining together in community. The heart of man is wicked. It is true everywhere in the world and on September 22nd it was so dramatically played out in front of us. Please pray for this old man. We have no idea what the long term solution is. Please pray for us as we continue relationships in this village. Pray that their hearts will be open to the Gospel of our Lord. That they will find hope and transformation in Him and through Him.

Discussing John 1

Our new Unit leaders, John & Krys Cassel, are back in Uganda and we were able to spend five wonderful days with them as they visited Moroto. What an encouragement they are. As we talked through much of what we have seen and are experiencing we were able to formulate a "Vision and Strategy Plan" (VSP). For those who are not aware, AIM has recently changed their framework for ministry. The old framework (Ingrid & I are part of it) allows ministry to take place in many different forms and contexts. The latitude given was the same whether the people group was reached or unreached. AIM's new framework has been redefined and the emphasis and priority will be to unreached people groups. With the definition given by Joshua project and IMB, the Karimojong are a reached people group, so all future AIM missionaries to the Karimojong, long or short term, will be limited to equipping church leaders. In our context this simply means we cannot just set up a ministry, such as community health evangelism, unless it is done in partnership with the indigenous church and is also equipping church leaders for ministry at the same time. If the Karamojong were to be considered unreached then the context of potential ministries is expanded. So for Ingrid and I, we are under the old framework, while anyone joining us will be under the new framework. Sound confusing? It did to us also, but as we worked through this with John and Krys we were encouraged that there is much ministry potential. The vastness of the needs around us with regard to equipping church leaders offers more opportunity for ministry then we can meet, if the churches are willing. If we were to consider ministry in all of Karamoja, there would be no way we could even scratch the surface. We had received some good advise from the man in charge of all development for Northern Uganda, Dr. Robert. He told us that Karamoja makes up 10% of all of Uganda and trying to cover the whole area is not prudent. He recommended we pick a sub-county or a district. We were able to pray about this and discuss it with John and Krys. So for now we will be focusing on Moroto district. We talked about placing a team adjacent to a manyatta. That team, working with the indigenous church would be working with and equipping leaders. The team's duration would be three years, then they would move on. The team's main role would be living examples of what a transformed life looks like. They would be encouraging church leaders to remove their cultural lenses they currently view life through and replace it with the lens of God's word, just as westerners need to do the same. This means that the team would need to be willing to challenge themselves in the same way. As team leaders, Ingrid and I would be responsible for the initial team and any subsequent teams. We have written up a draft VSP and sent it to John and Krys. I'm sure it will be a work in progress, still requiring other levels of approval, but we are excited that our Lord is leading us to the most relevant way to share Him with others and to see transformed hearts and lives. Please pray for us, as well as John and Krys, as this process takes place. Once approved, the VSP will be circulated and we will then be able to write up individual job descriptions. Our Lord knows who he is calling to join His work in Moroto district. So please pray also for those who are even now being called. 

Shalome

Not all things this month have been so "heavy." We were in Kotido, a town about 2.5 hours north of us for a few days. We drove our landlord, his wife, and his daughter, so they could share their needs with their home church. It was a wonderful and relaxing time. We were able to spend a little time with the north Karamoja Bishop as well as one of the Reverend's. At church we could really sense the service was about worship, not religion. On a side note, the reason our landlord, Israel, was travel with his family, was to raise money for his daughter, Shalom, who has leukemia. It is being recommended she receive a bone marrow transplant and he is looking for those who might be led to assist. The cost of a transplant is prohibitive for him and he cannot do this alone. Here is a link to a fund raising website, that also gives the background to what is going on. Please take the time to listen and pray. If led, please help. http://www.gofundme.com/fxxd78

We were able to spend a week in Kampala the end of October. It was a great time seeing those we don't normally get to see. We went saying it was a vacation, but it was really a working vacation. I also got a tooth fixed that I had broken when we first arrived in States our last visit. Dental care in Kampala is good and significantly less expensive then the U.S., which is why we waited. 

This coming Friday will be the first day I will be at the prison. I will have 1/2 hour to share a short message with the guards and work to develop more regular times to meet. I am looking forward to this opportunity. I still need to set times with the police. Please pray that I hear the Lord and faithfully communicate what He is saying. Also, that doors will open with the police. 

On a more personal level we continue to struggle with being seen only as dollar bill signs. If I could draw a comic of how we feel, it would be of two dollar bill signs walking down the street. One named Lyle and the other Ingrid. The people would be pointing at the dollar bill signs yelling "muzungu, muzungu (name for white person). This is how we feel we are so often identified. Not who we are, but how we can be used. The begging is constant. This is not an unusual feeling. Many have to struggle through this. We know our Lord will use these feeling and experiences to grow us more and more into His image. So please pray for us that we follow Him, grow more and more like Him through this, and resist the temptation to harden our hearts or become angry. 

As I look back, what I've written about only covers part of what has been going on. We are blessed and God is active. We praise Him and give Him the glory.

Something very poignant to close with. It is a short quote given to us on a card by some friends in the States, the McNeals; "Let your weakness be a door to My presence. Whenever you feel inadequate, remember, I am your ever present help." No more encouraging or truer words can be spoken as we look back over these last six weeks. It is in our weaknesses that we are made strong. But, we have a choice. Do we allow those weaknesses to draw us into the presence of our Lord, or do we try to struggle through on our own. May our weaknesses be a door to His presence. May He be glorified as He grows us more and more into the image of His Son, our Lord.

Love,

Lyle and Ingrid

September 20, 2014

Greetings once again to you from Moroto, Uganda!!  Ingrid here…

We are back settled into our room with all our belongings. Lyle says that we are living in a storage space but we hope that we can joyfully live each day for our Lord no matter where we are living.

We had what seemed like a whirlwind trip to the States as we hopped from daughter to daughter from the East coast of Florida to the West Coast of Washington.  We are very grateful for this unexpected gift of getting time with all those we love much sooner than we had prepared for when we said good-bye to everyone last year.  It was wonderful to worship with the parts of the body that we know as family and to be so loved and encouraged.  I have to say that I really needed this time. 

Presenting at Redmond Assembly of God w/Pastor Robroy

This time away from Moroto was helpful to me to get a sense of what my struggles have been in Karamoja.  I realized after returning to Uganda, while still in the central region of the country, that I was struggling with returning to living in the pain of watching a people group day in and day out struggle and try to survive as best they know how, while rejecting the attempts of help that both the spiritual community and the humanitarian community attempt to offer.  Through this realization a new facet of Romans 8:17 was revealed to me.  It says: “…and since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.”  I have prayed that I would share in Christ’s suffering and have always thought of this as physical suffering, but what suffering in His heart must Jesus have felt when He gave up the privilege of heaven to come down here and walk this sod with the people He created, who refused the only way of life that doesn’t destroy the soul as well as the body.

Lyle & Ps. Noah near Lokerete

In understanding this truth, the Holy Spirit comforted my heart.  I have the honor and privilege to witness, to pray for, and to shine the Love of Christ into the people here and I praise the living God for this.  We have been here 5 days and I was given a profound opportunity to live this, instead of running inside and curling up and pretending that the reality here isn’t real.  I hope that makes sense. 

We have a street boy we are trying to place in school, and he hadn’t shown up when we had agreed to meet.  We found out that he had been very ill with malaria.  He showed up today with his very frail grandmother and we met her and waited for our friend Pastor Noah to come and interpret and advise us on how to proceed.  As we waited, with little Daniel between his grandmother, and me, he nudged me and moved his head down to the ground.  As I followed his movements, my eyes fell on his grandmother’s feet.  Her right foot was missing the little toe completely, and the 4^th toe was bloody and about half gone.  I knew that Daniel wanted me to treat her foot, as I have treated his tropical ulcers many times since arriving.  I believe, and Pastor Noah agrees that it probably is leprosy.  The grandmother says that when she gets drunk and falls unconscious the rats eat her toes.  The other foot looks like this one in missing toes, but not bloody.  So I gloved up and cleaned up her wounds and after talking about Daniel and getting some history on him, we gave her and little Daniel a ride to the outpatient hospital, for both of them to get treatment as Daniel was running a high fever as well.  We bought them books to have medical notes written in, as they cannot go without these. 

Children at Daniel's village

The grandmother gave her permission for Daniel to move into Pastor Noah’s home, as he lives on the street, as she cannot provide for him.  His mother is around with a new husband and baby; Daniel’s dad is in prison for murder. Daniel doesn’t live with the mother, but we decided with Pastor Noah to visit her anyway and see if she was willing to have him leave the environment of this slum and move into a stable home.  When we got to the village, and found the place the mother is staying, about 20 very small children, desiring to shake hands with us, greeted us.  They wanted to touch my newly washed hair with their very dirty hands J.  As we were led back to the opening where the mother was, my heart was deeply moved by how much our Lord Jesus loves each one of these children, smiling and wanting attention from Lyle and me.  As Pastor Noah spoke with the mother, I kept feeling tugs on my hair as I got “petted.”  She also agreed for Daniel to go to the home.  We now have to get the approval of the Local Council for that area.

As we left, I told Daniel’s mama I would be praying for her, and my heart was so full of pain and I had to blink back the tears of how these people so precious to God live. 

Please, Please pray for us and for the Karimojong people. I am reading a book and it said something I really felt touched by, that we as praying Christ followers can expect the hardest places to have the most amazing results.  Prayer is truly the weapon needed here to change hearts and transform minds. Only God can do this and He has called us to join with Him in loving and transforming and setting free people who feel there is no hope, eternally or now.  Prayer takes the spiritual battle out of our hands and puts it into God’s hands, and when we in holiness of the truth of what Jesus has done for us, bend the knees in prayer, God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Peaceful spot outside of Moroto

This is really what is on my heart, thank you for joining us in serving the Lord here in Karamoja.  Many have asked about our living accommodations and they are still in process.  The newest date we have been given to move into our home is October 15^th.   So we are determining to live each day surrendered to the Lord’s will and let Him chose our move in date.  May He be greatly honored through each part of each day of our lives.

Love, 

Ingrid and Lyle

June 25, 2014

Hello once again from Moroto, Ingrid here! 

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. 

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. 

School room being used for church

My wonderful husband was very much tenderly taking care of me, taking my place in driving to the manyattas on Sunday for church, and over all being very protective.  I am so grateful for his love and the servant’s heart he demonstrated to me and to all those who watch our every action. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

Goats enjoying a noontime rest!

Love,

Ingrid & Lyle