Christian Veterinary Mission

In my past posts I made reference to Dr. Val. She is a veterinarian and missionary with Christian Veterinary Mission. She is an amazing woman and has worked in Uganda for about 18 years. Here is her May 2010 newsletter that explains a little about her and a tiny little bit of the work she does in Karamoja. Hi Everybody,

Sometimes on the brink of success, you stumble. Sometimes on the brink of disaster, you soar. I often seem to live on those brinks. Looking back over the last 10 years or so in Karamoja, this year is destined to be remarkable. It holds the most promise that we have ever seen for the people, for their survival, their future peace and stability and their spiritual growth. As an agricultural society, the Karamojong depend on their farm crops for their own food as well as for income. Most people have no other job, only their 1-3 acres of land that they hoe every year, dropping some seeds down sometimes in rows, sometimes randomly, and then pray for God to provide rain in its due time. The last 3 years have been disasters on the farms, with drought, floods or insecurity preventing people from digging their land. When there is insecurity, warriors with sub-machine guns roam through the land looking to steal cattle or other personal properties from unsuspecting villagers. When a woman and her children hike out to their gardens and chance to meet these armed warriors on the way, there is a strong likelihood that they will not all return back home, but will either be killed, hurt or kidnapped on the way. This year, praise God, is looking good, however. Things are much better in our peace villages, which have become sanctuaries or safe havens for many of the people. On the fringes, there is still danger, but little by little we see improvement. The soil of the Peace Villages is fertile, with plenty of rainfall this year (thanks for praying!!!) and everyone is excited to get into the gardens and plant their seeds. Many spiritual seeds are also beginning to sprout in the villages, and we are gearing up our discipleship programme this year. With all this hope in the air, we launched into the year with excitement, ready to see the Lord’s hand at work in us and through us to minister to the people of Karamoja. In order to give an opportunity to involve you all, my friends from US, in the lives of the people here, I started a small seed collection scheme, modeled after an unusual source. There’s this game called Farmville. It’s one of those virtual worlds on the internet networking site, Facebook. I saw many of my friends playing, so I went ahead and joined. You can invite your real-life friends to be your virtual neighbors, then begin buying seed, planting and harvesting virtual crops. Your neighbors can help you on your farm; you succeed much more quickly if you have many neighbors to work together with. (Warning: Facebook can become a real time-waster if you are not careful, or can be only a needed diversion on a stressful day). With this game in mind, I set out to make a real-life “Farmville of Uganda”. I sent out a note to many friends asking to help on our farms here in Uganda and we had a wonderful response, with hundreds of seed packet being sent! We have 40-50 farmers, ready to plant vegetable crops to feed their families. The Uganda Farmville neighbors have now become partners with the Karamojong farmers, to grow crops as a step towards driving away World Hunger, in a practical way. What I love is that the Uganda Farmville is for real, villagers depend on their farm for their very existence. Without these crops, the families could starve. We need to be in prayer, however, since if their crops wither, the people will have no food to eat. (there is no purchasing an “unwither” in real-life Farmville). Without jobs and no savings, they only survive by subsistence farming, which means they eat only what they can grow. Now our Uganda Farmville’s USA neighbors could make a difference in the lives of hundreds of people, as we plant real crops together, and pray for God to bring in the harvest. We were so thankful for everyone being willing to share their resources and efforts for this intervention. In the midst of our excitement, however, things started to go bad. The vehicles all broke down, we fixed them, then they broke down again, and again. While riding the bus, since the vehicles were in various states of disrepair, my phone was stolen, with all of my contact information. Without a vehicle, I also have limited access to communication, as I need to charge my computer through the cigarette lighter receptacle of the vehicle in order to use the internet, so I began to lose track of everything and everyone. During this time,we also saw an increase in political and religious wrangles over the land in the peace villages, to the point that we and our community members and staff were being threatened. Some staff began to experience burn-out from the heavy workload and psychological stress. We then entered into a significant “ebb” in the ebb and flow of our funding, as joint community visits and vehicle repairs overextended our resources. All of these challenges weighed heavily on our backs and our hearts, with no clear end in sight. We were all set up for an Emotional Nose Dive.

At that point, my “Uganda Farmville” stalled in mid-air. Frustrated, I couldn’t get to the villages to deliver the seeds or to plant them with the people. The rains were perfect, the seeds were high quality, the people were waiting, but I couldn’t get there. What do we do when we are frustrated? Here are some options that I worked through, most of which were of limited value!

a. Try to figure out a “Plan B”, then C, D, E…

b. Seek alternative resources or opportunities.

c. Put the pressure on everyone else to solve the problems.

d. Get emotional, upset, cranky or maybe a little teary eyed.

e. Spin my wheels in frustration and resignation.

f. Ask God a lot of questions.

g. Wait silently for God to bring His resolution to the situation.

Steps a.-c. were totally useless. There was really no solution available, only continual disappointments and frustrations. Things went from bad to worse as I found myself hitchhiking along the road several times. My heart then got stuck in steps d. and e. for some time. Wallowing in futility, without any clear place to seek refuge or consolation. I ended up getting sucked into a cycle of impossible dead ends, blinding me to the hope that is within me. Crying out, blaming others, blaming myself, frantically trying to “fix things” so my security and confidence could return, all to no avail. As my confidence was resting solely in my own ability and ingenuity, when I came to the end of “me”, I lost my bearings and couldn’t see any way out. Finally, step f. brought me quickly to g. When serious God-questions only bring silence, only in that very silence can His Voice be discerned. Only in His presence, there is peace, where no outside influence can break in, or destroy. I found it there, in quietness and rest my confidence grew, with His truths as my foundation and His presence as my promise. Please keep praying for us here, as the challenges are many and our hearts can tremble at times, but our God is able, and loves us so much.  Thanks for joining in the harvest, be it vegetables or souls. Jesusis Alive!

Yours in Him,

Dr. Val Shean