Update

So I know that I said that I would post on Sunday so I got up early- It is still Sunday for you. I'll post twice to make up for it....
So, where to begin- It feels like we have done so much already. On Saturday we took all of the Hope kids to an "amusement park". I put that in quotes because it is NOT what you are picturing. But the kids loved it- all 98 of them. (That by the way is a lot of kids- I'm drawing from my camp counselor bag of tricks more than I would have thought possible.) Yesterday we spoke at several churches, delivered food and soap to the jail and had time to talk with the inmates. They are all where they are until they have their sentencing but some may be there for months. After dark we went back to Hope and showed a movie to the kids and village adults. (mike brought a projector so it was "big screen") I'm running out of time! I'll post again Tues.

Struggles

So how is this for ridiculous:
My biggest struggle right now is that we are too comfortable! We are staying in a 5 star hotel (By Ugandan standards- so like 3.5 for us but still!) My room is air conditioned (my house isn't), I have a fridge in it and a pool! I am working with the world's poorest and yet here I sit totally separated from it. I'll be working through this for a while. Anyway, I'm posting again because I have the time (and enough shillings for now). We had a great day at Village of Hope. We met all of their kids and passed out their Christmas presents. Great fun! We played games and made crafts. Nick will have to put up some of the pictures here when I mail him my memory chip but for now that is all your going to get.
Until later,
Jennifer

We arrived!

I have a few minutes to post so I'll try to get in the whole story. Here goes:

The first flight was not bad. There was plenty of extra room to spread out though there was quite a bit of turbulence and the flight left Chicago a little late (due to ice?) but not too bad. We had asked when we checked in if our connection was going to be a problem. We were assured that it was not. That proved to be a false assurance. With about 3 hours remaining in the flight it became clear that we were going to be cutting it very close. The flight attendant told us if we hurry we could possibly make it. So they moved us up to the exit row and had us off the plane before the jet way was fully connected. And we ran. No small feat at 11AM in one of the biggest airports in the world. We managed to find our gate, get through security and have our boarding passes scanned before (barely before) they closed the gate. Only to be told that we couldn't board because our luggage wasn't even off of the last plane. I guess it is a security thing to not be on the same flight as your baggage now. So close and so frustrating! What a let down. So we went back through the airport (at a much slower pace) to find somewhere to get a different connection. After standing in line for nearly 45 minutes we were informed that there is only 1 flight a day to Uganda. Strange. Anyway, we were to go to Kenya then get another flight into Uganda. But our flight wasn't until 9pm. We started the challenge of communicating to the rest of the team that we what happened and when we would need to be picked up from Entebbe to get to Kampala. We didn't know our hotel name so really couldn't get ourselves there. We couldn't reach Mike on his US phone because he wouldn't be able to get the message and his Uganda phone was off because they were on the flight that we were supposed to be. We ended up calling Cree's mom so she could call Mike when they arrived. (Thanks Marybeth!)

Then we had 8 more hours to kill in Amsterdam. But we decided that we were too tired to go into the city. Besides missing on flight per trip seems like enough. We didn't want to risk another.

So we wandered, tried to get some sleep, ate some junk food and wandered some more. Finally we departed. But we didn't have our nice KLM flight anymore. Now we were on Kenya Air. It was the longest, most crowded flight I've ever been on. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that leg. We put down in Kenya around 8am. Right continent, wrong country but we were getting closer. No difficulties with security but it was amazing that we were able to get our boarding passes for the next flight. We were never issues paper tickets for the change, we were just supposed to go to the transfer desk and they would print the boarding passes for the next when we arrived. But "This is Africa" (TIA- you will hear me say that again, I'm sure) and it couldn't just be that easy. It finally worked out fine but for a brief time we thought we were leaving Cree in Nairobi. Anyway, we now had 5 more hours to kill. We did not have Visas and couldn't do customs here so we didn't leave that airport either. It was hot and crowded but we managed to get a few more minutes of sleep. on the upside we ate 5 of the best semosas I've had in several years (with fanta orange of course).
We felt like zombies by the time we were boarding the last time. As they herded us across the asphalt to our plane (Kenya doesn't believe in jetwalks- why bring the plane closer when you can just bring the people to the plane?) It was a pretty small plane but we were only on it for an hour or so. Uganda's airport is lovely, mostly because we were finally where we wanted to be. We were actually shuttled around customs instead of through- I have no idea why but I'm glad because I had the mental functioning of a goldfish by then. We immediately started looking for someone from SM.... and nothing. We had to get some shillings (I'm sure I didn't get the best exchange rate) and tried to find a phone with no success. I finally ended up using the personal cell phone of the person at the information desk (pretty sure I paid way too much for that too) but we did reach Mike and he connected us with the guy who was taking us to Kampala. I'd love to tell you all about the beautiful ride along lake Victoria in the heart of "the pearl of Africa" but to be honest I passed out just before we arrived an hour later. We met the team, had dinner showered and then slept for more than 12 hours. I feel much better now.
It was 45 hours of travel with our best sleep being 2 hours at a time in a crowded plane. Anyway, it is all behind us now. It is time for breakfast and we have a busy day ahead of us. We are headed out to Village of hope to meet the kids. I'll try to post every other day. More stories to follow!

We're out of here!

We leave within the hour. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us up to this point. Keep it up. We are going to need it. But the pieces are falling together. We have work to do and a place to stay now for the second half of the trip! Thank you Lord!

• For those that want the general details: We will be in Soroti starting Jan 25th working with Amecet n'ainapakin (Shelter of Peace) who is a part of YWAM.
• For those that want more details: Here is an excerpt of the e-mail we got yesterday from Amecet.

Our project is mainly for children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS. The majority of the children that we work with are total orphans, whose parents have died of AIDS. Amecet isn't a orphanage in the conventional sense of the word. Children come for a short term stay of 2-3 months and then they go back to their village to be cared for by the family. We believe the best place for the children is with their families and not in a home. During their stay in Amecet the children receive good medical care, treatment and plenty of good food. Once a child has returned to the village we closely monitor them through home visits and encourage/advise the families in the care of the children. A lot of children we work with have also been diagnosed with TB, so they continue medication at home, monitored by us.

For some children Amecet is the place where they come in their final stages of their disease, so there are children that have died here. We believe that that is also part of what God has given to us to do, as painful as it is. For some children Amecet is a doorway to heaven. When we began in December 2001 we were with 3 fulltime staff, at the moment we have 9 fulltime staff, but we have 3 fulltime helpers, who also live here, and 3 other fulltime helpers, who come in during the days to help. Then we have people who help us with the cooking, cleaning, laundry and the garden. We have mostly around 18 children here, but the highest number has been 21. The eldest child we've had was 13 years old and the youngest was 3 hours old! So there is diversity!
We are a short term help house, but we have seen that when the children go back to their families, they are much better cared for. We have had also quite a number of children who were proved to be HIV-, even both parents had died from AIDS. Those children were also sickly due to the lack of care and the relatives all thought that they had the same sickness as the parents. When we bring them back with the good news, they are very happy and we know that those children have a chance now to live.

Recently we have got several older children (age 6-12) who had AIDS, some have been very sick, close to death. When we were able to get them a bit fair, we realised that Anti viral drugs is the only chance for them to live. But it is important to take those medicins on the right time. Most of those older children were not welcome in the families of the relatives, or old grandmothers care for them. They can't give the medicines. That made us to buy another plot of land, nearby our present house. There we built ‘Amecet n’amun’ (shelter of hope) a house for the older children who are on the ARVs but can't go home. Since July 2006 there live 10 children as a family. It is such a joy to see children who were so close to death, now running around, go to school and enjoy the fact that they are alive!!

We also get newborn babies, their mother died after the delivery and the family doesn't know what to do with those very vulnerable little ones. Some of the mothers die shortly after the birth, because of HIV/AIDS. The babies are often also infected and doing very poorly. We have almost always sick children and a child can just get sick very fast.

We have 8 hour shifts and we work 6 days a week. We do make long days, that why it is important that you love children and that you have a commitment towards the work. As a volunteer you will be working together with our Ugandan staff and be involved in the care for the children. We always have a lot of babies, so bathing, feeding and changing diapers will be a big part of the work. Also playing with the toddlers, who are mostly very behind in their development. There is also a possibility to go with us on home visits in the villages.

Prayer Requests

For those who are praying for us will you add these things to your prayer list:
Our connecting flights in Europe are going to be VERY tight and hard to manage. My mom has said several times that it will be a miracle if our bags and us arrive in Africa at the same time. Will you join my mom in praying for a miracle?
The other thing that has been heavy on our hearts is that we really want to be able to serve the missionaries already stationed there (in addition to the kids and nationals of course). It can be really hard to have extra people there as we need their precious time and create more work on top of all the responsibilities that they already have. May we have opportunities to refresh and encourage and not be a burden in anyway especially if we end up way out in Soroti.
Thanks guys!

Yellow Fever

I can't find my yellow fever vaccination card! I've been packed for 3 weeks and yet I wait until 2 days before we leave to figure out that I have no idea where it is.... Aghhhh!
I think my pre trip anxiety is hanging out. I'm sorry to anyone that has to deal with me before we leave, especially that lady at Meijer who was really trying to find luggage tags for me even though you really didn't know what luggage tags were. (Who doesn't know what luggage tags are!?! It's not that hard- really!! I described it to you several times!)

BF

I was talking with some co-workers about the last trip I was today on so I wanted to go back and read my journal entries. While you wait for me to post something more interesting than our last minute struggles you are welcome to look them over. Toward the bottom on the right hand side of the blog there is a section labeled labels. (I know- I'm creative like that). They are in the category labeled BF (for Burkina Faso). Enjoy!

Answers to prayer

God is so good! How did I even get nervous?! Over and over you show me that you will not only take care but that you will do it in amazing ways and yet over and over I need to be reminded. I'm sorry Lord for my lack of faith.



So look at this :

• I started reading a family's blog after a co-worker who knew them told me about it. They live and work in Uganda and tell great stories. (This was before we were even thinking about SM, I was still on IIU) When I switched to Urgent care and mentioned going to Uganda a new co-worker mentioned she knew someone her church supports who works in Ugana. Turned out to be the blog that I was reading already. At church two weeks ago, after the service that they comissioned us, a lady there came up to me and was telling me about her neice who lives in Uganda but is here in GR because she is due shortly. The church lady gave me their phone number. So... you guessed it...same family. Too many coencidences so I called them up. She gave me a ton of good information about staying in Kampala and answered all of my questions. But then she mentioned that because their house is empty we could possibly stay there. She gave me the contact information of her brother-in-law who is currently there.....we are in the process of figuring all of that out .
  
  
• Two people from our church stepped forward (without knowing anything had changed) and offered more funds that 48 hours ago we didn't know we needed. So the money we thought we were going to be short is already be covered.



• A shift at work that I needed off at the last minute to get all of our ducks in a row because of the changes was covered without a problem.



• My sister-in-law didn't melt down nearly as badly as I did! Christina you are awesome!

I just needed to confess my dependance and God took over all of the problems that we didn't even really have. But I still can't help but worry about the details that we still don't have ironed out. Why do we have such a hard time trusting?!

Dependance

Whoa! So my pre-trip anxiety has about tripled in the last 24 hours. We leave in only a week- only 7 days- only 168 hours (but less than 96 of those hours awake and not at work!) I have so much left to do! But really that is not where my nervousness is coming from because I always manage to get it all done. No, it is actually that less of our plans for the second half of our trip are as solid as we thought. That may be putting it mildly- NONE of the plans for once the team leaves are existent. So after having a tiny meltdown (my #1 coping method- I went for a run where the first mile felt like an olympic sprint before I collapsed) I came back to my senses. I believe without a shadow of a doubt that we are doing what God has called us to. Just because I don't know what is going to happen three weeks from now, that doesn't change. He has provided, directed and taken care of us up to this point. Why would that stop on January 27th? So, we are getting a lesson in Faith.

Today in my journal I wrote "Lord, I confess my dependence on you! I lay all of this at your feet." But as I was re-reading my writing I couldn't help but pause- how is this any different than any other minute of my life. I dependant on Him for every breath, ALL that I have. Here I just feel like I've got Meijer backing me up. But it is all God. All that other "stuff" could be gone in a second. So we are about to learn some lessons in depending on God.

Please be praying for us and what God is directing us to for that second half of our trip! Pray for our faith, our dependence and God's leading. Maybe He is going to use this to do something amazing.

Counting down!

Here are some "fun facts" that I was looking up today:

The current exchange rate is $1= 2,000 ugandan shillings
(Or for those of you who want it exactly- 1 US Dollar = 1,976.00 Uganda Shilling
1 Uganda Shilling (UGX) = 0.0005061 US Dollar (USD) Interbank rate +/- 0%)

The weather yesterday in Uganda was sunny with a high of 85 degrees and a low of 68 degrees. Today is supposed to be the same as well as the entire rest of the month.

Location

Hope Children's home (the orphanage that Show Mercy works with) is in Gganda Village about 10 miles outside of Kampala, the capital city.

This is where we will be working and I think we will be staying in Entebe, outside of Kampala. At least while the rest of the group is there. It may change once they leave.

The property that Shom Mercy purchased is in Kaliti Village. When it is finished it will include short and long term volunteer housing, multiple children’s cottages for orphans as well as medical facilites, schools and farming.

Merry Christmas to all and to all joy!

This year more than any other, I have felt sad and sympathetic when anyone told me they were not enjoying the season or didn't look forward to Christmas. I love this time of year- but I grew up knowing why we celebrate and feeling the joy of the season. But, really why do I have this joy this time of year? How do I pass it on? As I was pondering this around midnight Christmas eve I realized part of the answer was right there in front of me sitting open to Luke 2:14- the second half of the angle's message. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. The joy that fills me up is because my God is here and he cares about me- He made that enormous trip from heaven to earth because His favor rests on me.
Emmanuel- God with us. The God of this universe cares about us his creation and is a part of my life. He wants to be a vital part of who I am and what I do! The joy, peace, love, grace and mercy that is so evident this time of year, this season- not about shopping or parties, of gifts- well, only one gift. The gift that made God accessible to us!
So there is the first part of my question. But how do I share it without sounding like a nut? I want one more person to tell me that they don't look forward to Christmas so that I can attempt to share just a piece of my joy. How can I not? Emmanuel- my God is with us!

Just Christmas

Strip all the stuff away. Santa, parties, red and green, snow, decorations, caroling, frosty, garland, lights. Just give me Christmas. It is so much more (and so much simpler) than all of the "stuff" that we pack into it. It is about the baby in the manger- the baby who ended up nailed to a cross just a few years and miles from where he was born. The best gift I will ever receive. Emmanuel. That is all I want- just give me that. Merry Christmas.

Luke 2:11 A savior has been born to you and He is Christ the Lord!

Snowed in

Some times I think God wants us to be snowed in. In my head I know that Sunday is to be a day of rest and even with my words I attest to this but rarely do my actions confirm. Well, this past Sunday God said "You will rest." I was snowed in, along with the rest of the city and all my plans for the day needed to be set aside (and don't worry- I had lots of plans for the day). I live close enough to my family right now that we managed to all be snowed in together. We made cookies, took naps, had meals and watched movies- some may say we "wasted" a day- we certainly didn't accomplish much with only 3 shopping days until Christmas. But it felt great. Thank you Lord for snowing me in. Help me be "snowed in" and enjoy the great gifts that you have given me more often.

Hey Team!

Exciting communication from the team leader:
Hello Team Uganda !

We now have our team in place. We are so excited to have each of you joining Show Mercy as we reach out in love in Uganda this January. It is hard to believe, but the trip is less than one month away! We are really looking forward to getting to know each of you on this trip. We are confident that all of us will leave Uganda different that when we arrive. We also know that each of you have a valuable part to play on this mission. Not only will our lives be changed, but I am confident that you will make a lasting impact on the people of Uganda . What a great opportunity to share the love of Jesus!

Our plans will include spending a lot of time with our beautiful kids. We will be spending time at Hope Children’s Home where nearly 100 children who have been orphaned or abandoned are living. Some of you know how wonderful these kids are. They have gone from a life of hopelessness and heart ache to a life of purpose and destiny with people that love and care for them. One thing that they love more than even their provision is to meet and hang out with our teams. Love never fails. Food can fill your belly and a shelter can protect you from the rain, but a touch from each of you will bring life and joy!

We will also be doing some outreaches in the village including visiting our neighbors, praying for them and helping encourage and strengthen them. Along with that, we will visit at least two hospitals where we will minister to the sick, praying for healing. This includes a children’s cancer ward. We have a heart to eventually build a medical clinic that will care for those who are hurting. There will also be a chance for each of you that would like to do so to share at a local church. We encourage everyone to stretch yourself and plan to share.

You are part of my team! Are you ready? We leave in 25 days!

The cost...

As I've been thinking on this cost thing (See the post a couple of days ago) Here is something else I've read and want to share.

"Is there always a cost involved in responding to that insistent demand in our hearts to express to Him our love? Would I be willing to pay a cost if asked to do so? Do I believe that as my Saviors He has the right to demand such a response to His love if I would really love Him as He first loved me?

Momentarily I had felt this the night the rebel soldiers first took me captive. Beaten, flung on the ground, kicked- teeth broken, mouth and nose gashed, ribs bruised- driven at gunpoint back to my home, jeered at, insulted, threatened. I knew that if the rebel lieutenant did not pull the trigger of his gun and end the situation, worse pain and humiliation lay ahead. It was a very dark night. I felt unutterably alone. For a brief moment I felt God had failed me. He could have stepped in and prevented this rising crescendo of wickedness and cruelty. He could have saved me out of their hands. Why didn't He speak? Why didn't He intervene? And in desperation I cried out against Him: "It is too much to pay!"

Yet His love for me cost Him His life. He gave Himself, in that one all sufficient atoning sacrifice at Calvary. He so loved the world that He gave all. His sacrifice was the expression of His great love.

But His sacrifice had achieved something. He had saved lost mankind from their sins. What was I achieving by suffering brutality at the hands of rebel soldiers? If I died (which seemed probable and imminent) no one would even know of the suffering. What was being gained? God, why, why?

In the darkness and loneliness, He met with me. He was right there, a great wonderful and almighty God. His love enveloped me. Suddenly the "Why?" dropped away from me and an unbelievable peace flowed in, even in the midst of the wickedness. And He breathed a word into my troubled mind: the word privilege.

He said These are not your sufferings: they are not beating you. These are my sufferings: all I ask of you is the loan of your body. "
(Dr. Helen Roseveare in her book- Living Sacrifice. )


I can't even make the "sacrifice" to get out of bed half an hour earlier to pray or take the time to speak an extra kind word to my patents. Are these little things that God asks of me too much? Am I really suffering for Him at all?!? Lord, help me to be bold enough to ask for this privilege.

Blankets

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! To all of those who hand made all of these blankets - I can't wait to see how God uses them. Thank you so much!!! (Especially to the ladys at Maple Grove Church in Topeka, Indiana. You are awesome!)

Now- for those of you who have great ideas- any sugestions how I should get them in county? Roughly 50 pounds and 70 linear inches. For $150 I can check them as a third bag. (FedEx and UPS both charge more than $200 to delieve to their offices in Kampal.) Any cheaper ideas?