Happy Anniversary, Mukyala June 1, 2009

On Friday, Laurie (or Laud-a or Flaud-a, depending on which African is saying her name) and I were privileged to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that a whole five years have gone by since our wedding, and we are truly blessed and thankful for God’s grace that has shined on us.

I doubt Laurie would have ever expected to spend nine months in Africa when she said yes to marrying me five years ago; but, as I remind her all the time, it’s too late now. Once I reeled her in, I started revealing her my real side—like getting two inches from her face when she’s waking up in the morning and staying there until she begs me to go away, or bragging non-stop about how good my French toast is, or not bathing enough or numerous other little behaviors that I can’t mention on this blog.

Whenever one of us does something he or she doesn’t really want to do but does it out of support for the other person, we call it “taking one for the team.” Well, Laud-a has definitely taken one for the team on this trip. It’s not as though she wasn’t willing to come to Africa, because she was; but the experience of shopping in dirty markets, cramming into overloaded taxis with people who sometimes smelled worse than her husband, taking cold showers, combating huge cockroaches, dealing with the never-ending parade of people asking for money and often cooking by candle light because of the endless power outages has definitely been more of a stretch for her than for me. It was hard enough for me to live with some of these challenges, but any chick knows that it’s generally more challenging for females to lower their living standard–especially for someone whose idea of camping is having fluffy pillows and a bathroom nearby. She has persevered more than any husband could ask.

Speaking of cooking, I must say that Laud-a came up with some amazingly

Laud-a cooking another fine meal (Thanks, Gayle)

creative meals over here with very limited ingredients. When we were in Kampala, she threw together a chicken stir-fry that all the Ugandan guys absolutely loved. Here in Malawi, she drummed up a shepherd’s pie that rocks the house. I can’t overemphasize how blessed I am to have a wife who genuinely enjoys welcoming people into our house for dinner, and she used her gift of hospitality quite effectively on this trip.

Laud-a is also in her element when it comes to connecting with the local people, whether it is children—as evidenced by the entourage of kids who follow her around when she’s jogging or getting tea ready after the church service—or women from the church or in the community. She even joined in on their chores a few times. (OK, so the chores pictures were posed, but they made for good images nonetheless.)

In just a few weeks, we’ll be back to life as usual in Kirkland; but this is an experience we will never forget and has proven to me how willing Laud-a is to take one for the team, for which I am exceedingly grateful. I hope to make it up to for her back in the States.

Happy Anniversary, Mukyala (Luganda word for “wife”, pronounced Mu-cha-la)

A day to remember May 26, 2009

Last Thursday, as Laurie and I headed home from running errands in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city two hours away, I smelled gas about two thirds of the way home and immediately knew the fuel line had sprung a leak since it had done the same thing the day before. Mind you, I had already spent over $300 USD in parts and labor simply to have the fuel filter replaced. The day before, when a mechanic looked under the belly of the car to identify the location of the leak, he discovered that the two fuel lines connecting to each other from the tank and engine weren’t long enough, so someone (probably the previous mechanic I had paid) had added about a six inch hose in the middle of the connection to enable the line from the tank and the line from the engine to reach each other. Unfortunately, he didn’t tighten the spacer hose on either end, so when it came loose, fuel poured out like a faucet. The day before, the mechanic assured me the problem was now fixed because he used some wire to tighten the spacer hose. Unfortunately, he only tightened the hose on one end, and now the other end had come loose.

The story behind why I was in this predicament in the first place is even more bizarre. I simply needed to have the fuel filter replaced after the car wouldn’t start. The mechanic I hired in Senga Bay, after discovering the problem, gave me the whole fuel filter assembly and told me to take it to Lilongwe since that was the nearest location of the part and show it to someone at an auto parts store. While I was able to purchase the new fuel filter, the problem occurred when someone stole the old fuel filter assembly out of the back of our truck. I was about to learn a few lessons in African affairs.

After looking all over Lilongwe—including a Ford dealership since the car is a Ford Escort—in vain to find a fuel filter assembly, I was finally told that this part doesn’t exist anywhere in Malawi. The only option was to send the mechanic to South Africa to purchase the part or build a modified part and fit it onto the car. No lie; he would travel what is likely the equivalent of Seattle to L.A. FOR A CAR PART. Dan Moyer told me mechanics do it all the time. Lesson #1: try to avoid getting a car part stolen in Africa when you may have to travel through Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa for the nearest $40 replacement part. Needless to say, Kennedy, who owns the car, opted for the modified part. I’m no mechanic, so I can only guess that this “modified” part didn’t fit quite properly. If that’s not bad enough, the mechanic sent me to buy new fuel for the tank since he had to drain the fuel tank. Do you think the mechanic would have a car of his own to go to the petrol station? Lesson #2: a mechanic who doesn’t own a car of his own may experience occasional dizziness, light headedness or incompetence when attempting to fix someone else’s vehicle.

Since we live “in the village”, my choices were rather limited. I pulled up to the petrol station and filled the two gas cans with. . . . . . . . . diesel. That’s right; since I always put diesel in the work truck I normally drive and was in auto pilot mode when I pulled up, I had the attendant put diesel in the petrol cans. Lesson #3: don’t be a monkey*. That would explain why I couldn’t get the car started after it was finally put back together. Finally, after two more visits from the mechanic, the car was allegedly ready to drive.

So here I was a month later on my first trip outside of town in this car stuck on the side of the road with a car full of laundry and frozen food that I was anxious to get home (not to mention my poor wife standing by the side of the road trying to help me decide what to do). I realized I couldn’t make it to the next town since fuel was leaking so fast it would be gone by the time I got there. As I pondered what to do, a nice gentleman named Henry walked over from a nearby house (there were a few mud houses close by) and offered to help. He insisted on trying to fix the problem himself and, since the car didn’t have a jack, suggested that I drive the car up onto a nearby ant hill to get the front wheels high enough to give us room to look under the belly. Next, what seemed to be the entire nearby village came along and crowded closely around the car. After all, what else is there to do in the middle of nowhere? Unfortunately, the audience included an overly eager drunkard who only seemed to know two words in English—“yes” and “carburetor”—which he said many times over the next half hour. As some of the kids tried to help out by pulling the drunkard out of the way, he picked up a rock the size of a softball—I kid you not—and threw it at one of the boys. Lesson #4: please exercise caution when correcting a drunkard with yellow and black teeth. Fortunately, the boy was able to dodge the rock as all of the other kids laughed in amusement.

After growing frustrated at the little progress my “mechanic team” was making over the next half hour, I—the guy who put diesel in a petrol engine—finally decided to take matters into my own hands. When I finally got a good

wrong place to be for a non-mechanic

 look under the belly of the car, I discovered wires and string all over the place. Lesson #5: vehicles held together by bay line, string and wire with parts that don’t fit are likely to encounter problems including, but not limited to: expedited wear and tear, leaks, parts falling off and engine breakdown.

When I finally fixed the car to my (very low) standards, I backed the car off the ant on which it was perched. Several of the young men who were witnessing the insanity quickly waved their hands to get my attention and then picked up the piece of the fiberglass bumper that was ripped off on the ant hill as I backed away. In my

Oops. Monkey!!

haste to get going again, I failed to recognize how low the bumper was in relation to the ant hill. Lesson #6: there’s generally a reason why the tow truck driver doesn’t place the hooks on the vehicle’s bumper when towing since they aren’t made to withstand the entire weight of the vehicle.

At this point, there was nothing I could do but put the bumper (license plate and all) in the back of the car as Henry hopped in along with us for a ride into the next town. Within a few kilometers of driving away, I smelled gas again as I watched the gas gage drop before my eyes while about a quarter tank of gas spilled leaked onto the road in a matter of seconds. When I pulled the car over again, Henry and I discovered that the hose on the bottom had come loose again. Lesson #7: if the hose came loose previously without any wire or string to hold it tight, it is likely to occur again. Lesson #7b: try to avoid reaffirming the definition of insanity while being a monkey.

Since we had no wire to tighten the loose belt, I asked Laurie to peel off one of the thin key rings in an attempt to unbend it and use it as a wire; however, without our Leatherman knife (which we left at home this one time), I was unable to bend the wire tight enough with my bare hands. Fortunately, Henry found a piece of string on the side of the road—yeah—and proceeded to tie the hose tight which enabled us to take off again. One minor detail before we took off: Henry had placed his glasses behind the front tire as he was working under the car, and when I backed the care up. . . . . . . . uh huh. Lesson #8: Caution: for maximum usage, glasses should be placed around the area of the eyes on the human head and not under the weight of a vehicle.

As we limped into town, I knew I had to buy Henry a new pair of glasses—especially since I had seen the glasses lying behind the tire but forgot about them when I backed up. When Henry suggested that we head to the main outdoor market to get some replacement glasses, something just wasn’t clicking with me. I decided to ask him where he had gotten the (now bent) glasses, and he said they were prescribed by an eye doctor in Lilongwe. At this point, I began to wonder: is it just me, or are the odds of finding prescription glasses here not real good? Lesson #9: Researchers have recently discovered that the purpose of glasses is to help people see better and therefore recommend that patients purchase their glasses from an eye doctor rather than an outdoor market specializing in dried fish, bike tires and onions.

When I politely mentioned to Henry that we may not be able to find prescription glasses here, he replied, “Maybe not.” Rather than allow myself to head down the thought path wondering, “What if I hadn’t said anything?”, I asked Henry how much he paid for his glasses, and he told me 3,300 Kwacha. I was able to bend his wire frames back in place and fit the unbroken lens that had come out back in place, but I knew I needed to give him the money for some new glasses. Although I had little doubt he would pocket the money and continue using his current glasses, I couldn’t help but acknowledge that I would be providing the same kind of service that my mechanics provided me if I just expected him to use the bent wire frames. For 5,500 Kwacha (the 3,300 for the glasses plus 700 for transport to Lilongwe, along with the 1,500 Laurie had given him for helping us with the car), I didn’t feel too badly to be out of what amounted to $38 USD in light of everything that had happened.

After Laurie and I made it safely home, I decided to take a run along the beach to unwind. As my mind gave way to the typical entitlement mentality so prevalent among us Americans, causing me to wonder why God would allow such hardships to people trying to “do His work”, it suddenly occurred to me how blessed we were. This was one of our more difficult days in Africa, and yet I was back in my nice beach front house by nightfall enjoying some of Laurie’s excellent chicken/vegetable stir fry and sleeping in a soft bed with the sound of waves crashing outside my window. I couldn’t help but compare our relatively minor inconvenience to some of the hardships faced by the missionaries whose biographies Laurie and I have been reading. Consider:

William Carey
• buried four children, two wives, the second of whom went insane before she died, one daughter-in-law and three grandchildren
• didn’t see a single convert until seven years into his missionary service
• lost six years’ worth of translation work and manuscripts in a fire
• was accused late in life by his mission board of gathering wealth even though he gave more personal money—40,000 pounds—than any other person in the world during his 24 years of service, all while receiving only 600 pounds for support from the mission society his entire career

Hudson Taylor
• buried three children and his wife
• contracted typhoid, tuberculosis and dysentery among other illnesses, leaving him sick for years while still in his 20s
• was constantly short of money, receiving only 80 pounds per year while his peers from another missionary society received 700 pounds per year
• had his request for marriage to the first woman he loved rejected from her father after telling him, “I can’t promise you that you’ll ever see her again”, when asked how often Hudson would bring her home to see her family

Jim Elliott
• spent a month laying in a tent on the edge of death while in and out of consciousness as he battled a sickness he could never identify, all the while being nursed by his new wife who also had to deal with thick mud building up on the tent floor
• lost an entire year’s work that went into building a schoolhouse, medical clinic, house and airstrip when a ravaging flood swept them away, nearly killing him in the process
• speared to death in the prime of his life (age 28), leaving behind a widow and young daughter

Adoniram Judson
• buried four children, none over two years old, along with two wives, the first of which sent him into a three-year depression
• spent a year and a half in a death prison where he was shackled up each evening with his feet hooked to a bamboo pole four feet off the ground
• then there’s this zinger he had the honor of sending to the wealthy parents of the woman (his first wife) whose hand he was requesting in marriage:
“I have now to ask; whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of [Burma]; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. . . .”

The apostle Paul (II Corinthians 11:23-27; 1:8)
• many imprisonments
• countless beatings
• five whippings with the 39 lashes
• beaten with rods
• stoned and left for dead
• shipwrecked
• adrift at sea
• in danger from rivers
• in danger from robbers
• in danger from his own people
• in danger from Gentiles
• in danger in the city
• in danger in the wilderness
• in danger at sea
• in danger from false brothers
• in toil and hardship
• through many a sleepless night
• in hunger and thirst
• often without food
• in cold and exposure
• despaired of life itself

Our day wasn’t so bad after all.

* Laurie and I often refer to each other as monkeys when we do something stupid.

Musings on our Time in Afreaka May 11, 2009

We are in the home stretch now – just one month left here in the Warm Heart of Africa, as Malawi is called. Many people have commented on how the time has just flown by. My response is, “For YOU!” It’s not that this trip has been so terrible, or that the continent of Africa is horrible. It’s just being so far from home for so long makes the time go by slowly. With that being said, I’ve complied a few observations and quick stories from our time here:

Louis NoMore
When we left the Moyer’s house in Zambia in March, the plan was for them to come visit us in Malawi within 3 weeks. I had a couple of books I still had to read, but I borrowed about 10 Louis L’Amour books for Tim. Their plans changed and they ended up not coming for about 6 weeks. In the meanwhile, I not only finished my books, but I had to resort to reading the Louis L’Amour books as well. Now, my brothers love Louis L’Amour, but a chick can only take so many painted desert descriptions, quick draws (the bullet always lands “just above the belt buckle”) and good-guy-accused-wrongly-but-still-prevails story lines. When the Moyers got here I complained about my reading selection. Dan asked why I hadn’t just gone to bookshelf in the office and read any of those books? What bookshelf? And what office? So he showed me upstairs, above where we meet for church every Sunday, to the loft office with a huge bookcase filled with tons of amazing books. Bye-bye, Mr. L’Amour!!

We’ve Got it So Easy
There is a series of books (located in the bookshelf in the office upstairs) called Christian Heroes: Then and Now. There are books on Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, William Carey and Jim Elliott just to name a few. They even have books on Rachel Saint and Nate Saint, Tim’s aunt and uncle. They are such quick reads and so interesting, Tim and I have just been devouring them! These missionaries risked everything for the Gospel! They were persecuted, tossed about at sea, caught deadly diseases, lost children and spouses right and left, had years of work destroyed by fire, had orphans in their care torn from their arms, were viciously maligned by their “friends” from home, had their homes flooded or ransacked and had to wait years for even one convert! They went through SO much heartache yet they persevered. “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13+14). We’ll only have 9 months in Africa, not a lifetime, and we get to go back to the comforts and familiarity of home. Our challenge then is to keep on pressing on – to keep the prize in the forefront of our minds. The minor afflictions we suffered while here are temporary compared to eternity. (2Cor 4:17+18)

My Mwami (husband).

The man

This month we celebrate 5 years of marital bliss, and I realize I love my husband more than ever. Tim is the person I most love to be with in this world. Even when he’s gone for just a few hours, I miss him. He is so easy-going and flexible, makes me laugh and cheers me up, protects me, leads me spiritually and challenges me on my weaknesses. He constantly thanks me for doing the most menial things like making the bed or cooking dinner. He doesn’t hesitate to preach a sermon, eat unfamiliar food or learn a few phrases of the local language. And although the dude can’t figure out a movie plot to save his life, we’ve had some serious laughs and some serious cries during our time in Africa. I definitely couldn’t have made it without him.

Ants on My Big Toe
I felt an ant crawl across the tops of my four small toes and then I didn’t feel it. I looked down to see where it went and there it was continuing across my big toe but I couldn’t feel it. What’s up with that?

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
I’m not sure where that saying came from, but it sure does feel good to be clean! The water in our house is cold only, so we have to go out to a little hut if we want to take a hot shower (and you have to remember to turn on the heat 15 minutes beforehand, which I forget half the time so the shower is cold anyway). The water comes from a shallow well on our property. If you look at it in the sink or tub (I try not to), the color is a rich golden brown. This is the water I have been using to wash clothes, shower in and to wash my face. My hair always feels a little sticky and my face has tiny pimples on it. I will hold out and wear the same thing over again in order to avoid hand washing. During our bi-monthly trip into Lilongwe, stay at the Baptist Guest House which has a large washing machine where you can pay per load. They also have hot running water in the bathrooms, so it is a pleasure to get my body and clothes all nice and clean there. You’ll notice I didn’t mention my feet! They might take a while to get clean – the dirt looks permanent. (Maybe that’s why I can’t feel the ants?!)

Sew What?
Back in the day, I was a Brownie (for those of you who don’t know, that’s one step below a Girl Scout). I remember trying to fill my whole sash with merit badges that my mom sewed on. I mention who sewed them on because I

Martha Stewart

certainly didn’t. I think one of the badges was for sewing, but I must have skipped that one or cheated somehow. Anyway, I vaguely remember sitting at the sewing machine making something lame like a lopsided apron or pull-on skirt. That was the beginning and end of my sewing career. Until I came to Africa. One of my projects here at the cottages is to replace all the outdated floral curtains with new African print ones. It took many trips to Lilongwe to pick out the fabric for the curtains and coordinating bedspreads (there is no such place as Linens and Things). Tina Moyer brought her father-in-law’s antiquated sewing machine so we could “whip out the curtains” during her stay here. Tina and I are friends because we are so alike. Not only is she short and has a loud laugh, but she dives right into things before being thoroughly prepared. Supposedly there is a saying that you “should measure twice but cut once”. We measured once and I am still cutting! When Tina said inches, I measured in centimeters and when she ripped the fabric (the official sewing procedure), we discovered the pattern was printed crooked on the material. So needless to say after all the trimming, our curtains same up short. As I write this, there is a local tailor man outside sewing on wide black borders.

The Guys Have It
You may have noticed that I said Tina brought her father-in-law’s sewing machine and that I have a guy sewing right now. Unlike in the states, the tailors and alterations people here are all men. It’s also interesting to note that guys are the manicurists and pedicurists, too! In the States, those are typical female professions.

Spiritually Speaking
I have determined that one thing God has been trying to teach me lately is to “Trust Me, My child.” I “heard” that phrase many times during my miscarriage and subsequent surgery here. I felt so alone, although Tim was right beside me. I felt like the Lord had abandoned me. Didn’t He hear my cries? I would have rather never have been pregnant than to have that hope dashed, especially so far from home. But through it all, I was sustained. Tim read Psalm 62 over and over – it mainly talks about how God is our rock and fortress, but verse 5 says “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.” But you’ll notice it says my hope is from Him. I look at that as a gift, or a blessing. No matter what, I am blessed with hope from almighty God. Not everyone can claim that, so isn’t that what we should be concerned about as Christians? All around them, Africans deal with death, poor health and bleak futures. Hopelessness. How can I wallow in self pity, when God has given me an opportunity through this trial to share in His gift of hope? I am learning to trust Him and look outwardly even when I am heartsick.

The Call
Just for the record, neither one of us feels “called” to Africa permanently. We do, however, feel we will have a lifelong affiliation with the people we have met and worked with in Uganda, Zambia and Malawi. Only God knows exactly what that will entail, however. After living outside of our comfort zone and personally experiencing God’s assurance and provision, we are committed to remember His faithfulness. We’ve got to put some stakes in the ground as a memorial to what God has done in us and through us during this time. I feel an obligation to not fall back into the same old patterns once I get home. I ask you all to hold me accountable. When we left the US, people said we would be changed by this experience. If we aren’t, we’ve got problems. If we come back exactly the same, we could have just been on an extended vacation (not the holiday destination I would pick!).

Wrapping Up
So as we near the end our African Adventure, we leave behind an unborn child, a ton of new friends and a firsthand knowledge of what it means to live in a Third World country. I can’t say I wouldn’t trade it, because honestly I am weak and to relive this experience does not appeal at all. Am I glad we did it? Yes, in hindsight. Besides we really didn’t have a choice. We know without a doubt that God led us to Africa and now He’s leading us home. What next, Lord?

Return On Investment (ROI) May 4, 2009

First, my  apologies for taking so long in between blogs.  We have had guests the last week (Dan & Tina Moyer and their family along with four other familes) which has kept me from spending time on the computer, not to mention that I had the worst time tying my random thoughts together for this blog, causing me to procrastinate (kind of like that college term paper hanging over  your head).

I ended my last blog by mentioning how rewarding the ROI on kingdom work is here in Africa, so I want to expand on that thought here. While Laurie and I don’t have plans to come back to Africa permanently after we return to the States, we know we must remain invested in the work here both monetarily and with our time remotely. When we first made the decision to come to Africa for these nine months, we knew that our minds needed some recalibration from the worldly, entitlement attitude that we’re constantly confronted with in the States. You may have seen the article in Newsweek recently which spoke about the narcissism so prevalent in America. The T-shirt in the promo picture for the article on MSN said it all: I love me. This, along with other shirts teenage girls are known to wear that say things like “It’s all about me” and “I don’t need your attitude; I’ve already got one of my own” reveal quite a scary—more accurately, an anti-biblical—view that more and more Americans are adopting. Unfortunately, this mindset has made its way into the church as evidenced by the big building projects—which often seem more like personal monuments—but shrinking missions budgets. Kennedy Simtowe, the native Tanzanian church planter who we’re working with here in Malawi, told me the other day that he’s very concerned about the next generation of American Christians after visiting America and seeing the expensive cars they’re driving and the big plasma TVs in their homes. It’s not for me to say what a person can or cannot buy, but we must all examine ourselves to make sure we’re heeding the words of Jesus when He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Babu (Dan Moyer’s father) regrettably shared with me his experience of recently visiting a church near where he grew up in suburban Philadelphia that has now grown to a mega-church with a large building campaign, but the missions budget is exactly the same as it was when he attended the church 40-50 years ago when it had far fewer attendees.

One of my biggest fears has always been falling prey to the “frog in boiling water” phenomenon of allowing the world to slowly creep into our lives without us even realizing it is happening. Aside from our infertility, we had a pretty good life in Kirkland—a convenient house within walking distance of the lake, nice restaurants all around, impromptu dinners out with friends on the weekends and fairly good insulation from “the evil world out there.” I think God knew we needed a jolt, so He did what I didn’t have the guts to do and ended my job so I would get my focus more on His kingdom. Looking back on the circumstances surrounding how I got fired, I realize how out-of-place I was in a sales environment that rewarded self promotion more than actual productivity, and I’m very grateful now—even though it was inconvenient at the time—that I was able to escape that atmosphere even though it wasn’t my decision.

So why does the ROI on kingdom work seem to be better here in Africa? The only answer I can come up with is because our efforts here have such a greater impact than they would in America. Here are a few examples (some of which I’ve referred to in previous blogs):

For less money than it takes to fund a Roth IRA for one year ($4,500), we were able to fund a small school for a year, buy 83 outfits for children at a juvenile detention center, provide seed money for three businesses for the Sports Outreach members and will purchase a meze (corn) grinder for Grace Church in Malawi which will make life significantly easier for an entire community. While there’s no doubt the ROI is strong here, there are lingering questions in the backs of our minds of whether we’re approaching ministry the right way, including:

• Are we simply buying influence and control?
• If we’re supposed to preach Christ where He’s never been preached, why are we in Africa since most of the continent has vast exposure to the Gospel?
• Is it possible to be in Africa without creating dependence?
• Are we just an extension of colonial rule which brought development (technology, healthcare, education) but which, according to some, has left a legacy of a shorter average life span than before the outsiders came?
• Are we trying to solve Africa’s problems without even inviting its native inhabitants to participate in the solution?
• Why do we tend to focus so much on the poor? Is it because the poor are the easiest to influence since they’re the most dependent on us? Is that necessarily wrong?
• Why is our desire to help the poor often driven from guilt?
• Can you teach ambition?
• How do you handle children whose parents won’t responsibly take care of them (e.g. if you start a feeding program that provides one meal a day for children who are going hungry, then the drunkard father will know that represents even one less meal he has to worry about providing, using that money for more booze and thus creating even more dependency)?
• Is shooting for the best ROI the appropriate approach to missions? What about people like William Carey who labored for years without seeing a convert?
• How do you properly measure success in missions?
• Lastly, what is the proper biblical definition of a poor person? To me, this may be the most important question of all, because if we could probably answer this question, I think we would have much more confidence in our outreach.

It’s amazing how much less I know the longer I’m here. In talking with Dan Moyer and his friend Lyle who have a combined 75 years of experience in Africa, they said that some people who come on short term mission trips seem to have all the answers to Africa’s problems when they head back to the States, but the perspective changes with time and experience. As many questions as I have after eight months here, Lyle assured me my list of unanswered questions would get even bigger the longer I stay here.

This has been a frustrating blog to write because I don’t have answers to these questions, and my exposure here has only opened up more questions rather than helped me to identify solutions to the problems. But just because I don’t have the answers doesn’t mean they aren’t there. God promises to give wisdom liberally to those who ask, and He does have the answers to these questions; I just need to find them.

Senga Bay observations April 10, 2009

I must admit that living on Lake Malawi is quite the gravy train (although those aren’t quite the words Laurie would use to describe it). We now have a vehicle, hot water, a stove and a house that’s bigger than ours in the States (not to mention that our bedroom reminds me of Hawaii as we enjoy the strong wind from the lake and the sound of waves crashing against the shore all night). Lake Malawi is often referred to as the most beautiful lake in Africa, and I would estimate that the same property we’re living on here would be worth around $5 million on Lake Washington. As I write this, a few American guys from San Diego in their 20s who started a business in Zambia called Zambikes, along with some of their employees and a few other Peace Corps workers, are staying at the cottages for Easter weekend.

I certainly do miss the relationships with the good men of Sports Outreach in Uganda, but our task here is just as worthy as we help pave the way for a school which, Lord willing, will be operational in just a few months. Honestly, the work is not at all hard. The physical labor for the two buildings being constructed—one a school, the other a house for the pastor—has already been contracted out to some local construction workers, so my only responsibility for the construction is to make sure the men have all the supplies they need and the money to pay for them out of the Grace building project budget. The work the locals are doing, on the other hand, is anything but easy; and chicks have to get in on the act too. Three women haul sand on buckets on their heads from the lakeshore about 100 yards and dump it in a

Women collecting sand from the beach, an EPA nightmare

Tbig pile for a truck to pick up and take to the job site. Why pay for sand when you can just dig it up from the lakeshore? Somehow I don’t think the EPA would approve of this method; but Africans have learned to be quite resourceful, and they’re not going to pay for sand if they don’t have to. Two other women go back and forth from the lake which is at least a quarter of a mile away

This is what I expect Laurie to do when we get back to the States. We actually helped carry some sand one day to see what it was like and found out those buckets are H-E-A-V-Y (I would estimate 70 lbs).

(probably closer to a half mile) and haul water on their heads all day to bring to the job site so it can be mixed with the sand and cement. The two boys working as laborers for the brick layers are obviously not going to school. I asked one of the boys, Kassimu, the other day how old he was, and he said he was 15. I remember going to work as a mud boy at age 16 and recalling how hard the work was, but at least I got to go back to school in

Kassimu (on right) standing next to his boss, Maonga

 the fall. When I was driving Kassimu back to our cottage the other day to offload some construction materials, I invited him to sit in the cab with me—they instinctively just hop in the bed of the truck—and when it was time to get out, he didn’t know how to work the latch to open the door. It occurred to me that this was probably the first time he had ever ridden in a vehicle.

The construction team members barely speak any English, and I only know a few phrases in Chichewa; so we depend on our faithful property manager, Diamon, to translate for us. He is quite a reliable worker and is always willing to do even more than we ask of him. We couldn’t ask for a better worker or a nicer guy. He is a Muslim, but it’s more cultural since we have never seen him attend the mosque which is just down the street. Laurie and I were quite shocked when we found out he had five kids, because he barely looked 25 (it turns out he’s 35). He appears to be a very good husband and father, and his kids always seem very happy whenever we see them. I asked him the other day if he has ever had a picture taken of his family, and he said no; so I told him I would take a family picture for them. He said, “When?” So I knew a picture would be something he would look forward to owning.

Since the money that will support the school is being generated from the cottage that is owned by Grace Ministries, our main concentration has been on making small improvements to make it appealing to guests as well as making sure it is marketed adequately—signs on the road, website, etc. It seems like we’re not doing a whole lot, but as I mentioned to Laurie the other day, a small effort can go such a long way in Africa. Having a school built in a predominantly Muslim area where 70% of the children currently don’t attend school can make a huge impact on students who may not otherwise get exposure to the Gospel.

I was recently talking with a missionary friend of Dan and Tina’s who grew up in Africa, and he said he has tried to leave the continent so many times; but he just can’t do it because he is constantly confronted with the reality that the ROI on kingdom work is so rewarding here. He would know after living in Liberia, Southern California, Louisiana, Kirkland (while attending Northwest College), Hawaii, Japan, Tanzania, Denmark and Zambia. I gave some thought to what he said and had to agree based on my short experience here (more on that in my next blog).

Chisomo Cottages March 28, 2009

The name means “Grace Cottages” and this is our home for the next couple of months. After 2 weeks in Zambia and a few days in the capital city of Lilongwe, Malawi, we have settled into our accommodations on Senga Bay. Lake Malawi is the third biggest lake in Africa and Senga Bay sits on the southwestern shore about a 2 hour drive east of Lilongwe. The lakefront property has a 3 bedroom house (where we are staying), a 2 bedroom / one bath cottage and many smaller units dotted around. They all have plaster walls and thatched roofs. The grounds are nice with spotty lawns and some hardy plants and huge trees.

View at Chisomo Cottages

The beach has white sand and small lapping waves, not to mention the occasional herd of cows walking by. Across the water you can faintly see the coast of Mozambique and a few closer islands. Along the beachfront are other small hotels, a mosque (right next door) and some private residences. The locals fish, wash themselves and their clothes in the water and peddle their wares: mainly baskets, wood carvings and small wax paintings. They are not hard-core salesmen and take “no” for an answer, which is nice. I did buy a few paintings for the main house as part of my goal here is to update the accommodations a bit.

The curtains in the main house look like they came from a British granny and the light fixtures resemble Amish bonnets. I bought meters of Malawian fabric and have ordered some wall sconces. That and some paint should make a world of difference. The main house is and will be used for members of Grace Ministries to come for retreats or conferences, or as a stop en route from point A to point B. I plan on working on the rest of the buildings, too, as they will be opened to the public and a source of income for the ministry. Tim is putting together a basic website for the cottages so we can advertise for guests. The profit from the cottages will be used toward the building of a local school, just a mile up the road. 

Chisomo Cottages

The interesting thing about the land for the school is that it was “given” to Grace Ministries by the local tribal chief. He was happy to have someone willing to build a community school for his people. The thing is, he keeps asking for more money! Every time Kennedy visits him, he increases the charge for his generosity! Needless to say, Kennedy avoids visiting as much as he can, but that’s not hard as Kennedy lives with his family in Lilongwe and travels quite a bit. The construction oversight will be Tim’s responsibility and the chief is being appeased by a local pastor. The workers broke ground about a week ago on the foundation for the 2 room schoolhouse and small office. We also hope to at least start construction on the outside bathrooms and the pastor’s house.

Tim drives around in a mid-sized truck with a canopied top picking up and delivering construction materials such as cement and bricks. Mind you, they drive on the opposite of the road as in the US, so I’ve had to warn him a few times that he was getting a little too close to the edge on my side! Of course there are no shoulders on the road and tons of people and bikes, so it’s not easy to drive anyway. There’s a small town, Salima, about a 20 minute drive away from our house but it only has limited stores. We plan on going into Lilongwe once every week or two for supplies, bottled water and a decent meal. We stay in a guest house for missionaries where we can get hot showers and use the washer and dryer.

If you disregard the ants, lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes, life here is quite pleasant. With the calming sounds of the waves and the quiet village (aside from the mosque’s call to prayer throughout the day), it is not a bad place to live. It’s a little remote for my taste, but we will be getting some social interaction soon. Dan and Tina Moyer and family are coming for a visit in a little over a week so we’re looking forward to that.

Shermans and Bentons

We’ve already had a couple of Grace Missionary families stay with us, too. The Shermans and Bentons were traveling back to Tanzania from South Africa and stayed 2 nights at Chisomo. They are American families living in Africa and doing a lot of good work. Their combined 6 kids were very well behaved, kicking the soccer ball on the beach, playing in the lake and making popcorn. The females got to play a long game of Phase Ten and cook a huge pot of spaghetti together. It was much too short of a visit!

If anyone is interested in hanging out on the beach on Lake Malawi, we have the room! Please come visit and stay as long as you want; the only payment would be to pick up a paint brush or sit at the sewing machines every once in a while. Ahh, the missionary life!

Arrival in Zambia March 6, 2009

Tim and I have started the second part of our African adventure. We are currently in Kabwe, Zambia staying with our missionary friends, Dan and Tina Moyer. We’ll be here for 2 weeks before heading over to Malawi. It’s so cool that Dan’s parents, Carl and Joanne, live right next door. Carl is the pastor of the church and their house is host to a steady stream of people. We are staying in the guest house at the back of their compound. It has got its own bathroom – with hot water! – and is very quiet. We are able to sleep so well here – no incessant dog barking or all-night churches blaring. We have all our meals with the family either at Carl and Joanne’s or Dan and Tina’s. There is no scrounging for decent food here! It’s good, healthy and diverse. And Tim could use some plumping up. He caught some kind of parasite before we left Uganda and is a string bean! Tina has been giving him grapefruit seed extract and Dan said to take it easy for a little while, so he is definitely on the mend.

Poor Tim

We are really enjoying ourselves. We’ve already had our first volleyball tournament and I am gearing up for board game marathons. The ministry has an internet café so we’ve been able to catch up on our correspondence a little here as well. There are a few projects in Kabwe we want to accomplish such as helping to sort through a huge container, organize some rooms in the Moyers’ house and install a sliding glass door at the café. I’ve also tried to help out by making a few meals and desserts, which everyone seems to like. It’s just nice to be part of a family, to be encouraged, re-group after Kampala, and have some social time with the many missionary families in Kabwe.

Joanne and Carl

Carl and Joanne have been missionaries in Africa for over 42 years (Joanne was born and raised here, and Carl was born and raised in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, just 45 minutes from where Tim grew up) and really have done some good work over the years. Joanne is a nurse and Carl is a jack of all trades. They are very hospitable, experienced and accepting. The locals call them BaBu and BiBi (grandfather and grandmother in Swahili). Carl makes a mean stack of pancakes (Tim ate 9 this morning) and Joanne is always smiling and busy feeding someone.

Dan, their son, was raised in Tanzania and met Tina in Bible college. (Incidentally, when Dan’s parents came back to the States on furlough every four years, they spent most of their time in Pennsylvania, and Tim and Dan just realized during a conversation yesterday that they probably played against each other in high school soccer since Dan attended Upper Bucks Christian School which competed against Tim’s school in sports.) They have been married 20 years and have 3 kids. They have an amazing testimony about the struggles of life “in the bush”, a stillbirth and infertility. Those hardships have made them such great sounding boards and counselors for us. Plus they are really cute together and their kids, Natalie, Nadine and Seth are really sweet.

Dan and Tina

I met Dan and Tina about eleven years ago when they gave a presentation at our single’s group at Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland. I remember thinking Tina was just a kick and that if she lived nearby we would be friends; too bad she lived in Africa. I ended up going on a short term mission trip to Zambia to work with the Moyers. There were 6 women and 6 men on our team and we had such a great time! (Aside from my near-drowning experience, but that’s another story). Tina and I have been friends ever since, hooking up whenever they came home to Seattle on furlough.

When we felt the Lord nudging us to get our minds off of ourselves go out and help other people, my first thought was to contact the Moyers. Dan sent an email right back saying to absolutely come. They were going to be in the States almost the exact same time as we were planning to be in Uganda, so we agreed we would come to work with them during the second half of our trip.

So we flew to Lusaka, Zambia from Entebbe, Uganda on February 28th and the whole clan picked us up. We’ll be flying out of Lusaka in June, so we come back through on our way home. Kennedy, a longtime friend and associate of Dan’s will drive us to Malawi mid-March and Dan will come over and drive us back to Zambia at the end of May. So, what’s our gameplan as far as work goes?

The government in Malawi gave Grace Ministries International, Dan’s organization, about 20 acres on which to build a school. The land is in an area called Senga Bay, about an hour and a half from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Grace did a survey and found out that 70% of the children in that area don’t go to school and apparently the place is smack in the middle of a Muslim neighborhood. The government has authorized Grace to teach using a Christian perspective. Our job will be to oversee the construction of phase one of the school project – 2 classrooms, a latrine and teachers quarters.

About a mile away from the land for the school, Grace owns a small resort called Chisomo Cottages on the shore of Lake Malawi. The story about how Grace acquired the resort is amazing: There is a team of Grace Missionaries living and working on a lake in Tanzania. They are really making huge strides in the community and it occurred to Dan that Grace ought to see about getting another piece of property to duplicate that successful project. He called Kennedy, who lives in Malawi. He told him that getting some lakefront property was laid on his heart and Kennedy said, “I already know the place; I just heard of a guy selling a plot on the north shore of Lake Malawi.” Dan said for Kennedy to go check it out and send some pictures. Kennedy was so excited about the resort once we saw it that he drove the 12 (!) hours to Zambia to show Dan the pictures in person. The owner was asking a very reasonable price of $55,000 and Dan emailed a few of his key donors about the possibility. But at the same time, in faith and without the money, he told Kennedy to go ahead and make an offer. Right away a donor responded saying that just that very day he made a profit on his Microsoft stock of —-guess how much—-$55,000! He said he would not even miss the money, since he didn’t know he even had it. So the land was purchased by Grace Ministries and they found out that the day after it closed, the owner received an offer of $70,000. I guess God wanted Grace to have it!!

Since then, Grace has built a security wall around the perimeter of the property as well as a conference room overlooking the lake. We will be staying in the main house – it’s has 3 bedrooms, hot water and huge living room. Tim and I will work on sprucing up Chisomo Cottages as we stay there, with the goal of welcoming guests as soon as possible. Another objective is to meet and build relationships with the people living around the resort. That’s right up my alley! We’ll invite some people over for dinner, go to the local church and visit families nearby to determine which kids would attend the school when it opens.

We’ll only have 2 and ½ months, but we’ll do what we can! Unfortunately the funding for the building project fell through due the financial crisis in the US, so we need to be very careful to budget wisely. We didn’t ask for contributions for our trip, feeling the Lord needed us to sacrifice financially as well as physically. But we are grateful to those of you who gave anyway! We spent most of the money on the projects in Uganda, as you may have read in one of Tim’s previous blogs. We are donating the balance to Grace Ministries for the Malawi school project, but it’s far short of the $50,000 budget for phase one.

I feel funny about asking for money, but I need to get over it. It is a blessing to give, so we are only offering a chance to donate to a reputable organization that is accountable and actually getting a ton of amazing work done. There are a lot of mediocre – not to mention corrupt – charities out there, using donor’s money in less than honorable ways. We can vouch firsthand for the work Dan and Tina are doing!

We, along with Grace, are trusting the Lord to provide for this project. If you are compelled to give, with a tax deduction for charity, you can visit www.gracem.org and designate the funds to the Malawi school project. The money will go directly for the start up costs for the Christian school in a predominantly Muslim community. Eventually we hope the resort will generate enough income to run the school, so it can be a self-sustaining enterprise.

It sure seems like God has had His mighty hand on this project, so we figure we might as well get on board for the ride and see what He does!

We’ll send pictures as soon as we get there……

Uganda wrap-up March 3, 2009

First, my apologies for going so long since my last blog (which now has pictures for each of the guys who were profiled, by the way). We had a number of tasks we were scrambling to wrap up before we left Uganda, not to mention that I finally succumbed to the inevitable “runny stomach” one gets when spending time in Africa during my last week there. Now that we have arrived safely in Zambia, we have some down time for a few weeks before we head to Malawi in mid-March, enabling us to catch up on some correspondence.

My primary goal before leaving was to complete a six-page summary of our experience for the executive director of Sports Outreach addressing the following topics, among others:

• Financial accountability

• Sports Outreach website

• Office administration efficiency and protocol

• Salaries/self sustaining income for Sports Outreach members

• Venue for members to post suggestions, complaints and questions

• Architectural model for future proposed complex

• Electronic purchases

It really was a pleasure to work with the Sports Outreach team. If you have any familiarity with NGOs in Africa, you know many of them are laden with corruption. Sports Outreach, on the other hand, was very open with its finances; and we never had to worry about what was happening with any money we gave because we always saw the results of how the money was spent. We also appreciated the hearts of the guys with whom we worked and how they lived out their faith even outside of their responsibilities with Sports Outreach. A few examples:

• I was trying to set up a time to meet with Samson one Saturday, and he said he wasn’t available in the afternoon because he and his wife started a ministry with some of the kids who live near the new house he is building. He had noticed that the young boys in the village were just loitering, so he is starting to teach them soccer followed by a time of Bible study each Saturday afternoon. Forty boys and girls showed up in just their second week.

• When I was walking home from the office one afternoon, I heard my name being called and looked over to find Vincent (known as PaPa since he likes children so much), one of the Sports Outreach “Timothys”, talking with a young man at his house. I asked PaPa what he was doing, and he said he was sharing some scripture from Galatians 6 with the young man who played on his other soccer team. PaPa said he shares the gospel with the guys after each practice, and this guy had been going through some financial difficulty, so PaPa was trying to encourage him. He is not a Christian, but PaPa was explaining that Christ, while not taking away his problems, can help him through them. PaPa said he had left him 10,000 shillings and that he was going to come back later that week to encourage him again. Given the little money these guys make, I couldn’t help but be impressed with PaPa’s willingness to give this young man some money (not to mention the taxi fare he had to spend since he had to travel cross town to meet with him). The last time I spoke with PaPa, he said the young man was going to church with him each Sunday and was close to becoming a Christian. That’s what it’s all about! I couldn’t help but compare how PaPa chose to spend his spare time with how I spend my spare time in the States looking for some form of entertainment or going out to dinner.

• I asked Frank, the captain of the soccer team, how he was celebrating Christmas day; and he said he was going to go hang out with the kids in the Bwaise slum where he works.

While I had numerous business ideas that I would have loved to launch, the only one I knew I could realistically start before we left was a window screen business. There are two main obstacles to selling window screens here: 1) convincing people that they need window screens since many of them don’t take malaria very seriously and 2) most of the windows open outward on a hinge rather than sliding, requiring that the screen be fastened to the inside wall around the window. (The more wealthy homes have screens with wooden frames that open and close, but those screens are cost prohibitive for most Ugandans.) Since the walls are usually concrete, the only affordable way I found to attach the screen is to fix a plastic hook with sticky material on the back to the wall, cut four small holes in the screen and attach it to the hooks on four corners. This enables the homeowner to unhook the screen and thereby open and close the window. I will certainly work on a more efficient way to assemble these screens when I get back to the States where I have a variety of accessories and parts to choose from at a Home Depot or Lowes.

The final project I wanted to complete before leaving Uganda was to set up a meeting with an organization called Engineering Ministries International which helps Christian NGOs working with the poor in drawing up architectural plans. The biggest obstacle we saw for Sports Outreach was lack of its own property in Kampala. After seeing how much the Sports Outreach-Gulu branch benefited from having its own land, I thought there has to be a way the Kampala branch can get its own land. Being the capital city with a population of around 3 million, the land in Kampala is much more expensive than in the rest of the country. Sports Outreach has been looking into getting its own property in or around Kampala for some time, but the high price was the primary obstacle, not to mention that the available land was too far outside the city to make ministry among the slums a reality. I got a wild thought one day that we should simply approach the king of Buganda (king of the main tribe in Uganda who, while just a figure head similar to Prince Charles in England, owns the most prime undeveloped real estate in the heart of Kampala) and ask him to give us around 10 acres of his land to develop a sports complex (after all, it’s God’s land). My thinking was that if we brought along an architectural model of what we envisioned for the land in our meeting with the king, it would give us a much greater chance of getting his ear. One of the Sports Outreach members, Sam, comes from the same family as the king, so he came with me to the meeting with EMI and gave me some good ideas on how to approach the king. After meeting with EMI, we realized we probably couldn’t use its expertise until later in the process, so our next step will be to find an architectural firm to help us design a complex and then build the physical model. Humanly speaking, it’s a long shot; but we think God honors big requests if they’re for the right reason, and He can provide us any land He chooses.

Thankfully, we were able to complete our primary tasks before leaving. Laurie really stepped up big-time as the supportive wife the last week as I was dealing with my runny stomach and couldn’t help much with laundry or washing the dishes. She also did all of the packing for our move to Zambia/Malawi. Believe it or not, we chose our same friend, Patrick, to take us to the airport despite the drama with Melissa’s trip. Fortunately, his spark plugs were not “distobbing” him this time, and the trip was relatively smooth (other than the overpacked car with an extra passenger we weren’t expecting).

Laurie and I could not honestly think of many things we’ll miss in Uganda, but we already miss the relationships we had with the good people of Sports Outreach-Kampala with whom we have made new friends for life.

Half Way Point February 1, 2009

January 31, 2009 marked the midway date of our 9 month African adventure. (It exactly coincides with the 5 year anniversary of the night Tim proposed but I doubt there’s a connection).

For those who haven’t heard, we are staying a month longer in Kampala, Uganda and shaving off that month from our time in Malawi. We’ll still plan on heading home for the Saint Family Reunion in early June.

After the holidays, we were shocked to realize that we had only until the end of January to wrap things up here and we simply needed more time. We asked for another month on our apartment lease – never thought I would do that! – and are scrambling to tie up loose ends on many projects. Here are a few of the things we are working on – we’d sure appreciate your prayers:

• There are four slums in Kampala where the Sports Outreach team works. Each one is unique and a story in itself. Tim would like to develop websites for each slum project (similar to the rough draft he did for Life Eternal Ministries of the Nateete slum here) which can be accessed from the main ministry website. He’s been collecting verbiage and pictures and hopes to at least get the framework built before we go.
• Tim wants to get all the forms used here into electronic format so reports can be emailed or stored in a shared drive rather than sending hardcopies through the mail (yes, it IS the new millennium, folks!). I am working with the office manager to get all her accounting forms and ministry reports online as well; it’s not difficult, just time consuming.
• We want to go to the Detention Center we visited once a month one more time and deliver some uniforms that were handmade by the tailoring project in one of our slums. Melissa also brought some clothes over for the teen-aged girls. Please pray for these kids as they are not necessarily criminals (some are); they have sent to the center after being picked up off the streets.
• There is a 3-day training we are attending next week to help the older ladies in the projects help themselves rise above their current circumstances.
• We had new linoleum laid, the walls painted and desks built for our little school room. School starts again next week and we are interviewing for a permanent teacher. Please pray the solid Christian lady we are meeting with Monday works out. A huge thanks goes to Julie Muchlinski and her teacher friends for sending over boxes of school supplies. It is so exciting to see the enthusiasm of the kids as we start a fresh new year, and we are glad to be able to be here for the first few weeks. Praise.
• Tim has a brilliant idea about starting an account here with money to start up small businesses. If one of the Good News Football Club members wants to supplement his income, he can fill out the business plan template and, once the plan is approved by the board, use the seed money to get started. He will have a pre-determined timeframe for repayment so the next guy can use that money. Details and contracts need to be ironed out before we leave.
• We have to clear out our entire (2-room!) apartment. Most of the items are spoken for, so it’s just a matter of coordinating pick ups. Since we are not sure what our accommodations will be like in Malawi, I have to be prudent in what kitchen items to take with us. Pray our bags don’t exceed the weight limit!
• Tim is looking into starting a window screen business. With Malaria being so prevalent, easily installed and inexpensive window screens could be life-saving. We pray that obtaining a business license and figuring out who would run it here will not take long.
• We need to write a what is sure to be a lengthy report for the leadership team of Sports Outreach Institute. Tim spent some time with the Executive Director from the states and promised to send a detailed report of our impressions and suggestions after our 5 month stint in Kampala.

Those are just a few of the items on our “Ugandan To-Do” list. We’d appreciate your prayers for clear-thinking, stamina and an ability to prioritize. We are confident with God’s help we can finish strong! Thanks!

Sports Outreach member profiles January 16, 2009

For my first blog of 2009, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to the members of the Sports Outreach team with whom we’ve been working.

 

 

 

 

 

Barnabas is the first employee ever hired at Sports Outreach over 20 years ago. Besides being the director of the organization here in Uganda, his main role is serving as the coach of the Good News Football Club. A former team Uganda national coach, Barnabas has the distinguishment of playing on the last Uganda team to make the Africa Cup back in 1978. He has been a great sounding board for me when I have asked when it is appropriate to offer financial help and has always been very protective of our money to make sure people are not getting hand-outs from us.

 

David is a member of the Good News Football Club and is the youngest of 12 children (eight of whom have passed away). He serves as the de facto team clown who comes up with some creative outfits when it comes time to entertain kids.

 

 

 

 

 

Frank is the captain of the Good News Football Club and is by far the best soccer player I have ever seen in person. He was playing with the under-23 Uganda national team when he was asked to come to Sports Outreach. Even though he could be playing for the national team—and maybe even in Europe for all I know—he decided to join Sports Outreach after reading about the vanity of fame and money in Ecclesiastes. He said he’s glad to be a part of the team because some of the kids he meets say they can talk to him now whereas before, he was “too high” for them to approach him.

Herbert is a member of the Good News Football Club and, even though he is one of the younger members, has shown great leadership. On numerous occasions he is the one who gives the gospel message after an outreach game. He had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home and was raised by a very good-hearted mother who is even now teaching in a school which she started for local children at no cost.

 

Jimmy is a member of the Good News Football Club and is in the process of getting a Bible college diploma. Despite growing up in a dysfunctional family, Jimmy said he has grown in his faith through good contacts made playing soccer. When he came to the Good News Football Club, he claims he was a dirty player but has since learned how to communicate the gospel through soccer.

 

Mitchell is the assistant director of Sports Outreach and is probably the most western thinking person we know here. Mitchell grow up in a single parent home not knowing his father and then lost his mother as a teenager, forcing him to grow up quickly. Although he didn’t have the resources to attend university, Mitchell has risen above his circumstances and has managed to build a house and serve as a children’s’ pastor at his church. It’s quite educating to hear Mitchell address some of the women in the slums who think they can’t get ahead in life. Having grown up in a shack that cost only 3,000 shillings a month ($1.50 USD) and that was so small, he couldn’t even stand all the way up in it, Mitchell doesn’t have much sympathy for people who say they can’t get ahead in life without financial help, and he has been a very effective at helping Sports Outreach stay financially accountable.

Moses is a member of the Good News Football Club and helps coach a soccer team in the Nateete slum where Laurie and I volunteer. He recently got engaged and plans to marry some time in 2009. Moses has always been a leader, whether in devotions or on the team, and he has been good at checking up on me to make sure I’m not forgetting the few phrases I know in the Luganda language.

 

Olivia is the secretary at the Sports Outreach office and, being the only woman on the team, has been a good friend to Laurie. Olivia has six children, including little Joy, her youngest, who is one of the cutest little kids I’ve ever seen.

 

 

 

Patrick is a member of the Good News Football Club and is the guy who helped vet our apartment when we had to choose where to live. He made sure we didn’t get “a muzungu price” by checking around the neighborhood to see what the going rates were for similar apartments. Although he was raised a Muslim and ended up living on the streets, Patrick came to faith after being sponsored to attend a Christian school. Patrick is the designated music leader on the team since he is good at playing instruments, including keyboard, guitar and drums.

Paul is a member of the Good News Football Club and, besides being the de facto aerobics instructor for outings to juvenile detention homes, is one of the most disciplined, serious Christians I know. It took longer to get to know Paul than some of the other members since he wasn’t very talkative, but since I haven’t gotten to know him, I’ve realized how dedicated he is to his faith and his responsibilities as a Sports Outreach member. I have to say that Paul “keeps time” better than anyone else on the team and shows up on “American time” more than anyone. As I write this, Paul is coming back from a brief trip to Rwanda to try to reconcile a boy from one of the detention homes where we with the family he ran away from.

Robert is a member of the Good News Football Club and is probably the fastest player on the team. He is also the IT person for the office. He fixed our laptop when it completely crashed because of a virus. He also started a chess program for children in the Katwe slum which he heads up, and now some of those children play on the Uganda national team. I learned first-hand how good some of those kids are when I got spanked in three out of four matches I played against them.

Ronnie is a member of the Good News Football Club, and he and his wife have faithfully encouraged Laurie and me through some of our difficult times. Ronnie and his wife meet with girls from one of the local high schools in their free time to encourage them and share their faith. Since he is one of the few members to have a car, Ronnie is often tasked with ferrying visitors around, and he performs his duty with a great attitude.

 

Sam is a member of the Good News Football Club. Like so many people we have met here, Sam lost his mother when he was very young—age 13. He said it was during this time that he had get serious about his faith because that was all he had left. He barely knew his father since he abandoned the family when Sam was very small to start another family with another woman, but Sam was able to forgive his father and even led him to Christ when his father asked why Sam wasn’t angry at him. Although he is single, Sam helps to raise three grandchildren from his father’s second family since their parents, Sam’s half brother and his wife, have died.

Samson is a member of the Good News Football Club and was the first member of the team to get married. He has also been very helpful to Laurie and me, whether escorting us to places when we were knew here or coming over and insisting on cleaning our house. Even though the staff members here only make $100 USD/mo, Samson has managed to buy land and is in the process of building a four-bedroom house—with cash—because he has been very good with his money and has started a side business doing laundry. When we first moved here, Samson very graciously offered to do our laundry for free because he knew it would be very difficult for muzungus to do their own laundry. When I asked Samson if he and his wife were going to exchange Christmas gifts, he said they had to forego gifts this year since he had to spend the money he was going to spend on gifts for his wife’s cousin’s medical bills after she contracted Malaria and TB. What I admire about Samson is that it never even occurs to him to ask for help from outsiders. He told his brother, who is not a Christian, that he was going to build a house, and his brother told him that he couldn’t afford a house unless he got help from muzungus. Samson responded by saying that he didn’t need help from muzungus and that God would help him get a house. Needless to say, one of the ways God is providing is through Samson’s hard work.

Samuel is a member of the Good News Football Club and has also been very helpful to Laurie and me, helping do our laundry and constantly checking up on us to see how we’re doing. After hearing the story of how we ended up in Africa, Samuel pulled me aside the second day we were here and explained how much he grew in his faith because of trials in his life. This week, Samuel is getting his degree in commerce from Makere University, the top university in Uganda and Dorothy’s alma mater.

Thomas is a member of the Good News Football Club and is one of the best players on the team, having played for the under-23 Uganda national team. He is known as Pastor Thomas in his neighborhood since he works with many of kids both in coaching soccer and in serving as a spiritual mentor. He will likely move to Gulu in the near future to head up the construction team there as they plan to build many new buildings.

 

Wilfred is the driver for the team and a great father figure to many of the members. Laurie and I wondered why the team would have to have a full-time driver when we first got here, but after navigating some of roads here on the team bus, we’re very glad to have Wilfred as our driver. Laurie said she always feel safe with Wilfred driving despite some of the treacherous roads—think steep, muddy roads with huge potholes. Wilfred is also a good father as evidenced by the good attitude of his hard-working, 13-year-old son who diligently helped out with the team during Christmas time as we gave out gift packs in some of the slums.

Willis is a member of the Good News Football Club and is one of the most spirited, funny guys on the team. He just got married on December 30th, and Laurie, Melissa and I had the privilege of attending. He heads the school and tailoring program in the Nateete slum project and has an extraordinary ability to connect with the people in the slum and motivate them to help themselves. One of the volunteer teachers in the slum told Laurie and the kids and parents all really like Willis, and we have witnessed first-hand his effective interaction with them.