1.2.3.

Go.

Tonight, Kyle and I leave from LAX at 9:20pm. We will fly straight to London and arrive in Uganda Wednesday morning local time (tuesday night california time).

I wish I could describe a bit better of how I feel getting ready to return. Ironically, as I left Uganda last year I asked myself if I could even return again without staying for an extended period of time. Two months was just enough to start scratching the surface of the culture, way of life, mentality, everything. I imagined a two week trip or something shorter than a few months would be a bit of a painful disappointment. But I was only setting up a wall that would surely be toppled down. Im obviously returning to Uganda just for 2 sweet weeks and I could not be more thankful. We have a few goals and things to hopefully accomplish but more than that I cannot wait to see those that I deeply love and be apart of the beautiful work they are doing for their communities. One of those people would be Uncle Thomas. You can look below here and read up on my last trip to find out more about Thomas and his life living with the COTN kids.

Anyways, I cannot wait to get on that plane and finally land to breathe in the sweet humid air.

I will post here to let you know when we are safe at COTN.

Pray with Kyle and I, that we see every opportunity as we travel to share the deep love that is Christ.

Obanga Mii Gum,

Opio Andrew

I am home now. Its been 5 days now, back in the states. What was a strange reality to me a few weeks ago is now a very real one. It is nice to be back, to see faces I missed, to rest at home. There are many comforts too, but none that I abosuletly need. Thats one thing Ive been aware of alot since being home, trying not to be tied to the comforts of this country (this world for that matter). I don't think its a selfrighteous thing, to make myself feel better about living nicely amoungst a starving world, but rather there are so many comforts that simply distract and take away from life and relationships. So im on the look out.

Anyways! I wanted to wrap up the blog and let you know how it all went down. Goodbyes were hard, obviously. I will never forget the night when a few of my teammates and I camped out at the kids home. The moment we arrived at their house my arms were pulled at every direction and my ears filled with the same questions, "ARE YOU SLEEPING OVER TONIGHT'? I asked Thomas (my dear brother who lives with the kids) not to tell the kids but he couldn't hold in his own excitement and told them as we were on our way. Their faces as we answered yes put the biggest smile on my heart and probably my face too. They danced and screamed and helped us set up the tents. I could probably have lived in that tent for a very long time.

Scott, the boys, and I went inside their rooms to sit around and read some passages from the Bible. We wanted to encourage them as we left to continue loving and taking care of each other as they move to their new village in a few months, but to also shine like a light on a hill for the new children that will find their home at COTN. The village, as we learned from our weeks teaching, had many kids in need of a place to rest their heads and their souls. I know that my boys will love those kids like no other. I cant wait see their new community flourish and grow next year and in the years to come.

After we talked and prayed I whipped out my computer to show them videos and pictures from home. They laughed so hard at the pictures from my previous trip to their home and got a kick out of silly pictures from my home. They made me promise that I would come back with long hair again like last year. They just love that it resembled Jesus from the Jesus film. haha. I really prefer the simplicity of shorter hair, but I will do it for them.

And a storm came. Our tents nearly flew away. Not really but it was quiet intense and Jenny jokingly threatened to walk home. We survived and woke up to the kids doing chores and putting on their finest for church.

It all seems like just yesterday. It was quite the switch, one day in Africa 2 days later in America. Yesterday though I sat around and thought about what to tell you about my trip and what is next for me. There are so many stories I could tell from the last week in Lira and our trip to BEAUTIFUL Sipi Falls and Mbale. Oo here is a good one, our team danced and sang for the kids in our fairwell cermony. I had a good cry when I had to give a little speech to the staff and kids. It wasnt a sad tear though. As I stood in front of the kids I was overwhelmed by the love in my heart for each one and the joy I have from just knowing them. What a blessing.

It is hard to sum it all up. But I would have to say of all the lessons I learned of all the experiences I had, they all led me to a very important and hard truth to follow; to always trust my heart to a God that knows it deeper than I ever will. Many times I doubted my ability to love someone enough, to help enough, to care enough, to actually make a change in broken lives and a hurt land, to use my passions and talents to make that change. In those times of doubt I was royally shown up by Gods faithfulness to use what he has placed in my heart to do all that he desires which, let me tell you, is always beautiful and something I could never do with my own hands.

Whats next? Well for now, I start my intership as Local & Global Impact Intern as well as a Graphic Media intern at Flood Church and then school in late September. Im going to be working on that project I mentioned in a previous post about Alex (the boy i met in the field during the Jesus film) and creating a way to empower leaders in Northern Uganda, specifically Lira. Who knows where that will lead me. Back to Uganda? I hope so. Obanga Ngeo (God knows).

Obanga Mii Gum! (God Bless You) Apwoyo Matek (Thank you very much) for reading my blog and all your prayers and all you love and all you support. I could not have done it without any of you!

Thank you letters are in the making for all you who supported me financially. So be looking out for those!

Goodbye Lira

Hello everyone! Im so sorry I was not able to post a blog this last week in lira. It was so full of good things as we prepared to say goodbye to everyone we love here. I will write in detail more about it when I return to the states. But thank you so so so so much for all your prayers through out this journey. Your support and love for my team brought so much joy to my heart. Thank you all.

Amarwu ( I love you all)

Now we leave for Mbale, to the mountains in Eastern Uganda for a debrief. Then we fly to home on Friday.

Storms and Some Laundry

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WEll! Things have calmed down a bit here; health is on the rise, welcomed a new short term team, and we are now preparing for our last full week in Lira. We leave next tuesday for Eastern Uganda, to a place called Sipi Falls in Mbale district. Its a very beautiful mountain rage near Kenya and our team is going to have our debrief there. Im excited but not really ready to think about leaving Lira yet. Its a strange reality that we have only 9 days left in Lira with the COTN kids and staff. Then I land in LA on August 15th. Gah!

Anyways. Weve had some beautiful storms this past week. You know its going to come when the sky becomes an eerie haze and the gray settles in covering my favorite blue sky. The wind runs away quickly, off to gather the new dark clouds and then back to us in a mighty gust. The mosquitos vanish and you wonder where they have gone. And then the lightening shows off its brightest lights for all of Lira to see. Its fun.

This weekend I spend alot of time at the childrens home, helping them with their chores, taking pictures for COTN's website, killing chickens (well... i watched the kids do it at least haha), playing soccer, the usual. We have all developed such a bond with them and we have seen more and more of their funny and silly selves come out. At first they are very formal for the "visitors" and take some time to get them out of their shell. They also felt embarrassed to speak English at first, thinking they weren't very good at it. But alot of them are to hard on themselves, they speak pretty well. My little Prosesco always speaks Luo to me without fail and I rarely know what he is saying except for greetings and goodbyes. Its hilarious. So I find an older kid, usually Solomon or Samuel cause they are always close by and they tell me what he is asking or saying. Its fun.

So here we go. Last full week. Here is what weve got planned. Teaching and loving the kids at the village, visiting the hospital once or twice, preparing our fair well gifts for the children, celebrating Elena's birthday tomorrow, going to Jimmies (our driver/my ugandan father) village, finishing up interviews for COTNs DVD project, getting another uganda outfit made at the tailors, hanging out with the kids before dinner, and cooking a meal to appreciate the staff. Those are a few of the things that come to mind. Ill let you know how it goes. :)

Amen.

Good news! The village has understood what our intentions are for teaching the children and are not pulling their kids out of school to come to our “school”! Thank the Lord. So we have been teaching the kids who cant afford to go to school this week and it has been really good. Jill and I are teaching the kids who have been in Primary 1, Primary 2, and Primary 3. They are such a sweet group of kids who really want to learn the alphabet and how to read more. They are so eager and try really hard to soak it all in. I was determined today to find Odwongo Emmanuel, a boy I met last year at the village. I hardly know the boy, but every time I see him something in me wells up and I feel like picking him up telling him how much I love him. I probably would but he always carries his baby sister with him or on his back. Momma asked the kids where he was today and they said that he had gone to school again! I was bummed to not get to see his smiling face but so glad that he got to go back to school.

In the afternoon a couple teammates went to the clinic to get some blood tests (Elena found out that she has typhoid, so pray for her. She’s doing pretty well) while the rest of us went to the Lira Regional Hospital. We bought a box of soap bars on our way over from town, to hand out to patients in the wards as we also prayed with them. It was such a beautiful yet sorrowful experience. Beautiful because I was so overwhelmed by a sense of Gods love and hope for his dying children laying all around me and horrifying because I felt his pain as he watched those children die. But I couldn’t escape the smile inside myself, as much as I tried to say to myself “no be sad”, I couldn’t help but think about the love they will find as some of them clothes their eyes for good. Don’t get me wrong I was very sad but a tireless hope inside of me, kicking at the parts of me that only think of the present and not the future. Sometimes I think as humans we naturally want to be in a place of sadness and frustration with the world, especially when we are sitting next to death. It justifies our times unhappiness and it makes us feel like we are should have something better than this, that this world cannot be completed. So I have to remind myself that there is no need to stand proud and feel like I am justified in saying that there must be no Good here because these children starve and die. That proud heart will give no helping hand to the sick either. It is only a selfish whole to burry myself in. So I uprooted that prideful root, as strong as an oak sometimes, and I chopped down my head to take its bow and pray because that is all I have. I have the ability to feel a heart bigger mightier than mine that can heal and take home an eager soul. I have the ability to just sit there in the dark and weep with then, then get up to the next person and ask if they know they are loved. This is the power of a hope that never fades into the horizon, no matter how far I walk into the plains. It is always clear when I go to the darkest places where death brings its thickest mist and highest mountains in attempt to hide the Son from shinning as it rises and sets. Amen.

The COTN kids came to say goodbye to the short term team here. It was such a good time of dancing and celebrating. But I just cannot even think about leaving them right now and tonight obviously made me think about our team leaving in a exactly 2 weeks. I hoep that this last two weeks is a time when our team can just pour out love on these kids in our school, at COTN, and in the hospital. Amen.

I need to register my happiness

Hello all! Sorry it has taken a few days to update you all. It has been quite the week. So Ill try to fill you in on a bit of what is going on in my life.

Since I last wrote to you about the wedding there has been some changes to life here in Lira. The week after the wedding was a bit of a scattered week, as we prepared for Chris Clarks and Debbie’s arrival (the president of COTN and his wife). The COTN children preformed some beautiful traditional dances (one of my favorite things to see in Uganda). It was a good time of celebration as the staff and kids are so thankful for the work that Chris Clark has done in Uganda.

That same week I met a boy named Alex as we spent some time in a field inside the police barracks near our house. COTN brought out their speakers as well as their projector and screen to show some music videos and a film about the life of Jesus for the local kids and families. Its one of my favorite things to do here, sitting out under the magnificent stars in a grassy field surrounded by so many kids. But this time the night under the stars was really special. Alex was such a unique kid, with an incredible ability to speak and understand English. He was so eager to know more about my life in America and what brought me to Uganda. He was even more eager to just watch the film and learn more about Christ. His heart for truth was so incredible, its really hard to even put it in words on this blog. It can only be felt in that moment when it shows itself either through words or action or maybe both. But at a couple points during the film he looked at me (I could hardly see his face, half light by the movie projector) with such intense eyes, and told me how he wished he could understand more of Jesus’ parables. He felt like his lack education (he is only in primary 7, equivalent to junior high) kept him from knowing more about God. So I asked him what secondary school he wanted to go to and he told me that he probably wouldn’t get to go. At first Alex didn’t explain why he wouldn’t get to go and I wandered why. Usually, as white people, we get the very detailed story for financially hardships and life problems. But Alex said nothing more. There seemed to be no part of him that was looking for pitty or cash. It was refreshing to have a very genuine conversation with a Ugandan who really just wanted to be sincere and know me, not to just have an American “friend” that can maybe send money and all the other preconceived ideas of what white people are for in Africa. But I really wanted to know what the story was behind him not being able to go to secondary school, so I asked. He began to tell me a bit about his father dying and his mother taking care of many nieces and nephews, leaving hardly any money for him to continue his education. It was extremely frustrating to hear his somber voice describe these circumstances and even more maddening to know that he so strongly desired that education so that he could learn more about the world and most of all more about Christ. He must have seen only my tears as they filled my eyes in the dimly lit night.

I left that field praying if there was any way to help Alex that God would open my eyes to it. And He did. A few nights before I talked to Jerusha about the possibility of starting an education and mentoring fellowship that would empower young local leaders in Lira to pursue secondary and university level education alongside a mentorship program that provides priceless support in their ministries and careers. When we first talked about the possibility we were stired by a desire to see young leaders such as Alex, be lifted above the circumstances that hold them back from impacting their community. I felt a righteous anger against the spirit of poverty that has crushed the passions, the dreams, the life of to many young people here. A heart like that given to Alex can with out a doubt change the face of this nation. So I’m working on figuring out how to run this fellowship and how it would look on the ground. Im going to be working on that as I finish up the last few weeks here in Lira. Ill never forget Alex. Hopefully I will see him once more.

Now on to my birthday. I could not have imagined a better way to celebrate it. Our team just really needed a day to repair. To be brief, the program we started last week for kids that couldn’t afford school fees kind of backfired. Hundreds of kids poured in to the field but we soon realized that a large majority of them were already enrolled in schools and that their parents mistook our “school” for a legitimate new school. We even had nurses and teachers come apply for jobs. Haha! It was so insane. I really couldn’t believe that had happened, it felt surreal with so so many kids gathered around our chalk boards in the middle of a field. So we are going back to the village tomorrow to try it again after Pastor James explained to the community what we were trying to do. Please pray that we can communicate well that we are just trying to teach the kids that cant afford any education. I would sure love for this to work and not dismantle the local education system. Haha.

So we clearly needed a day to recover from several mishaps that seemed to us failures. Richelle (my co-leader) and I decided that we really just needed to serve our team on what happened to be my birthday. So in the morning we got up packed lunches and after morning devotions (full of singing, some preaching, praying and happy birthday songs and fruit baskets) we left for a field next to a Catholic Mission/Radio station. There we escaped to build our team up with words of encouragement and service. We ate and then Richelle and I washed our teams feet (We copied Jesus, nothing special). It was probably the best idea that God ever gave us. I feel like the love of God and his humble servants heart were the best things to fight the discouragement weighing our team down. WE spent about 4 hours sitting around after doing words of affirmation (basically each person just says something encouraging to each person). While we were sitting on our blanket a little angle named Nelson Mandela walked up to us bobbing his abnormally large head and fervently repeating munu. Im going to post a few pictures soon, so you will see his beautiful face. He was precious and brought such a gentle and innocent love to our little meeting. Sitting their calmly he ate his sandwhich we made him and held my hand and played with my munu tiene (white foot, he kept repeating that). He caught Thomas (one of our Ugandan staff siting with us) saying “I love you” and began to repeat that for quiet some time. One of the men at the mission told us that his medication was very expensive but that he was a blessing to the mission. Im guessing that he may not live for much longer and I am so thankful that I got to meet him before he leaves this earth. What a blessing and a lovely gift from God. See you in heaven Mandela Bean (his father was saying “Mandela, Come here” in luo, but we thought it was a nick name. haha).

At the end of the day I spend the evening with the COTN kids. Our team took a stroll over to their house (about 10 min. away) and did our weekly Bible study with them. On the way over God led me to Matthew 11:25-30, it’s the “Come All you Weary” passage (on of my favorites). I lead the group of older boys, Samuel, Solomon, Lameck, and Dennis and Scott leads the younger boys. Its another one of my favorite things to do here. Most of the time the boys bring more insight than I do. I love it. We talked about being weary and burdened in life. They talked of loosing their parents, fighting, having things stolen, and other hardships. But then they spoke of the ways that Christ has given them rest and how he has loved them all the while. Man, do those boys know how to praise Him. Opaka Rwot (Praise God). What a day it was. I will never forget it

Tonight we found a café in Lira owned and run by an American. I ate so much pizza and it was sooo good.

This week we are going to be visiting the hospital in Lira a few times. It will be hard I imagine to see so many ailing people, dying or waiting to die, and not be able to do a thing about it, except pray. But you know what, I am learning to see that that is certainly something to do, praying that is. I have seen the power of such intimate time and conversations with my God. The power to change my will (which is a miracle) and to reach down and change the natural all around. Prayer is not some secondary response to me as it has been many times at home, as a last resort when other options fail. It seems to be all I have, especially here in Uganda.

Here is something I stole from Jenny Velas’ blog (one of my teammates). We made a list the other day of hilarious quotes from Ugandans.

“These things probably don't make much sense but they bring such happiness when they are said! The English the Ugandans use is so precious. Here are some quotes:

"Why are the bugs disturbing our sisters?"--Edward

"No one knocks my muno!"--Dennis

"She is gassing."--Morris

"My God is a God of FIRE!"--Dennis

"What is the progee today?"--Dennis

"We have to rectify the player."--Lucio

"Supplement the Mitsubishi."--Lucio

"I look more beautiful when I comb my hair"--Dennis

"The reserve needs to give me back my cattle."--Jimmy

"That bastard ate all my animals!"--Jimmy

"Baba, I need to pick some suga."--Sam

"You first study and then you cross."--Dennis

"We do what? We feed the babies."--Nurse Andrew

"I think you are going to have diarrhea symptoms. Get in bed with a towel."--Vicky

"I need to register my happiness."--Lucio

A celebration of life

Seriously. You all are in need of an update on life here.

So much to say really. so give me another day i think. and ill have something nice and sweet for you to read.

love you.