Lake swims and a sick little boy

The last week has just involved settling into the new house. All the tailoring girls love the new place, and I have also been running regular bible studies here at the house as well.
Farouk and I have begun getting everything ready for the agriculture class today, and we have selected three boys who will begin the training next week. All of these boys come from very poor backgrounds and have had hard lives. This program will be able to assist them to get ahead in life, and empower them to run their own small business with all the skills that they will learn. As well as starting them up with some financial help and business guidance once they finish the training program.

I have also been asked by a local pastor to teach the youth in his church, some of which I am good friends with here. When asked what he wanted me to teach he responded with "everything! please teach everything the bible teaches on all aspects of life".
So perhaps that may look like a regular weekly or fortnightly gathering of worship, prayer and teaching in our house with a group of youth.
It would be an exciting but daunting thing to undertake. I feel that perhaps the last few years of constant study of theology, bible reading and hours listening to podcast have helped prepare me for a position to teach those under me with less knowledge. Even though all those hours were a result of a hunger I had in myself to learn more, I realize we all have a responsibility to teach what we learn. This is daunting though as I recognize those who teach have a greater responsibility on them. I have a very big sense of needing to watch myself, to make sure I don't try and teach my opinion, but search genuinely for truth and teach what the Word says, not what I say. It also means constantly feeding myself, every day, every morning. If there is one lesson I have learnt from being away from my home church in Australia, it's that out here, I do need to stand on my own feet and learn to be feeding myself spiritually, not relying completely on a Sunday service to do it for me.

The other day Farouk and I also decided to go for a bike ride and for a swim. It was such a hot day and I was really missing my old Aussie lifestyle of weekly beach missions and swimming, surfing and spearfishing. So we hit the little walking trails on our bikes and gunned it down bush tracks and past sugar cane plantations to find a place to swim in lake Victoria. It was a bit of fun and felt a bit adventurous, especially since Farouk and I decided to push each other and see if we could keep up with each other on the little trails. Farouk took me to a small little fishing village with grass thatched huts, right on the edge of lake Victoria. The local elder said it was fine for me to swim, so I hopped in and had a dip with some of the kids who were already swimming. I do have to admit I was weary of catching some kind of sickness, ear infection or bumping into a crocodile in the rather suspicious looking swamp reeds. I didn't spend too long in the water, as every time I placed my feet down on the ground, these big fish came and started biting at my feet and toes. After thinking about crocodiles it kind of freaked me out.
It didn't entirely stop me though, as today I went with a group of youth to another place and went swimming in the lake again, this time doing front flips and back flips off a half submerged tree. I feel like I need these little getaways sometimes, as I was so used to little adventures down by the coast in Australia, so it feels nice to swim and be a bit adventurous.

I have also been visiting the local children's hospital run by the government here as a young boy my family has been a part of sponsoring, has been very sick. I have been close friends with his family for many years now, and this boy holds a special place in my heart. The problem is he has sickle cell anemia, a very serious disease which effects the red blood cells in the body, and can cause serious infections and organ failures, as well as the painful experience of having blood cells not being able to pass properly through the veins. He caught malaria which set of his sickness, and he has almost died from the disease a number of times in the past. He is such a beautiful bright young boy, but the sickness can cause people to die very young if not treated right.
Of course the government hospitals are your typical 3rd world type, full of dying children, a lack of resources, under payed weary doctors, and corridors and sick rooms that smell like urine, vomit and feces.
The boy almost died last Friday night, but a community of prayers have been with him, and thank God he seems to be getting better. I went and visited him when he was in a lot of pain, in fact the whole hospital was full of his screams of pain due to the red blood cells blocking up his veins. His heart and legs seemed to be in excruciating pain.
I remember when I went to visit him, he grabbed my hand and rested it on his chest and wouldn't let me go. I stayed with him for a while with his parents, but when I went to leave, to go continue the things I had to do that day, he started crying and wouldn't let me go as he begged "uncle Luke don't go". I stayed for a little bit longer, and then a little bit longer, every time he gripped my hand harder as I went to leave. Eventually his parents pried his hand of my wrist as I said good bye. He started crying again as I left the hospital ward.
I still feel guilty about that.
I should of stayed with him longer.
The whole time it gave me that gut sinking feeling, one that I hadn't felt in a while, but I remember well from my first year in Africa when I was exposed to many of these things for the first time. It is almost like as you see and hear more of this kind of stuff you grow accustomed to it. But seeing that little boy in that pain, in a hospital that we in the west wouldn't deem fit for our pets, certainly brought back those feelings.
Many thoughts and emotions can run through my head, including frustration and anger at the government, whose corruption for greed can cause them to overlook the health of the people. To thinking about the consumer driven culture of the west and the greed that is in all of our hearts, while people around us suffer, largely that we are unaware of because of the walls we place up. But for some reason a real sense of my own brokenness sunk in. All the good moral intentions, the right government systems in place, NGO and charity funding, Utopian type visions, all of it can never eradicate the line between love and greed, good and evil, within our own hearts.
I had a very real sense, as sharp as a knife, that we are all terribly hopeless without God. All the internal analyzing of morals, self betterment and improvement will never do. It is an external help outside of ourselves that we as humans need .. It is a Savior that the human race must seek, and that savior will not be ourselves. I believe that Savior has to be our creator.

It has been a week since he has been in hospital, and it does seem he will be coming out soon, but please keep him in your prayers as he continues to go through pain.

Lastly I was able to have an evening of joy as I celebrated the HopeBuilders team farewell dinner. A big pot of pork was cooked up, and an evening of speeches, traditional dances and songs were enjoyed. It was great to catch up with some good friends and I do hope they all enjoy their time here in Uganda.

Pork!

I am looking forward to the next week as I get to introduce Agnes to some more close friends of mine and as we keep preparing for our wedding.

God bless

New home and team visit

The last few days have been spent enjoying my new home! I really do feel blessed in this place, it really is a great place to be living. My room has its own private upstairs balcony overlooking the gardens, where I can sit and read or cook my food.

My room

My balcony and the garden view

It has also felt really nice having the community feel to the house, and sharing a meal together with Farouk, Beatrice and Alice (the young girl staying here while she completes the tailoring course). It’s been designated my job to pray for the meal before we eat, and there is always lots of laughter around the table, especially with the funny facial expressions Farouks little boy makes.

The place is very comfortable and the security is meant to be very good in this area. Seeing as I am living with Farouks family in the same house it just adds to the security of the place as well.

The other night though I was awoken to banging downstairs, as if someone was trying to open the backdoor. I checked my phone and it was 3 AM, so I stood out on my balcony for a while trying to see if I could spot any thieves. After a while I went back to sleep when I couldn’t work out what the strange sound was. In the morning I told Farouk about it and asked if he had heard the banging as well, to which he laughed and told me that on his first night in the house (he moved in a few days earlier then me) he had heard the same thing and spent half an hour sitting in the downstairs room trying to catch a thief. He told me that after a while he checked outside to see that it was only the goats, which are kept in the courtyard, banging their heads against the backdoor.

It is funny how when you move into a new house you need to get used to all the sounds, especially those strange ones that occur at night.

I do have to admit it will be nice not being awoken and kept awake from my night guard at the previous place I was staying. Now I would like to say the night guard Godfry is a fantastic fellow and works very hard at his job. But it was amusing the amount of times I would be awoken by something he was up to.

This includes the following:

Godfry having passionate sounding discussions on his mobile phone outside my bedroom window at 3 in the morning.

Blaring the little radio on his phone, which is kept in his pocket, and waking me up by standing outside my room every half an hour throughout the night.

Placing his larger portable radio, which is blaring upbeat African music, on the veranda right outside my bedroom morning at around 2 in the morning.

Getting a new dog which howls and barks all night and tying it up right outside my bedroom window during the night.

Chopping wood outside my bedroom window at 6 in the morning.

Slashing grass outside my bedroom window at 5.30 in the morning (using a torch because it is still dark)

I always felt safe with him around that’s for sure .. But on many nights I also felt very awake with him around as well haha.

The other day the HopeBuilders team came to visit the Tailoring class. Agnes and I were able to work together to explain what we do at the tailoring class, so all of the team could get a picture of some of the other work HopeBuilders is involved in.
It is really nice to work alongside Agnes, she usually is always the one translating and helping me run things with the team and the girls. Often I feel like we are going to make a good team together, and I really love having her stand by my side as we work together in connecting the two cultures that are present.
The team was able to bless the tailoring class as well. Rob gave a devotion to the girls on going through hard times which was encouraging to many of them (especially since many of them do go through tough times). We also had two of the team members sing a great acoustic version of Hillsong United’s ‘Oceans'. One of our girls Damelee also sang a song of her own to the team.
Afterwards the team got to spend time socializing with the girls and being taught how to use the tailoring machine. Lots of laughter was shared around, and it is always encouraging for the girls to have visitors.
Often people may not realise just how special it is for the girls to get these visitors, and just like last time when the schoolies team came, the girls ended up talking about the experience for the rest of the day.

Otherwise not much other news here. It has been very hot as usual, and yesterday, for the first time in a while, we got some rain (which was nice to stand out in and have a bit of a shower in the heat).

Interestingly when the team was here the other day two electricians came to the house to hassle us, and Farouk had to spend some time dealing with them (which meant he couldn't be present during the teams visit). The electricians work for the power company here and were decked out in their full working gear. They came up to Farouk to tell him that our power has been connected illegally, and the house has an outstanding bill of 3 million (about $1,200). They were threatening to disconnect the wires there and then and remove our power, so Farouk called the owner of this house who said everything had been sorted. Farouk ended up having to give the men 20,000 for them to give us a few days to sort it out.
It was very unusual as the owners of this house have been great to deal with and very thorough and professional. We called the woman we have been dealing with and she said everything should be fine and she has the papers to prove everything is legit.
Later we ended up finding out from our neighbors that the men (who were actually legitimately working for the power company) were also con men, and they were going around telling lies to bully people into paying bribes to keep their power on.
All of it was a lie, the power is connected legally, and there is no outstanding bill.
Apparently they had tried the same tactic on our neighbors, only to be surrounded by the neighbor and his friends and threatened to be beaten.
As we had just moved in we were not really 100% certain on our situation with electricity here, they got the better end of Farouk.

Farouk told me how people who work for the power company’s here can often do that. Corruption really is ingrained right through the country here, starting from the top with the government, right through to local workers of a power company.
Farouk also told me a story of how one time two con men tried to do the same thing to a house full of young men who were a part of a gang. The young men ended up murdering the con men just for trying to trick them into paying a bribe to keep their power on.
The differences in how things are done here can be stark to say the least.

So we are a few dollars poorer, but a little bit wiser. Luckily the owners of the house came straight away to give us all the papers and documents we need in case they come back to try the same thing.

Otherwise this year we are looking forward to more programs being started, and making use of this house to benefit the community and show the love that we feel Jesus has called us to.

God bless

Moving homes!

A busy week as we kick into the new year here. 

There is lots to be done, including moving houses, moving our office, organizing sponsorship, commencing old projects and starting new ones.  It has been very hot here, and they say January is going to be a very dry month, so with all the running around and the heat, by the end of the day you can feel pretty spent.

The HopeBuilders team also arrived here a few days ago, so it has been good seeing people like Damian and Rob from HopeBuilders.
It has also been really special to catch up with my old friend Jeremy. Jeremy and his wife Sarah lived here at the village of hope for six months with me in the same house. During that time we developed a great friendship and I really value those two! Sarah has had to stay back in Australia with their two children, but Jeremy has come all the way from Brisbane to be a part of the team. The last time I say Jeremy was in September 2011 at the very same place that I saw him again for the first time! At the Village of hope. So catching up with him and chatting and even being able to introduce Agnes to him has been great.

I also experienced a bit of a strange medical issue over the last week which has taught me one solid lesson.

Never squeeze a pimple that is not ready.

I did exactly that to one which had settled underneath my chin, and within a day my whole chin had blown up like a balloon due to an obvious infection.
It was really sensitive and was rather large for a few days as I self-medicated on general antibiotics. After a few days I happened to knock it and a little bit of icky stuff came up. I then proceeded to squeeze it as tremendous amounts of pus squirted and popped out. It was truly disgusting and relieving at the same time.

I actually was really tempted to film it, as I kid you not it could have competed with some of the stuff you would find on youtube (think of like a big boil or something under your chin being popped).
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I couldn’t hold my camera and squeeze at the same time so you are just going to have to imagine.

my balloon chin

In other news Farouk and I managed to find a new house to stay in (I should really say Farouk found a new house as he does all the work in looking). This house is awesome and is owned by a very wealthy professor in Kampala.  It is a double story house and all of our YSU projects will be in the downstairs part, while the top will be just for bedrooms. Farouk and his family will be staying there in one room while I stay in another. We will also have 2 spare rooms in case we find potential youth who need a place to stay for a bit, or if we have visitors and guests.
We got so lucky with this house and it feels a bit like God’s working (which we are very thankful for, especially since it had to be found very fast before we needed to move). Apparently the house has been vacant for many many years, with lots of people trying to get it to rent but always being refused. The owners have not wanted to rent it out and don’t need the money, but for some reason when Farouk felt compelled to ask, something made them decide they would let us (and for very very cheap). So after perhaps 30 or more years we are now the first people to move into this big house and we really feel blessed about it.

We really feel like this will be a community house, and we look forward to inviting the outcasts and down low type youths to this place. We hope to use it as a place for training and education, as well as fellowship, prayer, worship and bible study. So Farouk is already living there and I will move in next week on Monday before Ron and Anne return.

It was really nice today as we shifted everything into the house. It took four trips back and forth with the truck to move everything, but unlike when Farouk and I shifted into our first place and were alone, this time we had a whole community we have built helping us.
All the tailoring girls where there sweeping, mopping and shifting things into place. We also had a few of Farouks friends and Agnes and Beatrice helping out. Even my boda boda (motor bike taxi) transport driver Moses took a few hours off work to help us shift heavy things, just because he likes us. It really felt special as everyone chipped in to help. And to think this community of friends has only been built in the last few months and we already feel a bit like family. I think it is a good picture of the things to come with this house and with YSU, as community is something we really want to build and nourish.

On the moving truck

Tailoring girls helping us carry things

Some girls hard at work resting

Our house from the front

Our front garden area

 Lastly, I have just finished completing something I begun near the start of last year (2013), which was to read the entire bible. I really think that it is important for people who profess the faith to actually read the book that they believe in and dig deep into it, asking many questions.

I have often heard people say how the bible contradicts itself and makes no sense. But I wonder if those people have actually read and studied the bible in depth and as a whole, instead of just taking obscure passages out of their context here and there to justify their claims.
I can’t help but feel, after reading the whole book, that it is a beautiful grand story of redemption, liberation and love from God towards broken sinful people. That He makes a path, bright and beautiful, back to Him so that we don't have to experience the wrath and punishment which we all deserve, and that He gives us the grace to now experience new life, full and beautiful. And that the whole book (not just the new testament) quite clearly points towards Jesus (the Son of God, and God Himself) and His atonement for us, dying on the cross, so that He may save us from ourselves, if we make the choice to trust in Him. If people have not read the whole bible before, I really would recommend they do it, with the help of some background information for the context of the different scriptures (go deep!) It really did open my eyes more to the wonder of the faith! What a beautiful book we are blessed with! What a life transforming Word we have had granted to us.

God bless