Update

Just a quick update on life here on the ground.

It is still very very hot, and it has not rained for at least 3 weeks now. I often find myself waking up with a headache, I think because it is always so muggy at night.
I can’t wait till it rains, and it cools down a bit.  It makes for good swimming weather though, but since we don’t have very close access to places for swimming (the lake near us has crocodiles in it) we don’t get to go much.

We did get to go out to the Nile gardens hotel with Andrew and the Brits before Andrew left. The hotel has a pool where we could cool down, and Agnes learnt to swim by herself for the first time (well she learnt how to float and kick herself forward with a doggy paddle for about 6 seconds … but a new record for her)

We continue to run our programs here! It interesting how much YSU has turned into a bit of a shelter for many of these tailoring girls. Often they don’t go home till very late, and very often they are here on days that class is not on. Usually they are just practicing their skills, but often you can find out the front of our house a very loud game of cards or ludo being played by a big group of them.

Every Tuesday morning is a time for praise, prayer and devotions for the girls. Agnes and I run these with the tailoring girls, and we give them something simple for their week to think about. The girls seem to love these little devotions, and it is interesting to see all girls from different backgrounds, some of them Muslim, come to our morning devotions, wanting to learn more about the gospel.

We also have our boys coming every Thursday for games evening. This includes many African styled games, cards and darts. It is a great way to build relationships with these guys.

We also ran another drug and alcohol information session with these boys (all of which have sly smiles on the side of their faces which give away that many have sampled most of the substances that we talk about)
This has been great, and the boys have responded positively. In the west we tend to think that everyone knows the dangers of drugs, but over here education is very limited on the topic. Many young guys have absolutely no idea that many of these drugs are actually dangerous. Just recently a young boy, that farouk knows, drunk himself to death, literally choking on his own vomit in a drunken stupor.

So Farouk and I hope we can use these classes to pass on information to them in a non-condemning way. Much of the warnings about drugs has been done in this type of way, a simple ‘don’t do drugs because they are bad and sinful’ is all the boys get. But to be able to sit with them in an environment that lets them ask questions, and doesn't judge them, while giving them information on why and how these substances are leading to negative consequences on their bodies and their communities really helps, as well as exploring with them why this type of selfishness is destructive.

The block of land continues to be developed, with a gate and a nearly completed fence around the block.

Right now we have the young boy I spoke about in my previous blog looking after the block during the day, and staying in the small house on the property.

We have had further contact with the hospital to talk about the boy’s situation. It seems that he has a very bad heart condition, and without any kind of operation it is unlikely for him to reach his early 20’s.

The operation might cost around the $2000 mark, so right now we are planning to take him to the international hospital to gather all the correct information.
Farouk and I will be traveling to this boy’s father’s home sometime soon to try and get more information from the father, and ask him if we can take on the boy’s case and try and help him out.

This is a man who has continually rejected his son, and chased him away from his home. Apparently the father has all the boys medical documentations, and when the father realized how serious the problem was, and that he couldn't afford the operation, instead of taking the boy back to his to care for him, he chased him away.

Hopefully with farouk and my presence, we will be able to convince him to accept.

The boy had actually been getting very sick because he was working for us as a laborer. The medical staff at st benedict’s told us we should not be making him labor. We talked to the boy about this and asked him why he never told us, as that we could never allow him to do heavy work if we had known. The boy responded that he was afraid that once we knew of his condition we would chase him away like everyone else has.

Please pray for us as we make these visits to his father’s house and to the hospital to gather all the correct information we would need before starting to fund raise for an operation for this boy.

Agnes and I have continued to attend the local church and help out with the local youth group. I run a bible study every second Sunday, while Agnes does a young women’s group on the following Sunday.

We have also been looking at mixing it up a bit and attending a different church occasionally. Sometimes I can find it a struggle, as I look for a bit more meat in the teachings. I also miss the type of worship I have been accustomed to.

Don’t get me wrong, the African worship here is amazing, they have passion and they dance and sing, and we could learn a thing or two about them.
But many of the songs are sung in Luganda, and the style of singing even in the English songs are very much about repetition over a long period of time. So a simple phrase like “we are singing in the house of Lord” can be repeated over the course of 5 minutes.
I do miss a good old fashioned hymn, with good strong lyrics and meaning. A bit of “How great though art” or “Amazing grace” always stirs my soul.
But of course, church is not about me, it is about God. And so no matter how I might want the ‘style’ of worship or preaching to be, we know the church is faithful and we want to support them in their mission.

I do get times of great fellowship in smaller gatherings, like at Ron and Anne’s school every Friday night, or with my youth on Saturday nights or Sunday evenings. I feel this is where I get my real fellowship from, and where I can sing and praise God and find joy.
We also have good friends here that we can sit and talk with! Andrew just left, but He spent a lot of time with us while he was here which is always encouraging. And we also had a lovely evening with Ron and Anne, as they came over for a dinner, and of course a long chat into the night.

I have also recently watched a documentary on the persecuted church. Agnes and I watched this film together, and I will be watching it with my group of boys on Saturday night as well. I was blown away by the film. I was deeply moved by the tragedy of the persecution around the world (Christians are the most persecution religious group in the world, and in a human rights context, the Christian community around the world are seeing the greatest persecution) but I was also inspired by the faith of many of these people. To be able to choose death instead of denying Christ is something I pray I would also be able to do.

You can watch the trailer here:
http://lovecostseverything.com/index.php/trailer

And buy a digital download here:
http://lovecostseverything.com/index.php/store

I really recommend it.

Yesterday was my birthday as well. I had lots of love from friends on facebook! My wife made me a breakfast of weetbix and mango. And I was blessed to have my brother in law, Douglas, come over with a cake that he baked.
Everyone in our household then spent some time saying some sort of kind comment about me, which was really nice.

I was also blessed by my big sister who gave Agnes and I some money to go out for birthday meal! So we went two friends restaurant and had an awesome meal of pizza and chicken burgers!

Thank you again for all your love and prayers. I also again thank those people who have supported me financially, and continue to do so. You make all of this possible and I am deeply grateful.

God bless.

Catching Mudfish and a boy with a bad heart.

Slowly things have been moving forward.

I have started up small devotion sessions and bible study classes with a few of our groups. This includes our young men's group, the youth from the village of hope, and all our tailoring girls.
This is hopefully a way to disciple these young people, as we saw a need (especially among the tailoring girls) to teach and minister to them.

Farouk has also been reaching out to a group of older boys who love to play soccer. We purchased a soccer ball for this group, which they all appreciated very much. Farouk has been using this opportunity to speak into the lives of these young men.

We have also invited these same young men to an 'open evening' at our house. This basically means they can come and relax, play card games and darts, as we develop relationships with these guys.
We have also opened up our house to different information sessions every second Wednesday evening. These sessions will include information on drugs and alcohol, gender equality issues and even some simple business classes.

We hope we can use this as a platform to speak into these young peoples lives, to raise opportunities to help them in their financial needs, but also their spiritual needs.

It can still be hard here, as you are constantly surrounded by need, and it is hard to choose which people to help. We are sponsoring one of the tailoring girls (who lives with us) little boy. Of course this means that many of the tailoring girls have found out, and they ask us to also sponsor their children. We can't help all of them, but we do try and find creative ways for them to get a bit of assistance, whether that be organizing paid work for them to do around the compound, or to try and provide them with some small business.

Our tailoring girls are still making African styled shoulder bags as well, and a new lot will be coming to Australia in a few weeks time. If you are interested in purchasing one for $20, feel free to email me on ooeeluke@hotmail.com, and I can link you up.

We have also been blessed to have our good friend from the UK, Rachel, come along and volunteer at YSU with her two friends Sarah and Will.
The Brits (as I like to call them) have been running an extra Wednesday class with our tailoring girls. The last class they ran was to help encourage the girls to see themselves as having purpose in this world. Many of the girls have always been beaten down and made to feel like they are worthless (one of the young girls in our class has told us how her sisters family, who she lives with, often spits on her and tells her that she is useless) So it has been great to encourage them and let these girls know that they have purpose and that they are valued and loved by us, but more importantly by God.
They also had fun making bracelets so that they could always look at these and remember what they have learnt.

Farouk and I have also been having a few fishing adventures here and there. We managed to catch a big African lungfish/mudfish in the swamp the other day. This fed a lot of us, and the meat we got off the fish was great to eat, with lots of flesh and barely any bones (the mudfish is more like a big eel)

If you would like to watch my little tutorial on how to catch one, just click below. I've still got some Aussie bushman spirit in me yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i8agSpz_jI&feature=youtu.be

The walls to the YSU property are also almost built. The HopeBuilders workers have been laboring away in the hot sun over the last few weeks, so that they can complete our wall. This looks great, and it starts to make the vision of the youth center come to life! The gate was added just yesterday. Next step will be to start building the foundations, once the plans are approved.

Farouk and I have also had some sad news about a young boy that we have been helping out. Farouk found this boy homeless while I was away in Australia. The boy had been sleeping in abandoned buildings and churches, but was chased away and left to sleep in the bush. Farouk had heard about the boy through the local chair person and decided to take him under his wing, since Farouk had a similar lifestyle growing up.
This boy has had a very hard life growing up, after his father married a second women, who hated his mother (the first wife) and convinced the father to chase them away. After a while the boys mother then remarried, but the stepfather didn't want the boy around and chased him away as well. Both the father and stepfather were very abusive from what we have been told.
On top of that, the boy has had to survive by getting paid measly amounts of money to do horrible work, including having to crawl done pit latrines and empty them out with nothing but his hands and a bucket.
While only young (about 14) Farouk set the boy up in the small house which is on the YSU block of land, and the boy was able to stay there and live, while getting some work looking after the property and helping labor for the builders.
Everyone took a liking to him, since he is good kid. Last week he asked if I could take him to the hospital, as he has had a chest problem for a long time now, and when I felt his chest you could feel continual muscle spasms going on.
Farouk and I had plans to take him to the hospital and look into perhaps getting him back to school to finish his primary education. But a few days ago we got a call from him saying that the local catholic hospital (which he had just visited due to knowing some people there) was sending him back to his father, and they were even paying the transport for him to go.
Farouk was a bit confused that he would up and leave like that, but the full story came out later that day. One of the nurses came and visited us and told us that the boy was well known to the hospital, and that he has a serious heart condition. The nurse was explaining that the boy does not have much longer to live without an operation, and even then it would be risky. From what we have gathered, it seems that the hospital is willing to take him on as a special case and try the operation. But they wanted him to get permission from his father first, and that is why they sent him back. The nurse (who was a family friend) suggested that years of abuse from the father has perhaps contributed to the boys condition.
After speaking with him today, Farouk has told me that the boy went to his father, but as soon as he reached his fathers house, he was chased away again. He stayed at his mothers for a little bit, but his stepfather also chased him away.

When it rains it can really seem to pour.

So the boy is now on his way back to wairaka, with no family to take him in.
Farouk is going to meet up with him today, and we will still allow him to stay in the small house on our property. In the next few days Farouk will try and get more information and escort this young boy to the hospital to vouch for him.
We are not quite sure what the outcome of all of this will be, but it seems that God has placed this young boy, oppressed, afflicted an mistreated, with no family that will claim him or support him, while having a serious life threatening condition, into our company right now,
Please pray for us as we try and help deal wisely with this situation. It certainly strikes you and is a fresh reminder of the suffering that people are facing here.
We are called to be hope and light in this world, and so pray for us as we try to help in what ways we can, by whatever means.
Please also pray for the boy ... I am not sure right now if it has to be a prayer for a miracle, but in the following days I am sure we will find out from the doctors what the condition may be.

Pray that God may keep the boy safe, and that we can be His hands and feet where we are able to be.


A prayer from the Psalms.

"Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.

You, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
call him to account for his wickedness
that would not be found out.
The Lord is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,"