Birthday Cheer!

I forgot to write in my last blog about my birthday, so I thought I would write a brief sum up.
Last Wednesday I turned 27, and got a special birthday treatment.
The day started with Agnes coming over for breakfast. After she finished teaching, I noticed she was running in and out of my bedroom a lot, I suspected she was up to something.
When I tried to go downstairs she wouldn't let me and told me to wait.
So around lunch time I was told to empty my pockets and come downstairs. I crept down the stairs suspiciously and looked into the living room.
No one was there.
I then walked outside to a burst of "Happy Birthday" from the tailoring class, plus Farouk and Agnes. They then sang happy birthday to me while holding signs for me.
While they were doing this I noticed one of the girls was shaking up a bottle of coke rather violently.
I started getting worried.
Once they finished singing happy birthday they all yelled "Baby shower!" and next thing I know the bottle of coke was opened up and poured all over me.
Farouk, rather excitedly, also poured a bucket of water over me. After this strange violation I was told to sit down and cut a muffin with one of the girls. Then I was force fed the muffin.
I'm not quite sure if this is a normal thing, and whether I should laugh or cry, but the girls seemed to be having fun.
Afterwards they all gave me small gifts, like pk chewing gum, or lollipops, or an avocado, and they also gave me hand written letters of love and appreciation for my birthday.
It was all very sweet.
Agnes then cooked me a yummy healthy meal, since I have been eating really badly lately.
That night Agnes and I also went out to a pork joint. Basically a little shady bar with people boozing, where you buy a plate of the most delicious pork and share between the two of you.
All in all it was a typical African birthday .. full of surprises.

 

Church introductions and more diseases.

I will keep this blog post a bit short, as I am not feeling well and really struggling with sickness at the moment.

After many weeks of feeling so weak, shivering, sweating, waking up with headaches and having joint pain, I decided I should go to the good modern hospital here called Alishafa.
I was getting very tired of constantly being sick and not being able to spend a few hours doing activities before I needed to lie down again.
After more blood tests and a good examination from a professional doctor I was diagnosed with Typhoid and Brucellosis. The typhoid is still from last time and wasn't fully treated so I am now on powerful medication (The best type you can get, the doctor said).
The other disease 'Brucellosis' comes from contact with cows carrying the virus. You can get it from drinking milk or eating meat not quite cooked.
This makes sense as I often eat at dimly lit restaurants, where feral cats are running between your legs, and you can't see the food being prepared. As much as I love eating at these places I may have to stop going there. Luckily for me I am getting married in two months to someone who loves to cook ;).
The disease can be tricky to treat and can last for months, even years sometimes. It can develop into a chronic level which may be similarly compared to something like chronic fatigue. Continually tired and weak and feeling sick. If not treated it can also turn into a serious illness that effects bone marrow.
You can say I am glad I got diagnosed fairly early.
It was quite clear this is what has been causing me to feel so weak the last month or so.
The treatment is a bit tricky, so he wanted to get me imported medicines from Germany, instead of the cheap alternatives floating around. A bit expensive, but worth the extra money.
So I will be trying to recover for the next few weeks. Keep me in your prayers as I am really coping it here! I also have a bad cough, chest infection type thing that I need to get medicine for.
Feels like my body just caving in.

Otherwise I got introduced at the church Agnes goes to the other day. It was a fairly large church, and obviously has good leadership structure, and lots of great programs. Was a bit too prosperity gospel for me, but its always nice to visit a new church.
When it was time to introduce me, the pastor got up and stated to the church "We have a young man here who is going to take one of our daughters hand in marriage, can anyone find him?" At this point they played some upbeat African music, while everyone looked around the church 'pretending' to try and find me. I say pretending because everyone knows it is Agnes getting married, and everyone knows she is marrying a white man, and the only white man in the church was me.
Not too hard to find me.
Farouk had come along with me for support (as I am not allowed to come with Agnes or sit next to her .. more cultural things to obey) and so we also joined in with the pretending of trying to find this mystery man.
An elder of the church then came and picked me out of the crowd and hugged me, then grabbed my hand to bring me to the front of the church. He then told me I needed to dance.
So while everyone screamed and laughed at us, Farouk, this elder, and myself all danced to the front of the church.
Not embarrassing at all.
Then they picked Agnes out from the crowd and she also danced to the front of the church with her entourage following her. We then gave a little talk each and then the pastor came to pray over us. It got interesting here because the pastor asked us to kneel down on the ground. I went to kneel down and everyone started laughing at me. They were just laughing because it was funny for them to see a white man kneel, but I got a little confused and stood back up to ask the pastor if I should kneel too.
You see in society here, in many situations of greetings, women kneel down, but men are expected to stand and never do such a thing. So It flashed through my head that perhaps this is why they all laughed at me. But it become apparent these cultural protocols don't apply to this situation I was in, because when I asked the pastor if I should also kneel he looked at me funny and said "Do you have something wrong with your knees?"
I said "no no its ok" and quickly knelt down, while everyone laughed at me some more.

I am such a white boy.

After a long prayer, which I didn't pay any attention too because I was just praying it would hurry up, because my knees actually did start hurting on the concrete, we were finally allowed to 'dance' back to our seats.
Another interesting experience. Sometimes I have to laugh, I used to think I had a really good grip on the cultural stuff here, and in many cases I really do, but getting married to a Ugandan women can make me feel like I am just scratching the surface on the deeply rooted cultural norms here.
Other wise everyone was so excited and happy for us, and we got a lot of people in her church supporting us.

If you read my last blog post you may have read about a man named beeyo who had an extremely infected foot. We have managed to get him treated over the last few weeks (with a few missing days here and there, with him nowhere to be found) and his foot has really healed.
It has been quite funny trying to get him treated, as he often is so off in his own world, that he will walk around in bare feet in the mud, or searching for hidden treasures in a trash heap, while his infected wound is at risk of getting very dirty.
He came around to my house the other day with his walking cane and his mongrel looking dog following him. He came to see me and to thank me, continually repeating "in the name of Jesus, God bless you".
He told me he wanted to give me a plot of his land and put me in the lease for it, and include me in his will.
The interesting thing is the man is actually quite wealthy, despite his appearance. He used to be a town counselor here and was a very respected man in the community until he went mad and the alcohol ravaged his mind.
I tried to tell him it is not necessary and that he should give the plot of land to his family, but he wouldn't have it, telling me "No one wanted to help me, you were the only one who helped me".
Farouk told me later that its quite possible the family were waiting for him to die so they could inherit his wealth.
I really really don't want to be given the land and to be put in the lease, and now Beeyo is trying to convince me to come to his place on Sunday so all his relatives can see, and witness, that he is giving me the plot of land.
Not sure how I am going to get out of this one haha.
Never a dull moment in Uganda.

Otherwise things have been a bit rough here in Uganda. I have a lot of things to work on in regards to my upcoming wedding, and also YSU projects, and this sickness has really knocked me back a bit.
I am also fairly conservative with this sort of stuff, but I feel I have had a lot of spiritual opposition lately. Without going into details, to preserve and protect the identities of certain people, I have been involved in a situation here, where I have aimed to respond in a biblical way, holding onto truth and integrity.
I have tried to take the role of defending the weak and abused and trying to act in a way I could see Jesus responding. I have also approached and corrected what one could say is a 'wolf in sheep's clothing'. Even doing things in a gentle, humble way, with no intention of trying to bring anyone down, and trying to do everything from a position of love, I have still felt some serious opposition.
Try and be a light against the darkness and it will bound to happen soon enough.
I have no shock or surprise over it, or even the sickness for that matter. I fully expect and embrace any suffering here on the mission field. Christ is more then enough for me.
I want to live a life that shows the world that my treasure is in heaven and not on earth. And even though I can fall and fail, as all humans do, I feel so confident and secure in my faith, and in my position before God.
Not because of anything I do, but purely because of what God does for me, and through me.
So please keep me in your prayers during this tough season, I am feeling a bit of the weight on the Calvary road of suffering.
But if it can glorify God and show to those around me, how satisfying He really is, I wouldn't have it any other way.
He truly is more then enough!

Sickness, and encounters with the outcasts.

The last two weeks has seen me getting very very sick. I had malaria a while back and I seemed to get better from it after a few days. But about one week later I woke up with a splitting headache and a very weak feeling. Farouk encouraged me to go check it out at the local medical center, which I had just been at one week before. My nurse Olivia, who knows me well now, wanted to take a big amount of blood from me and check to see if I had any typhoid, as well as malaria. After checking she came back and told me that I did have malaria, and a very strong case of typhoid.

I had my typhoid vaccination about four years ago, but it seems it only lasts about three years, so I was well and truly sick with this potentially lethal disease.

You can get Typhoid from drinking the water here (which I am always careful not to do) but apparently it’s possible to catch it from eating street food (food sold on street stalls) which is something I do regularly.

I ended up having to get a cannula in my hand so they could pump medicine directly into my veins. The first lot they put in made me feel very ooazy, as I told the nurse that I needed to lie down. I ended up fainting slightly onto the sick bed in the medical centre, and had to wait about 15 minutes until my next injection.

Overall I had to have nine injections over the course of three days, including one very painful penicillin shot in my bum. One of the nurses laughed, and said she was happy as she has never got to see a muzungu’s (white mans) bum. The other nurse said she didn’t want to see because she ‘feared’ my skin, it was too white for her. When I told Agnes this it didn’t seem to faze her and she just laughed.
So I spent a few very sick days in bed due to the two life threatening diseases and the strong medication being pumped into me.

I was also told to keep the cannula (a needle thing that stays in your arm that you can attach drips into) in my hand for the night so they could use it to put medicine in the next day. I remember just before bed though it was driving me crazy. It is such a disgusting feeling, having this little tube up one of your veins, it’s like your whole body is crying out that it doesn’t want it in there. And when I would turn my hand slightly the tube would push against the vein and it would send shots of pain up my arm.
Farouk and I ended up working out how to pull it out, and I just bought a new one the next day to go into my other hand.
I was also very watchful to make sure all the needles going into me where fresh out of the packet. Seeing as I am in a little back ally medical clinic in Uganda, I thought it might be worth just checking on that one.

Our house has also been cut off from power for the last two weeks as well. It seems when we moved in our power meter was not working right, and our landlord was not aware of this. We ended up going and paying for a new meter from the power company almost two months ago. But this is Uganda so things take time. We were still connected to power and allowed to stay like that, we just had to show our receipt when the power company came to cut us off.
Anyway they came, but Farouk was out, and our neighbour told them we didn’t have a receipt (even though we told him we do, and if the power people come and Farouk is out, to just get Beatrice to show the receipt).
So we got cut off and we are still trying to hassle the power company to hurry up and put us back on. They keep saying tomorrow, but it has been about five ‘tomorrows’ now.

Hopefully everything will be sorted by Monday.
I have been reading books by candle light though, which has been sort of romantic.
I remember one night when I had the cannula in my arm, and was feeling very sick from the typhoid and malaria, I pulled out the little Gideon bible next to me and read it in the candle light, while I ate my plain rice with my bare hands.
I actually felt really content and happy in that moment, and I had a giggle over it all. Maybe I am getting closer to what Paul talked about when he said he had learnt to be content in Christ in all situations.

Today was an interesting day in little gospel lessons, and the power of grace pulling on the heart strings.
Farouk and I decided to go to bugembee to eat some food. As we were walking to catch a taxi we passed a few men who were walking, one of them screaming in a very angry sounding voice as he preached.
This is something you see often here, street preachers that have taken it to an extreme, where you cannot even understand them because they scream so loud.
I kind of know the man in the area, so as we passed him, and he screamed in our direction, I calmly asked him “Sir why are you so angry?”
He responded by yelling at me and asking what I had to say, and I simply asked again why he was yelling so much. He stated that the bible says to go and preach the gospel, to which I agreed, but then said “but why do you have to yell it at people?”
He kind of laughed and then kept walking, and Farouk and I noticed he was very quiet as he walked away, as perhaps he had gotten embarrassed.

At first I smirked with Farouk, but it wasn't long after that when the stain of smugness was recognized on my own heart. As much I am not a fan of this type of preaching, I really started questioning and wrestling with myself. Was that really the most loving way to interact with that man?
It may sound harmless how I questioned him, but I know within my own heart that my questioning came from a frustration of being kept awake all night by these types of pastors, who scream and yell into their jacked up microphones all night, every Friday night.
I have to be so careful not to hold a sense of arrogance towards these types of people, just because I believe how they are doing something is not the right way of going about it.
And I guess we can all get caught up in not extending love to the people who don’t preach with love.

I couldn’t dwell on this too long though as what came next completely surprised Farouk and I.

If you remember a few weeks ago I wrote in my blog about the local drunken villager coming and asking for prayer after saying he was knocked by a motor bike. If you read the blog you would know that I felt guilty that I hadn’t reached out more to this man.

Well it seems like God wanted to give me another chance.

As we walked past some shops this man yelled out to us, and I went to go shake his hand. He started telling us that he had another injury on his foot and he started to take of his sock as he wanted to show us.
When he took of his sock and showed us the bottom of his foot Farouk and I cringed in horror. This man’s foot had a seriously deep and disturbing wound that took up most of the bottom of his foot. I am talking about a massive hole in his foot that looked like it was rotting away. 

It was gross.

I knew straight away this guy would need medical treatment as he could quite easily loose a leg or get a lethal infection if left alone. I knew the man had no way of paying for it himself, as he was lying in the dirt with a torn pair of pants and no top. He then started pouring his little bottle of bootleg local booze on his wound as he smiled at me and waved his little Gideon bible around to show that he had been reading.

Farouk and I got him up and put him on a boda boda (motor bike taxi) and got it to take him to the local medical center (same one I had been to when sick) as Farouk and I walked the short distance to meet him there.
When Nurse Olivia saw the wound she also cringed and said that it would take serious treatment, the guy basically needs a shot every day for the next ten days. Our friend was clearly drunk, and Farouk explained to him we would promise to pay all his treatment but he has to commit to coming to the medical centre every day to get his shot. Farouk also asked the man to please take a bath before the nurse works on him, as he really stunk.

It was quite a sight as the man sat on the hospital floor shaking his head strangely, with his foot sticking up in the air. He really is an eccentric character, and seeing him with his bottle of booze in one hand and his little bible in the other made me laugh.
We gave him money to take a boda boda back to where he lives, to bath and rest before he would come back in the afternoon, and we promised to buy him shoes so he would stop walking around on the ground with bare feet, and infecting his foot even more.

He was so thankful and kept waving his bible and saying "God bless".

Often a man like that would be so looked down upon here in society, especially by the church, due to his drinking. But I can’t help but think of the verse that says “the first will be last, and the last will be first”. I know many pastors who may be well respected in the community, but have a very strong air of pride around them. I have no doubt that this drunken lowly man would be the first to humble himself before God and recognise his need for a saviour. Sometimes I have a feeling that we will actually be very surprised to find out who will be in the Kingdom.

So for the next few days I will go to the medical center and pay in small amounts, depending on whether he comes for his medicine or not. Please pray that he commits to going, because the wound is very very serious.(Although much later that afternoon I went to the medical center to pay for his evening dose of medication, and they said they had cleaned him up, gave him injections, and wrapped and bandaged his wound, as well as give him the shoes. A little later I met him on the way and of course I find him walking in bare feet with his wound in the dirt. He showed me where they had cleaned up the wound, and I got to see how deep it actually was, to the point of almost seeing bone. I tried to explain to him that he can't be walking around in bare feet, and he nodded and agreed. He actually speaks really good English, but how do you get something through to such a sporadic crazy man)

After we had dropped him at the center, Farouk and I went to town to go eat some food, but Farouk couldn't eat meat because he kept thinking of the guys’ foot. I had no problem though and gobbled down some grizzly, tough meat.
After buying some shoes for the man and dropping them off at the medical center, Farouk and I headed home. 

But it seems God was not done with us for the day.

As we walked past an old empty shell of an unused church, we noticed a drunken street youth, passed out, propped up against the wall, all by himself. 

We called out to him for a bit but he was well and truly out of it, and seemed to be sleeping off his drunkenness. Farouk and I then went to a local shop and went halves and bought a bottle of water. We then walked back to the boy and while trying to snuffle our giggles, quietly placed the cold bottle of water in between his legs in front of him. 

We laughed the whole way home, as we imagined him waking up from his drunken stupor with a throbbing headache in the abandoned church, and finding a full bottle of fresh cold water sitting in front of him. Farouk started joking that maybe he will get freaked out seeing as he was in a church, and that he may think the water was a divine gift, and it might end up making him turn his life around.

Life is always interesting here. I feel so blessed that I am surrounded by daily opportunities to be able to walk like Jesus.
Some days I don’t though. 

Some days I am so caught up in my own life that I walk on by and don’t think about those around me, selfishly consumed with the day’s tasks.
But other days, I have a real sense of God’s love and grace, and feel the weight of it as I encounter people who are needing his love and grace shown to them.
This are the days I love, and I believe these are the days that will matter in the end.

So if you feel like praying for me, I would request you pray for this old man with the wounded foot, and the drunken street boy. Who knows what it just may do.

God bless.

Anti Homosexual laws, Miniskirts and the Gospel of Grace.

Usually I do not engage in political affairs in this blog. Nor do I want to be about pointing out others faults and what I disagree with them. Instead I try to make this blog about my own heart, and the lessons I learn while living here in Uganda.

But recently, two laws have come to pass in Uganda that are very worrying, and due to a lot of discussion people are having, I thought I would express some of my views. These laws not only effect people on a policing, law enforcing level, but they also help enhance dangerous deeply entrenched and rooted mentalities in a national psyche, that I could argue are very worrying.

The first law I will talk about is extremely controversial and even just mentioning it here in my blog, could cause conflict. It is an issue that is divided between my western brothers and sisters in Australia and my eastern brothers and sisters in Uganda.
Both take very opposite approaches to the way they think about this issue, but I feel like I don’t resonate with either of them.
The issue I am talking about is the new anti-homosexual bill that has been passed in Uganda. Some aspects of the reasoning behind the bill are agreeable. Uganda does not want promotion or forceful encouragement of homosexuality in its schools and towards its youth. It is also trying to stop the abuse of young boys being molested. In a country where homosexuality is much rarer than in the west (and as much as you want to argue about genetic disposition and the likes, the fact is, homosexuality is much more common in the western world then in Africa) it is completely fair that the government doesn’t want to encourage young people to “experiment sexually”.
What is worrying is a law that says someone who is openly homosexual, or is caught in the act, or living in a homosexual relationship, will and can be thrown into jail, in some cases, for life.
This is assuming that a mob has not yet gone on a witch hunt and beaten the suspected homosexual.
The bill also says prison sentences will be put in place for anyone who doesn’t report a gay person that they know. Reaching out and counselling gay people is also illegal under the new law and can result in prison sentences for a number of years.
The death penalty was only just scraped in the bill due to international criticism.
It seems in reaction to the western world’s legalizing of gay marriage, Uganda, in shock and concern, has gone so far to the other end.
In response the western world has already threatened to stop sending aid to a struggling improvised country, and social media like facebook has suggesting cutting its services off in Uganda.
Meanwhile Uganda suffers from corruption in the government, and funding cuts to medical, health and education sectors in a country riddled with poverty makes you ask “what on earth is the government putting its energy and focus into?”
What concerns me the most about this particular issue is the amount of self-proclaiming Christians I have heard over here expressing that this law is good, and in fact the death penalty would have been appropriate as well. I hear so much hatred towards homosexuals coming from the mouths of people who profess to know our grace and love filled Lord, Jesus Christ.
Many young people come to me and justify their views because the bible says homosexuality is a sin, and that God created man and woman to be together in sexual union in marriage. In fact this very view point is what was used to drive the reasoning of the bill. As a Christian I agree and believe with this view ‘that it is a sin, and that sexual union was designed for man and woman in a committed marriage relationship’.
What I think is unbiblical is the hatred towards this one particular sexual sin from many Ugandan Christian communities. I often tell many young people here that if they want to use the bible to justify these views then they have to be willing to say people who sleep with someone who is not their spouse, must also be thrown into jail and should be put to death. I then let them know that this is a lot of young people in jail (usually including the one who I am giving this response to).
Of course they don’t agree with this, because many young people here in Uganda are sleeping around with their boyfriends/girlfriends, but again, they feel they can pick and choose what they want out of the bible.
And then I try to explain to them the overarching message of grace and the gospel that the bible gives. That though we are sinners, Christ died for us out of love and grace, even when we were still his enemies. That because of this forgiveness and grace we are empowered to show mercy and love towards others. That Jesus calls us to love and forgive, and that he never called us to persecute one type of person committing a sexual sin.
Never mind that Jesus also spoke much more, and warned much more harshly, about pride and greed, two issues, often unquestioned, that are rampant in the church and the government here.
As I often put it towards my young friends “So often the sins we vilify the most are the ones we struggle with the least. And the ones we overlook and excuse the most are the ones we struggle with the most.”

It seems that today, in Uganda, in the Christian community, homosexuality has become the new “women caught in adultery and dragged before Jesus to be stoned.”
We would be wise to look at Jesus reaction.
He states “Those without sin throw the first stone”. And as everyone leaves he turns to the woman and says “has anyone condemned you” to which she replies “No one sir”.
Jesus then says “Then neither do I condemn you, go now and sin no more.”

You can almost feel the love and grace coming off the page when you read it.

I recognise that some of the views I have expressed here would be vilified as bigotry in the western world. As a Christian I do believe marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, and just expressing this can label you with ‘hate speech’ in the west. And woe to me if I mention the word sin (but I would like to make a point here, that though I believe it to be a sin, I would like to whole heartedly and honestly say I am also a sinner, and in no way am I better than people who sin differently then me). So in a sense things are extreme on both ends. As I recently posted on my facebook wall: “In Australia, if I believe marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman I am a conservative bigot. In Uganda if I believe homosexuals should be treated with love, dignity and not persecution, I am a perverted liberal. Feeling like I am caught between two worlds.”
I recognise the criticism I may get from the west for expressing my biblical views, and I recognise the risks here in Uganda in even speaking against this bill. But neither do I want to be afraid of what people think of me due to my Christian beliefs, nor do I want to stay silent when a group of people are being persecuted and hate is being thrown down on them.

The second law is just as worrying, but in this case, towards women.
In an effort to reduce the numbers of rape in Uganda, the government has now made miniskirts illegal and any woman caught in a mini skirt can be put in jail.

Yup .. you try and rationalize that.

In response many mobs and rowdy men are going around finding women in short skirts and ripping them off and pulling their panties of as well in the act. The woman is still up for breaking the law, and mostly, the men get away with what they have done.

You tell me who is committing the bigger crime/sin
.
I have tried to explain to men here that what this is doing, is basically saying “Men have no control over their behaviour and therefore we need to restrict and punish the women. Men are basically animals and cannot help themselves, therefore the rape of a woman wearing scantily dressed clothing is mostly justified”.

I do not think this view will reduce rape. I think views like this help enhance rape.

Why is the focus on the women? Why is there not a bigger effort to educate young men and boys in school to value and respect women? Why is there not more conviction and punishment on so many men who get away with rape and domestic abuse? Or if they want to focus on women, why don’t they focus on educating and empowering young women to have value and respect for themselves? Or creating safe places for them to be able to talk about sexual abuse they have suffered? Or enhancing a view that says “you don’t need male love and affection to be valuable, and that trying to get this love by dressing scantly won’t attract the kind of love you may be after.”
Miniskirts and pornography are banned in Uganda, but Ugandan music television stations are allowed to be constantly filled with rap and pop artists trying to emulate American hip hop stars. They have their music videos filled with nearly naked women grinding their buts up against the singer, while he spews out lyrics that degrade women and reduces them to meat.
Why the double standards?

I do believe this miniskirt law is like putting a band aid on a broken leg.

I do want to be careful in this post, I realize the danger of painting Ugandans as somehow backwards or horrible people. I do not want to paint all Ugandans with a broad brush, as there are many I know who do not think on these extreme ends.
I can honestly say the most welcoming, beautiful, loving and sharing people I have had experiences with in this world, are Ugandans. And we in the west have ‘So Much’ to learn from their often beautiful generous way of living. But I also believe that all humans, in all cultures, no matter how loving, are broken and have a tendency to be swept into bigotry, hatred and selfishness.
I also think Australians are amazing people, but look at the ignorance, fear and racism so many normally great people, and Australian Christians, are expressing towards the refugee debate.
Or I could twist it, I see many liberals who fight for human rights, but who have a deep hatred and loathing towards politicians, or Tony Abbot, or people in the mining industry like Gina, or anyone who owns a big corporate multinational.
I see the potential for this kind of attitude even in myself. I have always felt comfortable talking with, and spending time around the outcasts: the drunk, the prostitute, the drug addict, the homosexual or the foreigner. But I need to be careful about not dehumanizing the hypocritical religious leader, and I can have a tendency to forget they are also image bearers of God.
We as humans are all guilty of dehumanizing others who are different, or don’t have the same beliefs as us. We love to look at the negatives in others without searching for their good. And we often forget to look into our own hearts and see the potential for good, and the potential for evil in all of us.
This is why I believe in the gospel.
This is why I believe in grace.
This is why I believe in Jesus.
I believe our human hearts need Him.
And us Christians need to continue to look at the way Jesus treated others, even when he disagreed with their way of life.

If you are a Christian, you are called to follow Jesus.
You are called to be a light in a broken hurting world.
You are called to be loving, generous, compassionate and humble.
You are called to look inside yourself in humility and see your own need for grace.
You are called to look outside at others and see their need for grace from you.
We are called to do this not because we are trying to earn God’s love and grace. But we are called to do this out of a heart full of joy and gratitude.
Because God’s grace cannot be bought or worked for. 

It was freely given.
Remember that.

It may help you the next time you feel like dehumanizing someone else.

Feeling sickly and lessons from the Gospel

I have been feeling off and sick for the last two weeks, being on antibiotics the whole time due to two different sicknesses.
If you have been following my posts you may remember a few months ago I got an infected pimple on my chin, which swelled up to a big balloon size lump (see picture), after a week it finally popped and a fountain of pus came out (sorry about the description).

Well 2 weeks ago the same thing happened, but right on the side of my face near my temple. Again it swelled up to a big nasty boil, and a week later it finally was ready for popping .. and another fountain of pus came out when I squeezed it (which Agnes filmed on my Iphone .. anyone want to see it?).

The problem with this boil was that it was so close to my brain. I had to take antibiotics because the infection was causing serious shoots of pain into my head, and also right down into my neck .. a little bit worrying.
I have also come to realize why I am getting these things, as I never have this problem in Australia. There is so much dust here due to two months of dry weather, with no rain. So when you are walking along the road, with sweat pouring down your face and open pores due to the heat, and a big truck drives past, a heap of dust gets blown into your face, and no doubt into the open pores.
I realize I have been washing my face with just water instead of soap. My conclusion is the dust is causing these boils. So a big face scrub is now my nightly habit at the end of the day.

I also woke up at midnight last Friday with a pounding headache, which stayed all day. By midday on Saturday I decided I should check it up at the medical clinic, because it is rare for me to have a lasting headache, especially after taking panadol.  After getting a pin prick and a little bit of blood out of me, it was confirmed that I had malaria. Luckily for me it was not so serious, so some tablets to stop it in its tracks was all that was needed. I do admit I spent the whole of Saturday lying on my bed with a headache, getting distressed at the loud radios and screaming children outside my bedroom.

Agnes and I have also been doing pre-marital counseling with Ron and Anne here every Monday night, which has been such a big blessing to both of us. Its great to sit with an older couple who have been married for many years, doing mission together and still very much in love, and have them guiding and encouraging us.
There are so many things that they have brought up that perhaps Agnes and I didn't give much thought to, so it has been such a blessing and so helpful to be able to talk about all these things.

Since I finished reading the whole bible last year, I have decided to spend my morning devotions this year immersed in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I spend each morning just reading one chapter in great detail, trying to explore all the hidden little gems from a literature perspective, and I have just finished going through Matthew like this. I will then go through the book again from an emotional perspective, and also again looking at the implications from the book and what the application on my life would look like. It will most likely take a year just to go through the four Gospels like this.
But I have been struck again about the direct call to 'give it up' and follow Jesus. Especially going through the sermon on the mount, and the chapter on the sheep and the goats, I have been struck at how Jesus tells us to live in humility, compassion and generosity.
I live in a country surrounded by "the least of these" and I often wonder what this should mean for my life here. Sure I can run programs and invest in young people in well thought out activities to target social issues and so forth. But I am struck by the words Jesus uses "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in". And then Jesus direct connection to doing this for others, as doing it for Him "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me".

Often I can realize that I can put up boundaries from the 'least of these' surrounding me in the local village. Even when I am walking along the villages here, I can still put up my own walls to people, due to the inconvenience it may place on me to be looking out for all of 'the least of these' types.

Three encounters bring this to mind in the last 2 weeks. The first one involves an old local man who walks around the village here, randomly searching for things in the bush, while often smelling of booze. The man is a tad crazy (although speaks very good English) and he is always running up to me, to greet me with a big smile. You could say he is the typical village idiot .. as he is often the laughing stock for many people.
This particular day he ran up to me just as I was reaching my home, and he started complaining about a pain he felt in his back because he was hit by a boda boda (motor bike). He also had some scabs and wounds on his back and chest from where he fell over. I was on my way home from town and I was feeling tired and just wanted to get back to my house and rest. There was a group of rough looking youth who were standing by and laughing at him (and us) as I talked to him about his accident (which didn't seem so bad). He then asked me to pray for him, which I said I would. He then bowed his head on the spot and waited for me, and I realized he wanted me to pray for him right there. At this point the group of youth were very interested, making comments and laughing. Oh but how could I refuse, so I stood there with my hand on his shoulder and everyone staring at us strangely as I said a prayer for him. Afterwards he thanked me and went on his way, but when I reached my home I felt restless in my heart. Here was a guy who could be considered as one of the 'least of these', and yet I had hurried on my way with a quick prayer for him so I could get home, when instead I could of invited him back to mine to maybe give him something for his wounds.
The feelings got the better of me, and I packed a small bag of disinfectant, antibacterial wipes, some tablets for sore muscles and a bottle of water.
I got on my bike to look for him, but to my disappointment, he was long gone.

I had lost my chance.

It made me realize that we should not hesitate when we feel a burden to reach out for someone, if you walk away, you will regret it later.

Another incident took place while Agnes and I were eating together at a local restaurant. When we eat at this particular place there usually is anther crazy man, smelling of booze, who sits and stares at us with a strange angry look on his face. This one time he kept staring at us so much that the restaurant owner chased him, and pushed him with quite some force out of the place. I remembered what I had read in Matthew and decided to offer to buy him some food. I was even willing for him to come and sit with us.
But it didn't go so well.
He seemed to get angry at me that I offered him food. Then I think he caught on to what I was saying and demanded that I buy him alcohol .. to which I replied that I would be happy to buy him something to eat and drink but I would not buy him alcohol. He didn't like that and when Agnes and I left the restaurant he spent the next 5 minutes following us from a distance, abusing us.

The last one was again a man who stopped me in the streets to shake my hand and talk. He reeked of something rotten, and he was missing an eye, and in its place was a infected looking, pus dripping, cavity. This guy got right into my face so I could smell his breath, as he asked where I came from and what my name was. I made it a point to stand there, with him holding my hand, and to give him a bit of time, no matter how awkward, disturbing and smelly it was. Towards the end of our conversation he looked at me directly and mumbled "God bless you friend, Jesus is love".
It is an encounter I will hold with me.
I don't tell these stories to try and paint a picture of me as a saint. In fact the opposite. I am a broken sinful person who still has selfish desires to look away and keep walking. But I remember I have a great God who didn't look away and turn from me. Reminding myself of that helps me to look towards the 'lowest of the low', even when there still is great room for improvement in how I treat them.

I also realize that reaching out to the 'least of these' is often messy and scary. It is not always a nice clean fairy tale story, as with the case of the angry man at the restaurant, but I keep reminding myself of Jesus, and I do this by reading about his life in the Gospels.

Lastly, we have finally got rain here after two very dry and dusty months. Yesterday the heavens opened up and showers poured down, much to the relief of many people. I look forward to the rainy season, and then to when the mud gets too much and I start looking forward to the dry season again haha.
Life does go on.

God bless

Visitation!

The last week has gone by fast, mainly due to the fact of being busy and having lots to do.
Andrew left a few days ago, and it was great to have my pastor around for two weeks, spending time most days chatting and talking about life here. It was also good and refreshing to be able to have some good old fashioned deep theological talks, which I do have a tendency to crave every now and then.
Andrew took Agnes, Rachel (a young volunteer from the UK) and myself to the source of the nile to have a look around.
We managed to get Agnes on a boat which was interesting. She is scared of water (I know what your thinking, how different from myself having lived a big chunk of my life in the ocean) but we managed to convince her to get on a boat and go out to the source of where the river Nile starts its journey to Egypt (this is actually a fake source, the real source starts high up in the mountains of Rwanda, which I always like to point out to the guides there, to which they always deny that statement).

Andrew will be coming back in a few months to marry Agnes and myself, which we look forward to. It was also nice for Agnes to get to meet Andrew, and she warmed to him immediately, often telling me she was amazed a pastor could be down to earth, laid back and not someone who acts above others (bit of a problem we have over here with some pastors)

We also had Rachel come and spend some time with the tailoring girls, teaching them basic English. All of the girls responded really well to this, and it will be great to have Rachel spend some time with the girls up until April when she goes back to the UK. It will also be a good opportunity to broaden her horizons and give her a taste of new experiences. One thing I would love to see Youth Support Uganda doing, is to have volunteers visit, and to connected people from around the world.

So yesterday I had a very big, official and scary day. yesterday was the visitation day for Agnes and myself. Basically this means taking a small posse of people with myself to her village to officially meet all her family, and to basically ask her family for her hand in marriage. The day started with me nervously trying to go through everything with the friends who had gathered at my house, and having them laugh and tell me not to worry. The group of people that went with me were Robert K (Uganda HopeBuilders Director) his wife Rachel K, my good friend Anne marie from Australia, Ivan and Farouk. Robert K was to speak on my behalf, and to play the fatherly role, which he did very well. They all took good care of me, helping me out, translating, and prompting me to do the cultural protocols I was supposed to do.
When we got to the village home we were all escorted into a sitting room in the house while my heart pumped violently in my chest. After a while some older men (Agnes uncles and relatives) came in and we had some general greetings and chit chat. This went on for about an hour, and then some food was brought out, which we all ate happily. After this had finished, I had assumed we where near the end of the visit, but little did I know we had just started. We had not even done the official greetings yet, and we still had 'lunch' to come.
All of a sudden everyone in the room went quiet and then about 10 of Agnes female relatives entered the room, followed by Agnes, and they all sat on a mat in the room. Agnes was dressed in traditional Ugandan clothes, and she really stood out and looked beautiful! But then I was told I was not supposed to look at her, which I laughed at and apologized as I looked away, which caused everyone to laugh (another cultural custom I most likley should of been aware of haha)
Then we did the official greetings, and Agnes was asked to stand up and grab the hand of the man she was introducing (at the point they were not supposed to know who the man she would be marrying was, but of course its all a bit of a theatrical procedure because everyone knew it was me ... I mean I was the only white guy there, it should of been a bit obvious).
She came over and grabbed my hand and there was some awkward silence and stares as Robert k whispered to me to stand up (another thing it would of been nice to have been told about before).
Afterwards we all introduced ourselves and the women then left, as the real business of things begun. From there I was asked many questions like "Where do you come from", "Are you a citizen of Uganda", "What tribe do you come from" (In case I came from the same tribe as Agnes and we are not allowed to marry because we are related ... don't worry, we came to the conclusion we certainly are not related").
They also told me that Agnes family/tribe totem is the white monkey. Everyone had a giggle at this, as it must be a sign that Agnes and I are meant to be ... as I always have been a bit of a white monkey.
Most of these questions I actually didn't answer, but as tradition has it, Robert K answered on my behalf. Throughout the whole ceremony/visitation/procedure (what ever you would like to call it) the only question I had to answer personally was if I intended to stay with Agnes for life, or if it was just a short term 'contract' (as they put it).
Apparently people from the western world have a bad reputation of getting divorced in the eyes of Africans, and they wanted to know my opinions on the matter, which I affirmed them I had planned to make this thing for life.
After a while they discussed dates, gifts I was to bring to the introduction/ceremony, and how many people I would bring with me. Afterwards they turned to me and then said "We have now accepted you as a son, and you are now part of this family, and we give you our daughters hand in marriage" to which I replied "thank you very much" in their local language Lusoga, and to which, for some reason I am still not sure of, they all cracked up laughing.
Afterwards the local pastor from the Anglican church gave a little speech and said a prayer, and then everyone dismissed, leaving me and my posse alone in the sitting room to enjoy a huge amount of food and laugh as we were all relaxed that the official stuff was over.
We then all said goodbye, as Agnes and myself posed for photos and about a million shots were taken of us with squinting smiles. Then her uncles and brothers came to me with big smiles and open hands to have a chat and say goodbye. It was interesting to see the mood at the start when we first came, and then after everything had been complete. It was like I had come as a stranger to be weary of, and then after all the traditional protocols had been followed, I was now a family member.
The whole thing took about four hours, as things in Africa take time, including speeches and questioning and time to eat. The whole time my heart was pumping in my chest, I have to say I was so nervous at the start. But I do admit at the end of the day I felt much more relaxed and comfortable.
It can be so confusing and scary when you are entering into a culture you have only started to really scratch the surface of, I was so aware of myself and afraid of doing something culturally taboo. Even at the end when I said good bye to Agnes and I went to shake her hand, she laughed (as did all her family members watching) as she pushed my hand aside, grabbed me in her arms and said we are now allowed to hug in front of people (To which I believe grace needs to be given to me haha, I mean only 1 hour ago I had been told off for looking at her)
All in all a very interesting day, and I can safely and honestly say "I am glad it is over".
So one ceremony down, only two to go before I can finally have her as my wife!
Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers for all the scary traditional things to come!
God bless

My posse

Nervously waiting

Agnes in the purple (and stern looking uncles in the background)

Laughing as I am interrogated

Getting down to business

Our food

Now officially/culturally/traditional recognized as an engaged couple

paparazzi

Agnes and Anne Marie

The in laws home

Nile adventures. Marriage preparations. New projects. Sleepless nights.

Its been over a week so I thought it was time to write another blog.
First of all I would like to say that the young boy I wrote about in the previous post is now back at home, all better and doing well. He has even started school for the year. After two very tiring weeks in the hospital he now is a very happy boy running around at home .. he even saved a little bit of money up and bought me a big colorful basket to say thank you for my help.
Very special. God is good.

Last week for Australia day I got into the Aussie mood by first sending some snaps back to friends and family to let them know I have not forgotten my roots!
In good Aussie fashion I went swimming for the day. It was really awesome as I went with a few friends to a place in the river Nile and swam among lots of bird life and even a few African otters. Luckily this far up (it is right at the start of the river Nile! The worlds longest river) there is no crocs or hippos.
I have been back to this place again, as it is a much better option for swimming then lake Victoria. I have heard stories recently of little worms/parasites that live in the lake that swim up your urethra and lay eggs in your bladder causing serious infection.
I don't really want this, and I freaked out a little bit because I have swam a number of times in the lake. Apparently the worms or eggs can stay dormant for quite some time before hatching and causing sickness. So I went and bought a heavy dose of worming tablets, just to be on the safe side.

The last week has been full of budgeting, organizing and discussing wedding and marriage preparations with Agnes. It can be very overwhelming at times, as getting married here requires you to follow a lot of traditional and cultural protocols. I am still wrapping my head around all the customs involved here with marriage. It is also scary as so much is expected of the man in paying for everything, including a sort of dowry towards the woman's family. So you could say that I am going to have to buy my future wife for the price of a few cows, chickens and goats ... haha talk about traditional. Agnes doesn't like it when I talk about it like this! She says not to look at it as payment for her, as you cannot put a price on a person, but that it is more of a gift of gratitude towards her family for raising her (sounds like payment to me).
We are going to have to do a few functions, it does not just include one wedding. Basically I have to do a visitation (next week) where I bring a small posse of people to represent me, to go and meet her family in the village. My representatives and her family then discuss the price of the dowry and the introduction. Then I have to do the traditional African ceremony called the introduction. This is kind of a theatrical, showy, cultural ceremony where I get introduced to her family and paraded around, as my gifts are presented to her side of the community. In this ceremony I bring a posse of how many I choose (going with about 35 people) and we sit separate from her side of the family. We also all wear traditional Ugandan ceremony wear. So this means all the men (including me, my dad and brother) will wear a long flowing dress/gown (similar to what you see Muslims wear) and the women (including my sisters and mother) will wear a traditional 'Gomesi' dress, which basically looks like a bad 80's prom dress. A big feast (paid by my side of course) is also enjoyed on this day.
Finally one week later after this ceremony, Agnes and I will be able to have our traditional wedding in the church, followed by a reception. The church we are getting married in is the second biggest in Uganda, and is this massive, monstrous Anglican cathedral (just my style :s haha). The wedding day will most likely have a huge amount of people attending due to Agnes and I having a lot of reputation in our communities here. This ceremony will be more similar to a wedding back in Australia, with vows, rings and a pastor doing the deed. I  do look forward to this ceremony, and I am stoked that my pastor Andrew will be able to come from Australia and be the one to marry us!
This is not the only ceremony we will have to do, as there will be one more. The civil service. Basically not many marriages here are actually registered due to the complicated paper work involved. But myself being an Australian and Agnes being Uganda, it is very important that our marriage is an internationally recognized legal marriage. This is important so that when we visit Australia, Agnes will actually be able to come into the country. This means I may be able to apply for duel citizenship here in Uganda as well.
So four ceremonies all up.
Sound exhausting?
It certainly is!
It is funny as I always imagined myself getting married on a beach with a small group of people attending, a very small, quiet affair. But I guess when you love somebody, things can change, and you don't always go about doing things the way you thought it should be done haha.

With Youth Support Uganda, Farouk and I have just begun our agriculture project. Three boys now have a chance at learning how to cultivate in a way that will help them start their own small business and get them up on their own two feet. It is always great to see the enthusiasm of new people in our projects, and the boys are very excited, and very thankful for this project. The boys chosen are very poor, and down the bottom of the social ladder, often with no chance of any opportunity of a decent life.
It is always excited to show Gods love in a practical way to people, and to be involved in the call of Jesus to bring justice, value and hope to the poor. We are redeemed so that we can redeem. This can be done in so many ways, including being involved in redemption of the brokenness within poverty. And we always make it a point to express in words the reason behind why we do this. We feel it is important to share our faith and express that it is because of this that we are here offering these opportunities to the poor. This is not done in a manipulative, forceful way, but in a gentle, sharing of the light of God that gives us hope. The secular culture would tell you to focus on doing the good works and to leave your faith out of it ... but this would be to deny the very core of who we are and what makes us do this. So we pour ourselves into others, as an over flow of the grace, love and hope that we get from our God, and we share that hope with others, allowing them to decide what they will make of it.

Lastly, for those of you following me on facebook, you may be aware of my sleepless nights in our new house due to a number of things. This begun on Friday night and has continued since. I am weary eyed, tired and with a headache due to the following things.

1. Every Friday night the local churches have overnight prayer and worship services. This means from about 10 pm to 3 am they sing and pray fervently. Often they are hooked up to microphones and speakers that blast into the community here, keeping everyone awake.

2. We have two churches near us, one is an Anglican church which is fairly orthodox, the other is what some may class as a cult. Kind of African spirituality and withcraft dressed up as charismatic Christianity. This is the church that keeps me awake, with their bizarre customs of screaming at spirits, loud drumming, yelling and rolling around on the floor and speaking in distorted growls. All the while hooked up to a big speaker system so everyone has the pleasure of listening to it all.

3. Usually after they finish the local mosque here starts their prayers at around 4.00 am. This is done of course through speakers that blast out over the community. In all honesty though the Muslim prayers only go for about 10 minutes, and their mystical singing sounds much more soothing then the church I described before.

4. The neighbor who lives in the courtyard attached to our house here has roosters. They are loud. They start at 4.00 am and don't shut up. Their blood curling call will rattle through the whole house right up into my ear drums.

5. The neighbor brought in a male billy goat to impregnate one of the female goats, but the female goat refused him. So when they tied up the male goat in the same courtyard as the roosters, the sexual tension he was obviously feeling caused him to scream. All night.

No one in our house got any sleep that night. Luckily they brought back the billy goat, so that problem is solved. I bought one of the roosters off the neighbor, and after being pressured by Farouk to do the deed of cutting of its head, we all ate a lovely meal of rooster.
The only problem is the next rooster in the pecking order has stepped up to his new role and taken over the cock-a-doodle-dooing. The neighbor does not want to sell his remaining roosters as he is keeping them to give to his brother. Seems I will just have to bare with them and wear ear plugs until that happens.
I think this may just be a part of the sacrifice of the mission! Haha. Which in all honesty, if the sufferings of being on the mission field here are only as bad as a screaming rooster .. I have nothing to complain about.

So that sums up my last week. Enjoy the photos of our rooster meal!

God bless.