Sickness

So we are a month in to our time back in Uganda and our house hold has been whacked with a serious case of sickness.

Agnes has done some damage to her back, she has a compressed spine, where her vertebrae are compressed against each other pinching the nerves. This has caused her serious pain, often her back will lock up and then she is totally immobile.
The doctor is a bit concerned about it because if it gets any worse she may need surgery on her back.
So we have gotten a new orthopedic mattress for Aggie to sleep on, anything to try and help the situation.

Last Saturday night I started experiencing a strong fever and headache, so after a sleepless night I went to the hospital and got tested positive for malaria.
It has really knocked me around a lot, especially because I had a bad case of the flu to go along with it.

We have been pretty miserable actually, and it has been a struggle to take care of each other and also to take care of Ethan.

Aggie cannot lift Ethan up out of his bed to feed him during the night, so I have had to be doing it. But this is happening while I am shivering and sweating and almost passing out from an incredibly strong fever.

It has been a few days now, and although my fever has reduced and the headaches are gone, my throat has been so sore. It has gotten to the point where I can't eat or even drink water because it is too painful to swallow.
So back to the hospital this morning, and sure enough I have a strong infection in my tonsils/throat.
So more medication and more rest. But at least the malaria is gone.

Please pray for us as we are struggling to do our work here at the moment, we both feel totally immobile at times.
Thankfully Agnes' brother and our maid Zaina have been helping to take care of Ethan, which has relieved us a bit.

Otherwise we are just waiting for our strength to come back to us so we can continue our work.
We continue to run devotions and classes, as well as discipleship for the young people here.

We have started taking youth (mainly from the Village of Hope) in pairs of two's, to come and share dinner with us every week.
We often do all our work through programs and set classes, but I have always been convicted of the idea of bringing the young people into our house, to share a meal with us so they can see how Aggie, myself and Ethan operate as a family.
We feel like this is an important aspect of discipleship. And the Christian virtue of hospitality is something not to be missed and forgotten.
We hope we can also be an example to the young people on how a family can love each other and sit together around the dinner table and share a meal and pray together and read the scriptures together (you would be surprised how much this is lacking in families and marriages here)
I think inviting young people into our homes, to help them grow, and to try our best to be a good example for them, will hopefully have a positive impact on them.

We have also been enjoying our car, as I said in my last post, it certainly makes life much easier here (especially when we are sick and need so many doctors visits)

There is not too much more to write about for now, and I feel my medication kicking in which means I will need to lie down soon.

Please keep us in your prayers.

God bless

Back in Uganda

So we are back in Uganda, and settling in.

The flight over was pretty rough! Ethan was very restless, and so Agnes and I barely got any sleep (about two hours within 24 hours or so)
By the time we were in the car heading to Wairaka, we were all exhausted. Ethan had even stopped crying and was just whimpering.

The big trip was hard on Ethan, and for a few days after he was very unsettled. The change of environment and perhaps the jet lag had him very grumpy for the next few days.

But he has settled right in now, we have a routine going for him, and he is finally sleeping well through the night. All our friends and family have been very happy to see him as well.

Coming back here it was great to see things running smoothly. Our YSU team really worked well together in our absence, and there was nothing in particular that we had to address or fix.

The chicken project ran by Farouk has been making some small profit, and the tailoring class has been running well, with all girls participating and improving in their skills greatly.

We were also very blessed to start driving our new car. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever been to town so many times over the course of a week! This is because in the past, if we needed something from town, we would have to wait for our big shop at the start of the month (where we could pay for a personal taxi) or wait a few days for a list of needs to accumulate before we take public transport in (which can sometimes take over an hour to just get into town and back).

We also managed to purchase a small car seat for Ethan so he is nice and safe.

I do have to say, driving in Uganda can be stressful. Not only do you have to make sure you are always doing the right thing … your eyes need to be on everyone else (motorbikes, pedestrians, cars, trucks, busses) to make sure THEY are going to do the right thing.
Already I am sure, I could have killed a few people if I was distracted … largely because pedestrians are so lax and careless when crossing the road .. They just walk out in front of you, or take their time to stroll across the highway.

Pray for us, and pray for me, that I will always be alert on the road. To be honest, I am not worried about being hit by another car, but rather myself hitting a motor bike or a pedestrian who carelessly crosses in front of me.
I tend to drive rather slowly here, my thoughts are that I’d rather arrive safe with no accidents, then rush to get somewhere.

We have started organizing a bit of schedule to get back into things here. I will be doing lots of personal training stuff with the leaders, and with the young men.

Agnes will continue to work with the young women here as well. We were again reminded of the massive need here, a week upon arrival back home.

One of our old tailoring girls, whose name is Rose, recently had a loss in her family with her auntie dying while giving birth from home. Uganda has a very high birth mortality rate, and a lot of people give birth from home without thought about how they would get to a hospital if something went wrong.

Fortunately the little baby survived, but no one in the family wanted to care for it. This new born child was abandoned by everyone, including the father of the child who said he had no way, or idea, to care for the baby.

Rose, who is a struggling single mother herself, offered to be this child’s mother there and then on the spot.
Rose has always had a kind heart for helping others, and we told her that God will greatly reward her for such a compassionate act.

In her ignorance though, she had been feeding the baby cow’s milk, mixed with sugar and glucose. Again this is because people just have no source of education in these matters, and she was doing the best she could with what she had.

It was the other day she came to us for advice, when the baby was one week old. We quickly rushed to town (again this is another reason why the car is so helpful) to buy baby formula and some other needs for the baby.

We told her we would help her and support her where we could, and she was very much relieved and thankful for the new advice. She really wants to do what she can to help this little baby.

Please pray for the baby his name is Eric, he is very small, but we were positive with the way he was responding. He was feeding from a bottle very well, and his eyes were quite active and looked a bit lively.

This is just the usual for us in Uganda, we hear stories like this all the time. It makes us particularly eager to join in some training in November based around a biblical understanding of marriage, sex, reproduction, family and health. This is health education in reproduction, with a holistic spiritual world view.

This training will help us greatly with dealing with such circumstances, and to help educate those effected.

Again, we thank everyone who has stood with us as we continue to work in this community in Uganda.

We look forward to the year ahead, as we continue to try and reach the youth here with the love of Christ.

God bless

Back to Uganda!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the long break away from my blog. The last two months has been a refreshing time of catching up with friends and family here in Australia.
Agnes and I had a great time in Australia, especially visiting our church community and spending time with the people we love in Australia.

Although it has been getting cold, I have also enjoyed getting out in the water for a surf as well!!

My whole family has had a great time with Ethan in the house, but there may be a few broken hearts on Tuesday night when we leave to go back to Uganda.
We were also blessed to have Ethan baptized at our family church at One Hope while we have been here in Australia.

We have also had the chance to catch up with sponsors, supporters and donors, as well as evaluate our plans for the next year on the ground.

Agnes and I are very excited about returning to Uganda to get stuck into the work over there.

While we have been away, we have had a great leadership team running YSU. Agnes brother Dauglas has been so valuable to us, as he managed the project in Uganda.

When we return we look forward to investing more into the tailoring girls, including the running of an empower trauma rehabilitation program.
We also want to continue our relational discipleship and mentorship with the young men and women in Uganda.

This includes inviting young people into our house, so we can invest in them, and so they can also see a family dynamic that hopefully reflects what God desires for family to be.
We are well aware of the many broken homes and families that people come from, and the young people who have witnessed marriages full of brokenness and abuse.
And although Aggie and I never claim to be a perfect family, we recognize the level of stability and love that we can show to young people. We always pray that God will use our marriage and family to be a light for the world

We also are excited about doing some training with a group called Wise Choices For Life, which helps men and women learn about reproductive issues, family issues, pregnancy issues and more.
This is a great program that we are excited about. We look forward to being trained in the curriculum so we too can pass on this knowledge to our young men and women.

I would also like to start up a boys holiday camping program, which will take troubled young men away on a camping trip that involves a lot of self development and discipleship.

We have also been excited to see our chicken project making profit, and so we want to continue to develop this into a reliable source of income.

When we return we also have a car waiting for us!! Andrew recently purchased our new car while he has been over there. This is going to make life so much easier in Uganda. No longer will we have to rely on dangerous public transport, or expensive private taxis.
We want to thank all those people who contributed to make this a reality.

We request that you pray for us as we go back to Uganda. Pray for strength and motivation to get back into our work. Please pray for visa situations as well, as we start to organize Ethan's dependent visa.

We thank all of you who have been involved in supporting us and our work in Uganda.
We always say that we could not do this without you.

I will now try my best to get back into blog writing, so you can all be updated on our progress in Uganda.

Thank you and God bless.

Coming home

For those who don't know, Agnes, Ethan and myself will be travelling to Australia today!
So we will be back in Australia this week!

We plan to spend some time resting with family and friends, catching up with our church community and also touching base with our sponsors and supporters!
We look forward to this time of reflection and time of fellowship with our much beloved friends and family.

The last few weeks have included lots of preparing for our leaving! But we are confident with the team we are leaving behind to manage YSU.

We have also enjoyed Agnes birthday, and Farouk and I have almost completed our walk from Kampala to the Kenyan border.

Please pray for us as we travel! We are a bit nervous to see how it will be flying with a baby, and on top of that Ethan has just started to teeth and can get quite distressed.

If you would like to catch up with us when we are in Australia (We arrive this week, and leave at the start of July) then please send me a message on my facebook or and email to ooeeluke@hotmail.com

We would love to catch up with as many friends as we can.

Thank you and God bless.

March

It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog. Sometimes the time can slip by and before I know it, one month has passed before I have updated anyone. I apologize for the long delay.

Basically here at YSU we have been preparing for Agnes and myself to leave for two months.
Agnes and I will be coming to Australia (with Ethan of course) on the 25^th of April, and then returning back to Uganda on the 6^th of July.

We are very excited to come back for two months. We look forward to family and friends getting to meet Ethan! We also look forward to catching up with our sponsors and all of those who have supported us.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing my church family at one hope again! I also look forward to some peace and quiet. It seems to be that after a year here on the ground I get a little bit weary of living in a full community house with all the issues that need to be dealt with.

I am also looking forward to some soul filling, spirit refreshing times in the Australian bush and by the ocean side. I would be lying if I said that I don’t miss the ocean. These will all be times of rest for my soul! What great peace I find in God’s good creation! No wonder the Psalms describes God’s rest as Him ‘laying us down by green pastures’. 

And as last time, I also look forward to coming back to Uganda, refreshed and with some new perspective.

There is always something valuable about taking yourself totally out of the ministry environment to be able to have some reflecting and introspection on all that you are doing.

So for those who would love to catch up with us! Be known that we will be around for two months from the 24^th of April!

In regards to YSU running on the ground while we are gone, we feel confident about the team we are leaving behind.
We have a new team at YSU at the moment, with two extra teachers. Agnes’ brother Douglous, who has studied community development and is a very faithful friend, will be taking on a management role while we are gone.

We are confident with Douglous management skills, faithfulness in handling money and ability to sort out issues and conflicts.

We also have a new older woman teaching our tailoring girls alongside Beatrice. Christine is a tailoring teacher, but has also studied social work, so she is very capable of running classes while we are gone.

The next month will involve sitting down with Farouk and Douglous and training them up to be able to take control over the months that Agnes and I are in Australia.

The tailoring girls are also doing very well! They are very committed, and because of the structures and policies we have put in place this time around, we feel that this tailoring class is going to be our best yet.

With new teachers, new contributions, new policies, new areas of learning, we see this class as a very holistic way to help break the cycle of poverty in these young women’s lives.

Even simple little things that we are doing differently will make a big difference.

Previously we had supplied everything for the girls in the old tailoring classes. This was due to the fact that the girls were extremely poor and so we thought we should just provide all the resources.
A negative result of this was that we created an environment where none of the materials we provided were treated with respect.

Materials and tools would go missing, and girls would just expect new things to be provided for them.

This time around we are making the girls provide simple materials (books, rulers, pens) for the course.
It may be a bit of an effort for the girls to search for the money to provide this simple things … but it is certainly not in the realm of impossible.

As a result, on the first day of class, every single girl came with a new book and new ruler and a new pen.

They will treat their materials with much more respect now.

They also know that if any of the materials that YSU provides get broken or lost, the girls will have to replace it themselves.

These are the just some of the small and simple changes we have implemented.

The whole idea is that instead of creating a class where we are doing everything for them, we want to create a class where we partner with the girls and work together for a new future for them.

The last few months have included lots of paper work as well, as I have been organizing Ethan’s Australian certificate of citizenship and his passport!

I am happy to announce that Ethan is officially now a citizen of Australia, and his passport is about one week away from coming.

Agnes has also been granted her partner visa which has been a great blessing!

At the property we have also started a new lot of chickens! We have changed breeders and are getting our chickens from Kenya now.
So far so good, these chickens look much healthier than our lost batch (which had a lot of stunted sickly chickens)

God has been very good to us, from all our legal documents being taken care of and approved, to seeing young people being changed and healed through YSU.

We continue to see young men growing passionately in their faith! I have one particular young man I am discipling who finishes his high school education at the end of his year.
He’s hope and dream is to go to bible/theological school next year. He has such a passion for the word of God and I see this young man as a very strong leader, with a very humble character, who God has a strong calling on his life.
It would be very difficult for him to afford bible school, but perhaps if anyone ever feels the heart to help him, he will be able to pursue his dream.

We also continue Wednesday fellowships here, and more and more people come for simple worship and bible readings.

Ethan is also doing well! The boy keeps growing and is getting very fat!
The other day he got his vaccine for TB, and we were at the local medical clinic. A little 16 month girl was also there getting her injections, she was walking around and talking and quite developed. When they asked to weigh her she was 8.5 kg’s (quite small for her age) then when they asked us to weigh Ethan (who is 2 and a half months) he weighed in at 7.1 kg’s. We all had a laugh in the hospital room, and the nurses joked that Agnes must be providing good milk.

It does get a little bit heavy to carry him around everywhere though! He certainly is a big boy.

All in all, we are a bit busy as we prepare to come back to Australia. We ask for your prayers as we continue to prepare, and that we have a safe trip back to Australia.

We do look forward to seeing you all when we come back.

Empower, Elections and Ethan.

It is now Febuary so we have really started to get into the flow of the year! We have been organizing our tailoring class, and also looking at all we will plan out the next year here at YSU.

I recently ran an Empower program with my four boys from my small bible study group.

This is a group of guys that I have grown very close to and love dearly! I have invested a lot into them, mentoring and discipling them over the last year.

Instead of doing one big Empower, I wanted to try and see how it would work in a small group setting.

I think it went well and the guys got a lot from the program. All of them had never shared their life story before to someone in detail! The fact that I have earnt their trust over the year helped them to open up.
They were a bit more hesitant in opening up with each other, but in the end they did and I was very proud of them.

Many of their deep traumas are private, which I will not share. But what I will say is that the common theme which seems to be the root of so much pain is "Father hunger".

Meaning, a hunger for a father figure in life. This is also a huge problem in Uganda (and the whole world really) with fathers rather dying while these young men were babies, and so they never knew them.
For others it is case of the father abandoning his family, or if the father is still around, he is not invested into his children or even abusive.

So much of the problems that I deal with in youth here, stems from this epidemic of a lack of fathers.

As a new father it does push me and motivate me to want to be a father who loves his child and invests in his child to the best of my abilities.

It is always rewarding to see the people who go through the empower find healing at the end of it. All of the boys felt a burden taken off their hearts, and they were able to forgive people who had caused past hurts that had traumatized them.

In regards to the elections that took place recently in Uganda, there is a lot that I could say.

Elections are always a tense time in Uganda, since the president has been in power for 30 years. 

Although he did bring the country out of war, and has since done a lot for the economy and development of Uganda, many people feel he has overstayed and that his regime is incredibly corrupt and authoritarian.

What was interesting about the lead up to the elections was the amount of conversations I had with Ugandans who were tired of the current president and were voting for change.

The opposition leader here, who has challenged the presidency and lost over the last three elections (although many people say that previous elections had been rigged and were not fair) is very popular among many of the more educated Ugandans (although not all) in urban areas like the capital city Kampala.

Many of the uneducated villagers in Uganda are in support of Museveni (the current president) a big part of this (although not the only reason) is because they fear violence and war may break out if Museveni losses power.

With all of this in play, elections came to pass with a few skirmishes and riot police firing tear gas into crowds in the days leading up to it.

I was frustrated at seeing a number of concerning things like the nationwide shutdown of all social media platforms, police intimidation and arrests of opposition members and supporters, heavy handed police tactics and a show of force and weapons, inexcusable disorganized voting in areas that showed more support towards the opposition and also allegations of vote rigging and corruption.

Even John Kerry of the U.S called the president to urge him to stop some of these concerning undemocratic actions.

The current president still actually has a lot of support though, and perhaps, might not actually need to do these things to even get a fair win.

What is more frustrating for me though is seeing fellow Ugandans here feeling rather dejected after it all. Many of my friends here feel like they want change and want to have their vote and voice count, but that in reality the people don't have much power if they don't support the current regime.

Sometimes I feel like this show of democracy is a bit of a charade and an act. It is not that I am particularly 'for' any presidential candidate (whether the current president or the opposition leader) but that I really wish the voice of the people could be heard. It can feel like there is such a strong and unfair imbalance between the current regime, and any other party or candidate that a large majority of Ugandans may support.

I am actually quite politically opinionated among my close family and friends. And they have heard my views in detail over the last few days. But I am a bit more cautious about stating my strong views on public forums.

I was going to post quite a long piece of opinion on my blog, or on facebook. But after reading through it, I decided not too.

It was quite cynical and had heavy criticism and perhaps was not the wisest thing to post.

There are really three main reasons why I feel I should not be too politically outspoken.

The first reason is that, although I do live here, I am still a guest in this country and there are many Ugandans I love and respect who would hold strong opinions different to my own.

Another reason is that I often have this inner conflict within myself to be, on the one hand, drawn towards an outspoken rebellious type revolution, and on the other hand, wanting to honor, submit and respect the authorities, as my faith calls me to do.

I find this a bit of a balancing act, where sometimes I can be too hot and heavy and outspoken politically that I start demonizing governments or leaders while getting carried away, and I realize I am not being respectful and forgetting that we are all fallen sinful people who need grace.

I know I could easily refer to certain leaders as tyrants, but I need to also remind myself of the tyrant in my own heat ... the great tyrant, that is self.

On the other hand, we do need to be careful of being so respectful towards governments and authorities that we never speak out against injustice's that are clearly and plainly seen.

The last reason why I want to leave it here and not say too much, is basically because it is not wise for me to do so on public forums.
I am still a guest in this country, and I have influence (especially over the youth) in my community and I am on a government visa. Already I have seen how much the government takes notice of foreign nationals (even in my own case when applying for my own visa, and seeing how much info they already had on me) and so it would not be in my best interest to have too much of a loud voice in the matter.

In the end God is sovereign. We must all stand before Him and give an account for our life! Whether we are a poor laborer or the president of a nation, we must all face God who will see into our hearts.

As an old African American slave hymn goes "What is done in the dark, will be brought to the light"

In other news, more close to family life, we recently took Ethan to our doctor for an unfortunate and unusual medical condition that had to be dealt with.

Ethan has had a small pimple on his chest for quite some time now, and we always just assumed that it was a milk pimple as he has many on his face.
But the last few days the pimple grew and grew into what looked like a boil! It had a lot of pus and looked very red and infected.

We tried using some antibiotic cream, but it got worse. The other morning we had a closer look and saw a small hole going deep into the boil type wound.
Whenever Ethan would breath, a small yellow thing would come to the top of the hole, and then go back down into the wound.

We took Ethan to the hospital, already suspecting what the problem was.

When we go to the hospital the doctor had one look and our suspicions were confirmed.

Ethan had a mango fly maggot burrowed in his chest. The doctor told us that this dry season is mango fly season, and when we hang Ethan's clothes out to dry, the fly can lay it's eggs in the clothes. When the eggs hatch a little worm comes out, and if babies are wearing the cloths the worm burrows itself into the skin until it grows bigger and bigger (eventually turning into another mango fly)

We were told this is actually common for babies here as they have such soft skin.

We were also told the best way to avoid this is to make sure the clothes are out in the sun drying for at least 8 hours, and that we iron the clothes very well before using them.

Poor Ethan cried a lot when the doctor tried to squeeze the maggot out. The maggot was so deep that the doctor had to go to work with a small scalpel and a pair of tweezers! I was impressed with the size of the maggot that came out, it was quite large.

Aggie couldn't handle seeing Ethan in pain and crying, so she had to leave the doctors room!

Ethan's large pimple that ended up being a small maggot.

Ethan is doing fine now, and we will do our best to avoid this in the future! Otherwise he is very healthy and weighing in at 5.7 kg at 1 month.

He has a lot of rolls on his body and is quite the chubby baby. We still struggle at night with him and try to work out a system where we take it in turns to care for him (he seems to only be able to fall asleep at night when he is lying on my chest)

Otherwise we are well, and just sticking put in Wairaka until election season finishes. We will avoid the towns in case there is any political unrest in the next few days.

Our tailoring class is about to start next week as well, so your prayers are always appreciated.

Ministry request.

So I don't write these types of blogs normally (or at all)
But after a long time of thinking and praying about a particular need we have here on the ground, I have been encouraged by others to write up a request for anyone who would love to get behind us and support us in a particular area.

With the ministry expanding, and also our family growing (not just my own with the birth of Ethan, but new babies that have also joined us with the 'larger' family that we live with) we have seen that there is a growing need for safer modes of transport for our family in Uganda.
Agnes and I really feel, and have decided (alongside consultation with our missions mentor) that a small car is a responsible thing for us to have right now.

A recent event really showed us how important a car is. When Farouk and Beatrice's newborn son got extremely sick with blood poisoning, and almost lost his life, we had to race him to the hospital. We were lucky that my mother was borrowing the village of hopes car at the time, so we could race straight to the hospital.
If we did not have the car, we would of had to of waited around while trying to find a friend who was available.

The nearest good hospital is about 20 minutes drive away in a car. In public transport it can take up to 1 hour to get there.

Public transport has also got more dangerous to use, as we frequently need to go to town to buy things for our work here. The taxi buses and boda boda's (motor bike taxis) that are the only form of public transport, our regularly driving in a very dangerous way.
We have counted so many deaths, and severe accidents, on the road over the last year caused by these public transport vehicles.
Of course you can understand that Aggie and I do not want to take baby Ethan on the back of a motor bike.

Our only other option is to pay a high fee for a personal taxi car to come and drive us around. This costs a lot of money, and even still, if there is an emergency we need to wait for the car to come from town first, and then bring us to the hospital (which can take 45 minutes)

We have manged to use public transport for the whole time that I have been here in Uganda, and have tried our best to make do.
But with the birth of our newborn son, we feel we cannot keep doing this without taking risks that we don't feel comfortable about.

So taking all of this into account it seems wise and responsible to have a small vehicle for the family.

Cars can be expensive here, but we have a good contact for a small reliable car that Andrew has been able to look up and find.
We believe we can get the car for between five to six thousand dollars (maybe even a bit less)

As you know, we serve the people here in a voluntary capacity and our personal living and family costs are provided by generous partners ... many of you reading this!
This means that there is no 'pot' of savings to draw from in times like this, as each month is finely budgeted.
God has provided everything we need and often more through all of you and we are thankful for that.

People have also given us one off donations, which have been such a blessing! A lot of these one off donations though have gone towards the medical care of Agnes having a safe pregnancy and delivery! But we are able to contribute about $400 of money that has been accumulated from these one off donations to go towards a car at least!

We waited a time and prayed about asking for help on our blog here, and even though I really don't like asking for money, and prefer to see God work through people at the needed times, we feel that it is right to do so now.

If you are in a position to contribute and willing to help, we would appreciate any contribution that could go straight towards purchasing a small car.
We ask this knowing that you all have to budget each month as well, so we acknowledge that every donation is a gift and a blessing. We also thank everyone who has stood by us so far, not just financially, but also with your prayers.
If you feel, please pray about partnering with us in this, we value each gift.

Our heart is to continue to serve the young people here in Uganda and express even more of Gods love and his potential for them to be people of hope, and we love that we can share that with all of you.

If you can contribute, please contact Andrew on: aboonstra1@gmail.com or on 0400 488016 to let us know.
Contributions via bank accounts also can always work, but it helps to see where we are at and who has blessed us if you could contact Andrew.

God bless you and thank you.

From the Vandenberg family.