Quick update!

Hello everyone!
I am sorry about the long time between blogs! Things have been a bit quiet here, since we have finished the tailoring class, and Agnes has been having lots of rest.

I thought I would give a quick update to let everyone know what has been happening.

Lots of our time has been put into this chicken project and right now we are selling all our chickens!
Due to some mistakes on our behalf (in regards to feeding amounts and feeding schedules), and some advice from others that hasn't been the greatest, we look like we will just break even with this first lot of chickens!
But it has all been a valuable experience! We have learnt a lot and can now adjust what needs to be done for the second lot of chickens!
We are confident with the experience we have gained and look forward to yielding better results with the next lot of 300 chickens that we will get in November.
Agnes brother has also come on board, and wants to volunteer with us to give us some good tips, as he has been involved in rearing chickens for a long time as well.

There has been a lot of work over the last 7 weeks, but everything we have learnt has been so valuable.
People have actually been surprised that we managed to keep so many of the chickens alive and healthy, many people lose so many chickens on their first try.
So although I was a little disappointing at the lack of profit we made from the first lot of chickens, we are looking at the positives. That is the nature of starting micro businesses!
You get experience and you learn and learn until you get something that works just right!

Andrew was recently here for two weeks as well! It was great to have him here! And I always enjoy his pastoral support.
His presence is always so helpful, to be encouraged, supported and guided. He often does so much here in Uganda, and can be a silent workhorse, getting lots and lots done! But Agnes and I really appreciate all his hard work to support the work that goes on Uganda.

One thing he did while here was buy YSU a boda boda. This boda boda is going to be so helpful in running the chicken project.
Running to the block of land, as well as picking up things like maize bran and chicken feeds, has often taken up a lot of transport money (because we have to hire boda boda drivers)
Now with our own boda boda we can save costs on transport, and do everything ourselves.
We want to thank everyone in Australia who supported us and contributed towards the boda boda.

I continue to run my Friday night devo's with my group of boys, and I have encouraged them to start thinking of some of their own lead outreach ideas for the holidays!
We have come together studying the word for that last few months, but since (as James said) faith without deeds is dead, and the fact that you can be an expert in the bible but still not follow Jesus, we want to encourage each other to use our gifts and skills to reach others.
So these boys are coming up with ideas on how they can use their skills to reach others, whether it be hospital patients, street kids or the poor.
That fact that it will be their own initiatives, instead of me telling them what to do, is also encouraging. I will just give them advice and support where I can.

Right now we are still interviewing girls for the next tailoring class, which should be starting in February.
If anyone is interested in supporting girls through a one year tailoring course! Please feel free to contact hopebuilders on info@hopebuilders.org.au
This course has been very valuable in helping these girls. And the stories have been encouraging, seeing young girls getting work in the Jinja main market, or starting up their own businesses.

Otherwise we are doing well health wise! We just have two very tired pregnant women in our house who need a lot of rest (which is one of the reasons we will start the next tailoring course in Feb .. after delivery)

Again we thank you for all your support and prayers! Your support always means so much to us here in Uganda.

Safari, graduation and chickens

It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog, due to being very busy and not finding (or putting aside) the time to sit down and write one.
So I apologise for the delay, today has been the first time in a few weeks where I have not had anything on.

Recently my sister Carlee has come over to Uganda after traveling around Europe and America. Carlee is visiting Aggie and I, while also using her skills and knowledge in childhood development to teach some classes to a range of people. This is a real need, as most people here don’t have any kind of access to learning about the inner workings of the development of a child, and we have many single young mothers who are struggling and frustrated with their children that are interested in learning more about what makes a child tick.

It has been great to have Carlee over, Aggie and I have enjoyed the conversations and time spent with her, and she is settling in well (even being courageous enough to ride on public transport)

The first week that she arrived, we actually went on a safari. This was a bit of a birthday present from Carlee and my Mum for Agnes’ 30^th last April.

It was great to have a bit of a break and enjoy a safari up in the northern parts of Uganda. What a beautiful country it really is, and so different from the south.
The north is your typical African savannah and dry bush, and we enjoyed a safari drive and a tinny ride up the river Nile, seeing lions, elephants, hippos, crocs, giraffes and more.

It is really wild country up there, and living in a highly populated area in wairaka it was really interesting to see parts of Uganda that is just land and bush with not many houses or people living on the land at all.

The first night on Safari was pretty interesting and funny, as we were sleeping in a big tent near the river Nile, and hippos where walking around our tent at night.
I was kind of freaking out, and both Carlee and I were laughing in the morning because we both had a sleepless night. When we did manage to find sleep, we both ended up having dreams of hippos barging into our tent …. Only to wake up realizing it is a dream … only then to realize that we were still actually in a tent in the African bush with hippos walking around our tents haha.

Aggie didn’t hear anything, and as usual, slept through it all (which is probably a good thing)

It was a great experience (although a long drive) and some other highlights included trekking on foot through the bush to get up close and personal with a rhino (to which the guide told us that if it charges we should climb a tree .. and which a pregnant Agnes didn’t seem too thrilled about)

We also saw a chimpanzee on the side of the road while driving through a forest, which is actually pretty rare to come across.

Another highlight from the last month was having our graduation for our tailoring girls. They have now finished their one year course, and have been sent off with their machines (which they have payed off about half of) to start their own small businesses. 

The graduation was filled with dancing, speeches, words of encouragement and a big feast.
This was a special occasion for many of our girls, as they have never gone through anything like it, and they were all thrilled to receive their certificates.

Agnes and I were even given some chickens as gifts of appreciation!

We have already been encouraged by some of the opportunities the girls are pursuing. With a few girls going to work for clothing stores, some wanting to work in the main town market, or some starting up their own small businesses from their homes.

We were both sad and happy to say goodbye to our young girl Eseza, who has been living with us for a full year while doing her course.

When she came into the course, she was a very shy, dejected looking young woman who could not look you in the eye. She left being a young woman with a lot of confidence (and sometimes a bit of cheek)

One of our other tailoring girls escorted her back to her home village, and she reported that the whole village came out to welcome Eseza when she returned to them.
Apparently a crowd of people had come running to greet her and hold their own ceremony for her when she returned. Many of the villagers where running around with joy, exclaiming how no one from their village had ever graduated from a course.
Someone who left the village as a nobody there, has now returned as the only person from the village to graduate from a course.
The village also has no tailoring services nearby, so she already has been getting requests from all the villagers.

Stories like this make us very happy to hear, and we only pray that we have given them the strength and confidence to know that they are valued by God. That as a woman they are valuable and not someone to be walked over! We pray that this encouragement will help them have a bit of strength in not allowing people (particularly men) to walk all over them.

Have a look at the difference in Eseza after one year.

Before

After

It has been a great time to invest in these girls, not just in teaching them new skills, but also investing in them spiritually, trying to show them and tell them about the love of Christ.

We thank all of you who contributed and sponsored these young women in helping them get through this course.

We hope to start up another tailoring course in the next few months, as they are such a great way to reach the community.

Another big project we have started up, is our chicken project.

Farouk and I picked up 300 small chicks two weeks ago, and they have been a lot of work!
They eat so much, and you need to be checking on them and changing water every four to six hours. This includes at night time as well.
So this means Farouk has been leaving the property at midnight, while I usually do the morning shift at around six or seven.
We have also camped out down at the property as well when our night guard went away to his village (just to make sure they were ok .. as they are worth a lot of money)

This chicken project will hopefully bring in an income for YSU, and my goal is to get it running to a point where we can pay the salaries of our workers with the profit.
At the moment we just have 300 chicks which are being raised for meat (sorry to all you vegans and vegetarians) but we also plan to house egg laying chickens in the future as well.

We also want to use this chicken project as a way to train up some young men, give them employment and new skills in chicken farming.

Farouk has been great in running and managing this, as well as doing his research, as this is his area that he loves (agriculture and animal rearing)

Otherwise we are well. Agnes is starting to feel the pregnancy now, with her big tummy and sore back!

We have also just applied online for a partner visa for Agnes. It took me five and a half hours on the immigration website to complete! But finally we have the application in.
Now we just have to wait nine to twelve months to see if she is accepted!
Please pray for us, as it costs a lot of money and it would be terrible if she was not accepted.

Lastly, I continue working with a group of boys from the community. I feel like I have my own little fellowship group of boys who are at my house constantly.
I continue to be amazed at their faith and their stories. Most of them have suffered some form of persecution from coming to Christ, as most of them have come from different religious backgrounds.
Some have been completely cut off from their family. One young boy and his mother came to Christ, only to have his whole father’s side of the family, who are Muslims, cut them off. That means no support for shelter, education or even food. 

Total rejection for changing their faith

Yet still they are unwavering in their faith! Even on their free time these school holidays, they decided to spend the time visiting local hospitals to pray and encourage the sick.

I have felt the need to do what I can for these young guys when it comes to their education. Especially because some have been cut off from their families after coming to Christ, I believe that they now belong to the family of Christ, and we need to treat them as fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.

So arranging some small labour work here and there, or contributing a little bit of money is the best I can do to try and push them through school. Usually if they pay a 50k UGS (about $20 AUD) to the school, it can keep them there for about a month before they get chased away again and told to find the remaining money. So each month we try and work out something to try and ‘push them though’ for a few more weeks.

The good thing is all the boys are hard workers, and do whatever they can to top up the money. I appreciate their efforts to contribute to their schooling as much as they can (including hard labour) and not just relying on others to sponsor them.

It can be hard because I don’t really have the money to get them through school. But again, we do what we can do for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted.

I want to thank everyone again for all their support and prayers over the last few months. Agnes and I want to say that we love you all very much.

July Update!

It has been a while since my last update. I apologize for the delay.
Sometimes it can feel like an effort to set some time aside to write a blog!

I have some good news about my visa! being that I now have a two year working permit!
It took a long time to get it, and cost me a lot of money, but after all this time I finally have a legal working visa. Getting the visa is usually the hard part, but from what I hear, renewing it is much more easier.
This NGO visa will also help a lot when I try and go for a residents visa in the future. If they see I have been volunteering in the country for an NGO legally for a few years, it will help build my case when going for the long term one.
Now Agnes and I are just preparing to apply for her Australian partner visa. So we appreciate prayers for that!

It is really a big relief to finally have this visa, and I want to thank everyone that prayed for me to get it!
God is good.

We have currently been running a leaders empower training session, here at YSU the last few days. We have selected a few people who we see as leaders in the community who are doing work among the youth. Some people participating are good friends, who are also doing their own youth ministry, and we love to support them by offering this training. Others are people that we have our eyes on to train up for our own team. It would be great to have a team of men and women who would be able to run empowers more often at YSU. So we have a mixed group at the moment of men and women.
Agnes and I have been working well as a team, running the training and empower program together. It is really nice to work alongside your wife in ministry! When you have a common goal that you are working towards, which is really important, it gives you less time to get caught up in silly arguments! .. although we are not immune from that either hehe.

Speaking of my wife, she is doing well now that she has entered her 2nd trimester. The sickness has mostly gone, and she is feeling much stronger, and able to do a lot more.

The chicken project is just about done, and we expect to bring the new chickens into the coop this month! The builders have done a great job, and the place looks great.
The new block of land looks better and better each day. And we have a very tough guard dog (named Spurgeon after the great Charles himself) who looks after the property.

The tailoring girls are also on their last month, and will be graduating at the end of this month! We are organizing for some final lessons on how to repair machines so they can do it themselves without having to pay anyone. Then we hope to send them on their way to start their own small businesses, or look for employment.

They are selling some bags to help pay off their tailoring machine loan! If you are interested our team in Australia should have some to sell. These bags will be the last ones being sold for a while to come.

Instead of starting up another co-op, we have decided that we would like to invest the time and money into reviewing the tailoring class, and making it the best we can. This may include getting in an extra teacher that can specialize in teaching areas that will help develop the girls to the best of their abilities.

Please pray for these girls as they finish up their course and start on their own.

We had another experience the other week, which reminded us again of the frequency of domestic abuse in the community.
An older village women, who we don't really know, came running to our house a few weeks ago. She was clearly distressed and upset and wanted to talk to Aggie and I.
She explained that she had just been beaten by her husband who is a drunkard, and she had run to us expecting that we are close with the local police and could help get the man arrested.
This is due to the news of what happened a while back being spread around the community. If you read my blog a while ago, you would have heard the story of how I tried to intervene in the beating of a 13 year old girl, only to be beaten myself, and ended with the main culprit being arrested by the police.
This new woman was under the impression that we advocated for abuse victims and are tight with the police. The problem is we don't even have the local police phone number here, and we don't have any connection or relationship with them. It was Robert K who brought us to the police station last time, and because we were directly involved in intervening with the beating, we could make a statement.
It was very difficult listening to this woman and not really being able to help in any substantial way.

In the end we prayed with her, gave her money so she could get up to the police station to report her husband, and we called a local community leader so that he was aware of the situation and may be able to help in anyway.

The problem is we don't know these people, or what happened, nor do we have a car to be able to drive her up to the police (if I had a car, I wouldn't hesitate to personally take her myself)

I know it sounds shocking, coming from a country where police response is very good. But you have to understand there really is not much of a functioning legal system here on the grass roots level. We tried to offer the best we could. But there is still a part of me that doesn't feel satisfied, a heavy burden on my heart that I wish I could of/did do more.
The woman had heard that we are people that stand up for abuse victims and so thought she could run to us, even though we didn't know her. All because of the gossiping that went around the community after what happened last time.

In the end I heard that the man actually spent a number of days in jail, as the woman paid off the police with some money she had (perhaps maybe with some of the contribution we gave her ... :p which I wouldn't have much of a problem with)

These are the sorts of things we face daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. The ups and downs of ministry work.
There is a constant reminder of not trying to run on your own strength. Oh how so easily I would burn out here if I wasn't relying on the Grace of God. There is no other way to keep up at this type of work without relying on God.
I am but weak flesh and bone, but He is strong and wise.

Lastly, Farouk and I have been able to go on another two micro adventures! We found the most beautiful open hill overlooking lake Victoria. This small mountain range we camped on, which is surrounded by bush and jungle, is all owned by a local pastor. This pastor was the friendliest man, who felt honored that we would ask him if we could camp on his land. He also gave us a large supply of avocado, cassava and maize to cook on the fire and keep us happy.
That night around the fire we got a bit of a fright as large mongoose's kept snarling and snorting as they charged between our feet. But we survived the mongoose's and the monkeys!

What a great way to get a little bit of an adventure in the wilderness, and a camp around a fire.

Baby!

Agnes and I would just like to make it public that we are going to be having a baby in mid January.
Agnes is now 12 weeks pregnant! So she is entering her 2nd trimester.
We are so happy as this is something we have been praying for, for quite a long time. Agnes and I actually lost a child last year through a miscarriage, so we are overjoyed that we are now going to be having a baby.
The last few months have been a bit scary though, as Agnes has had a few complications, and we have almost lost the baby a few times.
We have spent a lot of time in the hospital, including overnight stays, over the last few months.
Agnes also had malaria at one stage, which is dangerous during pregnancy, and they can only treat it with medicine going straight into the body on a drip.

But thankfully Agnes' health is improving and the baby is healthy in the stomach. Now that Aggie is in her 2nd trimester, things are looking a bit more stable.
I even got to see our little baby jumping, while doing the ultra sound.
Agnes is still a bit weak and tired, and needs to take lots of meds and have lots of rest, but she has certainly improved.

We have also found a hospital that we are really happy with. It is a bit more expensive, but we really want good quality care for the delivery. It is an international hospital in Jinja here, with high quality care.

We thank you for your prayers! and ask that you continue to pray for Agnes throughout the pregnancy.

We are both very excited (Agnes has already started buying lots of baby things) and can't wait to be parents (I feel like living in this community house has been a lot of practice time with little babies and children haha)

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers.

Luke and Agnes.

Physical abuse and a beating in the community.

Things are moving on well here.

This week we have had the team working hard at the YSU property! They have been a great blessing in building a chicken coop, as well as helping finish the wall around the property.
They also got to visit and meet the tailoring girls, and lots of dancing was done on both sides.

The other day we had an unfortunate event take place across the road from us. Agnes and I were outside when we heard screams coming from our neighbors house, which is across the road from us.
We ran over to see what was happening, and there in the front yard of our neighbors house, in broad daylight for everyone to see, were three men holding down a little 13 year old girl, and belting her with sticks.
The men beating her were her uncles, and the main man doing the beating (our neighbor) was her grandfather (who isn't very old, maybe 50).
The beatings were very serious, the kind that would leave scars and bruises, and I could see a lot of anger coming out of those men (especially the neighbor)
Everyone on the road was just standing and watching, and instinctively without taking a second thought I ran over yelling at them to stop, and then grabbed one of the men to try and push him off the girl.
The next thing I knew there was a bit of a scuffle between me and the man I had pushed, as well as lots of yelling. It all happened very fast, but I remember feeling a blow to my back from the neighbors stick, and then a second one that just missed my face. The neighbor had then turned on me, and had given me a good whack with his stick across my back (which was a bit tender and sore for a few days after)
I remember the neighbor with so much hatred in his eyes screaming at me with his raised stick ready to hit me again (and from what I have heard afterwards, this neighbor is quite a bitter, miserable, angry man)
I managed to avoid being beaten again, while pleading with them to stop hitting the girl, and trying to stop it from happening.
There was a big crowd at this point, and Agnes had been yelling at the men that she was going to call the police. Even the mother to the child being beaten told me to call the police, and so I threatened the men that I was going to do such.
The other men rode off on their motor bikes after hearing this threat, while the main man (our neighbor) locked the girl in the house and disappeared himself.
I ended up calling Robert K and we went to the police station to report everything that had happened. The child protection branch of the police came down and investigated the man and the young girl and took them back to the station.
The man was claiming that he only gave the young girl a few small smacks, and that I tried to fight them and assault them, and that I accidentally got in the way of his stick.
But the young girl had marks and bruises all over her body and told the police that I was not fighting anyone but came to help her.
So this neighbor of ours ended up spending a night in the cell.

The thing which I find so frustrating and disappointing, is that I thought that perhaps the people in the community would think well of me for trying to defend the young girl. This was not really the case.
Many people were gossiping saying it was wrong of me for getting involved in family matters. Even when the beating was taking place and I was having the scuffle with the men, many of our young tailoring girls were telling Agnes to explain to me that the girl had ran away from home and had been promiscuous (and do you really have to wonder why? when you are living with such a man, what young girl wouldn't want to run away from home)
In their mind, the beating was justified.
Later Farouk, Agnes and I explained to them that we didn't care what she had done to provoke the beating, but three grown men belting a little thirteen year old girl like that, is inherently wrong.
We asked the tailoring girls if they had never messed around with boys, to which they all went quiet (because many of them had children at young ages) and we explained that they should also be willing to extend grace towards others, especially the weak and vulnerable.

But the mentality here is that many times people view it is ok to physically abuse someone who has misbehaved. The community here would rather turn a blind eye, then to step in and cause a disturbance in the community .. which would shake up the peace. Even some fellow village women would agree and approve with the severe beating.

Challenging older men in the community is something that is looked down upon. There has been mixed reactions in the community (along with lots of gossip) and many people have divided opinions over it. Some saying what I did was wrong, but others being sympathetic for me.
For all the people that have been sympathetic for me, they all have expressed anger at the fact that the men turned on me and beat me when I was trying to help.
Again, what is disappointing is that not many people have expressed anger or concern that a 13 year girl was being beaten like that, by three fully grown men.
They were just angry that I also got beaten ... because I am a prominent person in the community, and I am also a male ... and I am white.
It is something I struggle with and feel so disheartened by. It has been rare to find someone (beside my house hold and other close Christian friends) who actually thought what happened was bad.
The fact that the police arrested the man and checked the bruises over the girls body should say enough.
We live in a community where so much violence towards women and children takes place.

Refreshingly the brother to the man who beat me, as well as other family members, came and spoke with me afterwards.
They were very sorry that I got hit, and they even thanked me for helping the girl. They asked me if I was going to press chargers (they were a bit worried for their brother) which I told them I had no intention of doing so. I told them that I forgive the man for hitting me, and that my intention was just to stop them from hitting the young girl.

All in all, I know I did the right thing, even though I have surely made some enemies in the community now. I still feel terrible for the young girl, and the man only spent a night in the police cell before being released. But there is not much you can do in this culture, besides continuing to try and educate and change hearts and minds. I have been encouraged by the younger generation coming up, they are beginning to see things in a different way. And I pray for more men to become protectors and nurturers of the women in their community, instead of abusers.

It is not all bad news though, we continue to see God working in many ways in the community.
We ask that you continue to pray for us here in Uganda, as sometimes situation can be quite tense when working within the community.

I would also just briefly like to add, onto the end of this blog, a request for anyone who felt they would like to contribute towards YSU, and for something that we specifically need.
I never like to outright ask for donations, but we have noticed that one thing we really need in our ministry right now is some transportation for getting around the community. Often Farouk and I spent a lot of money on transport for hiring motorbike taxi's around the place. Since we make multiple trips back and forth to our new property, and will be continuing to do so in the months to come, we realize that an investment into a boda boda (local motor bike used for transporting people) would help us a lot. It would save us money on petrol and hiring local boda boda's, and we see it as something we would a use lot in the future, since the nature of our work often involves us moving around the community quite often. A new boda boda here goes for around about $1750, and all donations can be tax deductible through HopeBuilders international. If you feel you would love to help you can contact Andrew Boonstra on  aboonstra1@gmail.com

Otherwise we want to thank all those people who have continued to support us and love us. Your support means a lot to us, and has continued to allow us to do what we do here.
We love all of you who pray for us and encourage us. Thank you and God bless.

How much would you give up?

Sorry for the long delay in writing a blog. It has been a bit of a stressful time and I haven't gotten around to it in a while.

It has been great to have my mother and aunties here in Uganda visiting me! I am sure they have enjoyed getting a first hand experience into the culture and the people. And it has been lovely to catch up (including eating a few nice meals)

There has been lots of rain here in Wairaka as well, so lots of mud when you walk around the place.

The HopeBuilders team is also here! And they will be doing some work on the YSU block, including the construction of a chicken coop, which we will use as an income for YSU.

We have also had Emily from Australia helping us run a few programs for young women. Emily is a midwife and has been trained in running a great program called 'wise choices for life' which looks at women's health issues, pregnancy issues and information on planning for families.
This has been very valuable, as often young women here don't have access to great information. There are lots of myths that run around in regards to pregnancy here. Some of these myths are less harmful but can result in confusion for people, like believing you can be pregnant for up to two years because every time you bleed during pregnancy you revert back a few weeks in the pregnancy stage. Other myths are downright dangerous, like believing that taking strong alcohol will help your baby develop in the womb.
So it has been great to have Emily run these classes, and many of the young women have been enjoying it.

I will spend some time writing a larger blog, perhaps next week, as I am very busy at the moment, but I wanted to share the story of young man who I have been mentoring recently.
His story is quite inspiring, and a challenge to all of us who follow Christ.

I have a group of boys who I meet with every Friday night, and we get together and just study the word and wrestle with deep questions.
I love how passionate these guys are, and how much they thirst to know more about Christ. Most of them have it quite rough, whether living in poverty or having tension with their families. One of the boys parents are Muslim, and so being a christian has meant he is not in good terms with his family. Trying to help guide him through that experience is difficult, and as they don't support him much as a result, you do feel the pressure to be the family of Christ in that situation, and offer what you can.

But one of the young men in particular has quite a striking story. Still only being in his late teens, he has a faith that could inspire many people who have been in the church for many years.
This young man actually grew up being converted into the Baha'i faith. If you don't know much about Bahaism, look it up, it came as an offshoot from Islam but has aspects of eastern mysticism in it. The teachings deny Christ as the son of God, but as just one of many manifestations of God. They are quite a peaceful people, who are involved in a lot of good development work, but they specifically deny many of the core tenants of the Christian faith. Enlightenment, or heaven (a state of being) is attained through good works.
This young man actually grew to be a prominent youth leader in the Baha'i community in Uganda. He was sent around the country to preach and convert people, and he talks about how he lead away many people who were from Christian homes, and converted them to the Baha'i faith.
The local leaders of this faith had actually promised a bright future for this young man, including all school sponsorship paid for, a promise of university scholarship, and all expense paid travel.
The ultimate dream for every young man here in Uganda.
He tells a story of when he joined a bible study at his high school, with the soul purpose of trying to prove his fellow students wrong.
The young men in the bible study class were not particularly educated in theology, nor where they apologists. Just simple youth who prayed together and studied the bible together. And in the end, this young man actually became born again and gave himself to Christ through this bible study class.
A testament to the fact, that it is not about how smart you are, or how good and intelligent your answers are .. but are you faithful? and does your life give testimony to Christ?

What has inspired me the most though, is everything this young man lost as a result of coming to faith in Christ.
He has told me how it all came to a point where he had to make a choice. As he was the rising star for the local Baha'i community, the leaders were naturally disappointed.
They told him that if he makes the decision to follow Christ, he can forget about his school sponsorship, he could forget about the security of having a university course paid for, and all of the privileges he used to get.
For those of in the west who can access these things, with more or less, some ease ... this is a massive thing for a young man living in poverty, who has always been told and believed that the key to a bright future is an education.
They also said all the support and friendship as a community that they would give him, would also stop.
In the end he walked away from it all to follow Christ. He chose to 'count it all as loss' as Paul said, to give his live to the creator.
He gave up his security for a future, for education, for privileges. He gave up unity in his family and friends, he gave up a community who took care of him but now shunned him.
He gave it all up because Christ was worth it to him.
And what continues to move me, is that through all the struggles he went through, he has so much genuine joy in Christ.
If you were to ever meet someone who is so passionate about Christ it is this young man.

He also tells me how he had been praying for someone to be under, someone who could teach him, and guide him in the study of the word ... as he was still new to the faith and there were a lot of things he did not yet understand.
That is why he seeked me out originally, and asked if I could be that person. So I have been dedicating myself to taking him under my wing ... whether that means praying and studying together, or helping out with his schooling if I can in anyway.
What is great about this young man is he never has asked for money. When he came to me, he said he is not coming to ask for any money (and still never has) but simply wants me to teach him. It has been great to be able to give him work at YSU to help him in being able to contribute towards his schooling.
He also now believes his calling is to learn as much as he can, and then go back and reach those people who he converted to Bahaism.

He is a very deep young man as well (perhaps the reason to why he was singled out as the rising star for youth leadership in the Baha'i faith) and can understand very deep theological concepts ... so naturally I love that as well!

He now struggles through life, and things do not always go smoothly now that he is following Christ (despite what some prosperity preachers will tell you) but he has a joy and a peace that he never had. And he will be the first one to tell you that it was 'worth it'.

His story is a message to all of us. Would you be willing to walk away from everything that gives you security and pleasure and happiness if Christ bid you to?
In the end what is the greatest treasure of your heart?

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. - Jesus Christ

Life, Death and Suffering.

As usual we have been very busy over the last few weeks.

At the moment we have lots of young people that we are always spending time with. Of course with the tailoring class and boys classes there are many youth here. But often on days off, we seem to have at least a few young people hanging around our house, whether practicing their tailoring skills or playing ludo.
A lot of the time it is a bit of a safe haven for them.

We are also developing the YSU block, and things are looking great. We have been leveling the whole compound and planting some trees and grass. Since there is lots of work to do, it is always great to give an opportunity to some of our boys to do some labor. With this money they can then go and pay some of their schools fees. So both parties are happy at the end of the day.

We are currently starting to build a slab for a big chicken coop on the YSU block. This is being prepared by some of the builders so that the July team can build on top of it as a project they will be involved in here.

We plan to use this chicken coop as a way to train up young men in poultry care, as well as use it to make a bit of an income for YSU and to be a bit more sustainable in paying our bills!

We have also had the team just leave, who were able to visit us and spend some time seeing some of YSU's work! We also have Ken and Nicole who are still here and have been helping us out with a number of programs! The other day they put on a very exciting game of bingo for the tailoring girls, who were so full of energy and laughter during it all.

Farouk and I also went for a bit of an adventure a few weeks back. We recently got some cheap tents, and so we loaded up our bikes and went for a camp at the top of this big hill. That night a huge thunderstorm came through, and we felt very exposed on the top of the mountain. Our tents didn't hold up too well, and a small lake formed in one half of my tent by about 4.30 am. I was praying that the lightning wouldn't hit me as well.
If you want to see our full adventure you can watch our little video we made here.

https://vimeo.com/128780069

We have also been running drug and alcohol information sessions here with young men and women. We particularly focused on Alcohol abuse last Wednesday. I am still taken aback by the dangerous lack of education you can find here. One of the young women said that she had always been told that drinking wairagi (incredibly strong home made bootleg liquor) while your pregnant will help develop your baby.
So I had to go through why it is incredibly dangerous to be drinking alcohol like this while pregnant.

I was reminded again about the dangers of drinking this local brew (which 70% of drinkers in Uganda drink) when I walked past a dead body (unknowingly) with Farouk yesterday.

Near the YSU block is a bit of a slum community. Our next door neighbor has an older son who had become a bit mentally ill from drinking so much. We had walked by him when he was passed out on the ground yesterday. This is a common thing you see, and the fact that many people were casually around him, not seeming to give him particular attention, led us to not think anything was wrong.

We found out yesterday night that he was actually dead from drinking too much alcohol. When they tried to wake him up to bring him back home, he had gone stiff.
Just another reminder about the seriousness of alcohol abuse in Uganda. Someone can be laying dead on the ground in the middle of the community, with people walking past them and not even knowing.

We have also had some tragic news the past week.

If you read my last blog post you would of been familiar about the story I told of one of our tailoring girls who had an extremely sick child. She was being kept by the man who impregnated her, in his village, and he was refusing to give the child medical care (even though we pleaded with her to come back to Wairaka so we could help) .. if you want the full backstory, just go back and read my previous blog.

Sadly, last week during one of our tailoring classes, someone from the community came to tell our girls that the baby to this young woman had died that morning.

The class was full of tears, as all the girls were friends with their fellow classmate. The baby had been a common little guest in our house, and so all the girls were very upset.

The fact that it was a needless death, and that medical care had been offered to the child, but the Muslim husband was refusing help from any 'modern hospital' or 'christian organisation' also was a stab to the heart to all the girls, who knew the baby could of survived.

We spent some time praying together as a group, and for the mother of this child. We then provided transport for the tailoring girls to be able to take a bus that was leaving Wairaka for the funeral, because Muslim families here bury their dead on the day they die. The bus was provided by the young woman's family who still live here in Wairaka.

Since the young woman's family has also been very harsh and abusive to the girl, we wanted to send our tailoring girls, with Beatrice and Agnes, to go as support for the young woman. We don't think she gets much loving support in her life.

So Agnes and our tailoring girls all went to the burial of the child.

Agnes later explained the story to me of what happened when they reached the village where the woman was staying.

It was quite a horrific situation. The young woman was sitting alone in a very small, dark hut, with the dead body of the child. The place she was forced to stay was in a horrible condition.

The young woman was also incredibly skinny and sick as well.

What had happened, was the young man and his family were keeping the young woman there as a sort of slave. She was forced to do hard labor and dig in their garden, while her child was dying. The man had also taken the young woman again as 'his wife' (as he called her) yet they had never married. The young man had only gotten the girl pregnant and then abandoned her, and now he thought he had a claim over this woman.

All of this was happening to her, while her child had been dying.

I can't imagine the trauma she must of gone through.

During the burial, the young woman's family, and all the people who came from Wairaka, had surrounded her, and were refusing the man and his family to come near her.

They were actually planning a rescue to get her out of the village, and they didn't want the mans family to know in case things got violent. 

Straight after the child was buried, the people from Wairaka asked this young woman if she wanted to get out of this village and escape this man. She instantly said yes and ran towards the bus.

All of the people from Wairaka got up to quickly leave the place and hop onto the bus, including Agnes and the tailoring girls.

This is when things got violent. The man was screaming at them to 'give him back his wife'. And many of the mans family where trying to get on the bus to grab the young woman and bring her back to them. Agnes later told me that it was likely they were upset that the person they were using for hard labor was now being taken away.

Agnes had called me at this point on my phone, all distressed and asking for prayers, as the situation was getting crazy. I could hear lots of screaming and yelling over the phone, so I was praying for her that she would be kept safe.

In Uganda, mob justice rules, and things get out of control very easily. I have often heard of beatings that have lead to death, people being set on fire and more, simply because a mob of people got angry.

Amazingly, Agnes told me later that it was the big old Mammas from Wairaka who were putting themselves in between this young woman, and the angry man and his family.

A protective African Mamma is not someone you want to mess around with, and from what Agnes told me, it sounds like some of them got a few jabs in on the mans face.

Thankfully all the people from Wairaka managed to get on the bus and they escaped, while the man and his family threw rocks at the bus as it sped away.

Agnes said the whole time this was going on, the young woman was just crouched on the bus with her head in her hands crying.
Again, I can't imagine the trauma this girl has gone through.

So she managed to escape the bondage she was in at this mans village, and she is now back in Wairaka. But not without the loss of her one year old baby girl. May the little girls soul rest in peace.

This young woman has actually spent most of this week here at our house. Again, the situation here in Wairaka, where she lives with her family, is not the best either. We have heard it is quite abusive towards her. And to be honest, I feel like our tailoring girls and YSU are the only friends she has at the moment.

We are in private talks with her at the moment, the possibility of her staying with us may also come up. As she has asked us in the past if she could please stay with us, and the fact that the family she is staying with don't want her, we may make room for her here with us.

We certainly want to show the love of God to her during this tough time.

We also would love to create a stable environment for to be able to spend time at.
It was only yesterday that I saw her smile for the first time, and I am very proud of our tailoring girls who have taken her under their wing, just to show her love and friendship.

Every Tuesday, we have been running small devotion classes for our girls. These have been voluntary, and we don't make it compulsory for the class to have to attend. This is purely because our class has some Muslims in it, and I don't like the idea of them being pressured to do something that may be conflicting to their religion. I firmly believe in this being something that is done out of their free will.

This lesson I had prepared something small on the topic of suffering, since it had been a hard week for them all.

The young woman whose child died, has never attended one of these classes, since the father to her child was a Muslim, and she had also been influenced by the Islamic faith. She has often been quite scared to be involved in anything Christian, because of the influence of this man over her.

So I was shocked to see her attend the bible study class this last Tuesday. And not only attend, but be one of the first ones in the class, sitting and waiting for it to begin, and singing along to some of the worship songs.

It was actually her and the other Muslim girl who were the first in the class waiting to here what the bible had to say.

You can imagine the pressure I all of a sudden felt. I was not prepared for this, and my heart started beating fast, as I thought I was going to talk about suffering from a biblical perspective, to a group of already Christian young women.

I am a firm believer in not needing to give 'all the answers' during someones suffering. I often think the best form of counseling during someones suffering, is to be silent, to serve them and love them, and just offer support.

All of these things we have been offering to this young woman this week. We haven't felt like we need to rush into counseling, and the young woman knows that she can talk with Agnes anytime she wants (she has actually organized a time today to speak with Agnes).
But here she was, in our bible study class, on her own free will, wanting to hear what we had to say.

I started going over my material, getting worried if I had things in there that were too heavy. In the end I gave it back over to God. I believe He is sovereign. I believe he had planned the message I was going to give, and he had planned the young woman to come there, for the first time, on this particular day.

So I gave the message I had prepared.

I had never planned to go into abstract philosophical reasons for suffering, nor had I planned to go into deep theological concepts.

I simply had planned to point out that no other God in any other religion, stepped into and entered our suffering like Jesus. 

That only Christ, with all His Power and Glory, became a weak man, who was beaten and mocked and shamed and betrayed and crucified for us.

That we may struggle deeply when we suffer, but that we have a God who cares deeply. So deeply that He was willing to enter right into the middle of our sufferings with us.

I pray that this young woman will be able to feel the love and light of God. And I pray that we at YSU will able to be Christ's hands and feet in the situation. Serving her, loving her and being a friend.

I am so proud of Agnes and the tailoring girls, and how they have rallied around to support this young woman

We will continue to pray for her, and I ask that you also do the same, as now more then ever, she is open to the Gospel because of the deep pain that has shaken her world.

I will leave you with the words of John Stott, talking about the uniqueness of a God who suffers with us and for us.
These words run deep, and I believe reflect a truth we can hold onto when suffering.

"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross.'
In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.
But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness.
That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.
Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.
"The cross of Christ ... is God's only self justification in such a world" as ours ... 'The other gods were strong; but thou was weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone."