Hope in the World

July 2, 2014

Wednesday was a Kitende day. We got up and ready and planned our PE for the day. We asked Teacher Amanda if we could please keep the P1 and P2 classes separate to give us a chance to be able to accomplish some of the activities that we had planned. When you have 100 +/- students in a class, it is hard enough to give instructions on a field when they are ready to run and play. It is just impossible if the two classes are together. They agreed. Essentially, I had a few ideas, but just went with whatever came to mind. We did running relays, the Hokey-Pokey, Red Light Green Light, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. Of course, when one of the students comes to you and says, “Teacher! Wheelbarrows, wheelbarrows!” we have an impromptu Wheelbarrow Race. Not one minute later, the same student that had asked me to do the wheelbarrows, was laying on the ground. When I asked him why, his response was, “My wheelbarrow was too heavy!” Benange. We survived PE, and the kids were worn out. Mission accomplished.

Right after teaching PE in a skirt outside in the hot Africa sun and working up a good sweat, we “take tea” with the teachers. Teacher Gorret asked us, “Do you have trousers?” She could obviously tell how miserable we were wearing skirts running around. We responded telling her that she did not wear trousers. She laughed and told us, “I am too big to fit in trousers!” (She is at least pregnant.) We promised her to wear more appropriate PE clothes next week. As we were sitting there talking, she then asked, “How can I get an offer for my children to enjoy the benefits of Sozo?” I told her that it is much better for her children to stay with their mother who loves them. She said, “All Africans need help… the school fees, clothes, food… it is expensive. Even the wealthy ones need help.” We reassured her that she is doing a good job providing for her children, she has a good job, and she is the one that God has picked to raise her children.

Earlier in the day when we first arrived, Teacher Gorret informed us that Teacher William (a teacher from Kitende that has been in the hospital) had passed away during the night. All of the teachers were in a very somber mood, and they even told us that they were having a hard time being at school and teaching during the day. Teacher William had been in the hospital for a while. The story that we were told was that he was playing futbol and got kicked really hard in the side of his stomach. He ended up needing surgery and then got some kind of infection/complication from the surgery. He had fluid on his stomach, and the doctors could not figure out how to diagnose/treat him. During our time there, they called a teacher meeting to discuss the situation.

Although it was a very solemn time, this time in the classroom was quite humorous. The teachers of each class (including the baby class – equivalent to 3 year old preschool) left one student in charge to take names of those students who were misbehaving. This would never happen in the states, but it seems reasonable for a quick meeting. Rebecca and I were both in P1, so I feel like our presence helped with the class behavior for a little while. Then after about 20 minutes, we both realized the natives were getting restless. Being teachers, we decided to step in and try some tricks to buy time. We reviewed the lesson that was still on the board… teacher meeting was still going on. We attempted to teach “quiet mouse” to no avail. We tried a game of “teacher says” that worked for all of two minutes. Rebecca reviewed an activity to making a silent “wild rumpus” from the lesson she had taught with the book Where the Wild Things Are. Students started coming up and saying, “I want to go for a short call.” In muzungu, that means, “I need to go to the bathroom.” Let’s just say, I’m glad none of them asked to go for a “long call” or I might have lost it. All of this time, we were fighting 87 P1 students who were laughing at the muzungus who were trying to have some classroom management, and clearly had no idea what to do. When we asked one of the students how to make them quiet, the response, “Get the stick and beat.” I’m not going to lie, we carried the stick around the classroom for a bit, but we could not even do that without laughing. All in all, we had many interesting experiences in the classroom today that I never thought would happen. So, an HOUR after the teachers left the classroom, Teacher Gorret came back to the classroom to relieve us.

With all of these conversations today, my heart was hurting for the pain and burdens that people are trying to carry around. It reminds me of when Jesus told his disciples, “…In this world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Christ has promised that the Father is with us, and He will carry our burdens. Yes, it is hard to provide for our families, it is hard to continue with the mundane tasks of our job when we have lost a coworker… Life is hard! Although I cannot begin to put myself in others’ shoes to understand the pain of the burdens that they are carrying, but Jesus Christ can. He has walked through life on earth and felt these pains. And He promises to carry these burdens for us. “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7).

My prayer is that in our time at Kitende, Rebecca and I can show others the hope they can have in Christ. Yes, we are teachers, we love to teach, we want to learn about Ugandan education, we want to love on some children, but most importantly, Rebecca and I are at Kitende to share the love and hope of Christ. He has called us to serve alongside Him this summer, and to share His great name among the nations.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

Whispering His Name

Today we headed out to Ngongolo Village to work with Margaret in her school. When we arrived, we were able to meet Margaret’s three children: Enos is 6, Frank is 10, and Grace is 13. Enos and Frank stayed with us at her school today, which was such a blessing to me to see Margaret interact with her own children.

Rebecca and I planned to use our time at the school today to read the story of Noah from The Jesus Storybook Bible [if you are not familiar with this resource, I highly recommend it for children of all ages], sing a song about Noah, and “shade” some pictures to use in retelling the story. Rebecca drew the pictures (very talented) and narrated them so that we could leave them with Margaret to hang in the schoolhouse.

One of the biggest challenges that we face at Margaret’s school is that her students know very little English, so we sometimes have a hard time communicating. Thankfully Margaret was willing to translate as Rebecca read aloud to make sure that they students understood the entire story.

The students were mesmerized. In all of my times in this classroom, I’ve never seen the students so attentive. They love reading books. They love shading pictures. They love singing silly songs. Sometimes it is the little things that get to you. As Frank finished shading his picture, he immediately grabbed The Jesus Storybook Bible and started studying the pictures. Then he started reading it aloud. It took my breath away.

How many times have I seen students sit in a library full of thousands of books and say that they do not like any of them? How many times have I asked students to color a picture and they rush through to get the job done, complaining the whole time? How many times have I seen children who do not want to go to church on Sunday and hear the “same old Bible stories”? How many times have I taken for granted that I can pick up a Bible and read the stories of how Jesus saves and redeems His people time and time again?

Margaret, her children, her students, the Sozo kids… They long to learn about God, the Creator of the Universe. The God that they know is faithful, loving, and sovereign… despite their circumstances. They are grateful for their mud hut of a schoolhouse, with dirty benches and a piece of a broken chalkboard. They strive to do their absolute best at whatever the task is before them. They stay at school for thirty extra minutes because the muzungu teachers are there, and they just want to spend time loving on us! J

Thank you, Jesus, for the reminder today of what it is like to look at You with wonder and amazement at what You have done for us. Thank you for letting me see Frank joyfully read Bible stories of the great and mighty things you have done for Your people, with every story whispering Your great name!

"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." Habakkuk 1:5

June Updates

Once again, it has been way too long since I’ve blogged about life in Uganda. As you can imagine, we’ve been pretty busy. Our schedule, just to give you an idea of what a “normal” week looks like for Rebecca and me, is pretty packed.

• Sunday – Church, out to lunch, House 2 tutoring
• Monday – our “off” day
• Tuesday – Ngongolo Village to work with Margaret in her school, House 1 homework
• Wednesday – Kitende Modern Primary School to teach P1 and P2 (we plan for PE and Counseling classes, but are starting to help with other subjects as well), House 2 homework
• Thursday – 4:30 wake up with the kids at House 2, day at House 1 helping with projects around the house and homework
• Friday – Kitende to teach clubs (art/music/drama)
• Saturday – House 1 tutoring, field day at Kitende with all of the Sozo kids, House 3 tutoring

One thing that the Lord continues to remind me is how I must be flexible, because even though we have a schedule to follow, there is never a week that everything goes exactly as planned. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

Village School: The first time that I saw Margaret this summer, Rebecca was actually not with us in the village. She went on safari early in the summer with a friend of hers that came on a team. I was able to meet with her and tell her that we are looking forward to spending Tuesdays with her in her school. One thing that I wanted to make clear is that we don’t want to come in and just “take over” but we want to partner alongside her with the things she already has planned to do with her class.

A little background on Margaret’s school… She does not necessarily have a background with training in education but she saw a need for a school in the village and started one. Last summer she had over 40 students that were preschool-kindergarten age in a small mud hut of a classroom. When it came time to start the new school year back in February, some people from outside the village came through advertising a new school with “quality” education. Unfortunately, most of Margaret’s students from last year started attending the new one. She had a few parents ask her to continue to teach, so she is teaching with 5 students right now. Financially this has been difficult, and does not have the money to pay school fees for her own children right now. It is also very discouraging because the new school is literally across the dirt road from hers, which is a constant reminder of what has been taken from her.

When we work with Margaret, we are only there for a little over an hour with the students and then they go home for lunch, which leaves us with a couple of hours to just build a relationship with her. I’ve enjoyed this time so much, and we’ve had the time to give her encouragement in this time of her life that she is very disheartened by her situation. I’ve loved being able to share scripture and pray with her. The thing that God continues to place on my heart to share with her is that we do not always understand God’s plan and the way that things happen in this world, but “He who calls you is faithful” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). Even when times are hard, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

Our second week in the village, Margaret asked us if we could get her a Bible. Last week, we had the privilege of taking a Luganda Bible to her, and I wish I could have bottled up the joy that was overflowing from her heart. Margaret said, “Now I have power,” as she held her own Bible for the first time. She immediately turned to Psalm 23 and read it to us in Luganda. Every time she could sneak away, we found her sitting in the corner reading from her new Bible. She asked us to help her mark the scriptures we’ve been sharing with her. Seeing Margaret with this Bible reminded me of how God calls us to treasure His Word. How often I take for granted having the opportunity to open my Bible and read for myself God’s Word. In fact, I have countless Bibles in my home, different versions and formats. Yet, I do not get giddy at the thought of being able to sit down and read them. God, I pray that You will give me the passion that Margaret has for studying Your Word!

Please continue to pray for Margaret and our time with her. Pray that she will be encouraged and trust that God has a sovereign plan for her life, and He will be faithful to her as she pursues her God-sized dream of a village school.

Kitende Modern Primary School: This is the school that our Sozo kids attend who are in primary school (Baby Class through P7). We are at this school two days a week. Rebecca and I were both discouraged at the beginning because we had been given the opportunity to teach PE, Counseling, and Clubs (art/music/drama). These happen to be the ONLY subjects that neither of us teach back home. Ha!! God has such a funny sense of humor.

However, with the schedule, we are able to be at Kitende and sit in on P1 and P2 subjects like math, English, and Luganda. We also happen to be there during the mid-morning break on Wednesday and have the opportunity to “take tea” with the teachers. Picture a break in the teacher’s lounge at school (although that doesn’t happen very often…) with hot tea as sweet as Milo’s and chapatti (fried flatbread that is a cross between a tortilla/pita). We enjoy this time to talk with the teachers about differences in education and cultures. A few fun conversations...

• Comparing the differences between teaching a class of 100 vs. a class of 15.
• Rebecca being given a stick to carry around as she was teaching, after the class was told, “White ones beat harder than black ones.” And the conversation that followed about how you just need to have a stick to intimidate them.
• In Uganda, if you were 27 and single with no children, it would be considered bad. They told us that we can’t be too picky, we can’t all marry a wealthy man. We told them as long as a guy loves Jesus and loves us, we would be satisfied. They said, “We will find you a black one.” And the next time we showed up, one of the single male teachers started a conversation about wanting us to take him to the states to teach with us. Banange! (Luganda for “oh my goodness”)
• A conversation about needing to “reduce” (aka lose weight), and to do that you have to eat only vegetables and drink a lot of water… All while stuffing our faces with chapatti, fried samosas, and on a sugar-high from the tea.
• Being asked about our “Uganda teacher clothes” that we always wear (long skirts and t-shirt). When they discovered that was not our uniform, they asked why we always wore the same kind of clothes…

As we have continued to be at Kitende, the teachers have opened up more and more. Please pray for our relationships with Teachers Gorret, Amanda, Godfred, and Agnes. Pray that we have opportunities to encourage them, learn from them about education in Uganda, and conversations to share our faith with them.

Sozo Homes: The time that we spend in our Sozo houses has to be my favorite. The kids are learning our schedule and when we will be at their house to “do learning” as they say. I love that we are able to be with these kids at their highs and their lows, and show a picture of God’s unending love. Let’s be honest… Sometimes it is hard to love them when they continue to snatch your water bottle, refuse to do homework, or tickle you so hard it hurts. But, God always gives you a reminder of how He has called us to love, even in the hard times. Sometimes it is through an unexpected kiss on the cheek; a child taking you by the hand saying, “Come we go,” and leading you to share their treasured mud pie; or asking you to pray over them before bed.

Please be praying that although we are busy during the day at the schools, that we still have the energy and patience to spend quality time with our Sozo kids. Pray that I never overlook those moments to love and adore these children, and I use every opportunity to reflect the love our Heavenly Father has for us (1 John 3:1). Pray that we can be intentional with the aunties and uncles who work tirelessly to care for the kids and the muzungus (white people) in the homes.

A friend from my small group at Brook Hills, Rachel, came on the team this past week. I was able to switch my off day to travel to Jinja with her team, which ended up giving me a lot of time serving alongside her. I loved getting to see her experience Uganda for the first time, and watching her fall in love with the Sozo kids who have stolen my heart. It was the perfect time in the summer to have a little piece of home come to this side of the world. It was hard putting her on the plane last night, knowing that I will not be able to be back with her for another month. I can’t wait to get back to my small group girls and enjoy their fellowship every week!

Thank you all so much for the encouraging emails and texts that you continue to send. Often times is exactly what I need to refocus on why God has called me to Uganda this summer. Some days it seems like I have been here forever, and some days I feel like I just arrived. I can’t believe that I only have four weeks until I hit the ground in the U.S. Please pray that God will make the most of the time that I have left to serve Him here this summer. Continue to pray for good health and rest (so far, so good!), intentional time building relationships, and boldness to declare the Gospel to the nations!

“My life is in Your hands, my times are in Your hands,

Though nations shake and thunders roll,

I will trust in You completely.

I yearn for more of You, Your grace alive in me,

My life is nailed to hands that bled

In this love my soul is free.”

– Kari Jobe, “Yours Forever”

Drama Club

June 13, 2014

**Sorry this post is almost a week late!! I have a few more updates from the week that I will be posting soon.**

There are not words to describe our day. All day I felt like God was whispering in my ear, “Remember, I am in control.” It is days like today that make you realize that even the best made plans cannot compare to what God has in store.

Today was “supposed” to be the calm before the storm. The weekends are extremely busy for Rebecca and me because it is our time to work with the Sozo kids individually and in small groups to do some extra education activities to fill in the gaps. Fridays are pretty slow. Today we planned to do chores at the house, have our quiet time, do some education planning for the weekend ahead, run into town to get groceries, come back to House 4 to fix lunch, take the van to school, teach “Clubs,” and have a slow afternoon helping with homework after school at House 1.

“Clubs” is a time that P1 and P2 (1^st and 2^nd grade students) get to have art, music, drama, or scouting (learning “survival” skills for outdoors). When we were asked to help teach clubs, we agreed with the understanding that we could just choose one of them and teach from 2:00-3:00. We chose drama thinking we could do some interactive read-alouds with skits.

The hour before clubs is lunch. We were a little scattered because we had been running errands in town, and wanted time to collect our thoughts. The teachers were all eating together, so we went and sat with them. They were all joking around in Luganda, so Rebecca and I were sitting around not quite sure what was going on. When we asked logistics about clubs like where we were going to meet, the teachers said they were trying to work it out. That should have been clue #1.

As the lunch break ended with the bell, all of the P1 students returned to class and sat in their desks. Teacher Gorret suddenly disappeared from the room, and we were there with 87 kids and not sure what was going on. Rebecca got up and led the students through the alphabet in sign language. She was still not back. So, we pulled a book to read aloud. About two pages in, Gorret returned and moved the kids out to the veranda… all of them. And there were students piling out of other classrooms as well. We thought that they were going to give general instructions about where to go for the different clubs and then we would get started.

We were wrong. The teachers decided that since there were “muzungus” here to teach drama, that all of the students should be there. So imagine 250+ students sitting outside, speaking Luganda, with us trying to do a read-aloud of “Five Little Monkeys.” Utter chaos. I’m convinced that some of these children had never seen a picture book before. There were many times that if I would have moved an inch in any direction, I would have stepped on a child. Banange!

This picture is at the very beginning of the book, before the kids surrounded me, and more classes kept coming to join us...

That wasn’t even the worst of it. Rebecca and I had planned to split them in to groups to act it out. This turned in to her with a group of 100+ and me with a group of 100+ yelling over the children talking, while maybe 5 of them actually acted out the book. I looked at my watch and we still had 20 minutes to kill. We ended up pulling out every children’s book we had taken with us, trying to read it as loud as our voices could, with the teachers sitting around watching the chaos. When Rebecca asked them how they normally did clubs and managed so many children, their response was, “We have not.”

So, we were the guinea pigs. It was the first week of ever doing clubs with the younger grades, and they just gave them all to us. They told us at the end, “That was too many to manage.” At least we were not the only ones that thought that… Next week, they will at least be split into P1 and P2, so the groups will be half that size. That also means that Rebecca and I will be split and not be able to play off of each other.

Let’s just say that the rest of the day, we were exhausted. What we thought was going to be a “slow” day, ended up to be the most exhausting day of our week. We thought we had a plan… a plan for our day, a plan for teaching drama club, a plan to relax and get ahead on some education activities. God always has bigger and better plans than we can ever imagine. I know that God has big things in store for me this summer. He is going to teach me so much that I cannot even begin to fathom. In the midst of what seems like complete chaos, God is weaving together threads to accomplish His divine plan.

My prayer is that I will not forget that. I pray that I will lean on His strength when I have none. I want God to do amazing things through me this summer, but I want Him to do them in a way that only He can receive the glory for it!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10