Sweet Home men's event

When I posted the pictures I didn't have time to write any of it up.  After I uploaded them we were out until late creating a connection between Common Ground church and Bridges/Sweet Home.  That went very well and I think it was a good seed that was planted and an agreement to keep pursing some local outreach for their church.

What I really wanted to write was about our first day in Sweet Home.  It had rained all night and was partly cloudy, clear and very cool in the morning.  It reminded me exactly of the night and morning weather for our first ever visit to Sweet Home back in 2007. One of the top needs in the community that our leaders in Sweet Home have expressed (there is a list of 10) was to have more outreach to men.  The leaders have said that the men see the CHE program as a woman's thing.  So they setup a men's event. That and they wanted us to speak on Leading as a team was all we knew going into it.

When we arrived there were at least 40 men milling about in front of the only brick building in Sweet Home.  This is the newer one that we have never been allowed to use on any of my trips.  It is controlled by the local mayor and he want's us to pay for it so we use other facilities.  Amazing that it was open to us.  We went in the building and spoke briefly about our team then Darin McWatters shared a 15 minute message from the bible.  Then Andre Schey shared another 15 minutes.  As Andrew was finishing I really felt compelled to ask them what they wanted. I mentioned to Steve Carter who was going to share next that we might be bringing water to someone who was hungry if we didn't at least ask. He agreed to encouraged me to share next.

I told our story of being volunteers who help bring teams to the community.  That we have brought 8 teams over the past 5 years.  That this was my 4th time in Sweet Home.  That we wanted to see great transformation in the lives of the residents of Sweet Home.  I said that we couldn't do it without them and asked them to tell me how we could help with our teams in the future.  I was speaking all this through our translator Thobella.

One man tentatively raised his hand.  He said that all these men were here mid-day in the middle of the week because there are no jobs.  How could we help with jobs.  I responded that we wanted to help them with training and with creating businesses if that was possible.  That we had already helped the Creche (pre-school) and Sewing business.  That the sewing business was still small, but still a work in progress we were still wanting to help succeed.  That these business were all started by women and why we called this event was that we wanted to also see men getting trained and starting businesses.  We do this through this program called CHE.  I asked Thobella to explain to them how CHE worked in the community.  I thanked them and said we would be sending more teams and looked forward to continuing the process of helping them transform the community of Sweet Home.

Then I think Pete Shambrook shared and during that time Tim Taber asked if he could share about running a small business.  It was powerful to hear and everyone listened intently.  Then Chad Halliburton shared the final message.  It was what a life walking as Jesus Looked like. He asked them if anyone in the room wanted to make a first time declaration to walk with Jesus as we had been talking about all morning.  If you would like that, please raise your hand.  Thirty men raised their hands.  I think we were all in disbelief.  So he repeated the question about this being a lifetime commitment from this day forward and if you were sure to stand up.  The whole room stood up.  He lead them through a prayer which they repeated back through Thobella as he interpreted.  What solidified that this was a true understanding was when a number of men came forward and asked Thobella what this meant for their ancestral worship.  They really did understand that this was a big deal and I'm still just trying to wrap my head around how big this really was. Huge doesn't even begin to describe the event that happened in Sweet Home yesterday.  Over 20 men signed up for CHE training and gave their cell phone numbers to Thobella.  If our CHE leaders wanted more involvement with men in the community I think we are off to a good start.

We walked a long way through Sweet Home for a home visit with McCloud and his family.  In their home were two framed pictures of our first OVC camp back in January 2011. It had a picture of the team that I actually took. We took two pictures, one with Jared in it and one with me in it. This one had Jared.  I asked who went to camp and they said he wasn't there.  They have 10 children and only about 4 were in the house during the visit.

If you look the team picture from yesterday you will see who was hanging out with me. Edward. We also saw Sosa who is getting so big.

The rain is brutal in Sweet Home. I had never noticed that there was a sewer. I didn't think there was anything like proper plumbing in Sweet Home, but this time we all noticed the sewer manhole cover that had water flowing up out of it and into the street.  While I can now see that there is proper plumbing I now know that it doesn't work very well.  I'm looking forward to the day when the rain is just a regular day in Sweet Home. Based on what we saw, that day is definitely coming.

One of the other top needs is to create partnerships with local church. Todd has been instrumental in getting us connected with Common Ground Church here in Cape Town. There was a big meeting here and we also met with Chris Veenan who is visiting here from Brea and has a strong connection to RockHarbor and the churches here.  We met with the leadership of Common Ground last night and it looked like we planted some great seeds for a future partnership.

It rained all night and is windy and raining now.  The team is recording a video message for this weekend's service.  If you go to church this weekend the message will be of us sharing from our trip. Pray for the weather to lighten up at least a little.

Pictures from the men's event in Sweet Home

The Sweet Home men's event was amazing. There were at least 50 men waiting for us. It was incredible.

 

My new social networking coach Darin McWatters speaking at the men's event.

 

Team photo after the event. We were actually able to use the
only community building. Not sure what the Arabic graffiti says?

 The next few photos are our walk on two home visits.

Arrived in South Africa

We arrived in South Africa this afternoon after leaving Kampala at 7am.  Matt, Kristy, Dennis, Chris and Maxie Kamalskie all picked us up.  It was so good to see everyone and catch up. We stowed our stuff at the retreat center and went and met the kids during their study time.  The sang two incredible songs lead by Azile and everyone was in awe. The grounds here are incredible and it felt like a huge burden being lifted for all the team members who have been going non-stop for a week now.  We had dinner in town and got to bed early.  We are starting devotions with the kids at 7:45 in the morning and headed into Sweet Home at 9.

Tomorrow is the men's event and we have the material from the Pastor's conference last Saturday, but don't really know the format yet. Everyone is pretty excited to visit Sweet Home tomorrow.  It rained all day today. It's cold and cloudy right now and says cloudy and sunny tomorrow with rain again on Thursday.  Pray for good weather and less rain.  Pray for safety for our team tomorrow in Sweet Home.  Pray for good rest, everyone is exhausted, but this place has been very restful in just one evening.

Jobs projects and Kampala

The Internet stopped working at the hotel in Gulu two days ago and it still isn't fast enough in Kampala for me to make a blog entry. We spent the day making our way back to Kampala.  We first went back to Kroche Kids and Sean let us pick some hats to buy. Pray for him as he makes a decision to move back to the states or renew his contract. The women were just arriving for the morning work.  We were told there was a big worship at 10am, but we headed out at 930. We at least got to great a bunch of the ladies as they arrived for work.

Then we went to 31 bits and saw the operation there.  There were at least 50 women we met there making beads and necklaces.  They were super nice and I was artistically inspired by beads on of the ladies was making and spent some time talking with her.

Then we walked about a quarter mile to Remnant, another jobs outreach, this one to Congolese women. It is a screen printing operation. We spent some time watching them do some Remnant screen printing. They also do screen printing for local businesses.  They cleaned up and we walked to a hut that was just outside the house.  The women sang us a praise song using a home depot and a stick for a drum. It even had a handle on it that made a nice symbol sound every time they struck it.  New uses for a home depot bucket that sounds better than an $500 drum kit. It was an amazing song. Typically African worship that we just don't see at home (depot). Then they began to tell their stories. It was traumatic just listening to them tell about being brought back to Uganda by husbands who abandoned them in a place that they couldn't even return to their home and were basically forced into prostitution. Most have children here and in the Congo and haven't seen their children in the Congo for 10 years. They are all believers and still struggling as Remnant is still in it's infancy. We prayed over them and it was a tough tough thing to listen to how much suffering some people have to endure. Please pray for these Congolese women, buy something from Remnant and tell a friend all of which will help them create a sustainable income.

We then started the 6 hour drive back to Kampala where we had dinner with Pastor Peter the leader of Africa Renewal Ministry.  This is the organization that with RockHarbor planted Gulu Bible Community Church.  We arrived at our Hotel at 11 and were back on the bus at 5am to make our flight to South Africa.

Church Day

We had three church services today.  After the first service a small girl was brought to Pete who had been having convulsions.  He asked me to help pray for her.  Almost immediately into the prayer she went into a convulsion/seizure and we were just keeping her from hurting herself. Just spinning in our arms like a writhing snake.  She slowed after about 5 minutes and seemed to be sleeping. We continued to pray.  After a few more minutes she started to convulse again and we carefully carried her into one of the rooms trying not to drop her as she squirmed.  We sat on the floor and we laid her on Pete's lap where she finally fell asleep again. We continued to pray for her when Pete started to sing a worship song. I can't even remember the song, but i knew the words and sang too.  We had just gotten started singing when she finally work up and was asking what happened.  She was disoriented and we told her what happened and she got up and continued. We finally found her step father in church and talked with him for a time.  He said it has only happened to her a few times.  We kept asking if there were parents while the episode was going on, but no one could find them.  Pray for Sandy as Pete found her later in the day having another episode and he said she was another person.

The Sunday church services were good.  The first was in English and not too crowded.  The second was in Acholi and packed. I tried to upload a video of the worship music, but bandwidth has been too low here and in fact as I write this we have lost our Internet connection. The kids did a play at the beginning of service on David and Goliath. Something I will always remember.

We visited a prison here and I and another person on our team were asked to share testimony.  I only learned this as we sat in a room with over 100 inmates and I was nervous.  What could I possibly share with these men that they could relate to?  I was just hoping that the other person would share.  Then the Acholi sermon started. They were translating in English.  As soon as they mentioned the verse I knew I would be sharing.  Exodus 15 which is about Moses and the Israelites being in the wilderness. It was somewhat comforting, but still I was nervous.  As I started and slowly told my very abbreviated testimony through a translator it seemed to all come together.  They clapped at points and I felt like there was at least some small way that they related to the story.  Andrew Schey got up after me and did a powerful sermon from Philippians.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 3:7-14.

It was an amazing point in the trip.

Today we are headed slowly back to Kampala where we will stay the night and head for South Africa early tomorrow morning.

Pastors Conference

We spent all day leading a pastor's conference at Gulu Bible Community Bible Church. In some way I felt like God brought me all the way to Uganda to attend a pastor's conference. I learned a ton and had a lot of good reminders about Humility in leadership, Marriage and Family, Spiritual Leadership and church governance. Even the worship time was a ton of fun and I took what I hope turned out to be a really great video of Pete Shambrook leading worship. Everyone was throughly involved and having a great time.

I was sitting next to an 18 year old boy from a nearby village for most of the morning.  A small boy around 2 was milling around and came up to me and I let him draw in my little note book. He was loving to scribble on many pages.  The 18 year old next to me asked for the note book at one point and I thought he was going to draw a picture for the boy which is what I was doing once in a while.  He ended up writing a letter started out reading like a thank you letter to ROCKHarbor for all the support and ended up asking for prayer for school fees. It mentioned that he wanted to take his exit exam so he could move onto the next grade and continue his schooling. It started a conversation and I learned that his father had died two years ago of HIV/AIDS and he was trying to take care of his 13 year old brother, but there just wasn't any money and all he wanted was to go to school. I put my arm around him while he was talking about losing his father.  I've heard this same story many times on these trips, but it still hasn't lost it's potency with me.  I asked him if he had mentioned this to his Pastor (Pastor Richards) and he said no.  I said that he should, but I also prayed for him and we talked alot about his options, but it didn't sound like there was much hope.  I spoke with Pastor Richard afterwards just to make surehe knew what was going on and it looks like his school fees will be covered.

At the end of the conference all the ROCKHarbor pastors were asked to pray for anyone that wanted prayer.  We all move to the from of the church and a mass of people gathered.  It was one of my highlights of the day praying over everyone.  Prayer requests were for church growth, personal and church finance, church partnerships, a couple of people wanted prayer for sickness and a prayer for a job.  It took a really long time for us to get through everyone, but eventually the ranks thined and everyone was prayed for. Over all I learned a ton and felt like the pastors appreciated the learning.

I got to talk with Hibu (Pastor Steven) who was riding his bicycle for a year to Guru Guru which was a really long ride in the bus yesterday.  When RH Mission Viejo did fundraising last year for an administrative position, the first fruits went to pay for some pastors and then had some extra that went to buy him a motor cycle. He was doing amazing things and the fact that he wasn't spending 8 hours a week on a bicycle any longer was a huge blessing to his family and the people of Guru Guru.  I got this picture of him on his motorcycle which after a year has 25,000km which is just a little less than what he would have had to ride on his bicycle.  What a heart!

Tomorrow we have church all morning where Darin and Todd are speaking (prayer please) then we will be visiting a prison in the afternoon.

Youth Conference

We just finished an amazing youth conference and Gulu Bible Community Church.  Everyone dancing and singing as it started.   Steve, Darin and Andrew Schey spoke and Todd and Pete led some worship during the teaching.  We ended with the church choir and Andrew Richards was on the drums.  Got a great video of him playing drums.

First day in Uganda

Got into Gulu last night and arrived to the biggest welcome you could imagine.  Seemed like the whole town had gathered at the Gulu Bible Community Church to welcome us and feed us dinner.

 We just finished a half day of ministry.  We drove to Guru Guru and did a medical clinic. I got to do some wound cleaning on a couple kids.  Then the whole crew got to climb the mountain over looking the village.  We are back in Gulu now and getting ready to leave for the youth conference this evening.  All is well.