Christmas Eve or ‘Lords Leaping’

 

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world, in sin and error pining,

Till He appeared and the soul felt it's worth.

 

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn.

 

Fall on your knees, o hear the angels voices,

O night divine, o night when Christ was born.

O night divine, o night, o night divine.

 

Truly He taught us to love one another,

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Chains He shall break for the slave is our brother,

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

 

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

With all our hearts we praise His holy name.

 

Christ is the Lord, and we shall ever praise Him

His power and glory, evermore proclaim.

O night divine, o night, o night divine.

Have a blessed Christmas

bron

Ladies Dancing

I'm very excited. Due to a fairly last minute decision Suz and I are travelling to the village for Christmas! We'll spend three nights in Kyotera with Pastor Willy's family. I think there are around fourteen of us travelling in two vehicles tomorrow morning. It should be fun, there will be tents, many people and I've heard rumors of goat roasting.

Due to this unexpected turn of events I'm not sure if I'll be able to continue my twelve days as planned. I'm not sure if I'll have electricity (actually I'm fairly certain I won't) and I'm also not sure able signal strength for the internet. So we'll see.

At least for right now I'm going to put out two posts because it seems I missed my midnight cut-off for this one.

So, in case you don't hear from me before the 26th, Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 The Bible

Be blessed

bron

It’s now a little late to order Christmas gift cards but you should still check out the Australia HOPE International website. Giving someone hope shouldn’t be limited to Christmas.

Maids Milking

There are lots of things I associate with Christmas that really have no connection. Like shortbread biscuits in a tin. Today in the supermarket Suz and I found some and I couldn't resist getting some. Which went down a treat with a cup of tea after dinner as I reread the Christmas letter that my Grandma sent that I received today.

From the post mark it was posted in early November and has made it just in time. It was filled with news from home and finished with this verse.

Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 The Bible

Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, born so that we could have life to the fullest. God made flesh, heaven sent to us, angels singing, shepherds bowing. And I too come and give my life to this Christ Child, this Saviour King.

Blessings

bron

Swans Swimming

I went to a missionary community Christmas party tonight that's a tradition here in Mbarara. While I didn't miss the absence of most Christmas traditions last year when I celebrated Christmas in Uganda, it was nice this year to enjoy a night of sharing food, singing carols and playing games.

So I've come home tired, very full and very happy.

Blessings

bron

Joy to the world the Lord is come

Let earth receive her king

Let every heart

Prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and nature sing

 

Joy to the world the Saviour reigns

Let men their songs employ

While fields and floods

Rocks hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

 

He rules the world with truth and grace

And makes the nations prove

The glories of

His righteousness

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love

Geese Laying

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel

All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us'). Isaiah 7:14 The Bible.

Matthew 1:18-25. The Bible.

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Australia HOPE International Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas.

Gold Rings

I'm just a little happy at the moment because my lovely friend Suz has come back from DRC to hang with me for a couple of weeks before heading back home to Australia. Which means that I have my first house guest and she will be spending Christmas and New Year's with me, which means it should be a lot of fun. We've just spent some time in Kampala and for the first time in a while I felt like a tourist as we took a few photos together in and around the city. We're now back in Mbarara and I'm thinking that the next couple of weeks will be pretty busy as we visit our Australia HOPE International projects as well as celebrate the holidays.

It's late (putting up curtains for the lounge where Suz is sleeping took longer than I thought) but it's still Wednesday so, so far, I am keeping up to date with my daily blogging schedule (which is quite a bit harder than once a week!).

Enjoy a few of our tourist moments.

On the back of a boda in the city, having our photo taken with Santa, riding double and eating grasshoppers.

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Australia HOPE International Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas.

Colly Birds

I grew up thinking they were calling birds. But wikipedia assures me that they are in fact colly birds. Which are actually blackbirds. Huh.

Amazing how your whole world can change in an instant like that. To learn something that you didn't know before. And whether it is life changing or perhaps less intrusive, like learning the real words to a song, it changes your world view.

For me Christmas is about remembering the moment or, maybe more realistically, journey, that I took to find Christ. I'd grown up in church and you would think that's a pretty good place to find Him. But perhaps He wasn't there in the things that I was wrapped up in. Like myself.

It was only when I realised that trying to make myself happy wasn't making me happy that I found Him. And that made me happy.

Now my life is wrapped up in Him. Not like a shiny Christmas present wrapped at a department store but like a warm blanket on a cold night, full of the warmth of his embrace. His love is my protection, my joy, my strength and my hope. This hope is an anchor for my soul. He holds me steady.

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Australia HOPE International Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas.

French Hens

Walking around my new neighbourhood of Boma (having moved from Kyamugorani two weeks ago) I'm reminded of walking home from the bus after school in my last three years of high school when I was living with my Grandparents in Adelaide. Dotted around are Jacaranda trees, and just like in Australia, they are a beautiful shade of purple just in time for Christmas.

It's been funny talking with some of my new Northern Hemisphere friends about their Christmas expectations. As an Aussie there are quite a few environmental factors that I can identify with here in Uganda, whereas, my friends are missing the cold.

I do miss the beach a little at this time of year though. Going swimming with friends every day after work. A half hearted attempt to surf. Gelati and pizza sitting in the park. Summer holidays. And this makes me think that I have been so blessed to have had those experiences. To have those memories. To have those friends. Because I know that despite sometimes feeling so far away, I have friends and family who love me. And there are people this Christmas who don’t know anyone who loves them.

And I am blessed to know the amazing love of God-become-flesh. A love that He wants to share with everyone.

And wants us to share with everyone.

Maybe I can be the making of a joyful memory for someone here this Christmas.

Maybe I can share the joy I have in knowing Christ, and someone will also experience the freedom and joy that I have.

Maybe you can too.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 The Bible

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Australia HOPE International Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas.

Turtle Doves

Just had a Christmas memory flashback. The John Martins Christmas Pageant.

I'm not sure it was a tradition but I know at least one year we stopped off at Bertie's for pancakes after it was all over. Thinking back I'm sure my parents were just trying to avoid the traffic jam out of the city, but I for one am thankful, after all, more than twenty years on, I still remember those pancakes with icecream.

I remember riding on Nipper and Nimble, the rocking horses that were ridden by Christmas fairy princesses in the pageant, in the Magic Cave (you know - where Santa lives after hopping off the sleigh at the end of the parade). I remember lining up to get my photo taken with Santa and put in my order for what I wanted for Christmas. I remember how beautifully it was all decorated and how it seemed like Christmas could be in winter despite the high thirty degree weather.

I guess it's not surprising that thinking back most of my Christmas memories aren't really centred around the central theme of Christmas, Christ. Food, family, parties, presents. These feature highly.

I'm thankful for these memories. They remind me of good times, of spending time with family, of hanging out with friends.

But I'm also thankful, in fact, much more thankful, that Jesus Christ came for me. That He loves me. And that I get to spend every day with Him.

This is why I love Christmas.

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Australia HOPE International Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas.

Twelve Days or ‘Partridge in a Pear Tree’

There are eleven days till Christmas, so my idea of doing a blog each day for the twelve days of Christmas (and yes I know that these actually start with Christmas as the first day but bear with me please) will have to end a day later than Christmas.

And why, you might ask, do I feel the need to do this? Because I can!

This morning it has rained and it's dull and grey. I'm sitting inside in the semi-dark listening to Christmas songs on my computer which is about to be drained of all battery power…

Had an epiphany.

I remembered that I bought a spare battery for occasions such as this where the power is out and I need/want to use my computer for longer than my battery will allow. Unfortunately I have just realised that either I had previously used this battery and hadn't charged it before putting the other one in or the battery doesn’t hold it's charge so well when it's just sitting around. Oh well.

So I'm sitting here in the semi-dark, now not listening to Christmas songs so as to maximise the battery life I have left, all twenty eight minutes of it, feeling like there is a certain amount of pressure and wondering if it's worth it, after all, if I just delete these words, none of you will ever know that I was thinking of doing this.

So, I guess this should have something to do with Christmas then.

A day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

My place is not decorated and probably won't be. No tinsel, no tree.

So I will have to remember some other way.

Or just remind myself every day that my Saviour came.

Blessings

bron

Don't forget to order your Christmas gift cards from www.ahi.org.au, helping others this Christmas

Barry my Christmas antelope and presents for me and my friend whose mum sent us presents so that we would have them in time to open for Christmas.

Blessed

I type this as I sit on my small balcony at my new place listening to some tunes. It's raining but I'm sheltered and apart from being able to see into the next door neighbours back windows, I feel like I'm in my own little world. I've slept here for two nights now and managed to 'cook' couscous for dinner last night. I was so thankful for the small jar I inherited from another Aussie who is leaving Uganda this week. So with my kettle, bed, plastic stool and various other bits and pieces I've set myself up a little home, including a small vegie garden.

It's been such a blessing to have lived for so long with Willy and Anne and the kids, all last year and the three months I've been back this year. I have learnt so much through living with this amazing family. About culture, about hospitality, about being flexible, about life, about love. I have learnt how to wash my own clothes, to peel matoke, to cook pork, to light a charcoal stove. Hopefully, with all that I have taken away, I have managed to also give something.

Our Australia HOPE International partners, including Pastor Willy, are incredibly generous people and I am so thankful to be a small part of this organisation. Hopefully for some time to come.

It's almost Christmas, so if you are wondering how you can be a blessing to someone this year, we are selling gift cards that buy essential items and small business opportunities for someone living in poverty here in Africa. A mattress for a family that has none, chickens for a small business, a bike to make transport for a village pastor easier. We also have beads and other items for sale, made by refugee women and others living in poverty.

If you are interested in buying any of these or just want to make a donation to HOPE go to the website www.ahi.org.au or ring +61 8 8188 0398.

Blessings

bron

post script

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a blog, the content of which I'm sure was profound and life changing to all who read it. But my interest in bringing up this blog again is the post script I wrote at the end of it. It remarked on the fact that both Egypt and DR Congo had had Presidential Elections that week and I was saying that I would look with interest to the news from both countries.

The reason I bring this up is that, as I was watching the news the other day, amongst the Palestinian/Israeli and various other conflicts, there were pieces on both Egypt and DRC.

The situations in both countries are complicated and while both are generally political, it is the people who are suffering. In 2008 I visited a couple of refugee camps in Goma, DRC with a team from Australia HOPE International and tragically enough, the images on the news this week could have been stock footage from four years ago.

Once again rebels have taken over Goma, with the UN watching on and the Congolese Army just walking out. And a population that has already lost it's sense of home, moves on again, trying to make some semblance of a life while constantly dogged by fear.

I can't imagine living without a home. Even when I am here in Uganda, I think even if I lived here for the rest of my life I would still call Australia home. Specifically Victor Harbor, with its changeable weather, its horse drawn tram, its beaches that are pretty to look at but too cold for me to swim at most of the time, its holiday atmosphere all summer long and the greatest concentration in the world of my family and friends. I can't imagine a reality where we were all chased away from Victor only to end up in temporary shelters in different locations around South Australia. And that we would be gone so long that our children would be born there, and grow there, and perhaps have their own children there. All the while in temporary shelters without access to running water, dependant on outside agencies for food, knowing that at any time we might be chased again. Like those in Goma whose little stability has started to shake.

I feel utterly helpless seeing images of refugees once again fleeing and I know that there is little I can do but pray. And hold on to the hope I have in Jesus, that He sees and knows those that no one else wants to see. Those who are broken and desperate.

And I pray that I might be broken, moved to remember, that I would not just change the channel and wipe these images from my mind.

Many blessings

bron

My prayer for this week, stolen from Brooke Fraser. Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, show me how to love like You have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your kingdoms' cause, as I walk from earth into eternity.

Small steps

Today I'm back in Kampala. I was here last week, for a rather short time I might add considering the amount of travel it takes to get here. A round trip, especially if you're on a public bus, will usually take around ten hours. Less than half the day! And last week it was particularly disappointing because I was here to go to Immigration to apply for my Entry Visa so that I can have an extended stay in Uganda. And after spending around an hour chasing down the right office and seeing the right people, I came away with a list of the 'real requirements' as I like to call them and felt not that much closer to my goal.

And the realisation that before I can apply for a work permit I have to get a recommendation from the NGO Board.

So today I headed back to Immigration and the NGO Board, armed with what I hoped were all the 'requirements' I needed. We will see. A very efficient guy took my papers and gave me a receipt and told me that I will check back to see how it is progressing. When I asked him how long before I should check, he told me that he couldn’t even guess when it might be.

So now I need a special pass, a visa that allows me three months grace while I wait for all these other papers to be processed. And the reason I couldn't put in my form today? That's another story.

Let's just say I'm learning to take smaller steps than I expected to.

But this did bring me to make the decision to stay in Kampala for the night (I really couldn't face another bus ride so soon). And so I spent the afternoon following Pastor Willy around the city. Which was a lot of fun. I saw a side to Kampala that I haven't seen before. And I hope that I'm somehow now more familiar with it's geography, although I suspect I would manage to get lost fairly easily on my own. Sometimes it's a shambles with buildings that look like they might fall down at any moment. Sometimes you find a quiet oasis and look around in astonishment. Sometimes you see beggars and sometimes you see businessmen. But there is a bustle, an energy, a sense of being alive that makes me try to soak it all in, grab all I can.

 

These street shots were taken in 2008. The Kampala ‘Jam’.

So I may have taken small steps with Immigration but I feel like at least I've joined the dance on the streets of Kampala.

Have a great week

bron

Three small pieces of string

Skype is truly an amazing service and I am so thankful that I have access to it, that I get to see friends and family in real time and that I get to see their kids grow up and in a sense still be part of their lives. This week I talked to some friends in Australia that I haven't talked to except to email since I left in July. I was lucky enough to visit them just before I left for DRC, particularly because they had just had a baby. And this is one of the reasons Skype is such a beautiful thing. I was able to see their gorgeous little girl, a happy healthy baby. I sang for her and made faces and she laughed and smiled and was just generally adorable. Such a blessing.

Last week I was in Kamwenge visiting some friends I've made. We have two Australia HOPE International schools in Kamwenge district and by an amazing coincidence a South Aussie couple have started Maranatha Health which has built a Maternal and Child Health Clinic in Kamwenge town and are starting to do some community development work in villages around the area. This means that our schools have access to medical clinics and the opportunity to become more educated about health and what the community can to do be involved in improving health outcomes for their area.

I had a lovely visit and stayed overnight with them. And I got to see the clinic in action. It has become somewhat of a referral hospital as they have access to oxygen and can give blood transfusions. But as you can also probably imagine, they have limited resources and are not set up for every and all medical emergencies. Which, along with the severity of some of the cases they see can be devastating. There was a little baby on oxygen that died while I was there. There was a young girl brought in with severe burns from hot porridge who will most likely lose her entire leg. I heard from them about their struggles, the ups and downs of running such a clinic and I feel blessed to know them and to be able to partner with them in some small way.

But back to Australia. My friend there is also pretty amazing and one project she is currently involved in is packing and sending birthing kits from Birthing Kit Foundation to countries where there are a high number of maternal and infant deaths and the majority of women give birth at home, often without any assistance. Each kit contains a few items and these are sent and given out, usually to a Traditional Birth Attendant, along with some training on their use. The items found in the kit? A scalpel blade. Three twenty-four centimetre pieces of string. A piece of plastic, one metre by one metre. Two gloves. Five ten centimetre by ten centimetre pieces of gauze. A small piece of soap, cut from a larger cake.

My friend told me about receiving all these supplies to pack and remembering her own recent experiences with giving birth. She specifically remembered being wrapped in a warm blanket straight from the blanket warmer immediately after giving birth and commenting to the nurse that there was a piece of equipment that was just for that. The nurse commented that they wanted to give the absolutely best experience to new mothers that they could. My friend said she remembered how luxurious that felt, to be wrapped in a warm blanket. As she looked through the supplies that she and other volunteers would be packing, she said that moment came back to her and she wondered as she looked at three small pieces of string, that somewhere in the world they would be more than a mother expected as she gave birth.

Health care is so different here and it's provision is haphazard and generally reliant on money. Things that we take for granted about our health system are luxuries here. But luxuries that contribute to length and quality of life. Luxuries that people can't afford.

Luxuries like three small pieces of string.

Have a blessed week

bron

A rose by any other name…

After more than a year in the country you would think I would be used to some things by now. Like the name thing. It doesn't matter how many times I explain I still don’t think many people here understand why when I introduce myself I use only Bron and when others know my last name, why they can't call me Lang. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are certain situations where last names are used i.e. on the sports field (with some kind of addition like Langy) or if you are a teacher. But as a general rule if you want to know my name, I give you the one that people call me, not the whole thing.

I guess it goes the other way too because names here are still a profound mystery to me. Many people here have three names, which is not unusual to my way of thinking, but many of them can be called by any of their three names. Which is why when I was signing up for my new modem the other day, I suddenly became Claire. I didn't bother correcting the guy, I'm sure he would have looked at me blankly, it wouldn't make sense to him that the only time Claire has ever been added to my name has been when I am in trouble or filling out official forms and then only when in the middle of my other two names.

I'm grateful (although not convinced it was the best thing to do) to missionaries who came and introduced the practice of Christian names. Which means that a large percentage of people have an English sounding name in amongst the others. So when I ask for their name I try really hard to hear that one. Although I often still have to ask several times before I'm sure I've got the right one.

My friends here gave me the name Kemigisha (meaning one who has many blessings) so sometimes I now get introduced by that name or Kemigisha Bron. Including last weekend at a wedding where I ended up in the front row with the important guests even though I didn't really know the bride and groom. One of those situations that have me feeling like I want to sink through the floor and escape but no one here really notices.

In many tourist spots around the place you can find t-shirts with the slogan 'My name is not Muzungu!' and if you have spent even a day here you will know why. Any white skinned person (which can include many of the Indian and Chinese community living here if they are deemed light skinned enough) is called out to by children, boda drivers and the less reserved of the general public, with either a greeting of "How are you, Muzungu?" or simply "Muzungu! Muzungu!". As muzungu means white person the greeting can be a little offensive if you keep thinking the same way you would in Australia (there are many chances to be offended here because being called old or fat is quite common too). But you learn to just let it roll over you (although I did give my friend a talking to the other day when he referred to me as muzungu even though he knows my name very well) and greet them back.

I take solace in the fact that even if no one here knows me or my name I am known by One who does.

O Israel, the one who formed you says, "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1 Bible

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3 Bible

And I also get a kick out of the fact that two kids I know refer to all bazungu as Bron. Although a muzungu by any other name is still a muzungu.

Beauty putting a ‘hat’ on Gilbert who thinks that all bazungu are called Bron and arm wrestling with Dan who also tells his mum when he sees a white person “Look! There’s Bron.”

Have a blessed week

bron

Never 4 get

Sometimes I feel like a fraud. Never more so than when I am sitting at a function as the guest of honour. Don't get me wrong, it is an honour to be there, but the honour is all mine. I feel grateful to be part of Australia HOPE International and to have the opportunity to represent them both here and in Australia is an immense privilege. But there are times that responsibility sits uncomfortably, like when I am called upon as the guest of honour to make speeches, or attend graduation ceremonies for people I have never met before.

Also the weight feels heavy when I realise that the students who are graduating from our HOPE Primary Schools, may not continue with their studies. That we as an organisation can only help them (at this stage) get so far. It is our desire, our dream, our prayer, to build Secondary and Vocational Schools and even someday Universities where students who currently attend our Primary Schools will be able to continue their education. But for now, my prayer as I addressed the Kibogo HOPE Nursery and Primary School, P7 Class of 2012, is that somehow, their parents will find the funds to allow them at least a few years of Secondary schooling, particularly for the girls whose educational level will determine the future of Uganda.

While the statistics suggest that somewhere between 50-75% of students in Uganda will finish Primary School, the enrolment for Secondary is around 20%. And that is the reason HOPE wishes to invest in higher education.

In the last two weeks I have now attended three such functions and while they can be a gruelling experience, as they tend to run on the longish side and generally involve a lot of speeches that aren't in English, I found that I mostly enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate with these students who have already overcome many obstacles to finish their primary schooling.

Let me leave you with an excerpt of the Kibogo P7 Class Teacher's speech.

"I take this opportunity to thank all of you for the concern for your school as shown by todays attendance. Your decision of holding this day to coincide with the coming of our beloved Guest of honour (Miss Brone) from Australia is a clear testimony of how you appreciate our efforts. I also thank Miss Brone for accepting to be the Guest of honour for todays occasion…

May I thank our sponsors in absentia through the Guest of honour for all their support to the school in terms of ideas and finance, without which management would have been very difficult if not impossible; because so much of the funds used to run the school are contributed by these people. May I say thank you and keep it up."

Never 4 get P7 of 2012

Be blessed

bron

To my grandmas

Last week I finally got to visit our HOPE School in Nakivale Refugee Settlement for the first time since being back in Uganda. I had spent almost a year away from the school and had been hanging out to get back and see a few things, in particular the newly concreted floors, which I am told have, along with washing feet before going into the classroom after breaks, almost entirely eliminated jiggers. Now I'm told jiggers are small insects that burrow into the skin between your toes and start laying eggs inside your body becoming extremely itchy and painful. Not pleasant.

I also got to see the new latrines, built after earth tremors caused the previous ones to collapse.

It was lovely to see the students again and to talk with the first class of Primary 7 who will complete their primary schooling in only a few weeks. What will happen for the rest of their education I cannot guess but I pray that the little they have gained from attending primary school will help them in their lives. And I could not help but be impressed with their level of English as well as their interest in asking me questions.

Also on the day I was able to visit with some of the ladies who make beaded necklaces that we sell in Australia. The money they have earned so far has seen children continue in school, the purchase of medical supplies and treatment and other basic necessities. The process is amazing, cutting strips of paper, rolling them into beads and gluing them, varnishing, washing, varnishing, washing, varnishing, washing, and then assembling the necklaces or bracelets. The women I met even let me help roll the beads when I met with them.

But what I really wanted to tell you about today are my grandmas. Amazing ladies who I want to honour.

Grandma, Mum's mum, sends me a letter every month. You may think this is not much. But when you are thousands of kilometres away from friends and family, it's so lovely to receive something in the mail. Hers is the only mail I receive and is totally appreciated. Her letters contain news from home, about her life and what she has been doing. Nothing dramatic or exciting but comforting and makes me think that she could almost be telling me these things sitting at a café while having lunch with her and Mum in Victor Harbor. Apart from thinking about me she does an amazing amount of work for others and there are, I am sure, hundreds of kids who have a Bananas in Pyjamas knitted toy that Grandma has given them when they are born. I know that all the children of all my friends, family, acquaintances have them. She volunteers in a school library covering books and has done the same for years. She is one of those behind the scenes people who just gets on and quietly does whatever it is she is doing. She is happiest when she is doing something for someone else and her life is littered with people who have appreciated her care for them. Grandma's servant heart gives me a model of laying my life down for others - the Bible, John 15.

Gram (looks like the measurement of weight but pronounced 'grarm', the name that as the oldest grandchild I had the privilege of giving her whether she liked it or not. I forget sometimes that it's not a name that most people call their grandma), Dad's mum, loved the African HOPE beads we gave her made by the women in Nakivale. And so did lots of her friends. So she took some of the beads to church and various other groups she is involved with and raised over a thousand dollars in less than a month. I am so thankful for such support from my family, not only for myself, but for the organisation I am working with. Gram is also inspiring in other ways, playing tennis and swimming into her 80's, which I should follow but don't (regular exercise that is), and traveling all over the world. In fact when I first came to Uganda in 2008, during my stopover in Johannesburg we actually spent some time in the same city - although she was waiting in a plane on the tarmac. She had been on a bus and river tour of several African countries. Perhaps I have inherited from her my love of travel, of people and other cultures. When she is at home she is involved in many groups and if I happen to be in Adelaide I have to make sure she'll be around if I want to see her. Gram's love for life reminds me to have a bigger world view than my own small patch where I am comfortable - the Bible, Matthew 28:18-20.

Last but not least is Aunty Betty. She is not technically my grandma, but is Grandma's sister, and my mum lived with her from the time she was sixteen till she got married. And so Aunty Betty is my 'other' Grandma. Growing up, Aunty Betty's house was fun to explore, there were always chocolate biscuits in her cupboard and she let me stay up late and sleep in late. Staying with Aunty Betty was always an adventure, a place to gain some independence and she made me feel special. It is from Aunty Betty that I grew to love old movies, and almost all of the old movies that I have seen have been from her collection. I've spent many hours at her house sitting at the table chatting about anything and everything. She still always has a good collection of biscuits. She still always has time for me. It's Aunty Betty who always helped me out with bills I couldn't pay, when I hadn't budgeted well or when I hadn't realised how much it might cost to own my own phone, or when I needed somewhere to get away. I think my love of sitting with people and hearing their stories, of spending time with them has come from her. Aunty Betty's gift of time for me has shown me how valuable a gift it can be if I give it to others - the Bible, Matthew 5-7.

My sister with Aunty Betty

So, thank you to my grandmas, you have taught me well.

Blessings this week,

bron

 

This is the last week you can catch Pastor Willy Tumwine in South Australia:

Sunday 28th October

Seaton Christian Family Centre, 9am or 11am

OR

Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre, 3pm

Nibanyeta Bron

I am called Bron

Taking notes during one of my lessons

After my five week stint in DR Congo, where I had French lessons with my friend Suz and picked up a smattering of Swahili, I had been lulled into a somewhat false sense of my ability to pick up language. Arriving back here in Uganda my thoughts were that after a whole year of hearing the language, that now I would have a magical ability to understand, where last year there was none. It turns out though, that that is not how it works, and to learn the language is going to require a lot of effort and a teacher. So this year, after spending the whole of last in a sort of social fog, where things aren't always as they seem, I have embarked on a journey into the Runyankore language.

It's daunting, throwing myself into the learning process again, and without Suz to encourage me, or to compete with, it feels a whole lot harder and slower and less fun. After a mere six lessons though, I can see that eventually (especially if I practice, or if as my teacher likes to say, I make some mistakes) I could potentially be a speaker of the language. Already I have learnt more than a whole year of immersion taught me. I can greet, introduce myself, count to twenty and in a couple more weeks I might be able to buy something in the markets. While I can only manage a very slow speech with a bad accent, people can understand me sometimes. And being the child that I am, I have been known to jump in the air or give everyone around me high fives when I say something that my friends can hear.

Yesterday I learnt a few phrases useful for when I'm riding on the back of a boda (motorbike taxi).

How much?

Ni sente zingahi?

Can you reduce (the cost)?

Nobaasa kusharaho

I'm going to….

Ninza….

Go slow

Gyenda mpora mpora

Stop there /here

Yemerera aho /aha

Go right /left

Gyenda buryo /bumosho

Not sure how useful that will be to you as the chances you have of bumping into one of the 2.3 million native speakers is largely reduced if you are not in the south western corner of Uganda.

Someone asked me yesterday if I was going to become a linguist, but really my only thought is to somehow survive shopping in the market, a short conversation and maybe, hopefully, one day, understand the jokes that make everyone here laugh.

Although on saying that, last night I learnt a song in Swahili and another in French. So who knows, I could be multi-lingual yet.

Have a blessed week

bron

P.S. My amazing friend, HOPE Partner and part of my family here in Uganda, Pastor Willy Tumwine, is in South Australia for almost five weeks and if you would like to catch him speaking his schedule is below (contact through the website for more details).

 

30th Sept	10am	Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
30th Sept	2pm	Hills Christian Family Centre, Nairne
7th Oct	10am	Mt Gambier
14th Oct	10am	Southern Gateway Community Church, Victor Harbor
14th Oct	6pm	NOVA, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
21st Oct	10am 6pm	Coast and Vines, Willunga
28th Oct	9am 11am	Seaton Christian Family Centre
28th Oct	3pm	Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre

Independence Day

This week there's been a party in Uganda. Okay, so the party was mostly in Kampala, but all Uganda was celebrating. Or reminiscing. Or commemorating. This week marked the fiftieth birthday of the independent Republic of Uganda. On October 9th, 1962, Britain gave control of the country they had acquired seventy years earlier, back to it's previous caretakers. But they had changed the landscape of Uganda forever. From a collection of tribal kingdoms and chiefdoms, a nation had been pressed together, and the result at independence was a nation of people who, while happy to be rid of the oppressors, were not so willing to work together.

I'm no political commentator or historian or anthropologist. But I am here in the middle of it. An outside observer witnessing the growing up of a nation that's childhood has been constantly besieged by tragedy from within and without.

What I hear as I look around me, is hope.

That the next fifty years will be different. That corruption will be eliminated. That government will change. That leaders will be responsible. That life will become better.

I went to an overnight prayer meeting held in Mbarara preceding Tuesday's party. There the President's daughter spoke. She is a pastor and while I'm guessing her political affiliation is to her dad, her message on the night was about personal responsibility, that every Ugandan has the opportunity to make Uganda the place they want to live in.

As we prayed for the nation she read from 2 Chronicles 7:14;

"...if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."

I was reminded of the vastly different experiences of colonisation of Uganda and Australia and the fact that as much as one would like, history cannot be changed. Only learnt from and built on. And that as a Christian it is my place to pray for my nation, whether here in my current adopted home, Uganda, or in my birthplace, Australia, as one who takes responsibility for past acts and calls out to a loving and gracious God for mercy.

Some of our HOPE school children standing under the national flag in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Isingiro district and Kibogo village, Kamwenge district

And this is why I too look to Uganda's future with hope.

Blessings

bron

P.S. My amazing friend, HOPE Partner and part of my family here in Uganda, Pastor Willy Tumwine, is in South Australia for almost five weeks and if you would like to catch him speaking his schedule is below (contact through the website for more details).

 

30th Sept	10am	Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
30th Sept	2pm	Hills Christian Family Centre, Nairne
7th Oct	10am	Mt Gambier
14th Oct	10am	Southern Gateway Community Church, Victor Harbor
14th Oct	6pm	NOVA, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
21st Oct	10am 6pm	Coast and Vines, Willunga
28th Oct	9am 11am	Seaton Christian Family Centre
28th Oct	3pm	Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre

You are so fat

Conversation I had the other day that went a little something like this:

Ugandan: You are getting so fat!

Me: Not really, in fact since I've arrived back I've lost weight.

Ugandan: Oh! Sorry for that.

It still amazes me sometimes the difference in our cultures, even though I already know this. I have come across this sentiment many times already and I still feel the need to explain and defend myself against the compliment I am being given. I don't have an issue with my weight or body image but the simple fact is that I have lost weight since coming back to Uganda. Not through any effort on my part, just a lack of excessively processed, quick to cook or buy, foods. And sometimes a walk into town. And so because I have lost weight, my friend was sorry for me.

Me scoffing cake in Bunia, DRC recently, trying to ‘fatten up’.

What a different world this is that I am living in!

Blessings

bron

P.S. My amazing friend, HOPE Partner and part of my family here in Uganda, Pastor Willy Tumwine, is in South Australia for almost five weeks and if you would like to catch him speaking his schedule is below (contact through the website for more details).

 

30th Sept	10am	Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
30th Sept	2pm	Hills Christian Family Centre, Nairne
7th Oct	10am	Mt Gambier
14th Oct	10am	Southern Gateway Community Church, Victor Harbor
14th Oct	6pm	NOVA, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
21st Oct	10am 6pm	Coast and Vines, Willunga
28th Oct	9am 11am	Seaton Christian Family Centre
28th Oct	3pm	Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre

Babies can change the world

After writing last weeks post 'When I am inadequate', it got me thinking about maternal and infant health and their impact on the world we live in. I'm a sucker for stats, especially when they have pretty charts to go with them, so I went to my favourite stats guy, Hans Rosling, for what is always an entertaining and informative look at the state of the world through data. If you are interested check out www.gapminder.org for videos of presentations done by Hans and a whole bunch of other information. In particular check out Religions and babies for a look at population growth in the world and what part religion plays in the number of babies born.

    

Basically in a nutshell (for all those who don't care for stats and won't ever look at the video), the video looks at the fact that the highest population growth happens in those countries that have the lowest income and the highest child mortality rate and highest number of births per woman. Despite the high child mortality rate, these countries populations continue to grow at a rapid pace due to the large families produced. The fourth Millennium Development Goal talks about reducing child mortality by two thirds from the year 1990 to 2015. Hans suggests that this is the first of four factors that will help in reducing world population growth.

Factors to decreasing world population growth:

1. Children survive childhood (if children survive childhood the birth rate actually reduces)
2. Children are not needed for work (and the deepest poverty where children are required to work in the home to help provide for the family)
3. Women get education and join the labour force (I'm not sure how accurate this is but I have heard that for every year of secondary schooling a girl has, she will produce one less child)
4. Family planning is accessible

Now why all this info? Basically because last week a baby died. She was not a statistic. She was someone's daughter. And every one of the almost 7 million children under the age of five who died last year were all someone's son or daughter. And every one of the children in our HOPE schools here in Uganda and DR Congo are also someone's children. Around 2000 children we are able to reach through providing an opportunity to receive education. Around 2000 children who are not at home digging in the garden. Around 2000 children who will play a part in the reduction of world population growth, which will also see the sharing of global resources more equitably.

Why do you care? Because you have an opportunity to do something to help. Our HOPE schools rely on funding through sponsorship and donations from those who take an interest in what we do.

So, as always

Be blessed

bron

P.S. My amazing friend, HOPE Partner and part of my family here in Uganda, Pastor Willy Tumwine, is in South Australia for almost five weeks and if you would like to catch him speaking his schedule is below (contact through the website for more details).

 

30th Sept	10am	Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
30th Sept	2pm	Hills Christian Family Centre, Nairne
7th Oct	10am	Mt Gambier
14th Oct	10am	Southern Gateway Community Church, Victor Harbor
14th Oct	6pm	NOVA, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre
21st Oct	10am 6pm	Coast and Vines, Willunga
28th Oct	9am 11am	Seaton Christian Family Centre
28th Oct	3pm	Australia HOPE International AGM, Murray Bridge Christian Family Centre

When I am inadequate

As a Christian, worship of God is not only an integral part of my life but is the core, the essence, the centre of my being. Worship, simply put, is to give worth or value to something or someone. In this case, God, the Creator of the universe, my Father, Saviour and Advocate. Now in Christian tradition, worship, at least in a corporate setting, tends to be wrapped up in music and singing. Usually the songs will be about God and his attributes, or our response to Him and his attributes. But in reality worship is bigger than just singing songs on a Sunday.

In the book of John, Jesus says,

"But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

In the book of Romans, Paul says,

"Let them (our bodies) be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Standing in a room at one of the local hospitals the other night I was confronted by this idea of worship. Because really, in the middle of a bunch of Christians, singing songs and telling God how good he is, it is not that hard. But praying for a lady who had just lost a two week old baby and couldn't go to the burial because she herself was facing surgery, that requires a little more faith to worship an Almighty God.

The room smelt of bleach, blood and stale sweat. In fact there was blood on the floor around the empty bed on the other side of the room. Medical supplies littered a cabinet in the middle of the room and medical staff constantly passed in and out to get them. There were no nurses to help her to the bathroom. There were no kitchen staff to bring her food. There were no blankets on the bed. She even had to buy supplies like cannulas, syringes, gloves to be treated. Her hope attached to her family staying with her and spending the money so that she could have the help she needed.

We helped this lady to the bathroom. Although she was very close to passing out, we had to walk her through the throng of people sleeping on the floor of the next ward to the outside pit latrine. The smell of urine and faeces was overpowering, hardly hygienic. While visiting we could hear the cries of women delivering babies coming from the next ward.

And we were there to pray for her, to bring what comfort we could. We prayed for healing and peace, for joy in despair, for hope in darkness.

And in the midst of this I saw God, who had not abandoned her or me, and gave Him praise, because in that moment I was inadequate but He was more than enough.

Blessings

Bron

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows;

he leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths,

bringing honour to his name.

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death,

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff

protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me

in the presence of my enemies.

You honour me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessings.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love

will pursue me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

by David

How are you, my wife?

Family means different things to different people. This is true of where I live in Australia, but coming here to Uganda, and even broader than that, my experience of a small portion of African life, has taught me that the concept I have of family is fairly small. After all, when someone asks about my family, I immediately think of my parents and three siblings. Beyond that, I do have other family but wouldn't think of calling my dad's brothers, Dad. But here uncles are only on the mother's side and aunts only on the father's. Your dad's brothers you call, Dad and your mothers sisters you call, Mum. Confusing? YES! Added to which your brother, father and grandfather before you get married are your husband, and corresponding to that your sister, mother, grandmother are your wife (this is not some messed up incestuous weird cultural practice, so chill, let me explain).

Some of my Australian and Ugandan family together in Uganda in August 2011

My friend Joel was explaining this to me the other day as I sat with him at an Introduction/Give away function. Never mind all the traditions associated with them that I don't understand. There is one part of the Give away where the brother of the sister who is going to get married, feeds her cake and vice versa. Similar to the way a husband and wife would when they cut the cake at a wedding. The reason for this is for the brother to say goodbye to his 'wife', as his sister, once she is married, will no longer clean his clothes and cook him food (let me assure you that my Western views of marriage are severely tested over here). Joel goes on to tell me that when he rings his Grandma, he will greet her by saying "How are you my wife?"

Eating lunch at the Introduction/Giveaway function where someone gave me their oluwumbo, hanging out with some friends at the pool that I didn’t know anything about and my hair after taking out the braids and before washing.

So with all these confusions (and it gets more confusing when cousins also are brothers and sisters), I still see something beautiful in the way families relate here. Yes, there is much dysfunction, but when it works it's amazing. Someone the other day was telling me that children (and marriages) are community affairs. Children are for the community. So if you see a child misbehaving, you are free to discipline them. And if you see a man beating his wife, you would get involved because what he is doing is not good and if you see it it's your responsibility to do something about it.

But I was also talking to another friend the other day. Her parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide. She was five. Her older sister took her to safety in Tanzania where she spent the next ten years. Then she came, at the age of fifteen, to Uganda. Alone. In a country where people weren't speaking her language. Somehow she managed to get through to Senior Three, which is the third of six years of senior schooling. Now she runs her own business, a small shop where she is earning enough to live on. Her family now? The church that we both attend. The friends she has made here in Uganda. We are her family

I was also talking with another friend who was telling me about his life growing up. At the age of ten he had been abandoned by both his parents (who were not together any longer) to the care of his aunt who provided little more than a roof over his head. No sense of family or love. He started working in a washing bay washing vehicles to support himself through school. And now as a grown man he is still working to provide himself a living and to be able to follow his dreams. He told me that through it all he has known from a very young age that God is his father and the one taking care of him.

I happened to go to the opening service for one of our HOPE schools here in Mbarara, where several of our sponsored boys are. The boys are no different from any others, can't sit still, don't pay attention, always making noise. But two of them gave testimonies, both with similar content. These boys used to live on the streets or in intolerable home situations. One of the boys told how he used to steal people's saucepans to break down into scrap metal to sell so that he could buy food. Sometimes he would take the very hot saucepan while it was sitting on the charcoal stove cooking dinner. These boys lived desperate lives. But they were rescued and they now have a family. They no longer steal. And the way they danced during the short service showed a real, true joy.

In Psalm 68, it says that God is a Father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows and that He will place the lonely in families. I myself have experienced that here, far from my family and friends. God has been faithful to me. He has given me a family to live with and a church filled with people who have accepted me even though I may seem very different to them.

As an organisation Australia HOPE International may be building schools and sponsoring kids but we work with partners who are building family and that is the business that God is into. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, there is someone who needs to be part of a family.

Maybe you are the family they need.

Be blessed

bron