Another adventure

This week I have almost caught up on all my washing which has been no mean feat (I've had a pile of clothes that have been taunting me since I moved to my new place in early December). And as long as the rain holds off for a bit more today (it's meant to be the dry season for crying out loud!) I will go home to the last of the clothes I need to dry.

The reason it's so important to get it does is that on Saturday I will be heading to Entebbe Airport to meet up with a team coming from Australia to spend a month on a ministry trip to different parts of Uganda and DR Congo. This will be the third such trip I have been on and I'm excited to see what God will do with a group of people who are here, willing to be used by Him.

For me I can still remember that first trip, the wonder that I had finally made it to Africa, the wonder that I had finally managed to leave Australia, the sights and smells, so familiar now that then seemed so foreign, so different from what had been known. I can't imagine now never having being called 'muzungu', eaten matoke, riden a boda and all the other experiences I've had. I also can't imagine at one time being a stranger to all my new friends and having no real concept of the poverty that others live in and the excess that I was used to.

   

Defining moments

Coming to Africa changed my life, literally. I now live on a different continent, doing just my little bit to help Australia HOPE International share the hope that knowing Jesus brings, through the aid work they are doing on this continent. I am a different person than I was four and a half years ago, and this country, these people, have been catalysts of change for me.

I can only hope that for these new friends that I will meet and travel with, Africa also changes them. That something about its culture and people gets under their skin. That they will, like I did, start to see the world bigger and more vibrant. That they in turn will affect change in the lives of those around them, friends and family, those they have the chance to speak with about their experiences here.

Now that I have been here so long, I have the opportunity to be jaded by what I've seen, the things that are now so commonplace, and to no longer appreciate the eccentricities (to me) of Ugandan life. I am praying for myself that I will again feel that wonder as I travel, that I will drink in everything and that this will not be an ordinary few weeks but another adventure.

Not sure how I will go in writing for the next few weeks. We'll see.

Be blessed until next time

bron

Public speaking

Preaching and public speaking in general are not at the top of the list of my favourite activities and to me aren't what I'm naturally wired to do. But being here there are many more opportunities to speak than I ever had in Australia, whether it's as a token muzungu, or at a school function, or a random youth conference.

I try to pray about each of these opportunities rather than turn them down automatically which is my natural inclination. To grow personally requires me to be in uncomfortable situations. And having to speak to a crowd of four hundred people makes me very uncomfortable.

So last week saw me travel to Kanwenge District, this time not to visit our schools there, but to speak at a conference in the village of Kinoni. I was invited by our Australia HOPE International partner in the area and took with me a friend (who does this kind of thing all the time) from Mbarara. I spoke twice and while I'm not sure how it went I'm thankful for the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone.

  

The church and some of the very young ‘youth’. A photo opportunity with some of the pastors. Joshua and Elijah his interpreter preaching up a storm.

So, stepping up to this challenge has inspired me to take more opportunities this year, not just to speak, but to do things that will challenge me, stretch me and help me grow in my relationship with Jesus.

Be blessed this week

bron

A bright future

This week we had a one day conference for the children and their parents, along with the widows, of the Trust Project (the Australia HOPE International sponsorship program here in Mbarara). Things around here are gearing up for all the kids to go back to school, so before all the craziness starts it seemed like a good time to gather everyone together.

During the day there was leadership training, motivation and encouragement in the area of personal responsibility, parenting advice and a separate question time for the young people involved.

It was such a blessing to see all these that are being helped, gathered together spending time thanking God for the past year and looking forward to their future.

 

Only phone photos but these are the children and parents gathered for the conference

We at HOPE also look forward to the future and all that will continue to be done through the many faithful partners we have here in Uganda and DR Congo. We thank God for the faithful support from so many in Australia and for our future vision and direction.

For me it continues to be such a blessing to be involved with HOPE and to see all that it is doing here. To have the opportunity to be a bearer of and a witness to the hope that we have in Jesus. And for this time, call this beautiful place home and these beautiful people my friends and family.

Over the last months I have been advocating for and helping a young man who was in a car accident last April and who, on leaving hospital had nowhere to live and so started living at the church. He has no immediate family and his extended family have all but abandoned him. Next Monday he will go for surgery for his lower leg to be amputated and in the next months as he is recovering will be fitted for a prosthetic and for the first time in almost a year will be on the way to walking without crutches. In his lengthy incapacitation, Bright had started to lose hope for his future. A young man of twenty who had started to make his way in the world but came up against a major brick wall. But thankfully, although scared about the idea of losing his leg, Bright is now excited to get on with his life and to start to take on the world again.

My friend Bright and his beautiful smile

Please pray for Bright as he faces surgery, recovery and rehabilitation. Also that he would find something that he is able to do to earn money once he is well.

Praying for many blessings for you all in 2013

bron

A moment of silence

Or Christmas Day/Pipers Piping, Drummers Drumming and a whole lot of fun.

You may or may not have noticed my absence.

It's been more than two weeks and it's been a whirlwind. I was so blessed to have my friend Suz come and stay with me for two weeks after her time in DR Congo. Instead of rushing back home to her family, she stayed with me in Mbarara and had a look around some of the Australia HOPE International projects here. I was also then doubly blessed to have another friend, Bonnie, who is doing her Uni placement in Mbale (eastern Uganda), come and stay for a week over New Year's.

Although Bonnie wasn't yet with us, the highlight of my 'holidays' was the three nights spent camping in a tent in the village with Pastor Willy's extended family over Christmas. I really loved it. Hanging out and talking. Eating too much food. Getting jiggers. I am so blessed to be part of this Ugandan family.

I have a heap of photos that will today be more interesting than my words. So, like my now quiet apartment, I'll be silent and once again let the pictures do the talking.

Blessings

bron

Oops! Forgot to mention okapis, dead goats, mango eating rabbits, jackfruit, surviving water planing on mud while driving home from Ebenezer HOPE Nursery and Primary School, making paper beads with women in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Bonnie cooking us pumpkin and lentil soup with home grown pumpkin given to us by Mama Emma and her two boys, also cooking maize given to us by Mama Emma in the frypan with butter, trying to see fireworks from my patio and failing, epic bus journeys, epic car journeys, crusades, boda rides, lunch at the boys house, helping Moses cook, cups of tea and peanut butter/choc Oreos.

 

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