| We are now back on the red soil of Uganda. Not only are we adjusting to our miry clay and all the difficulties it brings to daily life but also we are adjusting to the many changes of life back in Uganda. Our journey from Vancouver to Entebbe was a long one but all in all I think the boys fared well -- maybe better than their parents. We left Vancouver Airport on Tuesday the 27th around 10 pm in the evening after checking in our 19 pieces of luggage. My faithful friend Bryant was there (helping haul our luggage around as usual!)along with my brother Oliver and his two children. My dad was also there, having flown in from Saskatoon earlier that day. He drove "our" van home (our old Lumina that he bought off of us when we left in 07 – it served us very well during our stay in Canada –thanks mom and dad) the next day. We were actually accompanied on our flight to London by good friends from our Life Group, Bert and Leona Ewert, who were going to visit son and his family in the UK. We flew through the night, stayed in a small hotel in London the next night and then arrived, finally in Entebbe at a guest house around midnight on Thursday the 29th – welcomed by the typical lack of power and the scent of paraffin lanterns and the ritual of tucking in mosquito nets around our bed. We finally arrived at our home in Jinja about 60 long hours after we had set off. It was good to see all of our friends and family who welcomed us back. All of our luggage made it except that one piece was mistakenly taken in Entebbe by some fellow missionaries from Canada. We will collect that bag tomorrow. We have been working on obtaining our work visas and getting our house and car in order. I (Chris) have painted one of our boys quarter rooms so that the boys will have a proper school room. The boys quarter is a small detached house that is called thus as such buildings were the quarters of servants who would work for the owners of the main house. Our nephew Steve lives with us and sleeps with Andrew in the other boy’s quarter room. Some of our adjustments to life here include: Getting used to long meetings – I just came back from a four hour school business meeting for one of our nieces who schools near us. The meeting was about an hour late so that meant about 5 hours of meeting time. Church also takes a while – we intentionally come late so that our kids can survive the service. Our church starts around 9am with Bible Study and Testimonies and can go up till two if the preaching goes two hours instead of the usual one hour. There are many challenges to our life here – including the spiritual depravity in our village. Many of the people in our village where we live are in desperate need of redemption; we have many bars and therefore drunkards, many people involved in witchcraft and other wicked practices. We sense once again we are in a spiritual war zone. Satan does not want true light to come into the darkness here. Please pray that both in our ministry and in our daily lives that God will watch over us and guide as we respond and relate to the many poor and needy people around us. May we let our light shine so that our neighbours may see Christ |
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Back in Uganda.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Coke and Cops
He flagged me down as I was approaching Jinja Train station. My attention was on the white-clad traffic officers on my right who were flagging down matatus and suspect lorries in the oncoming lane. I pulled over quickly once I noticed the officer standing just ahead of me in my own lane. I wasn't worried -- I had not been speeding and I have an up-to-date Ugandan driver's license. The Police Officer walked quickly up to my passenger window as I rolled it down. "Good Afternnon, Sir" "Good Afternnon" I said, The coke can sitting in the centre console quickly caught his eye. He motioned to the can -- "What is that you have there?" his eyes lit up with the prospect of a cold soda. I knew immediately that he was going to ask me for my Coke -- I wasn't worried... I picked up the can, showing him it was open and as I waved it around. He noticed immediately that it was empty and quickly found something else to say. "Let me help you throw it out" I didn't want him to have it as I knew he would just toss it in the ditch next to the highway. I told him I'd take care of it. "Can I see your license?" I quickly got out my Ugandan Drivers permit and he was satisfied after wrongly pronouncing my sirname back to me. We said good-bye and I was left to ponder how our Police Force is so corrupt as I drove into town. I knew he was after "Kintu Kadogo" (Something small). I was within the law so his leverage was very low, but for so many overloaded taxis and run-down lorries such an officer threatens fines and imprisonment hoping that the offendor will offer him the equivelent of a dollar or two to get out of the fix. Then a few miles down the road the rundown lorrie ploughs into an overloaded taxi and it pads our statistics for annual road fatalaties! All for the price of a coke! Our country is slowly slipping into the abiss of corrption where there is not justice even in the courts where a verdict can be bought. God help us! Pray for our Uganda! Corruption is eating at us like a rust at an old car. We're falling appart. |
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Ugandan Sunday
Well... we are sure we are back in the same Uganda. We have had warm wellcomes, had many visitors, near accdents, followed lorries billowing smoke, and endured long queues for daily necesseties. Today, our second full day at home in Jinja we went to church at our home Church; Deliverence Church Walukuba. We arrived at our normal time of shortly before 11am. The church normally starts at 9am but with a large family and not much for a Sunday School program we usually come after the Bible Study and Testimonies to join in worship and the message. We enjoyed the lively worship and were wellcomed to the front to greet everyone. I used 10 minutes to tell everyone that we had a great trip and to bring greetings on behalf of our church and life group. After some announcements our guest speaker was warmly wellcomed. Pastor Bishop Peter Paul Malawi was visiting from Mombassa where he has flourishing church and ministry to young people. He shared on "/Preparing
for your breakthrough". His message was very encouraging and challenging. We were challenged to see that God's grace (2Cor. 6.1) is not being poured out on us in vain. Peter Paul started his message around 12 and was done around 2pm. After the service we had many more warm wellcomes from our brethren in church. We headed into town to get some money from an ATM so we could fuel our vehicle and do some more shopping for food and household items. The first ATM had about thirty people at it, the second one on the other side of town had no money (which hadn't suprised me -- there is usaully areason why the machine is so busy). we drove back to the first ATM on main street and after pending a minute in line I decided i did not want to spend the next hour or so in a queue I decided to drive the family across the river (Nile) to another less-used ATM in front of the Breweries. We hit a traffic jam on the usually not-too-long of a drive over to
Njeru. After a few more minutes in the hot sun in the traffic jam and a few more in another ATM queue we finally got some money to put some diesel in our now empty tank. We stopped to buy some matooke on the home in Bugembe meanwhile dad had a coke and the boys enjoyed some icecream after a long wait for our currency. We were finally home to have lunch and find some more visitors waiting to see us. Just another Sunday in Uganda...
for your breakthrough". His message was very encouraging and challenging. We were challenged to see that God's grace (2Cor. 6.1) is not being poured out on us in vain. Peter Paul started his message around 12 and was done around 2pm. After the service we had many more warm wellcomes from our brethren in church. We headed into town to get some money from an ATM so we could fuel our vehicle and do some more shopping for food and household items. The first ATM had about thirty people at it, the second one on the other side of town had no money (which hadn't suprised me -- there is usaully areason why the machine is so busy). we drove back to the first ATM on main street and after pending a minute in line I decided i did not want to spend the next hour or so in a queue I decided to drive the family across the river (Nile) to another less-used ATM in front of the Breweries. We hit a traffic jam on the usually not-too-long of a drive over to
Njeru. After a few more minutes in the hot sun in the traffic jam and a few more in another ATM queue we finally got some money to put some diesel in our now empty tank. We stopped to buy some matooke on the home in Bugembe meanwhile dad had a coke and the boys enjoyed some icecream after a long wait for our currency. We were finally home to have lunch and find some more visitors waiting to see us. Just another Sunday in Uganda...
Saturday, October 31, 2009
back in Uganda
Hello Friends,
We are safe and sound back in Uganda. Here we are in the usual routine again...
Chris sweating (yeah it's hot in here!)it out in the internet cafe while Jane shops for family needs at the market. I have to be quick as I may get in trouble with Jane if I take too long to go pick her up. It is nice to be remembered (and warmly well comed back)by our many friends around town as we do our errands. It was even greater coming back home to our nephews Steven and Tugume and our friend Ruth who lives and works for us. They were SO happy to see us. They had even made a ribbon across our carport entrance for us to cut (I forgot my camera in Canada so no pics right now). There were nice handwritten signs made through out the house well-coming us home (towels and bedsheets on our bed had been folded to form a well-come greeting) and our yard was in impeccable condition and all the plants and grass had grown A LOT!
What a blessing it is to come back HOME. Despite the many difficulties we face in daily life here we really feel this is home.
Please continue to pray for us as we settle back in.
Prayer items are:
1. For our safety as we travel around doing all that we need to do here.
2. For Work visas for both Chris and Jane (since Jane is now a foreigner she needs some sort of visa too)
3. Pray that God would go ahead of us as we start our work again here.
Blessings to you all,
Chris
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Grandma Sperling
My dear Grandma Sperling died at the age of 92 back in 2006. We dearly loved her and still miss her -- Jane especially as they had become great friends.
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new old pics
Here are some pics of my beautiful wife Jane back in @2004. Compare them to the ones recently(Sept 09) at the same place -- Davidson Orchards in Kelowna.
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Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Antidote for Worry
Philippians 4:4-9 4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. The antidote for our worries and also for our habit of worrying is to:1) Rejoice in the Lord -- God wants us to be choose to be happy and satisfied with who He is for us.2) Tell God what we need in prayer -- God wants us to be honest with Him about what we need. The Bible clearly tells us that every good thing is from God, it also tells us that we rely on God for our very breath. We also rely on God for forgiveness. God loves to hear our requests and for us to admitt that we need Him. Realizing our need puts us in the humble position of realizing our dependance on God. God loves to meet our needs! He is all we need! 3) As we pray about what we need, give thanks to Him -- We should pray; thankful and mindful of what He has already done. This will help us to be expectant of Him to to so much more in the future. 4) Think about good things as (defined by verse Phil 4:8 ) whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Our mind needs to be clean if we don't want worry and doubt to overwhelm us. Of course this is an ongoing process. We need to make it a habit to be thankful, to rejoice and to think about good good things. We need His continued help and strength to even seek Him. Lord come and help us to draw near to you so that we will recieve all we need from you for life. You are our Life. You have the words of eternal life -- where else can we go. As we follow God's recipe for the "Antidote for Worry" we will see that the peace of God will gaurd our hearts and minds and the peace of God will be with us. What more could we want!I know that we all would love God's peace to surround us. Having God's Peace means living God's Way. So often we may focus on our outward behaviour but God wants us to start by filtering what goes through our heart and mind; the very source of our behaviour and the centre of who we are. God bless you as you seek His peace and may you find many reasons to thankful to our Heavenly Father this season and always. |
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thanksgiving snow!
We had some snow this thanksgiving weekend and the boys got to go sledding. They got their wish of snow before we left for Uganda!
Thanksgiving snow!
We've had enough for the boys to get some toboganning in. It's an answer to prayer for them. They had really wanted to get some snow before we left!
Friday, October 9, 2009
winter already
We're in Saskatchewan for Thanksgiving. We've got snow already -- the boys went out in the cold blowing weather and enjoyed themselves despite being underdressed.
witchcraft
The following stories are reported in the major Newspapers in Uganda occasionally but are rampant in daily life around Uganda. Please pray for Uganda and it's leaders to repent and stop using witchcraft as a solution for their problems. Satan always asks for more than he's giving when you get into making deals with him. see the following stories Also pray for our protection as a family as we continue our work around Uganda
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Woman killed in Nakaseke | ||||||
| Friday, 9th October, 2009 |
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| By Fredrick Kiwanu A 20-year-old woman was on Monday found dead at a witchdoctor’s home in Nakaseke district where she had gone for ‘treatment’. Gertrude Namata’s throat was slit and the body left near the witchdoctor’s house in Kiwoko, where she had been taken three days earlier. The Police arrested the witchdoctor, Ahmed Nsereko, 45. However, he claims the victim killed herself in a moment of insanity. The victim’s mother, Cecilia Nakiwu, said she took her daughter to the witchdoctor after she suffered a mild mental illness. She parted with sh160,000 to ‘cleanse’ her after the witchdoctor claimed that Namata was being bewitched. Nakiwu narrated that on the third day of the treatment, the witchdoctor ordered her and other relatives to leave on the orders of the spirits. After the witchdoctor was arrested, a mob unsuccessfully tried to lynch him. | ||||||
| 12-year-old boy beheaded in ritual murder | ||||||
| Friday, 9th October, 2009 |
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| A 12-year-old boy was beheaded on Wednesday at around 11:00am in Salute village. The officer in-charge of Kamwenge Police Station, Raymond Onenchan, identified the deceased as Owen Gumusiriza, a Primary Four pupil at Railway Primary School. The Police suspects it was a ritual murder. Onenchan said that this was the first such incident in Kamwenge. Robert Barugahare, the deceased’s father, said he had left the boy at home preparing porridge for breakfast, while he and his wife went to dig in a nearby garden. An eye witness, said some body parts, including the tongue and kidneys were missing. | ||||||
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Monday, October 5, 2009
global warming due to global brain freeze
"I get exasperated with fellow academics, and others who ought to know better, who pile on to the supposed global warming consensus without bothering to investigate any of the glaring scientific discrepancies and procedural flaws. Over the coming few years, as the costs of global warming policies mount and the evidence of a crisis continues to collapse, perhaps it will become socially permissible for people to start thinking for themselves again. In the meantime I am grateful for those few independent thinkers, like Steve McIntyre, who continue to ask the right questions and insist on scientific standards of openness and transparency." from the Financial Post for more of this article http://tinyurl.com/yc486na
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