“Summer Breeze Makes Me Feel Fine”

  “Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowin’ through the jasmine in my mind……”, lyrics from a 1970’s song by Seals and Crofts seem to epitomize these summer days. Warmer days are here and with them, many sweet summer memories come drifting back; swimming pools opening; kids on summer break and all the activity of the summer months. Many childhood and adult memories that recall fun-filled days spent with family and friends that in all likelihood any number of you share with us. 

  A long-time Amish tradition that often happens during summer is the community creation of a handmade quilt by a group of women. Each woman brings her fabric scraps, all of different colors and styles. Together these are laid out, a pattern created and then the fabric is cut into a variety of smaller sections that will be pieced together and stitched side by side one at a time. Over the course of a number of days, this rich variety of fabrics combines to become a lovely, unique quilt that will serve a family well, providing warmth and beauty for years to come.

  Sharing a bit about the events this summer, all of them, without exception, have been connected in some way to friends or family that we’ve been privileged to have in our lives. Just like many of our best summer memories are wrapped around the names and faces of people we share those memories with, likewise, each happening this past month was connected to friends. Each relationship seems to add something richer to the patchwork that God is designing in and with our lives.

  We finished our training with Moses and Sarah the first week of the summer for our ‘Walk and Not Faint” 15km fundraiser for the children’s hall in Buloba, near Kampala. June 8th dawned bright and beautiful but even up to the morning of the event we weren’t sure how it would go because it was so unusual for our Ugandan friends. Those fears were dispelled quickly however. Thanks to Moses and Sarah’s tenacity and enthusiasm for the walk and the great efforts of our ‘mobilizer’, Ronald, the day was a MAJOR success! 

  We had over 300 hundred students from Alpha & Omega Secondary School and many members of Kiburara Gospel Center and the Buloba Church participating. The excitement was palpable when we all started off just after dawn. Everyone (including a student being treated for malaria and two boys ages 8 and 10) finished a few hours later with achy legs and feet but in high spirits. This was a memory-making event where we came together, talked, laughed, and cheered each other along.

  We raised over $1,400 US dollars plus the monies many of you generously gave which we will be taking back to Uganda! Compared to the big name walk-a-thons in the States, this may not seem like a lot, but people in this small village gave sacrificially. We count this day as a great beginning to what we hope will be an annual event for Covenant Global Ministries in the future. 

  Two days after our walk event, We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary and our Ugandan friends threw us a surprise party. We sang, ate, danced and shared some of our memories over the decades that included a number of you. Friends of many years or many months being stitched together because of the blessing of God’s gift of marriage. 

  The director of Hope Primary School, asked Mary to design the furniture layout for the school’s new library. He arrived in Kiburara the third week of summer. The furniture was constructed when we enlisted the services of a good carpenter from a nearby town. Alex, the carpenter and Mary had many phone calls, a half dozen meetings and finally the set-up times with his workmen. Yes, even in this work, another friendship was being built while together we created a colorful learning space for the children. The bonus was that it pleased David, the director of Hope Primary School, as well!

  Paul had a number of opportunities to teach biblical truths during the online lunch hour fellowship and interacted with both men and women encouraging them to bring what they see in the pages of scripture into a ‘real life’ faith. Jesus lived His day-to-day life walking with imperfect people, loving and building into His friendships with them. Paul likewise has given time to do the same even with people he usually only interacts with over WhatsApp calls! 

  We began a short furlough the end of June but even in Maryland, the Lord continues to build the Foster quilt binding us together with relationships we’ve been gifted, both present and past. We’ve had some sweet times with our daughters, sons-in-laws and grandchildren. All these relationships add a vibrance to our lives like no one else can!

  Friends we’ve been able to connect with while in the U.S., are helping to develop the ever evolving pattern to God’s creative work that we have grown to love and appreciate. People who encourage, challenge, build into, cry with, laugh with, pray with and feel all sorts of “feels” too.

  Just before we left for our furlough, we received word that three dear, long time friends had passed away unexpectedly. Upon arrival yet another two friends transitioned to be with the Lord. All of their departures were emotional for us. The ”permanence” of loss can feel like a tearing, where well placed threads stitched by God over the years are being snipped. Loss like this can be painful for sure. But the Lord reminded us that these connections in our lives haven’t been torn out, but rather they’ve been embroidered with His heart as a sort of ‘punctuation mark’. 

  All our lives are ongoing works of our good and creative Father. He brings us pieces and patches of relationships that He lovingly sews together and all the while, He’s engineering a piece of art. One that is unique and of high value. He’s doing that with us. He’s doing that with you. We never know who He’ll bring as the next piece to stitch or the next punctuation of embroidery He’ll add but let’s delight in the masterpieces He’s making of each one of us!

Rainy Season

It’s June now and dry season, (HOT and dry has begun). Rainy season this
year was short lived so we are back to soaking the gardens daily to keep the soil from hardening like cracked pavement.

When our partner Moses wanted to be more consistent in his walks AND he also
wanted to raise funds for Phase 2 for a Children’s Hall at his church plant in Buloba, we suggested we could combine two desires. Our daily walks, in preparation for our fundraising “Walkathon” event now begin predawn trying to finish our workouts in the cooler morning temps under the beautiful star lit sky.
Physical training for an event like this is something unheard of in western Uganda. People here work the soil daily and it’s hard work . They often walk 4-6 miles each way to their farms. They call it “Digging” which means hoeing, planting and harvesting the land. So it’s not like they don’t exercise.
They work hard to feed their families, to build or repair a home or pay their kids
school tuition…..not because they are fitness nuts like we are in the states.
The idea of something like a walk-a-thon isn’t something they can wrap their heads around!

Moses had participated in some 5k runs but nothing like a walk-a-thon. Pledging money is normal for weddings or burial expenses. But pledging to support a cause was unusual. Both Sarah and Moses were willing to give it a try so Paul and I took up the idea and the four of us have been faithful to stick with our training plan for the last 3 months. Next week we’ll test ourselves (along with a number of students and villagers) at the 1st Annual Walk & Not Faint 20k/15k Challenge!
Along with increased endurance and strength for our bodies, we’ve seen additional benefits. Paul and I have both lost some weight, gotten stronger, and we’ve had more time to invest in our friendship with Moses and Sarah. At times the walks have also allowed each couple to have “date” time away from the distractions and interruptions of life in a small village…………….especially a pastors life!


Our physical training also provided analogies for life here. The Bible verse “….let us run the race with perseverance, the race marked out for us”, (Hebrews 12:1b) has challenged us to focus our ministry goals too. God has set many courses for us over the years but has a specific course for us to “run” here. In sync with these goals, we’ve just wrapped up 3-modules of training in Kiburara. Teaching leaders Inductive Bible Study over the last 9-months. Like our physical training, this required endurance and focus.

Our leaders were excited to find they could learn so much from the scriptures with the right tools. Our discussions went deep and we learned a lot as we saw
how the people in the Bible dealt with some tough situations, cultural
craziness in the times they lived. The political and culture wars of our day pale in comparison to theirs!
During our final study of the Book of James, we began to visit home group meetings to see how they were understanding and incorporating the training.….so we held our breath in anticipation. The first home meeting, lead by Medius, was a group of mostly mothers and children. We met on the dirt patch in front of a small four room mud home, on chairs, benches and blankets. Worship and prayer were lively and expressive, with an accompanying drum to help keep the rhythm. Many in the group couldn’t read (just like in the early church), so Medius did an excellent job of investigating and sharing the “context” from her reading of the scripture (Who
wrote it? When? Why it was important to the church receiving the letter, etc.).

Here in Kiburara, there’s a genuine desire to apply what the Bible says, but if we don’t
understand the setting, background or culture at that time, things can easily be
misapplied. Context information is key to correctly discerning meaning and application of any text, even the newspaper.
This is especially true when we live thousands of years after the original text
was written……in completely different cultures!
As we visited the home meetings, we saw each leader own style shone through, and
we could see the four tools of context, observation, meaning then application
were being used. All the groups had good discussions and the group was interested to learn more from the Word! At our final leaders training, Medius (the first group we visited) told us that a number of neighbors, not part of the church, had begun attending their outdoor meetings because they were so interested. The churches they attend don’t encourage reading the Bible. One neighbors even volunteered to host the group so she could invite more of her friends to come! They had never heard the Bible explained in plain language, simple enough to understand, and then a discussion seeing new things!

Amazing how God will get His message out right?? Paul uses the same inductive method of study to prepare his Sunday Bible studies and we’ve also seen a ‘trickle down’ as other teachers are making context the first part of their sermons or teaching. What a difference that makes as the whole church benefits more and more as the congregation is engaging with scripture in a deeper way.


As God has woven our bible study training into our more recent 20k training, He’s
helped us fix our eyes on the goal. The Walk & Not Faint Challenge adopted the title
from Isaiah 40:31 “….they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Since last September, we, at times have felt weary or weak. We’d set goals but wondered if there’d be measurable results from our investment. Per usual though, God has taken our small investment and used it to create something good!
The “Lord’s Ask” for all of us is that we remain faithful and committed to the process,
then trust Him for the results. Ultimately He is both the race designer and the coach
running beside us to the finish line. We continue to pray that more and more will come to know Christ as Savior, enter the race and in the end, cross the finish line with us.

Your support is so important to our finishing well! Blessed to be ‘running the race marked out for us’!
Paul & Mary

“April Showers Bring May Flowers”

“April showers bring May flowers” is an idiom in the U.S., but somehow this year, it’s very applicable in Uganda too! The spring rains were late in Kiburara, but with the April showers, we have seen a greening of all the farms around us and rapid growth for the seeds planted in February.

This holds true for the gardens Mary designed and planted around our home too. Sarah wanted something pretty and Moses something edible, so she produced a plan to incorporate the two…all close to the house so we could reclaim used water for garden use in the event of drought.

We planted vegetables among the flowers and more tropical plants, like pineapple, in the same space as our Irish potatoes and interesting shrubs. It is quite a mix, and we are watching over them as any gardener would, anticipating a nice variety when the various harvests begin.

Jesus often used nature to illustrate truths for us in parables and it is not lost on us how rhythms of Nature can parallel different seasons of growth in our lives. Just as we prepared the soil in our garden, (improving the ground to receive seed) we have seen how this early gardening period resembled our early months here in Uganda. A farmer trusts that early preparation done well, will help the plants to bear fruit and it is no different in our case!

When we arrived in September (eight plus months ago) we began little by little, to till the “soil” so to speak. New concepts and ideas are like new seeds that you can get excited about growing but that need the right soil mix to grow well. We were grateful that Moses and his different teams of faithful leaders, had already begun preparing for planting deeper discipleship which has been our main thrust.

Solid growth takes time and will continue to take more as we course correct here and there. But just like our physical gardens, we have begun to see wonderful ‘first fruits’ as we invest in lives in Kiburara (western region), and in Buloba (eastern region).

Our leader’s bible study group has completed two books of the Bible together using the inductive study tools we have shown them. A handful of leaders had had training of this sort, but for our groups, this was a brand-new concept. Consequently, the conversation around the scriptures were Mary and Paul heavy. As the weeks went on, the groups got livelier, and people felt free to think through (and speak about) what we were reading and studying together. The group really benefited by all the input and different perspectives, and we were repeatedly told how helpful this training has been for them.

April 30th, we began our third training module in Kiburara. This time, in addition to our study, we will regularly observe how our members lead their own groups in the study method. Hopefully, this opens a door to encourage and strengthen them as they take the process, make it their own and pass the skills to those they lead.

Our SUV has now arrived after clearing customs and registration. With this new addition we can begin thinking how to move out to other villages and ways we can ready those places for planting too! More good stuff ahead.

Just as there are areas of a garden that sometimes do not do as well as others (for a variety of reasons), we have also seen slower progress of our initiatives. Adjustments to our listening skills has been highlighted and the need to be better learners! We have done the assumption thing too much, missing clues we should have seen! With our groups we assumed that our attendees were at a certain level of understanding just because they attend meetings or enjoy talking to Murunga’s and foreigners.

For Mary’s part, the last trimester at Alpha & Omega High School was one of sparse yields. Weeks into the term, God revealed faulty assumptions she had made as she jumped into Ruth’s story with the girls. She did not see that the girls were limited in bible knowledge due to different church and home backgrounds. She had not done her prep work well, so her progress was delayed. Despite these missteps, the girls were interested enough to come, and we kept building friendships. She is grateful for that!

Paul has had a similar epiphany with his men’s fellowship group, and we have been discussing what shifts may be needed going forward. Pray that we can listen better to God and to others in the community, so we become more discerning of change that needs to happen. We desire to bear fruit that really matters and will last.

God continues to use all sorts of ways to teach us here. Our Kiburara church has been going through the book of Acts chapter by chapter. Paul has been able to teach bible study prior to the main sermon most Sunday’s, so we have enjoyed doing a deeper dive into what the first church of Jesus followers was like.

When the Book of Acts written by Luke, the same Luke who wrote the Gospel, it details the events of the early Christian church. Wow, there is wild stuff happening! Some highlights include – Jesus ascends back to His Father as his followers watch, Peter becomes an articulate public speaker, a big crowd hears the Gospel message (each in their own language), and thousands turn to follow Christ and join the disciples in Jerusalem. As events roll on, lame men are miraculously able to walk, others have prison chains and doors opened by angels and dead people are prayed back to life!

Here is the thing though, the people who followed Jesus were just ordinary people whose hearts were open to the new life found in Him. Yes, there were miracles happening, but their day-in and day-out living grounded their community in the deep, rich soil of scripture study……..God’s redemption story, in prayer to hear from and talk to God, as well as fellowship with one another that strengthened and encouraged them. It was from THIS place that the Spirit of God produced such amazing, life altering fruit and even the miraculous!

As make shifts in how we approach the discipleship work God’s called us to here, the growth and maintenance of our physical garden provides a regular visual of how we are to nurture people well too. We are to be good “farmers” teaching others to go deep into the rich soil of the Word and trust the harvest to God. We hope that you likewise will be better farmers in the fields God has called you to care for…wherever they are! Happy Spring!!!

MID-TERM REPORT

This goes without saying, but we need to appreciate and thank you anyway. Thank you so much for your financial, emotional, spiritual and prayer support these last six months.

It will be impossible to document all the beauties and challenges we have faced and overcome these past few months, but we will highlight a few.

Truth be told our transition here to Africa has been several years in the making. You see our son-in-law and daughter helped organize the first short term trip to Kiburara in 2008, after a casual conversation between two friends at a pastor training center in Maryland. Our church had sent teams, mainly college kids, to the annual youth conference, ever since.

The point is that God used my retirement as a catalyst to serious conversations about what was next. We had a passion for the work here in Uganda-and our health was good, but we didn’t think that CGM (Covenant Global Ministries) needed our help. In fact, we had already started the application process with another group in the eastern region, when Pastor Moses and his wife approached us and asked if we would work with them instead.

We prayed and sought council, and in March 2023 accepted his offer for a two-year volunteer assignment (working without pay). Our launch date of August 2023 was delayed because of a cycling accident in July when I suffered a hip fracture.

Once I had completed physical therapy, we flew out in mid-September. During the last six months we have attended burials, weddings, baptisms, commissioning’s, births, and other numerous activities.

Our core mission is to simply live out our “Christian Lives” here in this community the same way we would live our core values back in the states. As simplistic as that sounds it’s a pretty radical concept, and a transformative idea in this context. It is no small thing living authentic lives and modeling a stable marriage in a society that has been ravaged by tribal genocide and HIV-AIDs.

The median age here is fifteen years old, so at sixty-eight years old we are considered “elders”, and we are shown a great deal of respect. Our words carry authority not just because we are from the USA but because we have four wonderful daughters, three sons-in-law, six grandkids and a forty-six-year marriage (a LEGACY unheard of in this country).

Contextualization and culture adjustment was just the beginning. English is the official language, but we felt it would be important to learn the local tribal Rukiga language and learn the Ankole regional traditions. We get giggles and hear laughter as we attempt to speak the local dialect, but we also get tons of respect for trying.

In a nutshell here it is: three burials, four weddings, two commissioning’s (with 800-1500 guest), three baptisms (about fifteen participants each time), sixteen leadership training’s in “inductive biblical studies”, fifteen men’s mentorship meetings, and hosting a variety of missionaries and local missions’ workers.

One of our most significant achievements was Mary forming a young girl’s mentoring group to provide counseling services for at risk high school students. This was stressed as one of the most important needs in the community by Pastor Moses. They have also met twenty times in these past few months.

We have found our host country friendly, the people warm and willing to go out of their way for strangers. Reading our Monthly Newsletter has given you some of our funny anecdotes and the peculiarities of life in Uganda.

The abject poverty is difficult to understand in such a rich and fertile country, but once you get your head around the mismanagement and corruption at high levels it all makes sense.

We are not a “money giving organization, we are a people changing organization!” a local NGO Group once shared. Making that clear to the community has been an important step. Not a handout but a hand up.

Demonstrating an example of stability is truly a “paradigm shift” of huge proportions. “Change the way you think, and you change the way you act”, to paraphrase Stephen Covey’s book. Taking personal responsibility for your actions will change your outcomes.

So, as they used to say on the “Prairie Home Companion”, that’s all from Lake Woebegone, where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.

Subscribe to the Monthly Newsletter at upwithuganda@gmail.com

Website www.upwithuganda.org

Brian the Chef

http://www.upwithuganda.org

Five o’clock Monday morning, and we are drinking our coffee. Then it’s out the door before the sun crests the horizon with Mama Sarah and Pastor Moses for our pre-dawn walk. We are greeted by groups of young school children and villagers on their way to their classrooms, fields or shops.

There is a flurry of physical activity here in western Uganda each morning to beat the mid-day sun. Early mornings to work the fields or prepare for long days of schooling makes good sense. Lots of outside activity either on your way to or already at work… “KORE”.

Work (‘kore’ in Runyankore) can feel very different here than in the States. The American stress of early rising, hopping in your car and battling traffic can be a test of nerves for sure…….and not much fun.

But we live in a different rhythm. Our diet has been good for our waistlines and heart health, it’s the kind of living and working with nature that our great grandparents understood. Hard physical labor to “eke” out a living or moving step by step to create a better life.

One of our friends, Brian, recently approached us for a sit-down conversation. Brian is a young well-spoken man who had gone for culinary training after high school. High school students here attend boarding schools and wake up two hours before sunrise, so they can do their homework revisions and do their laundry before a porridge breakfast at six in the morning.

He returned home to our small village after training at culinary school with his wife and baby. In Kampala, (the capital city), finding work is difficult. Unemployment and the cost of living in the city are high. Even with his lack of job prospects, Brian wasn’t deterred. He and his wife jumped back into work life here and started a small business. He still longed to pursue his dream of being a chef, and they started to save little by little toward that elusive opportunity.

We met Brian not knowing about his cooking skills. He was just a friendly guy who had helped Paul get his sandals repaired in the village. One of Moses’ friends told us more about him, and his culinary skills, so we hired Brian to cook a special meal for us. It was wonderful! He got to practice what he’d learned but he wouldn’t accept pay, only accepting the cost of the ingredients. It was his way of thanking us for coming to stay here in Kiburara.

Mary soon “recruited” Brian to help with some baking classes for some of the local women. Not a paying gig, but again, an opportunity for him to use his skills and help others in the village. At the end of those classes, he had begun to strategize with us, a way to parley these classes into a business opportunity. We were doing some brainstorming of our own of ways Paul, and I could help.

The day Brian asked us “to talk”, he wanted our advice as he considered leaving Uganda to go work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We were surprised but understood. There are so few good paying jobs here that many men leave their families for the promise of regular full-time employment…but they must agree to be away for a two-year contract.

Two years of steady work, with only a few visits home. You can imagine the challenges. This challenge is especially hard for young brides who often have several small children to feed, clothe and shelter. Relational challenges and temptations abound for both husbands and wives. Many succumb to them leaving broken marriages and lives in their wake. There are so few employment options here in Uganda that many Ugandans are willing to risk this situation, and potentially destroy their families. 

We counseled our friend, knowing his situation, and cautioned him about the “down-sides”. How had he planned to protect himself and his family when away? We prayed with him and about the pitfalls of working abroad but told him he needed to make the decision. Early the next morning, he accepted the offer and was on his way to Riyadh with the hope that he could improve his situation at home, (maybe even save enough money to continue his culinary training and follow his dream).

In the states, we sometimes imagine a simple way of living to be a life without the interruptions, and all the technologies text, emails, that barrage us daily. We can romanticize “the days of old”, when our great-grandparents worked the farm, grew their own food, and didn’t deal with the stresses we face now. But it was HARD work. Working, and doing hard work, was a way of life 100 years ago and is still a way of life here in central Africa.

In a New Testament letter written to the church in Philippi, the apostle Paul wrote “In all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—-whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:12)

Christ words from the Gospel of Matthew are words that show us a way forward into rest………..a special kind of rest that can’t be matched even after a hard day’s work. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

People here work and work hard just like Brian, and they are grateful for each new day. We see more smiles and hear more laughter here than you’d think possible under these harsh situations, not having the luxuries we enjoy today in the west…

Many of our friends lack indoor plumbing and cook over charcoal, they don’t have ovens let alone microwaves or an air fryer. They don’t have vehicles that can get them from here to there in a quick minute, spending their days walking and talking to neighbor’s.

But there is something to be said about the hard work, the “KORE” and the reward of an unharried life. A rest that can elude us in western cultures where we seem to have so much of what we want and live with such constant discontent.

Jesus invites us to HIS REST from all our efforts to earn our way to God. We can’t do it through our efforts at “being good”. By taking ‘His Yoke’ and trusting in Christ’ death for our sins and resurrection we don’t need to work our way to eternal rest with God. 

It’s true that work here on earth can be hard, but it can also bring us rewards. The greatest reward we can ever experience is one we don’t earn at all, but one gifted to us because of and through our God’s sacrifice.

Dream Search

http://www.upwithuganda.org

(Anonymous, shared with me by my daughter. Thank You Tessa)

Too many people start their dream search with a misstep. They focus mostly on the “What” (what they want) and neglect the “Who” (those special friends or friends of friends who can help them). The people in your “Who” World are the most important people in your life because they empower you to find your purpose, define your objectives, reach for your dream, fulfill your ambitions, and achieve your goals. 

 
Fear of failure keeps more people stuck in the safety of the status quo than anything else. Anxiety wants you to believe your nightmares instead of your dreams. When you’re daydreaming, where does your mind wander? Do you have a recurring dream?  

Another reason people don’t succeed in realizing their “What” (those hidden dreams, goals, ambitions, and purpose) is because they don’t take time for reflection. Busyness can masquerade as effectiveness. When you discover “What you want” you get “Who you are” thrown in. What you truly want will derive from who you really are. In other words, it will tap into your personality, your skillset, your passion.  

You must regularly clear your thoughts. This is best accomplished in a calm, quiet, soothing environment that inspires – a place where the constant noise of the regular world is not heard. Nature does that. The goal is to quiet your mind so you can begin to think reflectively. Rediscover what makes you feel fulfilled, satisfied, and content. 
When you come to the realization of “what you want” to do and it lines up with “who you are” as a person then life becomes all about doing what you love, with those you love, in a place you love, that your spouse/family also loves and doing all the “about” for the right reasons.  

The next step is to come up with a list of your dreams, goals, and aspirations. It’s important to write it down, put it up on a “dream wall” so you and your “Who” world can see it, and then begin to “dream out loud” how you’re going to get it.  

Here are five clues you’re looking for. 
1. The Recurring Dream – what preoccupies your thoughts during your waking hours. What’s holding your attention? What keeps resonating with you? That’s a clue! 


2. Gifts and Talents – What are you just naturally good at? You’ve always been good at it. It comes easy to you. 


3. Birds of a Feather – When you’re on the right track, there will be a resonance with others moving along in the same stream. There’s an unspoken acceptance. You’re all moving in the same direction. It’s a sense of not only finding yourself but also of discovering there are other swimming alongside you in this stream. If you have found your “stream,” if you have been accepted by a “tribe” – don’t take this for granted. It’s another important clue.


4. Rejection – There are people who will cut your head off for no other reason than if you’re swimming in their stream and they think you don’t belong. They’re just not going to be impressed with anything you do. You can’t win because they won’t let you win. You’re an outsider, an interloper, not of their tribe. These are not your people. They will put you down, keep you from performing at your best, and kill your spirit. They don’t wish you well, but instead desire to control you within their limited parameters designed to “keep you in your place.” It’s a clue or hint that maybe you’re on the wrong team, hanging with the wrong crowd, you’re working for the wrong company. Rejection is a severe teacher but can be even more instructive than favor because it forces you to come to grips with who you really are and who you’re not. There’s a stream for you! There’s a flow that fits you. You have friends who will lead you to it and help you in. Go where you’re celebrated, not just tolerated. 


5. Do What You Love – Doing what you “love” is one of the most essential components of finding your dream. So many people haven’t allowed love to direct their path because they really don’t believe they can do what they love, with the people they love, in a place they love, and be happy, successful, and fulfilled. 

THE RED EYE 

http://www.upwithuganda.org

It is a real thing, the red eye. I thought back twenty years ago, when I made my first overseas flight, when I met five travelers at breakfast last month. Three of them were Generation Z (in their twenties). It is hard sleeping on a plane. Flying over the Atlantic in the middle of the night. These young folk were with a small team here in central Africa for a short-term mission trip. Seeing my three young friends that morning, some of them savvy travelers and some not, I was reminded of my first overseas flight. This is a twenty-three-hour, multiple time zone trip. Feeling compassion for these fellow travelers made me think of new recruits, showing up on a battlefield, not knowing what they had just stepped into. 

They arrived in Uganda, red eyed, but good soldiers, no grumbling and remarkably chipper. 

I knew that they were running on empty, with just six hours sleep, but they showed up for breakfast without a single complaint. Introductions, pleasant small talk, and we hit the ground running, time to catch the bus for the Sunday Service. 

Thankfully, the weather was pleasant, the ride short, and we were chatting it up along the way.

We were greeted at church with enthusiasm, fist bumps and smiles from the young congregation. Expressions of joy as we were escorted to the front of the chapel, (a hastily built eucalyptus pole-structure, with metal siding, erected in the middle of a field). We are always given VIP seats, reserved for speakers and pastors upfront. 

We have asked our host in the past, if we could sit with the audience, (our western democratic leanings prefer to be among the people), but we were told that it would make the congregants uncomfortable, and that they would not know what to think. 

Settling into our seats we are introduced, and the place erupts into applause. We are just ordinary folk, nothing special here, nothing to see, but to our host there is something special, something powerful, in our presence. 

Our African family, our brothers, and sisters, have felt too often marginalized, and forgotten by westerners, by friends back home. 

For us ordinary folk, visitors from afar, just “showing up” is a huge statement. It is a statement saying, “dear friends you are not alone, you are not forgotten!”.

Our very presence is a statement. 

Humbled or rather humbling is how it feels, being so warmly welcomed by our African family, being embraced, treated as celebrities, with gestures of gratitude and joy. Humbling. Very Humbling!

As we worshipped together, us ordinary folk and our African family, we knew who the real celebrities were, the real heroes. Our African family, these are the ones left in the shadows of current affairs, marginalized by the west, but these are the true honorees. 

What a privilege to be welcomed into their “HOLY PLACE,” their sanctuary, the pole structure in a field, off a dirt road. A structure raised in just thirty days, a sign of the power and presence of God moving within their community. This truly is HOLY GROUND.

Yes, the twenty-three-hours journey, the fatigue, the red eyes are all worth it. To be standing here shoulder-to-shoulder with my African friends, in this simple Holy Place. Humbling! Very Humbling!

Retirement or Opportunities

http://www.upwithuganda.org

I would have never expected to be where I am today. This would not have been the choice I had envisioned during my career pursuing my American Dream. 

In 1971, just before high school graduation, I became a Jesus follower, some say an apprentice. This decision changed the trajectory of my life. After graduation, I was lost as to what vocation I would enter. In my indecisiveness I landed a job as a “groundsman” on a tree crew for a year, (think manual labor dragging tree limbs to the back of a brush chipper). 

Working on the tree crew and living according to my new faith would have a profound impact as I grew in my 20’s. I would have never imagined a five-decade career in the “green industry”, nor that I would still be following Jesus.

Starting at the bottom of the “green Industry” put me on the lowest rung of the success ladder, in an industry that eats up and spits out new recruits at an alarming rate. But, lacking choices or vision (this was the height of the 1970’s recession), I stuck with it and worked my way up to crew chief and eventually management.

On a parallel track as a “baby believer”, knowing next to nothing of doctrine or dogma, I grew incrementally in my faith. A confused kid with some ambition but little direction.

As I reflect back, it’s nice for older people to reflect, I realize there were no accidents during my journey. Ernest Hemingway once said, “at the most important crossroads in our life, there are no signs”. Oh yes, there were plenty of hard stops, U turns, and an occasional right turn, but no accidents. Each decision, each blunder on my part had purpose, had meaning.

The skill sets you pick up in life, by design or, as in my case, by chance, in some small, fragmented way, prepared me for the next step, the next adventure.

That’s where I find myself today, after a long and satisfying career and a long walk of faith, I’m packing up my belongings for central Africa, for a new position helping a pastor friend to plant churches, change lives and communities in rural Uganda. This was beyond my wildest dreams.

Do we all experience fears when making big decisions? Of course, we do. That’s why they are called big decisions. But, after making big decisions for decades, some good, and some not so much, I am becoming more confident taking those “leaps of faith” when I can’t see the safety net below.  

Here I am, not where I expected to be today. Mary and I have made a long-term commitment to our friends in Uganda, our next journey. We will keep you posted on how this adventure is going. Opening ourselves up to unimaginable possibilities has been frightening and transformative simultaneously. 

Register for our monthly NEWSLETTER at:  www.upwithuganda.org

Deck The Halls

http://www.upwithuganda.org

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa La, La, La, La…oh wait—PAUSE! Before we move full force into our celebrations for Christmas Paul and I wanted to share some things we’ve been particularly thankful for this past month!

September through November were busy. I (Mary) was less busy setting up our apartment in November, so I was able to shift energies toward investing more in people. A sweet result of my many hours spent setting up the house was that it allowed me to forge and strengthen  friendships begun there. I was able to help support Sarah as she prepared to host a bridal introduction event for one of her adopted daughters. The time spent building furnishings and having items sewn opened doors with Sheila, a local seamstress, and Boaz, a tailor in the next village.

Paul for his part, had begun, quite literally, “growing” new relationships in the garden. Since the house was getting spruced-up, he had to move to the outside garden for his preparation times, putting him squarely in the midst of the workers (who are both making AND laying brick). As they took their breaks throughout the day, the stage was set for Paul having some great conversations! 

Paul’s weekly meetings with the men from the church continued as well. Men gathering purposely like this isn’t common, even in the States. It’s been encouraging and beneficial for all of them to share life and care for each other in a way that Ecclesiastes 4:9 talks about. “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.”.

I hope to begin similar meetings with the women in the new year, but, through the months of October and November, I continued meeting with the secondary school girls. We whittled down our gatherings to those genuinely interested in doing bible study. Most recently, after reading about Rahab (asking context questions about her story) my Ugandan co-teacher suggested the girls do a drama to share at church. And…the girls eagerly jumped at the chance to share what they learned!

With just a bit of direction, these ladies presented their drama twice; once in English and once in the local, Runyankore language. On their own initiative, they added a song which encapsulated one of their big “take-aways”—God’s faithfulness. Rahab was a woman who would have been dismissed because of what people saw on the outside, but not God. He saw her heart and lovingly reached out to her. He’s still doing that kind of work here in Uganda!

Another primary role for us is to work alongside Pastor Moses and Pastor Ubaldo to mentor believers and strengthen church leaders’. The ultimate benefit is to equip their personal understanding of the Bible and to be discerning, wise and able to refute lies, like the prosperity gospel and animism. As they see more of the true character and nature of God we were both excited to get these trainings underway! 

The first two planned meetings got “mixed up” due to miscommunications and lots of cultural hurdles. On the third try the gathering came together. We thought we’d gotten past the “rough spots” as the meeting went well and everyone was eager to learn this new inductive study method. We planned to host the group again the following Sunday when we were informed that morning the meeting would regrettably be rescheduled, due to an unexpected funeral in the village. We were disappointed but understood.

However, after it was postponed twice more in as many days and canceled on the third try, Paul and I were struggling to think the best and began to question what in the world was going on. One successful meeting out of seven tries is not a great percentage!

Frustrated by repeated obstacles, we became discouraged. We got stuck in a veritable ‘stew’ of feeling undervalued and dismissed. Some of this boiled over to conflict with each other and regrettably being curt with our partners. God had allowed our path to become more difficult. Instead of listening to Him, the One who designed all these events, we isolated ourselves from our partners. Siloed in self-sufficiency we knew we weren’t moving in a good direction for resolution.

Paul was scheduled to preach the upcoming Sunday and during his preparations, he was struck by some scriptural principles in Edward Welch’s book “Side By Side” where the author states that “when we are in conflict, instead of pulling away from one another, we need to move towards the other.” Hmmmm…..our first ‘nudge’ back to seeing what was true.

As Paul’s message began to formulate, more wisdom emerged from this book and the pages of Scripture and the truths hit home

When we’re happy it’s because we have something we love.               

When we’re anxious it’s because something we love is at risk.                

When we’re sad or depressed, it’s because something we love is lost.     

When we are angry it’s because something we love is stolen.

With all roads eventually leading back to our relationship with God, the question becomes…Do we LOVE what He LOVES? 

We knew obstacles would come, but also that God had a way to get through them. We knew that God promises wisdom to those who ask, He helps shoulder our load along the way. He is never asleep, never unaware but active and involved in every detail. But, did we LOVE what He LOVES? He challenged us to consider if it was Jesus and His people that we loved most? Or had we gotten derailed by self-love and having things done our way?

We were reminded that the course God designs for us doesn’t mean an easy course, but challenges are what teach us grit! They can teach us to be better teammates and rely more on His direction. It also reminded us that even after forty six years together, our marriage, only thrives as we both look first to Christ, and then to helping one another, keeping guard over our own hearts.

Now, as we make a visit home, we are in a place of gratitude for God’s companionship, gratitude for His direction and help, and gratitude for the gift of walking beside each other, wherever that path takes us.

The holidays are a good time for this kind of reflection. As you move through this month we hope you, can stop for a moment to appreciate all that our good God has given us. 

For anyone who desires the challenge of a “new course” for their lives, that “new course” begins with the life we celebrate during the Christmas Season. Jesus the Messiah, God’s gift came first in a cradle and then to the cross. His death ensures our eternal life, for those willing to trust His sacrifice. We walk a “new course” with Him, when the obstacles come.

We send our most sincere wishes to you for a Blessed and Joyful Holiday!

Ode To Malachi

http://www.upwithuganda.org

One of the most difficult parts of an overseas assignment is that you are not at home for key life events. We recently lost a good companion. We knew that old age had taken its toll and that this was a strong probability, but that didn’t make the “hurt” any less. Here is our brief remembrance.

We were not certain about it that day. It had been almost three years since Chestnut had passed. Chessie’s paw print is still pressed into the concrete patio out back.

Why do we grieve so for our four-legged friends? But it had been three years, and we thought we were ready, that we were in a good place where we could think about a “new dog”.

The two-hour drive to Gettysburg, PA went quickly. The family we met had been breeding Lab’s for several years and it was a side business for two school teachers with five or six kids.  “Shopping” for a pet is ALWAYS a big mistake, because once you see those precious dark eyes you are done for. It was the same this visit, we were done!

Now it was just a question of which adorable puppy to pick out. My brother, also a dog lover, had given us some advice to discover the temperament of a young dog. One was to just call out to the pack and see which ones responded first. Another technique was to gently squeeze the puppies paw harder and a little harder, to see their “pull back” response. At any rate we were down to a choice of two pups, a coin toss.

We asked the young couple if we purchased the puppy that day could they keep the puppy for us for several weeks because we were scheduled to leave on our first African missions’ trip in about two weeks. They were agreeable and it was a done deal.

The next thirteen years have been filled with unspeakable joy, frustration, outright belly laughter, and frightening times when Malachi was sick or lost.

It’s impossible to describe to others who have never had a “dog connection”, but somehow these faithful friends worm their way into your heart with that unconditional love that makes every bad day a good day. It’s impossible to stay angry with them for very long, regardless of the infraction (i.e., destroying furniture or shoes, poop in the bedroom corner, or chasing the grandkids around the house).

So, this Ode to Malachi, is simple, I’m going to miss you buddy. You were there during my high highs, and some troubling low lows. Your love and compassion for me, when it was I who was supposed to be in charge, is unforgettable. Those big brown eyes somehow communicated that you got me, you understood in some cosmic way where I was at, at any given time.

I’m missing you already but comforted knowing your pain is gone. We often have this conversation, “will we have our dogs in Heaven”? I’m not a theologian. Somehow, I feel that God in His love and desire for my good will not withhold one of life’s greatest joys, the joy that Malachi brought me for the last thirteen years.