[the africa diaries] day nine: headed to kampala

Leaving Kenya and flying to Uganda was the biggest thing on our agenda for this day. I have to admit that it was tough leaving my new friends in Kenya. Because of the great distance, I knew that it wasn’t likely that I’d see most (if any) of them again. Yet, their impact on my life is etched on my heart BIG TIME.

But we were on a mission, and our next objective was the work in Uganda.

I had heard from others on our team about how different Uganda was going to be. They talked about how friendly the Ugandan people are, but I really had a hard time grasping what they meant by that. I mean, how different could they be?

Meeting us at the airport in Kampala were two people that I’ll never forget… Reverend Jonathan and our driver Chintu (pronounced kin-too). Not only was Chintu our driver, but he was the owner of the transport company that he represented. What I thought was really cool about him is that he was also someone who had benefited from the same microfinance work that we were there to support!

At first they both seemed friendly enough, but I still didn’t see the BIG difference. That is until we made our way into downtown Kampala.

When I was in Kenya I had seen extreme poverty, but driving through Kampala allowed me to see it in mass proportions. As we drove deeper into the heart of the city, I saw lots of people who obviously had very little. I saw (lots of) trash on the streets. I saw kids without shoes.

I saw the face of extreme poverty.

Then all of the sudden we heard a rattling noise under the van. The rattling quickly turned into metal dragging on asphalt. So Chintu quickly pulled into an alley to inspect the vehicle. As soon as he stopped, there were no less than five men from the street who surrounded the van and started looking underneath with Chintu.

As it turned out a bracket broke and the spare tire had come loose underneath the van, causing it  to drag on the ground. So these street men helped remove the hanging spare. Then out of concern for our time, Chintu left the spare time with them men on the street so that he could get us to our lodging destination. He informed us that these men would hold the spare tire for him until he returned later to pick it up when he had time to fix it.

I wondered how often things like this happen back in the States. Typically when someone is broken down on the side of the road, most people (including myself) simply drive by and avoid helping the one in need. But our van was practically mobbed by people coming to help.

Then I started to understand what my teammates meant when they told me that the Ugandan people were some of the most friendly that they’ve ever encountered.

They had so little but yet gave so much of themselves to another in need. I remember thinking that I was really going to like Uganda.

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[the africa diaries] day eight: a retreat to remember

Good morning Mount Kenya!

The picture above was the view through the front door of my tent as I woke up in the morning. As the sun was rising enough to light up the sky, it still had not risen enough to creep over the top of Africa’s second highest peak.

We got up early so that we could go out on another safari drive, which was our first daytime drive. I didn’t think that I would see very much would be able to top our experience last night, but I knew that it would be good to finally see everything in the light. But nonetheless, I was ready to enjoy our day off. No work. No travel. Only rest, and enjoying God’s creation.

Our morning safari drive was fantastic!

I could not believe how many animals we encountered as we drove through the plains. We saw lots of zebras, giraffes, gazelles, warthogs, and yes… we lucked out by coming across some more lions!

These big cats are simply magnificent when roaming their natural habitat. However, what was most amazing to me was the respect that all of nature seemed to have for the lions.

We first came to a mud pit where a giraffe and some warthogs were getting some much needed refreshment. But well before we noticed what was about to happen, all of these animals came to attention and began to scatter as a beautiful lioness approached the area.

It was obvious to us that something must be going on, but we had no idea what it was. Then she emerged from bush…

I think that each one of us was just in awe over this creature as we crossed paths. Then just when I thought that the moment couldn’t get any better, a male lion came into view walking the same path as the female that we were just admiring.

When I looked at these magnificent lions, I could not help but to think of the Biblical references to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When Jesus is referred to as a Lion like this, it reveals things like His majesty, and His power and might. But I also started to realize a few other things about the presence of Christ as we sat the the presence of these lions…

• First of all, His presence demands attention. Even before he actually arrives, others in the area notice that He is coming.
• His presence also impacts the environment. Even the atmosphere seems to change when He is around. There is an electricity in the air.
• And finally, it is clear that He is the leader, and everyone else either leaves or follows.

This is a revelation that I will never forget, and I never cease to be amazed at how much we can learn about God through His creation like this.

We saw many other animals that day, and every moment of this retreat was simply breathtaking. It was great way to get some much needed rest, but it also recharged my faith. You cannot be in a place like this and not notice two important things…

1. The balance required for all life. Creation (or Intelligent Design, or whatever you want to call it) never seemed more clear to me. Any other explanation just fails to explain both the complexity and balance that exists for all life. Random chance also never seemed so improbable.
2. The beauty of God’s creation. Everything from the sunrise over Mount Kenya to the sunset over the African plain sang the praises of our Creator! I also better understand how Jesus could make a statement like “even the rocks will cry out!”

God certainly revealed Himself to us on this trip, particularly on this incredible weekend retreat! He is amazing, and I am now even more amazed with His creation! Amen!

 

To view the entire set of photos from this retreat check out the safari retreat set on Flickr.
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[the africa diaries] day seven: wrapping up business in kenya

[the africa diaries] day seven: wrapping up business in kenya

She walked up to me as I was setting up for my morning session, shook my hand, and simply stated, “I am Alice.” We laughed about that for a moment, but I never realized that this was about to be one of the most powerful moments of this trip for me.

In order to understand what I mean, you’ll have to understand part of the lesson that I was responsible for. I had taught the last lesson of the day in yesterday’s session, and was about to pick up where I left of this morning. I was responsible for teaching the section on finances. Before we finished yesterday I had already started my piece on the importance of separating personal and business money. One of the illustrations that I used was this story about a fictional person named Alice…

Alice has a small shop located in front of her house. She sells groceries, such as eggs, sugar, flour, and soap. If she needs any sugar or other groceries, she takes them from the store. Sometimes Alice loses customers because she runs out of items. She does not have enough money to buy more items until she sells something. She often does not have enough money to buy food for her family. She wonders why her business is not making money. She must ask her husband for more money to put into the business.

After this story we would continue by discussing her situation and how not separating personal and business money was affecting her ability to be successful in her business. So when this woman came to me as I was preparing for my morning lesson and introduced herself as Alice, I thought she was referring to the Alice from this illustration!

As we laughed she continued by telling me, “My real name is Alice. But today I am a new Alice!” In a sort of ironic twist, she actually meant that she was both (1) really named Alice, and (2) that she was also the Alice from yesterday’s lesson. She proudly told me that, “no more will [she] be the old Alice who is not wise with her money!”

She was incredibly grateful for what we were doing for her, and realizing the impact I was having made me feel awesome!  I felt like I was somehow becoming and important part of Alice’s life. Before I left for this trip, one member at my home church had told me that God would ‘knit my heart with theirs, and I just starting to realize that this was actually happening!

By the end of this day we had completed another great session with some amazing people. They were so grateful for what we had done that they even sang to us…

As we wrapped up our work in Kenya, we had a couple of days over the weekend before we needed to be in Uganda to do it all over again. So we headed out for a little retreat!

We had found a GREAT deal at a tented camp called Sweetwater in the area of Mount Kenya. I was incredibly excited about this much needed safari retreat!

As we arrived and got checked in, we immediately had to select the safari drives that we were going to go on. One of our options was to do a night drive, and our best chance for that was going to be to do it that night.

After dinner we loaded up in the van (a special one that the roof opens on, especially made for safari drives like this), and headed out to see some of the nighttime activity of the animals.

We saw some cool giraffes, elephants , and many other cool animals. But the highlight of the night was watching a lioness stalking a pack gazelles! It was amazing to see the big cat crouch down into an attack position and attempt to pounce her potential dinner! After several attempts this lioness never did get her prey, but to watch it was an experience that I will never forget!

After a busy week it was great to be in a place of rest but it was even better to be out in the wild in God’s amazing creation! This might sound kind of funny, but there is something about being under the African sky watching these animals that makes Creation make more sense than it ever had before.

After this amazing night drive, it was time to go get some rest. We had to get up early the next day for more safari and enjoying God’s beautiful creation…

 

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[the africa diaries] day six: starting with the next group

I was finally an accomplished missionary! Well, at least in my mind I was. After all, I had just finished my first full sessions with one of the churches in Kenya, and now I was off to another. I knew that this next group that we were about to work with would be different, I just didn’t know how.

For our next two-day session on basic Christian business skills, we had to drive about an hour outside of town into a much more rural community called Kairi. Most of the drive was down poorly paved and/or dirt roads making this commute a bit of a bumpy one.

The land was beautiful! But along the way, I regularly saw people living in conditions that I just never imagined. The truth of the situation that I was watching as we drove by became quickly apparent to me. THIS is how most people in Kenya live!

While relaxing in my room in the evenings, I tried to take in some of the local culture by checking out what they had on TV. That alone was quite an experience! It has been a long time since I had to adjust the rabbit ears on a set with a 13′ screen!

One evening I was catching the local news out of Nairobi when I saw a scroll come across the bottom of the screen. Apparently Kenya Power was proud to report that now 18% of homes in Kenya had access to electricity! This was something to be proud of because it represented a huge increase in access to power in homes over recent years!

For me, the hardest part about this is realizing that the majority of these fortunate homes were culstered in the larger towns and cities. That meant that the area that I was driving through right now was likely well below the curve on that statistic.

The people were amazing though! As we taught our lessons at this site, I could not help but to think about the conditions that these people lived in. But nonetheless, they came and gave me lots of reasons to hope that what we were planting was going into good soil!

At times their lack of quality education smacked me in the face, but regardless of what they’ve gotten before it was easy to see their hunger for knowledge! I once again felt like the presence of our team and the knowledge that we were imparting literally uncapped their potential. All that most of these people knew was farming, and even that was on a small scale. I saw their eyeslight up as they started thinking about working together to accomplish much bigger dreams than what they previously thought possible. That was really cool!

However, I also realized another need that started to present itself. We were there to teach them BASIC business skills. But as they started to have bigger dreams for what they could do, it became obvious that they would need much more in-depth training and mentoring.

Don’t get me wrong! The two days that we gave them was successful beyond what I ever imagined! But it also opened the need for more. It breaks my heart sometimes to think that while I helped them dream big, that many of them may end up frustrated because they don’t know what to do next.

But these people are resilient… beyond anything that I’ve seen back home in the states. Somehow, they just find a way to make things work. And that is my prayer for these people. Until we can help them get even more education, Lord please help them to make good use of the tools that we gave them. Lord, help them to be successful and multiply. May the seeds that we planted, be fruitful… VERY fruitful!

There is also a bit of sadness as I wrap up this day, because it also means that my time in Kenya is coming to an end. Tonight we all have to pack up because it was our last night at our lodging place in Thika…

 

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