I'd just like to make clear that in my Blog this morning I wasn't attempting to insult CRO or make it seem bad. Every organisation has things wrong with it that need to be sorted, some of these things have just been made clear to me this week and I hope that this will enable you to pray for CRO more specifically and give you a clearer perspective of what is going on. Without the fantastic work of CRO these kids would have literally nothing.
One thing is for sure; the world is better off with CRO a part of it.
God Bless
Dan
jengauganda.org http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Happy Thursday!
So I left you last week on a bit of a cliff-hanger as I was just about to go to preach the gospel at the Thursday Lunchtime Evangelism session that JENGA facilitates for CRO. The whole experience there left me a bit dubious about the charity. Firstly we only have a half-hour slot on a Thursday lunch from 1230-1 because the children finish classes at 1230 and must have lunch at one on the dot. However, it appears that CRO has decided to have a programme change and not tell us, Michael says it’s because of those pesky international volunteers that come in and change the programme. Banter. Anyway I got the chance to share at 1250, which was great. My issue isn’t so much that I would get more time to be able to preach, rather the lack of communication, if I get to speak truth and encouragement into their lives at all, even just for a short while, then that is amazing. I spoke on 1 Sam 16 – Samuel’s anointing of David – speaking about life with a purpose, no matter what has been spoken over us, or what life has chucked at us. The major issue at CRO is drugs. Whenever we go there are always about 10-15 kids lent against the wall of the court where we go to minister, so high off their faces that they can’t even stand. This issue is in no way helped by the staff and volunteers at CRO who know who the dealer is, and even allow him into the compound. So even though there are so many good things happening at CRO there is also a lot of dodgyness worthy of you’re your prayer. I hope you will stand with me in this. Rant over, I promise.
On Friday the JENGA staff took part in a See Jesus conference, held by the two American blokes who had been living with me until this Tuesday. See Jesus is a sort Alpha course variant that seeks to teach about the nature of Jesus, aiding recipients to act more like Him everyday. The conference was acting to equip leaders of the area in facilitating the See Jesus course to others. At lunchtime I learnt to eat rice and beans with my hands properly, which was good comedy for those around me.
Massively relaxed weekend; played football again on Saturday morning, it seems that every time I play I get sun burn, no matter how much Sun cream I put on I seem to sweat it off immediately, re-application doesn’t even work, never mind. Had a day of sport at Elgon Hotel on Sunday, firstly watching the Rugby World Cup final and then being the only City fan in a United bar next to the Elgon car park to watch probably one of the best things I’ve ever seen, but I’ve done all my gloating already so I won’t continue.
The only other thing really of note that has happened during the week is that we have more rodents in the house. Paul managed to slay the last rat with his Panga. However we were sat in the lounge one evening and I saw another one sprinting through the kitchen and hiding under the sofa, unfortunately it managed to get away: gutted. I also spotted a mouse running into an actual mouse hole, thought that was just in cartoons. Perhaps I’ll leave a little wedge of holey cheese on a mouse trap.
Paul left the house this week to live back with the returning Doctor across the other side of the village. It’s been really fun living with Paul; I think it’s safe to say that we make a dream team. However, Ben from West Kirby is also living with us and the new JENGA volunteer Sam is arriving from Australia tomorrow, which is very exciting, we need more lads!!
I can feel God moving in my life already, he is revealing things about my character and restoring them to the way his will determines. It’s challenging but amazing at the same time.
God Bless
Dan
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Comings and Goings
Good Morning! I have realised that 2 blogs a week may be pretty impossible right now so welcome to Thursday Blog-day; I'll probably think of a better name...
This week has been a bit mental to be honest. I moved into a new place last Thursday with Paul, a volunteer working in admin at Joy Hospice. He's a good lad and we've had a good laugh having people round for dinner. Yes that's right, I've been cooking! We decided to cook Cottage Pie for the girls house and it suprisingly went pretty well, even though there were some interesting flavourings going in there. We've also just welcomed three new guys into the house, Ben who is working in cotton and will be living with us until Christmas, and two Americans, Jonothan and Brian who will be working closely with JENGA for the next week.
On a sporting front, I played football again on Saturday, this time with a very good U16s team who got to the National finals, I could definately tell the difference. I reverted to my usual role on the right flank, winning a penalty with a classic Dave Challis floated cross that seemed to hang in the air for ages, then keeper apparently fouling one of our players and a penalty was given. Because of my mzungu-ness they insisted that I take the penalty, usually not a good choice, however I slotted the ball home comfortably. Then was a mad rush back to Mount Elgon hotel to watch a disappointing Rugby match.
I have also continued to work closely with Michael who is in charge of the youth projects here at JENGA. We have been regularly going down to CRO (Child Restoration Outreach), taking part in football on a Tuesday morning and then Evangelism on a Thursday lunchtime. On outward appearance the organisation doesn't look in good shape, with most of the street children coming in high on glue. Therefore throughout the lunchtime teaching there are about 10-15 kids at the back, some of them only looking about 8 so off their faces that they can't even stand, or do anything, and the ones that can just have a mass brawl. However speaking to Levi, a local Jenga volunteer, who gave the teaching last week, they have been encouraged because there is much improvement in the numbers of these children who have drug problems, there are a few who have even gone to University or got very good jobs because of the work of CRO, without their intervention their standard of living is increased as even is there chances of surviving. I have been really touched and also a little humoured by meeting a young boy, who had better English than most of our Ugandan staff, and was telling me more about Rambo and Jackie Chan than I will ever know. He,s incredibly clever and personifies the potential that can be found in so many of these amazing children. Most of these children have either been orphaned, rejected by their parents or have run away from home due to abuse. They have no-one obligated to care for them. It must be the church who takes responsibility for these children. For more information on CRO please visit http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale. In a couple of hours I will also be giving the Lunchtime evangelism teaching.
Love and miss you all
Dan
jengauganda.org
This week has been a bit mental to be honest. I moved into a new place last Thursday with Paul, a volunteer working in admin at Joy Hospice. He's a good lad and we've had a good laugh having people round for dinner. Yes that's right, I've been cooking! We decided to cook Cottage Pie for the girls house and it suprisingly went pretty well, even though there were some interesting flavourings going in there. We've also just welcomed three new guys into the house, Ben who is working in cotton and will be living with us until Christmas, and two Americans, Jonothan and Brian who will be working closely with JENGA for the next week.
On a sporting front, I played football again on Saturday, this time with a very good U16s team who got to the National finals, I could definately tell the difference. I reverted to my usual role on the right flank, winning a penalty with a classic Dave Challis floated cross that seemed to hang in the air for ages, then keeper apparently fouling one of our players and a penalty was given. Because of my mzungu-ness they insisted that I take the penalty, usually not a good choice, however I slotted the ball home comfortably. Then was a mad rush back to Mount Elgon hotel to watch a disappointing Rugby match.
I have also continued to work closely with Michael who is in charge of the youth projects here at JENGA. We have been regularly going down to CRO (Child Restoration Outreach), taking part in football on a Tuesday morning and then Evangelism on a Thursday lunchtime. On outward appearance the organisation doesn't look in good shape, with most of the street children coming in high on glue. Therefore throughout the lunchtime teaching there are about 10-15 kids at the back, some of them only looking about 8 so off their faces that they can't even stand, or do anything, and the ones that can just have a mass brawl. However speaking to Levi, a local Jenga volunteer, who gave the teaching last week, they have been encouraged because there is much improvement in the numbers of these children who have drug problems, there are a few who have even gone to University or got very good jobs because of the work of CRO, without their intervention their standard of living is increased as even is there chances of surviving. I have been really touched and also a little humoured by meeting a young boy, who had better English than most of our Ugandan staff, and was telling me more about Rambo and Jackie Chan than I will ever know. He,s incredibly clever and personifies the potential that can be found in so many of these amazing children. Most of these children have either been orphaned, rejected by their parents or have run away from home due to abuse. They have no-one obligated to care for them. It must be the church who takes responsibility for these children. For more information on CRO please visit http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale. In a couple of hours I will also be giving the Lunchtime evangelism teaching.
Love and miss you all
Dan
jengauganda.org
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
"something just crapped in my bed..."
Haven't blogged in almost a week! So I thought I'd let you know what's been going on this week...
First thing on Monday I had my first experience of a Jenga team meeting, great to see everyone together, bantering, praying and discussing. Although the meeting was limited because the server is still down, meaning there is still very little work going on in the JENGA office as most of the work that needs to be done is on the computer. Not good. Then we did more sorting, of course...
Yesterday I had my first experience of Ugandan football. My thoughts before the game were that the stereotypical African player is skilful on the ball, but perhaps weaker physically, so naturally I thought 'what would Tony Pulis ask me to do?' I played the Jonathan Walters role. Baiscally playing as 'British' as possible, seemed to pay off with 2 goals amd one assist. Michael has invited me to come and train with thhe u16 team that he is managing on saturday which is gonna be hard work i reckon, I'll let you know.
This morning Tiff and I went down to Namatala slum to visit a lady who is building a new house, something which she massively deserves. For the last while Mary had been living in a 'house' with five other family members. This place is smaller than your classic box room in the UK, about 8ft x 4ft. In this house was a single bed which covered most of the house, Mary and three others sleep in this bed, with one of her children sleeping under the bed and one on the floor. She then bought us a couple of sodas and invited us to sit in her house, these will have costed probably 2000 shilling (50p ish). Not much to us, but to her it's massive. I found her generosity even in how she lives very humbling and challenging.
The biggest comedy moment of my stay so far happened about 20 minutes ago. I went into my room to Skype with my parents for a bit and throughout smelt something a bit odd. I thought it was my shoes because I had walked in them in Mary's semi-built house which is being built with something that smells like cow dung. However half-way through the conversation I realised that it in fact wasn't my shoes. Phoebe the cat has defacated in my bed!! Nice..
Love Dan
jengauganda.org
First thing on Monday I had my first experience of a Jenga team meeting, great to see everyone together, bantering, praying and discussing. Although the meeting was limited because the server is still down, meaning there is still very little work going on in the JENGA office as most of the work that needs to be done is on the computer. Not good. Then we did more sorting, of course...
Yesterday I had my first experience of Ugandan football. My thoughts before the game were that the stereotypical African player is skilful on the ball, but perhaps weaker physically, so naturally I thought 'what would Tony Pulis ask me to do?' I played the Jonathan Walters role. Baiscally playing as 'British' as possible, seemed to pay off with 2 goals amd one assist. Michael has invited me to come and train with thhe u16 team that he is managing on saturday which is gonna be hard work i reckon, I'll let you know.
This morning Tiff and I went down to Namatala slum to visit a lady who is building a new house, something which she massively deserves. For the last while Mary had been living in a 'house' with five other family members. This place is smaller than your classic box room in the UK, about 8ft x 4ft. In this house was a single bed which covered most of the house, Mary and three others sleep in this bed, with one of her children sleeping under the bed and one on the floor. She then bought us a couple of sodas and invited us to sit in her house, these will have costed probably 2000 shilling (50p ish). Not much to us, but to her it's massive. I found her generosity even in how she lives very humbling and challenging.
The biggest comedy moment of my stay so far happened about 20 minutes ago. I went into my room to Skype with my parents for a bit and throughout smelt something a bit odd. I thought it was my shoes because I had walked in them in Mary's semi-built house which is being built with something that smells like cow dung. However half-way through the conversation I realised that it in fact wasn't my shoes. Phoebe the cat has defacated in my bed!! Nice..
Love Dan
jengauganda.org
Thursday, 6 October 2011
I have arrived!
Actually I arrived on Monday, but only got internet now. We spent most of Monday in Kampala chasing up this container (to be explained later). Pastor Sam and I drove from Kampala to Mbale that afternoon, along the way experiencing the joy of chicken on a stick - beauty! I met the rest of my house and then pretty much crashed after only getting about 2 hours sleep the night before, and no sleep during the day. Yesterday I pretty much just chilled and recovered from the long journey.
And then comes today! Today the afformentioned container arrived. This container is full of donated items given by people around the UK and had been shipped last December, arrived in Uganda in April and after many many complications and probable dodgy dealings arrived this morning! This meant that we spent today sorting through clothes, toys, books and the like, to be distrubuted to the poor of the area over the next while. This meant that I got to meet the rest of the JENGA staff today, who were all really welcoming and very encouraging. We managed to get through the majority of the container today and will finish sorting tomorrow. Also had my first experience on a Pickie (motorbike taxi) today which was much less scary than first thought, and we didn't crash! Result! So all in all, was a pretty quality day.
Really enjoying Mbale so far. The next couple of weeks will be looking round projects that I'm interested in and seeing which ones I can get involved with.
I'll keep you posted
Dan
jengauganda.org
(p.s.this is actually from yesterday but my internet went!)
Sunday, 2 October 2011
6 hours to take-off!
Just a quickie.
Sitting here in Chorleywood with 6 hours to go until I take off. This week has been one full of Goodbyes. Just tried to catch up for the last time with as many people as I could. It's been a week of 'lasts'. I've had my last church service at ivy, my last meal at my house, my last pub trip to the Fletch among others. And even though I will miss all these things and the amazing people that make up my life in the UK I'm so excited to have a week or more of 'firsts' starting tomorrow.
Dan
jengauganda.org
Sitting here in Chorleywood with 6 hours to go until I take off. This week has been one full of Goodbyes. Just tried to catch up for the last time with as many people as I could. It's been a week of 'lasts'. I've had my last church service at ivy, my last meal at my house, my last pub trip to the Fletch among others. And even though I will miss all these things and the amazing people that make up my life in the UK I'm so excited to have a week or more of 'firsts' starting tomorrow.
Dan
jengauganda.org
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