Ma and Pa's turn...

Arrived Tuesday at the safari rest camp, we had a meal and then relaxing on the terrace with a Club beer . . .  that is until the guy just came along and said that there is a hippo in the camp grounds coming for his night time grazing! The silhouette of an actual hippo against the lights of a tent is something I will not quickly forget.

We are finishing our time on Thursday after a mixture of experiences, and of course you only get experience by learning as you go.

A few things we enjoyed about Uganda:

• JENGA staff were welcoming and we were impressed with their service to the Ugandan church and the various ministries
• It’s been great to see Daniel again and he is really enjoying life and flourishing with the independence
• Pineapples in Uganda must be the best in the world
• Playing football with the street kids that CRO work with
• Ugandan church on Sunday – I had to give greetings from all at Ivy
• Seeing the Nile for the first time (the actual Nile)
• Nearly beating the boys at Settlers
• Dave the dog

Some things we will be happy not to experience again:

• Waiting – for everything
• Awful roads – it takes so long to go anywhere
• The heat (do people get used to it?)
• The Club next to Dan’s house – loud music every night, even louder at weekend
• Power cuts nearly every day
• Lizards in the loo

We visited a number of projects and ministries which JENGA is connected to, including the food storage facilities being built, the church in Mooni and the nutrition project at the hospital. The hospital was sad to see, often the patients were just lying on their beds and there was hardly anything by way of drips, instruments or indeed nurses. In the A&E department we visited to pray for whoever we could there was a girl who had been scalded on hot water and her wounds were open and would have been immediately dressed in the UK. We were allowed to pray with her and also for a boy who had been beaten up and had blood clots in his skull and had been unconscious for three days. There were patients in beds all close together seemingly just lying there.

In Namatala, the slum area on the outskirts of Mbale, where JENGA work in the community, we found many families in poor living conditions and a lot of people making waragi, the local brew, and several bar areas where men spent their days. Generally we thought there were many Ugandans with not enough or nothing to do all day.

I couldn’t resist joining in the football with the street kids on the local Rec, just played half an hour in the heat but great fun, a clean game and a spectacular volley which would have made me an instant hero apparently J

There is so much to tell – the 3-day safari we have just been on has been amazing, particularly the cruise down the Nile to Murchison Falls looking at hippos, crocs, elephants and other animals along the way.

We have one last journey on Thursday morning to a Rhino sanctuary on the way back to Kampala and then it’s an overnight flight home.

It has been great seeing Dan and supporting him during our time here, Christmas has seemed another world away as we have been in summer wear for two weeks. Sure I’ve missed loads off but you’ll just have to ask us more when we return.

Dave & Iris (Dan's Mum and Dad)

jengauganda.org

The Parents have arrived!

So this week has seen the arrival of Ma and Pa, I’m gonna give them a chance to share what they’ve experienced in my next post as this week’s really been about them and therefore I haven’t really done much. I’ll let them do most of the talking but I just wanted to share a couple of important things that happened this week first.

So most of my week has been showing mum and dad around Mbale and some of the projects which for me has been really cool, I’ve seen these things from my perspective but to hear about their view has been great, I’m really glad they’ve come out and seen JENGA, it’s the best way for them to see clearly what I’ve been up to, there’s only so much I can say, I can’t really fairly convey what’s going on, I’m giving my best though.

The only thing I really did this week was yesterday: I preached at Bethel. I proper loved it. I spoke on empowering youth; Paul summed this up perfectly, ‘not a very Ugandan topic’. It really isn’t which is sort of why I wanted to do it. Began by bantering with Pastor Vinnie about the events of last Saturday and then got stuck in. For the second time just on this trip and about the fourth time in my very short preaching ‘career’, I spoke using 1 Sam 16: 1-13; when Samuel anoints David as King of Israel. I spoke about how from this David knew his calling and the promises that God had for him from an early age and therefore his confidence in God increased and he had the faith to go and slay Goliath. Then related these three parties to the people in the church: David was obviously the ‘yoof’ needing to be empowered and encouraged, Goliath is the ‘world’ and all its temptations and Samuel represents the adults of the Church/those with spiritual maturity and then went into a bit of detail about how we can better do this. I think it went pretty well. Sam was preaching the same day at a Bethel plant up the mountain so we were able to check up on each other throughout the week, kept us both accountable which was good, although of course he was much more prepared than I was..

So some time in the next couple of days there will be another post from this week from my parents, don’t miss it!

Dan x

jengauganda.org

Waiting...

Just picked up the rents from Entebbe, now on the way back to Mbale, so just thought I’d write a little something to pass the time.

After the craziness that was Monday, Tuesday was a bit more relaxed to say the least. Went to CRO again: it was proper cool this week. After Monday I found it so refreshing being around these kids, I feel so blessed every time I go to see them. Getting to know a few of them quite well now, building loving, encouraging relationships that build these kids up is so important, especially when the rest of their world is just knocking them down. Took the afternoon off to recover from Monday and then went to Madam’s for tea. Good day.

Wednesday was a standard office day. Then on Thursday I preached again at CRO. Spoke about how God is the only thing we can rely on in this world to be eternal and to never leave us or forsake us. And about how drugs can only give us a temporary high, but when we rely fully on God and trust in him, we will always be satisfied. It’s generally really good just to put loads of encouraging messages in when talking to them, just to speak life into their lives. Preaching again this Sunday at Bethel on holiness, I feel as though I’ve got something pretty cool to share and that God wants to do some stuff so I’m really excited about that.

On Friday we had JENGA praise and worship at our house so we again had all the JENGA staff round just to seek God for a couple of hours. Afterwards, there was some excitement. I was gonna stay at home and work for a couple of hours and then come into the office but Sam needed to work from the office so he went off. A couple of minutes after he left I just heard ‘Dan, Dan, look it’s a Cobra!!’, I legged it to see and saw Robert our Askari beating the crap out of this Cobra with a massive stick, a bit disappointing, but then after we left it for a couple of minutes it began to wriggle again, however in couldn’t strike because it was too hurt. So Robert killed it with a Panga and I wondered when I was ever gonna get the chance again to hold a wild snake, so I grabbed it off Robert. It was pretty cool because it still had muscle twitches so it was wriggling around in my hands. Felt a bit of food in its belly as well. Cool snake. I offered the Ugandans to hold it but they were scared, they thought it could still kill them even though it had no head. Right…

About an hour later I got a call from Ali who had just left saying that there was another one. This time it was personal, so I got MY Panga. Apparently it had seen the other snake and made some squeaky noises and then it arched back ready to strike. This one was as thick as your wrist and 5 ft long, a bit of a beast. It legged it and we burnt some rubber next to their nest, not been seen since. Still pretty cool though.

On Saturday I experienced the first part of my first Ugandan wedding, and I got absolutely done! Leah, JENGA’s finance director is getting married on the 17^th but her introduction (engagement) was on Saturday. Sam and I suited up and went down for around 11.45, 45 minutes late, however when we got there it hadn’t started yet so we sat and waited. During that time Vinnie came up to me and said that I had to prepare a 5 minute speech on behalf of JENGA for Leah, I was alright with this, he gave me a bit of time and it was only five minutes long. Easy. However then he came back and told me that the family said that would be too short, so I should speak for twenty minutes. Now I'm worrying. I don't know enough about Leah to talk for 20 minutes! So throughout the next eight hours I'm figuring out something that I could say; I've never been less inspired in my whole life. It comes to around 730 and someone makes the suggestion that we leave, so I'm right out the door (metaphorically). On the Pick-up back Tiff reveals to me that it was all a practical joke. Gutted. He got me good...

So Sunday was the day I went to pick up the parents. Went down with Pastor Sam in the car, sharing much banter on the way of course. Arrived at Entebbe Airport to pick them up and then went back to Airport Guest House, probably the nicest place I've stayed at so far this stay. This morning we came back to Mbale and went for a walk to Chat 'n' Chino's, a really nice coffee place in town. Really looking forward to this next week hanging out with them, God's gonna do some cool stuff. Please pray for them.

Named this 'waiting...' not only because it seems like I've spent most of my week waiting doing nothing but also because I'm really trying to spend more time waiting on God for what he wants for me both while I'm here and when I get back home. God's teaching me to wait.

Have a lovely week.

Dan x

jengauganda.org