Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Forever and the Beginning of It
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have returned to America.
As I’m listening to Thrice’s new album, Beggars, I am reminded of a very serious simple truth that God has shown me time and time again. The song called “In Exile” resonates with my soul with where I stand right now, having my heart straddle two continents to find my own identity and to see how God’s love stretches the distance, and yet has the patience, kindness, gentleness, joy, peace, GOODNESS, to overflow out of our broken vessels. The song’s lyrics are:
I am an exile, a sojourner
A citizen of some other place
All I’ve seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror
But I know one day we’ll see face to face
I am a nomad, a wanderer
I have nowhere to lay my head down
There’s no point in putting roots too deep when I’m moving on
Than settle in this unsettling town
My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through
I am a pilgrim, a voyager
I won’t rest until my lips touch the shore
Of a land that I’ve been longing for as long as I live
Where there’ll be no pain or tears anymore
My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through
listen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHyZ4ET_ee0
And though we all will see one day that this place we call our world was just a temporary stop on the journey of our lives, I am recognizing that we are all here where we are for a reason. Like the mission field I have been living in for the last 2 months, California, and San Diego, is where my purpose now lies, and communicating all I’ve learned over the last 2 months, and all the incredible works that God has been doing in that time, is now my challenge. To be able to explain fully how the world of God moving in the hearts of the broken in Uganda meets and is a part of the lives of the people of America, is my next step.
How will I do it? I don’t know. How do I know I can? Because my God is with me, here as He was in Uganda.
Going back to the regular updates of what happened over the last few weeks in Lira, our team fell pretty ill to various diseases, and we were challenged by our ministries which never seemed to work out for our schedule. However, we successfully were able to restart our temporary school for the kids in the village that could not afford to go to school, or had no way to get to school every day. I taught a class of Primary level 4 kids and above with my fellow intern, Emma. We got to know our students pretty well, and had a blast teaching them English, math, and writing them songs to learn and sing.
We did our last ministries at the Lira hospital, praying over the sick there. This place is a serious heart testing ground with the brokenness and pain of sick children and adults, women giving painful births, and new mothers mourning over the loss of miscarried children. It was a challenge at first to realize that God was present with these people, but from talking to the many families there, I saw incredible, unmoving faith. One man was sitting in the malnutrition ward with his skeleton of a son, whose name is Dennis. The first week that we saw Dennis, he was barely able to sit up in his bed, with his skin cracking and suffering from malaria as he lost all the nutrients of his body by diarrhea and vomiting. We prayed over this boy, and I was personally afraid that we would not even see him alive the next week. When we returned, we saw the same gaunt figure sitting in bed, with his father sitting faithfully beside him. We prayed again intently, asking and accepting God’s presence into this child’s life, to be a movement of healing and restoration. Our team returned to the hospital the week before we left, and what we saw gave us all a reason to praise God deeply and wholeheartedly. Dennis could stand up, and he could hug us. Still frighteningly skinny, but Dennis was finally showing some roundness in the shape of his face, and his limbs were not showing the joints so pronounced. He was actually retaining the nutrients that the hospital was providing to him! We all praised God, and the news of this brought me to tears, and reminded me, in the midst of our own brokenness, that God was actually moving in our prayers, and in the needs and in the hopes of the needy in Uganda.
Like I said in one of my first blog posts, I have learned deeply that in the most destitute places, in the deepest sorrow, God’s glory and joy is most clearly revealed. In these times I have felt the most pain I have ever endured, and in the same breath, I have never before understood how intensely deep and wide and high and everlasting Jesus’s love for us is.
I have also learned that God is present everywhere, it’s only a matter of looking hard enough. Sometimes God’s presence is through people who love you, sometimes it is the Holy Spirit that moves your body into a tantrum of joyous worship, but in every case, God has never left our side. As I have returned to San Diego, for the remainder of summer, I know this is essential for my survival in making sure that God’s work is made lasting in my heart.
This western world is full of distractions, with the internet offering every thing that might possibly tear my attention away from God, with regular friendly activities that remind me of how I used to live, with a million choices at the supermarket of what to eat. I am fighting them head on with my bible in hand, and I hope that you will pray for my team as we search out God’s will for us to carry our stories home, so that they will meet the ears of our friends and family in the way that God intends, and that God’s glory would be revealed in all that we were able to see Him accomplish through us and despite our own lack of ability. God fills all the gaps, and I am trusting my whole life in His hands all my days.
My next ground of learning is learning the depths of God’s love. I am learning that sacrificial living for others is an incredible way to see how God loves us, and I know that the secret to who I was born to be lies in my ability to overflow with God’s love.
With this, I close a chapter of life that was partially committed to God, and open a new one, which contains a realm of which my heart spans across the globe, and I learn how to love truly, and God’s glory and goodness are known by me and proclaimed to all those I know. May the gospel blossom from my team’s mouths, and may our lives grow exceedingly outward to our communities to share God’s joy and love. May we decrease in ourselves as God increases in us.
Please rejoice in the truth of God’s word to deliver us safely throughout our trip, and to do through us works that we could not do on our own, to love beyond our own limits, to become a little bit more fully in love with God.
May God bless all of you, our supporters in prayers and finances, and all the outpouring of those who care for us. May you be blessed always as you were a crucial part of our trip, and you helped sustain us in times of trial, and helped us to not fall under the crush of oppression.
God is incredible. You really need to learn this if you don’t know it, and you need to know it more thoroughly than you do now, I am working on this still.
God is good, no matter the circumstance. No matter how bad things get, no matter how far away he might seem, he’s right next to you, holding your hand every step of the way.
God is lovely. God’s desire to be exceedingly loved comes from him loving us exceedingly. Make sure you accept this gift for all it means, and I promise you won’t be able to keep from returning the favor. This love is the greatest thing of all.
Until the next mission field beckons, I am signing off to sort out the next mission here in San Diego. I count myself a man among a family that is blessed by God, and I pray to remember every face that has touched my life thus far. My life is a work in progress, and always will be, and I pray that God gives me the patience and guidance to bless you if your life overlaps with mine sometime.
With all the love that God has blessed me to give,
Scott Thompson
PS.
I love you. You know I’m talking about you. Yeah, you. I love you.
As I’m listening to Thrice’s new album, Beggars, I am reminded of a very serious simple truth that God has shown me time and time again. The song called “In Exile” resonates with my soul with where I stand right now, having my heart straddle two continents to find my own identity and to see how God’s love stretches the distance, and yet has the patience, kindness, gentleness, joy, peace, GOODNESS, to overflow out of our broken vessels. The song’s lyrics are:
I am an exile, a sojourner
A citizen of some other place
All I’ve seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror
But I know one day we’ll see face to face
I am a nomad, a wanderer
I have nowhere to lay my head down
There’s no point in putting roots too deep when I’m moving on
Than settle in this unsettling town
My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through
I am a pilgrim, a voyager
I won’t rest until my lips touch the shore
Of a land that I’ve been longing for as long as I live
Where there’ll be no pain or tears anymore
My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through
listen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHyZ4ET_ee0
And though we all will see one day that this place we call our world was just a temporary stop on the journey of our lives, I am recognizing that we are all here where we are for a reason. Like the mission field I have been living in for the last 2 months, California, and San Diego, is where my purpose now lies, and communicating all I’ve learned over the last 2 months, and all the incredible works that God has been doing in that time, is now my challenge. To be able to explain fully how the world of God moving in the hearts of the broken in Uganda meets and is a part of the lives of the people of America, is my next step.
How will I do it? I don’t know. How do I know I can? Because my God is with me, here as He was in Uganda.
Going back to the regular updates of what happened over the last few weeks in Lira, our team fell pretty ill to various diseases, and we were challenged by our ministries which never seemed to work out for our schedule. However, we successfully were able to restart our temporary school for the kids in the village that could not afford to go to school, or had no way to get to school every day. I taught a class of Primary level 4 kids and above with my fellow intern, Emma. We got to know our students pretty well, and had a blast teaching them English, math, and writing them songs to learn and sing.
We did our last ministries at the Lira hospital, praying over the sick there. This place is a serious heart testing ground with the brokenness and pain of sick children and adults, women giving painful births, and new mothers mourning over the loss of miscarried children. It was a challenge at first to realize that God was present with these people, but from talking to the many families there, I saw incredible, unmoving faith. One man was sitting in the malnutrition ward with his skeleton of a son, whose name is Dennis. The first week that we saw Dennis, he was barely able to sit up in his bed, with his skin cracking and suffering from malaria as he lost all the nutrients of his body by diarrhea and vomiting. We prayed over this boy, and I was personally afraid that we would not even see him alive the next week. When we returned, we saw the same gaunt figure sitting in bed, with his father sitting faithfully beside him. We prayed again intently, asking and accepting God’s presence into this child’s life, to be a movement of healing and restoration. Our team returned to the hospital the week before we left, and what we saw gave us all a reason to praise God deeply and wholeheartedly. Dennis could stand up, and he could hug us. Still frighteningly skinny, but Dennis was finally showing some roundness in the shape of his face, and his limbs were not showing the joints so pronounced. He was actually retaining the nutrients that the hospital was providing to him! We all praised God, and the news of this brought me to tears, and reminded me, in the midst of our own brokenness, that God was actually moving in our prayers, and in the needs and in the hopes of the needy in Uganda.
Like I said in one of my first blog posts, I have learned deeply that in the most destitute places, in the deepest sorrow, God’s glory and joy is most clearly revealed. In these times I have felt the most pain I have ever endured, and in the same breath, I have never before understood how intensely deep and wide and high and everlasting Jesus’s love for us is.
I have also learned that God is present everywhere, it’s only a matter of looking hard enough. Sometimes God’s presence is through people who love you, sometimes it is the Holy Spirit that moves your body into a tantrum of joyous worship, but in every case, God has never left our side. As I have returned to San Diego, for the remainder of summer, I know this is essential for my survival in making sure that God’s work is made lasting in my heart.
This western world is full of distractions, with the internet offering every thing that might possibly tear my attention away from God, with regular friendly activities that remind me of how I used to live, with a million choices at the supermarket of what to eat. I am fighting them head on with my bible in hand, and I hope that you will pray for my team as we search out God’s will for us to carry our stories home, so that they will meet the ears of our friends and family in the way that God intends, and that God’s glory would be revealed in all that we were able to see Him accomplish through us and despite our own lack of ability. God fills all the gaps, and I am trusting my whole life in His hands all my days.
My next ground of learning is learning the depths of God’s love. I am learning that sacrificial living for others is an incredible way to see how God loves us, and I know that the secret to who I was born to be lies in my ability to overflow with God’s love.
With this, I close a chapter of life that was partially committed to God, and open a new one, which contains a realm of which my heart spans across the globe, and I learn how to love truly, and God’s glory and goodness are known by me and proclaimed to all those I know. May the gospel blossom from my team’s mouths, and may our lives grow exceedingly outward to our communities to share God’s joy and love. May we decrease in ourselves as God increases in us.
Please rejoice in the truth of God’s word to deliver us safely throughout our trip, and to do through us works that we could not do on our own, to love beyond our own limits, to become a little bit more fully in love with God.
May God bless all of you, our supporters in prayers and finances, and all the outpouring of those who care for us. May you be blessed always as you were a crucial part of our trip, and you helped sustain us in times of trial, and helped us to not fall under the crush of oppression.
God is incredible. You really need to learn this if you don’t know it, and you need to know it more thoroughly than you do now, I am working on this still.
God is good, no matter the circumstance. No matter how bad things get, no matter how far away he might seem, he’s right next to you, holding your hand every step of the way.
God is lovely. God’s desire to be exceedingly loved comes from him loving us exceedingly. Make sure you accept this gift for all it means, and I promise you won’t be able to keep from returning the favor. This love is the greatest thing of all.
Until the next mission field beckons, I am signing off to sort out the next mission here in San Diego. I count myself a man among a family that is blessed by God, and I pray to remember every face that has touched my life thus far. My life is a work in progress, and always will be, and I pray that God gives me the patience and guidance to bless you if your life overlaps with mine sometime.
With all the love that God has blessed me to give,
Scott Thompson
PS.
I love you. You know I’m talking about you. Yeah, you. I love you.
Monday, August 10, 2009
On the Road Home
We are packing up our things after saying goodbye to the sponsored kids of COTN Uganda. We embraced them with tears and with much joy in reflection of how wonderful our time with them has been. There is much to say, so I will post on the blog on returning to America and to let you know how the last times have truly been a blessing here in Uganda. Pray for safe travels, and for us to understand how big God is throughout the sorrow of leaving a place that has been our home and for the Ugandans that have become our family.
Psalm 84
God is good! Don't doubt it for a second.
Sincerely,
Scott
Psalm 84
God is good! Don't doubt it for a second.
Sincerely,
Scott
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Take hope, trust, bear it, and endure
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. But even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.
Philippians 4:11-14
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Philippians 4:11-14
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Ups and Downs
Quick update!
Bad news first:(
Though our leader Richelle has recovered completely from typhoid fever, our other teammate Elena has caught it, and is getting the regular treatment. She is doing very well for having this disease, and don't worry, it's very treatable. Our other teammates are getting blood tests in the morning just to make sure none of us are carrying it without knowing either.
Good news!
We resumed our village partnership school yesterday, and we had all kids who are not enrolled in school, so class sizes are down, and it's way more fun to teach! We taught today as well, and mine and Emma's class of older children were a joy as we taught them varying vowel sounds in the english language. We freshened up with songs, dances, and running laps while chanting the various vowel sounds we learned. It's hard to beat having forty teenage Ugandans eager to learn as I write letters and draw pictures on a makeshift blackboard which stands on an easel that sits before the group of kids, sitting in the grass under a huge shady tree in the midday Ugandan sun.
Please pray for my team's health as we all do not desire to be debilitated by diseases. God is good and will prevail, we know this much, but for every prayer we rejoice that you guys can be a part of our mission and support us in such a needed way. The second venture team departs in the morning, which means that we have 2 weeks left in Lira, before our excursion and our return home. Pray for our hearts to be ready for all that lies ahead, and that God would be known intimately in our hearts as we seek Him out every moment of our remaining time.
Obanga mi gum, my brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles in America!
Love,
Scott
Bad news first:(
Though our leader Richelle has recovered completely from typhoid fever, our other teammate Elena has caught it, and is getting the regular treatment. She is doing very well for having this disease, and don't worry, it's very treatable. Our other teammates are getting blood tests in the morning just to make sure none of us are carrying it without knowing either.
Good news!
We resumed our village partnership school yesterday, and we had all kids who are not enrolled in school, so class sizes are down, and it's way more fun to teach! We taught today as well, and mine and Emma's class of older children were a joy as we taught them varying vowel sounds in the english language. We freshened up with songs, dances, and running laps while chanting the various vowel sounds we learned. It's hard to beat having forty teenage Ugandans eager to learn as I write letters and draw pictures on a makeshift blackboard which stands on an easel that sits before the group of kids, sitting in the grass under a huge shady tree in the midday Ugandan sun.
Please pray for my team's health as we all do not desire to be debilitated by diseases. God is good and will prevail, we know this much, but for every prayer we rejoice that you guys can be a part of our mission and support us in such a needed way. The second venture team departs in the morning, which means that we have 2 weeks left in Lira, before our excursion and our return home. Pray for our hearts to be ready for all that lies ahead, and that God would be known intimately in our hearts as we seek Him out every moment of our remaining time.
Obanga mi gum, my brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles in America!
Love,
Scott
Saturday, July 25, 2009
5 Weeks, change, change, more change, and Ugandan kids
Hey Folks,
Sorry for the delay, it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve sent out and update on UGANDA! To tell you the truth, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster over the last two weeks. Last time, I left off at the wedding of Edward, which is still one of the top highlights of the trip. The celebration was slightly hampered by my own failing health, which caused me to be feverish while wearing my groomsman suit on a hot summer day in Uganda. Needless to say, I was very uncomfortable. The wedding involved a procession of the approximately 30 people in the wedding party exiting their cars, walking through the church at a very slow pace, and then we were left standing for about an hour during the beginning ceremonies. Of the ceremony, three things were very different than what is normally expected at a wedding. First, Caitlin, the bride, had her face wiped off incessantly with a handkerchief by one of the bridesmaids. Second, there was about a dozen people with video cameras and regular cameras acting in as paparazzi for the entire ceremony, which made it impossible for Caitlin’s parents to see what was going on. Third, there was no “you may kiss the bride”, which may be sad for us Americans, but is to be expected in a culture like Uganda’s where holding hands with your wife in public is considered too much affection shown. We were able to sit in a tent during the reception, which acted as a greenhouse and made me feel really under the weather, so I returned to the house to rest and get medicated for my symptoms. The wedding ended with the departure of the newlyweds toward their undisclosed honeymoon destination, and all our team rested well and were happy to be back in our beds.
The Monday of the 13th, we journeyed out to a place I visited 2 years ago, and a place that is forever anchored in my heart for what I learned there. 2 years ago, the area was filled with hundreds of families living in the former displacement camp, and soldier barracks still stood after years of abandonment and weather. We had teams that worked on arts and crafts, played soccer, had a health team to take care of wounds, and a photography team, working with the numerous children and adults in the area. All of this happened in the midst of a concrete ring about 200 feet in diameter, and a central monument with a plaque and description of what happened there. The ring of concrete is actually the seal on top of a mass grave for over 500 murdered men, women, and children, which all were killed on a single night, February 21, 2004 at the Barlonyo massacre. I was shocked then how there were families 3 years later who were playing games and living around this concrete ring , which stood for the extreme hardship and impact the war with the rebel army has had. Every person we spoke to had at least witnessed one of their family murdered before their eyes, and even worse which I care not to mention. My heart was moved 2 years ago when I had a joyful time with smiling kids playing soccer.
On our return to Barlonyo 2 years later, the concrete ring was nearly deserted, the army barracks taken down, and felt very empty. We met only a group of 30 or so people of various ages, and played a little bit of soccer while some of the interns, Alisa and Elena, chased around baby goats, trying to catch them. I was encouraged by the fact that this camp was mostly emptied and many people returned to their homes to live outside of the memorial, though I wish I could have seen some of the faces I met two years ago. Several of the children which are fully cared for by COTN are actually from Barlonyo, so we see that the work we are a part of has impacted even further the areas which we visited our first time in Lira.
The rest of the week following our trip to Barlonyo, we spent mornings at Mantle Primary School, helping the teachers with instructing students in English. Our plans changed as we realized that our intentions of just sitting in on classes and being assistants to the teachers were not communicated properly. My classroom, which I taught with my teammate Jill and our national staff member Agnes, was full of Primary Level 4 children, and Jill and I ended up teaching our own curriculum without any Ugandan teacher. We sat through a few awkward moments, but overall it was a pretty fun time getting students participating in grammar exercises and singing and dancing. Our impact as actual teachers may not have been life changing, but we had quite an amazing time doing it, and the kids were very happy to have us. We taught them 3 days in the morning that week, and left with great cheers and songs. Tuesday of last week, we ventured out to Otino Waa in the afternoon, which means “Our Children” in Luo, to see their programs. The facilities there contained a restaurant, where we enjoyed lunch, then we took a tour of the housing and dining areas for the hundreds of kids who live there, as well as the career building area and school which are all within the grounds. The format for living situations is what COTN is using as a model for their new Children’s Village, which is currently under construction, as I mentioned on one of the earlier blogs. It consists of groups of seven houses arranged in a circle around a central eating and cooking area, which are a distance away from the restaurant, and are near the playground and soccer fields. We left Otino Waa with full and happy stomachs, and inspiration to see how COTN might expand in the future. That evening, we had an exposition of the Jesus film to kids nearby our house, and we enjoyed several African music videos too. The intern team that I am a part of savored our last week with the Taussig family and Jon and Jerusha, spending the mornings at Mantle Primary teaching, and the afternoons doing village ministries and hanging out in Lira town.
When the weekend came, it was time for us to depart for our first safari excursion/retreat. The Taussig family stayed at home, but Jon and Jerusha came with us in the van, and we packed mattresses on top of the van and a tent for our camping location. On our way out of Lira, we pulled off the road to greet the new team which arrived in Uganda on Friday of that week, consisting of my friends Amanda, Veronica, Dave, Katie, Andrew, Stacey, and new friends David, Kirsten, Kristen, Troy, and Wanda. We simply jumped out of our vans in the early morning mist and hugged, then parted ways, knowing we would be back to see them on Sunday night. Our early morning trek brought us to the Murchison Falls National Park, where we drove for a few hours through the Ugandan savannah. During our drive, we took turns riding on the roof of the van, sitting on the mattresses and taking pictures while having an elevated view of the amazing surrounding landscape. If not for the haze, we would have been able to see for fifty miles in any direction in some places. In the morning, the wind and mist whipped across us and made us the coldest we have been thus far in Uganda. This experience is not replicable, and can’t be beat by anything I could think of. It is awesome to be driving along, and say “hey, look at that hyena walking through the tall grass!” or “hey, there’s about 30 giraffes a hundred feet to our left, including young awkward teenage giraffes!” There is also a great feeling spotting the water buffalo, the hundreds upon hundreds of antelope, warthogs, and a herd of elephants as well. Our morning drive brought us to the Nile river at about ten, where we waited for a ferry and had one of our loaves of bread stolen out of our car by a hungry mother baboon, with baby on board. We lunched at Red Chillis, our camping spot, among the company of grazing warthogs, and then we boarded a southbound tour boat with the ten of us and our Ugandan friends Jimmy and Patrick down the Nile. We were shown hundreds of hippos, elephants in herds on the shoreline, many a mean looking crocodile, and the Murchison Falls, which is an intensely tumultuous waterfall that gushes 1000 cubic meters a second (260 thousand gallons a second) through a channel only 20 feet wide. Our return trip gave us time to hang out around the lodge of Red Chillis and set up the tent for the girls to sleep in. We ate a great meal of beef stroganoff and sautéed onions with sausage and mashed potatoes for dinner, and only stayed up a few hours longer to journal before going to bed. As we were talking, rain started to pour down, and thunder rumbled as lightning flashed around in the sky, and I think we all slept very well. The next morning was an early rise to do our game drive safari through the driving paths of the national park. The drive was sunnier than the day before, but we had more variation as we sought out other animals. We saw monkeys in the forest areas alongside giraffes, and a lone elephant sitting near us toward the edge of Lake Albert. Our most impressive view was of an adult lioness standing in a thicket and staring at us, after we had searched for the better part of an hour trying to find a lion. Our game drive continued to be a beautiful spectacle, and we stopped for lunch at a resort back where the ferry crossing was. Our drive returned us to the COTN house in the evening, and into our first night spent with the new team.
Monday of this past week we ventured to Mantle Primary School to teach one last time in the morning, and spent the afternoon planning our new ministry in starting a school for the village kids near the new Children’s village, but obviously only a temporary school for the remaining 3 weeks we have here. We also went to the Lira hospital in the evening to pray for the sick and to give them soap, which was incredibly moving. We saw in the hospital many malnutrition suffering kids, malaria cases, and mothers giving birth, and praying for them all. We felt God’s heart for these kids and adults, and knew that God would watch over them. We stayed up for the better part of the night with the Taussigs and Jon and Jerusha, as they departed at 4am from the COTN house into pitch black morning and their afternoon flight lying ahead. It was truly a bittersweet day as we welcomed the new team in, and saw the old team, who were with us for a month, leave to go back home. We all had struggles coping with the loss of so many committed family members of COTN, but we pressed on to form the Yecu Amaro Otino school (Jesus Loves the Children), in the morning. My task in the morning was venturing out from the construction site with staff member Rose and Alisa and Elena, to let children in the outlying areas that we were forming a school for them to attend if they did not afford school elsewhere. We had a turnout of about 100 kids and mothers show up to be enrolled in our course, and we were very excited as we took evaluations on kids who could be potential teacher’s aids, and we also found an indoor location where we could potentially hold classes as well. We reserved the afternoon for yet another lesson planning session for Wednesday’s class, and played some fun games with the new team members in the evening. Wednesday morning brought us back to the village for day 2 of the new school. We took the first portion of our time to register more people to the school, then Emma and I began teaching the kids the alphabet and the pronunciation of English letters. While we were instructing, however, my team leader Richelle pulled me aside and gave me some very disturbing news: parents were pulling their kids from schools they were attending, and cancelling their enrollment, with the idea that our school was going to be free and full time. We also even had a woman ask us for the application to become our school’s nurse. Needless to say, this news made all of the interns, including myself, very worried about the impact of the miscommunication that we were a full time school. This second day pulled in at least 100 more people, so at midday we pulled all 200 plus people together to try to reinforce the fact that we were not holding a full time school, and we were forced to discontinue our school. Our disappointment with this new school brought us into tension not only between the interns, but between our team and the new team that came in. We brought up the issue in a meeting that night, and our teams realized that we were under spiritual attack to bring down our ministries, so we prayed against it and resolved our own feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and aggravation at others in response to what we saw as failures. Please pray with us as we look to see what God has in store with this project.
The rest of this week was spent in the children’s home, spending time with the kids we know best. This has been refreshing and uplifting on a daily basis as we have been able to grow in community with these bright young Ugandan lives that we know will shape their country someday. One of my fondest memories so far was tutoring the boys in math and English by writing in chalk on the walls around the compound of the children’s home, which was just amazing. We ventured out to the outskirts of Lira on another day to show the Jesus film, and I saw over forty young men and women come to Christ before we had to leave as Richelle has been struggling with typhoid(ps she is doing a lot better now, don’t you all go worry about us!) Yesterday we were able to join with the new team and go to a primary school in walking distance from our house, and all we did was gather the 800 students or so, and played soccer with the boys as the girls played games with our women on the team. All the kids wear green uniforms, so it was a spectacularly colorful time and we just had a blast. In the evening, we returned to Almond College, which is a secondary and technical school I mentioned in a previous blog that I visited about 3 weeks ago. We came and sat in front of the newly elected prefects of the school as well as the rest of the student body, and I shared with them the passage of Romans 5:1-11, which was laid on my heart for those students struggling in school and dealing with issues that American students would never have even dreamed of. We continued in celebration with singing and dancing, and really had a joyous time alongside my Ugandan peers, which was awesome because so many remembered our names from the weeks ago we came the first time.
Finally coming to today, we woke this morning to get ready for the wedding of our friend Christopher Odongo, which we attended in the afternoon. We were not in the wedding party this time, so we did not spend nearly as much time as before, but it was a great honor to see Chris be wed with his new bride Joyce. This afternoon we walked to the Children’s home for a game of soccer with the boys, and the girls worked on art projects. Our small courtyard proved to be quite a sprinting ground, and despite the very cloudy and windy weather cooling us down, we broke a serious sweat, and that’s when you know you’re really enjoying yourself in Uganda, whether it’s on the soccer field or in church. After losing the ball over the wall, we hung out in the courtyard with the kids, and looked at their school work and sang and danced with them, which our teammate Kristen said was a highlight for her trip.
Tomorrow holds another awesome experience at church, and ministry to go to the prisons as well as going to a singles small group to talk to Ugandan singles who have struggles with marriage and dating. Much more in store ahead, and I will update you all soon!
In the meantime, please continue praying for our intern team and our remaining weeks as we continue to seek out God’s will for us while we have time left in Lira. Pray for those on the short term team who will leave this coming Wednesday to return back home, that they would finish strong and truly observe all that God has for them on this trip. Pray for the health of our team, for Richelle’s typhoid fever to continue to improve, and for all of us to be able to do our ministries and not be distracted by these issues. Pray for the hearts of the people we encounter to be open to all that God will do through us, and pray that we would be humble servants at every moment in our remaining time. Thank you and God bless you my friends!
Sincerely in Jesus’ name,
Scott Thompson, over and out!
Psalms 73
Psalms 51
Psalms 139
Jeremiah 17
Ezekiel 34
Romans 5:1-11
Luke 10
Sorry for the delay, it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve sent out and update on UGANDA! To tell you the truth, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster over the last two weeks. Last time, I left off at the wedding of Edward, which is still one of the top highlights of the trip. The celebration was slightly hampered by my own failing health, which caused me to be feverish while wearing my groomsman suit on a hot summer day in Uganda. Needless to say, I was very uncomfortable. The wedding involved a procession of the approximately 30 people in the wedding party exiting their cars, walking through the church at a very slow pace, and then we were left standing for about an hour during the beginning ceremonies. Of the ceremony, three things were very different than what is normally expected at a wedding. First, Caitlin, the bride, had her face wiped off incessantly with a handkerchief by one of the bridesmaids. Second, there was about a dozen people with video cameras and regular cameras acting in as paparazzi for the entire ceremony, which made it impossible for Caitlin’s parents to see what was going on. Third, there was no “you may kiss the bride”, which may be sad for us Americans, but is to be expected in a culture like Uganda’s where holding hands with your wife in public is considered too much affection shown. We were able to sit in a tent during the reception, which acted as a greenhouse and made me feel really under the weather, so I returned to the house to rest and get medicated for my symptoms. The wedding ended with the departure of the newlyweds toward their undisclosed honeymoon destination, and all our team rested well and were happy to be back in our beds.
The Monday of the 13th, we journeyed out to a place I visited 2 years ago, and a place that is forever anchored in my heart for what I learned there. 2 years ago, the area was filled with hundreds of families living in the former displacement camp, and soldier barracks still stood after years of abandonment and weather. We had teams that worked on arts and crafts, played soccer, had a health team to take care of wounds, and a photography team, working with the numerous children and adults in the area. All of this happened in the midst of a concrete ring about 200 feet in diameter, and a central monument with a plaque and description of what happened there. The ring of concrete is actually the seal on top of a mass grave for over 500 murdered men, women, and children, which all were killed on a single night, February 21, 2004 at the Barlonyo massacre. I was shocked then how there were families 3 years later who were playing games and living around this concrete ring , which stood for the extreme hardship and impact the war with the rebel army has had. Every person we spoke to had at least witnessed one of their family murdered before their eyes, and even worse which I care not to mention. My heart was moved 2 years ago when I had a joyful time with smiling kids playing soccer.
On our return to Barlonyo 2 years later, the concrete ring was nearly deserted, the army barracks taken down, and felt very empty. We met only a group of 30 or so people of various ages, and played a little bit of soccer while some of the interns, Alisa and Elena, chased around baby goats, trying to catch them. I was encouraged by the fact that this camp was mostly emptied and many people returned to their homes to live outside of the memorial, though I wish I could have seen some of the faces I met two years ago. Several of the children which are fully cared for by COTN are actually from Barlonyo, so we see that the work we are a part of has impacted even further the areas which we visited our first time in Lira.
The rest of the week following our trip to Barlonyo, we spent mornings at Mantle Primary School, helping the teachers with instructing students in English. Our plans changed as we realized that our intentions of just sitting in on classes and being assistants to the teachers were not communicated properly. My classroom, which I taught with my teammate Jill and our national staff member Agnes, was full of Primary Level 4 children, and Jill and I ended up teaching our own curriculum without any Ugandan teacher. We sat through a few awkward moments, but overall it was a pretty fun time getting students participating in grammar exercises and singing and dancing. Our impact as actual teachers may not have been life changing, but we had quite an amazing time doing it, and the kids were very happy to have us. We taught them 3 days in the morning that week, and left with great cheers and songs. Tuesday of last week, we ventured out to Otino Waa in the afternoon, which means “Our Children” in Luo, to see their programs. The facilities there contained a restaurant, where we enjoyed lunch, then we took a tour of the housing and dining areas for the hundreds of kids who live there, as well as the career building area and school which are all within the grounds. The format for living situations is what COTN is using as a model for their new Children’s Village, which is currently under construction, as I mentioned on one of the earlier blogs. It consists of groups of seven houses arranged in a circle around a central eating and cooking area, which are a distance away from the restaurant, and are near the playground and soccer fields. We left Otino Waa with full and happy stomachs, and inspiration to see how COTN might expand in the future. That evening, we had an exposition of the Jesus film to kids nearby our house, and we enjoyed several African music videos too. The intern team that I am a part of savored our last week with the Taussig family and Jon and Jerusha, spending the mornings at Mantle Primary teaching, and the afternoons doing village ministries and hanging out in Lira town.
When the weekend came, it was time for us to depart for our first safari excursion/retreat. The Taussig family stayed at home, but Jon and Jerusha came with us in the van, and we packed mattresses on top of the van and a tent for our camping location. On our way out of Lira, we pulled off the road to greet the new team which arrived in Uganda on Friday of that week, consisting of my friends Amanda, Veronica, Dave, Katie, Andrew, Stacey, and new friends David, Kirsten, Kristen, Troy, and Wanda. We simply jumped out of our vans in the early morning mist and hugged, then parted ways, knowing we would be back to see them on Sunday night. Our early morning trek brought us to the Murchison Falls National Park, where we drove for a few hours through the Ugandan savannah. During our drive, we took turns riding on the roof of the van, sitting on the mattresses and taking pictures while having an elevated view of the amazing surrounding landscape. If not for the haze, we would have been able to see for fifty miles in any direction in some places. In the morning, the wind and mist whipped across us and made us the coldest we have been thus far in Uganda. This experience is not replicable, and can’t be beat by anything I could think of. It is awesome to be driving along, and say “hey, look at that hyena walking through the tall grass!” or “hey, there’s about 30 giraffes a hundred feet to our left, including young awkward teenage giraffes!” There is also a great feeling spotting the water buffalo, the hundreds upon hundreds of antelope, warthogs, and a herd of elephants as well. Our morning drive brought us to the Nile river at about ten, where we waited for a ferry and had one of our loaves of bread stolen out of our car by a hungry mother baboon, with baby on board. We lunched at Red Chillis, our camping spot, among the company of grazing warthogs, and then we boarded a southbound tour boat with the ten of us and our Ugandan friends Jimmy and Patrick down the Nile. We were shown hundreds of hippos, elephants in herds on the shoreline, many a mean looking crocodile, and the Murchison Falls, which is an intensely tumultuous waterfall that gushes 1000 cubic meters a second (260 thousand gallons a second) through a channel only 20 feet wide. Our return trip gave us time to hang out around the lodge of Red Chillis and set up the tent for the girls to sleep in. We ate a great meal of beef stroganoff and sautéed onions with sausage and mashed potatoes for dinner, and only stayed up a few hours longer to journal before going to bed. As we were talking, rain started to pour down, and thunder rumbled as lightning flashed around in the sky, and I think we all slept very well. The next morning was an early rise to do our game drive safari through the driving paths of the national park. The drive was sunnier than the day before, but we had more variation as we sought out other animals. We saw monkeys in the forest areas alongside giraffes, and a lone elephant sitting near us toward the edge of Lake Albert. Our most impressive view was of an adult lioness standing in a thicket and staring at us, after we had searched for the better part of an hour trying to find a lion. Our game drive continued to be a beautiful spectacle, and we stopped for lunch at a resort back where the ferry crossing was. Our drive returned us to the COTN house in the evening, and into our first night spent with the new team.
Monday of this past week we ventured to Mantle Primary School to teach one last time in the morning, and spent the afternoon planning our new ministry in starting a school for the village kids near the new Children’s village, but obviously only a temporary school for the remaining 3 weeks we have here. We also went to the Lira hospital in the evening to pray for the sick and to give them soap, which was incredibly moving. We saw in the hospital many malnutrition suffering kids, malaria cases, and mothers giving birth, and praying for them all. We felt God’s heart for these kids and adults, and knew that God would watch over them. We stayed up for the better part of the night with the Taussigs and Jon and Jerusha, as they departed at 4am from the COTN house into pitch black morning and their afternoon flight lying ahead. It was truly a bittersweet day as we welcomed the new team in, and saw the old team, who were with us for a month, leave to go back home. We all had struggles coping with the loss of so many committed family members of COTN, but we pressed on to form the Yecu Amaro Otino school (Jesus Loves the Children), in the morning. My task in the morning was venturing out from the construction site with staff member Rose and Alisa and Elena, to let children in the outlying areas that we were forming a school for them to attend if they did not afford school elsewhere. We had a turnout of about 100 kids and mothers show up to be enrolled in our course, and we were very excited as we took evaluations on kids who could be potential teacher’s aids, and we also found an indoor location where we could potentially hold classes as well. We reserved the afternoon for yet another lesson planning session for Wednesday’s class, and played some fun games with the new team members in the evening. Wednesday morning brought us back to the village for day 2 of the new school. We took the first portion of our time to register more people to the school, then Emma and I began teaching the kids the alphabet and the pronunciation of English letters. While we were instructing, however, my team leader Richelle pulled me aside and gave me some very disturbing news: parents were pulling their kids from schools they were attending, and cancelling their enrollment, with the idea that our school was going to be free and full time. We also even had a woman ask us for the application to become our school’s nurse. Needless to say, this news made all of the interns, including myself, very worried about the impact of the miscommunication that we were a full time school. This second day pulled in at least 100 more people, so at midday we pulled all 200 plus people together to try to reinforce the fact that we were not holding a full time school, and we were forced to discontinue our school. Our disappointment with this new school brought us into tension not only between the interns, but between our team and the new team that came in. We brought up the issue in a meeting that night, and our teams realized that we were under spiritual attack to bring down our ministries, so we prayed against it and resolved our own feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and aggravation at others in response to what we saw as failures. Please pray with us as we look to see what God has in store with this project.
The rest of this week was spent in the children’s home, spending time with the kids we know best. This has been refreshing and uplifting on a daily basis as we have been able to grow in community with these bright young Ugandan lives that we know will shape their country someday. One of my fondest memories so far was tutoring the boys in math and English by writing in chalk on the walls around the compound of the children’s home, which was just amazing. We ventured out to the outskirts of Lira on another day to show the Jesus film, and I saw over forty young men and women come to Christ before we had to leave as Richelle has been struggling with typhoid(ps she is doing a lot better now, don’t you all go worry about us!) Yesterday we were able to join with the new team and go to a primary school in walking distance from our house, and all we did was gather the 800 students or so, and played soccer with the boys as the girls played games with our women on the team. All the kids wear green uniforms, so it was a spectacularly colorful time and we just had a blast. In the evening, we returned to Almond College, which is a secondary and technical school I mentioned in a previous blog that I visited about 3 weeks ago. We came and sat in front of the newly elected prefects of the school as well as the rest of the student body, and I shared with them the passage of Romans 5:1-11, which was laid on my heart for those students struggling in school and dealing with issues that American students would never have even dreamed of. We continued in celebration with singing and dancing, and really had a joyous time alongside my Ugandan peers, which was awesome because so many remembered our names from the weeks ago we came the first time.
Finally coming to today, we woke this morning to get ready for the wedding of our friend Christopher Odongo, which we attended in the afternoon. We were not in the wedding party this time, so we did not spend nearly as much time as before, but it was a great honor to see Chris be wed with his new bride Joyce. This afternoon we walked to the Children’s home for a game of soccer with the boys, and the girls worked on art projects. Our small courtyard proved to be quite a sprinting ground, and despite the very cloudy and windy weather cooling us down, we broke a serious sweat, and that’s when you know you’re really enjoying yourself in Uganda, whether it’s on the soccer field or in church. After losing the ball over the wall, we hung out in the courtyard with the kids, and looked at their school work and sang and danced with them, which our teammate Kristen said was a highlight for her trip.
Tomorrow holds another awesome experience at church, and ministry to go to the prisons as well as going to a singles small group to talk to Ugandan singles who have struggles with marriage and dating. Much more in store ahead, and I will update you all soon!
In the meantime, please continue praying for our intern team and our remaining weeks as we continue to seek out God’s will for us while we have time left in Lira. Pray for those on the short term team who will leave this coming Wednesday to return back home, that they would finish strong and truly observe all that God has for them on this trip. Pray for the health of our team, for Richelle’s typhoid fever to continue to improve, and for all of us to be able to do our ministries and not be distracted by these issues. Pray for the hearts of the people we encounter to be open to all that God will do through us, and pray that we would be humble servants at every moment in our remaining time. Thank you and God bless you my friends!
Sincerely in Jesus’ name,
Scott Thompson, over and out!
Psalms 73
Psalms 51
Psalms 139
Jeremiah 17
Ezekiel 34
Romans 5:1-11
Luke 10
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