Greetings friends and family!
On behalf of Richelle, Andrew, Jenny, Jill, Elena, Emma, Alisa and I, I’d love to fill you in on the way that our first week in Lira has been going!
The bright smiles and wonderfully warm hugs of the Ugandan staff gave us a welcome that our whole team could never forget. For me, this felt like coming home after two years of being gone. I loved seeing my old friends Jimmy, Ambrose, Thomas, and Pastor James. We were also welcomed by the American interns that came to Lira a week before we arrived, and so we joined a family of Andrew and Sylvia, with their daughters Alex and Marissa, and their niece Katie, as well as two others, Jarusha and John, who are cousins. These interns have been an absolute joy to get to know, and we are so excited for the next month we will spend with them.
In the evening, the COTN staff in Uganda brought over the children that live in the orphanage and that COTN helps sponsor to keep them well fed and clothed, housed and educated. These kids are the Ugandans that some of you are helping sponsor, and it was a joy as they performed welcoming songs to us and danced as well.
Scheduling came to be an ever-changing amalgamation of needs and our own capacities to serve, so all of our team has been required to cope with a constantly shifting ministry.
Two days into our stay at Lira, when we were preparing to go to church on Sunday, I heard the voices of my friends from the short-term leadership conference team, and I just ran into the hall and was very excited to spend our team’s first Sunday service with them. Church in Uganda is an incredible fusion of high volume singing and dancing which has really given me new appreciation for all the ways that we can worship God together, even in international and multilingual community. After church we all hung out as a large group and played volleyball in the courtyard of the COTN house.
For the evening, we went to a secondary school in the outskirts of town to show the Jesus Film. There was a group of about 800 students there to interact with, and I was personally taken aback with the prospect of interacting with such a large group, but I was able to get to know a few boys and there were fifty people that gave their lives to Christ that night! That night I wrote down a few words, which read:
I have walked their streets
I have sat at their school desks
I have seen their scars
I have seen their faith and beauty
I desire to know my place here
I desire to be the best of help I can
I desire to give more of myself
I desire You.
These words were a reflection into my experience with the knowledge that many of these children have suffered extreme trauma from rebel attacks, yet they know true joy in spite of every hurt. I am so grateful of these children’s stories of triumph, and my words will never do them justice.
After organizing supplies for future ministries on Monday morning, our team was able to go into Lira on a scavenger hunt, which was also a ton of fun, in which we got to buy a live chicken, avocadoes, ground nuts, and ride on the bicycle taxis, called “boda bodas”. I was so happy to be in the marketplace as well, because the cultural richness was beyond any of my expectation, specifically being underneath the sheets and tarps that covered the stands of fruits and produce, as well as clothing vendors, with the sun creating a myriad of colors on everything within sight.
The intern team, of which I am a part, has now every day this week been visiting the Almond College, which is a short drive away from our house. While some specific teams have been doing wonderful counseling work with students who had traumatic experiences, the other interns interacted with students around the campus. I chose to introduce myself to quite a few boys, and we spent our time together as a group of about a dozen Ugandan boys with me. I was overjoyed to share with them the education I am receiving in Uganda, as well as telling stories of my childhood, which they compared to their own childhood experiences growing up in the Lira district. We actually have more in common than I thought! This interaction truly gave me more energy than I have felt since landing in Uganda.
Each of us are learning of the needs of kids in these schools, and we are assessing how we can use different ministries to address their needs. I simply cannot wait to build more relationships with these children and young adults! We seem to have a lifetime of experience to share with each other.
Yesterday, our college pastor Adam Klekowski’s team arrived to the house, around 5pm, and they marked the beginning of our in-country preparations for the Kotel Leadership Summit, a conference we all hope will hopefully enable the people of Lira to continue to build up their communities in Christ-centered ways, and the excitement is building!(For those curious, “kotel” is the Hebrew word for “holy wall” used in the chapters of the book of Nehemiah in the Bible, giving foundation and protection to the community here. Tomorrow evening we are going to begin the conference with an introduction time and many of us will coach small groups of Ugandans participating in the summit.
God is at work, and He shows Himself when we know we are getting opposition from forces of darkness. Many of our team are experiencing new trials of many kinds, and we see God providing in every case, and for that we rejoice that our God is larger than anything in this universe!
Thank you, each of you, for your prayer in support halfway around the world from us, we absolutely need that support. Please continue praying for our team, that God would grant us the courage, compassion, kindness, patience, and strength to continue His work here in Lira, and rejoice as we see new growth! Until the next blog, take care, and Obanga ni gum! (God bless you!)
Sincerely in His Hands,
Scott Thompson
