The adventure continues

So the adventure continues. I have to say I was a bit surprised this week when Medair asked me to take over as the acting Country Director of the Congo programme. OK its only for 2 weeks but is still a big deal. You have to be fleixbile in this line work, no doubt about that. My move to Dungu has been put back by two weeks. Anyway, i was greatly blessed to recieve this message from Lynn, one of the pastors at my church back home in Manchester. Enjoy!

I am part of the “Fellowship of the unashamed”

I have Holy Spirit Power.
The die has been cast.
I’ve stepped over the line.
The decision has been made.
I am a disciple of His.
I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.

I am finished and done with low-living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colourless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, miserly giving and dwarfed goals!

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity

I don’t have to be right, first, top, recognised, praised, regarded or rewarded.

I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer and labour by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up or burn up till I have preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up and stayed up for the cause of Christ

I am a disciple of Jesus, I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know and work till He stops.

And when He comes to get His own. He’ll have no problems recognising me. My colours will be clear

Switzerland

So last week i was back in Europe for the first time in 5 months. I was attending the Medair logistics conference in Lac Neuchatel, close to lausanne. It was a great week, a fantastic opportunity to co-ordinate with the people who work in the other Medair country programmes, to generate ideas, see where we can do better and to plan for the future. Some photos from the week below.

The beautiful Geneva

Pictures - lots of em - Kidz House

new tire swings!

slip n slide fun - Wilson

beautiful Soki

Emma

Twister fun!!

funny faces: Wilson, Bashil, Marvin & me

trying to get baby Jonathon's legs strong!

brothers Marvin & Kevin at the pool

Cassie with Jonathon - promise that's formula in the bottle!!

all play!!!

The battle of good & evil

Here's a post my friend Julie wrote - I'll update later with some of my reflections, but wanted to share these thoughts as they've been heavy on our hearts this week!

(referring to a phone call received late one evening…) In all my 3 years of knowing Solomon, I’ve never heard that tone before. He used all the credit on his phone to call me to come right away. ‘I even don’t know what to do… I’m feeling so bad… the landlord refuses to listen… he is here and taking Mama Cissy’s things…’ I had no idea what was going on but I’ve never know Solomon to be upset, so I turned around and headed in the opposite direction than home, to Thread of Life sew shop.

I arrived to find Solomon with his arms crossed inside shop, while 2 men were relaying things from inside out into the street. The landlord (whom I’ve never met because he’s never actually been around to care about his tenants) was standing beside his car in the street. Both of them too furious to talk to each other anymore. So calmly I listened to Mr. landlord, nodding to his ludicrous reasons for kicking this women, Cissy, from Solomon’s shop. Then I went to Solomon, he was so furious about what was happening he couldn’t even think straight.

[If I were to write a manual for living & working in Uganda] I will talk about how there is ‘Good’ and there is ‘Evil’ in Uganda. Evil seeks to oppress, corrupt, destroy and frustrate the progress of Good. Good is weary but she endures because her sole purpose is to bring Life and Love to the broken, the reward is so great that it cannot be measured or found in this world. It’s incredibly black and white, and unlike America you don’t find much grey area to float along in.

Solomon is the manager of Thread of Life sew shop. He has been a part of dozens of slum women lives who have come through the TOL program. Whatever ‘it’ is… he gets it. He knows his job is more than teaching destitute to sew and make beaded necklaces – he is the church to all these women. When their kid is dying of malaria, when they ran out of food the week before, when they have no where else to go, they know where to find him – he doesn’t take that lightly. He represents the Good in this place with dignity and gentleness; he is honestly the most gentle man I know.

Mr. Landlord is an aggressive and greedy man. To me he represents the corruption and oppression that people of poverty are imprisoned by. He over charges on every single bill, he never responds when the water hasn’t been working for months and the ceiling is caving in (because he built rooms on the roof) and hassles Solomon every chance he gets – yet Solomon remains humble and compliant because being kicked out of the 3-room shop would be unthinkable…

Tonight when the Mr. Landlord came threatening to kick him out and ordered men to take Mama Cissy things into the street, Solomon stood up to him and fought back. It wasn’t fair that he flex his muscles of authority whenever he felt like, it wasn’t fair that this mother and her child had no where else to go for a few days, it wasn’t fair that her daughter Recheal was killed one year ago and it isn’t fair that she’s dying of AIDS … the list continues.

Her youngest daughter, Cathy, is 4 now and stays with her. She is the only one of her 4 (now 3) children that hasn’t gone to live in the Children’s Home. I can’t help but wonder if the situation now would even be happening if Rech hadn’t died last year – she was her mother’s greatest advocate. Now, little Cathy just stands in the corner watching, as we brought back all of her mothers things from off the street without saying a word. It amazes me how much she looks like Recheal, same strong stature, same exact face … what a reminder to me to keep fighting for Mama Cissy on Recheal behalf.

I was proud of Solomon that night for standing his ground. I really didn’t care about the landlord and all his accusations … There was no negotiating this time. We simply carried all the things back inside while he watched us and he didn’t argue because I think he recognized injustice in himself. He just drove away and I haven’t seen him since.

In my manual I would say that “to look after orphans and widows in there distress” are just words that are spoken. Security and stability are only things you hear. Community, Love, Relationships are only terms we use in ‘CLD orientation’. They all mean nothing until inaction becomes action, and that is a choice we have to make on our own. For me it’s a conscious decision not to keep walking, but for Solomon it’s a lifestyle – like how could you do anything but love. After laying out the mat on the floor between the sewing machines and saying good night to Cathy and Mama Cissy I wondered if this was the purest form of ‘religion’ … standing there in a true church.

“It’s just not fair.” I hear that often during our morning devotions at the volunteer-house. I’ve wondered why Solomon never says that. Before leaving that night I was trying to encourage him, at that point I was more concerned with Solomon being so disheartened than if Mr. Landlord was feeling disrespected or undermined. Stability is something he has to be to these women. I assured him no matter what happens he will never be alone, that there is an entire community that loves him and this ministry. I reminded him of our last TOL meeting – we talked about buying place, no more renting. To just keep working hard and maybe, depending on how Christmas sales go, we can move to a new shop sooner than we think.

The funny thing about a manual is that if it could be written, if someone figured out ‘how to help’ that would mean Africa didn’t need us to be here. I don’t think anyone has figured it out otherwise things would be better by now.

In this manual (that I won’t be writing) there will be a small clause on the very last page, because honestly … it’s only in those moments where nothing else matters, no guidelines or expectations, when you begin experience who you are and what you believe in. Only when you can’t consider anything else but love does Good have a fighting chance.

So I’m left with little advise to give because what I conclude for today may not hold true tomorrow, this is an unpredictable land where sometime Evil distorts the plan. Yesterday I wrote down the program for today, but it didn’t go at all as planned because yesterday I didn’t know that Nakato would die in the night … the 3 year old daughter to Sula, one of our staff at the volunteers house. Yesterday I didn’t know we’d be helping to plan a funeral rather than the original program to take her and Sula to the hospital to get some new tests done today.

I just hope I can continue to see all of this as an opportunity to give Good a fighting chance, to never put following Jesus in manual because the path is unpredictable, there are no rules, there is no right way… yet the reward can’t even be measured

Love,
Julie

Dungu

Sorry i have not updated my blog for some time. Its been a little busy. I took over as temporary base manager In Isiro fir a while. That coincided with demonstrations and security concerns arising in the town. The civil population decided that they were going to introuduce a `ville mort` in protest at the state of the roads in Isiro. A `ville mort` is when the local population forces the town to completely close down for 3 days.

The roads in and around Isiro are all in a dreadful state, and there is now no possible way to access Isiro by vehicle. This all despite election promises from Kabila in 2006 to improve the infrastructure. All to predictable! And of course the demonstrations turned violent, 2 people killed, looting, gunfire very close to our base. We had begun preparations to evacuate. The military and police finally brought the situation under control.

The other big news is that i will be leaving Isiro at the beginning of November. I will be taking up the position of base support manager in Dungu. You can see on the map above where Dungu is, in far North Eastern Congo. The LRA crisis touches the Northen edge of town, there are 500,000 IDP`s in the area. I will be taking over the role as Base Support manager, responsible for logistics, finance, admin, security and some donor relations. It will be a challenging environment, more basic living conditions, more insecure, just myself and 1 other expat, our medical co-ordinator. It promises to be be an interesting few months.

Random pics from this week

the pigpen on our farm!

Our pig: Boris, aka James the pig

rainy season - the road to our farm...

our taxi...stuck on the road to the farm. I'm cheering the guys on!

plaiting!

Beads made by our ladies at the Thread of Life sewing shop

Baby Jonathan with Tiffney - Jonathan just arrived last week. We think he's about 14-18 months old. He was abandoned at the local medical clinic and the police brought him to us. We're hopeful that we can find his family & try to help restore this precious boy to his true family. Until then, he's being loved back to health & smiles!

Our Kids House - Mercy Childcare Ministries

At home cell meeting from Light the World Church



We all thought this logo was fascinating...global warming anyone?

CLD Leadership Retreat

Above: Jeremy, Shane, Ben, Morgan, me, Torrie, Julie
The Come Let's Dance Leadership Team for fall 09!

A week of prayer, meetings, and play along the Nile was exactly what this core team needed to be refreshed and gain renewed vision for projects as well as their individual and collective roles within Come, Let’s Dance. Hours were spent unpacking the last four months of volunteers and growing projects; evaluating successes and failures; envisioning the future.

I continue to be amazed at the maturity and perseverance among this young group of leaders. Plus the vision forward for Come, Let's Dance which focuses on our goal of empowering young Ugandan leaders and loving deeply those in our community, is ever-resonating with my passions and hopes. During this week I was able to hear more specifically where each project is at currently: The Farm, Micro-loans to small businesses in Katanga slum, the Kids House & furthering education options for the children, Family Empowerment program, and Thread of Life sewing shop. Lots of good stuff ahead, so thankful to be here & involved with it all!

Suffering

Daily I see suffering in people’s lives that I’ve come to call friends. Isn’t it true that in so many of our relationships there are layers that can take years to peel back in order to truly know someone? I’m learning that every person I meet has such depths beyond what I see and often the little I know of them. Their history, life story, tragedies and heartaches, triumphs and joys, lie hidden beneath…yet I am often too focused on what I see, what is easiest to focus on, what doesn’t require more attention, compassion from me.

Today I was talking with my friend Deborah. She has spent years serving others: for four years she took care of 40 plus children at the kids home and is now working with us, cooking & cleaning, to raise her three-year old daughter on her own. She is often so full of cheer, with a ready smile…but tonight her eyes looked heavy. She is so distraught that her 2 younger brothers and one sister are at school & will probably have to come home soon since she doesn’t have the money to pay their school fees. (most kids go to boarding school here) All I could think was that the weight of the world is on her shoulders tonight…is that suffering? Right now, for her, it is.

Our friend Francis is going through a really rough time right now. He’s without a job and has been trying to get by, but truly has nothing to his name. Just recently he was falsely accused for stealing some money & was put into jail for a week. Jail here is about as awful as you can imagine, worse than living on the streets! Now that he’s out, he’s daily scrounging for food and trying to figure out what to do next. He was talking with Torrie today and when she mentioned that he is ‘suffering’ right now, he said no – he’s seen the suffering of street kids in Kampala, of others struggling more than he. What a perspective to have in the midst of such impossible circumstances.

I’m constantly being slapped in the face with my affluence and selfishness. And encouraged by the generous hearts of so many I live and work beside. I’m witnessing and hearing the stories of how friend provides for friend, brother for brother, grandchild for grandmother, etc. Suffering is not endured alone, but in community…at least in some cases…and that is beauty, to me the Kingdom of God here and now.

I’ve been reading an interesting book called Walking with the Poor. Here’s a quote I’ve been pondering:

“Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meaning.”

“[Shalom means] dwelling at peace with God, with self, with fellows, with nature…just relationship (living justly and experiencing justice), harmonious relationships and enjoyable relationships…belonging to an authentic and nurturing community in which one can be one’s true self and give one’s self away without becoming poor.”

Many of my friends here experience poverty on levels I’ll never, ever understand. They do live under the reality of broken relationships, a web of destruction from extorting landlords, corrupt officials and greedy family members. At the same time they experience hope and restoration through other relationships: people that are fighting for them, providing for them, journeying with them even through the valleys.

Just some thoughts I’ve had these last few days…any comments?