Excerpt from my last email update

Some people here have been asking where was God during the bombings. This seems to always be the question that is asked after a tragedy. But I have seen his hand working throughout the whole situation. It is a horrible tragedy but God saved so many people. I have heard many stories like my friend of people who were supposed to be at one of the pubs but for some reason or another ended up not going. There is also a story of two men one heard a voice from the Lord saying that he should take the other one to the bathroom. The second man didn't want to miss the end of the match but the persistence of the first made him go. Many who were around them ended up dyeing.

There have also been two other bombs that have been found by police before they were detonated. This has saved so many lives. The security levels everywhere have been heightened which is a huge comfort. I got a full bag check and pat down just to go into church this morning. There are also tons of police and army men everywhere I go.

I also know that no matter what happens I am in the will of the Lord. I truly believe that nothing happens apart from the knowledge and divine plan of the Lord. Not even these tragedies. I was reminded of a passage that God was teaching me about earlier in my trip from Daniel chapter three. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are standing before King Nebuchadnezzar after they have refused to worship the golden image. They said "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

The part about this passage that God really showed me was "But even if he does not". These men knew that God was big enough to save them from the furnace which He ended up doing. However they were going to be faithful and trust Him no matter what. I know that my God is big enough to save everyone and especially me from danger. But even if He doesn't I will continue to trust Him and hold onto my faith - for I know it is the truth.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for the country of Uganda. This is a hard time for a lot of people and it is shaking many people's faith.

Also pray for the future of Uganda. Even though this was a terrorist group I feel as though it may be a glimpse into what may happen during next years elections.

Please pray for Coryn's Mom and niece who are here. Coryn's mom is leaving next wednesday and the niece is supposed to be staying for a year. I can just see that they are both having a hard time adjusting to life here. I don't think either one quite understands the reasons for Coryn and Jamesdon living here.

Please pray for me. I just got sick today with some stomach thing. I praise God that I am at Coryn's house with cinnamon toast, sprite, a comfortable bed and curtains that block all light but I still feel crummy.

Please pray for clear guidance as to what the next steps of my life should look like and what I should be doing. With all of my different experiences here I have felt like God was telling me many different things. I just want to be faithful to the truth and to doing the work of the Lord whatever that may be for me. Specifically pray about my decision to partner with the organization "Love for the sake of Love" which my friend Andrew Vanover has started.

Finally pray that I would spend my last few weeks here wisely. I have many different things planned including a trip to Jinja with Coryn and her family. Then working with Muslims in Bombo and finally a trip to Gulu to see many of the new organizations (invisible Children, Crochet Kids, 31 Bits and Remnant) that have been started there. I have a lot planned for my last three weeks and I want to be wise about everything I am doing.

Back in Kampala

I arrived back in Kampala on Wednesday afternoon and made my way to Coryn's house. It feels so good to be back in familiar territory. I really loved my time with Pennie but it was also very draining.

I spent most of my days hanging out around the house. I really enjoyed helping to prepare meals and spending time with the family. The hard thing was that most of the people around didn't speak much english at all. I was generally left out of conversations and just sat alone with my thoughts. I would love to be able to speak the language and communicate but it was a little frustrating not to be able to very much.

I was also drained by the fact that there were always people around. During my whole stay I think the longest I was ever left alone was about 30 minutes. I usually need some time alone everyday to recharge and feel good.

Overall I loved my experience! The family included me in everything which was wonderful. I kept thinking that if I had my own space or knew the language it would have been really perfect. I loved getting to know the little girl who I have been praying for and supporting for 4 years.

For the next 3 weeks I will be with Coryn and experiencing many things with her. I will hopefully be going to stay with friends of hers in Bombo and Gulu. I will be going to see people working with Invisible Children, Crochet Kids, 31 Bits and Remnant. I will hopefully be getting experience, understanding and ideas for the future.

I would appreciate prayers for guidance for my future. I am really unsure about what God is leading me to do. I believe that God may be leading me to work with my friends new organization and help it get started. I would really just appreciate everyone's prayers.

Kimberly is currently without internet access, she asked via phone text to post word on this blog that she is safe with Penny's family and to pray for those affected by the bombings in Kampala during the world cup final game.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10593771.stm
This is the link to the story from BBC world news.
Thank you, Posted by Linda (Kim's mom)

Poverty - The way I see it now

pov·er·ty

 –noun

1.

the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence.

2.

deficiency of necessary or desirable ingredients, qualities, etc.

3.

scantiness; insufficiency

—Synonyms

insolvency, insufficiency, difficulty, need, deficiency, distress

When most people think of Africa images like this are the first thing that come to their minds. They think of half naked children with pot bellies and flies crawling all over. They think of sad and hungry faces and big brown eyes looking up desperately for help. They think of words like poverty, need, hunger, injustice, slavery and poor. These are all valid things and totally a part of life in Africa. We live in abundance and excess in the US. I don't think that we truly do not understand what it means to be satisfied with little. We tend to feel that we have a hole in our lives and we try to fill it with things. Here they are satisfied with what they have any everything that comes on top of that is a blessing and a gift that causes them to overflow with joy. What I have seen during my time in Africa is totally different than all of those thoughts I mentioned above. Granted I have met people who can only afford one meal a day, houses made from mud and sticks, children with dirty ripped clothes or no clothes at all. I have seen disease and sickness. I have truly seen need here but then I learned to look at things through different eyes. Instead of looking at life here as an America I tried to change my perspective to look at things like an African. Now that I have really gotten to know some of these people their lives are filled with joy. They take pleasure in the little things in life. They know how to work hard to live but they do not live to work. They really enjoy spending time with each other. I rarely see anyone fighting or getting upset even among the children. It may seem like there is not much money to go around but when you grow most of your own food you don't need a whole lot to survive. I think that we as rich Americans have so much to learn from these people. We truly need to learn to be satisfied with what we have and make due without the rest. We should learn to enjoy the important things like spending time with those around us and enjoying the short time we have here on earth. We should stop being in such a rush to fill up every moment of our lives but rather take the time to relax and sip on a cup of tea. We should learn to be generous with what we have and not be so selfish. I think that a lot of times as Americans we think that wealth comes from money and having things. I found this quote online "Seeing so much poverty everywhere makes me think that God is not rich. He gives the appearance of it, but I suspect some financial difficulties." [Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables," 1862] I think that Victor Hugo observed something right, there is not a lot of monetary wealth in the world. However I think that he failed to look deeper. These people have more than money. They have love, joy, grace and peace than I could ever dream of. The money that I have as an American can be gone in an instant. The things that they have can never be taken away. During my last few weeks at Biola during the Spring semester this year I learned a lot about suffering. In the Bible suffering is never said to be a fun thing but it is said to be good. As a Christian I know that when I suffer is when I grow the most. I learn to trust God more and I become a stronger and more loving person. I become more like Christ when I face hard times. I think that the ultimate blessing that God could give us is to become more like His Son by whatever means He deems necessary. If these people are lacking anything I believe that it is a blessing from God to make them more like Jesus. It is a blessing that He is withholding from many Americans. I am not saying this to cause a debate or to slam on America. I love my country and I like to live comfortably. I am just seeing now that these things might not be blessings like we think. I know that for myself I am generally greedy, selfish, self-centered, ungrateful and not satisfied with with I have. I think that this comes not from blessings but from the lack of them. I think that food, clothing, shelter, health care and education are incredible things and I pray that everyone would have the opportunity to get them. But I am seeing the grace of God more clearly in the absence of these things. I am no longer in a rush to "fix" Uganda and the problems here. Rather I am learning to be fixed and work on my own problems by the change of life style, the people around me and the new sense of God I am experiencing here. This is how I see Africa. (pictures pending)

All about my hair

After one week in Africa I decided to get my hair braided. I did this on my last trip and I loved it. When my hair is in braids I don't have to wash it, brush it or really even worry about it at all. It always just looks pretty good. Coryn found this lovely lady to do my hair for a good price. Her name is Sumin and she is a total sweetheart. It took 8 hours or so to braid all of my hair.

This is me almost 2 weeks after I had it done. I am sitting at the source of the Nile river. I didn't even have to do anything with my hair this day. I just woke up and off I went. It was so great. Especially during my time in Bethany Village, I never had to worry about washing my hair in a bucket.

Finally after 3 weeks I was ready to take my braids out. The roads here are really dusty and when my head sweats the dust just sticks to my head. I could have kept them in longer but I just wanted to feel totally clean.

It took me and some of the other girls about 2 hours to take out all of the braids. If I had running water I could have just done it in the shower, but I am in the village and there is no such thing.

After three weeks it felt so good just to have my own soft hair. I did have to wash it in a bucket using a jerry can but it worked out. I lost quite a bit of hair from the weight of the braids pulling constantly. For Africans their hair is much stronger and can handle the stress but I guess I can't. I loved my braids but because of the hair loss I am not going to be doing it again (or at least that is my plan for now).

The day after I took out my braids I did another bucket shower and washed my hair. It was then that my "Mom" informed me that she had a blow-dryer it had been well over a month since I had used one. It was so nice just to be able to have clean soft hair that looked nice.

This is me after I was done blow drying it. The kids love to feel how soft it is. As you can see from this picture I have also introduced them to some of my electronics. They love playing games and watching cartoons on my computer, listening to music and playing games on my ipod and taking pictures of everything with my cameras.

This is a photo of me hangingout with Pennie.

I made this map of africa today using Banana Fibers, or parts from the banana stalk. I think that all of the countries are there.

Chicken for lunch - not for the faint of heart, or stomach

Step 1: Catch the Chicken. I had to catch three different ones before my "mom" finally said it was big enough.

Step 2: pluck the feathers from around the neck to allow for the quickest and cleanest cut. I felt pretty horrible ripping the feathers out while the chicken was still alive, but it was better for it in the end.

Step 3: cut. I will save most of the gruesome details but we had to hold the chicken down so it didn't run away. It wasn't as bad as I had thought.

Step 4: Remove all the feathers. There are a whole lot of feathers on the chicken. It took three of us girls about 15 minutes to get them all.

Look at that naked chicken!

Step 5: Remove the intestines. This part was pretty gross so I didn't add any pictures. If you really want to see you can ask me. You remove everything from the inside then wash out the chicken.

Step 6: Smoke the chicken over a charcoal stove. This is to remove all the little hairs (yes chickens have lots of little hairs) So it is toasted to the hairs burn off. It also helps in the cooking process.

Step 7: Then the chicken is cut into small pieces and cooked all the way through.

Step 8: Eat. I did eat the chicken for lunch. It was good, just not your typical american chicken. There was a lot of skin, ligaments, bones and other stuff, not a whole lot of meat.

There you have it. Chicken lunch in 8 easy steps.

Trials to encourage me

In the last 27 days that I have been living in Uganda I have experienced some really tough situations. During the first week here while I was working at the babies home I was having a hard time adjusting to life in Uganda. I also felt like I was really doing more harm than good with these children. I was getting attached to them and vice versa and since I am not going to be able to adopt any of them I was just building them up for hurt. I struggled with the feeling that I wasn't doing any good in Uganda but only harm. I also felt like I wasn't being used much which I have come to realize is one of the major ways that I feel worthy.

I was really looking forward to going to Bethany village to be able to spend time with older kids and have some meaningful conversations. The problem was that when I arrived I had a very hard time with lifestyle. I can usually handle bugs just fine but when they are everywhere all the time including my bed it was just overwhelming. Also the children at Bethany village hardly knew english at all so when I tried to communicate most of it was lost in translation. It didn't help either that they were mostly very shy. In Ugandan culture visitors are to be treated as royality. You are supposed to serve them and not allow them to work. That is the way that I was treated for my whole stay there. I was not allowed to participate in washing dishes or clothes, I was not allowed to help with the cooking and I was not allowed to help with any yard work. I was just served tea and meals. I had really expected to be a part of the family and be involved in everything that they were doing. I was so frustrated with the lack of communication and the feeling of being totally disconnected from the family. On top of everything Becca and I got really sick for the first time. I was really ready to leave Bethany Village after just a few days but I stuck it out the whole time.

When Becca and I came back to life at the babies home everything seemed great for the first couple of days but then things got hard again. Things began to come up with the orginization we had been working for. They were usually just little things like no communication, overcharging us for things and not understanding cultural differences but they finally all became too much. As I prayed about the situation I realized that I had no peace about the situation and continuing to work with ARM. I had to tell them that when I come back from my visit with Pennie's family I will no longer be working with them. It was not a decision that I made lightly but I feel peace about it. I will be living with Coryn for those three week and she has many connections in Kampala and the surrounding areas for me to connect with. I am really excited to see what God has in store for me during that time.

For now I am staying with Pennie and her family for the next 10 days! I really love it here! The first 24 hours that I was here I was introduced to the whole family, I got a tour of the house and garden. I got to play soccer for about 4 hours with the kids. I helped to make matoke, rice, cassava, potatoes and wash dishes. I really feel like part of the family. Everyone talks to me and includes me in everything. I just found out that later today I even get to help make chicken for dinner. Everything from catching it to eating it :) I feel like all of the hard times that I have been through so far have really helped to make me appreciate my time here so much more.

I am so grateful for all of your prayers and support. During every hard time it has encouraged me knowing that I have an incredible support base. Happy 4th of July everyone! Enjoy the fireworks and festivities for me!

Here she is!

Four years of waiting.

During my trip to Africa in 2006 I met the most precious little girl named Pennie. She was 4 years old and absolutely the most beautiful child I had ever seen, I fell in love. Since that trip I have been paying her school fees so that she can go to a nice private school. We have written many letters and sent pictures over the years. I have known that I was going to see her on this trip, in fact it was a major part of my decision to come to Uganda.

Thursday July 1, 2010 around 5pm I finally got to see her. She was brought from school on a bota. She was so being so shy and was hesitant to come inside. I was able to pick out her laugh even after all of these years, after a few nervous giggles with the other children hiding out back she finally came in. In traditional Ugandan manner she got down on her knees to greet me. She was even more beautiful than I remembered. Her hair was done nicely in pencil braids and she greeted me in perfect english. Then she smiled. The happiness that I saw on her face and the joy I felt from finally getting to see her brought tears to my eyes. As I fought to keep the tears of pure joy back I picked her up and gave her a huge hug.

We spent the evening talking, playing soccer and Pennie gave me a tour of the house and garden. I am still amazed at how much english she knows. She had to go to school this morning so I got up to say goodbye and I am waiting for her to come back.

This family has been so incredible to me. They have made me feel welcome and appreciated as a visitor but also they have included me in everything that they are doing. I helped to make matoke, rice and onions, cassava and stew for lunch and even wash the dishes. I am already fitting right in. I love being able to be a part of the family and just live life with these incredible people.

Thank you for all of your prayers. The last couple of weeks has been pretty difficult on me but God has truly blessed me already with my one day with this family! I will be posting pictures as soon as I can!

All Photos

Notice the Mosque in the distance. There are tons of Muslims in Uganda. I have come to realize that the statistics that say Uganda is a Christian country are very wrong.

There are always guys walking around with these guns. They don't actually work or have ammo but its intimidation, plus it could be used to beat someone us.

This tree is FULL of birds nests. It was really cool.

My sister Charity and me before bed.

Our cook at the babies home making Chipati.

David. If I could I would adopt this boy in a heart beat!

This is me holding the chicken that I caught at Bethany Village. It took me quite some time to finally catch it but I did. (the 7 year olds were being more brave than me)

My two favorite boys at Bethany, Timpthy and Jonathan.

This is me with my friend Timothy.

This is a typical bug in Bethany. they don't really do much except look nasty and gross me out.

This is Becca playing with some of the Kids at bethany.

This is Angel. I thought for the first 3 days that it was a boy, I was wrong. She is a girl.

Just hanging out with Becca as a chicken walks by.

This is a really big and awesome lizard that was hanging out on the wall of the toilets at the clinic.

This is Coryn, Jamesdon and their newly adopted son Daniel in front of their home.

Clothes drying at bethany village.

This is the view from the dock at Bethany Village. Beating a view of lake victoria like this is hard to do.

This is my house mom and Mercy and her kids. Mercy works for Coryn and Jamesdon and she is also really great friends with the mom from my house. Her kids are Ian, Ryan and Emma (Emmanuel.)

This is Jonathan. He lives at Bethany village and he stole my heart. He is a total sweetheart. During the week with him I told everyone that he was my brother and in my heart he is.

This is my sister Charity washing the floor. The children in the house all had tons of chores. The floor got washed 3 times a day.

This is one of the HUGE spiders that guarded my bathroom. This wasn't even close to the first one that I saw. These things got to be 8 inches or so. Spiders are one of my biggest fears but I made it out alive.

This was the fishing village near Bethany.

This was just a house we passed on the way to Bethany. It doesn't look like much but it has lakeshore property on Lake Victoria. You can't really beat that.

This is Joshua. Ugandans pronounce his name as Jesh-uwa. He is currently living at Loving Hearts Babies Home. He loves to give hugs and he is really mature for his age. He has a family waiting for him in the US but there is a lot of legal adoption stuff that needs to happen first.

This is Derek. He is such a wonderful kid.

This is me getting the boys ready to go outside and play. I was helping them get their shoes on.

This is Daniel being taken on a walk with his parents.

More of the family outing. I was asked to take these pictures for their announcement for Daniel.