On our way home!

We have departed Entebbe, Uganda and have arrived safely in Amsterdam. On the whole, it has been an excellent trip. Many team members have experienced the work of Christ in new and challenging ways. There has been a lot of learning and growth and this team and everyone is thankful for the experiences we have had together.

Leaving Uganda again brought mixed emotions. We attended church at New Life Baptist church in Nakawa and had another wonderful (and long :)) worship time. Richmond preached, our team shared a couple of worship songs (albeit very American in nature) and almost 3 hours later it was time to go. We headed off to the African market which I suspect many of you reading this will be beneficiaries of that trip (if you consider loud drums beneficial). The airport security was high as you might imagine, but it was not at all unbearable and clearing to our flight went very smoothly.

We are planning to debrief in Detroit before returning home, but prayer would be appreciated. Coming home from a trip like this can be very overwhelming and returning to our own culture will not doubt bring a wide range of emotions. Please pray that our transition home to friends, family and church would go well and that our trip to Uganda would continue to bear fruits back at home.

Our flight to Mosinee returns today at 4:36 (small update from an earlier post) and we should be arriving back to Woodlands in Plover between 5:30 and 6 pm. We love you all and look forward to seeing you soon!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

Sweet Final Day

Our last full day in Uganda ended with a great night of worship as a team. We have seen a lot this week. A great medical clinic serving over 1000 patients, about 50 people making commitments to Christ, the warmest traditional African welcome in Bukeka Village, a boat trip to the source of the Nile River and a pastor's conference that saw over 180 pastors trained and encouraged. Along with that we experienced immense culture shock & frustration. We sometimes suffered from our own ignorance at other times did not understand our place here. Needless to say we have seen a wide swing of emotions that any trip of this length and uncertainty can bring. With that being said, it is safe to say this team has grown a great deal personally and spiritually and God's kingdom was advanced. For that we are thankful.....

We just concluded our last night of team devotion and we had a sweet time of worship. We sang and prayed and had a team washing of feet to end the week. I think it was meaningful for many.

We will attend church tomorrow in Nakawa and say our goodbyes. Our flight leave tomorrow night about 10 pm and we arrive back to CWA at 4:50. We look forward to seeing our families and friends!

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for the pastors that attended the pastors conference that they would take what they have learned and apply it to their own ministry effectively to the glory of God.

2. Pray for Nakawa that they would take charge of their community and be able to mobilize to follow up on the spiritual seeds planted by the clinic.

3. Pray for smooth and safe travels home.

Thanks for reading!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

Bukeka Village

What a terrific day! We spent a great day of culture and got to see "Real Africa" today. We travelled east toward Jinja and stopped on the way at Bukeka village, childhood home to Richmond and Ronnie our hosts. We were greeted there by hundreds of men women and children, dressed in some of their finest clothes, dancing, drumming, and singing. The pictures and video will tell a great story. They were so thankful we were there and presented Matt & Doug with a number of gifts including 2 chickens (yes they were very alive!), a number of pineapple, corn, pumpkin and a mystery fruit. It was a very meaningful, humbling and touching time. We visited several areas of the village a saw the vision than Richmond and Ronnie have for their community. They have already built a school facility, and have begun arranging for a demonstration farm. There is huge potential for this village!

We continued on the River Nile, and visited the actual source of River by boat. It was a remarkable team building time that was greatly enjoyed. Overall, our trip to the East was a much needed day of rest, learning and enjoying each others company!

Tomorrow begins our service at the pastors conference. 160 pastors are expected and we are looking forward to it!

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for Doug S and Jonathan as they will be keynote speakers at the conference. Pray that they would communicate clearly and their presentations would be well received and help grow each pastors that attends.

2. Pray for Nakawa and the continued protection (as the government continues to threaten demolition) needed in that community.

3. Pray for the Pastors Discipleship Network as they launch this conference and that many would be lead to come along side them with sponsorship to help fund the costs associated with their ministry.

We love you all and appreciate your prayers!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

Final Day of Clinic

Clinic has finished and we have had an incredible 3 days. For you number crunchers out there, we have disappointing news....we have no real idea how many we have served. We have an educated guess of about 1000 judging by the registrations we retained, the number of Rx's filled and the number of glasses that are gone. Counting patients really seems inconsequential when the need is so great. We have very mixed emotions tonight and as a team we are working through a wide range of feelings and the best way to express them.

We finish clinic knowing with confidence that we have helped so many people and that we hear many reports of people reporting the same to others in the community. That is great. We had an OUTSTANDING 3 days of sharing the gospel with many people coming to know the Lord. Some had the opportunity to pray with many people, others gave people clear sight for the first time, others gave medical treatment to ease suffering and still others captured personal images and family photos that will last a lifetime. We have helped many and proclaimed Christ crucified in Word and deed.

With all of that said, those great things must cross the paths of the suffering that continues to rage on in Nakawa. There is hopelessness, broken hearts, broken homes and a government that threatens more each day. There is loss of life at the World Cup explosion. There is a feeling of how could we have really done anything? How can this culture be so different from us? Did we offend anyone unknowingly? Why is this so different from other trips to South America? These are all questions a great team is asking and is becoming more open to talking through daily. Please pray for us as we sort out the impact of this trips, not only on those served but on the personal and spiritual lives of this team.

That seems pretty heavy, but it is the reality of Africa. Don't take any of this as though we are disappointed. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. We met as a team for 2 hours tonight and many agree that a great deal of growth will occur in our lives, and we will have a better understanding of our place in it. We serve a great God, and the work he has chosen for this team to do will serve to grow deeper faith, better understanding, greater wisdom and a passion for others. We continue on our Ugandan journey reminded that God is greater than any circumstance we encounter whether in Uganda or Wisconsin and his plan is for all people regardless of that circumstance.

There are so many stories to tell, each of them special to a team member. It just doesn't seem fit to try and express them in a blog that you likely only have 15 min to read. This team will be telling stories of Africa for years and we want it to be with each of you!

Prayer Requests

1. Pray for the many that have received Christ, that in the midst of the chaos in Nakawa they would find a vibrant and growing faith with brothers and sisters that will walk with them.

2. Continued good health. What little sickness we have had has been short lived and hasn't held up any work for the kingdom.

3. A meaningful day of culture tomorrow as we travel to Bukeka Village. As much as Nakawa was shocking in its poverty, the locals would tell you that Nakawa is fortunate compared to areas where "real" poverty exists. It seems hard to imagine.

4. Pray for hope in Nakawa. You hear the stories of despair from Africa, yet there is so much potential and hope. It is not a God forsaken place and our prayer for them will be an encouragement and necessary to see the day when Nakawa is the place of a God loving community filled with joy worshiping the King.

5. Pray for some different food. Please don't pray that we find a brown carbohydrate, we have plenty of that. You could also pray against matoka, g nuts, beans and chicken. It must be written however, that many on the team did enjoy the goat from last night and a few even thought the egg battered bread with liver wasn't so bad for breakfast on Tuesday!

Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you all!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

Day 2 of clinic went well. Another amazing day of seeing people and their great need. The team is handling all elements of the mission very well; especially with uncertainties and change of plans. Team building time is going remarkably well and we are thankful for the people God has put together on this trip.

Blog updates and writing may be limited because the Uganda Government has shut down the internet for sercurity reasons due to the bombing. Please don't be alarmed if we haven't written in a few days. We still would covet your prayers. Here is the list for today...

1. Pray for healing as a couple of team members are sick and not feeling well.

2. Pray for continued safety of our team and our last day of clinic. We are anticipating many more patients because it is the last day and pray that God would control crowds and tempers.

3. Prayers for directions and details in the Pastor Conference. As of today we don't have any details of how this will look and for some team members this can be stressful.

4. Prayers of encouragement for the cultural differences that we are experiencing. It is causing some frustration for the team.

Thank you again for reading and your continued support. It is a blessing to have you!

Much Love to all back home,
Team Uganda

And to all a good night....

Well, first and foremost our team is all good and we got our clinic off and running on time this morning. We had a great day!

Regarding the events in Kampala, we can give you a brief update on the events, but we will dwell on the work that God is doing in Nakawa. The explosion happened late on Sunday night (mid afternoon in the U.S.). Some of the team members heard one of them at at our hotel. We learned this morning that the explosion was relatively near our clinic site, but things were under control by the time the sun had come up. We did beef up security today, adding several additional police officers. Know that our site is completely enclosed and we feel safe. Please keep Ronnie (our main contact in Uganda) in your prayers. He lost 4 friends in the explosion and New Life Church lost one member as well.

On to the clinic....we arrived on time and there were about 100 people waiting for service. Most of what we had been promised to finish the setup was not onsite so we improvised. We made a triage table out of 4 action packers and a board, we made a few "walls" out of plastic and we didn't make fans out of anything, we just got hot. The crush of people as the clinic opened was quite remarkable. There was an attempt ahead of time to preregister patients, and that number totaled 983. Today about that many showed up who weren't registered in addition to the ones who were. It was nuts, but we got it organized and got going. We did see 317 patients today and had some medical help from a few local medical practitioners to get that accomplished. We had an HIV and malaria lab testing center and a very busy pharmacy. Near the end of the day, we had almost packed as many people into the waiting area that could possible be accommodated, both indoors and out. We are thankful for good security people who provided us a great deal of support as people were hot tired and really sick of waiting. This can be the reality of a field clinic, and our team dealt with the reality very well.

We can't tell you how much your prayers are valued. Please continue to pray for our team:

1. For continued protection and for peace in Uganda
2. That the clinic would be efficient enough to clearly communicate the gospel to those who need it most.
3. For Ronnie as he mourns the loss of friends.
4. For Pastors Discipleship Network as they continue preparations for the pastors conference

Time for bed, the matoka and mystery meat has made me drowsy and the bellering mule from the mosque will start up about 5:30 am. Good night all!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

As of tonight, we still don't have anyone remarkably sick and we have a team that is interacting well and sharing a lot of personal stories and thoughts. It is really fun to see a team grow right in front of your eyes.

The News...

Just a brief update regarding the bombings in Kampala. The team is safe! Clinic is underway with heightened security. More details of last night will follow. Keep praying for protection and attitudes to remain strong and God focused.

TIA!

A phrase heard often over the last couple of days and seen in full force today. See, TIA is This Is Africa (sometimes followed by a wry “Baby”).

We started the day with worship at New Life Baptist, a real “experience” for most everyone. African worship is lively, energetic and very active. We got a chance to sing, dance, laugh and worship. Our very own Doug Schneider delivered the message and was very well received. After about 2 ½ hours of church (yes 2 ½ hours) we proceeded to work through clinic set up which is where it got very interesting.

After months of planning, suggestions, guidance and answering questions over email, Facebook and Skype we thought we had worked out a very good plan with our African team. Upon beginning set up, it became clear the “plan” may not have been so good. Not because it was a bad plan, but because a lot was apparently lost in cultural translation, even though we speak the same language. There is way too much to write here, but suffice it to say, our day gave new perspective to the meaning “patience of Job”. Our team performed admirably and closed ranks to get the set up done, although almost 3 hours later than we thought. Let’s just say this, we have had a full on experience in cultural interaction and are quickly earning advanced degrees in the real life lab of “When Yes means No”.

We left Nakawa about 6:30 for our dinner at the Ndere Cultural Center for our reservation which was at 6 pm. Needless to say, we were dirty, smelly and tired although we looked like a million bucks in our church clothes! This is a cultural dance and music center and dinner theater which highlights the tribal and cultural arts customs of Uganda. We enjoyed another wonderful African meal of Matoka, green stuff, brown paste, some kind of bean cream, rice and meat knuckles. This is not to degrade the food, only to say we have no idea what it was. Overall the food has been pretty good, and we are all seemingly still healthy.

We returned home about 9:30 to close with worship and team time which revealed another good time of sharing observations and getting ready for bed. Upon trying to write this blog, we have learned that our hotel did not pay their Internet bill, so I am writing this now in a Word document hoping to get it cut and pasted into our blog when they decide to pay.

Tomorrow the clinic starts, which will no doubt be an adventure of its own. Apparently we have 986 patients registered although that could actually be anywhere from 75 to 2000, we are just not sure. Government officials are supposed to be attending as well, to open the clinic at 9 am. That means we likely will not start seeing patients until late morning. Yep, that’s right arrival at 9 am, and not starting for several hours. Just a lot to explain, but a great cultural experience for our team (This is one of may surprises we encountered during setup).

Prayer Requests

1. That the clinic would be allowed to open and at a reasonable time and that the government officers would be helpful and not a hinderance.

2. Continued good health. So far, no one is noticeably sick

3. Pray for the patients at the clinic and the Uganda workers. Pray they would be open to receiving the Gospel message and that our work would lift up the community.

4. Pray for Nakawa. We learned today that it is very likely that Nakawa will be bulldozed by the government in the next 12 months. We learned that a portion of Nakawa has been sold by the government to an Islamic School who want to develop the land. This will leave 10 ,000 – 20,000 homeless with no place to go and will give Satan a new place to work from.

5. Pray for patience, grace and perseverance for our team. We are working in a very frustrating cultural experience and they are holding up well. We have nearly a week left, and will need all the prayer we can get to keep our momentum going.

Thank you all for reading. Until later…..

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

First Day in Nakawa - Whew....

Hello Everyone!

Well, it was a very good day. The comment heard most often goes something like this "How could tomorrow be any better than today?" And so with that, this is the day.....

We started with a great worship time, great music and team building time. Mike Caldwell set the tone with a devotion on Faith. We didn't even start the day until the bus picked us up at 11 for our City Tour. This took us around the city to see several sights highlighted by a trip to the Namirimbe Cathedral. This is a large cathedral where there were several weddings going on (like 20 or 30 of them!). It is also a tour type place, so we were able to walk in, take some pictures, congratulate a wedding party or two, see some beautiful African dresses and get a taste of personal African culture. Lots of fun to see and experience.

We ended the tour with lunch in the city which was an absolute adventure in a food court type setting. This didn't work like your typical food court though. We sat at tables and were immediately descended upon by multiple commissioned wait staff (at least 12 of them, menus in hand) all trying to make a better deal than the person next to them. At some points it was not uncommon to have 3 or 4 waiters, all with menus, from a variety of food types talking to one person! It was like a fast food auction right at your table. Sort of fun!

With that it was off to Nakawa for a very moving afternoon. We laughed and we cried, we talked and we sat in stunned silence, we listened and we played and most importantly we prayed and we worshiped. For the majority of the team the weight of what we saw hit very hard. Some felt great emotion about kids that were just like their own, some felt bad for not feeling worse, some wanted to go in and kick butt and DO SOMETHING!, and still others had very little to say, still taking it all in. Our experience made for a great team time tonight, with a lot of emotions being shared, some of them very raw. It was really good for the team. It is clear this is a team with a lot of people who love the Lord, not just some random missionary team that went to Africa because it was cool. We will go to church tomorrow to pray for the week and worship with our friends. We will pray for the sick, the poor, the church and our work. We will pray for the hopeless, the helpless and the unsaved. Most importantly we will worship one God that watches over it all, including our team and Nakawa.

Off to bed tonight. Thankfully we all have mosquito nets now, there are fresh bottles of water in everyone's room and we have full bellies from another wonderful meal of ???

Prayer Requests:

1. Please pray for Doug Schneider as he is unexpectedly preaching at church tomorrow morning. In our preparations the church had indicated he would preach on the second Sunday. We assumed the second Sunday we were here, they assumed the second Sunday of the month. We deferred to our hosts.

2. Please pray for the hearts of our team. Many experienced something very moving for the first time today with widely varying emotions. Pray that hearts would be open and softened to the need, but yet not be overcome by it. We need the ability to help one individual at a time.

3. Pray for patience as we are now fully experiencing African culture and the many changes one day can bring. Plans are changing often, and sometimes we are not sure how or why. The team is doing great, but we will need perseverance to make it 9 more days.

Thanks for following. Blessings to all of you at home!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

PS Marilyn, Wayne says if you are reading this that you should not tear out the kitchen cabinets.

PSS Don, Pizza Guy says you were right about the smell....

Safe Arrival in Uganda!

Praise God as we have arrived safely to Uganda are blogging from our hotel! There was really nothing that could have gone much smoother. We have all of our bags, the team is ready for bed (It's midnight and everyone feels like it) and we had a great Ugandan dinner on arrival. After a lot of over planning regarding getting our medications in the country, we breezed through security, without a question. Just the way we like it!

As we prepare for bed, we are learning all about Africa and how things are different here. About half the team members do not have mosquito nets in their rooms and we are working on that as this is being written. In fact, we just heard that "oh, well mosquitoes won't go up to the third floor". Pretty sure they are there. No shower curtains, shared hot water heaters (think they are of the 2 or 3 gallon variety), 6 gallons per flush toilets, drove from the airport to our hotel without headlights and the lights went out for several minutes a the airport. All makes for great stories and really good team building experience.

Tomorrow we take a Kampala City Tour, purchase a few more medications, meet the rest of the team we will be working with and take a walking tour of Nakawa, where we will be working.

A few prayer items:

1. That we would all have mosquito nets and that our malaria preventive meds would be effective.

2. That we would work well with our Ugandan team members who will be working with us at the clinic.

3. That we would be effective in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with those we encounter.

Blessings to all of you!

Team Woodlands Uganda 2010

P.S. It appears we will have reliable Internet connection, so we should be able to keep up the blog. Unless of course the power goes out or the smell of rotten feet in this room rots the computer, which seems quite likely right now.

We Are Underway!

Hello to Everyone at Home! When you wake up Friday morning we will have already departed from Amsterdam en route to Entebbe, Uganda. We have arrived across the pond safe and sound and all is going well. We left Mosinee with 37 checked bags (3 more than "permissable") 17 of which were overweight (we will be adding new scales to the mission budget!) but thankfully (very thankfully) the folks at CWA were very accomodating and we paid no additional baggage fees. We made a very long pit stop in Minneapolis yesterday and quite a few team members left the airport and headed to the Mall of America and ministered to Sponge Bob Square Pants, hardcore mission work!

As this is being written at Schipol Amsterdam, Wayne Doebler has just finished our morning devotion, there is some great guitar being played by Jeremy Olson, and the team is relaxing before our last 8 hour leg.

Please be in prayer for the team:

1. That our arrival at Entebbe would go smoothly and that customs will be smooth
2. That our hearts would be prepared to do the work that God has laid out for us and that personal aspirations would be laid aside
3. That our team would get supernatural rest and be refreshed quickly after long travels

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Woodlands Team Uganda 2010

July 6th...A Night of Packing

We are 2 days away from departing to Uganda Africa! Tonight is a night of packing and taking our Malaria medication. We will be traveling to Kampala to serve the people their with a 3 day medical clinic and a 3 day pastor's conference. Follow our blog and pray for us! More to come later.
Not to us but to Him be the Glory!