We’re sorry we haven’t been able to update you sooner. We had been difficulty getting access to our website while in Africa. I sent this update through email to many of you but thought I'd post this in case I missed anyone. More posts and pictures to come =)
There are so many things God has taught and shown us, it would take months to process but until we can express all that is in our hearts we wanted to share with you what the Lord has done. Since our last post we have returned from the village of Rubongi and Nairobi, Kenya. It was a busy time but the Lord sustained us through it all. A slight Detour to JINJA: For those that know Katie Daves and the desire of Abby’s heart to meet her, we wanted to let you all know that we made it to Jinja to visit her ministry. What an amazing thing she has built for the community. We heard the wonderful news that Katie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Noah in June so to Abby’s great disappointment she wasn’t able to meet Katie that day. She was reconciled to meet the next best thing, her husband Benji and see a picture of Noah on his cell phone. She put on a brave face when she heard the news Katie wasn’t coming and I watched as she tried to hide her tears but she was happy to walk the grounds and see the wonderful things Katie is doing. RUBONGI, UGANDA: As a parent, it brought such pride and joy to see our children play and interact with the children in the village. Through the eyes of a child, they didn’t see colour, tattered clothes, dirty faces, or snotty noses but they saw friends. Friends they could play tag, kickball, climb trees and laugh with. Everyday, they visited classrooms and shared on God’s forgiveness and the fruit of the Spirit. They were stretched and taken out of their comfort zones but they served with confidence and if someone forgot their part, Jacob stepped up and lead the team! These international preachers lead over 50 children to Christ. While the children preached in the classrooms, Joo-Meng and I taught in the Amecet training school. It was a week of teaching leaders and pastors in financial management, sonship, character, identity and spiritual parenting. It was a privilege watching hearts and minds being transformed as we imparted kingdom principles and kingdom culture. As we spent the week with these pastors and leaders we witnessed how changing one pastor can change a congregation, a congregation can change a community, a community can change a region and dream with them how a nation can be changed. At the end of every day, our family had the honor to visit the widows in their homes. I think this was the favourite part of my week as we met women who gave so much to raise their children. We met Alice. She is the 2nd wife of a man who abandoned her leaving her with their 4 children and 5 children from his 1st wife. She raised these 9 children on her own only to be abandoned by them all when they grew older. Despite this, she continues to be a pillar of strength for her village and the church. She shared a heart that did not harbour any ill will towards her husband and her children and all she had was praise for God who provided for her all these years. Margaret lost her husband over 15 years ago. She raised her children and put her children through school by plowing fields. This amazing women controlled 2 yoked oxen and could plow an acre field in one day to receive the equivalent of $10 CDN in wages. Saloma has 3 children. Her husband left her (in Rubongi), went to Kampala and never returned. Because of a medical condition, she is unable to walk and moves around on her hands and knees. And then there was Jennifer, Teddy and Phoebe. All with their own story of grief and loss as they husbands passed away due to illness. They each shared their struggles as they try to raise their children. Our children were exposed to a life that they have never seen. Homes the size of their own living room made out of mud, roofs made from straw, ceilings of cardboard that hopefully will keep the rain out. They saw a living area with no furniture, rooms separated by bed sheets, no electricity, no running water and the kitchen outside in another hut. But the kitchen is just a room with charcoal and a pot to cook their meals. They witnessed women who have suffered and experienced so much pain beam with pride as a mzungu (white) family came to visit. These wonderful women ran around pulling out chairs, asking us to sit while they chose to sit on a mat beside us. I broke as I heard their stories and my heart was challenged when women who seemingly had nothing would share generously with us the first fruits of their land. Mangoes from their tree, ground nuts, vegetables from their garden and the most expensive gift of all, a chicken. It’s not easy to catch a chicken I have to say. A chicken is the highest and most expensive honor they can give to a guest. A chicken is something they would only eat at Christmas, something that could cost them a year of wages to buy and yet they did not hesitate to give to us freely with hearts trusting God will continue to provide. We left Rubongi with 3 chickens, a rooster and hearts inspired by the strength, humility and love of these women. Women who many would think have nothing yet have everything. Despite all their challenges, their hearts were full of praises to God for all He has done in their lives. NAIROBI, KENYA: From Rubongi, we travelled 12 hours to Nairobi, Kenya. We entered the 2nd most corrupt country in the world, Uganda being 3rd and yet 70% of this country is Christian. As we entered our 5th week in Africa we began to understand the culture and contradictions in their culture. We began to understand why Adrian and Sherene came here to start Amecet with the purpose of equipping leaders in kingdom principles so that the culture and mindsets of the nation can be realigned with God’s principles. We began to understand that principles that seem very simple and what many westerners may take for granted are actually very foreign to Ugandans and Kenyans because of the way they grew up. Things like integrity, honesty, leadership, relationship building, and trust seemed like fresh bread to many as we taught. Every morning we travelled an hour to teach in a slum area called Ongata Rongai. I thought I had seen poverty but Ongata Rongai brought poverty to another level. In this place of extreme poverty, we met 25 pastors and leaders who are hungry and desperate to change their community and eager to learn how. We came with Adrian and his local team to give a sampling of the training school to see if they wanted to partner with us in the future and begin a full school. By the end of the week, they were so impacted they gave us a unanimous yes to moving forward in 2017. We loved watching these leaders soak up all the teaching like sponges but it was our greatest joy when we witnessed these leaders realizing that the God they serve is not an angry God but a loving God that chose them and plucked them out of the miry clay into His beautiful light. We were honored to cry with these men and women as God met them in their place of pain and began healing hearts and speaking into their identity as sons and daughters of a living God. We have heard so many testimonies of how these teachings have changed their lives, their marriages, their families and how they lead their congregations. Since we’ve been here we have heard of calls from more pastors and other denominations who want to enroll in the school next year and yet another nation, Rwanda is asking for Amecet to train their pastors. As we begin our transition home we see the work is many but the workers are few. Manpower and finances prevent Amecet from expanding to meet the demand. We leave asking ourselves how do we help? As we wind down, I think about all the friends we have met. Mike, who was hired to be our driver, is now Uncle Mike to our children. How do we leave a man who tirelessly watched and protected our children knowing his seed business was taken from him by theft 2 years ago and he is now burdened on how he will take care of his family. Joseph, Christine and their daughter Faith, welcomed our family into their home and church in Rubongi. They trusted us to teach their leaders and cheered the children on when they taught at their school. The girls fell in love with Faith, and Joseph and Christine hugged us like we were old friends. How do we leave this family knowing Christine’s is experiencing some health issues but they can’t afford the test to see what is wrong or they can’t afford to pay for their daughter’s school fees. Then there is Cyrus, Harriett, Jimmy, Belinda and Arcade who every day and night gave 100% to make sure our daily needs were met and guarded the compound where we stayed. How do you leave when they have now become a part of our family and they struggle to pay for things we would take for granted. There’s Robert from Soroti, I met his family 3 years ago. His daughter, Gloria is our compassion child. How do you leave after your families spend an afternoon together, you laugh with them and share the joy of family together. How do you leave knowing the little contribution you give them sends their daughter to school and yet they struggle to provide. These are the daily struggles of so many here and yet I have never met a more joyful, gracious and humble group of people. These are only a few names, there are hundreds of people we met and I leave wanting to just sweep them all up and bring them home. These last six weeks we have witnessed extreme poverty against a backdrop of greenery and lush beauty. We have enjoyed every moment, seeing the hearts of our children moved when their simple gift of flour, jewelry or a tie brought such joy to the hearts of the local men, women and children. We have loved listening to the kids excitement as they saw the goats and cows strolling and grazing on the side of the road, the baboons and monkeys in the trees as we drive by and their laughter watching the the donkey walking beside our car. We have loved sharing this experience with our children as they helped children carry their 20 lb water jugs back home, witness 6 year olds swing their baby sister on their back, and shared with them the sadness in their eyes when they heard the stories of their new friends. As a family we were able to take in the beauty of the land and the people. My heart is full of gratitude for all of you who have made it possible for us to be here. For the clothes you donated, the financial support and the prayer covering that has kept us, sustained us and helped make this mission a success. My heart is full and empty at the same time. I make my journey home with so many feelings and thoughts yet to be processed but I know that we are in a dangerous yet exciting place - when we begin to care, when the nameless faces that we used to watch on TV or hear about in the news have now become our friends, our family. When their stories have now become a part of our story and the Lord calls us not to forget asking how will you love the one, for what you do for the least of your brothers and sisters you also do for me. For everyone needs compassion, love that’s never failing, and the kindness of a Saviour. So our mission trip may be over but our story is not yet finished. Keep following us on our blog as we come home and continue to share about our trip and the emotions we are feeling. Follow us as we wait in anticipation for what the Lord will do with us next. when we get home we will post more pictures =) Joo-Meng’s update: Adrian always asks me what are the most memorable or favourite moments of our trip. I cannot begin to tell which ones are, because there are so many! I have truly enjoyed the fellowship we have had with the Wi family, experiencing all that we did in their company. Our kids had an incredible time playing with the Wi’s, and much of that time wasn’t even in front of a screen! I’ll highlight a couple of moments that have really tugged at my heart. The first is our experience visiting the widows. Hearing the strength and determination of these women to carry on despite the loss of their husband and raise all of their children (and sometimes even children who were not their own biological children) really was something to behold. And to hear the ministry of Joseph and his church members ministering to the needs of the widows was to watch the Kingdom of God truly in action. (“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27) What really touched my heart was to see how these women who have so few possessions, could so easily and without hesitation give up their prized possession (a chicken) to us who already have so much. It makes me wonder - if we in North America could be as generous with our possessions as these women were, then poverty could easily be a thing of the past. After eating dinner in the mall one evening, we met a woman and her 3 year old son asking for food or money in the parking lot. Elianna was carrying a bag of leftover french fries and salad and I asked her if she’d be willing to give it to the woman. Without hesitation she ran up to her and gave the bag to her. As we walked back to our van, we watched as she and her son quickly ate the food up - I left heart-broken, thinking what must it feel like not knowing where you are going to get the next meal to feed your own child. As our family prepares to leave Uganda, I leave with many questions in my mind. What does God have in store for our family in the future? How can we as a family, or we as a nation better help those who are in need? How can we be even more generous with our possessions like the widows were with theirs? However, I leave Uganda more convinced than ever of this thought - that our comfort/material possessions/”stuff” in North America very easily and quickly lulls us into complacency and can make us ineffective in the Kingdom of God. (Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15). So as we return to North America, the challenge we face is this - how do we not allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency and comfort, living in the society we live in? As Rosanna said, it was truly an honour to come to Uganda knowing that we were supported by so many people and prayed over by so many as well. We came to serve the people of Uganda and Kenya but return to Canada even more blessed by the people and experiences here. We look forward to sharing our stories and pictures with all of you when we return!
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AuthorJust someone who is excited to go to Africa with her family to do the work of the Kingdom! Archives
September 2016
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