I left Tulsa on April 11th flying from here to Minneapolis, on to Amsterdam and finally to Entebbe via a stop in Kigali, Rwanda. I arrived in Entebbe late at night (11pm) and was met by a group of older orphans from the Bulamu Children's Home, where I would be staying, one of whom we personally sponsor. After a 2 hour drive we arrived at Bulamu, where I got to my guest room and finally got to sleep after 23 hours of travel.
I spent time the next 4 days at Bulamu with different young men who have lived there, as orphans, for many years. Many are pretty anxious because after they graduate from high school they have to leave the orphanage and either go on to university, trade school or find work and a new place to live. Of course additional schooling costs money and those who do not have a sponsor cannot continue their education. Like everywhere else, getting a decent job without the proper education is difficult. It is a really sad and tough situation but in order for the orphanage to continue its mission in raising the children and taking in new little ones, they have no other choice. I just encouraged them to seek God and trust Him. I have to admit though, that it is much easier for me to say this than to have to be the one that has to do it. I am full of faith, but to be the one whose life is in the balance ups the pressure a great deal. Please join me in praying for and with them.
On Sunday, our daughter Talitha, her two daughters and her team of 15 from Los Angeles, arrived at Bulamu. While I spent my time meeting with many of the young men who are students living at the orphanage, Talitha's team came to do health clinics, HIV testing, dispense medicine, as well as doing sessions for teens emphasizing abstinence and the danger STDs, especially HIV, which is still a major problem in Uganda. Most of Talitha's team's ministry was to the young women (teens), who are in probably greater need of ministry than the young men, as great as that need is. Women, especially young women, often tend to be overlooked in their need for counsel and guidance, as well as their special medical needs. The team from LA did an incredible job in working with and ministering to these young women and girls at the orphanage.
The next day I joined Talitha and her team in going to a small church and school in the hills outside of Mukono, Uganda, where the children's parents earn the equivalent of $1.00 a day breaking boulders into rocks and the rocks into gravel. Here we dispensed candy, clothing, toothpaste and brushes, soap, shampoo and medicine to the children as well as again setting up a medical clinic to do medical exams of the children. Lots of de-worming, various rash control, and as it was cold season (60's & 70's is a freeze to them) cold remedies were dispensed.
After this, Talitha's team returned to Kampala, the capital, while Pastor Daniel, our driver Moses and I traveled 150 miles southwest to Mbararra, and the East Ankole Diocese, where I initially visited and ministered back in the 80s.
I was invited by the new bishop of the East Ankole Diocese to stay at his home and visit the schools in that area. He wanted to have a much more ambitious schedule but time kept us from that. I honestly do not know if I could have survived the plan he had covering his entire diocese and visiting 70 churches and schools in each. The few days in Mbararra were enough to wear me out. I have to admit I do not have the energy I had 35 years ago.
While in Mbararra, I was struck by how well these schools were doing compared to what they were like in 1982, AND compared to the schools at Bulamu and Pastor Daniel's small village school. One interesting thing though, is that the schools in East Ankole average 100 students per classroom. That is not a typo. After hearing about classroom over crowding, of 25-30 students per classroom, here at home, then seeing classrooms with 90 to 110 kids per classroom, I could only marvel at the discipline shown by the children in these schools. I was further struck by the signs hung in the halls and stuck in the ground around the middle and high school. Signs urging the use of English ONLY and signs promoting abstinence and sexual purity. I was shocked as those signs would be banned here in America..
Following our time in Mbararra we returned to Pastor Daniel's home and church, where I preached a message on Faith in the Sunday Church service. Following the service Pastor Daniel and his wife handed out the many things the team brought for the children including, clothes, shoes, back packs and school materials. Talitha's team returned the next day and did health and medical checks for the adult residents of the small village. They were able to help many of the parents, of the children who attend Daniel's school (Rejoice School) as well as anyone living in the area that chose to come. It was a long but very fruitful day for the team, and especially the nurses, as they saw people non-stop for 8 hours, while others spent time ministering to and playing with the children.
After the days at Pastor Daniel's home, church and school, I returned to the Bulamu orphanage. For my last few days in Uganda it was nice to relax at the orphanage and counsel and minister to the young men who were about to embark on adult life in a year or 2, especially Samuel whom we have supported for the past several years. Samuel has an incredible testimony which I will tell of in a separate post.
In all, I cannot describe how quickly the 2 weeks went by. As I said at the beginning of this post, this trip was most "impact full." While Uganda has progressed greatly, especially in the area of technology, the depth of depravity is greater than ever. Never have I seen such a great divide between the "have's" and the "have not's." While Ugandans understand the importance of education, it is still not easily accessible for many, as Ugandans have to pay for school from Kindergarten up. Yet those who can gladly do it. Many of the poor, however, cannot afford it and make their children work or lease them out to work for those with means. The children work their families small plots of land for enough food to sustain them or go to work for a well off family and those families pay the parents for their child's labor. It is kind of a form of indenture or near slavery, but at the same time a necessary evil as the family indenturing their children could not afford to raise the children or survive without this system.
I do have to add one last thing to show how often what may seem to us a minor thing can go along way in making an impact. Uganda, as a former British colony, has people drive on the left side of the road and due to the traffic and rules driving there is something I would never try unless I were going to be there for at least a year. Pastor Daniel had found a driver for us in the time there. The driver, Moses, was a Muslim, but a really nice man who went every place were went. In almost every place we went there was a great deal of prayer and testimony of Jesus' love and power. We established a great rapport with Moses but after the week with Moses, Daniel told me that at the end Moses spoke to him privately saying he had never met a westerner like me. He not impressed at my preaching, my praying, or my verbal witness. What he was most impressed at was the fact that I would stay in a Ugandan's (Pastor Daniel's) home and eat their (Ugandan) food. Most Europeans and Americans visiting stay in western hotels. Therefore, to stay in a Ugandan home complete with no running water, lack of toilets, showers, warm water, and most western conveniences, spoke more than any gospel message I could have preached. I was humbled by this and have to say that I owe it to my Youth With A Mission background, where we learned to adapt and live like and among those we want to help. It has become a natural thing to my family after years in doing so with YWAM. Daniel has since seen Moses in the village and he still asks about me. Upon my next trip I will work to further the relationship and hopefully, if he has not done so already, lead him to a saving knowledge of Christ. Daniel may do the job before I get there though.
My missions at this time is to raise support for children who live and attend the Bulamu's Orphanage and Pastor Daniel's Rejoice School. Following the lead of other successful ministries and schools, we have established the cost to properly provide for the care and schooling of the children at $35 per child, per month. It is my mission, and others from the team that traveled to Uganda, to raise this support for 200 children. Pastor Daniel's Rejoice School has 100 children of which 15 have support and Bulamu has 300 children with support for about 200.
I want to than those who prayed and gave money and supplies toward this trip. It was so welcomed. I cannot express how much.
In closing, I am compelled to ask each person reading this post to prayerfully consider supporting a child, or more, if so inclined. If you are so inclined, please go to the site booker-t-washington.com and then click on the "Donate" page. You can also go the the "Joseph Project" link which speaks of the the ministry to Ugandan children. If you do choose to give, please indicate in the message box, that if wish to support a boy or a girl.
Below are some photos of the trip.
Thank you for your prayerful consideration.
Eddie
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| Children Lined up to receive lunch at Rejoice School |
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| The Lunch Lady preparing and giving out lunch at Rejoice School |
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| A few of the 300 orphans at Bulamu saying goodbye to the team |
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| Nurses seeing children at Rejoice School |
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| Breathe Deeply |
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| Child wrangling while parents are seeing the nurses |
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| A 1st grade classroom in Mbarrra |
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| Where's Eddie- a 4th grade classroom |
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| Our granddaughter Riley and some of the kids after 7 hours of running around |
Work at the Rock Quarry $1 a day
