We arrived last Sunday afternoon after a four hour car ride in the village of Kaliro with Pastor Ben, Saddam our sound-guy, Deborah and Rachel our cooks, and our friend Florence.

The part of Kaliro that we were in was on a dirt road which housed anywhere between 10-15 huts and houses. There was a single bore-hole water well which supplied the area with fresh drinking water that was delicious.

Lush vegetation sprouted from every corner of your eye; if it wasn’t the dust of the path or the blue of the sky, it was the green of the plants. The African bush has always blown me away with it’s diverse plant life. Kaliro continued this trend in extraordinary fashion.

Before the cars came to a complete stop, we looked down the road to see a horde of children rushing from the sides of the roads in the middle and straight at us. It was like a scene from a zombie movie, but instead of a hunger for brains, we learned that these 100+ village children were starving for love.

How does a wave of the hands and a flexing of smiling muscles affect a Ugandan child? In America, you’d often receive a cold stare of confusion in return for your efforts. Maybe you’d be lucky enough to have a small pitied smile sent your way. But here, things are different. A smile and a wave can mean the world to a child.

Take Rita for example. Rita is the younger sister to Junior, and a little girl who I remember from my lats time here. She is deaf, but her big round eyes aren’t shy of sight. When I first saw her and waved with a smile, she took her hand out of her mouth and reached for the heavens. Her mouth opened wide into a smile that revealed her rotted two front teeth. She fell to her knees and reached her arms out straight to me, as though she had the telekinetic power to pull me toward her.

The week was spent building the foundation for what will eventually be a building that can house future teams as they come to Kaliro. For us, this week was simply extreme camping. A building with beds and a roof will allow future teams to not have to worry about stumbling blocks such as sleeping with spiders and lizards with two grown men to a mattress.

Let me tell you, or rather Luke will later, just how hard building a house with your bare hands can be. There are no cement mixers, laser levels, nail guns, ladders (we had to build a ladder out of sticks!), circular saws, or anything of the sort. Each task was meticulous and time consuming,  but required in order to lay the most important part of a house correctly.

Each night we set up a projector screen (made out of a white sheet and large sticks) to show a movie to the villagers. This was awesome for people who have rarely seen media on this scale, and it was a great platform to show films with Biblical focuses.

The days were long, starting at 7:00am and not ending until the movie was over at around 10:00pm. It was an extremely challenging week, both emotionally and spiritually because of the amount of work that was laid out in front of us.

The last couple of days were spent at a place called the “Hairy Lemon” which is in Jinja, halfway from Kaliro to Kampala. Our plan was to spend a night on this island to relax and debrief the hectic week, which we were able to do.

Instead of leaving during the day, however, a rain storm kept us there later than expected. After the torrential rain storm, we spent more time talking about our experiences and didn’t get in the little wooden dingy to leave the island until around 8:00pm.

The normal 100 yard Nile crossing was complicated by the earlier rain storm and the naturally raised water level of night. The current was extremely strong and our conductor was not able to control our raft. After we realized the current was too strong, we were already out in the middle of the Nile. The current took us down stream in the pitch black of night, not knowing what was going to happen.

As we drifted quickly down the river a for a short while, we heard the loud sound rushing rapids ahead of us. There was nothing we could do to prevent ourselves from entering them, so we braced ourselves and prepared for the worst. When the boat, which was floating backwards, struck the rapids it was held by two large rocks. Water rushed in our boat immediately, and the 9 of us stood up.

The boat was lodged in the rocks which prevented our board from rushing down to more deadly rapids. We were able to all evacuate the boat with all of our supplies and eventually trek through the water hand-in-hand back to the Hairy Lemon. This is why we  were a day late.

We are all doing fine now and are preparing to fly home tomorrow. Please pray for our travels, particularly through customs and security, that it would be quick and smooth. If all goes according to plan, we should be stepping onto American soil at 3:00pm on Thursday afternoon!

It’s seems so odd to us to be leaving. It’s seems so soon!

This blog will continue to crank out posts after we are home to narrate more experiences and to plan the future for this new vision of Global Missions for the Valley.

Much Love,

-Tommy, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (David)

I will be on later today to post a more descriptive picture of our experiences in Kaliro and our debriefing day at an island camp in Jinja. I hope to have it ready by 2:00pm EST

Love to all,

Thomas, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (Bouge)

• No electricity or running water for the community
• Culture is one that is deeply rooted in witchcraft and other demonic spiritualism
• Christ has been preached there and many have called Jesus their savior — but the the grip and tradition of witchcraft still holds many in bondage and beckons others to “backslide” (think x-alcoholic having a drink again)

All of our work there will be towards creating a sustainable empowerment program for the villagers and a discipleship network that will allow the village to grow deeper in Christ in a strong community.

We’ll be laying the foundation and posting the roof for a 30×40 foot building that will be used for future Vita Nova Global Missions teams to come and spend time in the village. As of right now, the ground is our bed. The idea is to take care of simple necessities such as shelter and food (we’ll be cultivating land as well) so that future teams don’t have this as a frustrating stumbling block and can better focus on the people and mission at hand.

Please keep us in your prayers this week. It will be, by far, the most demanding portion of our trip. Up until now we’ve been staying in a resort. Pray that the team can adjust to the simplicity of life and lack of traditional comforts (like running water, electricity, lack of wild animals running around our sleeping area, etc.)

Will post again as soon as we get back next Sunday night.

Love to all,

Thomas, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (David)

If I had not been told, I would never have guessed that most of these kids have grown up sleeping on the streets of Kampala (the capital city of Uganda).  Around 50,000 kids sleep on the streets of Kampala every night.  At any time the police are free to pick them up and put them in jail.  They looked like a normal group of teenagers, fooling around and joking, getting ready to play a pick-up game of football.  They showed no sign that they were uncivilized in any way, or that they had no home or parents to go back to.

I was very encouraged by the fact that Mugabe, having grown up on the streets himself, spends most of his time hanging out with and helping these kids.  Mugabe was lucky enough to eventually be sponsored and graduate the Ugandan equivalent of high school.  He now has a passion and ministry in getting to know the street kids and figuring out a program that will sustainably help them.

According to Shane, the director of CLD, many NGOs and church short term mission groups come in and give large groups of street kids food or things like sandals and clothes.  Not only is this not sustainable, but most of the kids will go and sell the things that they receive to buy something called paraffin that they sniff to get high.  In the end, this kind of helping can end up hurting more than it helps.  Mugabe’s mission is to figure out a program that will truly help these kids while bringing them Jesus.  I was glad to be able to experience Mugabe’s ministry and learn about what helping the poor really looks like.

-Luke

I’ve been thinking that all of our readers wanted different views on our experience, and Virginia was really excited to share about her day. So here it is, hot off the press:

Although the past eight days of our stay in Uganda have all been adventures all in its own, today for me was definitely the most memorable experience thus far. Today we visited a couple families that CLD knew from church (mostly single mothers and their children), in the slum of Katanga.

The area we were visiting was the poorest part of the town, and it was a very eye-opening experience for me. Every family we visited lived in shacks about the size of a dorm room at UMass; some of the shacks may have been even smaller. Even though it was heartbreaking to see these wonderful, kind people live in this situation, their attitudes were what blew me away. Every single mother we met had the biggest smile on her face and welcomed us into her home with open arms.

James, who is the pastor of a local church there as well as our translator, explained to us how the women that we were visiting were so happy that we came to visit them and how much it meant to them. Listening to James tell us about some of their stories was remarkable to hear.

All the people that live in Katanga came from various villages to look for jobs, but because employment was and still is limited, many of them end up homeless when they get to the city. Even though Katanga is not the most pleasant place to live, all the women we talked to shared with us how much God has blessed them.Many of them started their own micro-businesses with help from CLD, selling various types of food or other goods.

What amazed me about going to Katanga, was seeing how joyous all the people were there. Even though we were visiting the poorest part of Uganda I’ve seen thus far, the people who lived there all seemed happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen bigger smiles on children than I saw on the children’s faces at Katanga, and it made my heart melt. These children were running around in torn clothes and bare feet, but laughing and playing like it was the first day of summer. Seeing these people fully rely on God and thanking Him every day for what they have, was truly amazing and utterly inspiring.

With a lot of love,

Virginia, Tommy, Kristen, Luke and Bouge (David)

You are worth the blisters on our hands, the callouses on our fingers, the gashes on our knees, the asthma in our lungs, the sickness in our bones, the lack of sleep during the nights, the hunger during the day, the dehydration of our brains and the homesickness of our hearts.

You are worth chasing over 11,000km. You are worth dying for in Africa.

We love you.

Amen.”

This prayer was prayed not long ago as our group met for our daily debriefing. It was a challenging physical day at the farm which brought out a lot of emotions that were held in with more rested bodies.

Bouge has been struggling today with his asthma; the air is filled with dust and gases  from diesel-driven cars with no regulations on emissions. His inhaler hasn’t been working very well either and he’s in a very tired and uncomfortable state. He also cut his hand (not badly) with his panga (machete) today while clearing some bush.

Kristen scraped up her hands pretty well and has cuts all over them from clearing the bush with us. They were cleaned, treated with antiseptics and bandaged but still a cause of reasonable discomfort.

Virginia spent the day with the children at the Kid’s House and was picked up on our way back from the farm covered in an assortment of  stickers from head to toe.

I always sit down with the intention to be concise and write a little but it never happens. Why break the cycle now? I am very tired, but there is still just so much work to do.

One of the biggest things that I think I will take home is this idea:

If missionaries are not empowering the local leaders of the area that they are spending their time in, they are wasting time and being close to useless.

The idea that missionaries run in, shout the gospel on a bullhorn, and run off to their next exotic location, is obsolete in my eyes. Without equipping community leaders with the knowledge, wisdom and tools to continue without you, you are drastically limiting the possibility of radical transformation on a wide scale. Example: Uganda.

It’s simple, but very important to a person’s vision or even just idea of world missions. Shane, the director of Come Let’s Dance, had to explain to the Ugandans that empowering them to action was the most important thing she or any missionary could do. They didn’t understand at first and it took a blunt question to explain why it was so crucial: “What Mama Shane dies?” she asked, “Then what?”

I have a vision to partner Vita Nova with Come Let’s Dance as a focus for global missions. My desire for reaching the ends of the earth as a church is not one fueled the lure of traveling to different exotic locations. It is a desire to create an intensive program that teaches members about the global kingdom of God, the generational transformation of people through the Gospel, and a “religion that is pure and undefiled before God.” (James 1:27)

Call me crazy but I’m already dreaming about the next team that will be coming back in 12 months. How to stream-line certain aspects. Different ideas on fundraising and how plane tickets can be purchased personally. A week long boot camp during the summer that stresses a full understanding of the vision and structure of Come Let’s Dance as though it were adopted as our own for restoration within third-world countries. Small teams are best; not just for more personal debriefing times but smooth logistical travelling as well. What if too many people want to be involved? Overflow into the summer of 2011, but have both (or more) teams training together.

God has been laying some big visions and dreams in my heart and I’ve been doing my best to scribble them down somewhere so they don’t get lost. I guess what I’m excited to really believe with all my heart is this: The healing power of the Gospel of Jesus is not just limited to the spiritual, but extends to the physical brokenness of people as well. This is not the prosperity gospel; it’s me actively having faith that God cares about poor and dying people. If we really loved these people as God calls us to, we would not just “evangelize” them with the gospel and run off– we should be doing everything in our power to meet their physical needs.

Watching, learning, learning, thinking, thinking, praying, praying.

Soon I’ll look back and determine if this was a delirious rant or a coherent outpouring. Either way, we’re expected up nice and early for our morning devotional before going to buy some chickens for a micro-loaned micro-business and heading into Kotanga slums to spend time with the locals all day. Please pray for the health of our bodies, the openness of our minds, and the softness of our hearts.

In the Incorruptible Love of Christ,

-Tommy, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (David)

Yesterday we woke up and traveled to Light the World Church to hear Juran preach about the love of God. It was powerful and painted an image in my head that I can’t get out about the power of love:  the love that comes from a mother can heal the cut on her child’s knee with a kiss, but the love that comes from God can bring you back to life after you’ve been killed. (John 11)

We spent the afternoon learning the taxi system and overcoming my personal fear of getting the team lost in the middle of Kampala. It’s difficult because there are none of the typical architectural cues that give you insight as to where you are. It’s not like getting used to Boston or New York, since everything looks different. No telephone poles, stop lights, 8th Avenues, or “Dunkin’ Donuts.” Instead we’re using landmarks like, “Kasubi Market, the “Demon Tree,” the boda-boda stage, the R. Kelly billboard (yes, R. Kelly is  making his come back in Uganda), etc.

The taxies, which are 10 passenger vans fitted with 14-18, operate more like buses do with routes so memorizing the routes with names of areas and identifying them is crucial. Knowing the exact prices for each stage in the route is important if you don’t want to get swindled. I guess there’s a lot going on but it’s a lot of fun. After some practice with our seasoned American friends Josh and Nate, we were able to navigate back to the CLD house without a hitch.

We spent the whole day today working at the CLD farm. The CLD farm is 20 acres of land that is being cultivated with the dream of fully supporting the Kids House ministry with food and income from the harvest. The last time I was here, there had been a lot of work that was completed including a perimeter fence, a boar hole installation and some land that was cleared (most of it was covered with very thick and very tall bush). No, however, most of it is cleared on the crop side, and the animal side is beginning to take shape.

Luke, Bouge (David) and myself spent the morning clearing 2 acres for the future cow pasture with Josh and Nate. We used machetes, called “Pangas” in Uganda, and manual weed whackers called “Slashers.” Kristen and Virginia spent time weeding the plants with Tiffany that were planted along the termite-ridden perimeter fence that will eventually grow into natural thorny barriers and replace their rotting counterparts. The morning was rainy, which provided a cool working temperature.  In the afternoon, however, the sun came out and made working without frequent breaks near impossible.

It was great to see how far the farm has developed in the last five or so months,  and to see the vision for what it will be developed into. Take a look below at the diagrams:

I think the coolest thing about the farm is that, not only will it support CLD’s ministries, it also exists as a training ground for other Ugandans to learn how to cultivate land, raise animals and farm crops. We’ll be heading back there tomorrow to finish slashing the cow pasture and weeding.

Tonight we stopped in at a “home cell” which is a small bible study group that meets to do church as a smaller community in conjunction to the 3,000 person “Light of the World Church.” We were welcomed and had a bible study with some of the best worship I’ve experienced thus far in Africa. The host even asked us to stay for “Swallowship” time which is the best christian idea I’ve heard of yet. It’s just time to eat and hang out… what could be better?

We learned as we were leaving with our surprise that there weren’t many other Ugandans, that the meeting had ended an hour before we arrived. The hospitality we experienced! They allowed us to stay and to redo their bible study and even give us food… and we came 3 hours late! I certainly learned a few things about serving one another and am starting to understand what my pastor Nate means when he talks about “inconveniencing ourselves for the sake of the gospel.”

More updates tomorrow, there’s a long line to use the computer. There are some huge things that are coming up so keep posted. Planning for Kaliro went really well and we’re briefing the team on Wednesday. On Thursday night we’ll be touring all night to three of the largest venues in all of Uganda with Wilson Bugembe as his personal entourage for New Years. What’s so cool about this? Well he’s the number one Christian Gospel singer in Uganda, and as Shane said, “Since everyone comes to these shows you will literally see every Christian in Uganda in the span of one night.”

With much Love,

-Tommy, Virginia, Luke, Kristen and Bouge (David)

After a couple of very hectic days, this Saturday became part one of our weekly rest day because of some unexpected rain. When it pours down like it did for most of the morning, most Ugandans remain in their homes or other shelters making public ministry fairly difficult. We didn’t complain though… jet lag, psychosis inducing malaria medication, the heat, and an overload of new experiences have been taking their toll on our bodies and minds.

Breakfast is always put out between 6:30 and 7:00 and our morning devotional time begins at 9:00. All CLD staff members, both American and Ugandan, are expected to be present at this time to focus our efforts and mindsets on Jesus. Bouge has been playing music for us to start our day with some worship and Josh Brink, an American CLD Staff Leader, has been organizing the morning scripture time.

Today however, as it is tradition for Saturdays, we had a time to share about how we were all doing and how we could be praying for each other. Josh expressed that an emphasis on family and church was crucial to the work being done here in Uganda. We ended by taking two pieces of paper each with names written on them who would be the people we’d focus our prayer on for the following week.

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning up the compound that we’re staying in. Let me tell you, this place is very secure and extremely nice. Things such as running water, electricity, internet, high perimeter walls, and beds are all extremely rare in Uganda. They have been graciously provided by contributors and fundraisers in the past 2 years and are making our stay at “home base” very pleasant.

I will be meeting with Pastor Ben, the Ugandan point man  for CLD and the CLD director Shane tomorrow to start planning our time in his village of Kaliro. I spent time in Kaliro the last time I was in Uganda and it was certainly the highlight of my entire trip. I was hoping to be able to share that experience with the team and my prayer was answered when Ben spoke of how much help he needed in his home.

When I was there last, we spent 5 days sleeping on the ground three and a half hours away from the nearest source of electricity (other than generators). We preached the Gospel and were able to see dozens if not hundreds come to faith during our time there. But the story did not end.

Many people say that Christianity is a mile wide but an inch thick in Africa. There are many many many people coming to know Jesus but the depth of their faith is so shallow because the people who preach leave without setting up any further structure for disciples or growth. There’s no followup.

With out $2,000+ project money,  we’ll be able to provide this follow up for Kaliro. It’s really cool to be able to take the next step in the journey that I was able to begin there 4 months ago.

So that’s what’s on the radar for now. We’ll be waking up early to head to “Light of the World Church” for a service in the morning. We’ll be asked on stage to introduce ourselves to the 1,500 or so attendees so we’re spending all of our time memorizing some Lugandan – Mukama Ya Bwazebwe, “Praise the Lord.”

A quick crazy fact about the church. Shane, the director of CLD met a group of boys named Ben (from Kaliro), Wilson, Deo and a couple of others when they were 19 years old. All of them had big dreams, but were also street kids with barely any education. That was 5 years ago. They are all now the leading pastors of “Light the World Church” which has grown to two services with more than 1,500 attending each one.

Wilson is a national icon as the leading gospel singer in all of Uganda. There are other amazing aspects to this story, most of which we hope to share with you in the future. I guess I found it funny that in my American world where all pastors need years of seminary education, I’ve met a Ugandan who is a high school drop out and leading a church of over 3,000. God is good and big.

That’s all for now. Pray that planning for Kaliro goes well and that we can dream up some cool things to do with the village and to be able to use our resources  to benefit them in a sustainable manner. Some people in our group are starting to feel the effects of homesickness, so please pray that they would be comforted and not isolated.

Oh, and we had rice pilau for dinner. It’s a Ugandan dish with rice and beef. Yeah, bad title, but we can’t win ‘em all.

In the incorruptible Love of Christ,

Tommy, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (David)

Light of the World Church, second Christmas Day service housing 1,000+

What is Christmas? As I asked myself this on Christmas Eve, I came up with a sermon title that I would use if I could ever preach on Christmas. “Christian Algebra 101: Solving for ‘X’ in X-Mas.” I think it’s a typical frustration for most bible-believing pastors that Christ has been removed from his own birthday. And rightly so. But it’s just that Jesus has been taken out, but he’s also been replaced. Keep this rolling around in the back of your mind.

After an awesome church service we geared up to travel to Mulago hospital which stood as the largest government run hospital in all of Uganda. It is also the hospital featured in the award-winning film “The Last King of Scotland,” which follows the life of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and his oppressive rule over the Ugandans.

We traveled to this place in which CLD has an ongoing ministry to try and serve the sick and injured people on Christmas. It seemed like a good way to celebrate this season of giving; not with those in excess but with those with nothing.

One thing you need to know about Mulago hospital: the average amount of patients per nurse is between 50 and 100, depending on the season. This means that patients will be seen once a week, if they are lucky. Patients who arrive with lacerations or burns, which both can be easily treated, will contract infections which will lead to amputations and even death. Just to think that such cases, which range in the triple digits each month, could be avoided by a simple suture job or sanitary bandaging blows my mind.

I met one man whose image is burned into my brain and will hopefully never be removed so that my heart for justice will never die. I approached the man lying in the corner of the ward with light from the window pouring down on him, emphasizing the sharp contours of the bones on his rib cage and of his skull. His hands raised toward us and his frail fingers reached out. He released a guttural moan and his eyes, so sunken into his clearly defined skull, stared at us with unblinking desperation.

He retracted his bloodied bed sheet to reveal his body to further expose his malnutrition. A tube led from his opposite hand into a bloody bandage through which the tube was fed directly into his stomach. Soft Lugandan speaking was exchanged between the man in the bed and our translator, Waheed.

“He has a problem with his throat… he cannot eat,” Waheed relayed. “But the bigger problem is that the nurses do not have the right food to feed him through the tube. He hasn’t been  fed.” Hasn’t been fed? I asked. How long has been here? It looks like he has eaten for days, or weeks. His response shook me to  the core.

“The nurses have not returned to him for two months.”

Two months. Try saying Merry Christmas to a man who’s been ignored and not fed for two months. There’s nothing merry about this Christmas at all, I remember screaming inside my brain.

This man will not survive. His body has been breaking itself down and consuming itself as a last measure of survival. Without intense nursing, this 70+ year old man would die by the end of the week. We bought him milk and begged for 30 minutes for the nurse to come and feed it through the tube.

The accounts which took place today were captured on film and will be edited and shared with the world. Though many, if not all, of the people that were filmed will be dead by the time you see the footage.

The good news, which I’m sure you’re waiting for, is that we’re alive. No one is sick and everyone has been doing great. It was a challenging day for us but not impossible. Our debriefing later tonight will be difficult as we try and let what we’ve experienced shape our hearts. Pray that we don’t let the events that transpired today be swept under the rug.

I’m reflecting that Christmas has had a lot of joy added to it. A lot of warm-fuzzies, a lot of chestnuts roasting on open flames and presents neatly wrapped with bows. What I learned about Christmas today, however, is that the cost of Christmas wasn’t all happy marshmallows. There was intense suffering and there was pain. Excruciating pain. Jesus’ crucifixion wasn’t adorned with rainbows and smiles, but exists as one of the saddest days in all of past, present and future. This is what I saw in Mulago. And this is why I have no other choice but to take this “Christian thing” seriously.

My person-pleasing heart would love to apologize to you at this point for shattering your happy Santa Christmas spirit. But I won’t, and instead will tell you that while you sit safely at your computer, there are those who are sitting in hospitals watching their mother breathe her last. There are those holding the hand of their brother who has been stabbed twice in a mugging and will not make it through the night. Remember these people, remember their suffering, and most of all remember the cost of Christmas that was paid on the Cross.

We Love you will all of our hearts and thank you for your countless prayers.

Your friends, brothers, and sisters,

Tommy, Virginia, Luke, Kristen, Bouge (David)