Back in Uganda

So we are back in Uganda, and settling in.

The flight over was pretty rough! Ethan was very restless, and so Agnes and I barely got any sleep (about two hours within 24 hours or so)
By the time we were in the car heading to Wairaka, we were all exhausted. Ethan had even stopped crying and was just whimpering.

The big trip was hard on Ethan, and for a few days after he was very unsettled. The change of environment and perhaps the jet lag had him very grumpy for the next few days.

But he has settled right in now, we have a routine going for him, and he is finally sleeping well through the night. All our friends and family have been very happy to see him as well.

Coming back here it was great to see things running smoothly. Our YSU team really worked well together in our absence, and there was nothing in particular that we had to address or fix.

The chicken project ran by Farouk has been making some small profit, and the tailoring class has been running well, with all girls participating and improving in their skills greatly.

We were also very blessed to start driving our new car. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever been to town so many times over the course of a week! This is because in the past, if we needed something from town, we would have to wait for our big shop at the start of the month (where we could pay for a personal taxi) or wait a few days for a list of needs to accumulate before we take public transport in (which can sometimes take over an hour to just get into town and back).

We also managed to purchase a small car seat for Ethan so he is nice and safe.

I do have to say, driving in Uganda can be stressful. Not only do you have to make sure you are always doing the right thing … your eyes need to be on everyone else (motorbikes, pedestrians, cars, trucks, busses) to make sure THEY are going to do the right thing.
Already I am sure, I could have killed a few people if I was distracted … largely because pedestrians are so lax and careless when crossing the road .. They just walk out in front of you, or take their time to stroll across the highway.

Pray for us, and pray for me, that I will always be alert on the road. To be honest, I am not worried about being hit by another car, but rather myself hitting a motor bike or a pedestrian who carelessly crosses in front of me.
I tend to drive rather slowly here, my thoughts are that I’d rather arrive safe with no accidents, then rush to get somewhere.

We have started organizing a bit of schedule to get back into things here. I will be doing lots of personal training stuff with the leaders, and with the young men.

Agnes will continue to work with the young women here as well. We were again reminded of the massive need here, a week upon arrival back home.

One of our old tailoring girls, whose name is Rose, recently had a loss in her family with her auntie dying while giving birth from home. Uganda has a very high birth mortality rate, and a lot of people give birth from home without thought about how they would get to a hospital if something went wrong.

Fortunately the little baby survived, but no one in the family wanted to care for it. This new born child was abandoned by everyone, including the father of the child who said he had no way, or idea, to care for the baby.

Rose, who is a struggling single mother herself, offered to be this child’s mother there and then on the spot.
Rose has always had a kind heart for helping others, and we told her that God will greatly reward her for such a compassionate act.

In her ignorance though, she had been feeding the baby cow’s milk, mixed with sugar and glucose. Again this is because people just have no source of education in these matters, and she was doing the best she could with what she had.

It was the other day she came to us for advice, when the baby was one week old. We quickly rushed to town (again this is another reason why the car is so helpful) to buy baby formula and some other needs for the baby.

We told her we would help her and support her where we could, and she was very much relieved and thankful for the new advice. She really wants to do what she can to help this little baby.

Please pray for the baby his name is Eric, he is very small, but we were positive with the way he was responding. He was feeding from a bottle very well, and his eyes were quite active and looked a bit lively.

This is just the usual for us in Uganda, we hear stories like this all the time. It makes us particularly eager to join in some training in November based around a biblical understanding of marriage, sex, reproduction, family and health. This is health education in reproduction, with a holistic spiritual world view.

This training will help us greatly with dealing with such circumstances, and to help educate those effected.

Again, we thank everyone who has stood with us as we continue to work in this community in Uganda.

We look forward to the year ahead, as we continue to try and reach the youth here with the love of Christ.

God bless

Back to Uganda!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the long break away from my blog. The last two months has been a refreshing time of catching up with friends and family here in Australia.
Agnes and I had a great time in Australia, especially visiting our church community and spending time with the people we love in Australia.

Although it has been getting cold, I have also enjoyed getting out in the water for a surf as well!!

My whole family has had a great time with Ethan in the house, but there may be a few broken hearts on Tuesday night when we leave to go back to Uganda.
We were also blessed to have Ethan baptized at our family church at One Hope while we have been here in Australia.

We have also had the chance to catch up with sponsors, supporters and donors, as well as evaluate our plans for the next year on the ground.

Agnes and I are very excited about returning to Uganda to get stuck into the work over there.

While we have been away, we have had a great leadership team running YSU. Agnes brother Dauglas has been so valuable to us, as he managed the project in Uganda.

When we return we look forward to investing more into the tailoring girls, including the running of an empower trauma rehabilitation program.
We also want to continue our relational discipleship and mentorship with the young men and women in Uganda.

This includes inviting young people into our house, so we can invest in them, and so they can also see a family dynamic that hopefully reflects what God desires for family to be.
We are well aware of the many broken homes and families that people come from, and the young people who have witnessed marriages full of brokenness and abuse.
And although Aggie and I never claim to be a perfect family, we recognize the level of stability and love that we can show to young people. We always pray that God will use our marriage and family to be a light for the world

We also are excited about doing some training with a group called Wise Choices For Life, which helps men and women learn about reproductive issues, family issues, pregnancy issues and more.
This is a great program that we are excited about. We look forward to being trained in the curriculum so we too can pass on this knowledge to our young men and women.

I would also like to start up a boys holiday camping program, which will take troubled young men away on a camping trip that involves a lot of self development and discipleship.

We have also been excited to see our chicken project making profit, and so we want to continue to develop this into a reliable source of income.

When we return we also have a car waiting for us!! Andrew recently purchased our new car while he has been over there. This is going to make life so much easier in Uganda. No longer will we have to rely on dangerous public transport, or expensive private taxis.
We want to thank all those people who contributed to make this a reality.

We request that you pray for us as we go back to Uganda. Pray for strength and motivation to get back into our work. Please pray for visa situations as well, as we start to organize Ethan's dependent visa.

We thank all of you who have been involved in supporting us and our work in Uganda.
We always say that we could not do this without you.

I will now try my best to get back into blog writing, so you can all be updated on our progress in Uganda.

Thank you and God bless.