We woke up in Hotel Africana, enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast, and headed east on one of the main roads in Uganda - the road from Kampala to Jinja. As we were driving, I thought of Tom and his team headed to Ethiopia. Read about his experiences there at his blog, Notes form the Field. We arrived around lunchtime and were met by Arthur, a recently widowed Ugandan man who is carrying on the vision of his late wife, to foster and educate orphans in and around Jinja, and Katie. Katie is from Fort Collins, CO, and along with her two children, Fatu and Osobie, and husband who works as a plague researcher for the Centers for Disease Control, she is living in Uganda for six months. We had lunch at Two Friends Restaurant and then headed to our first stop.
Canaan Children's Home was started by Papa Isaac, pastor of Jinja Full Gospel Church. Two of his staff, Josephine and Olive, took us around their facility. There are 105 children there from age 2-18 years old. They are broken up into six groups that each has a foster mother. That's 17 or 18 children in a group - much too large to be a family. These foster mothers are not paid a salary - instead they work for room and board. The children in residence at Canaan are from the most desperate situations. They have been brought there by other pastors, by police and local authorities, and 18 of the children are formerly abducted children forced to work as boy soldiers and sex slaves by the Lord's Resistance Army in the north of Uganda. Other children were found abandoned in sugar cane fields, in the gutter, or being starved and torched by dysfunctional families in town. In addition to an orphanage and school, Papa Isaac is providing kingergarten to 185 poor children in the community, and tailoring, carpentry, and farming training for the older children at Canaan, and a health clinic that is free to the orphans and comes with a small fee to people in the community.
As I was taking a tour and talking throug the details of their ministry with some from our team, others stayed with the kids and got out the fancy balloons. I think I'm the only one on the team that didn't learn to make some different balloon shapes and animals. It's probably best that way - I don't think that's where my skills lie. But the balloons were a hit everywhere we went. Well done, Brandi. And good work, team, in learning on the fly. There's a future in the carnival circuit for you if your current employment doesn't work out long term.
Our time at Canaan ended with the kids sharing some songs with us - the Ugandan national anthem (it was Independence Day on October 9th - celebrating their independence from Great Britain in 1962), traditional songs, and spiritual songs. One young man, a seventh grader (the last grade in primary school) named Daniel, got out his guitar and played a worship song for us. It was a special moment.
We the took Olive along and got on the bus to head to our next stop.
Amazima was started by an American college student named Katie Davis. She has a compelling story and a transforming vision. You should definitely check out her blog to hear some of her stories and more about her ministry. Basically, there are about 156 kids from 2 different parts of town that are now eating regularly and going to school because of Katie's heart, her friends in Uganda, and those who have funded her work there. These kids all come to Katie's house on Friday night for worship and Bible study, a meal, and the biggest sleep over you've ever seen. They were gracious enough to move their Friday night event to Thursday night so that we could be a part of it. We walked into the beautiful sound of Raul, a young man from the Congo, leading worship with over 100 kids singing at the top of their lungs. Ten of these children are now being fostered in Katie's home because there was no other place for them to live. To really understand what these children are living with, read Sarah's story.
After leaving Amazima, we headed to our hotel for the night, Gately on the Nile. Beautiful place, yet deceptive name. It's actually on the banks of Lake Victoria. It was a 'mizungu' place. This is the Lugandan word for 'white person.' Most of the people staying at the small inn and eating in the restaurant on the patio were working for NGO's or different ministries. We had a leisurely dinner - not of our doing, but because the pace of life in Africa is drastically different. Then a few of us spent the evening on the patio talking about all kinds of things - politics, relationships, theology, mission, family. It was a great time. We started seeing lightning and hearing thunder so we broke up the party. Everyone else was staying in cottages, but I was staying the main part of the inn. Well, I got locked out at 12:30am - they were supposed to have given me a front door key and a room key - I only had a room key. Apparently the night guard didn't have a key, so after about 20 minutes of dodging the rain, he got me into my room. I opened the windows and lowered the mosquito net and slept great to the sound of the thunderstorm.
Dan I am enjoying your posts...thanks for taking the time to do this. Brandi and I appreciate you and your leadership
Posted by: Greg McElheny | October 22, 2008 at 03:31 PM