A week in the life

The team and I have been in Uganda for one month today.  Our days are filled with so many beautiful people and awesome opportunities.  I feel overwhelmed with how much i want to tell you all about because i have witnessed so much these past few weeks but i am going to summarize with a few highlights of a typical week thus far.

Sunday:  Church starts at 6 am and we celebrate with the local body at victory outreach.  A few of the members of the team serve on the worship team.  We worship together and leave a few hours later to go to the local prison to spend time sharing God's word with the prisoners there.  Around noon we come back to where we stay and enjoy a restful afternoon as a team. We love to sit with Pastor Johnson under the mango tree while he sits in his rocking chair and shares wisdom with us.


Monday:  We spend the first part of the day at the church working with different departments.  Some members of the team work with the women in the compassion International office.  They help organize the files of the children's history and also arrange for house visits.  Others of the team help with the media department--working on updating the ministries website and documenting church services, outreach, etc.  The rest of the team works in the computer lab teaching basic computer skills to people and/or helps with the HIV/aids office updating reports for the patients and home visits. There is also a nursery school at the church that we help with occasionally.  Victory outreach church has many different departments that serve the community. It is an awesome time in ministry because we are able to help in the departments we are interested in but also encourage the people working there and build relationships with them.


Later in the afternoon we split up into 2 groups and half of the team goes to Fountain Primary school and the rest of us go to Fountain High school.  I really enjoy this time--there is a core group of believers at the high school and it is a time of mutual encouragement among 2 different groups of believers.  We teach each other different worship songs from our homes and we share testimonies and encouragement from the Word.  We are hoping to have a more structured time of Bible study during this time each week.  We are thankful for an opportunity to pour into a group of believers that can then reach out to their classmates beyond the time we are here.


Tuesday:  The mornings are similar to Monday's--serving in the different department offices.  In the afternoons we visit the hospital and visit with those who are sick and encourage them with scripture and prayer.  A few people on the team are beginning nursing school/med school in the fall so they really enjoy being exposed to the hospitals in Uganda.


Wednesday:  This is the team's day off from ministry and a day to communicate back home.  We typically catch up on laundry and do different errands.  Later on we are planning to visit the game park to see animals, visit the Nile River, and enjoy different Ugandan experiences as a team.


Thursday: Some mornings we may be at the church helping in the offices and sharing a word or testimony during lunch hour prayer--and other mornings we will go out in the community to spend time with different people we have met.  We enjoy spending time in people's homes and sharing life with them.  Last Thursday i went to a local village called Barlonya with a Pastor and 2 of my teammates.  We helped teach in the new school that just opened and played games and sung with the children while the Pastor met with the teachers.


Friday:  We are at the church in the mornings and around noon the HIV/aids fellowship meets.  Different people from the community living with HIV/aids gather together to encourage one another and share testimonies/prayer.  We have enjoyed the opportunity to encourage them with the hope of the Gospel and also to become more familiar with the struggles of people suffering from this virus.


Saturday:  This is a favorite day for a lot of the members on the team.  There is a local branch of Compassion International at the church.  Every Saturday the children come to receive a meal and different distributed items.  We play many games and share stories from the Bible with these precious children.  It is neat to see the other side of Compassion International child sponsorship.  The children are so thankful and have a blast gathering together.


This is really just a shell of all of the different activities that fill a normal day here in Uganda.  Plans are always subject to changes and time delays.  It is just part of the joy of Africa.  As a leader often times my ministry can look different because i am planning logistics/taking care of finances/doing various things to take care of the team alongside my co-leader Brittany.  I am growing so much in this position of leadership and it is truly such a privilege to see God transforming the lives of people on this team.


To read more of the stories of people on the team check out this blog here.
Thank you for keeping up with this blog and encouraging me!


Ways to partner in prayer:
For Brittany and I to have wisdom and discernment in leading this team
For clarity and direction about where to serve/give in our free time.  The amount of opportunities/need in this area is overwhelming.
For unity among the team.
More passion and urgency for the Gospel to be proclaimed in this place

An amazing woman named Susan and her baby

Shelby (named after my dear friend Shelby Pearce

who was serving here in Lira last summer).

Children at Victory Outreach nursery school

This is me and my African sister Lydia at

Fountain High school where we fellowship on 

This is a little African humor for ya!

  A sweet mural  of how to use a squatty potty at the primary school in the village

Nelson: Abducted.

I want to tell you about a boy, his name is Nelson.  His story is the story of many other young boys all around Northern Uganda.   I will spare some of the gruesome details, but I feel it’s important that Nelson’s story is told.  So many people around the world have no voice, but we have the opportunity to be a voice for those who have been muted. 

As Nelson sat down in front of us he looked at the ground and as he began to tell his story his mouth spoke but his eyes and demeanor told us that he would rather never visit those places again.  8 years ago Nelson was abducted from his village when there was an attack by the LRA.  He and 5 of his friends were taken and forced to join the ranks of the LRA or the Lords Resistant Army (go to invisiblechildren.com to learn more about the LRA and the conflict in Uganda). 

The first night Nelson and his friends were with the LRA after their capture one of his friends tried to escape.  He was caught and killed immediately.  There was no grace.  There was no mercy.  There was only brutality.  And so there were four of them left.  Over the year they fought and raided other villages probably not unlike the one they had come from, two more of his friends died in battles.  Nelson was promoted to be a body guard for one of the commanders. 

A rumor started that Nelson was using witchcraft to steal guns from the LRA in order to escape.  Some of the men began beating him demanding he confess.  Nelson was raised in a Christian family and was in fact not a witch; but after three hours of being beaten he relented.  They demanded he perform a miracle, when he was unable to they began beating him again.  He was promised certain death but Nelson looked at the soldier’s beating him and said “If God allows, you will kill me, if not you will not.” Soon after this the commander who he had been a bodyguard for, ordered that they postpone his murder because he wanted to bring him a last meal.

All the men were going down to a pond to go fishing, Nelson fell into line following them unnoticed.  When they went towards the pond he quickly turned the other way and ran…and ran…and ran.  He was chased, and hunted for four days, he had no food or water, no shelter.  Nelson told us it was only the strength of God that sustained him over those days. 

On the fourth day he saw a village woman who he shared his story with. She took him to the Ugandan Army barracks and they made a radio announcement saying,  “A child soldier has escaped and been recovered”. His mother came to Gulu where he was and he was reunited with his family. 

After Nelson finished telling us his story we asked him what has been the most difficult thing of this experience that he still has to deal with today.  He responded with few words, “I killed and I am a Christian”. 

This has been one of several moments while I have been in Uganda that I have been in shock and left speechless at the graveness of what I am hearing.  It is extremely difficult to look into the brokenness and pain in the eyes of someone who has endured something like this and speak of God’s goodness and love.  As Nelson was sharing his story and the different moments that he saw God protecting him and giving him strength I thought of the story of Joseph and how he was sold into slavery by his own brothers and endured much injustice with no voice.  I remembered how God’s favor rested upon him and how he redeemed the injustice and worked it for the good of Joseph, his brothers, and beyond. 

I read the verses at the end of Joseph’s life when he is talking to his brothers and he says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant  it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive ” (Genesis 50:20). I hope it blows you away to think about the hope that Nelson possesses despite such evil.  A hope that comes from a God that is empathetic and intimately acquainted with grief and pain.  I think of the prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah that says,

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;  Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;  Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:3-7)

Nelson knows the hope of the gospel. Not just in his head but in his whole being.  In his eyes that have seen such hate, in his feet that have run from his oppressors, in his ears that have heard the cries of his own people, and  in his hands that have killed and are now raised in worship.  Nelson knows and treasures Jesus deeply. Do we?

Nelson is hoping to finish his schooling,

 he dreams of being a pilot

 and a father.

*Photo by Jordan Scott