The kids' nails needed to be trimmed, i had a nail cutter, so i gave it some use this day
Both teams at our debrief at murchson falls (i guess we all kinda needed time to rest, reflect on what God had done thru us so far, share experiences, and to encourage each other. its was worthwhile)
Trust me its another extremely long long time before i could get time to post on this blog again. But today, as always before, i think i should finally decide to be alot more regular on this page...haha!
Otherwise, the last time i wrote here, we were talking about june mission, and politics i think. well, so much has happened in Ug since then. i believe the whole world heard about the bomb blasts. we bless God for all those who survived, and for those who passed on, may their souls rest in eternal peace. Those who lost relatives, God knows his plans for u. dont lose hope in him. Amen!
Thanx so so much for all the prayers that u sent to God on our behalf for june mission. It was the best time. It was so great seeing God use simple students, and people who simply availed themselves, not even sure of what God could do through them. Many of them either thought they were so inadeduate, or that the work was so different from what they were always accustomed to. Well, in the end, we bless God so much for the way he dealt with our different attitudes, and finally brought us to a level of being extremely willing to learn and adopt new ways of doing everything.
Our main theme, and what helped us to adjust the most was "Its not good, its not bad, just different"
everytime we encountered something we were not accustomed to, (as u'll always expect when u put 20 ugandan and 20 american students togetther for an entire month...oh! and one norwegian); we decided it was best to simply conclude that it wasnt goo, wasnt bad, just different. This worked a very great deal, trust me. and i bless God so much for all the testimonies, and stories of impacted lives that we here at FOCUS have been hearing and reading about from the diferent participants. I thought i should post one of the reports from a participant here, so u can have a first hand witness. Once again, thanx alot for all your prayers, support and contributions towards this event. it was never in vain! many blessings!
Here's a report from Paul Bulima, one of our participants. enjoy reading!!
Previous mission experiences
I had gone for very many missions with Kyambogo Christian Union (KCU) and Kyambogo University Busoga Missioners’ Association (KUBUMA) to different parts of Uganda and basically we could go with a big public address system. Our activities on the mission ground involved preaching door to door in the morning and open air crusades in the evening. The missions were basically for one week and we could some times have a conference in the host church. It was all about preaching Jesus. No social action apart from may be the cloths and shoes which we could ask missioners to bring so that we could donate it to the poor in the villages we went to.
From the above, I thought going for mission meant a one or two week visit to a particular place basically a village in a distant place from Kampala doing what I have described above. What we ate or slept on did not matter so much to us every time we went for mission our focus was always on how many people said yes to Jesus. Actually people felt that the more they suffered on the mission ground, the better or more successful the mission. Missions were always tiresome because we could sometimes walk very long distances during door to door and yet there was a lot of work to do at the crusade and very long prayers after the crusade. We always slept very late and woke up very early. People were not allowed to sleep a lot on mission grounds. Actually some times they were threatened that they would be attacked by demons if they slept a lot.
In conclusion, to me if I heard of any thing like mission, the descriptions above is what could come into my mind. I was given the task to get more missioners for the June mission at my university but non of them could imagine suffering for the whole month and so no body turned up however much I tried to convince them. I was also about to refuse but because I had been given the responsibility above, I couldn’t escape. At the end, every thing was different and all my thoughts about missions changed as a result of this June missions. Trust me much as it was different, it was the best mission I have ever gone for in my life. The experiences of showing love to a hopeless people, seeing how God has delivered His people after 20 years of suffering in Gulu, seeing the power of God through the falls in Murchison falls and the animals in Murchison falls national park was very exciting and inspiring.
Orientation period
Both groups had a one week orientation in their countries before coming together. That is, the American students had an orientation in America and also the Ugandan students had their orientation in Uganda before having one together as a group. The orientation was intended to prepare both groups to work together with out problems.
The orientation that I attended in Gerenge Uganda was an amazing one. I discovered very many things which I had not known before. Before the orientation, I thought I knew most of the things about the bible and generally about my Christian life but during the orientation, I was disapproved. One thing I discovered is that most of the things that I thought were essential Christian practices like praying while shouting, singing while clapping and dancing and very many other things were just cultural/Ugandan. I realised the need to sit and study the scripture more not just getting excited with only one verse. During the orientation, I realised that people across the world praise and pray to God differently from the way we do. I was taught to appreciate this because it is something which is not right or wrong but it was just different. This phrase “it is not right or wrong but just different” kept me going through out the mission every time I saw something that I was not familiar to.
After the one week orientation in Gerenge, we were joined by our friends from America, the Intervarsity (IV) students and staff. It was an amazing experience because we had to go and welcome them right from the air port and since this was my first time of reaching Entebbe air port and seeing an aeroplane live, I will never forget this experience. It was a time of excitement since all of us were expectant.
During our orientation together, the differences between Ugandan Christianity and the American Christianity was taught to us. As I said earlier it was very different but not wrong. I learnt to respect other people who are not able to pray while shouting, sing while dancing and clapping, preach with out a course voice. Before the orientation, I used to think that being filled with the Holy spirit in prayer meant shouting harder, I thought preachers ought to be smart people in coats and ties, I thought spirit filled Christians do not sing hymns and very many other things. I was so amazed because non of the Americans could pray while shouting, non could clap and dance as we did. Actually they were also amazed to see us dancing and clapping. It was craziness to them.
In conclusion, the orientation was good to both of us i.e. the Ugandans and the Americans because am sure the mission wouldn’t have been successful if both of us remained rigid to what we knew. The end of it all we all appreciated the diversity of the Lord our God in the way He is worshiped differently in different parts of the glob. From the orientation, we were divided into two groups. One group went to the northern part of Uganda (Gulu), while another group remained in the southern part of the country.
Activities during the mission
During this June mission, we were divided into two groups i.e. A and B. I worked with group A which was in the south for two weeks. Group A was further divided into two groups and the group which I was in went to New Start; a home of former street children. We helped them in their class assignment, conducted bible studies, helped prepare meals, played with the New Star boys, went to garden. After one week, we joined the rest of the team to go to Kaliro. Unfortunately I did not go with them because I had to meet my supervisor at campus.
From Kaliro we went to Murchison falls national work to meet the Gulu team and we were there for two days trying to reflect on what God had done and after the two days we went to Gulu and the Gulu team (team B) went to Kampala where we were from .
In Gulu, we basically did garden work with the child mothers at Child Voice International (CVI). We helped handle the kids of the child mothers when their mothers were attending vocational classes, we organised a women’s conference which attracted even men, we had a leaders’ meeting for the leaders in Lukodi community church, a church at CVI. We also attended the first anniversary of the church.
LESSONS LEARNT
To begin with, I realised that the way Americans did their missions is not the way us Ugandans did it. In America it was all about doing things for people so that you establish a relationship before you introduce Jesus to them and to us, we could just go preaching sometimes not minding about the state of the people we were preaching to. I believe this is a point that we need to adopt. In addition to telling people about this loving God who offered His son for our sake, I think we need to show practically by reaching out into peoples lives so that they can see the love of God practically not theoretically. In this mission, we visited orphanages. I personally went to New Start in Entebbe and it was amazing. We had good time of playing with the kids who were once street boys, I helped them in their school assignments, and we also had good bible studies in the evening. This was an amazing experience seeing how God has given hope to children who were once hopeless. Actually from there I also began thinking about how I can be part of what God can do in our days by may be providing them with the necessities of life.
One other thing that I learnt is accepting the fact that there are very many ways of praising and worshiping God not only the way I know. I remember a time when they told us to keep silent for two solid hours meditating on the goodness of God. This was a challenging thing for me because I had never imagined of something like that before. It looked like wasting time but at the end of it all I liked it. I think it is always good for us to put a stop to every thing and reflect on what God has so far done. Some times we grumble and complain against God because we have not had time to reflect on what he has done for us. Very many of us Ugandans dozed off because we were not used to this kind of worshiping God.
Also it was during this mission that my perception towards hymns changed. I used to think that may be hymns are out dated songs for those traditional old Christians like my father who are not filled with the Holy Spirit. I remember we sang “how deep the father’s love for us” the song had very powerful words that expressed the love of God for us and I just couldn’t believe the inspiration that I felt as we sang it. It was at this time that I was made to realise that hymns are not for the unspiritual but for the spiritual people like me.
The June mission is one of those missions that I will never forget because it gave me opportunity to see various things which I had never seen before. The experience of a game drive around Murchison falls national park was an un forgettable one. I saw animals which I had been seeing just on TV and even in Pictures. I saw the falls live and I wondered how excellent, how owe some, how great, how wonderful, is the Lord our God.
Often times we spiritual people tend to think that we are led by the spirit and so we do not need to be taught. During this mission, I actually realised the need for me to even go in a bible college and study more about God and the bible. This is because most of the things I encountered were new and strange to me. I could not imagine going for mission but one of the things at the mission ground is baby sitting. This was amazing, it was very un usual and in the first place I thought we were wasting time because we were not preaching Jesus. I realised the essence of what we were doing the day we left. I saw the tears of love that the child mothers in Gulu shade as we were leaving, I read the letter they wrote to me as I was leaving and trust me, this was more than what I could think of. It is at this time that I came to know the essence of what we were doing. We never told any of the girls to get saved but what we did for them spoke to them better that if we had told them that God loved them.
June mission was like an eye opener or a training ground for me. It was a mission that prepared me to be a better missionary by changing my perception towards mission from just being theoretical but also to being practical. It is during this mission that I realised the need for me to address the social problems affecting my community for example poverty, health problems, alcoholism and very many things. I believe if God blesses me with resources in future, I will be of great help to the needy people in my society.
I was also challenged to read the word more during this mission. Some one I don’t remember said something during our orientation meetings that really challenged me. He said that in African, the church is a mile wide and an inch deep. Believe me if you are an African and you heard this, it wouldn’t be good news so to me I purposed to read more so that I deepen my relationship with the Lord.
One other thing that I learnt is to be prepared. For example all the Americans had all the basics they needed while very many Ugandans including me did not have. Not because we could not afford but because very many came with the thought of “I will borrow from a neighbour” actually I did not go with soap because I knew someone would carry soap. During the orientation, we were told not to ask for such things from friends because of cultural differences and it is during this time that I realsed I needed to get ai little more serious.
The experience of getting new friends moreover from abroad is some thing I can’t forget. The new friends I got during the June mission are like a reminder to me that I was part of the mission. Actually up to today, much as they went back, we are still very close to each other on face book. They encourage me so much and some of them made a contribution to me when they heard that I was fundraising for my mission to UK. This was the most exciting experience through out the mission.
Challenges
Much as the mission was a success, the following below are some of the challenges I faced during the mission:
Language problems: all along I thought I knew English very well but I was disapproved because I could not understand well the accent of the Americans and neither did they understand well mine. Most of the times pardons were very common when we went to Gulu, it was worse because non of us could understand Acholi and yet most of the Acholi people did not know English in most cases we had to have an interpreter and of which only one of us new Acholi.
To a certain extent, it took me time to appreciate some of the things we were doing for example baby sitting. In the first place I thought it was wasting time but at the end of it all realised it was spiritual.
We had times of misunderstanding especially with the IV staff because of our cultural differences. I remember a time most of us Ugandan students were late for a session and that caused great chaos at the mission. We thought it was something small but it was very big in the eye of the Americans.
I had challenges with my research at university because I had not finished my project. On this matter, I sometimes had to go back to school to meet my supervisor and this is something that costed me a lot of money in terms of transport and time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, June mission is something I would desire every one to be part of especially those who are finishing campus. June mission taught me the other side of the coin in as far as missions is concerned. It is because of June mission that am doing well here in UK. The cultural difference exposure I had during this time have really been of great help to me and I believe this time will always be remembered in my life. The friendships I established during that time with various people who came are still on up to today and I believe the friendship will stay for a life time. June mission made me international in terms of preaching the word, friends, at least I now have friends all over the world. Actually am more contagious than ever. But above all things, one statement will keep me going for the rest of my life especially when I meet people from a different culture and that is “it is not right, it is not wrong, it is just different”.
