Ministries in Arua...

After spending nearly 7 weeks in the busy city of Kampala, Arua was a breath of fresh air. Post root canal things started looking up and I began to fall in love with the people of Arua! One of our main ministries was helping distract the little kiddies while their parents were in classes at Uganda Christian University. Tuesdays and Thursday were the highlights of our week! We would sing songs as long as possible, have a Bible lesson, and play games...seems simple but had a great impact on Angela and me. Those kids were such a blessing to us! As were the MK's and our lovely neighbor kids that would come to our Bible Club on Saturday mornings! Angela and I had a fun time meeting the little ones from our neighborhood and acting out Bible stories and playing more games each Saturday. God used me in ways I never thought. I had never really planned children's Bible lessons without using materials or having a book to guide me step by step, but I soon began to love the idea! Hey why can't we actually just use Bible stories right out of the Bible, make it kid friendly and use some imagination on how we can tell a story without purchasing a $25 activity book or watching a video. A brilliant idea! Not to say activity books are bad, but we wanted something that could be replicated and that did not cost a thing.
Another opportunity I never thought I was capable of was leading a small group of women...not our typical bible study women, but women/girls that have been taken in by a saint of a lady and taught how to knit and who now have hope in their future. Susan (the saint of a lady) has started a business of making school sweaters. Only she does not hire just anyone. Susan takes in orphans, people from the street, women who have children but were abandon by the father, girls who don't know what the next step should be. She takes them in and teaches them the trade of knitting...something they can do the rest of their lives. But she not only teaches them but loves them and provides for them and best of all shares Jesus with them! When we were asked to share with these ladies, I could not have felt more inadequate. What in the world can I offer to them?? Even heading into our last meeting I felt like nothing I had done had made a difference. And really...nothing I did really did make a difference, I was just willing and God worked through my inadequacy. He used Angela and I to minister to these girls despite our lack of experience and wisdom. I will never forget our last day there when Ruth prayed for us and said what a blessing and encouragement we had been. We had made a difference but ONLY because God worked through us! The first step is to just be willing...

Arua...

Sorry friends, I can't believe it has been a whole month since I have written. My Internet time was strictly limited up in Aura. As you may have read our trip up to Arua was an adventure! The first week there held a few challenges for me. I had being ignoring a certain tooth ache while in Kampala, hoping the pain would soon subside. But it just happen to get worse day by day. I can honestly say it was the worst pain I have ever felt...I was desperate to get relief...chewing on tea bags no longer worked...biting down on a wet washcloth was failing...holding warm water in my mouth as long as possible was my only bit of relief...then came the time I could no longer take it! I got over my stubbornness (and fear) and admitted I really need to see a dentist. The slight problem being that the current dentist in Arua just the year before was the janitor at the "dentist office", if you can call it that (no offense to janitors). So Arua was out of the picture, that left Kampala, but our first dentist contact could not get me in til the end of the week. Thanks to a friend who had a few dental visits in Kampala I found a dentist who could get me in the very next day...but how would I get there?? Eagle Air to the rescue!!! Thanks to much prayer and our friends at Eagle Air I was able to get the only flight out of Arua the very next day and make it to the dentist!! I would say it was the best dental experience I have ever had, even though I ended up having a root canal ;) It could not have worked out better. The whole time I was hurting I kept thinking of the hundreds, probably thousands of Ugandans that are suffering with some pain and how is affects every part of their life. As funny as it may sound that tooth ache crippled me from doing what was set before me in Arua the first week I was there. All I could think of was the constant pain I was in which gave me no desire to do ministry or even be in Arua. One silly tooth caused so much trouble. It really makes me feel for those who are suffering and cannot find relief, but yet they still press on, it's the African way. I hope we all can pray for those people, whoever they maybe or wherever...