What's the grossest thing you've eaten?

Ronald and I had a funny conversation about the grossest things we have eaten.
There was the accident bird droppings and the dares that guys can't refuse to do but what about "real food"?
What was given to you as real food that was the grossest?
I told him about catepillers in Belgium. Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle. No that's not it.
Some of Ronald's favorite local food is fried grasshopper and termites.

Snails in France? No
Intestine stew in Spain? No.
You have to remember that boiled intestines and stomach lining is a treat to many here.
Clabbered milk is traditional gift given to guests. Sun dried fish is a favorite. Fish head soup is meal that we are given regularly when we go to Ntoroko.
Ronald and I have sucked the brains out of many fish and popped out their eye balls just for fun.

Ronald said, "the grossest food I have ever been given You've eaten, Jeff. You have a very strong stomach!
I think the Pressed head was one of the worst things I've tasted. I couldn't even eat it all. You ate the whole thing!
When that Congolese woman gave us cold, greasy, pig brains I thought I might vomit. I hid it in my pocket. You ate it, Jeff.

There was also the time that we were given the bones. The family had eaten all of the meat off them so they cut them up and prepared them for us again. (yummy!)

There was also that time when we were visiting a village church and they served us boiled green meat. The meat was rotten. We didn't want to offend them so we all ate it! That was probably the worst. "

As Ronald reminded me of the green meat I could taste it in my mouth.
You're right Ronald that was nasty!



So what was the grossest real food that you have eaten?

Sunday School Field Trip

On Saturday October 29 the Fort Portal church took the Sunday School class to Camp Saaka for a day of Fun.



Ovoyo gives the thumbs up. We are ready for fun!


Ali "Baba" drives our truck with the supplies. He enjoyed the day with the Christians. Happy Ramadan Ali!


David led the children in games.


Alan tries to get Kinley to move in a local game. The girls won this game! Way to go Kinley!





Even the little guys had fun.




We found another one of Ronald's gifts. We already knew that he has the gift of intercessory eating but we didn't realize how well he can Barbque!



The Chilren had a great day at Camp Saaka!

Ovoyo Puts on Christ.

Ronald Prepares to baptize Ovoyo.

Discipleship Retreat

When Jesus sent His disciples out He told them to Go into all the world. (Another way to understand this is AS you go into all the world) make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He also told them to teach them everything that He had commanded.
Far too often new believers are not shown how to be a disciple of Christ.
They may be taught something about baptism and then handed a book on "Now that you are a Christian. "

Many converts are actually proselytes. The difference between a disciple and a proselyte is the fruit. They both may be able to give the right answers to the theological questions but that is not fruit.
In 1995 I began to look for those that I could disciple and deeply mentor. A group of five men were chosen. They followed me everywhere as we shared the love of Jesus with the people. Out of those five, three have stayed faithful and have real fruit to show.
I took these three Ronald, David and Dick to a place called Sebatoli in Kibali Forest. Each of them brought at least one other person that they want to teach, discple and mentor.
They each chose someone who was not baptised.
In addition Derrick and Switzer were also chosen.


After dark we worship around a campfire. We sang, prayed, and shared from our hearts. We had a special time where I laid my hands on Ronald, David and Dick. They were part of the original Servants in Training discipleship group that began nine years ago.
I had chosen each of them and they followed. Together we shared the love of Christ with many people. Ronald, David and Dick have been with me for nine years.
I prayed a special prayer for each of them. They were no longer servants. They are my friends.
It was an emotional event that we will not soon forget. There was not a dry eye around that fire.
That night will be cherished in my heart.
We prayed for each other and sang until the bonfire burned out.



The next morning Ronald, David and Dick sat together and figured out their plan. The three men who had not fully committed to Christ were brought into the group. They began by sharing what being in Christ has meant to them. They were honest and open.
I walked by and would listen to what they were sharing, it was amazing.
Because the Spirit of God is working through these men...



Abegaba want to be baptized next week. Dick is discipling him.




(This is Dick.)




Francis (pictured on the right above) is being discipled by David
He has asked David to Baptize him next Sunday!



Ovoyo ,on the right, is being discipled by Ronald. He wants to put on Christ as soon as he can!


(This is Ronald )


Derrick is one of our life care group leaders who is being mentored by Dick. He has real hunger for the Word of God.



(This guy was watching us the whole time.
I took this picture after this monkey threw a stick at me and hit me in the back of the head!)

To see Ronald, David and Dick disciple and mentor others is wonderful.
If we teach others to teach others then the effort will multiply. May the whole world be shown that Jesus is Lord.

Family Time

Nestled on the border between Rwanda and Uganda is Lake Bunyonyi. (Bunyonyi means place of small birds). It is a place of interesting history as twice a week the Batwa have a market on the lake side. The Batwa are the forest people that other like to call Pygmies.
Years ago one of the islands was home to a colony of lepers helped by a missionary. The island we were camping on was where they grew food to feed the colony. One of the islands was also where women, who had children without being married, were taken and left.
The locals get around in dugout canoes.




The first night Cheryl had some quiet time while staying alone with Silas in the family cottage. I took Kinley, Alex and Isaac to the other side of the small island and we slept in a big tent.




What a beautiful place!


Silas loves camping out!


Cheryl and Kinley enjoying each other.



Isaac says, "I'm a frog!"



Alex is a great big brother to Isaac.



It was fun to get away. We had communion and a devotional around the camp fire. We sang and sang. The rest of family went to bed but Isaac asked if he could stay up with his Dad and wait for the fire to go down. It was a special night with the family. What a great bunch of kids!

Tailgate party

We stopped on the way to Mbarara and had a tailgate party. It was a nice little picnic. This vehicle has been such a wonderful blessing. All of the family can travel these bumpy, horrible roads in their own seats.
I am so thankful for the Landcruiser.

Serve

David and I held a "seminar" for some of the leaders of the Kampala church of Christ. They were having a leadership retreat. Ronald and Dick also went with us and helped out.
Leadership is influence. Christian leadership is influencing others to be like Christ. The best way to do that is to serve.
Think of others as better than yourself. Humble yourselves.
We gave them some different personality and leadership tests. We had a number of activities. We got them started on the path to reworking their purpose and vision statements. They responded very well. They have some really good people.

One of the activities was a foot washing ceremony.


Many of the things we taught, David and I learned from our classes that we have been taking. We are working slowly towards a Masters in Organizational Leadership and Management from Uganda Christian University.
We hope that these kinds of activities will help to build long lasting relationships between the Christians in Kampala and Fort Portal.

Care Package

Mail is not delivered to your home in Fort Portal. Having a post office box for most people is a luxury.
For our family the PO box is a link to our friends and family. To check our mail, we have first make sure that we have our key with us then we drive down to the post office.
It sometimes takes a little magic trick to get the old skeleton key to turn. It is a thrill for the family when they see a package slip.
We take the slip inside the post office and get in line. When we reach the front we give them the package slip and have to sign that we have received the package in good order before they will go get it for us.
The person helping us then goes into a dark room in the back for the next several minutes, sometimes even longer.
Then they come out with the treasure.
The other day the post mistress (I'm sure there are jokes there.)
said, "those people in America sure do love you. You are our best customer! You get more mail then the rest of the town!
It is so good that they remeber you when you are so far away."
Glenwood just sent us several boxes of goodies. I can't tell you how encouraging the packages are! They are so much fun.


Isaac sure does love his new toy!!


Thank you Glenwood for wonderful care packages!!!
We Love you, too!

See my bandaid?

I fell down!


Look at my owee!
Isaac wants to show you where he fell down and hit his elbow.
Poor little guy.

Evolution?

In Uganda there are many opportunities to share and teach about Christ in the schools. We have been asked to, please teach the students. They beg us to come and share our faith with the kids. Over the years we have gone to Catholic, Anglican, Seventh Day Adventist and Muslim schools. The people divide all the schools into two categories Muslim or Christian.
If you go to a Muslim school you are required to take Muslim studies if you go to a Christian school you take CRE (Christian Religious Education). It is required to study the Bible. The majority of the schools in Fort Portal would call themselves Christian.
I just got off the phone with Ronald and I asked him about this. He said that the primary schools (elementary) teach basic Bible stories. They learn the stories of Adam and Eve, Jesus, Moses etc…
I asked him about evolution and he said that it was introduced in his high school history class.
“Do you know anyone who believes in evolution?” I asked.
“No” he replied.
“Very few people believe in evolution…only the elite. Those who have gone high in education. Most people believe that God created the world.”
Ronald later remembered one man who worked with the monkey researchers who believed in evolution.

I recently read two interesting article from CBSNEWS.com
The first was called Poll: Majority Reject Evolution (Oct. 23, 2005)
The other was Poll: Creationism Trumps Evolution. (Nov. 22, 2004)

In each poll a nationwide survey of about 800 were randomly sampled.
(Error due to sampling could be plus or minus 4 % for 2005 poll and plus or minus 3% for 2004 poll)

God created humans in present form
2005 poll 51%

Humans evolved but God guided the process
2005 poll 30%


Humans evolved but God did not guide the process
2005 poll 15%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
God created humans in present form
2004 poll 55%

Humans evolved but God guided the process
2004 poll 27%


Humans evolved but God did not guide the process
2004 poll 13%

If these polls are an accurate picture of the beliefs in the United States…Most Americans do not believe that humans evolved. 2/3 of those who do believe that humans evolved also believe that God guided the process.
The remaining fragment of 13-15 % believes that humans evolved and God did not guide the process.

A majority of the people believe that man was created…

Of those who believe that humans evolved over 66% of them believe that God guided the process…


What are WE THE PEOPLE, teaching our children in our schools?

I appreciate that in Uganda we are free to teach what we believe.

10 year celebration with other missionaries

It is amazing how time flies by. It was October 3, 1995 when we first came to Uganda. Now it is ten years later.
So much has happened during that time. We were blessed with four wonderful children. We continue to praise the Lord for all that He has done.


To celebrate this occasion two other missionary families joined us for dinner at the Rwenzori View Guest House.
Bob and Jennifer Chedester have been here nearly as long as we have.
They are working with World Harvest Mission.
Doug and Destiny are planting a church for Calvary Chapel.
We had a great evening together.


Cheryl had this painting done by one of our friends who is a Christian in Kampala.
It was a neat surprise. Thank you Cheryl!

Ten Years in Uganda!

This week we are celebrating ten years of ministry in Uganda. We had a party with the church. Everyone was very encouraging as they shared what the Lord has done for them.



After church we all went to the "Gardens" for the celebration.








Silas is enjoying the party!!


David and Ronald


Cheryl brought a cake to party!! Yummm.


Can I have a piece of cake?


Switzer shared how the Lord has changed his life.


The Lord has been so good to us over the last ten years. We pray that the next ten years will be even more fruitful!
We praise the Lord for His unfailing kindness!
God bless
Jeff