The Truth about White Ants

This video shows when the white ants first came out the other night... in swarms.  The termites fly to the light.  We catch them and throw them in the basin.  When you touch the wings they can no longer fly.  They just keep walking around and around in the basin until you dry fry them in a pan. 

 Collecting with style

The final product

It's Prayer Request Time!

Good morning friends and family,

I am feeling the need to send out a list of prayer requests for friends, ministry, and personal reasons.  Please pray along with me:

Friends:

• Rev. Sam has health issues that are weighing him down.  The cause or treatment has not yet been determined and it is starting to affect his work and energy.  Please pray for a proper diagnosis and the money to treat his health.  And pray for divine intervention.
• Rev. Beseri has an ailing elderly father who has been in and out of hospitals for the past few months.  The family is tired and financially strained.  Pray for the father to be able to eat well, gain strength, and increase in health.
• The Tiesenga family is coming back to Soroti next weekend after being in America for almost a year.  Praise the Lord that I will have more team-mates in town again. 
• Rose, my neighbor is writing her exam papers this week, and I am helping to look after the twins.
• A family lost a 17 year old son yesterday.  For weeks he was sick and instead of bringing him to town for medical advice, they brought him to a witch doctor for herbal remedies and more.  The family found out just a few days ago that he had cancer when they took him to town finally, and last night he left his earthly body in a very painful manner.  Please pray for the family... for comfort and a knowledge of God's peace.

Ministry:

• There is a big sports day coming up on April 22, that I will be helping to host at one of the local primary schools.  Pray that we will have fun and that I will be able to communicate well in regards to the boundaries for the cheering teams and the activities for the players.  We had a practice round yesterday and it was rather chaotic.  Kids want to cheer from the middle of the pitch.  :)
• Oil of Gladness is in the middle of a revision process.  We have chosen a new team of leaders and we are hoping to fill up the schedule with some new ministry events.  A few members have said good-bye or taken a leave of absence from the team and so we are looking for more musicians.  But praise the Lord the piggery project has 19 piglets in the barn.
• I am teaching God's story in three primary schools right now and I love being in the classroom.

Personal:

• I am once again trying to reconcile an ATM problem.  The bank machine shut down when the power went out and debited my account in Canada without giving me the money here in Soroti.  Please pray that Barclays and Scotiabank will reimburse the lost money.
• This week I had a stalker at my gate twice.  The first day he wanted my number and for me to be his wife.  The second day he said if I wouldn't be his wife I should at least send him to school.  Please pray for my safety, patience, and personal awareness.  Then on another day I had a pastor called me whom I met at a GPS planning meeting two weeks ago.  He got my name off of the attendance list, called and also asked me to be his wife.  I don't know how to handle these situations except to pray, hang up, call out for help... and I'm grateful for friends, neighbours and stubbornness that have always come to the rescue.  But no more putting my number on attendance records... any where!!

I think that's a start for now.  :)  Thank you for praying with me!  God bless

Time with Children

Easter Sunday, my neighbours invited me to share a feast with them.  The kids had fun playing with their relatives, while the adults sat around and talked, ate, danced, and listened to music.

 Christ is Risen!  He is risen indeed!! 

 Ok, so these aren't kids, but I'm sticking them in my update anyways.... Oil of Gladness is going through some changes and we could really use your prayers.  Some members are taking a leave of absence, others are praying the ministry continues.  We need new leaders, more energy, and better commitment.  Last Friday we had a huge meeting with 14 in attendance.  The Lord is going to move in this ministry I'm sure!!

 On Sunday I drove with my neighbours all the way to Malaba because we were missing Victor so much and we wanted to see him on his once a term visitation day.  I think he is doing well in boarding school... although I could never imagine being without my kids at home during primary years, or even secondary.  But if you want a good school here, sometimes that's the necessary thing to do... so a child has a chance at a good future school.

 Victor was overwhelmed by the visitors.  Tears were streaming down his face when we pulled into the compound.

 Here is Victor on his bed in his dormitory.  Every child has a metal trunk - filled with toiletries, books, snacks, photos, clothes, and other personal items.

 I was impressed by the neatness of the boys dorm.

 Victor really missed Opio and Ocen.

 Here are all the sweet boys!!  Including their cousin Arthur.

For the past few weeks I have been teaching every day in a local primary school.  The P4 class is very attentive - great listening, answering questions, participating with excitement.  But the P3 class is a little more challenging.  For one, they share a classroom with an older level of students.  The only thing that separates them is a super thin barrier of plywood.  The older kids peek through the shaky wall to see the activities we are participating in and both of us teachers are trying to speak over each other.  The other day was the hardest on me because the teacher next door proceeded to cane each pupil in his class.  My class sat in sheer silence as we heard the 3 wallops given to each child.  I could not imagine being educated, but it's the norm here.  All teachers walk around with a small branch, to use on children - for standing, talking, sharpening their pencil at the wrong time, resting, or sometimes I don't even know why.  My heart breaks.

 But the children are having fun learning the "17 Stories" of God's love for them!

 Ok... so my camera is not the best.  I wish I could invest in a decent piece of equipment... but I wanted to share one of my classes with you.

 I have noticed that when you give the children a blank piece of paper, and tell them to draw anything about the story, 75% of them want to copy something.  Creativity is lacking.  They have no idea how to begin, and having crayons is a sweet surprise for them.  They are good at copying, but I wish they could just imagine the burning bush, or the Red Sea, or the 10 plagues and draw them individually.

Here they are... quietly at work.

After teaching I went to the post office.  As I was locking up my box, one of the postal workers pulled up on a motorcycle.  "Hey Lubbers, did you get any mail today?"

"No, I did not."

"Oh, well that's because we haven't sorted today.  A lot of letters arrived, but we will sort them tomorrow.  I'm sure you will have a piece or two." 

Even though I highly doubt that I have a real letter, I am grateful for the hope that the postal worker has given to me for just another day.  :)

More Pics from Kenya

I did a horrible job of taking photos while in Kenya.  Actually, I am finding that I take pictures less and less because everything seems normal now days... but I am glad that one of the GPS travelers just sent me a few more photos and I thought I would share them with you. 

 Praying at a Boy's Boarding School in Kathiani

 My seat of preference was the middle of the very back row, often with old friends from college days or CRWM training in 2001.

 Marching through the streets with our country flags

 I am a Can-Ugandan

 During Debrief

 Sharing Testimonies

 Proud to represent Uganda

 Oh oh... the principal's office!

 Planning our schedules

 Having lunch of chapatti and beef

And praying at Thika Road Baptist Church / School

A Market Moment

In an hour I will be heading back out to Little Flowers Primary School.  I'm there every day, teaching the Religious Education class and it's super fun.  It's a joy being with the P3 and P4 classes.  They are listening well and catching on to God's plan of salvation through the "17 Stories" curriculum.

But I wanted to share with you a market moment... to give you a glimpse of what I saw yesterday.  While waiting for a friend who went out to buy a chicken and a clay pot (to hold drinking water), I sat in the car and watched life pass me by in a variety of expressions.  Here's what I noted:

• A pregnant lady rides side-saddle on the back of a piki (motorcycle).  She asks her driver to pull over so she can bargain for jackfruit.  I was surprised to see that she was too lazy to get off, she just kept demanding the vendor to bring her the best piece of fruit from his bucket.  He finally wrapped a piece in plastic and delivered it to her and off she went.
• Beside the car were four piles of pineapples, separated by size.  Many people came and went, buying the fruit for about 75 cents.  The young men selling were also willing to hold the spikey top, cut off all the skin, slice it into wedges, drop it into a plastic bag for you before cutting off the top.  So the odor inside the car was a mixture of sweet smelling pineapple and a rotting pile of fruit cut-offs (where flies were gathered in mass agreement).
• Next there were three men rolling out chapatti and frying them over charcoal stoves.  One of the men had a puzzle patterned table cloth and it reminded me of the symbol for autism... so many other memories came flooding to my mind... of my time serving with Christian Horizons in Ontario.
• Behind the fruit and chapatti vendors is an open park.  No grass, just dust.  In the middle of the open space is a rusty pavilion.  I imagined that's maybe where they make political speeches, or a band could play, but no, my friend came back and told me that's where Indian's incinerate their dead. In the market place.  Who knew?!
• A man walks by with a winter toque on his head.  It's 95 degrees, but he looks cool. :)
• Ladies stroll past with large basins on their heads - carrying bananas, oranges - with a knife to even peel them for you, or with card board boxes filled with knock-off fake gold jewelry.

The sun was beginning to set.  The action was intense because last minute people were flocking to the market to buy their daily foods for dinner time.  When the clay pot was safely put in the back seat and the live chicken was settled on to a tarp in the boot (trunk), we took off for home.  I hope you could picture a little of what I saw last night.

Disappearing Acts

Life on the home front is always full of surprises.  Saturday night I found a rat, dead, in my bathing room. "Great," I thought.  "The poison is working!"  Sunday morning I woke up and wanted to bathe quickly before church, only to find another rat in my bathing room.  This time it wasn't dead though... but dying.  Blood was spattered throughout the tiled room and it was sitting in the drain, trying to get water.  I don't know how to kill rats, so I summoned the help of Victor, my 10 year old neighbor.  He came running over with a piece of paper and said "I'm great at catching rats.  Full of courage, he reached down to grab the rat.  As soon as the paper touched the rat, it jumped, ran through my legs and scooted into my sitting room.  We couldn't spot it under the couch and time was running out for me to get to church on time.  I decided that since it was no longer in the bathing room, I would quickly scrub the bathroom and shower and head to church.
After church, to my delight, the rat was back in the bathing room. More blood.  But this time the neighbor boys were able to kill it.  Rat number 2!!  Yeah.  Another good scrub of the bathroom. 
Tuesday Victor left for boarding school.  He is going into P5 and he is so excited to be traveling 2 hours away from home to attend classes.  He packed his metal trunk and headed away with much energy.  So yesterday, Thursday, his twin brothers - Opio and Ocen, age 5, decided they would also pack for boarding school.  I loved it that Opio walked around all day with a Lightning McQueen pack on his back, filled with pajamas, plastic plates, a sling shot, some clothes, a pencil, and a few toy cars.  Ready for boarding! 
Throughout the morning, I needed to retrieve a book from my bookshelf tucked in the corner, and that's when I noticed the rat blood.  O great... the rat that escaped on Sunday morning disappeared into my book shelf and bleed on top of two rows of books.  That meant some serious spring cleaning.  The boys - Opio, Ocen, and another 4 year old, Chris - decided that they would help clean.  Before I knew it, my house was a mopping central station.  For those of you who have spent any quality time with kids, you know that chores are easier done without them, but they were having fun and my floors were being "cleaned".  (I had to clean the floors again a few hours later when a third rat ventured into my sitting room.  With the help of Alice, another friend, we killed the thing with two brooms and swept it outside.  I hope I'm done with rats for a while.)
The boys went outside while the floors were drying.  At lunch time, the helper who stays with the twins came over to ask if the boys were with me.  No, they weren't.  I told her to check the flat for Chris' family.  Five minutes later, the helper came back, once again asking if I had the boys.  O no... there is a problem.  I went to all six flats in the compound and asked if the boys were there.  And they were not around.  They had disappeared.  This had never happened to us before with these boys.  Helpers started strolling the neighborhood and I jumped on my bike.
I couldn't see the boys, but about 45 minutes later, their mother called me to tell me that Opio and Ocen were now home safe.  The mother and father had been notified, so they also joined the search.  By the time I reached home, the boys were all in bed, properly disciplined.  The parents started to tell me that they found Opio on one street and Ocen ran home from another direction around the block.  They had all gone out to buy sweets (candies) with money that Chris had taken from home.  Except the money wasn't Ugandan currency, so they ended up with nothing.  They went to a friend's house instead, also 5 or 6 years old and he joined them on the adventure.
I know because in the afternoon I went to MY Supermarket, downtown Soroti, and the shop keepers there said, "Oh Karen, we have a story for you.  Your boys were here earlier. They kept piling things on the counter... 8 apples, 6 juice boxes, 5 cakes... and they had no money."  I couldn't stop laughing.  At least they were all home safe. 
Chris took an hour longer to get home, but thankfully the neighbors never stopped looking for him.  He was picked up by a man with a motorcycle who drove around with him, trying to find "home".  After some time, the man decided to take him to Etop Radio Station and that's when Chris recognized our compound and found his own way home.  The man was paid for his troubles and Chris was also reprimanded. 
You should see the boys faces.  I think they had a good time while they were out, but I don't think they will ever leave the compound without an adult again.
I laughed when the boys told their mom that they couldn't buy groceries without money.  The mother said, "Even I don't have money." 
"Oh Mom, you just need to get a plastic card like Auntie Karen.  She just puts it in the wall and a few seconds later money comes out.  Just get a card, you'll have money."  Ha ha ha!!

GPS - Global Prayer Safari - Kenya

This year I joined the GPS team in Kenya.  I really needed a time of spiritual refreshment and I felt like it would also strengthen the partnership with my CRWM East and South African partners.  And wow, I am being awakened in prayer.  For the past few days, testimonies - both good and hard bring tears to my eyes.  I feel like my prayer life has come alive.  I find myself praying through the newspaper, or prayer for the security guard as I leave a shop.  I pray that the courage and energy doesn't leave when I travel back to Uganda next week.)

I landed on Friday the 5th, about 6 hours before a big team arrived from North America, so I stuck around the airport and researched and wrote my sermon while I waited for the driver with the GPS sign.  I thank God that He has given me the gift of Wooing others, because within a half hour at the airport I had a sharply dressed police officer and a 5-star hotel salesman sitting with me.  We chatted about life, travel, and yes - prayer.  The salesman let me sit in the hotel's office at the airport.  I stored my bag there, used the computer, sat at the desk to write, and hung out with other friendly staff that work in the airport.  The six hours flew by and before I new it I was delivered to my hotel.

 It was midnight when we pulled in to the Tea Tot Hotel.  A beautiful place with good food... in the heart of Machakos.  Machakos was the start off location for the GPS.

 Saturday, close to 40 of us, prayed through the market place and participated in an open-air Kick off Ceremony.  I proudly waved the flag for Uganda!  Other countries represented were: Ethiopia, South Africa, Cambodia, Romania, Kenya, Canada, and the US.  A great time of international fellowship.  Together we have been praying for the world - global concerns, government, police, spiritual, physical.... personal and institutional.

 On Sunday we divided in to groups of two's and went with a local pastor to preach and pray at their church.  I had the pleasure of sharing God's Word - "Celebrating God in Prayer" - at Rev. Sammy's church.  His wife Dorcas was a delight to meet and after church they blessed us with lunch in a nice hotel grounds and then we went for a stroll in the park.

 Pam and I couldn't resist a camel ride around the People's Park of Machakos.

 Here is our tour bus - loud, old, and instrumental for most of our transport!

 We have prayed for police and their stations in many counties and towns.

 We have prayed in churches

 We have prayed for those who pass by and our curious about the team.

 We prayed on the side of the road while our bus had a flat tire and a brake fluid leak.

We have prayed in government office elevators where we were crammed for over a half hour - stuck!  God answers prayer in such delightful ways!

 We have prayed for schools in the slums and the villages.

 We have prayed for art centres that encourage children. And we have prayed in hospitals.  In the maternity ward I was able to hug a mother who just lost her new born baby, and not a single family member was with her there.  I was able to pray for patients who are struggling with mental illness and for the psychiatrist who treats them.

We have prayed in the market and shops, and sometimes we purchase a product or two that help open the door to conversation.  This is thorn melon... looks a little bit that a passion fruit inside.  Not overly sweet, but I did find it refreshing.

This whole trip has been incredibly refreshing.  In a few hours I am going to wave the flag of Uganda through the streets of Nairobi as we pray through another market place and make our way to the closing ceremony.  Tomorrow I will preach in a city church and on Monday I will begin heading home.  The Lord is Good.