Heritage International Annual Christmas Banquet

The banquet took place on Dec. 12th at Lotus Mexicana, a new restaurant in Kampala. The food was delicious and we all had a nice time together. In this first photo, we've got the adults who went- from left to right...

Christina, from the Chicago area (a WGM Volunteer In Action- VIA- here through May teaching at HIS), Francis from Uganda (more on him later, but the teens really connect with him!), me, from Indiana and all over, Nick (more on him, later, too), and Jean, from New Jersey and also a WGM VIA teaching 1st grade till June 2010.

The next several photos are all from the banquet. The HIS teens enjoyed getting dressed up and having some nice pictures taken, plus we all enjoyed the fajitas and other Mexican fare. I promised I'd put the pictures on my blog, which many of the youth like to see (hi guys!- nice pics, eh?). This is not all the kids who went, but I had to glean out the fuzzy or poorly lit photos. :)

Lovely Heritage girls...

Ruth, Lebo, Vuyo and Meki enjoy a chocolate milk shake. Only about 3 restaurants in all of Uganda know how to make these. Otherwise, when you order a milk shake, it is literally shaken and foamy milk, and not very cold! Bummer!
From left to right are sisters Lebo (8th grade), Penny (10th grade) and Vuyo (8th grade). They come from South Africa but have lived in a number of other nations, including the USA.

In this photo: Francis (on left) is our Music teacher and from Uganda. Evgeni (Eugene), from Russia, is in the middle and in grade 7. Nick is on the right. He is a Missionary Kid (MK) from Bolivia through WGM, serving as a volunteer here till June or so.

Able, from Ethiopia, is on the left. Jesse, from the USA is in the middle. Logan was born in Zambia, is an MK, has lived in Uganda most of his life, except when his missionary parents have furloughs in their home nation of Canada. Talk about international families!

Christmas Banquet, continued...

Pictured from left to right in the back row are Kezza (from Uganda and the USA), Lebo (South Africa), Carlotta (Italy). In the front row are Ruth (Ethiopia), Meki (Kenya) and Donatella (USA and Italy). All of these young ladies' parents work in Uganda in the international business or aid-organization community.

The first photo of this set is of Kaleb, an MK from the USA. His parents are in WGM and are wonderful friends and coworkers. Caleb, on the right, is from the USA and Korea and is also an MK. Both guys are in 8th grade. Caleb is moving back to the USA as his parents begin other ministries there after Christmas. Such is the life of international families and missionaries. Goodbyes (and hellos) are par for the course.

Mischa and Yang are in the second photo. Both guys are seniors. We've been praying for Mischa as he went through some very serious health problems but God has healed him and we are so thankful! Mischa is from Holland and is a Missionary Kid (MK). Yang is from Uganda and his father is an economist working with the government here.

The brush man

This is the brush man. He is our African-style Wal-mart supplier of "aisle 47, household supplies". It is amazing how much he can stack and hang off his bike and still pedal/peddle it around. Ha. Nice pun, eh?

Now THOSE are some horns!

Do you want to know why only certain types of cattle are found in Africa and parts of Asia? Because only certain types, like the one seen here are resistant to tse tse flies and malaria! Interesting factoid, eh?
Even though I live in a city of nearly 3 million, we've got cattle and goats and chickens running all around. The city dwellers, some of them, want to maintain a small herd, even if it means moving their cows around to empty plots of land, open fields, and walking down the roads.
Not only are the cattle used for food (of course), but also they're often used in bride-price exchanges, even though some people here insist that this practice (bride price) should stop. "How many cows are you worth?" Not the best conversation starter, in my book.

Get to know some of the Heritage teens...

Although HIS is small, we have a good group of students. They even cooperate when I ask them to pose for some shots. Then things get carried away and you end up with fun photos like this one. This is most of the 9th grade. Logan has his arm over his face. He is from Canada, is a Missionary Kid (MK) and was born in Zambia. Laughing at the top of the photo is Bhavik. He is from India and his parents own a business here in Kampala. Matthew is next to him, and he is from Uganda. But until this year, he's been living in Holland. Jesse is at the bottom right corner. His dad works for an NGO (Non-Governmentatl Organization) here and travels a lot throughout Uganda. They are from the USA. Shanille has ancestry in Uganda and Canada, and her mom owns a restaurant here. Meki is from Kenya and her family also work in an NGO in Uganda. Maybe later we'll get a picture with all the 9th grade, as we're only missing Lino!

School kids...

Shanille and Meki are in 8th grade. They are joyful and kind teens who have a lot of creativity. A few years back, when Shanille first came to Heritage, I had the privilege of leading her to Jesus.

In Memory of Mic

In October our math teacher, Mic, developed an infection which led to a diagnosis of liver failure. After about 6 weeks, from the initial infection to Mic's final days, God provided many miracles. The biggest miracle was that Mic really needed to fly home to the UK and be treated with dialysis. He dreamed of seeing his family again and reconciling with family members there. Mic did get to fly to the UK, and he was able to have wonderful healing times with his family. He was surrounded with peace and love when he slipped into eternity on Nov. 6.

At HIS on Nov. 14 we had a memorial service for Mic. The chapel service was filled with love and glory to the Lord. I want to praise the Lord for the good response by the our HIS students and family. We are in mourning for our math teacher, but it has been so evident that Jesus has poured out His peace and blessings in this whole process.

Worship during Mission's Trip Prep Class

All students in grades 9-12 are required to take part in the Mission's Trip Prep Class. Each Friday we meet together to discuss and plan the mission's trip, which will actually take place in February. One of the things we're working on besides VBS type lessons are worship songs and unifying discussions.

Thankfully, Christina is good with song-leading and guitar playing. We're practicing some kids songs like "Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes", "Hallelu Hallelu...Praise Ye the Lord", which we'll use during the VBS program.

Be in prayer for the teens as they prepare for this trip. Although all of them may not attend the 3-days away, all will have built some neat skills in order to help serve in churches or service elsewhere.

Nick Strong, Christina Maddalone and I are the adult leaders on the trip, with the trip dates as February 4-6, 2009.

Village Church Visit

In the early days of my blog, I wrote about a church named Nakigalala (Nah-chee-ga-la-la) about 1 hour from my house. The roads are terrible, and yet it is always a great encouragement to the believers there for us to visit them. So Jean and Christina (our 1st and 6th grade teachers, WGM Volunteers) took part in the adventure of the visit. It isn't getting TO the church that is the problem, it is the problem of getting OUT due to the mud and the hills.

While trying to get out of the muddied area right next to the church (on a hill), I was only sitting there thinking about what direction to try to go next, and the car STILL slid- into the reed walled church, no less! Ugh- that's not a good scenario since the place is very poor anyway. Imagine the church people talking about the "kind missionary" who knocked down the church!

We finally did make it out, with what should have been a 2-3 minute drive taking 45+ minutes up the first and worst incline, due to all the sliding, getting stuck, etc.

Please keep the people of Nakigalala and our other churches in prayer, as they have very little to call a church building and less to give in tithes so funds are few and far between for any type of building funds. Many of the Africa Gospel Churches want to buy land and build, but of course, costs for these ventures are always high. Most of our churches meet under trees, under metal roofed pole-barn looking places, or inside reed-mat buildings like the one in the photo above. Theft in these unsecured buildings is common, along with tons of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and even chickens and rats. Thankfully the rats and most mosquitoes only come at night, but they cause problems all the same.

If you'd like to donate towards the building of a church in Uganda, you can either donate online, or else send a check to World Gospel Mission, P.O. Box 948 Marion, IN. Include the project account number please, which is 150-21345. Thank you and thank you for your prayers!

Rain Festival

Each fall at the onset of the long rainy season, Heritage celebrates with Rain Festival. The students, families and some faculty dress up in funny costumes, there are booths and games set up, food and music and some fun contests all fill the evening. With a version of the "dunk tank" you can see Lino (grade 9) and Nick and Christina (youth workers plus HIS teachers) participateed in that wet activity. Some of the grade 8 girls got stuck in the "jail", Bec and Samra posed nicely for a shot, and Austin dressed as a grandma, winning a costume contest (and looking pretty funny since he is a 6th grade BOY!!!).

Rick & Janie with Peter

Pastor Rick and his wife Janie are our field pastors, who visit us twice a year from Missouri. This year, they stayed in the small apartment behind my house, so I got to see them a little more than usual. Some days they were able to take time with my day guard, Peter, and get some Ateso/Teso lessons (both terms are used for the language).
Peter comes from Eastern Uganda and his wife and 8 children are still there. He works for WGM and sends support back to the family, visiting them 3-4 times a year only. FYI, that is a typical set-up for a family in Uganda, for the father to work elsewhere and send money back to the rest of the family. Peter is a committed Christian and a kind man. I'm thankful to have him as my watchman.

Coppedges plus one

This is the current Coppedge family, with Joanna, Billy & Elsie Jayne. They work with WGM in Arua and were in town this past week. We LOVE them! They are expecting to add another baby by April, and I think that if the baby is born on my birthday (April 3rd), then I get to name him/her. Isn't that fair?

More Missions Trip Prep class activities

So in order to demonstrate a type of lesson the teens will need to do on their missions trip in February, on Friday we played "Sculptionary" with Playdough, letting teams and individuals shape certain objects. We also had the Bible lesson about being all part of one body, introduced by another game of "pin the body part on the blue guy". It was all in fun but the teens got some practical VBS ideas out of it.

Nick's Birthday

Oct. 17, Nick's 24th birthday, found us celebrating at the local (yummy) Italian restaurant with the whole Kampala side of WGM Uganda! Pictured in the top photo are Haley, Jean, Christina and Nick. The next photo is of Christina, Emilee (in stripes), Ashley (in yellow), Abby (in pink) & Nick.

Break the Dress Code and you wear... THE MUMU~ !!

Ever get tired of seeing the boxers or more on a teen? Shanthi, our Principal at HIS, had her mom help with the solution. They made a very scary dress (one size fits most, but short or elementary aged kids will trip and fall in the thing). So far, nobody has had to wear it, since they're all so frightened of being within 10 feet of it! However, Shanille and Meki helped model it for me, so now even you get to see it!

Grade 8 in World History Class

It is a rare thing to have the kids all quiet and working at the same time. So I thought I'd better document it. This year's grade 8 is a fun, creative, kind, and just plain neat class. I'm blessed to know them, even if they do make a lot of noise!

Retreat Group Photo

Heritage Retreat, Sept. 2008

H.I.S retreat was really a great time this year, Praise the Lord! With 37 kids and 5 adults, you can see by the photos we had a terrific time. Our speaker was Paul Crowe, who spoke about being “Out of Control” (and letting Jesus be in control of our lives; not us). The sessions, worship and singing, prayer, devotionals, food, slip n slide, pool, sun and fun times were great! Nick Strong led our games, complete with water balloon launches, relays, laughter, silliness, and just all-out a good time. Thanks for your prayers. God IS clearly working in our teens and in the school. Keep praying!

Playin' with a parachute

So a friend of Jean's sent her a parachute to use with her first graders. Well, maybe it is meant for grade 1, but HEY, we can all have fun with it! So last night before our ladies' prayer meeting began, (pictured left to right) Jean, Rachel, Donna, Haley, Angela, Christina and I practiced our skills.
On my Facebook page, Jean & Christina posted a few other photos of the "play time" with the parachute. I guess you're never too old to play!

Ireland team

From Aug. 29 till Sept. 12, our Kampala team is blessed to have a workteam from Ireland here. Although I'm not heading up the team and it's ministries, I do get to participate with them by hosting them for some meals. The team is loving and the humilty of Christ is evident in each person. I'm really glad we've had time to get to know each person and to see how much they've ministered in our local churches, as well as to us as missionaries.

Spiritual Emphasis Week @ HIS

Last week Heritage had it's spiritual emphasis week. In previous years, the school had combined it's school spirit week with the week of special chapels. But the silly costumes everyone wore for the spirit week were a tremendous distraction from the week's daily chapels. So this year we separated the two weeks, and moved the spiritual emphasis week to the first semester. Keeley Wickham was our secondary speaker, Paulina Koster was our elementary speaker, and we even had special chapels for the littlest children in the pre-kinder and kindergarten classes.
All of the chapels went VERY well, and it was evident Jesus was working. Praise the Lord for all HE did in the hearts of the students, faculty and visitors!
Pictured above are 1- Keeley sharing in the secondary chapel, 2- Paulina sharing in the elementary chapel, and 3- Keeley asked the teens to lay down on some mats she had placed around. We secondary teachers then walked around and prayed for each student. I wasn't sure this would work very well, but it ended up to be a blessed prayer and worship time!

Missions trip preparation

Pictured above: a class demonstration about perseverance and encouragement

I am sharing a class this semester with Nick Strong, where we are preparing our grades 9-12 for a missions trip in February. Each week we have a brief lesson and hands-on demonstration, and then we work in groups preparing for the missions trip. Applying the Bible studies and ideas we are learning, we are praying this class will be an eye-opener to the teens for how to minister to people around them, whether they are on a special trip or if they are simply living their every-day lives. Pray that the teens pick up the burden to win souls for Jesus, and pray for the few in the class who don't yet know Jesus as Savior. We DO see the Lord working in the lives of these precious youth. Pray they allow Him to do all HE wants to do! Thanks!

Pyramid of girls

So what do you do when there is a pause in activities at a HIS youth event before the next thing begins? Apparently, shout "get into a pyramid" and it works! These girls never seemed to move so fast and it was quite an entertaining "commercial break" between activities.

Jean and Christina

Meet Christina (in above photo reading) & Jean (in photo above with kids). They are 2 of our HIS teachers, who also are WGM VIA and have become good friends to me. They are doing a bang-up job in the first grade (Jean, with 21 students) and fifth grade (Christina, with 5 students) classrooms. Both are musical and they contribute in ministries with great ability and enthusiasm! Both are helping in various roles with the HIS youth. Pray for them as they minister and as they live in the Ugandan culture. They've adjusted very well and I'm so pleased they're here. Their students would agree- they LOVE their teachers! :)

New School Year at Heritage Int'l

A new school year began Aug. 11th, and we have the most students ever in the school. Although many of the students are behaving well and are open to hearing the Gospel, there are a few who definitely need Christ. But I believe Jesus has great plans for ALL these teens, whether they now know Christ yet as Savior or not. Will you continue to pray with me that we will see clear evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work this year?
Due to teacher needs, I am now the grades 7-12 Social studies teacher again. We have a new principal but no administrator, so keep that in prayer.
Beyond teaching, I also lead the HIS youth ministries, but I now have help. Two VIA, Nick and Christina, have stepped in to assist leading, and it is such a help and encouragement! Praise the Lord!

Prayer needs:

Pray for the field as we work to pay for and build the new field house. With land and construction prices skyrocketing, it has been a BIG stretch to build the new place. But in the long run, due to high rents, we really will save thousands each month!
Pray for the AGC and the Kayunga district in central Uganda. Our pastor’s trainer, Gabriel, lost his baby after a brief illness, and Gabriel’s father, Rev. Emmanuel Moga, also died suddenly from illness that week. Rev. Moga was our district overseer and a strong spiritual leader in the region. Pray for the Moga family during this double-loss. We all agree that it seems Satan is actively working to discourage and derail the work of the Lord in Kayunga, as the area consistently suffers personnel, financial and spiritual battles. We believe if we fervently, faithfully pray, the foothold we have there will grow. After all, Christ has already won the battle– Satan has already lost! God IS in control! Praise His Name!

Emily & Heather & VIA ministries

Emily (painting in my classroom) and Heather (ministering with some kids at a local children's home) are just 2 of the VIA we had here over the summer. In total for Uganda, we had 9 VIA from various parts of the USA.
We often have a few VIA running around in Uganda, performing various ministries and contributing in numerous ways. As the VIA Coordinator, I am responsible to oversee their pre-field preparations, as well as orientation, housing, and regular ministry schedules. These past few months, our VIA have ministered in many areas, including, men’s Bible studies, Missionary Kids (MKs) ministries, painting classrooms, tutoring, sanding carved-upon desks, cleaning, teaching, doing inventories, running VBS programs, helping on our field retreat, office work, sharing in women’s meetings, and running 3 weeks of sports camps for basketball, soccer and baseball. In each activity, these dear folks strive to make Christ known through sharing His love and offer of salvation.
Many of my summer days were spent helping and working with the VIA or just hanging out with them.