what happened in the middle of the relays...

So yeah, we're for sure in Africa and I was reminded again during relays at retreat (see below post). A gardener man who works at the hotel we stayed at walked up to me, interrupting my directing the kids on the next relay stage... and whispered... "Wanna see a cobra we caught?"... 
WHAT?!! 
Never to pass up a cultural moment, I asked him to keep it (they'd killed it) and I'd be over in a little. They had seen it go into a hole in the ground BETWEEN 2 of the girl's rooms the night before. SO GLAD the girls didn't know that fact! Anyway, they poured petrol (gasoline) down the hole and of course the snake came out. Then they knocked it on the head. That is the term here. To me, I'd term it as "committing harry carry on it" with all the adrenaline that would be going through my system had I been the "hitter and no the hittee". 
It was at least 8 ft. long, a "black forest cobra". UGH. The only good cobra... 

...is a dead cobra in my opinion... *shiver*

And no, I never did tell the girls that the cobra was found between their rooms. I believe when they read this blog post, I will probably hear their shrieks across the hills of Kampala. Grin. 

October Senior High Retreat!

 

Ahh the standard group shot. I love this one (above) and the background. We once again stayed at Kingfisher in Jinja (at the source of the Nile overlooking Lake Victoria and the Nile's beginning). 

Nearly 40 of us traveled 2 hours out of Kampala and had 3 days playing (above and below)... 

... worshiping, studying God's Word, hearing what He had to say through Josh (our new school chaplain), through small groups and individual times.. 

... and hanging out with friends. Praise the Lord for a blessed time with wonderful memories! 

Heritage Youth Groups and Bible Studies

 Youth activities based from HIS are every Friday. We either have youth group or Bible study. Both are going really well. Some of the adults who help are pictured below (Kris, Francis, Jackie, Josh).

Above: Francis and me doing a silly pose. 

Below, playing the "pass the lifesaver" game. It always entertains. 

... especially if we model it for the kids at first... 

Below: The grade 6 girls (there are more than this) love to get their photo taken. And they're so photogenic, I don't mind. :) These girls also like to try to sneak into youth group activities. I wish we had time for a middle school youth group. Pray for it- it'd be an awesome experience and ministry! 

Above: some of our senior high girls. Below, Prayer walk around the school with faculty and students at the end of our Spiritual Emphasis Week. It was a wonderful blessing and I know the Lord is honoring our efforts.

Oh Peter!

Peter is my day guard. I've written about him before. When I came home from shopping for games ideas before the Youth Bash (mentioned below in next post), I was explaining some of the games to him. He wanted to see the one game of "dress up relay" items, and promptly put them on. Yep, this is my crazy, kind guard. 
FYI pray for him please. His daughter is seriously ill. It seems he only ever has 1-2 months of breathing room before he gets hit with more serious issues. This has been his life since I've known the man. A house fire. A flood. Theft of cattle. Death of daughter. Theft of all school/boarding items and cash for school fees for his 3 oldest on their way back to school in July. Cancer and recovery (PTL) for his wife. Etc. Seriously, you think spiritual attacks are not so common (if you've grown up in the USA at least). And then you arrive to a place like this and spiritual warfare is EVERYWHERE. Peter's life is only one of countless who suffer. Why? Because they are trying to be faithful to the Lord and the enemy doesn't like it. 
So when I find him still having a sense of humor enough to voluntarily try on silly get-ups like this, I'm just thankful for his witness and humbled by his faith. 

Heritage's New School Year, 2011!!

Well it has taken a long time to put updates, so strap yourself in for a ride with all the updates coming out in the next days/weeks. Lots of photos and stories to share (thus the grouping of many photos; it takes less time and uploading if I group them). Thanks for your patience as I've been "under the radar" for a while. 

Above, we had a 7 hour Youth Bash with games, water activities, tons of food, a devotional, and capture the flag. The students had a great time playing, laughing and learning of a wholesome and loving life as we seek to follow and model Jesus. With more than 70 kids in the 7-12, it is the most in our secondary ever. We're happy to have kids from MANY places around the globe. Pray for us as we seek to minister, evangelize and disciple these young lives. 

Below, we had a week of orientation for teachers at HIS, including a BBQ dinner at our board director's home. There are more than 270 students enrolled in HIS this year, and we've got a ton of new teachers, especially in the elementary. Thank the Lord, quality has come with the quantity of returning/new faculty and staff. 

Times of worship and devotionals are just as important and influential during our training. I praise the Lord we can work in a Christian school. :)

For Security Purposes - PLEASE NOTE!!!

Well there is a lot to say about the first months of school at Heritage. In fact, I've got a lot of photos to share. 


However, I've been stymied on how to best share photos while protecting kids under 18. Yes, one way is to not name them in photos. But some may not want to be in web photos in any way at all. I know I don't really love it that with the age of Facebook and social networks, when someone posts a photo, the software can ID you with facial recognition. Even personally, I feel a little too vulnerable about weird, inappropriate or just unwanted publishing, and I'm an adult. 


In order to protect our school and youth kids from these potential pitfalls, HIS has implemented what I think is a great program. If parents consent to their kids being put in online photos (like on my blog), then I can post them freely. But if parents don't consent, I fully understand. So here and there you may see "black blobs" or "fuzzy blobs" over certain faces, in order to protect privacy and care appropriately for minors. THANK YOU for understanding. 


Now from here on, I'm really not mocking the protection we're offering our HIS youth. It may look like it when I've got numerous blobs over kids' faces. But it is a sincere effort to abide by safety standards and help our kids. I'm also considering, sadly, to simply stop this blog. I am free to send emails with photos, but posting things on the web just involves a lot of sticky issues. Since I'm in youth ministries connected to Heritage (with more than 20 nations represented in our student body), and also in the Africa Gospel Church in Uganda, the majority of the things I post here are in fact photos of teens. And I really don't want this blog to become A) a place where kids are not kept safe or B) a place where I have so many blobs on faces that you can hardly identify what is going on in the photo... 


If you have any tips or ideas how to honor privacy and protect minors while keeping this blog going, please let me know by contacting me. 

Kenya Vacation

In July I was blessed to go to Nairobi and the coast of Kenya with the Hopson family (WGM missionaries here in Uganda). We drove from Kampala to Nakuru the first day, staying there with other WGM missionaries for 2 days. What a lovely town it is! We really enjoyed the rest and relaxation and fellowship there in Nakuru and also in Nairobi and as we continued our journey. Here are a few photos of our days away.

The yard/garden in the home in Nakuru where we stayed. Lovely, eh?

Above and below: we visited the WGM/Africa Gospel Church Baby's home, where babies are taken in Kenya. Many are adopted each year back into Kenyan homes. Pray for the ministries there. They do an amazing and compassionate work. I am on purpose not posting children/babies for their safety's sake. If you would like more information on the center and how it is run, please feel free to email me and I'll put you in touch with the director. 

Emilee and her dad Kenneth took a camel ride on the Milindi beach. You can see it was seaweed season, with MOUNDS of seaweed washing ashore each day. We mostly kept to the hotel's pools, but when I did walk along the beach (a wonderful mile-long hike down to the "wishing rock"), I noticed the seaweed there is more like fall leaves as it is dry and "crunchy". Unlike USA seaweed I've come across which is slimy and clingy.


One afternoon we also took a boat trip out over the reef (it comes directly up to the shore there in Milindi), where we did some snorkeling. AWESOME marine life there! Happy days!

One afternoon I returned to the pool area after a few hours away (didn't want to be fried from the sun all week long, so I either dumped SPF50 on or would take sun-breaks at times), I found this lovely "frangipani" flower on my lounge chair as an invitation to enjoy the sun. It had fallen from it's tree located above the chair. They are also known as plumeria, which is more commonly named in the USA thanks to Bath & Body Works creams, lotions, etc. They smell lovely and are really pretty trees and flowers. 

As we drove through Kenya, above and below were just a few of the beautiful sights we saw. Above: tea estates near Kericho. Below, Kenya Highlands looking into part of the Rift Valley. 

Yet another beautiful view- taken from the van as we were driving! Not too shabby a photo, eh, since we were on the move?! (grin). 

At the hotel at Milindi, weaver birds were very happily chowing on the breadcrumbs left by hotel guests. 

Sights from the car

There are many interesting sights as we drive around East Africa. Sometimes I've got my camera with me. The above 3: a funny helmeted (a mohawk?) chicken (note, no neck feathers), bikes being transported on a boda (a motorcycle taxi), and since there are very few donkeys in Uganda (I've yet to see any), I was entertained whenever we saw them on our trip to Kenya. I've also seen "Shark hotel" and a sign "Groly to God" (they often invert the R and L here), but didn't have my camera at those times. 

Youth at My House!

Summer break in Uganda can be great for some kids, and quite boring for others. With so many traveling in and out of the continent, we usually don't have many youth activities during the summer. However, I felt a "rescue" was in order. I invited all those in town to come for dinner at my home this past week. It was a simple spaghetti dinner with chocolate cake for dessert, but it was definitely a summer highlight for many as they got to see friends they'd not seen all month. 

Things kind of evolved at one point with us taking a lot of silly pictures. These are only a few of the line up, but I think through them all you can see all those who attended. I think there were about 24, from Eritrea, Uganda, Sudan, USA, Canada, Philippines, and probably some place I've forgotten...

Arua Time!

After the Annual Field Retreat, Coppedge's, Rambo's and I took a road trip back to their homes in NW Uganda. Along the way, sigh, the second car (Yoda) broke down. It was a wee problem, but the girls piled into the first car (Shadowfax) and left the men to wait on our mechanic. They arrived to Arua about 3 hours after us, repair taken care of and all of us safe. Pray for road safety and working cars along the roads of Uganda please! 

In order to help the kids pass the time until we discovered what the mechanical issue was, Joanna broke out a mini-picnic on the side of the road! 

Because our break-down location was at a road junction, we were able to safely pull off the highway from the crazy speeding traffic. We watched these village women as they took their loads on bikes. Women using bikes is actually something you don't commonly see in the city, but only in the village. 

Going to the open market with Meg & Joanna, we were able to pick out fabric that is the typical African print. Most come from Congo, while others might come from Nigeria or West Africa. We found enough cloth for all of Meg's windows (they just arrived in Uganda in May and she is working on their house), plus some skirts or dresses for me and for Meg. Fun! 

Baby Rambo (yes he has a name, but I'm not giving it!) models the fancy Obama belt Joanna found in the market. She got it for a supporter, but when Rambo's came over for dinner one night, it was a useful tool to keep the baby in the seat at the table. 

The time in Arua with Coppedges and Rambos was a blessing. I really enjoy getting to see them in their "home area" and as they live and minister. However, none of us were very thrilled to have a snake in the yard at Coppedge's home. The guard killed it (it is alive still but on its way "out" in this photo) and we were thankful nobody was hurt. This is a green mamba.

In Africa, in order to avoid cholera or other diseases, you have to soak all fresh fruits and vegetables in bleach water, usually for about 5 minutes. These were freshly done in Joanna's kitchen, and they looked so pretty I felt a picture was necessary. 

ALL of us are Asbury University grads!

The Coppedge girls help make chocolate chip cookies while daddy (Billy) gets some nectar of life (coffee). 

Taking time alone with each family during my days there, it was a joy to see the everyday life of our missionary family. Joanna and Meg also took me to their weekly ladies Bible study, which was very nice. I think about 5-6 nations were represented among those 10 or so women! 

We also got to have a meal with long-time friend Andy, who was visiting Arua from Boston. He does ministries there about twice/year, sometimes bringing others to help as well. His sweet daughter Victoria was our original link to Andy. She came as a Volunteer about 4 years ago, helping at Heritage. Since then, we've had the blessing of knowing the whole family.