Amuria!!!!

This post will include the newsletter we sent out on Geoff's recent trip to Amuria! Great news already from there, too, as we have heard that the people there have already completed the house our team started and they have also already begun another one!!! We are sending two representatives tomorrow to check on their progress and, if all is in order, we will buy the community there a pair of oxen to help in plowing the gardens for the returnees of LRA capture! Please pray for our two representatives as they travel and meet with the returnees.
As always, we'll keep you posted, although not always in a timely manner . . . life if busy!!
So. . . the newsletter . . . . .

Here's the news about the recent trip to Amuria that I (Geoff) made along with 30 of our young people. Amuria is in the North Eastern part of Uganda and for the past 20 years has really struggled with different problems ranging from raids by a warrior tribe called the Karamajong to the latest problems with the LRA (a rebel group that has plagued Northern Uganda since the early 90’s.) Once a place that was rich with cattle and agriculture, it has been reduced to a hopeless group of refugees trapped in their own fears.
Our trip consisted of seven staff members, four college age children from New Hope and 30 teenagers from our three schools. We set out in the back of the ministry’s biggest truck on Saturday morning (August 23rd) at 4 am for 7 days of ministry. Imagine food for 40 people, plus outreach food, sauce pans, sound equipment, sports equipment, garden tools, and anything else that we could think of to provide for us for one week.
After five hours we ran into our first set back, though only a minor one--a flat tire. The real set back was not the flat, but the fact that the tools to change the tire had been removed from the tool kit. After a 1 ½ hour delay we were back on the road and praying for no more tire problems as the puncture was irreparable.
Another 8 hours passed before we finally arrived at our destination, a place so far off the main road that over the entire week we never saw another vehicle. We were warmly welcomed by around 150 people excited to see what this vehicle and mass of people were bringing to them. We immediately began clearing the spot for the tents, collected water and utilized the remaining sunshine to get set up.
The week was filled with much work and ministry. Our main goal was to come alongside the people, encourage them and inject hope into their lives before they totally give up. On the agenda was building a house for a widow and planting, weeding and harvesting crops for some of the hardest hit by the LRA conflict. There were three groups we targeted for ministry. First were children taken prisoner during the conflict: the boys were made to be soldiers and the young girls were forced to be wives to the leaders. In addition to the children, we found parents who lost their children, and finally women who lost their husbands. All have been deeply affected by the terror that the LRA brought to the area. The LRA uses terror and fear as their main weapons. They move through the bush to reach remote areas and basically slaughter entire villages. They kill the men, take the children and begin to brain wash them with terror tactics. Some stories reached us of having to kill their parents as part of the initiation.

Though we were very prepared, there are things for which you can never fully prepare. The situation the people are living in is very sad. Many lack food and all seemed to be hoping that we brought their miracle that would change everything. Most of these children’s contact with aid organizations has been mass feedings put on by the UN, so that’s what they expected, but they found our approach quite different. We brought not just the hope of a meal, but together with the gospel and the work we did we gave them hope for the future.
Many of these children have had no close contact with white people so at the beginning of the week the five of us whites were met by crying children running away. Not the warmest welcome, but by the end of the week we had made many friends. One of the other areas we really weren’t prepared for was the distances that the people of that area walk as part of their daily lives. On our first full day there we left camp to go to the site where we would be building the house. They described the distance as, “it is a bit far.” Well, as we came to know, “a bit far” might mean 16km (around 10 miles.) Somewhat near which is “just there” is 4km or 2 ½ miles, so needless to say we WALKED A LOT!

Our young people did great, with few complaints despite the walking, hard work, heavy rains and high temperatures in the afternoon. We would work in the gardens or building each day until 1:00, have lunch and then have open air meetings in the afternoon/evening, and as well, two nights we showed the Jesus film.
The youth of Amuria weren’t interested in talking to me or the other leaders, but wanted to relate to our teens, and many of our young people came back having experienced great success working with the local children. The majority of my time was spent with village elders and leaders ministering to them in the area of hope and the fact that God is able to bring them out of their desperation. We both encouraged and challenged them with things they should be doing as they go forward. At this point they had been suffering from a lack of rain. God really showed Himself powerful, when at the end of the meeting Monday night I boldly prayed for it to rain and within 10 minutes of saying amen, we had to run for shelter from the rain! It then proceeded to rain most all week.
It is our intention to continue to be involved in this village as it seems they have been forgotten by the world. We want to donate a pair of oxen for plowing to aid in their recovery as agriculture is their best resource. So we expect to make a visit in the near future to check on them (this is already happening tomorrow as we mentioned at the beginning of this blog!!) and again in December when we take our group back on another outreach.

The conditions these people are living in are some of the worst I have seen since moving to Uganda 2 ½ years ago. Most people live in mud houses that, in order to provide safety during the times of night raids, are crammed together in makeshift villages. It is normal to have only one meal a day and not uncommon for some to go without food. Children wear rags and 95% of the children I saw had no shoes. During the week I often thought, “Wow, I am in a hunger relief organization commercial.” Our hearts were captured by the plight of these people, and we hope to continue to reach out to them in prayer and stand with them as they recover from the years of suffering.
A humorous note . . . I saw a very small mud hut with a grass thatched roof with this message painted on its outside wall, “Availability of everything you need hotel.” That really speaks from a different perspective, doesn't it? A roof over your head and some hope.

There were many tears as we left, but the overwhelming feeling was that God is on the move and we will surely see His hand in the lives of those in Amuria. Please pray for those who have suffered at the hands of the LRA over the years. Peace has come to the North, but the wounds of the years of conflict run deep.


Blessings, The Brittons

Where have we been?

Wow! We have been busy!!! Sorry for the deficient info on the blog. Geoff returned from Amuria and hit the ground RUNNING! He got back at 9:30 p.m. Friday night the 29th of August after starting travel at 5:30 a.m. on the back of a bicycle in the deep bush. He arrived home exhausted after riding bicycles, motorcycles, overcrowded taxis, steaming hot buses and yet more taxis. We didn't sleep that Friday night as we heard word at about 9:45 p.m. that our New Hope bus had been in an accident that evening and wouldn't be available to transport the 25 of us scheduled to travel the next a.m. beginning at 3 (!) to the "introduction" pre-wedding ceremony of our David Family father, Uncle Mulu. We effectively avoided sleep most of the night trying to help arrange some other way for the 25 of us to travel all together the 5 hours to the event. Finally, at about 4:30 a.m. we decided to take the van of our manager and send only the amount of people who could fit in that one van. But . . . the van wouldn't start, so the hunt for another vehicle yet began again! At 6 a.m. 8 people (Geoff, Uncle Mulu, his father and key leaders from here) left in another staff vehicle. We packed a change of clothes for Geoff according to the way we'd dressed at other introductions. What we didn't know was that the tribe represented at this particular introduction didn't wear the same garb. Geoff was left with a suit coat and a long-sleeved blue t-shirt with a nice big design on the front. About the time he realized that the t-shirt (now turned inside out) would have to do for attire, he was asked to "share a word" being the representative pastor! There he stood, with no sleep, underdressed for the occasion, but sharing God's word for the occasion--be ready in season and out . . .
They returned home after 10 p.m. that evening and we launched a busy week the next week in preparation for the upcoming wedding ceremony the following Saturday, September 6th. I spent the week getting the kids ready as Toby was to be the peg boy (kind of like a ring bearer, but with more responsibility) and Acacia was to be the flower girl. At 10 p.m. the night before the wedding when we were rehearsing, Acacia broke down and uncontrollably cried. She wanted to do it so much, but the pressure to be "in front" and lead the procession was just too much for her little shy self to handle. We were sad for her because she truly wanted to do it, but was overcome by the fear of being in front of all the people. So, the next day as Toby led the procession of men and Geoff preached the wedding sermon, Acacia and Kevin and I sat and happily watched the beautiful ceremony--all 6 hours of it!!!! (weddings are LONG events here!)
Once through the wedding and helping with the "little" things that come along with hosting all the family that came in for the occasion, we turned our attention to preparation for the David Family vacation to begin the next Tuesday Sept 9th. We, along with Nancy Kirsch, one of our other David Family parents, planned the menu, activities, transport, packing of the kids, and did the shopping for the food and miscellaneous other things. We packed 43 people in our big lorrie and traveled 6 hours in the back of it to New Hope's new land near Mukono on Lake Victoria! It is a beautiful place! We hiked, played football, fished, swam, played games and had a bonfire every night! The food for the occasion was largely funded by the family themselves!!! Their bread business has been so successful over that past 1 1/2 years that it paid for most of the food with some money left over to keep the business going!!!

While we were enjoying the beauty of Lake Victoria and each other, Uncle Mulu and his new bride, Aunt Lucy were honeymooning. We all came back together at the end of the week, refreshed and ready for a new school term which started the 15th (last monday).

Geoff, of course, put all effort into making sure a new school term at the vocational institute started well. He has two new interns that he has so far trained in the maize mill and will continue training them in other areas of the daily operations there at the vocational site.

So, here we are at September 21st and Geoff is preaching this a.m. In the course of conversation the past few days, other staff members have commented about how excited they are that Geoff is preaching today--one said she and her son are still reminding themselves almost daily of the message he spoke last time he preached about 2 months ago!!!! Praise God for speaking His word through Geoff and I'm thankful that God's message impacts the lives of those we are working alongside!!!

Better close. We sent out a newsletter detailing the work that went on in Amuria. I will hopefully attempt later today or this week to post some of that here. Feel free to request it if you don't see it here soon!!
Mary

Can't forget the kids

Here are a few of our kids

Toby was also "peg boy" or ring bearer as we call it recently in Uncle Mulu's wedding

More pictures

Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from Amuria

Under Construction . . .

The picture is of our little "Kevin the builder" and his friend "Britton the builder" taken while Britton was visiting earlier this year with his mom and sister.

Speaking of under construction . . . (!) Geoff and Gabe (our new construction manager here at New Hope) walked together this a.m. and marked off the area for our house. Gabe will be placing the stakes today and ground breaking will begin this week!!!! Please keep this project and those working on it in your prayers!

And soon in this blog space will be all the wonderful details of Geoff's recent trip to the North and how our crazy weekend ended up last Saturday regarding the "introduction" for Uncle Mulu and Anutie Lucy--the ones who are getting married this coming saturday!!

Geoff decided to work today even after an exhausting week and weekend . . . he'll take Tuesday and Wednesday mornings off, so stay tuned . . . as soon as all the dust settles, there will be much to read here . . .