To the Village and Beyond . . .

I have been out in the village a lot lately. Usually I stay busy enough at New Hope that I don’t have time to get out. But, on the way home from Entebbe last weekend we received a call from one of the neighbors of Sam’s Jaaja (grandmother) who reported her to be very sick with a fever. Geoff, Sam and I went out that very day and found her with a serious infection in her foot. She hadn’t eaten all day as she couldn’t make it outside to make the fire for cooking. Since then we’ve been visiting each day for almost a week, taking tea and food, plus cleaning and dressing her wound, and giving her antibiotics.

Whereas I usually go with Sam or Geoff, yesterday I went with Kakande. Kakande’s own grandmother lives at the entrance to the path we take to Jaaja, so when he heard that I was going to Wakayamba (the village name) he jumped in. He greeted each villager in a friendly way as we wound our way through the footpath and patiently waited outside while I tended to Jaaja. Occasionally he muttered or sputtered something about having to wait, but exhibited such self-control that I thought a quick visit to his own Jaaja was warranted on the way back to the van. Unfortunately we found her in bed at 11 a.m., also very sick. He left quite depressed and worried about her, but that only lasted a short time. For when we arrived back at New Hope he was donned in a Santa costume for the Special Needs Christmas card  

Today I went alone. Walking along the path I found myself contemplating the extreme fashion statement I was at that moment. Unkempt hair, nothing special T-shirt, mud boots and dirty skirt (don’t wear anything clean to Grandma’s because whatever you wear will end up dirty anyway.) It has been raining HEAVILY most days this week and mud boots are the only foot covering that get me to Jaaja’s house mostly clean and dry over the roughly quarter mile dirt/mud path from the main road. 

I’m getting to “know” the neighbors, so the friendliness of our greetings have increased with my daily visits. One mud hut houses an older woman of questionable mental wherewithal. She’s been known to “go off” from time to time, so as I approached her house and saw her working outside I ventured the standard greeting, wondering what response I would receive. She decided she needed to extend the greeting by engaging me in face to face conversation about the sad state of her house, her sore knee, and various other less-than-desirable circumstances due to the recent rains. I noticed that she had been “mudding” her house--patching up the broken places with fresh mud. The entire structure is a one story tower of Pisa, so her “shoring up” attempts will be short-lived given the pull of gravity and drenching rains. I felt for her. Reflecting on the love God has for orphans and widows awakened my desire to help her in that moment, but I explained that I was on my way to Jaaja’s who desperately needed me. My departing words of “bless you” rang of “be warmed and filled” and I was suddenly aware of my severe inadequacy to meet all the needs I see each time I go to Wakayamba. But, I continued walking with a resolve to do at least what I could for Sam and Nabukeera’s Jaaja. My ability to help her in such tangible ways propelled me along the path, but not without a pang in my heart for what I had just witnessed, nor a deep scoff at myself for, only moments before, shallowly giving attention to my smashing attire. 

Jaaja is about as stubborn as a monkey is mischievous. If we are not there to make her take her medicine, she won’t take it. If I don’t make her drink water, she won’t. She got fed up with the beans and rice I provided Monday to Friday, so she took matters into her own hands. Despite her compromised state, Geoff found her peeling and preparing her own matooke (like a plantain) when he went after lunch on Friday. At least this showed us that she was on the mend! When he told her to swallow her antibiotic, she explained she would wait until she ate. Not falling for her tricks, and knowing that she wouldn’t be eating for another 2 hours, he gave her the medicine and stood over her until she swallowed. 

Jaaja in her kitchen

Today she related a story of giving money for a purchase of sugar to a young neighbor man, but he “ate the money”. (This is the phrase used around here for wasting.) I was incensed! I know the young man and decided I would confront him on the way out on the footpath. Before I could reach his house (and he wasn’t home anyway) I was stopped by the older woman of the mud hut. As if my heart hadn’t been wrenched enough with our previous encounter she went further. “My knee is paining (hurting) me,” and she lifted her skirt to give me a gander as she herself glanced to my nursing bag of tricks.  All the neighbors know me as “musawo” (doctor) so she figured I might have something to offer her from my satchel. Before I could say anything she continued, “I have no mother or father, no brothers, and now have only one sister, only one. There is no one to help me and I need blocks,” and she pointed in the direction of the nearby tree. I was lost. I tracked with the swollen knee, lack of family members to help her and the dilapidated house, but what were the blocks to which she pointed???  Being reminded within myself that when one points here it is usually not in the actual direction of the thing being referred to I looked around trying to surmise the identity of a “block”. She then lifted her eyes to the house behind us--one made of bricks and standing smartly upright. “Ahhhh, brreeecks, you need breeecks for your house!” Her face lit up acknowledging I was finally catching a clue; she also went one more level while her hands fell open in a begging motion, she uttered forcefully, “Help me! Please! Help me! Please!” My heart jumped. I promised her I would talk to someone at New Hope and she smiled. We said good-bye and I continued lamely back toward the main road. 

What a mess! Physically I was still trodding along the footpath in Wakayamba, but my mind was beyond the village. The ping pong I entertained was wearisome, “How can I help that woman?” 

“You don’t have the time or manpower to help that woman.”

“But, I can do something!” 

“What?”

“I can ask child care extension to do something”

“They have so many to take care of already and our focus is the fatherless child. Why don’t YOU do something?”

“Yes! My builder friends can help.”

“With what money?”

“It can’t take that much, can it? Can’t we spare some?”

“You wouldn’t be able to see the project through, and besides Jaaja’s own house needs repair! You can’t fix someone else’s house before you make the effort to fix Jaaja’s!”

Still in the midst of mental ping pong, I found myself at the corner house of the neighbor who informed us of Jaaja’s ill condition. I sat with him for a few minutes and told him of Jaaja’s improvement and related the incident of the stolen sugar money. Being that the young man sometimes works small jobs with him, he promised to have said young man repay the sum. As I passed the house of Kakande’s Jaaja a small boy greeted me and watched my every move toward the van. His eyes fixed on me as I climbed in, pulled out of the muddy ditch and headed in the direction of home.

I am still drawn this evening to that village path and the pleas of the old woman. What will I say when I walk past her house tomorrow? The truth is she is very much in need. The truth is I live only a few feet from 20 children who also have very real physical, spiritual and emotional needs and much of my time is consumed in caring for them. The truth also is that my neighbor is Aunt Ketty and she has just had her fourth round of chemotherapy and will need extra attention this week. The truth to be added on to all that is the homeschooling responsibilities each day for my own children. But the overarching, ever trumping truth is God loves, cares, saves, provides and guides. I will take all of this to Him. Each and every day I will follow His lead, because it is certain that He promises to lead and He keeps His promises. To be continued . . .

CAN YOU SHOUT HALLELUJAH WITH US????????

Shout!  All the kids next door are, and the staff at secondary, and the staff at primary, and the kids in David Family . . .

Ketty and her husband, Okoth Casmil, are in Kampala as I type. They began this morning with a CT scan, followed by her fourth round of chemotherapy, and then a consultation with her oncologist. She just delivered the news to us that this evening she was declared cancer free!!!!! Both abdominal and chest CTs were clear!

What a journey! What a faithful God we serve! With Him she has beaten the odds!

Praise God with us as we rejoice and celebrate this victory! There are many times in life to jump, shout, dance and sing--this is DEFINITELY one of them!!!!!!!!

The Okoth family is all smiles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This picture was taken at the beginning of the journey, just before Ketty left for Nairobi. Tonight they are rejoicing that their beloved wife and mom is FREE of cancer!

Challenges

Challenges. They are a part of each day we live. Petite, gargantuan or precisely medium; whatever the enormity or lack thereof we must decide our means to victory. And just because I work as a missionary in a foreign culture doesn’t mean my challenges are always of the gargantuan size, nor does it mean that I am immune to them. I don’t have some kind of über strength due to choosing to live thousands of miles from my comfort zone. In fact, I find it to be the challenges of petite proportion that can take me down if not managed effectively! (And often, when stateside, I find the challenges of having to adapt to my home culture equally as daunting.)

But, regardless of where I am in the world or the size of the obstacle, my personal path to becoming the victor is God’s Word, and I choose it for its foundational Truth. Proverbs, Romans, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job and Psalms are my usual favorites. The Biblical yield on wisdom is endless, for God Himself the author of wisdom, is forever and ever omniscient, Amen. 

In recent days I’ve gleaned from II Peter. The exerpt from Peter’s letter to the churches in Turkey is a familiar one to me for I’ve eaten of it over and over in my fifty years of daily challenges. Each of the countless meditations brings fresh insight and strength to help in my time of need--(“Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 ) In His first sentences Peter writes, “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”  And this is where I gathered my first step toward sure victory. So many people have asked in history, “Why do bad things happen if God is good?” I’ll return this question with, from where does the world’s corruption come? (And I read “corruption” as decay, disease, death, pain, hurt, despair, danger.) Corruption, and thereby challenges, come from the breaking down of God’s intended perfection--a breakdown caused by human desires, beginning with Eve, then Adam and daily thereafter by all of us who came after!

Peter continues, “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.”

“Productive and useful you will be in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why know what I know if I’m not going to effectively use it for life? Who wants to go through life being unproductive and useless against the challenges that come? If God has given me everything I need for living, then His truth and promises give me what I need to overcome whatever rises against me.

This week brought some out-of-the-ordinary challenges. (Ordinary being of a relational or cultural nature.) The two I showcase here have nothing to do with relating with others or misunderstanding culture!

On Wednesday Geoff was away at an early morning meeting, so I took his place in sharing God’s word with the kids at the breakfast table. After reading and discussing II Peter I asked what kind of day they were going to have. Sam and Junior both answered, “Good.” And I went on to comment that when we decide before the day begins that the day will be GOOD, we are already deciding that no matter what circumstances come, we will still rank our day as good. I then added this strange, random comment, “Even if there is a fire!” I thought to myself, “Why did I say that? Will there be a fire at Sam’s school or Junior’s work?” But, I said no more and we all left the table to start our day. (By the way, Junior is a young man who grew up in David Family and stays with us whenever he is at New Hope.)

I was in the back room preparing to photocopy some things for school when I heard the kids screaming. At first I thought they were playing, but then I heard, “Mom! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn everything off!” As I quickly made my way down the hallway I flipped switches and unplugged electronics. Rounding the corner to the front of the house I saw huge billows of smoke near the storage room where our solar equipment is kept and I feared the worst--our whole system burned. As I was deciding my course of action I realized the fire was actually only on the government electrical box/service breaker on the outside wall of the storage room. The government power, “Umeme” as we call it, is known for power surges, (and frequent outages) but we are still not sure what caused the box to explode and produce flames and shooting sparks which destroyed the connecting cables. (Fortunately, none of it reached the inside of our store where the solar set up is housed!) As we were dodging the shooting sparks and fighting the fire the neighbor hollered, “Whatever it is you’re doing over there is making my lights flicker!” We immediately called our construction department and reported that the government power to the main site should be turned off. Later that night they came and completely disconnected us so that the rest of New Hope could have power. 

Our fried electrical box. Kinda looks like an angry guy with quite a "fro".

This is the only damage the fire did on the inside of the storage room. 

We were the talk of the day. “Uncle Geoff’s house was on fire!” “Did you see him overspeeding (Ugandan English for speeding) in his car?” (I had called him out of his breakfast meeting to come help.) But, for the most part, the day went on as usual: work, school, house workers helping around the house, meetings, visits, David Family devotions and recalling how blessed we are that the fire was out so quickly with minimal damage. Truthfully, however, even if it had been a bigger disaster our take on the day still would have been “good”, because God is Good and has saved our souls. That is the ultimate, guiding truth. Whether or not I have lots of things, am comfortable, or without much trouble, OR have few things, am uncomfortable and undergoing great opposition, or any combination of the above, God Himself is our quintessential security, regardless of circumstances.

If you will stay with me here and back up one calendar day previous to the fire I will share with you another of the “challenges” we experienced this week on our little piece of sod here at New Hope. After lunch Geoff was walking back to the office with Toby on the stretch of path between our house and the clinic. Geoff stepped over something that caught his eye. On turning around he saw a 2 1/2 foot long cobra standing up in the strike position. He kept his eye on it and began to shout while locating big sticks. Uncle Francis heard him from his house and came to help and then Uncle Patrick also followed. Between all their strikes the snake was conquered. A good adrenalin flow is part of the making of a “good” day, don’t you think? 

Toby and Geoff investigate their kill.

The ladies had to come and make sure it was REALLY dead!

Our cobra in its natural habitat.

The flattened head. Geoff said the entire length of yellow
 was what the snake fanned out in striking position.

Yep, it was a good day for said snake to die!

One thing I carry with me through these particular, “out of my control” potential obstacles to my peace is that God asks me to be thankful in all circumstances. This is where my knowledge of His word needs to be put to use. If I KNOW His word tells me to be thankful and yet I choose to complain, I will be shortsighted and blind, unproductive and useless. God’s directives to be thankful are found throughout His word and also tell me to NOT complain to others, but to talk with Him rather than flapping my jaw in another’s hearing. II Thessalonians 5 instructs, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” In Psalm 73, the writer Asaph says, “I get nothing but trouble all day long; every morning brings me pain. But if I had really spoken this way to others I would have been a traitor to your people. . . then I went into your sanctuary God, and I understood. . .” In Isaiah 43 God encourages talking with Him, “Let us review the situation together and you can state your case to prove your innocence.” I repeat here the reference from Hebrews four I mentioned earlier, but with the previous verse also, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but Jesus Christ was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. So, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God where we receive His mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” Christ was tempted to complain, to be unthankful, among other things, but instead chose to always approach Father God for help. Let me also do this everyday with every challenge, but even more so when out of the ordinary stressors come.

And to leave you with a humorous gem, I share something from our homeschool time together. (By the way, that is why you haven’t heard from me in awhile!!!! Since beginning to teach the kids again, I have not had time to write a blog. Today is Ugandan Independence Day and a holiday, so I’ve enjoyed time to write!) In checking the kids' work, I ran across the following and laughed out loud as I was reviewing Toby’s answers to his vocabulary questions. “Which of the following might be considered an exploit?” He had four answers to consider and chose the following, “(a)A climb up Mount Everest, (b)a daring rescue attempt, and (c)a trip into the city.”  Given where we live and the traffic and crazy drivers we encounter I accepted his choice of (c).