Plants, Animals, and Birds!

Here are some fun pictures of living things that we have been enjoying recently.

First, and most sadly, here is the super cute (and only) baby chick that hatched and then lived only two days before being eaten by the dog...

Although that was extremely sad, things got better the day after that when our goat kidded!

Her name is Luthien (after a character in "The Silmarillion" by JRR Tolkien)

So far, Caleb has been mostly good around her.

Here are a couple of fun baby goat videos.  The first one is really short and very funny, so at least watch that one!

 

I have also been enjoying the proceeds of my garden.  Here are a few fun things that I have harvested recently.  First, roselle.  You remove the part that is around the seed pod and can boil it to make a tart, bright red juice or you can dry it for making tea.

And then some cowpeas and beans.  These started out as only about 25 seeds and then the plants produced this!

Next, I was at a training with KIDO when suddenly everyone started running in all directions.  They saw this guy coming with a snake that he caught.  I'm not really sure why he brought it over, but he sure freaked everyone out.  Anthony is pretty sure it is a spitting cobra.  We also don't know how he caught it, but I can tell you that this was one of the last moments in this snake's life.

Here are some cool birds I saw in Kenya.  A Superb Starling:

And Fischer's Lovebirds:

Then, giant snails we saw.

When Helping Hurts Training in Atutur

Last week I did my training based on the book "When Helping Hurts" in Atutur.  It is all about how to care for the poor in wise ways.  I did this on my own time, separate from my World Renew duties, because I had those days free.  I did this training in partnership with KAMM, a development organization in Atutur that was started and is led by our friend Charles Oluka, who was a student at Pentecostal Bible College five years ago when we were there.  Here is a photo of him.  He is very intelligent, passionate, and a gifted but humble leader.



We had 33 people total in our group.  Because of my limited time, we did it in English, so the group was significantly smaller than it could have been.  The plan is that these people go back and teach to others in Ateso what they have learned.  It was a very diverse group, of about equal parts Roman Catholic, Anglican (Church of Uganda), and Pentecostal.  It was wonderful to see such a diverse group working together and worshiping together.  One Christian man there has multiple wives, as he had them before he became a Christian.  And we had three local government leaders in our group and they were great contributors.  I hope they share their new knowledge using their influential positions.

This was a very satisfying and interesting training for me.  The training focuses on how we can help the poor in wise ways, but it makes for a unique time when most of the people being trained are materially poor themselves.  In fact one man had no food just last month.  His stored food ran out.  So he lived entirely on mangoes (which culturally are free to eat on anyone's tree).   He asked neighbors for help and nobody helped him.  At one point he tried to steal cassava from a neighbor but they chased him off before he got a chance.  Now he is doing okay as someone helped him out recently.  But knowing that there were many like him in my group certainly gave me a different perspective.

The people left with a completely new mindset from this training.  I never once told them that they are not poor.  In fact, in my eyes they are poor, especially compared to me.  But when they left I heard many testimonies of people saying, "we have learned that we are not poor."  This is because we focused on the importance of recognizing the assets and skills of the poor and beginning with local resources.  Part of poverty is feeling ashamed, helpless, and inferior.  They admitted to feeling inferior to me when I asked them.  By the end of the training, they felt equal to me, felt new hope, and no longer felt ashamed.  We had made a list of all the resources and skills that they have, and encouraged each other to build on what we have.  We talked about trusting God to bless our work and multiply our gifts when we steward well what he has given and thank him for his gifts.  They left feeling like they had much and that they were not poor at all!  Seeing this change of attitude was amazing to me.

They also learned about broken systems that contribute to poverty, and my hope is that their community groups will get together and try to make some systemic changes in Atutur as there are many broken systems and rampant corruption.  I heard a story of a child dying in the local hospital because the parent did not have money to pay a bribe for a blood transfusion.  How do you respond to such a story?  It breaks my heart, and I pray that God will use these people to make changes in their city.

Excerpts from their (whole page long each) written testimonies:

-"This training changed my life to leave evil and turn to God as before I was not burdened about God."

-"I have also changed my life not to be ashamed as if I am poor and yet I have assets to use to gain development."

-"I have learned that someone to give you knowledge is much better than to give you money."

-"I have not been assisting poor people, but I have seen that it is good to."

-"In this training it has helped me to achieve the knowledge and how to develop my family in order for them to earn a good living in this earth." 

-"Because of this training I will go to do development in my community, not depending on relief." 

-"And in this training I have seen that I am no longer poor because I have everything which God has given me."

-"In this training it has helped me how to use our resources which God has given to us instead of us saying that we are poor."

-"It has shaped my mind from doing evil to good things like respecting God who is the owner of everything in this earth."

-"In the church I am come from one Sunday the evangelism leader spoke to the congregation, saying,  'if you have come here for help please go back.'  But now this training has opened my mind.  The Church must needs to get back into helping the poor again."

-"I have to go teach my community so that they can also know how to use the little resources they have rather than depending on the donors only."

-"This training has given me knowledge, hope, strength, courage, and peace."

-"It gave light to how we should diagnose one's problems before I give him/her any assistance."

-"It has given us a view that it's better to get knowledge rather than giving one a product."

-"We have learned that we are all equal regardless of race in the whole world."

-"Before this training I have been helping the poor and focused only on material poverty, and yet from this training I learned that other types of poverty still affect a poor person."

-"For some I have been hurting the poor and myself when I was supporting them without knowing which kind of support that poor person needs."

-"Jesus came to the world not only to save mankind but also to bring the kingdom of God and healing."

-"I have learned that when you want to develop you should not be requesting everything but you should also work with your hands and use it properly."

This training was really important for KAMM (Keep Alive Missionary Ministries), that my friend Charles started.  The people there were KAMM members and chairpersons from the community groups that KAMM is trying to help.  They learned much about the right ways to help the poor and the foolish mistakes other organizations have made in the past.  They were able to see that what KAMM is doing is actually the best thing to do.  KAMM right now is only doing trainings and giving people knowledge; they do not give handouts of money or things.  Because some other organizations nearby unthinkingly give so many handouts, the local people have firmly learned dependency.  It is so strong that people do not want to go to KAMM's trainings unless KAMM gives them money to attend.  Other Christian organizations say that KAMM is a joke of a development organization because they do not give people money.  Through this training people's eyes were opened about the true nature of poverty; that it is more than just lacking things.  I hope that they will begin to support KAMM more and realize that KAMM is doing really good work.

KAMM right now has zero funding from anywhere.  It is fully being funded by Charles and the board members', and staff members' personal contributions.  They have a very small budget and are learning to trust God to help them manage and use well the little that they have.  I've been praying that some Ugandan churches would see the good work KAMM is doing and partner with them.  Please pray for KAMM as they are a young organization and the workers are sacrificing greatly to continue this work in God's Kingdom.

Some people left early and missed this group photo, but this was most of our group.

Visiting with the De Boers

We recently met the De Boers from Iowa who were visiting Uganda.  A while back they worked for World Renew in Uganda and even had done some work with KIDO.  It was good getting to know them, and we spent one day with them visiting different projects.  Somehow we missed getting a photo together.

First, we visited a school that Amuria PAG town church started in the area.

The De Boers gave uniforms and a football (soccer ball) to the school.  They were donated by Dordt College.

Second, we visited several agricultural sites where KIDO is working.  It was so encouraging hearing about farmers who were using new innovations; some were not even farmers KIDO had worked with.  They were inspired by the farmers KIDO was working with and learned from their example, copying their new techniques.  Here is a nursery bed.

Here is a blacksmith forge.

 

In the picture below, on the far right is Simon, KIDO's manager.  Going left, the next person is Robert Okello, our good friend and pastor of Amuria PAG town church.  Going left again is J.J., the chairman of KIDO's board.

Third, we visited an HIV widow's group that KIDO has been helping.  This happens to be one of the groups I visited during our week long trip to Uganda back in 2012.  They are still trying to remain positive in the midst of their struggle with HIV and lack of finances to care for their children and orphans in the area.  They need your prayers.  Here is a video of them singing in a traditional way.  The song is about the dangers of HIV.

Chameleon Love Story

At the moment, I have two chameleons in my cage, one tiny smooth chameleon, and a big slender chameleon.   I was given another big slender chameleon in the village a couple weeks ago and didn't want to crowd my cage.  Chameleons are solitary animals.

So I put the new one in a large mango tree in our yard. The next day in the afternoon, it ran across the yard and climbed up onto the cage.  It turns out the one in the cage is a female, and this new one was a male.  I let him into the cage and they proceeded to affectionately hold hands and hug each other.   After that they proceeded to mate for about an hour.  Later I had to remove the male once again or they would eventually fight.  Now the male is back in the mango tree (hiding so well I can't see him).  I'm hoping the female will lay her eggs in the sand I put in the bottom of the cage.  Here is a video of them getting to know one another at the beginning.

Here is a video of them trying to compete over a grasshopper while they were hugging.

I decided this picture is not too graphic, so here you go.  This is them in the process of mating.  

Scientists are still not sure if the male chameleon is attracted by the coloring on the female or if the male is attracted by some pheromones.  I'm in communication with some herpetologists and they took great interest in my story!

Last, here is a picture of the smaller chameleon having just caught a grasshopper.

If you want more videos of chameleons or other pets, just request to me what you want, and I'll try to post more.

Behavior Change and Gender Analysis Workshop

At the beginning of June, I had the opportunity to participate in a World Renew workshop on how to work for behavior change and also how to consider gender in development programs.  It was in Kenya, on Lake Elementaita.

The location was beautiful (and cooler than Soroti - I actually used blankets at night, which was great!) and filled with all sorts of amazing birds.

But, when I was not birdwatching (the birdwatching only occupied the short breaks between sessions), I was taking part in very engaging activities.

I really appreciated how much this workshop was interactive, rather than mostly lecture.  We frequently divided into groups to put the things we were learning into practice.  For example, as we learned the steps for planning a project that effectively changes peoples' behavior, we would stop at each step and make a plan for either a made-up or an actual project.

 The groups were made up of people working in similar areas.  This is my group: we all do at least some work with agriculture.

We made a plan for encouraging farmers to use green manure/cover crops (gm/ccs) on their fields to help improve their soils.  Part of the process was writing a message that you could use to advertise.  We made some serious ones and below, some funny ones.

The gender analysis aspect of the training was also very interesting.  It was led by a Kenyan who does those kinds of trainings quite often.  Since we had a very diverse group - about 5 North Americans and 20 from East Africa - I learned a lot more about gender issues in this region.

All in all, it was very worthwhile and I am glad I got to go.  I also loved that I got to meet other World Renew staff from East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi) and people who work for World Renew partner organizations.  They are really great people and I am thankful that I get to work with them!

Timothy Leadership Training in Amuria - Manual 1

Last week, from Monday to Friday I taught Timothy Leadership Training - Manual 1 - "Caring for God's People" in Amuria for pastors and leaders from all over Amuria district.  I don't want to make this post longer than it already is, so if you do not know about TLT you can read some other posts about it.  For example - Timothy Leadership Training Part 1.  Here is a photo of our group.

It was an incredibly meaningful time for me, but I was exhausted by the end.  I drove back and forth each day, leaving at 6:40am and getting home 12 hours later.  Driving here is exhausting because of potholes and bad drivers and muddy roads, but we have a good vehicle.  I made it through a muddy patch of the road where there were five other vehicles stuck.  When you drive, every time you end up driving lots of other people too (whether friends or people from the side of the road), which adds extra time to drop people off.  In the future, I think I will spend the night in the places where I am training.

I took Martin Atiko with me, one of the participants soon to graduate from the Soroti TLT group.  He is not a pastor, but he is a gifted church leader.  He came to help me lead the training, as it was a good opportunity for him to learn from my example.  I would venture to say I learned as much from him as he did from me as he inspired us with TLT testimonies, and helped me organize the group well.  Martin sacrificed a week of construction work (which means giving up money for his family), in order to come train with me.  Here is Martin with me in the photo below.  Normally he has a huge smile on his face all the time, but it's hard to get Ugandans to smile for pictures!  He was so glad to be there and wants to come with me to all the remaining TLT manuals in Amuria.

As I've talked about before, training and equipping pastors in Uganda is vitally important.  In Katakwi/Amuria pastorate there are 400 pastors and 189 churches in PAG (Pentecostal Assembles of God).  Out of those pastors, only 29 have received Bible school education.  Most of the pastors are leading their churches while being completely untrained.  I will be doing TLT in both Amuria and Katakwi districts.  The TLT program recently changed and is now only six manuals instead of seven.  So it will take six full weeks in each place to be finished so that people graduate as master trainers.  Then they can go on to start new groups of their own.  (These are not the only places I will be doing TLT).  The plan is to graduate all my TLT groups before our two year term in Uganda is finished.

When I arrived on Monday to begin, only the coordinator of teaching in the pastorate was there, George William.  He is wonderful to work with, and was one of our former students.  It is such a blessing to work with people like him, who we already know.  Here is a photo of us.

So everyone showed up late.  They were supposed to arrive Sunday night, but we did not actually start until around 11:00am on Monday.  I expected sixty people at 8:00am, so the morning was very frustrating.  But by the time everyone arrived we had 33 participants which is a good size for discussion.  Part of TLT is about time management and after everyone arrived we made clear that coming late like this could not happen again.  They now know that when we begin the next manual, if I arrive and no one is there, I will immediately go home and that is the end of the training. 

Martin and I got through to them that TLT is a serious training, not just a workshop.  It teaches you responsibility and planning.  They had to learn to be time conscious.  The group members themselves made rules which will remain throughout all of our trainings.  If a person arrives late, he or she has to pay 500 shillings (about 25 cents, but it's a lot for them).  If they arrive late three times without valid excuses, they are out of the training.  If your phone goes off during the meeting, you have to pay 500 shillings.  We had someone designated as a timekeeper/tax collector.  I realize that this is extremely counter-cultural.  Arriving late is just what you do.  But they are learning to manage their time, as time is a gift and resource God has given to us.  Some people had to pay shillings throughout the week, but on Tuesday morning everyone was ready to start by 7:30am, when we were scheduled to start at 8:00am!   Later I learned that these rules about time were one of the things they appreciated the most.

TLT in Amuria was different than in my past TLT experiences because everything had to be translated, making reading and discussion twice as long.  To save time, we had the Bible verses only read in Ateso.  We had four people take turns translating everything else and they worked hard.  These videos give you a sense of what the discussion and reading was like, though usually it was much more animated than this, with at least five people wanting to be called on to speak at any given moment.

This manual covers pastoral care, visiting, comfort, guidance, healing, and reconciliation among other topics.  They learned the importance of listening well before speaking and giving guidance.  They learned the importance of saying "I don't know" when giving guidance or preaching instead of always trying to give an answer.  Culturally this is very difficult and in our experience (say for example, if you ask someone for directions) if they don't know, they will still pretend to know and tell you something, so you get more lost than you were to begin with.



Healing was an intense discussion.  At the beginning it seemed that most people sort of thought that God heals every time if we have enough faith.  But after much discussion and digging into scripture, I don't think anyone continued to believe that.  This is important as many people in this culture do not admit when they are sick for fear of being judged to not be a true Christian or that God is punishing them.   At the same time, it is clear that God heals and I heard many personal testimonies of miraculous healing which was very encouraging.

Also in the healing discussion we talked about how God can heal miraculously or through medicine, but either way it is He who provides the healing.  This was an important discussion as some people in PAG churches out in the villages still reject hospitals and think that to use medication means you lack faith.  After the fear of admitting sickness or taking medication was gone, we found out that many of our group members struggle with blood pressure problems.  One of the group members is the mayor of Amuria, and he has been trained to test people for blood pressure, so the next morning he tested everyone to see how they were doing and give them health advice!

I added a little something to this training that is not normally a part of TLT.  It was a handout from one of my pastoral care classes in seminary, about listening and empathy and the variety of ways to respond in a pastoral care visit.  They really appreciated it and I had the impromptu idea to have a drama to analyze and detect the various techniques outlined in the handout.  The actors did a wonderful job!

Here is a video of us singing together.  Every morning someone led devotions.

Here is a photo of Bishop Charles of this pastorate.  He's already taken this first manual before, but he did it again to be an example to the other pastors.  He plans to teach this first manual to some 10-30 other pastors in Amuria who missed this week of training.

Central to Timothy Leadership Training is making action plans.  The action plans they made this time are all related to pastoral care.  They will carry them out over the next three months before our next training.  Here they are putting the final drafts up on the walls.

I am very excited about their plans!  May God bless them and empower them to carry them out.  Most of the plans involve the members teaching this pastoral care manual to people in their churches.  Some are just teaching specific lessons, and some are going to teach the whole manual.  This type of action plan we encourage the most because it will spread knowledge and inspire action among the many more people who will be trained.  Other action plans involved making more regular visits to the Christians in their churches.  Some are trying to reconcile broken marriages in their church.  One lady has a plan to visit prisoners monthly to share about God's comfort and proclaim the Gospel to them.   Another pastor has planned to visit those that left the church, in the hopes that they will return to the church and to God.  One pastor has identified four different community conflicts in his area involving health crises or land disputes and is going to work on reconciliation between the groups.  The mayor's plan is very detailed and thorough; he plans to identify and help ten households in Amuria town suffering from malnutrition, not only giving them food, but training and seeds.  (The mayor is an interesting guy, he used to be a child soldier.)

Here we are praying over action plans.  One person is the main person praying each time, but as you can see, everyone loves to join in with the prayer!

Not everyone brought the full amount of money they were supposed to, so we had a debt for food by the end of the week, but some generous group members made up for it.  Next training, the group decided you cannot come at all unless you bring the full amount you are supposed to.  They were encouraged to make an extra action plan of saving the money in the months between now and the next training.  The training is only about $5 for them and that includes the manual, the food, and accommodation.  But this little amount is a challenge for pastors who get less than that much from their church in a whole month and have to support their families as well.

I have received so much positive feedback and testimony about this training.  They were prepared to go home and brag about it to all the people who couldn't come, but they decided that humility is the better route.  I encouraged them that some day soon they can teach the people themselves who could not come.  It would be wonderful if somehow the manuals were translated into Ateso so that these people can teach others in Ateso.  Here is a picture of almost our whole group, but several people are missing who had to leave right before we took the photo.

Let me share some testimonies.

One lady of the group, Stella, is not a pastor.  She is a member of Amuria town church (pictured above) and did not know ahead of time about the training.  Sunday night she had a dream about being in a meeting at church with certain other members.  She knew it was important and so the next morning she came over to the church to talk to the pastor about it and found out about TLT and joined us in fulfillment of her dream.

One older pastor shared - "This training is not worth the small amount we paid for it.  We should have paid so much more for how much we are learning."

Here are some written testimonies:

"I send my appreciation to you for what you have done to us all and mostly I myself.  May the Lord our creator bless you on his work you have been doing to his workers."

"If I was to give the training a percentage, it would be 100% so may God bless you Anthony and Martin."

"I am so grateful to have this opportunity of attending this training because it has enlarged my vision in God's work.  It has given me hope of success in God's call."

"I am so gratefully happy to TLT for opening my eyes for my leadership."

"This training has really changed the way of my thinking and the way of doing things in God's work and in my family.  So therefore I recommend it to continue even expecting more of its kind to come."

"Glory to God and thanks to Anthony and Martin, May God bless you abundantly for having labored a lot to help God's people."

Last, a random tidbit.  On Monday we ate a special food, emolokon, at a local restaurant owned by one of the participants, since the kitchen staff were not there yet.  Emolokon is boiled cow meat, including the skin.  It's only certain parts of the cow, like the tail, or the joints.  I ate some of it but it was very difficult.  I had the knee joint I think (it was huge).  Other than the fatty skin, it was only fat.  There was not even half a bite of what we would call meat.  Just globules of fat and skin.  The skin tasted good.  It's a good thing I ate it though because later I was praised in front of the group as the only muzungu they had ever heard of who was willing to eat it!  I failed to get a photo.

Praise God for this week of training! And there are many more to come!