God is moving...

Tonight was the first "BIG ASK" on the GBI Fun_raising tour... 

To be honest the "BIG ASK" is really hard for me... there aren't many things I mind saying... which you know if you have been reading this blog for awhile... but looking people in the eye and asking them to write a check is hard work... 

Earlier in the day I told someone... "I just need someone to write the first check"... 

I feel like I have been holding my breathe since I arrived... wondering if I could really raise $100,000 in one month while visiting churches during the summer months of a recession... plus another $4,000 in ongoing monthly expense for GBI... 

If you don't know much about church giving... summer months + recession do not equal BIG BUCKS...

But God was moving tonight... just as I was about to skip the "BIG ASK"... solely because I was afraid to ask... a guy in the group threw up his hand and offered to double the first $750 that the group gave that night... then after we ended in prayer he went around and spoke to each family and asked them to give on his own...

When all was said and done... the 8 families that attended the meeting gave $1940... 

I asked for the "first check" and God gave SEVEN... 

Rabbits are multiplying

My rabbits have had 5 litters now and more are due. We added another 24 cages the week before our trip to the States. Here are some recent photos. The babies are so cute I can't imagine eating them but I already met with one restaurant owner that is very interested in adding rabbit to her menu.

We have arrived...

Traveling with the boys is getting easier... 

They can walk, feed themselves and use the toilet... which are all improvements over our initial trips to Uganda with them...

But being able to walk, eat and use the toilet also pose new challenges...

Walking now involves the challenge of herding them in and keeping them still at security check points... there is a point where you wonder if it is easier to have the airport security arrest them just to have them in cuffs for a little break... but in the end we used more effective use of parenting skills such as bribery with candy to avoid embarrassing international incidents...

In Brussels they discovered new forms of using the walking machines... which no one seemed to mind.. so they floated their way through about 1.5 miles of walking machines...

Eating is great... but 36 hours of travel, 2 nights of no sleep and too much airport junk food encouraged Noah to practice the art of puking... repeatedly... sorry no video... I decided to reach for the bag rather than the camera... it was a good call due to his still improving aim... I always remember extra outfits for the boys... but next time I'll throw in an extra shirt for myself as well...

Using the toilet... I still haven't figured out the international laws for filming in public restrooms... and due to the fact that bail money is not a valid use of missionary funds I refrained from filming the boys in the airport restrooms...

But I wish I would have...

Nothing scares my boys more than automatic flushing toilets and dyson hand-dryers... seriously I would pay money just to watch them running from the toilets to avoid being flushed to the ocean... both boys made it across the Atlantic without joining Nemo...

So we are here... its 10 AM and we've been up for 7 hours...

Nothing Dr. Starbucks can't cure...

Kadin gets stuck...

This is my first stab at the video blog...

Kadin was "helping" mom set up the new rabbit cages...

Atherstone World Tour Begins...

Tonight we board a plane...  3 flights, 3 continents and some 40 hours later we will land in Los Angeles... 

It's funny everyone keeps asking if we are excited about vacation... 

I wouldn't consider 30 meetings, 10 church services and 10 other speaking engagements in 40 days vacation... but sure... I am excited!

I'm excited because if all goes as planned... 

1) This trip enough funds will be raised to complete the accreditation process for GBI... to complete the task we need $100,000 for campus developments, $4,500 more in ongoing expense and a BOAT LOAD of cash for the GBI Scholarship Fund that will provide scholarships for pastors in our 200 Africa Renewal Ministries church plants around the country would also be nice... 

People mention recession and all I hear is... blah, blah, blah... it's God's money and if this is what He wants He will provide...

2) I get to share stories of students who are reaching the nations for Christ... you've heard about Roger, Lucy and Jane but there are already 30 graduates and around 40 more this year... God is moving and this students are eager to reach the nations...

3)My family gets to see hundreds of people that pray for us, support us and even read our blog... and it won't be through a delayed skpe connection... 

4) The boys get to once again travel the world and be spoiled by grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends... traveling the world is always an adventure with our boys and I'm sure with a few shots of expresso along the way Christine and I will be ready to go... or at least to survive...

So yeah... it won't be a restful vacation... but yes I am excited...

Here are a few of the events... coming to a village near you:

June 28 – Cornerstone Moorpark

June 30 – Cornerstone Moorpark - Fusion

July 1 – Cornerstone Simi – Africa Homefront Team

July 2 – Cornerstone Moorpark – MAP Team

July 5 – Cornerstone Moorpark

July 8 - Atascadero Bible Church 

July 12 – Paso Robles Bible Church

July 26 – Cornerstone Simi

July 28 – Mariners Church 

August 2 – Shoreline Community Church

 

Kunda Mugisha Jane... in her own words...

Over 5.4 million of my countrymen died in the First and Second Congo War.

 

The end of the Rwandan genocide sparked the beginning of Congo’s troubles. In 1994 two million Hutu refugees fled to Congo fearing a response from Rwandan Patriotic Front after they took control of the country.

 

I grew up in the city of Goma, on the Congo-Rwanda boarder and many of these refugee settled in our city. Hutu militia were interspersed with the refugees and they continued the fighting in our land and used our city as a base for further attacks on Rwanda.

 

Eventually the threat to our safety began too much and in 1997 I fled with my family to Uganda. We had no time to pack and we only took what we could carry as we walked across the boarder to Uganda.

 

The journey took 7 days. At times we would walk but along the way people would offer us rides in the back of their trucks.

 

Our journey ended in Gaba. For the first few months we cried all the time. I was 21 and I shared a one-room house with my father, mother, younger brother (12) and sister (9).

 

My father had been a pastor in Congo and our new home was given to us by a pastor in Gaba. He had heard of our struggle to flee Congo.

 

The stress of this change was too much for my father and he fell sick. Needing support, our pastor friend took me to the village to be a teacher. My whole life I lived in the city and I had never lived in a village.

 

I stayed in the village until my father’s death in 2001. Then I moved to Mukono and began teaching French and Swahili in a number of schools. I would visit my mother often but my desire was to leave Uganda and to move to Canada. I wanted to be with French speaking people again and I did not feel comfortable with life in the village.

 

A few years later I was visiting my mother in Gaba when I heard about Gaba Bible Institute. Since God had not opened a door for me to leave Uganda I figured that this was my opportunity to study so I could grow more in Him.

 

I wasn’t sure if I would complete my course at GBI but I thought it best to give it a try.

 

My first class was Bible Interpretation with Pastor Jeff.  I became convicted that my preaching before coming to GBI was based on whatever I felt, rather than on what God’s Word really said.

 

During my time I also discovered the ministry that God was calling me to. God has gifted me with speaking languages for a reason. So now I have returned to Mukono and I have opened a business teaching French and Swahili. Speaking with people all day gives me endless opportunities to share the gospel every day and opportunity to use the gifts that God has given to me.

 

I also recorded my first CD which I hope will open many doors for me to share the gospel.

God has given me a voice to speak and sing in many languages. And I know now that this voice is his to use wherever He sends me.

More painful than childbirth

I would like to nominate slipped discs for most painful life experience. I am typing this blog while laying on my stomach with an ice back over my lower back. The good news is that the swelling in my disc is down, so the tingling in my legs and feet is gone. As long as I don't twist, the pain is manageable. At night the doctor gave me an anti-spasm drug that knocks me out. However, in the amount of time I have been in this pain I would have had 12 children (I had both boys in a combined total of 4 hours; yes I know women around the world hate me for that; I have good genes in my favor.) At least with labor you know it will end eventually. With this there is a giant unknown. So for now I am icing every hour and watching lots of Friends episodes. It leaves me little time to stress out about leaving for the States in one week.

In his own words...

My name is Rukundo Roger Ndahiro. I was born in Ntungamu, Uganda in 1979 although my parents are both of Rwandan decent.

My parents were soldiers. My father died fighting for the National Resistance Army in the war of 1986. My mother joined the National Resistance Army in 1988 and when war broke out 2 years later in Rwanda she joined the Rwandese Patriotic Front.

We didn’t see my mother for the next four years, not until November 1994, after the genocide.

Moving to Rwanda to be with my mother was the first time in my life that I felt I belonged. Growing up in Uganda was difficult. Despite my parent’s efforts in the war that put President Yoweri Museveni in power, our Ugandan neighbors were always quick to remind us that we were foreigners. Foreigners in the land my parents fought for.

In Rwanda things were different. I was in the land of our ancestors, I was reunited with my mother and for the first time in my life, I was home.

I left my mother’s home in 2002 and went to school in Nairobi, Kenya to become a pilot. While I was away my mother died from AIDS, a scar that remained from the genocide. By the time I returned from Nairobi to bury my mother all my family’s wealth had been stolen by our relatives, and I was left to care for my sisters.

Life was not easy. I dropped out of the pilot program and was assigned to Kiriuhura District in Central Uganda to teach math and physics. It was there that I met Pastor Wilson Ssentongo. Pastor Wilson saw something in me and encouraged me that my future was in ministry.

On January 15, 2007 at 5 AM I arrived at the unfinished gates of Gaba Bible Institute. I was the 5^th student to arrive. It was the first day of the schools existence and within hours I was convinced that it would be my last day there as a student.

Being the pioneer students we were confused and had little direction. The desks were few and the beds were not enough. By the time I returned to the hostels after our orientation half my clothes had already been stolen by thieves who faced little resistance from the gates that had yet to be completed.

The next day was not any better. I found a professor from America in our morning class and he appeared to be teaching us Mizungu (white man’s) Theology. We were convinced that this man had never experienced the Holy Spirit and the things he taught were nothing like what our pastors had ever taught us.

We met with this mizungu, Pastor Jeff, twice a week and the students were always ready to challenge him on every point but the truth was that we were all of different views, even the students could not come to agreement with what we believed.

Pastor Jeff wasn’t much for fighting over theology but continually opened the Word of God to answer us at every turn. It became our aim to find something that he couldn’t find an answer for in the Bible. We never ended up winning our debates with him but he did teach us to study God’s Word like he did.

I ended up staying at GBI but still things were not easy. By the end of the first term I had not paid my fees so Pastor Jeff let me stay after term to clean the facilities to pay my debt.

Second term I only showed up with 100,000 UGX ($50), which wasn’t enough and my friend Raymond showed up with nothing at all. I paid 50,000 for myself, and 50,000 for Raymond. The week they were to send me away for not paying my fees the secretary handed me a receipt saying that my fees had been paid in full. I knew it was Pastor Jeff but would never acknowledge what he had done. 

During our time at GBI the emphasis was on training us to be leaders but like no African leader we had seen before. Here in Africa a leader is so far above the people and the people are there to serve him. At GBI the staff were with us and taught us more than preaching the Bible, they showed us how to model the message.

In my final term Pastor Jeff taught a class on world missions and as we learned about God’s heart for the nations. I knew at that time that God was calling me back to Rwanda. I wanted to sacrifice my life for the gospel.

Today I am a youth pastor in Kigali, Rwanda. I work with 300 street children, the last remaining victims of the genocide. Their fathers were murdered and their mothers have passed away from AIDS after being raped by the soliders. They come early to bathe at the church and to learn skills in carpentry.

Then I teach the Word of God to them, as Pastor Jeff once did for me. 

In her own words...

My names are Ogwang Lucy and I am not a traditional student. I registered at Gaba Bible Institute in 2007 as a 54-year old widow and a mother of nine.

 

We are from northern Uganda, in the town of Gulu. Despite my mother’s faith I did not give much thought to God until the war became too much in 1986. At that time I became serious about prayer.

 

My husband never shared my faith but he cared for our family. In 1993 war became hot and they forced everyone into the camps. We didn’t want that for ourselves so we moved to the capital, Kampala, searching for a better life.

 

When my husband died in 1997 I began raising chicken to put eight of my children through university. All of my children are serious about their relationship with God. Once my children finished school I thought my work was finished so I spent most of my time at church.

 

After women’s fellowship one day I saw a banner for Gaba Bible Institute. I wasn’t qualified, for I had dropped out of school over 40 years ago and I hadn’t the money after sending my children to school. But the women in my fellowship encouraged me to join.

 

The first day I met with the Administrator and I told him I had no money. He offered grace to pioneer students and told me I could stay. Next I met Pastor Jeff the Academic Dean and I told him I wanted to study music in hopes that my children would buy me a piano. He questioned my decision and told me to consider theology instead.

 

Classes were a challenge since it had been so long since I had used my English. Pastor Jeff encouraged me to sit in on the English classes and soon it all came back to me as before. Soon I could understand the things that he was teaching and I never went back to the music classes.

 

I had been taught that my role was to listen to my pastor and raise God-fearing children. But Pastor Jeff changed my thinking. He shared the story of Abraham and how he was blessed to be a blessing to others. I had never considered that I could ministry to anyone other than my children.

 

The things I was learning were not only for myself but were to be used to be a blessing to others. I saw a necessity to go back to my place to teach my people.

 

In our world missions class I got an idea to go back to the north to help people to leave the camps and resettle the land. It had been 15 years since I had been to our land in Kitgum but I knew that my husband had left me land titles for over 1,200 acres.

 

When I returned I found my land filled with trees and the land was fertile from 15 years of rest with no digging. I knew the work was too much to do on my own so I began working with Pastor James Opoka at Greater Love Church in Gulu.

 

Those who grew up in the camps have a hard time thinking for themselves. They are used to having everything brought to them. This means that we had to begin working and then ask them to join us.

 

We started by cutting some of the trees and selling them for charcoal. With the money we bought a pair of bulls and began plowing the land. It is difficult work because many of these 20 year olds have never had opportunity to hold a hoe and dig. But we are there to be with them and to show them how it is to be done.

 

God continues to meet all of our needs. We were able to build a structure and the World Bank gave us 410 chicken. We plowed the field but had no seeds. Today I was given 70 kilos of rice seed and 6 new plows for digging.

 

When people stand side by side and work together to resettle the land others become eager to join us. We share with them our food and the knowledge of God and their minds are being transformed.

 

Living in community prevents the people from backsliding because they have worked the land, they have met Christ and their lives are not the same.

 

My fourth son Simon is now studying at GBI because he saw a change in me. He must finish and then join me. The rest of my children are also standing with me and building a house for 1000 chicken. As I supported them, they are now supporting me.

 

History of Philanthropy...

This weekend I read the 2008 Annual Report for Invisible Children in an effort to learn from their advocating… and I stumbled across this HISTORY OF PHILANTHROPY that IC put together…

 

COLONIZATION

In the beginning was COLONIZATION.

Powerful nations sent out explorers to share their wealth and knowledge with those less fortunate. The problem was, it was their knowledge and their definition of fortune.

Greed, betrayal and confusion spread and natural resources were taken in the name of progress - and it came at a very high price.

 

HUMANITARIAN AID

Then a new idea emerged, one that was deliberately focused on relief: HUMANITARIAN AID.

Victims of war were given help regardless of race, tribe or religion.

Anyone could be involved in the effort, no matter what experience they had.

The need was great, and so was the response by major aid organizations.

But this model was soured as the business of benevolence became greedy and less focused on those in need. HUMANITARIAN AID became a competitive market, with funds often staying trapped within the company’s own pockets.

As the industry grew, support for those in need was at a standstill.

 

ASSISTANCE

A third kind of ASSISTANCE emerged - one of infomercials, billionaires and persuasive celebrities. It was reliant on guilt and strummed heartstrings. 

People threw money at the problem, and things looked like they might get better.

But we became increasingly disillusioned with our ability to make a lasting change, and we started realizing that it would take more.

We, the people, felt uninvolved and excluded, even cynical and powerless.

 

LISTEN

We decided to go out and LISTEN.

The needs of the needy soon became the desires of friends.

The world worked together to value sacrifice, celebrate creativity, and push our good intentions into action.

We were just a group of friends at first, but we came together to end a war.

It all began with a simple film, but it did not end there.

The future looked hopeful because we believed in this new philanthropy.

This dream wasn’t just for some of us; it was for all.

 

I thought it was a great concise history of philanthropy… but I do feel that their conclusion falls short of what is needed…

 

I do agree that we as philanthropists need to LISTEN… but in African culture, especially here in Uganda, the speaker has been trained to say what the listener desires to hear…

 

Case in point… the current system of education in Uganda is one in which the students are required to repeat everything the teacher says… for example…

 

Teacher says… “1 plus 1 equals 2”

Class repeats… “1 plus 1 equals 2”

Teacher says… “2 plus 2 equals 4”

Class repeats… “2 plus 2 equals 4”

 

And on and on it goes Monday through Friday from sun up to sun down… the students are taught to say what the teacher wants to hear…

 

Now here is an example of me asking and listening to a Ugandan who grew up in this educational system…

 

Jeff… “When can I expect the work on my car be finished?”

Mechanic… “At 4 o’clock today”

 

Result… Car work is finished next day at noon

 

Truth to Jeff… “My car wasn’t finished on time… he lied or is incompetent”

 

Truth to Mechanic… “Mizungu is always in a hurry… he must want it today… so I must tell him 4 o’clock today for him to be happy with me”

 

And now a more practical example of an African giving the philanthropist an answer they want to hear… taken from a child sponsorship packet…

 

Question: What is your favorite activity?

 

Child’s Answer: Doing my chores.

 

Interpretation: My sponsor wants me to be hard working and successful or they may stop giving so I should tell them “chores” even though I like soccer

 

There are countless other examples… 1) Africans asking the Americans to come do a VBS for orphans… even though they already have had 6 weeks of VBS this year… 2) Africans asking Americans to come and paint… because they know that we are too out of shape to dig all day… 3) Africans asking the Americans to come and put on short conferences… because they know we would rather talk than listen … or rather teach than learn…

 

And on and on it goes… I have spent the last year sharing with my Ugandan co-workers that it is okay to speak straight with the Americans and explain their true needs but the overwhelming fear is that if they do not give the Americans the answer that they want to hear… the Americans will leave!

 

So in response to the Fourth Phase of Philanthropy I believe that our primary focus should be…

 

EMPOWERMENT

Consisting of:

Education that encourages critical thinking and problem solving

Development that teaches recipients to rely on their natural resources rather than donors

Generosity that encourages the recipients to give in return, whether it be out of their time, talents or treasure, so as not to create a spirit of dependency but rather a spirit of partnership

 

Again… this is why I believe that the training of Gaba Bible Institute is so important…

 

We don’t just give them answers… we teach them to find answers…

 

We don’t focus on what they lack… we focus on what they have…

 

We don’t give away anything for free… students work hard and at the end can be proud of the education that they earned…

 

I believe that be equipping Christian leaders is the key to transforming African society…

 

Equipping = Empowerment