Northlake Christian Church

Reaching our world with the spiritual and practical aspects of Christ’s message

Chad Mason's and Matt Castiglione's blog from Uganda (April 2007)

April 27, 2007

Well today was our last full day here in Gulu. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at about 10AM. By the time anyone gets this we will be in Kampala.

What a week this has been. I will outline our activities of today and then give some general thoughts on the week. It has been truly amazing. I believe that God really has answered our prayers in that he had prepared the way so that we could accomplish the most possible on this trip. He has covered everything. I will explain more as we go.

So we opened this morning in our ACTION devotional time with a sharing time.
There were 6 foreigners including Matt and I who are leaving in the next few days. Being that this was the last time that we along with the whole staff would be together, Jerry asked for the staff to share the things that have impacted them in the friendships and teaching that the foreigners brought. Come to find out that in African family tradition when a person is sent off the whole family gathers and each gives a blessing. So they sent us off today with their thanks and with their blessing. They also believe that the best way to bless is to show them they have made an impact on you.

So they quoted our words and told how our lives had made a difference in them. It was very nice and humbling. I have learned so much from them, especially Domonic and the Men¡¦s ministry team. It was funny that sometimes their memories were confused so that they shared impressions instead of facts that were shared. For instance, when Matt told about himself he said that he had a girlfriend and that they had been dating for over 2 years. Normally he followed that up with the fact that at this time they were not planning on marriage any time soon. Today the Ugandan staff kept blessing Matt saying that as he was planning to get married they would be praying for wisdom and strength because marriage was sacred and not easy¡K ƒº it was entertaining watching Matt start to squirm a bit in his seat. Apart from that it was a great time together before we parted ways.
So this meeting went very long. Typically it ends at 9 and today it went all of the way up to 10AM. So we were supposed to meet with the boys soldiers and commanders at 10 for one last time before we left. So Domonic left to pick them up and when he returned he had a small crowd. I am telling you that these vans may have a stated capacity of 14 but it is more like 25 ƒº.

There were the normal 5 guys who were former commanders. There were two child mothers each with babies. There were 3 children ages 10-12, there were 5 boy soldiers, and one man who never said anything. Plus Domonic driving is 19 people in one van. It took a while to get everything together, but when we finally started, the meeting went very well. It has been very interesting to see how customs move in these meetings. For instance we will call the Action staff and Matt and I the initiating group, and the former soldiers the receiving group. Our meetings started with the receiving group requesting a reading of a particular psalm and requesting that I pray.

Every one of our meetings have started that way. Secondly the initiating group starts with an opening statement. Normally beginning with thanks to God and secondarily thanks to the receiving group for coming. This is followed by the receiving group opening with their thanks to God that this is happening and that he has chosen to send us at this time, and that these things are very good. It seems that the discussion is in turns. First we talk, then they talk, and back and forth until there is a standstill. When that happens and there are a few moments of awkward silence, I then give direction for where we might go next. If this is not a good next step, then there is a follow up suggestion that is given. It is not a direct ¡§no we should do this¡¨ it is stated to someone else and in a very non-offensive gesture such as, ¡§maybe next we should do this.¡¨ There would be no mention of the previously offered idea, but a new suggestion. It is very good and every time I have agreed so it worked perfectly. In our meeting today I gave my personal testimony from our extreme difficultly when my brother Collins and I were very young. It made a good impact on the men and boys who were there. I venture that many of the people who will read this do not know about the tumultuous first 5 years of my life, but it was meaningful to these men. They each commented that they could not believe it, it sounded like an African story not an American one. The story is really not that uncommon, the custody battles of divorced families. The affects of alcoholism in families. It is the story of sin in all of us.

There are some unique parts like the kidnapping case that was leveled at my father and was later thrown out of court but anyway if you would like to hear the whole thing, I would be happy to share it with you. The point is that God can take anyone and use them to his glory. When my family found Jesus, our lives changed dramatically.

Them men came with their proposals. They were very well prepared, and I am excited to pass on their ideas and needs. I asked them to be patient and trust God, one man replied that Rome was not build in a day. He said a wall is built one brick at a time. I agreed and am very excited to get back and share all of the info that I have gathered. After we finished that meeting, Matt and I interviewed 3 boy soldiers. I tell you these stories are heart wrenching. Especially when the boy in front of you shares how the bullets that fragmented in his chest are still there and make it difficult for him to work and sometimes to breath. He turns to me and pleads that I tell people so that they can help. My heart breaks for him. Especially because at age 22 he has several children. Now though I have the tremendous task of condensing the information into a report that will be both readable and inspiring. Please pray that I am able to do this. There is much to do. I have many new email addresses and a few new friends. None more important than Domonic. He has spent more time with Matt and I over the last 5 days than anyone. We have been able to get to know him well. We draw the same conclusions and push each other. He is a great man, and I am privileged to have been able to meet him. I doubt that I have met many people, in developing countries, with his capacity for understand and discernment. I will miss him most.

Tonight Domonic picked us up at the Hotel and took us to his house to meet his family. We were blessed to have dinner with his wife, sister-in-law, children and adopted children. His son, Gideon, who is 5 and his daughter, Favor, who is 2, are just wonderful. They were very shy at first and then crawling all over Matt and I at the end of the evening. Domonic is taking care of a two of his sister¡¦s children. Almost everyone has been affected by this war. The most common affect is to care for the orphans in your family. One lady I saw had 4 children until the LRA killed her brother and his wife, then she inherited their 7 children and is now the mother and caretaker of 11 kids. Domonic showed us a movie about the LRA that was produced here in Uganda. It was called ¡§An Unconventional War¡¨ and was very informational. It showed how the church and prayer has been utilized to affect this war. Let me tell you that this war is not about government reform. It is completely about the spiritual forces of darkness and light battling over an area that has long term deep roots in the accult and in horrible tragedy in it¡¦s people. The hope of peace in Northern Uganda does not rest on successful Sudan negotiations, but on the prayers of the global church. Every successful push of the Ugandan Government has come as a result of a prayer movement in the Ugandan Church. You may doubt this statement, but it is true. In 2005 the government at the request of the Ugandan Church organized a massive attack against the LRA. This included a full scale attack on their training ground in Sudan. This is quite strange, but true. The government gave the church leaders access to military escorts, trucks, helicopters and anything they needed to go to the places that Kony considers sacred cult centers. They were to take these places in prayer. There is much more to say, but they called the churches part, ¡§operation Gideon,¡¨ and the military strike ¡§operation iron fist¡¨. This was the first real successful attack the government soldiers had had in over 10 years. Because of this attack many LRA soldiers walked out of the bush and turned themselves in. And ever since, the LRA has been on the run now pushed into Easter Congo. Please pray for peace in Northern Uganda. I think we need to prepare ourselves for spiritual battle and start praying for the confusion of the leaders of the LRA.

Ok enough of that for now. I love you all and now that our primary mission is finished, I am ready to come home now. We do not leave until Tuesday so we are going to try and see some of the great continent of Africa. We are going on Sunday to Entebbe to do some of the tourist things there. Take a boat to an island in Lake Victoria. It should be very nice. We are ready to come home now.

Chad

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April 26, 2007

Yes I am still here. This is Matt, mat-e-u or even Mateo, because the Ugandan’s think we have terrible names because they are one syllable and they can’t pronounce them easily. Anyway I’m sure Chad will enlighten you all on what happened today, I’m just here to say hey and say some stuff to let you all know I’m still alive.

We went over to the Home of Love, which is Actions’ orphanage where they had 40ish boys and girls ranging in age from three or four to early teens (I’m not that good at discerning ages, especially here because everyone looks so young). We actually met a man who worked at a church with the youth, and we both assumed that he was 18 or maybe 20, but he revealed to us that he was the same age as Chad, twenty-seven. But anyway, I digress. At the orphanage we walked around with Jerry and Dominic and heard all about their different plans for the buildings and the grounds and cool stuff like that.
I was also manning the video camera and filmed the boys playing soccer and then a bunch of the younger girls and a few boys and they kept yelling” Mek Chella” which means “My picture” or” take my picture!” and I turned the camera screen around so they could see themselves as I filmed it and they screamed and laughed and pointed at themselves. It was highly entertaining and I laughed with them, not at them. Walking and looking through the lens of the camera I was filming the exciting wildlife in the outskirts of Gulu town in the wilderness outside the fenced compound of the orphanage! Which translates to: a crazy runt of a chicken scratching at the ground and throwing leaves and dirt around for no apparent reason…It’ll be in the video, you should watch it. So… that’s all I got right now, I’ll pass this off to Chad so he can tell you about the rest of the day.

Peace Out.

-Matt

Today was the third day strait that we had a full day. Today started with a visit to the butterfly center. This is the center for Child Mothers. Next week when Candis returns from the states the Mothers will go to the village of Hope. When that move takes place we are going to turn the Butterfly Center into the boy soldiers center. I took many pictures of the entire facility that includes several huts for emergency housing. I will put this all into my full report when I return home. During our visit to the home, we missed the man who was coming to meet at 10 so he left a message that he would return at 2PM today.
So when we returned instead of meeting the cult leader, one of the boy soldiers was there waiting on us. He was one of the ones who stood up and talked yesterday about his needs. He said that he was evicted and that his belongings were sitting in the street. He said that he had children and had not eaten. We told him to come visit us at ACTION headquarters today. He showed up. Just showing took a great deal of courage. So we talked to him for a while and then we asked if we could interview him. He gave us a great interview. It was interesting that he blamed the Ugandan Government as much for the problems in the north as he did the LRA. He told us the story of the day when the LRA rebels abducted him from his village. It is truly a sad tale. I have the full transcript of his story that I will give you later. We also video taped the entire interview.

After he finished Domonic and I talked for a good while about the thoughts and ideas that we had been having over the last few days. Then lunch came and while we were eating the man that we knew was a cult leader showed up.

Once again he must have had a lot of courage to come. We invited him into the office and Domonic and I sat down with him. The first thing he asked was if I would meet with him alone. I half expected this and politely refused and shared that Dominic would be my contact after I leave so he needed to be up to speed with all of the efforts that we might be taking on.

He proceeded to share with us his list of needs. All in all he had difficult story, that ended with his contracting HIV/AIDS from his wife that died in 1998. He asked for university fees for one of his children and for money to start a medical clinic (he showed us his Doctors ID card), and finally asked that we might fund a place for him to live with his large family. I told him that I was happy that he came to visit, and that we would consider his needs. I told him that his contact really would be Jerry and Domonic because I was leaving on Sat. He then started to include Domonic in his conversations. I told him that before we would consider these things, I would expect him to start coming around ACTION often.

Domonic told him of the men’s HIV/AIDS group that meets on Wed, and the boy soldiers group that will be meeting on Fridays. He did not seem happy about that. All in all after we asked some questions, we realized that he was wanting us to fund a whole complex that would serve as his house, clinic, and his church where he would preach. We thanked him and happily let him leave. He asked for a bible and we gave him a very nice Bible. I pray that God will loose his captive heart that he will know the truth of God. Pray for him his name is John.

As soon as we finished we had to leave to go meet with the Invisible Children Staff here in Gulu. We met and had a good meeting. Once again Domonic came with us we drove motorcycles and that was a blast. It is strange to drive here and the shifter shifts backwards, so that took some getting used to. It was easier to drive here than it was in Thailand. As far as IC goes. We already knew IC is not an organization that seeks to proselytize for Christianity. They also stand by that policy here. The bottom line is that they need time to grow into the success that they have enjoyed. Their policies show how young of an organization they really are. The church needs to give grace and be patient with them as they go hard after what they think is good.

The last thing we did today is to visit the Home of Love Children’s Home. It is the ACTION orphanage with 48 kids living in it. It was great. Once again we have many photos and some video of the children singing for us. They are beautiful. Many of these children are true orphans and some have fathers in the bush. Joseph Kony himself has two children in the home. He has his wives in the bush call ACTION on cell phones to check on his kids.
He actually requested to the Govt that his children be placed in this home. They were already there, but it still made the ACTION staff have a discussion about the safety of the children. In the end they decided that they would not turn the children away of course. The children sang for us, it truly was a beautiful thing.

Well that was today’s update. I hope that you are all well. I pray that God will keep you and protect you until we see each other again, in about one week. Have a great day.

Chad

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April 25, 2007

Tonight I will write a short update. My computer’s battery is almost dead. Here are the highlights. We had our first real meeting with the boy soldiers today. It was awesome. The commanders that we met with yesterday went onto the radio last night and made a public announcement about our meeting today. All in all over 100 people were there. Many child mothers were there, but mostly men. Just to clarify the boy soldiers that we met today range in age from about 15 to 30. These are men who were abducted from their homes to fight in the LRA. They later were captured or escaped.

Most have done terrible things, and the worst were promoted. These commanders were horrible men, who now are tired of war, tired of killing, and tired of the shame that they constantly feel. Pray for them all!!! It is very hard what they are doing. All they have known is war and now they cannot do what they know best. Many have gone through skills training but even then they cannot find jobs. One way that we will be able to help is to form a microfinance program to help them start their own businesses. Later today we once again met up with the leaders and former commanders. They took us to their farm. The government gave them a 550 acre farm just out of town. They took us there to show us their crops so that we could take pictures and video. It was very large and very well developed. It gave us many ideas on how with just a little boost from us, these boys and men will be able to support their families.

It has been a real joy working with the ACTION Gulu staff. They are amazing. Jerry, Domonic, Richard, and the rest are amazing. They are among the most capable Christians in Gulu. Anyway, I love you all and I cannot wait to share the full report. The last two days have been so full of activity and I have not been able to share most of it with you.
Lastly prayer request for your morning time. At our meeting today an older man arrived late. He was part of the LRA early in the 80’s. He eventually fled and to make long story short… started an organization. He said that he preaches and has a church. He wanted to meet tomorrow so we made an appointment at ten. I later told Domomic that he man wanted to meet and Domonic started to laugh and say “do you know who that man is?” I said no, and he went on to tell me that this man along with Alice Lakwena’s father started a cult that later influenced a man named Joseph Kony. Kony is the leader of the LRA. The man I will meet with tomorrow is the man who started and continues to promote the cult version of Christianity that initiated this war. To sum up the last few days, Matt and I have met with some of the most dangerous men in the world and their soldiers. Today we met with them plus another full Colnel which means that we have 3 of Kony’s top 5 men working alongside us. Now we also are going to invite the leader of the original cult that influenced Kony to a bible study. Domonic says he will not come and that will be the end of our working with him. Pray for spiritual covering. There have been many reports of miracles ascribed to this cult, even strange things like Making trees talk… and so on.

Chad

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April 24, 2007

Well there is so many thoughts running in my head right now. I am also very tired tonight so I will give you a brief synopsis today. I know that many of you who have faithfully been reading this will be happy that it is a tad shorter. So there are just a couple things I want to share with you from today. I will tell you about our meeting with the former LRA commanders, then tell about the school I preached at today, and finally about this evenings basketball. First I want to thank you for your prayers. Praise God that he is faithful always. I know that we are planning a prayer night a week from Sunday and I am very excited about that. Maybe Matt and I can share a little at that. Who knows. Anyway here is the update.

Our meeting with the former LRA commanders was exciting to say the least. The men that we met with today are maybe 5 of the most dangerous men in the world from the past decade. They may not be Bin Laden's, but they are among the top when it comes to atrocities committed among mankind. One Brigadier General (at one time 3rd in command of LRA), one Lt. Col (5th in command), 2 Captains (one in charge of training, one the bishop or chaplain), and one 24 year old Private who is active in the organization that these men have created. It is shocking to meet with men described to you as heartless killers, and realize that they are just men. Just like normal men can do great things, normal men can do terrible things. I learned so much. My heart still aches from the descriptions or the turmoil that these men endured and then later unleashed, and finally endured again. Each of these men have been completely forgiven their war crimes. Three years ago the Ugandan Government offered any member of the LRA complete amnesty if they would walk away from the LRA. Many immediately escaped and turned themselves in. Here is one point that stands out, though the government offered complete forgiveness, the people who have been displaced and lost family members, and many other things, were not forced to forgive. Even so the forgiven soldiers and former commanders have been forgiven by the community that they have caused to suffer so much. To make rank in the LRA you have to do terrible things to be recognized and promoted. The General was 13 when his village was attacked. The LRA abducted 26 boys from his village including him. 13 were taken from his home. Aparently he had many cousins and brothers in his home with him. They were taken to the bush and subjected to training. This started with 6 months of spiritual training. You would be surprised how well all of these men know the Bible.

This helped to strengthen the Leader Joseph Kony in their minds. If he was following God like Moses was, then whatever he commanded was God's command. Secondly they were trained in military tactics. The General related that of the 13 that were taken in 1986, 9 died in the bush, 3 are still with the LRA and only he has come out. Anyway I have
>tons of info 6 full pages of notes from our 3 hour discussion. Two video taped interviews that are each about 20 minutes and enough to think about for years to come. They have asked me to write a book. I told them that I am not a writer or a journalist, but they said they have been interviewed before by other journalists but nothing has happened with it. They want me to do it because they say I am a God fearing man and will follow through
>with my commitments. I told them that I would commit to helping find someone, but that I could not commit to doing it myself. (yeah I said no to men who have killed many people) I also told them that we are interested in helping the boy soldiers but that I was representing a church that was interested. I explained that I am not man sent to fund this thing. I am here to research the opportunity then to return and share and to recommend a possible course of action. I told them I believed that the church would respond, but I could not commit to that. They said that it was good and they understood. Now with that said. I think that it will be very good to even now begin to make plans to give Jerry the go ahead to start looking
>for a facility that will serve as a "center for boy soldiers." There are many questions to still iron out before my return, but one thing that was certain; Each man said that they were most excited about Bible Study. They said before skill training, before education, we need the Truth of God. (with their heavy background and the heavy cultic influene, I think
>that the truth of the unweakened Gospel will set these men and these boys into the most durable form of missionary you have ever seen. Ok there will be much to add to this but that is a start.

This afternoon I preached a school for war affected children. These kids are the children of LRA soldiers that have been rescued or captured or have escaped with their parents. There are 700 in this school and many are in their first years of schooling despite the fact
>that many are above 13. I met on boy who is 15 years old and in Primary 1. That would be the equivalent of 1st Grade. Anyway after a wonderful time of worship with children I spoke about building your house on the rock. It was a quick and simple sermon, but it seemed to have a good effect. I have realized that I am the "Munzungai" the foreigner. My skin is a draw to many people, they smile and shake my hand as if I was an important foreign dignitary. The children are especially in awe. So I draw a crowd, just by standing there.

That I preach is a bonus, but the ACTION staff is wonderful. They pick up right where I left off and the next thing you know people are getting saved. One very neat thing was right before we left we asked if we could pray for any special requests. They said that I would pray for them. So before you knew it there were 50-60 children on the stage in a mob wanting me to lay hands and pray for each of them. Some were sick and others just wanted to be prayed for by the Mununga. So after touching many hands and heads and shoulders and praying that God would bless them all. We finally took our leave. It was wonderful to pray like that though. I was really blessed.

Finally I was able to go the ACTION basketball court today. It was very fun. I got totally overheated and exhausted, but I have to say that I helped my team to win two games. We played to 5 by 1's and you may be surprised but the players were very good. It was great. It was dirt covered concrete court and the hoops were bent in strange directions, but it was a lot of fun. If was not so old and fat, I could have played longer. I can still play very hard, just cannot go as long. I love you all and hope you are all well. I look forward to seeing in a little over a week. Praise God he is faithful.

Chad
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April 23

Today has been crazy. I will skip any ramblings about the night time, power outages, sultry heat, and hard pillows to tell you about the ministry of today. There is so much to tell you about. I will try and keep it concise.

As I read though my journals from the last several days I realized that my updates may be a bit a long and arduous for that I apologize. Today's will be of supreme value I assure you. There are three topics that I want to share about: Boy Soldier Meeting from earlier, Hospital Visit, and finally Domonic (that is how he spells it).

This morning after being introduced to the 40 plus people who work at ACTION Gulu overseeing there 23 separate ministries and participating in an African worship time, which by the way was incredible, I was told that we were going to get to meet a former commander of the LRA who is now a Christian. I have heard about this man called Major Jackson. He lost his right leg in a gun battle and after accepting the government amnesty has lived here in Gulu.

He was 5th in command of the LRA when he was injured. He became a Christian last year, Richard one of the ACTION staff lead him to the Lord and Maj. Jackson has been an integral part of ministry to the child mothers and the ministry to the former LRA soldier men's bible study on Thursdays. So we went to go meet Maj. Jackson but found out that he is out of town this week.

At first I was very disappointed. Then I was introduced to a former LRA Captain named John David. David took us to a place that he called the office. He knew another former commander that has been working on trying to help the former rebels. So after driving across town we met this man named Francis. He was a former Lt. Colonel. He was 3rd in Command when he "came out". That is what they call defecting from the LRA in reference to coming out of the bush. We will use that term a lot. He was in the hospital to recover from bullet holes in his stomach. So Dominic translated and I got to ask many questions of the former Lt. Col and Cpt of the LRA. I doubt that many people have had that opportunity. Domonic started by telling that we were interested in helping the boys soldiers. He then asked what their needs might be. The Col outlined many things ranging from hunger and employment to skill training and mentorship. We asked him if he was connected to many of the boy soldiers and he said yes. He explained that since no one has cared for these boys at all, that he and Maj. Jackson, and Cpt David, and a former Brigadier General (2nd in Command) had started working together to organize the boy soldiers. I asked him to tell us what they had done. He went on to explain that they has developed an organization that is recognized by the Ugandan Government that will help the former rebels to find jobs and provide skill training. He said that they had just received a government farm outside of Gulu to start training these guys how to farm. I was amazed and asked how they funded this. He replied that the four former commanders had sporadic jobs and were saving a little money and that they did this from their own personal funds. That was absolutely incredible. There are some things that you do not see in developing countries and this is one of them. None of these men has steady jobs but because of their concern for these children whom they robbed childhood from, they are sacrificing their own money to make a difference.

We shared our coffee house idea and asked them what they thought, and they were very excited (I found out later that Domonic and I had very different ideas about what the coffee house was, but I will explain that later). They said that it was a fantastic idea. I asked Col Francis what his story was and if he would share it with me. I think that there was some miscommunication because I wanted to hear how he came to be in the LRA and how he got out but what he replied was, "I was hoping you would ask because someone needs to know the real story. You should write a book and I will tell you the story." I looked at Domonic and asked him to explain what he meant. He said that he, the BRG Gen, Maj. Jackson, and CPT David would come together to ACTION and tell me the "real" story of the LRA. I asked "real" story, not the one for the papers? He then went on to mention Alice Lekwana, Joseph Kony, and many other names that I did not recognize. So of course I said ok, I would like to get this story. So then we moved on to how to go about meeting some of the boy soldiers. He laughed and said that they were all very connected. He said that he could get on the radio and call them all in and they could be here whenever we wanted. He then said how many do you want? I said how many are there? He replied thousands. I said that may be a little much. So we decided that he would get on the radio and only invite a certain group that would number about 50. So here is the outcome at 10AM on Tuesday (midnight Tuesday for you) I will be sitting down with this BRG Gen, Lt. Col Francis, and CPT David to hear the real story of the LRA. I also asked permission to interview each of them personally and they said yes, no problem.

After we left Domonic and I were talking about the Coffee house ministry and he was thinking that it would be coffee shop, where the soldiers would work and make some money. A micro finance undertaking. I was thinking it was a gathering place for boy soldiers, it looks as if it may be both. So I asked what people we would hire to see this thing through. Who could work with these guys without a Doctorate in trauma counseling. Domonic looked at me and said, what if we hired the former commanders. I thought about it and it was like the lights coming on. All 4 of these guys are Christian. They have a realationship with the boys, all of them. The boys respect them and listen to them, and finally they already have a heart to help the boys and their families. It then dawned on me that we are just God's messengers. He makes plans and we just get to see a small part through. What better way to reach boy soldiers than with the changed men that used to command them and lead them in terrible things, now leading them in the ways of life. What a beautiful thought. Anyway that was the start of today.

This afternoon I was asked by the men¡¦s ministry leader named Richard to accompany he and another men's leader named Julius to the nearby hospital for visiting time which they do every Monday afternoon. Matt and I went with them. After a quick drive, we stepped out of the van into the courtyard of a very run down hospital. It looked like a converted WW1 single floor army barracks. We started heading to one of the building and Richard said Maternity Ward. I thought oh great. So I followed them into this room with about 8 women. They were alone and ranged in age from 19-50 maybe. There was one baby in the room and most of the women were pregnant (you probably assumed that but I thought I would mention it). So after a few introductory comments Richard said that today they brought visitors from the US. He then said that I was going to preach and turned and looked at me. I didn't really know that I was going to preach I expected to say hello and the normal statement about greetings from the church in America, but that wasn't going to fly. So after a quick prayer I gave a mini sermon about how Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me." I said who knows about the needs of a small child more that it's mother. In the same way God knows our needs. It went very well. After I finished, Julius asked if any wanted to accept Jesus into there hearts, and 4 raised their hands.

I was amazed that God used a broken vessel like me be a part of that. Oh yeah one really cool thing was that the baby that was in the room had been born only that morning. The mother let me pray for her baby and for her. I thought that was very special. So going on we went to the next Ward which was the gynecology ward (yeah another nervous one for me). This ward also had some pregnant woman, and I am sure a variety of ailments that I want to know nothing about (that was not God's plan for today) but also had many more women in it than the first. So I gave a message similar to the first and had no response. So we asked why and they told us that yesterday some people had come and preached the gospel and they had already given their hearts to Jesus. Then one said that they did not tell us how to pray though. So I read in Matt 6 when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray.

Afterward one woman asked if we would pray for her sickness to be healed. I dared to ask what he sickness was and she responded that she had extreme pain in her belly and that the doctors were going to operate on her Uterus. I asked if we could lay hands on her and she said yes. So Richard, Julius and I laid hands on her and started to pray that the power of God would heal her. It was only a few seconds into our praying that she started to tremble, then she started to shake and after maybe one minute she started to convulse heavily. The men with me immediately start to pray that God would remove the demons from this woman, so I started to pray that God would loose the spirits that have her bound. And then pray that God would bind and cast out the demons. In just a few minutes of rather intense prayer and supplications, she quieted. She laid still for a few moments then sat up and said, "Jesus, Jesus". Richard then shared with her that she was free and that she should fill her life with the word of God, with prayer, and with fellowship with the believers. She was calm and receptive and smiling when we left. It was truly an amazing time together. Next we moved to the HIV/AIDS ward. This was much more difficult. We walked from the room where life was being birthed to the room where life was ebbing away all to quickly. The first person we saw was a woman that looked late teens or mid twenties. She was ravished by disease. She was not wearing much clothing, and so I am sorry about the graphicness of this description but her whole body was rigid, where there were once arms there were only bones, where there were once breasts there was only empty skin. It was horrible to see and difficult to know what to say. Once again I was asked to preach. I got confused and mixed up a few parables before getting to the point that God wanted all of us. To his credit Julius bailed me out and shared the gospel message to which a few people responded including the young woman. She raised her hand and prayed the prayer of salvation. The last room we entered was also HIV/AIDS. In this room I shared the parable of the wise and foolish builders and asked the people what they had built their lives on. They were very receptive and over 10 people came to the Lord. It was wonderful and we prayed over each of them. All in all 15 people came to the Lord in the Hospital today. It was a wonderful and disturbing time.

Finally I want to tell you a little more of Domonic story. Domonic is 38 years old. Today he told me that he was born running from wars. The year he was born his family fled Oboti (Idi Amin's successor) to Sudan. That is where Dom lived his first years of life, in Sudan as a refugee. In 1986 when Dom was older the fighting is Southern Sudan escalated to point where he and family were forced to flee back to Uganda to escape the fighting in Sudan. They returned just as the LRA started up and for the next several years, Dom said that he would sleep in the bush at night to escape the frequent raids and abductions. He would return to his village during the day, and flee to the bush every night. Dom lost many close friends and some of his immediate family lost their lives in the raids. One time Dom said he was on a bus that was ambushed by the LRA. He said 8 people on that bus lost their lives. He said that he jumped out the window of the bus and that there were bullets everywhere. He said he dropped to the ground and started to crawl only to find himself in the midst of them. As they rounded up all of the people on the bus and distinguished which ones they would kill and which ones they would take, they took their eyes off of Dom for a moment.

It was enough for him to flee into the woods. He said that the shot at him with many bullets so after a while he fell to the ground and started to crawl. He said that a bullet creased his hand and he showed me the scar that he still bares. He said the he has never met an Acholi that has not lost many of their friends and loved one in this 22 year cival war. This man is amazing. He was over all of Coca-Cola here in northern Uganda for 8 years. He was there regional manager. He was very tired of it so he quit.

They would not accept his resignation and so he was forced to work another year with them. Finally he got away and had many offers of lucrative jobs before he decided to come to work at ACTION with Jerry. When he worked with Coke, he made $1200 USD per month. Just last month Coke offered to double his previous salary to come back to work for them. He turned them down saying that he was happy with what he is doing. I found out this evening how much ACTION is paying him $150 a month. I could not believe it. He turned down $2400 a month to work a job that pays $150. He says that he is happy doing what God wants him to do. Jerry is so blessed to have a person with the experience that Dom has. He is the most capable person I think I have met in a developing country. He is the brain behind the Micro Finance operation that ACTION has that has put many Child mothers into business for themselves. God has built a great team here in Gulu. Pray that God will sustain that team.

Anyway all in all it was a quiet day (yeah right). Tomorrow promises to be the same. Please be praying for us. Even if you read this after our meetings, pray that we will continue to feel unified and passionate about our mission. Pray for me because I will stuck behind a computer typing these men¡¦s stories for the next few days. Dom pointed out that this may be a room full of some of the most dangerous men in the world during the last decade. He said you don't want to mess with these guys. I said, "thanks Domonic." That makes me feel much better since he will not be meeting with me tomorrow. Please pray for us.

Last thing pray for Matt. Tomorrow he will be attempting to build one of his metal flowers with the tools and materials in the metal shop and scrap yard. Pray that his instruction could turn into a new product that these men could build and sell. Ok enough my wrists hurt. Love you all

Chad

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April 21st

This morning per the usual, I slept fitfully and woke up at 4:30AM wide awake. The mesquitoes do not help though. Last night I applied a liberal amount of bug spray and it seemed to have no affect so this morning I got up and put on jeans, and a long sleeve t-shirt. Hopefully that will slow them down a little bit. During the night we lost power so I am happy that my laptop battery is fully charged. Also during the night I heard a major dog fight, loud birds, it started raining heavily, and people yelling at each other. Last night we talked about going on some sort of day safari today. There are a couple of those things here in Kampala, and the day shelter is closed on Sat so we have no ministry plans. Who knows we will see. Anyway as of 5AM that is all I have to say I will write more later. I am going to read my bible by Candle light.

So last night as I was reading by candle light in Isaiah, I started to hear noises just outside the window of the room I was in. Let me take a second to explain the house we are staying it. It is a spacious place, with a large receiving/living room. To one side of the house you have three bedrooms, and on the other you have the office and a bathroom to the back of the house you have the kitchen and attached garage area and spare rooms. Surrounding the house, drive, and small yard is a tall wall with wire on the top that is overgrown with vines. The drive ends in a huge steel gate that has tall spikes on it. The obvious point is that the house is protected from the world outside which lends to sense of security. So when at 5:30AM it is still pitch black dark outside and you start hearing someone walking around just outside the window on the front porch it was a little unnerving. The nervous increased as I saw a dark figure come between me and distant lights across the valley. I
>noticed one disappear and then reaper as others disappeared. Remember that I had a candle lit so I had no night vision, and whatever or whoever that was looking at me could see me clearly. After a moment wondering what I should do I said, "hello" and a voice from the darkness responded with a, "hello". I asked who he was and he said, "Willie", so I said hello Willie. I then told him my name, I guessed that if he was here to do something wrong he might as well know who I am. I asked if he was supposed to be inside the fence and he said something I could not understand, so I asked again. It was then that he shared with me that he was the night watchman. I felt like an idiot. So then from about 5:30 until Willie got off work at 6:30 we became good friends.

After everyone got up and had breakfast we took a taxi to a beach on nearby lake Victoria. We walked around this resort that was getting ready for this huge event that is coming in November. It is a meeting of the Commonwealth... something to do with former British Occupied states all coming together with dignitaries and all. I keep hearing about this event because the government is attempting to clean up Kampala in prep for it So they are trying to force all of the street children out, trying to close the most noticeable slums, and building lots of pretty buildings. Anyway we walked around this resort that was totally upper class. They had horses, beautiful new buildings, a swimming pool that was huge and perfectly clean, and a master plan map at the front that showed a sandy
>beachfront and new marina. It was pretty, but it was extravagant. It is where people go who want to ignore the reality of life. Who woudn't rather drive 5 miles out of the city, past the 100,000 street kids, past the never-ending slums, past the invisible people, to live in a
>fairy tale that is custom made to meet your fantasy. When you spend a few days seeing some of the neediest people in the world, and then contrast it with the extravagant lifestyles of the wealthy, even the one who do not know their wealth, it makes your stomach sick. Ok enough of the tirade, I can only go so far as myself to acknowledge my hypocrisy.

After we returned Matt and I went a nearby Internet Café where I was blessed to indulge in a video chat time with Alise in WA. I have missed her greatly. As my heart has been turned and crushed for these people, I wished she were here to talk about it with. I love her dearly and notice more now that I am separated from her how much I rely on her. Pray for her she leaves on Sunday for Mexico and the orphanage. I really enjoyed seeing her and Ashley and Dudley (he is our yorkie terrier). I pointed the camera out the window so they could see a live shot of Africa and we had a great discussion on our computers from opposite sides of the world. We arrived back here to the house, and after sometime our driver Dominic from Gulu arrived. He had to get some work done on the vehicle
>we are driving up tomorrow, so after lunch we caught a Taxi into town and picked up the SUV from the mechanics shop... and it was not like any shop you have ever seen. After that Dominic wanted to get the vehicle washed so we took it to a car washing area, where some boys and men make a living washing peoples cars. I was amazed as they rinsed,
>scrubbed, washed, waxed, pounded the dust out of seats and carpet (without a vaccum), and totally cleaned this filthy truck. It was their last car of the day so I think that they were not worried about how fast they finished, so after two hours of sitting on the roadside
>on a wooden bench I was ready for this to be done. Finally we finished and paid, a whopping 3000 shillings equivalent to $2.40 US.

While we were there I got to talk to Dominic for some time. He is basically the finance manager for Jerry at ACTION Gulu. I asked if he knew any of the Invisible Children guys. He said yes. In fact he said that many of the Christians who are involved with IC have come to visit the ACTION operation. He said that their program is not Christian at
>all, but that many of their workers were Christian and really enjoyed the Christian perspective that Dominic and ACTIONs ministries brought to Gulu. One thing that I think many of you will find interesting is that of the Bracelet Campaign. It is IC's microfinance operation. Dominic said when they first wanted to start it, they were having some
>trouble, so they asked Dominic what ACTION had done when they started their micro finance for the child mothers. Dominic gave them all of his notes and some advice. They were able to utilize that info and now their program is running much more smoothly. He is going to go with me this week when I go to the IC Gulu location to see their operation. Pray that God goes before us and prepares the way. I think that it has already happened to some extent.

Anyway, we just got home and this is the latest I have stayed up yet, it is past 8PM. Pray that I can sleep, and not get eaten by Mesquitoes. I hope you are all well, and I look forward to seeing you in couple of weeks.
>
Chad

Hey Everyone,

I have some good news, I slept through the night without one mesquitoe bite. WOO HOO Ok on a more serious note, we will be leaving for Gulu today. The trip is very safe and there won't be any problems save car trouble. Yesterday in a long conversation I had with Dominic, who by the way is an incredible capable person, he shared that the LRA is still active around Gulu. A few weeks ago there were more abductions, and just this week, the LRA attacked a convoy in Southern Sudan about 80 miles away. The LRA leadership is encamped in Southeren Sudan, but they still have active units in Northern Uganda. The government had been encouraging the people in IDP camps to return to their home, but after the abductions of a few weeks ago, they are again telling everyone to go back to the camps because it is not safe enough to be in the villages. Praise God that all of the children who were abducted a few weeks ago escaped when their guard fell asleep. Just be in prayer for us, we will be driving to Gulu today, and the IDP camps this week. You should hear a lot more about the boy soldies soon as well. though there are frequent power outages so I do not know how often I will be able to write. I hope you are all well, see you soon.
>
>Chad

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April 20th Kampala Uganda

Last night I slept a little better. I slept until about 3:30 AM which is the latest I have been able to sleep yet. I finished the extensive biography of Adoniram Judson called "The life of Adoniram Judson To The Golden Shore" by Courtney Anderson. That guy was unbelievable. People do not live like he did, or any of the rest of his family. His concern for the call of God for him and his family meant so much that he willingly sacrificed himself and in doing so encouraged others to sacrifice all for the sake of bringing the gospel Burma. If you have never heard of him you should check out a simple biography that YWAM puts out called Heroes of the Faith Adoniram Judson.

So I finished that book today and have much to think about in response to what I have read. I finished the book mostly before anyone else got up. At around 8AM the rest of the house began to awake. We checked our emails and I sent the journal update. We sat down to breakfast and started to get ready for our day. A couple of people came by the mission house today, they keep the grounds here. An Luo tribeswoman from the north near the Acholi people was here, and then a 20 year old man named Angelos came by.
Angelos leaves in 5 weeks for Uganda Christian University where he will be beginning his pastoral studies. He was a very kind young man.

After we left we went by a Christian School where the children have completed the first workbook in a Bible League program that gets kids to do bible studies before presenting them with the gospel. We learned today that over 50 children have completed the first work book and so we took over 50 certificates of completion and will deliver the 50 new testaments tomorrow. When they finish the second workbook they get a whole bible.
>The children are especially drawn to us. Mainly because we smile at them and are white, they constantly say, "you are most welcome", and "how are you, I am fine". The children are beautiful, such big smiles and happy faces. After we left the school, we dropped by the day shelter again to see the boys. They were in the midst of their daily bible study. Today there were more boys than yesterday. I think that there were 14 yesterday, today there were 24. The boys were very tired. Just a little reminder, these boys are street kids, so often they come to the shelter during the day having not slept at all the night before. The shelter feeds them a meal, lets them shower, gives a bible study and allows them to rest. At around 3PM the boys grab what little things they have and go back to the streets. Today the boys let us video them singing and playing the drums. They are very good djembe drummers (Andy you should check this out). As we were leaving one of the boys accused another one of stealing his belt. I thought that they would go to fist over it, but one of the men who works there daily stepped in and helped settle the matter. I think that it ended by the leader sending the more aggressive one away because he would not back down. Another boy who was apparently new today, showed us a wound on his lower leg. It was on the front of his shin just above his foot. It was a hole about the size of a quarter. It was infected and swollen and was basically disgusting. So William told the men to take him to the clinic down the street to get him a penicillin shot. Once there the boy refused the shot. He just wanted someone to clean it and bandage it. When we asked why he refused the shot, we found out it is because most of the boys are afraid of needles. We told him that we could not help him if he refused the shot, so pray for the young man to have courage to get the injection. It may very well save his life.

Let's see if anything strange happened today... we saw a lizard about 1 foot long with a teal blue head, grey body and teal tail. A man jumped off his bike in front of us only to take about 3 steps away and start peeing on the side of the road. We walked about 4 miles total today. We rode buja, buja (small motorcycles) from the day shelter to the gas station for 500 shillings (equivalent to 38 cents USD). On one of the public busses we
>almost hit man on a bicycle. If you have ever been here you might say that happens all of the time... but this was your normal near miss... this bicycle pulled out in front our van packed with 20 people giving the van no where to go. The van slammed on its brakes and skided to slow down, and then swerved at the last minute to miss him. The driver yelled something in another language that I didn't understand, but I got the impression that
I probably didn't want to know.

When we got back here we decided to go out to get dinner tonight. William and Geri took us to this little hole in the wall French restaurant. I have to tell you I had one of the best fillet steaks I have ever tasted for $6. It was great. I hope that all is well with you. We are leaving on Sunday morning for Gulu.

Pray for us...

>Chad

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April 19, 2007

After waking up many times last night Matt and I finally got up around 7. I found out later that the watch I bought yesterday was actually set at the wrong time meaning we got up at 6AM. We were wide awake at that time anyway, being that it was the middle of the evening back home. We are still adjusting to the time difference. So we took showers in the shower without a curtain, and as the sun came up the noise started to grow.

Yesterday when we were with Ivan, he told us how Kampala has been very unsettled the last few days, in fact on Tuesday (day before we were walking down town) all of the stores in town shut down to protest the government, during a rally associated with that, government troops deployed tear gas and ended up shooting 3 people dead. So as Matt was in the shower I started to hear crowd noise. At first it was dim murmmer but it was growing quickly. In fact at one time I started thinking about the riots I had heard about and had to see what was going on. So I looked out our window that faced the street. It took only a moment to see that there was nothing out of the ordinary, the crowd noise was just the billion shop owners opening and hauling their goods to their shops. There are literally hundreds of shops in every block. Small alleyways open every ten feet or so to another shop, sometimes to another row of shops right down the middle of a building.   So as I got used to the sound, the sun came up and a beautiful rainy day showed itself.

Matt and I went down for a breakfast of buttered bread and scrambled eggs. We repacked all of our things and at around 8AM we carried our bags down stairs to meet our next cab driver who took us to meet the John's.

Finally we met William John. He and his wife are a wonderful African American couple from California. They are filling in for the Robinette's while they are on furlough. William and Geri are very nice and have a great heart for missions and for the world. After they helped us get settled a little, we set out to visit the ministries that they are involved with here.

1.       We visited a boys home that has been started by a Ugandan man named Milton. Kampala has thousands of street children, William and Milton think over 100,000 children who are living on the streets. In November Kampala is hosting some conference that will be drawing diplomats from all over Africa and the world, so the police have started seeking to "clean up the streets". They have started to crack down on street children beating them, imprisoning some, and in general harassing them in an attempt to force them to go somewhere else. Some of the children are saying that they will just leave until after the conference. Anyway, Milton has been a Christian since 2002 when as he says, "Jesus so graciously came upon me and entered my life, Hallelujah!!" Since he has been disciple by a few missionaries including compassion international and Jim Robinnette. 1st Oct Milton decided that he needed to do something on his own. So he in faith started this boys home. He rented out a very small house and started to invite the boys he knew from previous street ministry. He currently has 16 boys living with him full time. When I asked how he gets funds for the ministry, he said that he has saved money from his job before, so that he was using that. Since Feb the John's have been helping them get by with their personal finances, but they are in great need. They do not have beds, nor decent clothes for all of the boys, but Milton said, "at least now they are safe and have a roof over their heads." I asked him what his need was, and he said that God provides for his needs.   William then spoke up and said that $300-400 per month would help them tremendously.   Here are some things that stand to me about this ministry.

a.     Milton is a local with a heart for his own people. This is very rare in developing countries. At this time he has no church affiliation, and no organization, but this is exactly the kind of ministry that we should want to be a part of.

b.     16 boys out of an estimated 100,000+ is only a drop in the bucket. We need to pray that God will raise up a generation of belivers in the Ugandan church that has a heart for those in need in their own communities.

2.      From Milton's we walked across the street and up a hill to Grace and Jennifer's house, where they take care of two boys full time. These ladies are in a very small house and could not host more than that, but they have a heart for children in need as well. Grace is from a town close to Gulu, where she is very involved in a growing and exciting church. Jennifer is Congolese and knows very little English, but is faithful to the day program that we are about to talk about.

3.      Just down the hill from Grace and Jennifer's house is a church. This Ugandan church has opened its doors daily to the street boys. They are invited to come between 9AM and 3PM. They are given breakfast, access to a shower, and then spiritual leadership. This is a ministry of ACTION and they have three staff members. Francis, David, and Jennifer (same from above). These people have such a passionate heart for the Lord and for
>these boys. As many as 30 will show up from day to day. The focus of this day shelter is that in gaining relationship with these boys the leaders seek opportunity to share Christ, and then counsel the boys to return to their families. Just last week they were blessed to baptize 10 boys in Lake Victoria. William told me about a young man that came to the day shelter last month. He shared that his aunt had been sick, so his mother gave him some money and sent him from their village to Kampala to help her.

When he arrived in Kampala, the Aunt was not at the address that he had been given and now he had no money. So he had lived on the streets for more than 5 months since then. After he came to the day shelter, he said that he wanted to go home, so Francis and David took him back to the village that he was from, when they pulled up his mother came running out of the house crying. She thanked Francis and David saying, "she thought
>she would never see her son again." Now the young man is enrolled in school and still living at home.

We have just returned from spending time with the day shelter. I got to speak to them about the Lord, and then they asked a bunch of questions. What are the states like? Do I have kids? No? Then is your wife pregnant? (actual progression) and the last question: "I know that God has great plans for us, can you tell me what mine is?" This one ripped me apart, because this boy is going to be sleeping on the street tonight, and what I am going to say? So I did the best I could, and said that I could not give him specifics, but there are some things I know for certain that God plans for us, he wants all of us our whole hearts, he will provide, he wants us to help others. When I said that I could not give him specifics, he dropped his head with a look of "I thought not." It was very difficult.

I believe that these boys are very dear to God's heart. I want to shelter them all, but pray that God will show me what he wants... The best would be for the Ugandan Church of Kampala to be mobilized to care for the orphans and widows in their area. But what am I talking about, we do not even do that in our communities in the states.

We just had a dinner of spaghetti and beans J that Geri prepared, it was the first time in days that I did not have any apprehension about what I ate.

Pray for us...

>Chad

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April 18th -

Today Matt and I flew from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Entebbe,
Uganda. We started the morning out with breakfast with some of the people
that we had traveled with the previous day. One in particular stands out,
his name is Pastor Jeremy from Burundi. He has planted over 8 churches and
trains and oversees those churches. We had some great conversation about
the need for partnerships in missions and training. He has a vision to
start a training school and would like to send people to a school in
exchange for others coming to be trained where he is. I thought that it
sounded like a great idea.

Upon arriving in Entebbe, we gathered all of our bags, and departed the building. As we exited there were many taxi drivers vying for our business. We looked all over for the one that was sent for us, but after a little while it became apparent that he was not there. So as I realized that we had no phone numbers, no address, and no way of getting into contact with anyone, I realized that we needed to ask God to go before us and guide our way. We hired a taxi who assured us he knew where the ACTION guesthouse was. I was sure that the guesthouse was not a normal guesthouse, but I thought it was worth a shot. After two different guesthouses and the driver obviously not knowing what to do next, I convinced the man to stop at an internet café. The first one had no power, and the second one took forever for pages to load while we paid per minute.

After finally getting to the ACTION web page, I realized that it did not have the contact info I needed. So I was back at square one. So I asked the cab driver to take Matt and I to a moderately priced hotel. The first one we went to was booked full for the night, the second one had lots of openings, after one night there I know why. The service was very nice, but the room was tiny. It had two twin beds, but they were pushed against opposite walls and you had about 18 in between them. The attached bathroom, was one open room, with a sink and shower spigot sticking out of one wall and the toilet on the other side.   We quickly changed our clothing and asked the concierge to direct us to a place where we could exchange currency, and to an internet café. He was so gracious that he actually escorted us to both places. At the currency exchange he was great, I didn't realize that for every US dollar there are 1701 Ugandan Shillings... that means when you exchange $800 you receive $1,360,800.

Though it felt nice having that much cash... you could say that I was a millionaire, I was glad that he understood what was going on. He directed us to the Internet café, and I bought a half hour. I started by emailing Jerry, and asking for contact info for the John's here in Kampala and for his contact info in Gulu. I then wrote Alise an email asking for prayer that Jerry would respond soon. It was awesome because after I sent the email to Alise, I received a response from Jerry. He had notified William John the ACTION missionary in Gulu our situation, and by the time we returned to the hotel, William had already contacted the concierge and made plans to get us tomorrow. So we set about figuring out how to make the most of the rest of our day. We walked out on the street and immediately met a man named Ivan. He was Ugandan from Kampala and is in Bible School here. He was very nice and had just gotten off of work. So he offered to show us around. I asked him to show me where I could by a cheap watch. So he took me to a place where I was able to purchase a wrist watch, then he gave us the two hour walking tour of Kampala's capitol. It was great, we walked through crowded markets, high rise streets, the Ugandan Parliament buildings, and trees infested with the largest cranes you have ever seen. It was great. He had to leave around seven to catch his taxi home, so we
>went back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.   Until about 1AM that is.

But since that is not the 18th anymore I will continue on the next entry.

Pray for us...

>Chad