MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-01-2010

Greetings! Things are going well here. We have fully recovered from the great flood. Our house is finally in order and we are using both sides. I am no longer, after two months, sleeping in the same room with my children (glory hallelujah!). I got screens and doors put in on the other side of the house, and window boxes for curtains. The mason has finished the latrine (where the folks that work for us go the bathroom), and the dog kennel, where we keep our dogs during the day so they don't eat people who come to visit.

Meanwhile, our gardener has gone to get a load of manure to come and and mix with the soil in our flower beds, and on the large areas of the yard where grass is needed. If we still lived in America, we'd be able to get our manure cheaper and in larger quantities from Washington, or from the nightly news, but here they still use cows, so I guess we'll have to settle for that. 😉 I need to get the grass in place to protect against erosion, and to make it nicer for the children to play.

On Friday, I'm buying a side of beef from a local cattleman. They will be chopping up the meat in our garage, and I get to learn how meat is prepared, since I will likely be doing most of it myself. We will be using a new panga, and putting cardboard on the floor to catch blood and offal. I've never butchered in my life, so it should be quite a learning experience. It is a small price to pay for steak, however!

This week, I am attending a course Independent Baptist Church of Mbarara is hosting called Farming God's Way. This is a method of farming, inspired by Biblical principles, that will allow African farmers to dramatically increase their crop yield. This increases their food, standard of living, health, and income, so they can tithe and be able to support the Pastors in the churches we start better. I'm going to experiment with these methods in my own garden, and anticipate being able to teach this to others so I can attempt to improve life here for people by giving them the knowledge they need to feed themselves and their families more effectively.

On Monday, I begin formal language study with my assistant, Osbert. This has been my goal since I got here. I have been learning culture and language all along, but now we will be devoting set times every day to learning language, in the pursuit of eventual fluency in Runyankore. The kids finish up school this week, so Anna will be studying with me, and once we know enough, we will begin using it in the home so the kids can learn as well. The language barrier here is a significant hindrance to practical ministry, not to mention daily life, and I am greatly looking forward to dealing with this problem directly. Once I have a handle on the language, I can be useful as a translator in the dual-language services we have here, with the translation of the Bible, and in the translation of any other literature (like tracts and curriculum) that need to be translated into Runyankore. I plan to offer literacy courses as well, in both English and Runyankore, so the people we win to the LORD can read the Bible in their own language as God intended. It all begins with learning the language and culture, and I am almost impatient to begin this critical first phase of our ministry here in Uganda, Africa.

Pray for us as we learn to speak. Pray for our finances. Pray for our health and safety. Most of all, pray for the souls of Uganda, and for the continued growth of the churches here.