• Home
• If you're new here
• Interview of the month

Ya know what? Lets just do this! January 13, 2008

Interview of the Month , trackback

So I’ve been hanging onto this Interview of the Month for about a month now because I’ve been trying to figure out a way to find out if el interviewee would even know that this blog existed and/or be interested in responding. Its been a nagging fear of mine since I started IOTM that I’m going to think up all these questions and get no response and for some reason it scared me - it may have something to do with my deeply rooted fear of rejection and it might even be related to the walls I’ve built up around my heart but I can’t really be sure. And while I sat here fearing, three months have gone by without an IOTM so tonight I said “Enough’s enough!” and I’m posting these questions anyway. I may not get a reply but we’ll never know either way unless I put myself out there; so this is me putting myself out there.

Written December 18, 2007

I have sat down, I have buckled down, and I have done it. I’ve started the first paragraph of IOTM, which should really count for something considering it’s Christmas. They say well begun is half done so we’ll see how that goes. Since I missed a month this interview is going to have to be extra special so no pressure, Robin (in the Uganda RadioActive Home) but you’re really going to have to deliver. Again, no pressure, but this has to be special. No pressure though…

I hope you read this and get a moment to answer, if not though, I’ll understand and assume you’re miles away from civilization delivering medical supplies and salvation to thousands of refugees, and chances are I probably wouldn’t be too far off my guess there. I guess this is as good a time to tell you as any that you are one of those people that make me damn proud to be in The Family. Interview guidelines found here.

Okay, first question. Describe what you and your Home have been up to during the month of December and spare no details.
The month got off to an exciting start with the annual Listeners’ Meeting. Simon gave an invitation on the radio for people to join us at the club downtown where we teach the 12FS and Bridge classes. Just like last year, we had about 120 come & it was a packed program with skits, stories, Bible quiz with prizes, a raffle with great prizes and the “Nativity” movie. Quite a few people came who we hadn’t yet met and many signed up for either the 12FS classes in the club on Wed Afternoon & evening, or for the on-line class. Others bought tools & we got all their e-mails to add to our 2000+ weekly feeding mailing list.

We had been invited to have our kids perform the puppet show they had put together at a few places. Shirley (12) and the kids had put together a great show on audio in the studio, with all the voices very clear, sound effects & all. Our puppets had been sent to us from a friend in the States—all were blacks—kids, grandparents, animals & all. They went first of all to the Goan community who are Catholics & they were so impressed by the show! We had a team the same day doing fundraising at the main hotel here then all came home for our 12FS Graduate’s dinner. It was good to sit with them one-one-one after the meal (& football game earlier) to talk about goals, where we’re headed the coming year, all the Lord has done the last year & all. Today Kath had a tool table all day which was good too.

A few days later, a team was going to minister to a lot of kids—over 100, when lo & behold, the big case of puppets was stolen from our roof rack while they were driving. The only thing they could figure was that it was taken from the roofrack by someone on a passing truck, as no-one definitely climbed up, the case is heavy & it couldn’t have been stolen. I was on freeday when they called me & let me know about them being stolen, so hopped on the Honda 250cc & traced their route to see if perhaps miraculously it’d fallen off & not been touched. Very unlikely since people are so desperate in this part of the world. I rode to the nearest police station to make a report, then down the road there was Simba FM so did an announcement on the radio, which they translated into Luganda. Hmm—Devil is really fighting our ministering because this show was extremely impactful! In fact, we are going to try to provision replacements as they are almost unheard of here & they’re a terrific way for our kids to minister as they all inherited a bit of the dramatic, have a zillion voices each like their dad & have a lot of fun ministering in this way. But I HATE THEFT!!!

Next door we have a family who are Bunyoro tribe (from the extreme West) whose daughter has moved to England & is going to marry an English chap. Since Graeme didn’t have any relatives here, & we are all from his tribe (white!!) we were asked to go along as his family, & Savannah was to be the flower girl. Saturday was the “Introduction Ceremony” & Sunday was the wedding. Back in August we had our first outbreak of Ebola. The papers had called in Marburg disease which is the same hemorrhagic deadly fever by a different name, but had tried to downplay it during the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Govt Meeting) with queen Liz & all 52 heads of state. Anyway, by this time, mid December the number of people infected were about 120 or so & almost all from the far west. Our dear neighbours had relatives & friends traveling from that exact area, so needless to say we had solid prayer about it. The Lord showed us to go in faith though, trusting Him, & that He would make it a witness. We were able to minister to a lot of people deeply, including a couple of Members of Parliament, wives & other very prominent people from that part of the country. Inspiring indeed! And… we didn’t catch Ebola! Yay!

Rajan (22) & I were slotted to travel to Mahagi (Democratic Republic of Congo) with Jakisa & Richard, to minister there for a week or so. Plans had been moving along, they’d arranged for the hall for us to be able to give seminars, to show Count Down & another movie, & to be able to minister deeply, but the Lord had a bend in the road. We have some long term 12FS graduates & Active members there & they were very excited & had invited top people but the night before we were about to get our very early bus north, we got a call from Richard that the border had been closed! Ebola had broken out & no-one was allowed to gather in any groups! Phew! Thank the Lord He showed us before we left.

In the newspaper that morning, it had a big heading “5 Epidemics hit the country!”—they went on to detail the Yellow Fever in the North, Ebola was growing seriously, Meningitis was very active in Nebbi, the exact area we were about to go to, Cholera had broken out again as it periodically does, & there had been a lot of cases of Bubonic plague in Nebbi. Now for me, Ebola isn’t entirely scary, even though in reality it’s a lot like “Breakout” the old movie, and has a very high fatality rate. It is passed by body fluids, so unless you’re really sloppy, you can usually avoid that. Bubonic plague though, comes when you are bitten by the fleas who bite the infected rats & any little room you stay in could have some of them! Shiver!! Ha! So the Lord knew, the Devil might try to exact some untoward results from that trip—so He clearly canceled it! He is sooo in control, it’s easy to trust His leads because He never fails!!

The next day was a whopper one—with our small team spread to the 4 winds again. Some needed to attend the wedding, we had ministering at the main hotel, and had a big kids party we do entertainment for—for 200 or so kids after that. Not a minute to spare but a great day with people where we ministered a lot. Bought ourselves a cold one that night as we happily collapsed together in the lounge.

Got a call Monday morning that one of our biggest supermarkets had 60 boxes of apples! Yahoo! An apple, being an import & totally a non-tropical fruit, is only seen is super markets here & they’re super expensive. They are treated like one of the rarest treasures therefore, so forget the gym, the amount of boxes we lift sometimes really keeps the old bod hoppin’! It was 2 jeeps full. So happy for our new roof rack. We got these to Little Angels Orphanage, Noah’s Ark orphanage, quite a lot went to the large Govt Hospital, to be distributed among the extremely poor patients & a couple other places. Since apples are so unique, we gave the most this time to Noah’s Ark because it’s run by a couple of the best missionaries we know here—a Belgian couple called Peter & Pita. They have personally adopted now 45 children, & cared for over 7,000 during the heat of the war in Gulu. The main reason we gave to them though, is because they have refrigeration & they know to teach all the kids how to peel, cut, core and cook the apples, then pop them in a freezer, so they have healthy food for months to come!

Got another call about an hour later from Amrat. That is an Indian family who have given us probably30 tons worth of items to give to either orphans, or the handicapped. They had a big shop right opposite the post office, but are closing down & returning to Dar-es-Salaam where they are from. They had a heart for the poor but had no trust that anything they gave to an orphanage would actually go to the kids’ benefit—a very real problem here. So over the years, we have taken things like a 10 ton truck of warm jackets & bedding to Karamoja (Nyx Martinez & I), we’ve given countless boxes to about 15 places, with a greater emphasis on some. We demand high transparency & accountability, we need letters, and specifically photos & we visit the places who receive the donations. One place in Kakoni Village in Mpigi built a whole community center for the elderly from the sale of the items. Some of the things have been excellent for the children directly—like the 3 tons of jackets we took to Kataki during the floods recently or the large number of jackets, trousers and shirts we sent to the orphans in Katakwi & Lira. Others, we have permission, since all taxes have been paid, to give to widows to use for income-generation & countless children have been able to get school fees from the sale of these items. They are getting close to closing, so over December, I think I loaded, unloaded & carried probably about 12 jeep loads. Too bad Kromie wasn’t around with all his muscles!! He was gone for the month in the UK—and Rajan & Mal were out every day. Being Christmas, we were pretty stretched, ministering here & there, so hey, saves on gym time, no? Ha! And you absolutely cannot pay for the look of appreciation on people’s faces when they are given valuable items to either use or sell! It’s like money from the sky for them!—it doesn’t happen! All the places we give these donations, we of course minister—the key people we have been trusting have been going through the 12 FS course & studying with us.

Well, as if we might be at risk of being bored, with eluding Ebola, lots of classes, Listeners’ parties, getting donations for hundreds of orphans & all, Kath at one of our tool tables met a lady who had a lot of questions. As it happened, she’s a reporter with the main paper & had read some oooollllddddd material from literally 25-30 years ago & was a bit worried. We made appointments & she & a colleague came over for 3 hours for an interview. It wasn’t difficult to answer, and in fact, they were very genuine folk who had just read some extremely negative stuff. Before they left, we filled their arms with DVDs, CDs, material from academics & answers to questions they’d raised, so that when they came back a week later for another 3 hour interview, they had an entirely different attitude, as they could see the real perspective. They were very deep, intelligent & it was interesting asking their questions about all the ways we are different from churches, how we make such a stand in dedicating our lives to caring for others & all. So that was a cool interlude!

Couple days later, I was just off to my weekly market trip, which I never get bored with! It’s the best place for me to practice & extend my language skills, because people of all tribes are there in the busy, exciting, friendly atmosphere amidst all the fruit & veggies. Because we’ve been friends for years & many of them ask for prayer at different times, they’ll yell out a greeting in Lugwara, Acholi, Luganda, or Miliancoli expecting me to respond instantly. It’s normal friendly greeting but with some it’s a bit of a game & they really delight in teaching me new phrases & things because I guess it’s extremely rare for whities to speak their language apart from those who live in the actual area for many years. Anyway, I was in the midst of this joyous pandemonium when I got a call from Daniel, the assistant MD of the top hotel here, saying they had decided to go to help children at the Cheshire home, a little out of town, & asked if a couple of us could go to give the children a little entertainment like face painting & making balloons for them. After shooting up a quick prayer, I readily agreed and had to almost run with the big bags, in order to make it on time for their big team from the hotel. Well, little did I expect, as I have been to countless orphanages & centers for the handicapped but I was touched in the deepest way this day. When we’d gone to this Cheshire home, they had a lot of children with leg braces, who had bone repair, and the kids came from all over the country. We made friends & it was very sweet sitting with different ones for a while each, talking & encouraging, right before Christmas. What I didn’t know is that they have a burn center & a group of little kids came who had burns more extensive than I had ever seen came. I have never found it more difficult to act cheery & as if nothing was wrong & the future is as bright as the promises of God as I did with these dear little kids! Their skin was dripping off their faces & limbs, and then it stayed that way. Oh my! Several had full bandaging & were peeping through as I talked with them. I acted casual as I found a little place on their skin that was untouched & we laughed & talked about how pretty the flowers were on the design of little lizards for the boys or turtles or whatever! I was crying fully inside, but couldn’t let it show because this was their Christmas party! This was their chance to forget the pain & to enjoy it like any other child. Those little faces are imprinted on my heart & I’ll never forget them. I’m going back shortly to spend more time with them & I think it’s one of the best centers we’ve been to—not because they have enough staff, but because they are attempting the impossible & it’s actually giving these dear children some hope of getting a life when it had come to a grinding halt. I really look forward to the day when we have enough faith (& it is so motivating to pray to really hone the gifts, the use of the keys, the Helpers & all, so that He can give the healing touch directly!) I was talking with them about how special they are to Jesus & how He loves them. It also really convicted me to learn more because most didn’t speak English, & I didn’t know how to say some deep things I really wanted to in some of the languages. I am not aiming for fluency in all because that’s impossible, but the key things to get through … you just have GOT to convey that!

We’d been desperate about our Christmas tools coming into the country, but with the CHOGM, with all those heads of state in attendance, they closed off a lot of the packages that were coming into the country, to ensure security & locked a lot of them in containers. Even though the meeting had finished, a great deal of packages were stored at the airport. In fact, we got some letters waaayyy into January as they finally got the containers of mail opened up, after all the Heads of Govt. had left. We were claiming Key power because not only was it looking like we’d be sitting with a very big amount of Christmas stuff all year, it seemed we just wouldn’t get any special message out much. The Lord totally did it though—it was awesome! We got the tools cleared & in by the 21st. We had 3 tables with us & our Active members at 3 hot spots throughout the city & by the 24th there was hardly one CD/DVD or Christmas thing in our hands! We had never seen anything like it! It was exhilarating!!

We had a really good fellowship with our Active members with our 12FS graduate Active Members. It was inspiring! Quite a lot came & the best was the Candle Light ceremony where they had very good victories & promises they were claiming together for the new year. With the Offensive, it portends to be an awesome year!

The Lord did something special for us since our team is small temporarily & we didn’t have a whole slew of cooks as we had in the past. He opened the door for us to be able to all have a Christmas dinner out at one of the nice hotels—no dishes, no hours of cooking & just enjoying our wonderful Love on His Birthday together!

It was a terrific month! We were rather ready for a break & the cool part was that we got 2 nights in a hotel for half the Teens & up at a time, with full buffet, gym & all! It was Heaven! Then we went for 4 days camping all together on the Nile. We took our Nissan Patrol, our Rav 4 & the Honda & our 3 great tents. And Malaika bravely Bunji’d into the Nile!—you can see her flying on the Fam web site under Uganda. We got a deal on quadding so had a blast zipping around with the kids on great trails through the beautiful countryside. Some got to go on a family cruise where they saw awesome monkeys, birds of incredible variety & all. Then now Kromie’s back (look at the XN for his awesome art!!) 4 of us Mike, Malaika, Rajan & I will head off to the multiple rapids, including lots of grade 3 & 4 rapids, and five grade 5 rapids for a whole day, where we’ll tackle them on kayak and raft!!! Yahoo! I LOVE AFRICA!!!

Wanna hear what I did today? It was a very cool day! Lukia is one of our Ugandan Live Out MMers, who is very on-fire, has a real heart for people & she has an incredible story I’m putting together for an upcoming Link. She had a calling from the Lord 2 years ago to approach Kigo Prison for women here. She got permission & a couple of us went with her to visit the ladies. Their place of living wasn’t too bad, but they only ate 1 meal a day, had very raggy clothes, they shivered at night coz it can get chilly even though we’re on the equator, because at the height of the Nile, we’re at 1500 meters above SL. They would dig for 12 hours & only get the 1 meal, all kids had to share the mom’s meal, many were in for simply being around the vicinity a crime was committed, so were brought in for questioning, but couldn’t afford a lawyer, so remained there. The Buganda feel it’s a horrible thing to be put in prison so almost none visit their relatives there. They had tiny pots to cook on for the 38 average residents & 10 staff. No sanitary napkins, no malaria or headache or whatever medicine—their clothes very in shreds.

But today, after Lukia having gone there almost every week for the last 2 years, ministering to them, leading them to the Lord helping them to really deal with & get prayer for their bitterness. Most who committed murder or other crimes had been abused, abused, abused until they snapped. Anyway, today, we took along one of the Asian Business community friends who supplied full cooking supplies & even decent dresses for the ladies & when they sang so wholeheartedly about the Lord, praising Him & showing how much light is in their eyes, it brought tears to our eyes. Today also though, the Lord opened the door for the Men’s prison next door. So much tangible progress had been made with Lukia’s weekly ministering, supplying Fresian fast-growing seeds for them to be able to now have 2 meals a day, we felt it was the Lord’s time to tackle the Men’s prison.

There are 850 men there. Out of that number, only 86 are convicted criminals. The entire rest are in remand—the CO listed how many of the men had been there in remand, waiting for the Court to tend their case since 2001, how many since 2002, how many since 2003 & so on! IT was appauling that over 700 men have been there, most of them sitting for years & years, waiting for the court system to get around to their case again, in order to be tried. We have people who are in the vicinity of a crime regularly picked up here & brought in, awaiting trial who are absolutely innocent. The CO of the prison was a very gentle, intelligent, caring man. We saw the state they are in—25 in one room—hardly any beds—all sleeping on the flood. Out of every 20 or so, perhaps 4 have a mattress. Only a few have a blanket, most have neither! They have atrocious feeding facilities—after having worked hours in the fields, they only ever eat 1 hour a day, don’t get tea or anything like that, because fire wood is too expensive. They have almost no facilities to help them get the schooling they could never continue because of lack of finances, they have almost no cottage industries where they could be making income-generation items, no skill-development tools. So we are on the warpath! Ha! Lukia is seeing about getting in weekly to minister to them spiritually as that is the most essential element. If we can get them saved, really come to know the Lord, He can of course entirely turn their boats around. The CO feels that despite having come to know these men as friends over the last many years, writing reports to the police, the Govt, the courts, since nothing ever comes back to him with the slowness of third world bureaucracy, he said he feels he needs as much counseling as the men, as he is discouraged by the lack of facilities & progress for these men’s lives.

So, we will approach our friends, to see how we can gather support, go there to give them inspirational material & feeding. Lukia is very skilled linguistically & can teach them very warmly & clearly. We’ll see over the next months what changes we can make. For instance, in the women’s prisons, bringing in the seeds brought crops, which brought in cash. We got monthly donations of sanitary pads, weekly donations of bread, we brough sugar, clothing for the ladies. We brought sweaters one time which brought huge cheers since they had had to wear the same raggy holey garment for digging, sleeping & no change of clothes when they washed them. No panties were allowed (because they might strangle someone with them. Anyway, Lukia went to the head of Prisons, to petition their need for sweaters, & got permission! So they now have totally fresh clothes, sanitary care, sweaters & 2 meals a day! We want to get things like that rolling for the 800 men! God bless them!

Tonight Lukia got on radio because she does the Tuesday night version of Night Light, & she put out a real prayer & practical appeal, for any one who has some skills to volunteer to come in to help these men, for doctors to donate 2 hours a week to giving them extra care, to anyone who can spare soap or blankets etc. Let’s see but it’s very exciting. Human rights have commented on the VCCU (Violent Crime Crack Unit) people being brought here for torture with the the crocodiles & the snake room. It doesn’t have a great reputation, but all we saw were hundreds of extremely needy men! So please pray we can get in there & meet the need!

How long have you been in Uganda and what made you first consider going there?

What has been your most memorable mission/road trip in the African continent so far and why?

What was the most physically desperate, dire, or dangerous situation you’ve ever been in in your life?

When you pray for your sons, what do you most often specifically pray for?

If you could have three people from any point in history over to your house for dinner, who would they be?

Are you a night owl or early bird?

Name the first one that comes to mind: What’s one memory or thought that always puts a smile on your face?

Any final words?

message
name email url

search

Recent Posts

• I’m Home!
• Happy Birthday Bud!
• Interview of the month
• Read the captions
• Published
• The Great Hurrah!
• The Village Woman
• So, how do we do this?
• This is for you, Mike.
• Tattoos

Meta

• Login
• Valid XHTML
• XFN

Feeds

• Full
• Comments

•