person carrying something heavy

so, when i check in here at the blog, i am shown if someone has searched for information and some how ended up at my blog.  sometimes people are looking for it, and other times people are looking for something else and land here.  i had to laugh today because someone searched the phrase, “person carrying something heavy.”  i’m not sure how far back someone would have to go in google to find my little site with having used this phrase.  but, i found it quite humorous and appropriate.

here in uganda with the work of finding the way, we do carry lots of heavy things lots of the time.  just yesterday, i was super-tired after spending two days carrying 10 lb. bricks all day for 2 days in lots of heat.  good exercise, yes.

so, i have a whole lot of good lessons and scriptural encouragement to go along with this flying through my head, but the bricks have caused me to be too tired to share. 

(yes, i am a blogging loser of late.  bear with me.  i watched julie and julia the other night and was in awe at how julie wrote every single day.  crazy.  anyway, i will really try to write some more thoughtful things and post some more stuff as i hopefully get some rest in the coming weeks…)

Finding the Way Video Update

So, here is a brief video showing some updates of the work here in Gulu.  It covers the three groups that we are currently working with.  Also, please check out our website if you haven’t yet.  There are lots of good videos there as well.

www.findingthewayafrica.org

Video update link:

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0097dbbc1b1ee3c28f

be blessed

i am again slow to make a real post.  i seem to have a bit of writer’s block this past couple weeks.  i will make it a point to do something very soon – seriously!!!

in the mean time, i pray you are blessed today in all you do.  check back in a day or two!

so much to say…so little energy!

ok, i really have a lot of cool stuff about which i could report.  but, i am just beat the past couple weeks.  it’s not bad.  it’s the good tired one has from doing hard, physical work.  it’s hot and dusty here.  it’s just ongoing with things.  so, i don’t really come home with much brain power to focus on typing something much, even though there is a lot i could say.  but, i promise to try to share more in then next few days.  for now, let me share some pictures from work the past bit.  it’s been cool to see more “training” happen – teaching some of the younger ones how to do proper construction of huts.  it also was a good time spending christmas in the village of group 1 – okidi.  anyway, here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

christmas day at okidi.  here is alan with frisbee and truck.

 

 

 

maria and esther’s family with their things.  the boys were super happy about the soccer balls!

 

 

 

 

 

 

we’re all carrying bricks with group 3 – rwot obilio.  the kids enjoy helping out.

 

 

 

 

here’s samuel teaching how to do a proper foundation for a hut.  lots of young guys never learned because they grew up in the camp, and lots of them don’t have dads around to teach them.

 

 

 

we have fellowship/church in okidi when we’re there, and this week, they wanted to do a drama.  i couldn’t understand it, but they enjoyed it.  ha!

my favorite things – 2009

so, i always like to do an end of the year best of list.  i enjoy reading them on news sites and such, so i like to share.  the only thing is that my list doesn’t have to be only things released this year; it can be just anything i most liked or that most affected me, though i do try to mostly stick with new stuff.  i have limited exposure to things here in uganda, so suffice it to say that i am sure i am missing lots of good things simply because i haven’t had a chance to see or hear them yet.

MOVIES

Julie and Julia

Star Trek

ALBUMS

Church Music – David Crowder Band

No Line on the Horizon – U2

Come Away With Me- Norah Jones  (yes, i am a late bloomer. listened to it on the flight from newark to amsterdam and was stuck)

Heaven and Earth – Phil Wickham (and i still love Singalong, which you can download for free from his website)

Across the Earth – Hillsong United

Patsy Cline – Greatest Hits

SONGS

Complete – The Parachute Band  (current life song)

Give Us Your Courage – Tim Hughes   (declaration song)

Million Dollar Bill – Whitney Houston

Put It in a Love Song – Alicia Keys (no, i am not kidding about these last 2 songs; they are just so fun!)

Heavenly Day – Patty Griffin  (here is a crazy-good songwriter with a unique voice)

Forgiveness – Patty Griffin

You Hold Me Now – Hillsong United

I Will Wait for You There – Phil Wickham

BOOKS

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (this is mainly because i just can’t wait to watch the last movie.  didn’t read the other books, but wanted to get to the end!)

Turn My Mourning Into Dancing – Henri Nouwen (thought i’d read all the good nouwen stuff, so it was way cool to find another – and so right on and applicable)

TV SHOWS

30 Rock – there is just nothing like it.  the funniest tv i remember is the first time i and my family saw the episode of the cosby show where the huxtable kids are singing as they come down the stairs and rudy is belting/lip syncing “BA-BYYY”.  but, 30rock is LOL every single week.  my sister-in-law and i were just howling as we watched episodes online while at bryce this past summer. 

Arrested Development – a new find this year. (thanks em).  also funny and more endearing than you realize.

Lost – yes, i like lost, ok?  i really have no clue what all everything means, but i just enjoy watching

Alias – another of my bootleg finds.  but, i’ve really liked it.  when you can watch from the first day straight through and then follow it, it’s just entertaining.  nothing special, just entertaining.

 

feel free to comment…

Merry Christmas

hope everyone has a really wonderful Christmas and holiday season.  I do encourage you to enjoy it, despite the various stress that can go along with it.  Better to appreciate and not take for granted the time with people, the exchange of gifts hopefully given in love, the beauty of a fresh-fallen snow. 

May the light of Jesus be with you always and guide you in all things!

You can click this link to go to my just for fun video christmas letter!

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/7a97d0b01d1ee2c0f5I

carrying…

so, we carry a lot of things when doing construction on huts.  carrying bricks for constructing huts is a mundane, laborious job.  the sun-baked mud bricks are heavy and awkward to hold.  they are dirty, and the path to get them to the site is generally uneven and requires some nimble feet.  hauling water to be able to make the bricks in the first place takes long.  water from the watering hole, up through a freshly made path to the big drum – from that drum into the 2 smaller drums in the Beast (FTW vehicle), drive through the bush to the mixing site, out of those drums into another large one, then carry to pour on the dirt to mix mud.  all of this carry made me think of some verses that deal with us carrying one another’s burdens and not giving up- in order to harvest a good crop – of new life!  read and soak it in!

 Galatians 6:1-10:  Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.  Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law.  If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.  Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others.  Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.  Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the

good things that you have and experience.  Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others – ignoring God! – harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.  So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.  Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all,  starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and group 3 begins to build…

we are busy building here this month for sure.  doing 2 groups at once is a challenge.  plus, the weather is acting weird, so we are having rain when it should be the very, very dry season.

but, here we are helping with group number 3.  it’s hard to find get water for this group.  you can see how we had to make a road to drive through the bush.   got the discovery stuck in the mud a few times, and had to do various repairs when we returned because of it being beat up so much.  but hey, it’s all part of the adventure.  ha.

we’ve had more struggles getting people involved in the work here.  there is such a prevailing attitude among the teen/young adult generation who grew up in the camps of not ever needing to work.  they never had to.  so for them, it’s a whole new world to go out and work all day.  i pray this will be something to help instill a work ethic in them. 

but, the group members are all excited and are doing what they can do help and be involved – even though many are elderly and disabled and suffering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

baptisms and group 2 begins to build

so, things are moving forward here on the equator.  while it’s cantatas and baking and shopping and parties in the western world these days, it’s 85-90 degrees and life as usual over here.  ha!  chistmas “day” – that day – is recognized here, but as for a “holiday season,” not so much.  and, after many delays and challenges and things trying to distract, etc., some significant forward motion things are happening.  so, it’s exciting and more reason to celebrate the season because jesus is the reason.    ok, yes, that was quite corny.  whatever.  it’s late.  and here at the hotel where i live, there is still a wedding reception going on on the grounds.  so, no sleep for me for a while, as there is no comprehension of the affects of noise here.

anyway, here are some pictures and stories:

here are the boys “practicing” the drum and getting ready for the celebration and praise time after the baptisms.  actually, it was way cool this evening.  the kids were just so – yay jesus!  seriously.  a bunch of kids were baptized.  and, most of them are around when we have our fellowship meetings.  they listen.  they take part.  so, it was cool to see them choose jesus, be baptized, and then basically “lead” the worship time – spontaneously.

so, the young and the old were baptized.  26 in all.  i had been a bit scared of snakes and creepy crawlies in the water, but that left the moment people started coming forward in excitement and joy.  so, here is katarina.  she is one of the main 7 for okidi. then, here is young denis.  he and his brothers and mom were all baptized.  when we first started, these boys were so sad.  you couldn’t get them to smile no matter what.  i get teary now seeing how they now not only smile, but dance and clap and laugh out loud.  they giggle.  their dad, denis, used to hard-core drink.  but that has stopped.  and, i hope it remains, cause these boys are one of obvious, visible pictures of new life.

before the baptisms that day, we started working with group 2, awhey, to begin construction of their 7 huts.  this group has 5 older, widowed women.  one is missing her hand and has a bullet still in her back from the war.  the other 2 are teenage orphans taking care of younger siblings.  they are related to the women.  one of the guys shared about how he survived the massacre of 200 some people at Atiak camp in 1995.  people were taken out and told to sit in a big circle.  then, the rebels opened fire.  slaughtered.  somehow this kid, alex, survived.  his parents didn’t.  he laid on the ground among the dead for 2 days too afraid to get up.  these kinds of stories are the stories of each person.  they all carry these massive traumas.  so, to start afresh is truly a miracle, and truly a huge change.

the commitment and work and change involved in returning to the village is unknown, so it is a process to walk with them all.  there are issues to work through.  but, it is always cool to see them come together and to see them step up over time.

for this second group, getting water was a challenge, but the boys stayed committed to pump water all day for 3 days to load in the beast and take a couple miles to the village.  after mixing the mud and letting it sit/ferment, the guys then used the molds to make the bricks and lay them out to dry.  it is quite hard work.

so, we will continue week by week doing the next steps in building.  we are also starting the same process with group 3, rwoot obilio, this week.  so, we are working on construction with 2 groups at the same time, while continuing to build relationship and have god-times.  though, it’s all god-time, really.

so, i just bless god so much.  he is our help and our savior and our king.  i am thankful he is with us in all things.  i am reminded of this so much of late.  he’s been teaching me a lot of late, revealing a lot – letting me see more and receive more.     and i just kinda go – you know, he IS ABLE to do all things.  he is stronger than anything – always.  his “ways” of going about helping and healing and doing are not my ways, but they are good.  and, they are there.  i just pray that will be seen by all more and more.  step by step he leads us.  brick by brick he lays the foundation and builds us in him.

hallelujah and amen!

christmas music

so, i thought i’d kick off my annual chistmas theme change talking about xmas music.  it’s sunday afternoon, and i have a half decent internet connection, so i am here browsing christmas music on itunes.  i get a new christmas album every year.  this year, i am going with andrea bocelli.  i tend to like a very traditional sound more and more.  i’ll probably add a couple of classic songs – bing crosby or burl ives or andy williams.

though i’m sure we put on the records of bing crosby, nat king cole, andy williams, and elvis throughout the xmas season, i most remember it when we would decorate the tree.  getting the xmas tree was a big tradition in my family.  we’d go to my grandparents in bedford county every thanksgiving.  we would stay until the tuesday after tg, having butchered pigs, gone shopping, and eaten the special peanut butter candy freshly made by the perdew women, then leave my dad behind to finish hunting (the sacred time of deer season in pa the 2 weeks after tg).  but, in addition to getting his deer, dad’s job was to pick out a blue spruce from our land and bring it home as our christmas tree.  it would sit down at the garage until decorating day, our own hanging of the greens (i think you must be a united methodist to know what hanging of the greens is).  we kind of had ghastly decorations when i think back on it.  this was not a tree for display at the potter’s wheel or other such craft and gift shops. 

we started with the lights.  for some reason, we used the big lights like you use for outside.  i don’t know; maybe that’s all that was available in 1980. but, they had these metal heat protectors behind them to keep the tree from burning up.  after the monster, metallic lights were on, then we’d wrap the tree in gold garland.  it was like a boa some slutty woman would wear on a street corner.  but hey, it matched the goldish-brown shag carpet in the living room.  after that came the few colored balls we’d use.  and then, it was the most hodge-podge display of ornaments you’ve ever seen.  in 2005, you could still find the construction paper frosty i made in 1977.  incredible.  it’s 1999, hey, i’ve spotted paul’s popsicle tree from 1979.  and then, i believe you can still find wonder-woman, batman, superman, and all the other shrinky dinks that we’d hang. (who can tell me what a shrinky dink was?).  there were special ones, sure.  my brother and i each had these cool bell with our names.  i think mine was the green one.  i’m sure they are still clanging around somewhere.  (my parents literally don’t get rid of anything.  did you send them a christmas card in 1982?  we’ve got it.)  angel on top and train underneath, and the all day event of decorating the crawford tree was finally finished. 

we never put lights outside or did much decorating at all outdoors.  this is because of the sheer exhaustion from stuffing that poor spruce tree until not a needle could be seen.

but man, i loved doing all this decorating.  i loved the music.  you’d have to turn the record over every 10 minutes because songs were only like 2 minutes long back in the day.  it was great, though.

so, classic christmas music sticks with me.  i do recommend the andrea bocelli, especially “what child is this”, sung with mary j. blige.  and then, just stick to the classics or amy grant.  if you have all these, you are set for the scent of pine, coziness of soft lighting on the tree (or disco blindedness at the crawford house), egg nog, watching rudolph, charlie brown, and frosty, a fresh layer of snow, opening the next day on the advent calendar, a popping fire, and on and on.

enjoy the season!