Happy new year!
It's hard to believe that it's the start of a new decade... Hope you all had an awesome new year celebration, whatever you were doing, and that this year is full of exciting adventures and fulfillment for you. We spent the new year in a place called Mto Moyoni in Jinja, on the banks of the River Nile. It was an absolutely beautiful place, full of trees and flowers. It was nice to be in a different place, with such lovely surroundings but it felt a bit weird too. I'm not a massive fan of going away from home cos it feels quite detached from what we've been doing in the village. We stayed in little circular rooms and even had running water :D It was heated by solar power and we had two days of rain though, so hot water was slightly too much to wish for. But still, it was awesome actually feeling properly clean and soap-free! My favourite place was a hammock on top of a hill, with an amazing view down the river. We spent new year's eve there, round a bonfire and watched some fireworks that the posh hotel across the river set off at midnight. It was a very different experience but one of those once in a lifetime things that's really important to appreciate. I missed our traditional family meal - we always have venison stew, wild boar stew and pheasant (my Nonno loves game :D) It's one of my fave meals of the whole year, so they promised me we'd have a fake new year dinner when I come back :)
The retreat itself was good, but not all that relaxing. I don't feel very rested since coming back; it feels like a bit of a dream that didn't quite happen, like the retreat wasn't really there. I think it's the underlying stress about hearing back from Cambridge this week. I'm not panicking about it cos I know that God will sort it out, I did my best and couldn't have said or done anymore. I'm content about it in that sense, happy within myself and proud that I managed to go home and actually manage the situation even though it was so crazy! But of course I still wanna get in :) I just want to know now to be honest. Thank you everyone who did pray and is still praying and sending good luck etc for me. We did some cool prayer and Bible stuff on retreat but I wish it had been a bit freer, with more time for self-expression and writing and painting. I like space just to be quiet and still and rest with God without feeling stressed or busy or pressured, but it felt like we had a busy programme with 'appointments' to keep, instead of God-led time. Hmmm...
I sound like I'm complaining a lot, sorry! We had a hilarious canoe ride on the Nile, in which the boat began to fill with water and the guy taking us out had to scoop it out with his hands . Good times! We're waiting to do the white water rafting till our holiday, when we're staying in Jinja for 6 days. It's scary how fast the time is going now; after our holiday, we only have 2 weeks left in the village and we've got less than 2 weeks till the holiday now. Argh!!! The food at the retreat place was yummy, we had pasta bake which was actually DELICIOUS (I'd forgotten how much I loveee pasta...) and lots of fruitage :)
So that's Thursday till Sunday covered. Wednesday 30th we planned for the kids rally, which goes from the 8th - 10th Jan (this weekend). It was surprisingly quick and easy to get the games and story stuff decided, thank goodness, and we're now really excited about it. We're going to a place called Tororo in Eastern Uganda, where people tend to be a lot poorer than here in central. It will certainly be a different experience to what we've become used to. The tribes there are different so we won't be able to understand any of their language. Luckily we've requested to have 5 translators, so we can manage to organise the potential 150 kids we'll have for the Saturday funday thing. We've been not as busy as usual for so long that it's nice to have lots of things to plan for and do. I feel a bit discouraged when I think about December, as if it was a bit of a floaty month when we didn't really do anything, but I forget how much we've done. Vulnerable Women's Group had their candle-making training and we've organised the soap/shampoo and financial training for them, we did a week at Bambejja, we did the kids Christmas party and the youth seminar and the gaps in our programme gave us time to spend with the family, getting much closer with them. I'm really glad we had that space now :)
The schools all restart in the first week or so of Feb, so we'll be back at Lilo and Gilgal then. This Thursday we're meeting with Pastor Livingstone, who's the director at Lilo, so talk about our plans for the mural on the wall outside the school loos. I CAN'T WAIT for that!!! Soooo excited to be able to make something lasting with the kids that they can look at with a sense of pride and achievement cos they made it :) How exciting! Today we visited a project run by a local youth pastor called David - he has a 'family' of young guys and they have a brick-making project that they're trying to grow. He rents land for them at the moment but they're trying to buy the building they live in at the moment so they can provide better care for the guys. They have an awesome vision :) Please pray that God encourages them and gives them hope and excitement about where he's taking them, and that they have their spiritual eyes so fixed on God that they know where he's leading them, even if it seems weird! I might go for a walk through the village later just so I can see some of the ladies and spend some time with different people, who don't necessarily come to the groups we run. I don't do that enough.. We're going to the tailoring school in 20 mins I think, at least if we manage to get lunch before that!
Not sure what other news I have... I am very grateful to everyone who stays in touch, thank you :D It's been a massive blessing to have people caring for me from home and watching over us in prayer while we're here. I was reading a bit in Colossians 3 today about prayer, and how important being grateful is. I was thinking, when we view everything that we have as a blessing and provision from God, it makes not having certain things much easier. If we're expecting loads of material things and have unrealistic expectations of what our faith will do for us materially, then we'll always be disappointed and bitter and angry with God. That's the danger of prosperity gospel in Uganda; if you don't have stuff like cars or money or nice clothes, it's because you haven't believed in God enough, you don't have enough faith, God isn't satisfied with you. It's a disgusting, destructive message to teach, which undermines everything I believe about God. His love, his acceptance of us no matter what, the unconditional nature of his grace and friendship... Anyway, sorry, rant over!
Something you guys could pray for or raise awareness about is the law that the government are currently trying to pass here in Uganda, making homosexuality a crime and the punishment in some parts of the law is the death penalty. It's a horrific idea, and the USA and UK have already said they'll withdraw all the financial support they send here if the law is passed. I've attached some links at the end which gives more information about the law itself... The president here is Museveni and he's imposed himself for an illegal third term in government. It's a democracy here, and politically things are stable and it's one of the richest countries in Uganda, but that wealth is shared by a tiny minority, and the resources that Uganda has aren't used wisely by the government. This could be a hugely prosperous country, an example of what Africa could become as a whole, but because of stupid levels of corruption normal people have much lower standards of living than they should. The anti-homosexuality law is just one part of a morally corrupt government. Please pray that the law doesn't go through, that politicians' eyes are opened and they don't stand for such awful treatment of people. There is lots of debate going on in the country as a whole about this at the moment and it's a time of great change, so please pray that it stays stable and that God moves in ways that we might not even see but that will nevertheless change the nation for the better. Please also pray that the church takes an honourable, loving, gracious stance on the issue - there can often be a lot of condemnation and horrible treatment of homosexuals, and it NEEDS to stop.
OK I have to stop now, time for the tailoring school. Thank you for reading this far again! Sending tons of love and a big hug to you all in the new year .. Only 46 days as I write until I'm home. Can't wait to see you all :D
Flick xXx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/29/uganda-death-sentence-gay-sex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/28/ugandas_do_ask_do_tell
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