The People of Ariwa Send You Their Greetings

Wow, we just had an amazing time. Not only did we just finish up last week’s seminar in Ariwa Refugee camp, but we spent the last 24 hours in Murchison Falls Wildlife Game Park on a safari. It was amazing. Last year when I came we also went, but this time we saw so much more. God’s creation is so awe inspiring. The animals are amazing, we saw hundreds of elephants up close, giraffes, lions, hippos, crocs, baboons, etc, but this time we spent a few hours on top of the most powerful surge of water in the world where the entire Nile river flows through an 18 foot wide gap in the rocks. It was mesmerizing to sit at the top as I had worship music blaring in my headphones, watching the sun set over the falls and worshipping God and his majesty! You can see some of the photos in my photo gallery under Murchison Falls, I have also added more photos to the Uganda 2006 section from our time in Ariwa. www.ToMakeHimKnown.comOur time in Ariwa was also amazing, though very different from what we were expecting. Last year our trip to Ariwa was the best seminar we had, with almost every pastor in the camp coming out each day. This week we were surprised to find that we arrived right in the middle of harvesting time for sim sim (sesame seeds). They told us two days before we were supposed to come, but it was too late to change our plans. As a result, very few were able to come, each family spends almost all their time harvesting their sim sim for the short window they have after it is ripe and before it spoils. Those who came to the seminar made a huge sacrifice to be there as some of their crops spoiled during the week. We started our seminars around noon so people could have time to work in the fields in the mornings, we would then go until about five when they would return to the fields to work. Also many of the people we really connected with last year were not around this year. Yet even though it appeared to be very unfortunate timing, God was of course not surprised and had His own plans for our time there.

From the first day we struggled with our teachings as people were clearly distracted by their other work, few had attended last years seminar, and most who came had little to no education. As a result we had to change what we were doing and focus on meeting the people where they were at. At first I was quite disappointed as it was clear they were not ready for the teachings we had prepared, but we took our teachings and simplified them to the greatest extent possible and it was so encouraging to see people begin to study the Bible for the first time in their lives. We had awesome testimonies from the pastors who came on how they clearly saw for the first time that there was so much more to God’s Word than they had ever seen and that they now felt they could study it on their own.

We also had the privilege of being able to speak on some important issues in the church. We spent a lot of time dealing with Biblical leadership and had a great time discussing the importance of ministers having a strong family life. To give you an idea of some of the mindsets, I explained a situation I encountered here last year where a pastor would never go to his home because his wife was sick with Malaria and wouldn’t serve him food. So he would go out to get food for himself from other people instead of being with his wife and he left her to fend for herself while deathly sick. When I asked them what is wrong with this scenario, one of the pastors answered, “the wife does not have faith, the husband does!” I was truly shocked and it lead to a wonderful discussion of what it means for a husband to love his wife. It was awesome as some of the other leaders stood up and spoke of what it really means to love your wife. We also spent time dealing with the issue of divorce as many of the pastors here believe it is okay to divorce if their wife is distracting them from ministry. A couple people stood up and left during that discussion, but they came back later when we had moved on to a different topic. It was just so cool to be able to have a time of looking at leadership from a Biblical perspective, not just cultural.

There were so many other cool things God did during the seminar, I wish there was time to share. However, outside of the seminar it was also a great week. This was the first week that we lived among the people and it was awesome to share life with the family we stayed with and those that lived around us. One wonderful thing that God allowed us to be a part of was the head pastor’s young daughter was extremely sick. He had run out of medicine for her and couldn’t afford more. When I went to see her at their home, she could not stand as she had had a terrible case giardia and worms for at least a week. Well I and the pastor prayed for her and then I asked how much the medicine she needed cost. I couldn’t believe when he told me he only needed less than two dollars. I quickly gave it to him and he went to the clinic and bought the medicine right away. Two days later the pastor came over with his young daughter and she looked great and was even carrying her baby brother on her back. She was smiling and happy.

It is sometimes hard because you do not want to come in as a westerner and throw money around. There is already way too much dependence upon the west and expectation for westerners to give away money, but after an experience last year in Madi Okollo I just want to do whatever I can while still trying to respect the culture. Last year in Madi Okollo one of the pastors who was in our seminar saw his daughter die of malaria during our teachings. However, if we had known of her condition, we had Malaria medication in our medical kit that we could have given him. After attending that girl’s funeral last year I decided that I don’t want to attend any more preventable funerals if there is any way in which I can help to prevent them.

Another time I saw a young boy had a gaping wound on his ankle the size of a quarter and very deep. He had hit himself with a hoe and flies were literally inside of his ankle and he was running around in the dust and mud with no protection. Again we were able to help clean his wound from our medical kit and then arranged for him to get ongoing treatment from the local clinic. His parents are away in Sudan and he has to take care of himself, who knows what would have happened if he allowed it to get infected. Even with all the amazing stories from our seminars, it is often these simple practical things that stick with me, how something so little can make such a big difference.

One other highlight from the week for me, was being able to see John again. It was so wonderful to see his bright smile as I saw him on the side of the road. I was happy to find that his eyesight has not gotten any worse from last year and it was neat to take another picture with him as he proudly wore the sunglasses I gave him last year.

There are many more stories I could share from the week, but I have to get back and prepare for our next seminar in Madi Okollo tomorrow.

So please continue to pray for me and the team. This week we are in another refugee camp, then next week we head to Jinja. Half will teach on the Bible school and the other half will do a pastoral seminar, then the following week we switch.
- Please ask the Lord how you should pray and pray accordingly.
- Also, Please pray for health and safety. We have all been a bit sick in the past week, some more than others. Please, please continue to pray for our health.
- Please pray for John, I attached his picture, pray that God would restore his eyesight. He can’t go to school because he can’t see and can’t work in the fields either for the same reason. So if you think about it, please lift him up in prayer and pray for his healing.
- Please pray for anointing this week as we prepare and teach. Things are getting very stressful for the team as they are preparing this week’s teachings as well as preparing to teach on the Bible school the following two weeks. Each person is overwhelmed so please lift them up in prayer, Molly, Jeremy, Ihn Hee, & myself.
- And again, please continue to pray for wisdom and guidance for me. God has stretched me a lot during this trip and I am growing a ton and continue to be desperate for his guidance and wisdom.

Thank you so much for your support.

Sincerely,

James
www.ToMakeHimKnown.com