A huge thanks to all who came out to Uganda Discovery Night on Sunday! Here’s the video for those who weren’t able to make it.

As you probably know, Adam Powell, Eric Margrave & Jeff Lewis went to Uganda in June and discovered more than they expected! Come, hear, and see their life-affecting discoveries through video, testimony and Q&A!

WHERE: Church of the Canyons 28050 Sand Canyon Rd, Canyon Country 91387
WHEN: Sunday August 27th at 6:30-7:30pm

Please join us and feel free to invite anyone that you think might be interested in learning about this country, this people, and the God who cares for them!

This picture is one of my favorite random Jeff shots from the trip. I didn’t make the cut for my album, but I’m thinking of making a whole separate book of the hilarious Jeff pictures. In this one, Uncle Jacques is explaining the finer points of Ugandan coffee to me, while Eric is solemnly admiring a box of “Fruity Flakes”. Ah yes, a typical morning trip to the Kampala grocery store. Please notice the respective heights of all involved. The short, non-white man on the right is Jacques Masiko, the man I’ve mentioned in several previous posts as the father of our friend Peter, the director of Compassion International, and our host during out time in Uganda. I’ll set this one up with a brief background, because I can’t really remember what all I’ve said about Jacques in the previous posts.

Mr. Masiko was the first person we met after making it through customs at Entebbe the day we arrived. I don’t think we had any idea what we were in for, getting to spend three weeks with this great man of God. Just a side note here, imagine for a minute that you’re coming to L.A. for the first time ever, and it just so happens that your friend’s dad is John MacArthur. Even though you’ve never met him, not only do you get to stay at his house, but he’s taking time out of his day to pick you up from the airport at 6 in the morning. Wow, talk about humbling. Anyway, Jacques’ story in brief goes something like this: saved at a young age, then discipled by an American missionary as a youth. He has a huge heart for kids, so he goes to work for a somewhat small para-church ministry called Compassion International. After a short time Compassion asks Jacques to start a program in his home country of Uganda. This is 1980, so you have a frame of reference. Fast forward 26 years to last February, when Jacques “retired” as the country director. He’s now been asked to start a pilot program for Compassion where alumni (children who have gone through Compassion) form a network for for fellowship, outreach, and child sponsorship of their own. During that fastforwarded 26 years, over 40,000 children have gone through or are currently sponsored by Compassion International Uganda, and now call our friend “Uncle Jacques”. Stop and read that last sentence again. 40,000. That’s a big number. That’s a lot of lives changed. That’s a lot of children impacted for Christ.  I don’t ever want to imply that ministry is about numbers, but it is always amazing to me what God chooses to do with humble servants.

So now that you know who we’re talking about, I want to try to regurgitate some of the things he told us during our last few days with him. The day before we left he had a little talk with us, and he thanked us for coming. We were a little bit shocked and humbled that he would thank us, so when he told us that our trip had been a success we asked him why, from his point of view, we did well. He said basically two things if I remember correctly (Jeff and Eric, feel free to add and/or correct this in the comments).

1. “You weren’t tourists, you came here to do whatever you could to serve Christ” Now from my perspective, this was kind of surprising. Sure, that was our attitude going into the trip, but we didn’t set out with goals X,Y and Z in mind as far as how we were going to serve or projects we were going to accomplish. This was a lot different from our India trip, but the more I thought about it, the two trips had one big thing in common. Rice? Brown people? Yes, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. Flexibility. I think this was a major component in the success of both trips. Being able, and willing, to change plans on the spot to fit the needs of the people and/or the needs of the missionary is so important, especially on a short term trip. I always thought flexibility was important in missions, but on this trip I really saw HOW important and that it can really make or break an experience like this.

2. “You ate their food” This was another one that was pretty surprising to us. The Ugandan food was really good for the most part, and we really never gave it much of a second thought. I probably never would have considered it anything important had Jacques not said anything about it. Then he explained about how other groups had come, and they never wanted to eat with the people. That really got me thinking, by eating with the locals we really got to experience their culture. Not at an arms distance, but right along with them. We got to have some great conversations with people over meals, and according to Jacques it meant a lot more to them than we knew. So the big lesson I took away from this was really simple. So simple in fact, I think I’ve often overlooked it on other trips. Just love the people. Do what they do, eat what they eat, ride on the back of shady motorcycles just like they do. Don’t waste time worrying about little stuff that doesn’t matter.  You’ll stand out. Not because you’re the foreigner – there are plenty of those, but because you’re the foreigner that’s embracing them and their culture.

This is getting long (and you wonder why my posts are so infrequent) but I want to share one final thought from our time with Jacques. As he prayed for us before we left, he said something that still makes me tear up when I think about it. He said, “Don’t let this trip be a great experience, let it be the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Uganda”. Wow. So that has been my prayer ever since that day. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like in the years ahead, but I hope that the Lord allows me to be involved some way in His work in that great country far into the future.

So I’d love to hear any responses to this, and here’s the question I pose to you all out there in blog-o-land: what makes a short-term mission trip successful? I know there are plenty of books on the subject, but I’d love to know what my friends and family think.

P.S. – Let’s all remember to be in prayer for our lone international reader, one Scott Zeller, as he preaches in Asia these next few weeks.

The title of this post is also the title of one of my favorite books by one John Piper. I re-read this book on my trip to Uganda, and was once again impacted and convicted about how I often view my life incorrectly, and because of that how ineffective I am most of the time. One of the really cool things about the Uganda trip was that we got to meet a lot of people who aren’t “wasting their lives”, but are sold out for God’s glory in a real and tangible way every day.

A missionary we met named Dick fell into this category, and some of what he said related really well to the book. We only got to spend a few hours with Dick, but the wisdom he passed on to us in that short time was invaluable. Just a side note on Dick before I get to the main point of this post – he was Jacques Masiko’s youth leader years ago. It must be crazy to look back over your life and see someone you discipled go on to reach 40,000 young people. I hope some day I can look back at my group of Jr highers and see men that have influenced their world for Christ in such an amazing way. Anyway, on to the point…

On our drive up to Gulu, we asked Dick a lot of questions about life as a missionary and about living in Uganda. We asked him what the advantages were to living life on the mission field versus back here in the States. Here’s my best attempt at paraphrasing what he said: by living life on the mission field you are saved from three things.

1. You are saved from yourself. When you’re living life as a missionary it is nearly impossible to be focused on yourself. When you are living in a culture full of need, and filling your time ministering to people in need, you don’t spend your time thinking about what YOU want and how to get it. You don’t think about your comfort and you don’t think about how people have wronged you. You don’t think about how you deserve this or that.

2 You are saved from your culture. There are mountains of books written on this, but in short, I don’t think anyone would disagree that we as Americans are extremely materialistic. You can try really hard to resist this, but in a culture as ingrained as ours it is nearly impossible to escape. Dick will be retiring soon after over 30 years of service in Uganda, and he told us that no matter how hard he and his wife try, after six months back in the American culture they’ll be assimilated again. He said it’s happened to them every time they’ve come back for furlough, and as hard as they fight, the culture eventually wins. I don’t think he’s really talking about the big time materialism of the world here, as in the “I need the biggest house on the block and I need a Hummer in my garage” type mentality. Instead it’s the “I like to be comfortable, and I like to have nice things” type of subtle materialism that is so hard to confront even for those in the church.

3. You are saved from a life of insignificance. Life lived on the mission field is a life of significance, or as Piper would say, a life not wasted. When on a day-by-day basis you are bringing glory to God by meeting peoples’ needs, both spiritually and physically, you will have a life that matters. You will one day be able to look back and see a life of impact, lived by the power of the Spirit, and have full confidence that you will hear the phrase “well done” when you see the face of your Father. Just one simple illustration of this is Dick’s ministry to Jacques that I mentioned above. This is not to say that one cannot have a life of significance living here in the States, but for the most part it’s much more acceptable to be insignificant. Just think of the “American Dream” – to work your way up in your career, then retire early to enjoy relaxing vacations and nice hobbies.

So what do you all think? Is life lived in another country in service to the Lord superior to a life here in the U.S.?

For those following the situation in Northern Uganda, big news continues to unfold. According to a senior officer, Kony has accepted an amnesty offer by the government of Uganda, and is looking forward to the peace talks starting this Wednesday. There is still the matter of the International Criminal Court indictment to be resolved, but I think we all need to pray for peace and for the salvation of Kony. This next week is now said to be the greatest chance for peace for the Acholi people since the war began 20 years ago.

For those still checking this blog, we as a team are now back at our respective homes safe and sound. The rest of our time in England was fantastic, thanks for asking. After some pondering, I have decided to keep writing here for the foreseeable future. I think this will help serve several purposes for me personally, and for those who care about the goings on of my small life – so feel free to tune in whenever you like. Life has been crazy busy since we landed Saturday, and today is the first opportunity I’ve had to post. This one isn’t going to be super in depth, but on the encouragement of EWZ, I want to write down and plan out my next few topics before they escape my head forever. So if you’re interested, here’s what I’m hoping to write about over the next few weeks:

Three Benefits of Life Lived on the Mission Field – I’ll attempt to communicate some of the wisdom we learned from our friend Dick, a career missionary who is retiring this year after over 30 years of service in Uganda

Success and Failure on a Short Term Trip – I’ll share about some of the things our host Jacques taught us about his view of what a successful short term trip looks like, and some other really impactful things we took away from this great man of God. His prayers for us as we left are words I hope to never forget

Jesus the Same – This is the title of a song we sang in church last Sunday, and I heard from the guy that makes the PowerPoint that we’re doing it again this week. It’s one of my new favorites, and I think it describes some of the lessons we learned in Uganda. Namely, how the Jesus we serve is the same Jesus of Uganda and in the same way much of ministry we do here is, or should be, the same as the ministry in Africa and all over the world.

There are several more, but this post is already getting too long. Really quickly I wanted to mention a few things if you have some time to do a little “web surfing” as the cool kids say these days. One of our friends from Invisible Children in Gulu, James Pearson, has a great blog about his thoughts and experiences while living in Northern Uganda. I highly recommend it, James is a great writer and really gets to see a lot first hand. He wrote a heart-wrenching account about a girl he met who was attacked by the LRA here.

Speaking of the LRA, there has been some big news in the last week. Joseph Kony gave his first ever interview to the media, here’s the BBC article where you can read what he said. You can read some of the reaction to the interview here, and read the story of one of the victim’s response to Kony’s claims here.

We are now in London until Saturday morning, and we're thouroughly enjoying the hot showers and soft mattresses.  We were able to meet up with our friends Kathy, Jackie, and Siona tonight, and we're looking forward to a couple days of fellowship and exchanging stories of what the Lord has done in all of our travels.  I'll say it once more for good measure, thank you all so much for your prayers – the ministry portion of our trip was a resounding success.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, the last few days have been amazing.  Thursday and Friday of this week were spent with the Hurley and Atherstone families at S.O.S. Ministries in the city of Mokono (click here to see their website). We were able to get a good overview of their ministry and help out with a few things along the way.

Thursday we went out with the other Team Uganda (who says hello to all the COC family) to a pretty remote village to help with registering pastors for a conference that S.O.S. will be starting in August.  At the end of the registration, each of the pastors was given a new bike to help with the transportation to the upcoming conference.  The bike cost was about the equivalent of 6 months salary for them, so this was a HUGE gift.  Jeff and I were the line monitors for the bike giving, and it was really cool for us to hear and see how excited these people were to be receiving this new gift.

Thursday night we got to have a family dinner with the Hurley's and the taste of American food was a welcome one for us.  Then, after dinner, we were able to hand out the gifts we brought for Winnie, Rose, and Jerrold.  This was definitely a highlight of the trip as we saw the kids' faces light up as they received their new clothes and school supplies.  The hugs we got that night will be remembered forever.

Friday morning we went with Shannon for the first of a two day conference he was doing for about 100 pentecostal pastors at a church near his home.  Eric and I were able to help him setup a way to record his sermons so he can send them out, and possibly use them for a radio ministry in the future.  We were once again reminded of the African concept of time at this conference, as there were maybe 20 people at the beginning but well over 100 by lunch time.  Friday night we had another great American meal with the Hurley's and the Atherstone's, then said goodbye and headed back to our temporary home in Kampala.

Saturday was spent back at Agape Children's Village, the first ministry we visited in Uganda.  The pastor there requested that we spent a day teaching his staff and church leaders, so we each took about an hour with a translator and went through Bible overview, devotional time, and time management.  The other guys went out today to teach a group of Compassion university students, but I stayed behind to try to kick a cold that I've had for the past few days.   I'm feeling much better already, thanks for asking, and I'm sure I'll be back at full strength by tomorrow morning.  Good thing, because we're leaving at 5am for an 8 hour drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Hopefully I'll be able to put up another update when we get back.

The last two days have been really busy for us here.  Monday morning we headed out to visit Thomas Abunde, Jeff's friend who directs the Word of Life ministry here in Uganda.  Thomas has a wide and effective ministry, including a Christian primary school, all sorts of youth discipleship and outreach, and pastoral training.  After a time of fellowship in the morning the day was spent training a group of pastors who came from all around Kampala.  The teaching time went really well, thanks for all of your prayers.  Several of the pastors asked us to come back and host a larger conference for them, and we were greatly humbled to even hear the request.  Monday night we had a great time with the Abunde family, playing with the kids, eating more delicious local food, and watching the heartbreaking soccer match on TV.

Tuesday morning we hopped a taxi for the city of Jinja.  Just a side note here, imagine a small mini-van.  Now imagine 14 strangers inside.  That was our trip to and from Jinja today, so much fun.  Anyway, after the 1.5 hour taxi ride we arrived at Amani Baby Cottage (ABC), and immediately got huge smiles on our faces, which remained solid for the next two hours.  Here's why:
 

For those who might not know, our friends Gunner and Cindi Gunderson are in the process of adopting their first son, Judah, from ABC.  We got a grand tour of the facility and got to meet all 51 of the babies living there.  We took a ton of pictures of Judah and the two kids the Tatlock family is adopting for the proud parents back home.  We were really impressed by the staff and how well they care for these children.  The kids at this home are truly loved by all around them.  It was a happy time for us, but also a heartbreaking time, as we were able to meet several of the children at ABC living with HIV and AIDS.  We heard some incredible stories of how some of these babies came to them, and how they will soon have new homes in the US.

Tomorrow we will get the opportunity to meet up with our friend Dick again, for some time with a team he is hosting from Cedarville College.  Pray that we make the most of our time with Dick, as we try to glean some of his wisdom from so many years here on the field in Uganda.  Then, Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday will be spent with the Hurley's at SOS Ministries.  Our next post will most likely contain pictures of the kids that we sponsor at SOS, so stay tuned…

P.S. – I forgot to mention that this post has a new special feature!  You can click on any one of these pictures and get to a larger verision of said picture, which can be used for your computer desktop, printing out and putting next to your bed, or really whatever you want.  Thanks and goodnight.

Saturday we traveled to the city of Masaka, about 2.5 hours drive south west of Kampala, for a conference with Jacques.  The purpose of the conference was to start a new Alumni Association that Compassion is instituting in Uganda and the Phillippines.  We were expecting about 350 people to show up, but the final count was actually closer to 500.  Our main job there was to help Jacques document the event in photo and video, so he can use it for training when he goes to the Phillippines at the end of June.  It was really neat to see such a large group of formerly sponsored children who are now coming together to sponsor children themselves. What an inspiration to us!

Today, Sunday, we got our first church experience in Uganda.  We attended Agape Baptist Church in Ntindia, where Jacques is an elder, for Sunday School and English Service.  The service layout (OOW) was pretty similar to what we normally do at COC, with the exception of the number of songs.  Eric says there were 9 songs this morning, several that we could sing along with.  Another cool difference was that a man accepted Christ during the service.  It was really cool, they stopped the service and brought him up to the front for the entire congregation to pray.  There was also a moving part of the service where people were invited to the front for elder prayer, and many of those who went forward were the kids.  About half of the congregation is made up of local kids, most of whom are orphans or children of unbelieving parents.

This afternoon we had lunch with the Masiko family and have been resting and preparing for this week's schedule.  It's going to be a busy week, spending most of our time with Thomas Abunde (Jeff's friend from Word of Life) on Monday and Tuesday, then Shannon Hurley (our friend at SOS Ministries) on Thursday and Friday.  You can be praying for us over the next few days as we will be spending time teaching at a pastor's conference.  Pray that our teaching will be applicible and God glorifying.

And now some responses from our viewer mail:
Sam writes, "-how hot is it? Can you liken it to something we’d understand?
-have any of you gotten any sicknesses at all?
-how’s team unity going?
-what did you pakced that has proved a lifesaver?"
Thanks for asking Sam.  Hotness, not that bad.  I'd say its been maybe 80-85 with relatively high humidity.  For sure not as hot as Santa Clarita when we left, but the evenings can be a bit muggy when there's no power for the ceiling fan.  It's no where near as humid as the South though.
Sicknesses, well, E.G. has been taking the Immodium on an ongoing basis, but overall we're fine. U-N-I-T-Y, that's the unity, it has been strong to very strong.  Lifesaver up to this point, hand sanitizer, food, really everything has come in handy, and we haven't really been in need of anything.
Jennene writes, "Do these camps receive no aid from NGO’s? What is World Vision and Compassion Itnl’s role up there?"
As far as NGO's go, there's a long answer, which will have to wait until we get home, but the short answer is yes.  About 95% of the cars on the road in Gulu belong to an NGO.  They do help to some extent, they bring food to the camps and are the primary means for survival for the residents.  As of yet, Compassion isn't involved in the north, but are hoping to expand once the war is over.  World Vision is pretty large in Gulu, but we didn't get any opportunities to meet with them while there.

Since the last post we have spent our last day and night in Gulu and are now back in the capital city.  Thursday we were able to help the Invisible Children team with a few different things.  Eric taught Katie how to make a spreadsheet she needed in Excel, Jeff designed some shelving units for their guest house, and I planned out a database project with Katie and Jolly that I'm going to build for them when I get home. 

Thursday evening we got to meet another really cool guy, affectionately referred to as Dr. Dave by those in Gulu.  Dave is a college professor in Chicago for most of the year, but comes to Gulu to teach chemistry for one term during his summer break.  Dave had a lot of insight on the reigon and what it's biggest need is.  In his words, "Northern Uganda just needs good churches".  He encouraged us to consider coming to Gulu to teach and plant a church, and told us all about how many people he tries to recruit from the US, but so far he is the only American to teach at Gulu University (GU).  We exchanged contact information and are definitely going to keep in touch with Dave. 

Later that night we went back to visit the kids at the night commuter shelter, and again we had a blast.  We brought a guitar with us, and played encore after encore of "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and "Every Move I Make".  It was so amazing to be singing with these kids we've been praying for during the past months.

Early Friday morning we boarded the crowded bus back to Kampala, then rested up for our next journey to a city called Masaka, where our host Jacques is leading a conference for alumni of Compassion International.  These are kids who grew up in the sponsorship program and are now working professionals.  Depending on when I get to actually post this (internet is down tonight) I'll let you all know how it goes.