| Home Sweet Home |
[Jan. 21st, 2005|11:29 am] |
We all made it home safe and sound. A few bags were missing, but other than that the trip home was fine
I just had a carne asada burrito, yea its good to be home
see you on Sunday
-Phil |
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| london fog |
[Jan. 20th, 2005|10:01 am] |
our flight to london was delayed 3 hours, we had very little time in london but we made the best of itand saw the sites
we just checked in and leave for lax in 1.5 hrs
see you all later today!
-phil |
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| London Fog |
[Jan. 18th, 2005|07:32 pm] |
So, its 6am and we leave for the airport in about 15 minutes. This might be he last entry until we get home! We had such a great time and when I am more awake I'll let you know about it a little more =)
we went shopping yesterday and bought way to much stuff - the prices were hard to turn away from. then we headed over to the church building project and annointed the building with oil and offered it up to god. it was a really neat day, and we got to see all the kids one more time it was great
-well we have 22 hours of flights ahead of us ouch... but at least we get to chill in london for a night
see you very soon & God bless |
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| Compassion Day... |
[Jan. 17th, 2005|08:40 pm] |
Compassion day was something very, very special. I got to hang out with Mrs Bobby Carlsons kid as well as Louie & Evas Kid and we had a blast. Little Tom (Louie and Evas family child) was a cool little kid and didnt leave my side all day long. we played games with the kids had relay races, duck duck goose, london bridge and I even joined them in jump rope! There were smiles all day long and the kids couldnt thank their sponsers enough - even all of you back home they are so thrilled to have you be a part of their life. be sure to send the kids pictures and letters everytime you can they cherish those things, some have saved pictures for years and they still look like they were just taken becuase they take such good care of them. Your $28/mo goes so far you cannot believe it. these kids actually have decent clothes and shoes on their feet which most people in uganda do not have. they also get to attend better schools and get a great education. These kids love you all so much. you can see their joy in some of the photos posted on robbs website. if you can set aside $28/mo you will change a kids life forever (and I mean that) $28 does more than you can dream of.
So it was such a great day and then I recieved some awesome news. At the childrens village where we are building the church, compassion has just approved it as one of their "projects" - which means that you can sponser children in that village! thats pretty sweet, so that means I can sponser some of the kids that I hung out with for the last 2 weeks! its a real blessing, and an answered prayer for compassion int. to get this church built. without the church compassion could not go foreward with a sponsorship program BUT thanks to your support and helping with the church building fund now that is possible. the people at compassion int. asked us to thank you dearly for all that you contributed becuase without it, it would not have been possible for this to happen!
Today we have some free time in the morning and I believe we are going to do some shopping. Then we head back to the childrens village so the rest of the team can see how far we got on the church. we will then dedicate the church building, pray over it and head on back.
Keep the team in your prayers as many of them have colds (sores throats and clogged noses) and battling some stomach aches
See you all in two days
-Phil & The Uganda 05 Team! |
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| Elephants, monkies and some babooons |
[Jan. 16th, 2005|12:19 pm] |
We made it back safely from our tour of north western Uganda and it was fantastic! The drive up was so beautiful and it was green, green, green. once we pulled out of the city the smog finally dissappeared and we could breathe again! on the way we stopped at the equator took some photos saw some demonstration with water that shows the different magnetic pulls of the earth(IE on one side the water flow clockwise, one counterclockwise and on the equator it goes straigh down no spinnin!) then we continued our 6 hour journey. on the way we saw baboons, pushbacks, worthogs and some other interesting creatures. we stayed at a rugged youth hostel with mosquito nets and more bugs than you would care to know about -- but it was great. we finally met back up with the other team and caught up with all they had been doing. then we woke up early and headed out to see some animals it was a brief tour but on the way back we saw about 12 elephants so that made the whole trip worth it! oh yeah and we saw a lion which i guess is very, very rare so that was interesting. i sure hope all my photos turn out so i can so you all the great stuff I got to seee. some people in the bus behind us saw zebras but we missed em =( oh well
today we visited calvary chapel kampala then headed back to the agape baptist church. both were great and we all had a sweet time. after church the head honcho from compassion int. uganda took us to his house for lunch. This ugandan food was tasty! we had rice, chicken beef, matooke, ka-tea and more. It was a real blessing and nice to have some decent food.
compassion day is tomorrow - something like 150 kids you all sponser will be here. we will be playing games and handing out your goodie bags to all the kids! Ill make sure I update the site tomorrow to let you know how it went! we were all asigned kids to hang out and talk to - so I get to hang out with mrs carlsons (bobby) kid as well as loiue & evas kid, so it should be a great time.
well off to bed - I am a little tired, but feeling great - all is good here in Uganda and we are loooking forward to the few days we have left.
Everyone here says hello and say they miss you all (I miss you too, kinda)
-Phil |
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| What A day |
[Jan. 13th, 2005|09:14 pm] |
Well, yesterday was our last day at the construction site - and it is a day we will all remember forever. we did a fair bit of work, but hung out with the kids mostly. these kids love the attention you give them and as soon as you sit down you have 5 of them on your lap. we did 3 of our songs for them before we left - so we had a good time dancin and singing. then they did some song and dance for us - and totally put us to shame. they have some great rythm and everyone in uganda has a good voice. they said their thanks for our work and 3 of us shared what God has been doing in our hearts, it was a special time.
anywho, we leave in about 15 minutes to meet up with the rest of the team. we have a 6hr drive to moya where we will be going on a safari type thingy. It will be fun to meet up with the rest of the team and see what God has been doing with them. Time is flyin right by, but God has been doing an amazing work here.
I personally have been hit with the wierdest illnesses of my life. But, God is good and they have all been reasons for me to drop to my knees in prayer and ask God for strength. the first day of work, I go sliced with a rusty nail (fun), I have been having intense headaches and body aches, as well a clogged nose and sore throat, I woke up one morning and my tongue was totally black(scary huh?), stomach has felt like i drank a gallon of rotten milk, and I got attacked by ugandan mosquitos.... BUT God is good and has delivered me from all that and now I fell great =) thanks for your prayers God has been faithful and all 4 of us have been kept in good enough health to keep pressin on.
I just really want to say it again - We cannot thank you enough for your prayers. We have seen such a work of God here and man, its still hard to believe we our not only serving the Lord here in Africa but we helped build a church as well. God is so good.
Love you all
Phil |
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| On More Day of Work |
[Jan. 12th, 2005|08:35 pm] |
Well, sadly to say tomorrow will be our last day doing construction work at the agape children’s village. We are all a little bummed, but also excited because we have some great stuff in store the next few days.
We had the privilege of going to the Compassion International Uganda office today. It was amazing to see every little detail about how everything is handled. Trust me, if you saw how well managed and what impact they have on the kids here you would sponsor kid after kid. $28/mo goes so far here it is incredible. I am going to sponsor another kid when I get home because I have seen how $28 can change kid’s lives forever - it’s amazing!
I got kind sick today, long story but I accidentally drank some water I shouldn’t have. So, let’s just say about 2 hours after that - I had my first experience in a true Uganda outhouse. Not an experience I ever hope repeating that’s for sure! But God is good I took it easy, had a nap in the van and just played with the kids all day. They showed me some of their little creations (toys made from left over bottles and caps etc...) I wanted to see if I could run to a store and but like 80 toy cars for all the kids but nothing is open any more.
The kids at agape children’s village are something else. Everyone one of the kids living there have absolutely no family (that means no mom, dad, sister, bro, aunt, uncle b/c have all died - mostly from HIV/aids) It is hard to imagine not having a single family member left, or even a family friend who can take care of you because they have all passed away. They kids are so awesome though and have the joy of the lord in their hearts. It brings tears to your eyes everyday when you see them. Some have 1 pair of sandals some go barefoot. They each have 2 sets of cloths (shorts & shirt). Inside the homes are a few rooms with 2 bunk beds in each room. Most don’t have pillows and all the closets are empty, minus a few with shoes that are about 4 sizes to big. They have cement floors with no running water to the house. So yeah, it’s a little different than back home.
Lots to be praying for in Uganda. God is doing such an amazing work with the people here though. It is said that roughly 70-80% of the people are Christian. And, no it’s not like American Christianity where everyone claims it - these people are legit!
We will be meeting up with the rest of the team on Friday, and supposedly Saturday were going on a safari or some sort of wild animal park so we'll see (we don’t know many details) but either way should be fun.
I am having a blast a hanging out with Kirby, Keith and Dennis. Kirby is amazing! haha, the guy just ate about 3 servings of cabbage from a little hole in the wall place and pounded down some fish sticks. We are not supposed to have any veggies because the water is no bueno (note my story above) so kirby might be having some adventure tonight we shall see. To give you an idea of what this placed looked like; let’s just say it came out to $1.75 for 2 pieces of so called "southern fried chicken" (tasted like fish though) and fries. It was sketchy and we wont be going back either =0
Well goodnight, or good morning for you
-Phil |
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| another day in the sun |
[Jan. 11th, 2005|06:16 pm] |
The building style is much different, very "old-school"
When we are working I can’t help but think we are using methods they had during OT times - when they were building palaces for the kings. We have developed some good friendships with most of the constructions workers, so that has been fun. We teach them English and they teach us lugandan - it’s a fair trade =) they building is coming along slowly but surely. By the time we go we will prayerfully have the walls finished. They estimate it will be about 2 more months until the whole thing is finished. We have all gotten some intense tans and viscous sunburn (well, mostly me) but we've all taken our beating.
Our usual day goes as this:
Wake up 6:00am - shower & read
7:00 - breakfast @ the hotel
7:30 - get a ride to the site, waving and saying hi all along the way
830ish - time to get to work, move bricks, make cement, shovel dirt, etc..
11:00 - tea time - they serve us bread and hardboiled eggs
2:00 - lunch, every we have pushu, rice, rice, beans, meat, gnut (everyday the menu is the same) today I got kind of sick from it for the first time but pebto bismal & some prayer solved that problem
4-5:00 - leave & head back to hotel
7:00pm - dinner time (I am hooked on the amazing Indian food they have at our hotel)
9:30 - devotions, prayer discussions etcc...
x - bedtime
And that’s about it, its nice just being the 4 of us =) we have had some great conversations about God every night so that’s been very, very refreshing
Oh yeah and today I handed out a little over 10 salvation bracelets - it was awesome all the kids could repeat the meaning back to me, so praise God!
God Bless,
Phil
*PLUS I got 2 decent sized bites last night while sleeping =(
- please pray that god continues to keep me safe and I don’t catch malaria or anything |
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| Awesome Day! |
[Jan. 9th, 2005|06:48 pm] |
Wow, we just got back from such an incredible day
Only 4 of us ended up staying back, while the rest of the team gets to enjoy a 9 hr bus ride today. we were super blessed and just got a grand tour of the city! It's going to be great (not that I dont love the whole group) but it will be nice to have a little change of pace and be able to fit in a little more quite time with God as we wont have to wait for the whole group to go from place to place!
we went to agape baptism church this morning and it was absolutely incredible. Wow, there was such a movement and presence of God it was unbelievable. We got there around 10 and met with 10 guys in a tiny tiny room. We had a little group discussion + bible study in the book of 1 timothy 5. Then at 11:00 the main service started and it was a full house. We had a grand introduction and were greeting by countless people while they played a special song for us. Then we had a great time of worship and the place was just rocking - it was intense. Then pastor robert tore it up in the book of 1 timothy chapter 2 v.1-8 and keith gave his testimony. After service the four of us, as well as all the other 1st time visitors went and signed a guest book and they brought us some sodas and we fellowshipped with the pastor for a bit. Then a gentlemen from the fellowship (a fellow american) offered to take us out to lunch - and thats where our journey begins!
We had some absolutely incredible chinese food. Then they took us on an aweesome tour around the city. We went down to the fishing docks on lake victoria where kirby tried to take a picture of a little girl but the poor thing started crying and screamin like crazy. So the two missionaries we were with suggested we high-tail out of there so that we wouldnt cause a bigger scene than we already had ("white people/toursists" never travel to those docks so as usual we had some cool looks while we were walking)
then we went to this crazy resort (by crazy i mean nice) and saw the biggest swimming pool in all of uganda(no really, it's officially the biggest). We also saw the biggest spider of my life. This thing could do some major damage. The view was awesome, and it was great to sit back and gaze out at Gods creation.
Frank & Sharon (the 2 missionaries we were with) then took us to a few other cool scenic spots and then we headed back to the hotel.. So it was a great relaxing day to prepare us for the construction work ahead this week. we were super blessed to have them give us a grand tour, and i think they enjoyed hearing about what god is doing in each one of our lives. they are missionaries with an organization called church planting mission - which is part of the southern baptist church, they are doing graeat things here in uganda and around the world, so if you could throw up a prayer for them and their 2 daughters that would be great!
well, I am almost out of minutes here at the internet cafe so i am about done
I just want to leave you with a short little nugget before I go:
I read Luke 9:48 (Whoever is the least among you is the greatest) today and it really ministered to me
Being a servant is being content behind the scenes. There are numerous missionaries here in Uganda that many of us will never hear about. BUT they are doing so much for the kingdom of God and they will be geratly rewarded one day. god has placed some incredible people in our path here in uganda who I feel need some recognition for all they are doing, however they know that God sees everything they do and nothing else matters to them. this has been humbling and eye opening for me, that I must seek recognition from Christ alone and not worry about anything else.
god has done so many mighty and miraculous things here its amazing that we can all be a part of it!
God Bless
-Phil
interesting...there is a song playing right now "live like you were dying" and we all need to remember our days are short so lets do all we can for Jesus |
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| Go Go Go |
[Jan. 8th, 2005|12:46 pm] |
we continued building the walls of the church brick by brick again today - I would say that we are about 25% done with the walls... after that is done there is plenty more to do.
tomorrow we split up - 5 of us will remain to continue construction (dennis, keith, phil, johan, kirby) and the rest are heading out for a wonderful 9 hour bus ride over to the west of uganda in kabale. kable is peters hometown (our group leader) and will also be home of the pastors conference which we will be hosting
its been very busy but we have gotten alot accomplished in the few days we have been here. we visited an orphanage today and did skits, dramas, puppets, worship dance songs and all that good stuff - the kids were blessed and so were we. the tradgedy of hiv/aids is heart breaking. there are kids who have no place to go becuase literally every family member they have (dad, mom, aunt uncle etc..) have all passed away. and for most, if they do have a relative - they are already caring for 5-7 kids. life is not easy for most people, but they still have the love of jesus in their hearts and always wear smile
everyday on our way to the construction site (agape village) we feel like superstars and are overwelmed with joy when the kids comes dashing out of their houses to wave and say hello. these kids love us just as much as we love them, its awesome to see them light up -words cant really describe it =)
I will post more tomorrow when i have a little more energy, the words are starting to blur together on the screen so its time for some high quality sleep
-god bless |
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| Uganda is incredible |
[Jan. 7th, 2005|07:00 am] |
Good Morning,
Building Update:
On day 1 we had a little more concrete to lay for the foundation so we helped with that. Kirby put his carpentry skills to work and built a nice tool that we used to even everything out(the ugandans we impressed). after laying the cement we continued to escavate a little 6 ft trench outside of the church to protect it from flooding when the rain hits. to try and give you an idea of the working conditions of the peope here, most of them only have sandals for construction work, and some even work barefoot. when pooring the cement many of them were just stepping in it barefoot and moving right along. the construction workers get 3,000 shillings per day (12 hour shift), which is less than $2 a day. Teachers and Police officers make around 80,000-110,000 schillings per month (which is around $80-$90)
the thing that amazes me most is how happy/spiritfilled/joyful these people are. they always return a smile and always wave back and say hello. once we get out of the main part of town and head to the village where we are building the church, kids come running out of the homes to wave and say hello - its mindblowing how happy they get just by the fact that we have come to visit them. many of them are seeing "white people" for the first time ever, so we get some amazing reactions!
God has been protecting each one of us and continues to bless us mightily everyday. on our first outreach we had two teenagers accept christ and a bunch of kids accepted Jesus as well - and thats what its all about.
I believe the Lord has been teaching all of us contentment. the verse :
1 timothy 6:8 "And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content".
you can read v6-12 for the full context and see that Christ will provide our every need, and fullfill our every want if we seek after him. so lets all pursue Jesus Christ and his righteousness and live a life of abundance in Him. its been very clear that happyness and fullfilment do not come from this world and its riches. as these are some of the poorest people in the world and yet they have the love and joy of Jesus in their hearts and praise him everyday for what they have.
a couple of fun facts for you all to give you a taste of what its like here. I ordered a triple burger + fries + pepsi for $3.00 last night. Gas is $3.00/ gallon - so everyone packs into little minibus taxis and conserve gas as much as possible. For a litre of coke its about .50c from the little side shops. smoke is everywhere as they can burn what they want whenever they want to so it smells like a fire all the time (which I enjoy actually). oh yeah, and the eggs are white all the way through - so when they serve us scrambled eggs they are bright white - but they taste good. there is no such thing as stoplights here, so you can imagine the mayhem - horns squeeking brakes - yelling is the norm , so everytime we get in the bus its a big adventure!
Also, keep the comments coming - everyone was so excited last night when i had printed out the previous comments you all had made. It really was awesome and encouraging to be reminded that we have a force of people prayinf for us - you guys rock!
everybody says hello and thanks so much for your encouragement!
We love you all,
Phil & The Uganda 2005 Missions Team |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 5th, 2005|10:40 am] |
We made it!
after a long journey, too much airline food and crunched legs - we have arrived in Uganda
the weather is not bad, a little muggy but nothing to complain about - and yes its like the pictures you see on tv and in the movies (where what you see is almost unbelievable). Words cannot properly describe the poverty we saw just on the bus ride to the hotel, definatly so much to be thankful for already
The hotel is pretty nice and the food is actually quite good so far. we just had our evening devotions where derek shared out of Ephesians 6. then we practiced our songs (even learned two new ones) and are ready for our first "real day tomorrow". the contsruction team is leaving at 730 and the rest of the team is joining us soon after that. the cement was laid yesterday so we should be ready to build when we arrive tomorrow. we are all exhausted and ready for some sleep tonight.. tomorrow will include skits, songs, and hard labor to get the church building going! god is so good, and has prepared everyone of us for the work he is going to do.
we cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support, we have seen god work miracles already - its been incredible
--i will get some pictures up later tonight, also omegacc.com shuold have some photos up as well
-Regards, love you all
Phil & the Uganda 05 Missions Team! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 4th, 2005|09:08 pm] |
We are in London, we leave for Uganda in 30 minutes. The flight over was pretty good, now we have a 9 hr flight =). we just ate some overpriced pizza and stocked up on the amazing english chocolate and now we are ready to go!
*also, you guys can post comments on this page if you want to leave us any messages - just click on the "post comment" portion and send away
God Bless, |
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| Just about time to board the plane |
[Jan. 3rd, 2005|07:25 pm] |
well, we are about 45 minutes away from boarding and we are all ready to go. We stocked up on some last minute snacks and food and are all set. the lord has some amazing things in store for this trip, and we are so blessed to have this opportunity to share the message of christ in africa!
thank you so much for all of your prayer and support!
- we will be updating this as much as possible depending on how it is to get web access!
God Bless,
Phil & the Uganda 05 Missions team |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 3rd, 2005|11:21 am] |
Welcome to our Uganda 05 Journal
-Check back for updates! |
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uganda2005's journal