Graduation

After 12 months of hard work and countless hours under the sun the students of TTWU's vocational school have graduated! This marks the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. Most of them are in their twenties and have experienced first hand the devastation of the war that cooled around 2007.

The Students Paraded through town with theirr heads held high

These are the 'invisible children', these are the voiceless peasants. They are now shifting into a higher gear of development. Like any war there is much rebuilding to be done in terms of infrastructure. But unlike many wars there are deep spiritual wounds that need healing caused by a spiritual implications of this war.
As you may have heard in the Sunday service we are hiring the top ten students to build the Dream Center. As employees they are going to be discipled by our local Pastor. This will rebuild the community in the Spiritual realm.

Students seated duriing graduation ceremony

Now that we have full time workers we can begin construction on the Dream Center itself. Tomorrow is a big day!
Please continue to pray for healing in the region, healing that only comes from God. Also that the community would develop in a way pleasing to the Lord as it's members begin the Health Center that will serve their brothers and sisters.

Please pray for their safety as the work. The reason we are building the Health Center here is it's remote location and distance from existing Health Centers. The Ambulance is primarily for women in labor, not for non-life threatening injuries.
Also for smooth progress as we enter the rainy season.

TTWU Country Director Jesse Kroeze delivering Graduation Speech

Goals in Adak

We are scheduled to break ground for the health center on April 12th. The last few weeks have been a trial run with our contractor and the students of the vocational school as we built some huts for TTW staff.

The students are graduating on the 10th of April.
Upon graduation the top 10 of the class will be offered employment during the construction of the health center.

This plays a large role in our effort to develop the community of Adak. Education and employment are two steps towards self sufficiency and away from dependency (on humanitarian effort both national and foreign). While I, personally, am discouraged that we haven't broken ground for the health center yet I am reminded that my goal as a believer goes beyond the physical (bricks & buildings and food & clothes) to the personal and spiritual areas of life.

Cross Cultural

I was told that growing up in another culture (Spain) would be a plus for this trip as it would hep me adjust to this new culture. I also read a fare share of books regarding African culture and such. But there is only SO much prep work you can actually do.
After a week of living in Adak, I've only had three different meals (not breakfast, lunch and dinner), that is the same meal over and over with two exceptions. So last night I offered to cook, it was just Jimmy and myself.
Instead of local food (rice and oversalted beans or cassava) I decided to fix some of the canned goods that I brought from Kampala. Pasta with tomato sauce, what could go wrong? Half way through cooking guests showed up (culture dictates that there be food for them) so I doubled the ingredients. So after praying everybody stood there staring at the food. Turns out none of them have ever eaten pasta or mushrooms, in fact they don't even know where to start! So they all tried some, adding loads of salt and proceeded to heat up leftovers from lunch. So I figured that would be thee last time I'm asked to cook. Needless to say I was a bit insulted. Then I remembered that on the missions field: "Foreigners can't judge out intentions only our actions". I guess this applies both ways. I can't really know what they thought about they food, all I can do is gauge their reaction through my culture. Sometimes it's easier than others to figure out what they are thinking. This time however, they didn't eat the leftovers that they heated up and they asked me to cook again, so I'm still very confused.

We began construction on the first of the two huts that the staff will be living in. They are made with the ISSB bricks from our long waited for machine that works like a charm. To date we can produce about 500 bricks a day, we hope to reach 700 soon.

Time to go!

After waiting two weeks, which felt like a month, it is now Monday March 8th, the day I'm supposed to move up to Adak. The time has come for the adventure to begin, however our handy dandy brick making machine we are waiting to arrive from Nairobi has decided we are not yet ready.

Our brand new Brick Machine, we will require it to make around 21,000 bricks just for the Health Center.

Every large project has it's share of set backs and delays, this is life. However in Africa set backs are usually measured in weeks, not days.

I was told a story of a group of missionaries working in northern Uganda. One Sunday morning they were invited to speak at a church in the adjacent village. Running late the drove as fast as possible on the bumpy dirt roads raising a large dust cloud behind them. They pulled up, jumped out and quickly walked over to the open air pavilion as their dust cloud arrived. The local pastor greeted them and said: "You people have clocks and watches, but we have time."

Bench, Chairs and Papyrus matt, very nice/expense furniture for the village

Much like that group of missionaries, I made a commitment to go overseas to "improve" a community but more often than not find myself being improved by them. Most of my life has been fueled by deadlines and countdowns that cause me to focus on how much time I don't have; the empty half of the glass. But when my beloved brick machine arrives two days late, it allows me two more days in Kampala for preparation, the full half of the glass.

Adak

The roads in northern Uganda are characterized by their red dirt, separating luscious green fields lined with signs of all sorts. During the daytime the roads are just about as busy as Bergen county roads, except that instead of going by car the locals walk, instead of the minivan they pile three or four on a boda-boda (motorcycle), and instead of delivery trucks they use bicycles. I am astonished at what can be transported on a bicycle. For instance, I saw two goats, two small pigs and a handful of chickens, all alive strapped down on the same bike. Life in the bush is very different.

As we pulled off the road and onto the project site in Adak I was a little disappointed; it's out in the middle of nowhere and it doesn't really have much to offer other than a view. It seemed like a great place to make a post card, and send it; "Hi, Jordan was here, thinking of you, in Adak. I'm on my way now to somewhere important,some where on the map". I was barely out of the car when I was greeted by Pastor Inyanysio and Okello. Things change when the become personal. The welcomed me with a slow two handed hand shake that lasted twice a long as I expected - it wasn't "hi", it was a "hello, welcome to our home, be our guest and stay for a while" kind of shake. Two handshakes turned a remote village into my neighbors home, and thus a place of importance.

Okello Moses knew I would be staying a while and began to teach me the basic Acholi greetings. How to greet in the morning and the afternoon. Like anywhere else time is important, but not as important as people, and greetings may take a full five minutes. Because they really care. The two minute hand shakes will take some getting used to. It all plays a part of making one feel welcome, very welcome. I fell in love with the Acholi people, and consequently their village.

If I'm going to be living up there Moses is set on teaching me as much Acholi as possible. So the next morning we read through some of Matthew 6, in Acholi with my NIV as a reference. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! That He understands prayers in Acholi and English

It has been a great blessing to have Jules Oostdyk with us the past weekend as she has traveled around Gulu with us doing research for the future Health Center. Not only has she established positive relationships with other medical centers, but she has also received donations - such as examination tables - that are essential to the opening of our center. She will be returning once the center is built to transform an empty building into a sustainable health center.

Please pray that God will provide long-term staff for the health center, medical supplies, equipment etc.

Kampala

Kampala, The capital of Uganda, has a population of 1.4 Million. Were it in the USA it would be the 7th largest city following Philadelphia and preceeding San Antonio. Philly occupies about 127 square miles where as Kampala is about half the size, 68 square miles. Thus the population density is about double.

Transportation in and around the city takes a lot of getting used to. To start Ugandans drive on the left side of the road. The streets are flooded with taxis. Taxis account for at least half of the vehicles on the road. All taxis are the same exact model van made by Toyota. But the most exciting way to get around town is on a boda-boda (motorcycle). They will take you just about anywhere. There are no street signs, mapquest doesn't really cover this area. It is such a different world.

This thursday we will be headed up north to Adak, in the Gulu area.
That is about 274 kilometers or 165 miles. The drive up used to be about 7 hours, but they finished paving the road and now it only takes about 5. Thats an average of 35 mph.

Please pray for safety in travel. Also as we prepare to build the Medical Center we are anticipating the need for staff to run the facility, as many locals as possible, please also pray for God to provide well qualified staff.

Arrived safely

After 14 hours of flight with a 4 hour layover in London I arrived well rested at Entebee at 10 pm local time (2 pm East Coast).  I didn’t get to see much of the landscape on the ride to the Kroeze residence because the sun was gone, and street lights are rather uncommon.

Al though Kampala is in the northern hemisphere it’s proximity to the equator evens out the seasons,   This morning’s sunrise brings me to Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee”. Not that I am bringing the Lord with me from the US, but rather He is Lord over all the Earth and his glory rises on us all.

Thank you for your prayers for safe travel.  I was able to make all the connections and my luggage arrived at the same time and location as I did.

Please pray for the construction project to keep on moving on schedule.  Things in Africa move at a pace of their own.