Uganda: Sunday and Sickness (Jackson’s Update)Glen Jackson, a member of the SIFAT board of directors, and his wife Marie are currently in Uganda for a month visiting Agape Total Childcare Center. Glen and Marie have gone on short-term mission trips to serve at SIFAT graduate William Nsubuga’s project for the past two years and are leading a team this summer. They will be sharing their experiences with us as they experience life in Mukono! Click here to read more about SIFAT’s work in Uganda. Well, Sunday was a wonderful day at Agape Christian Academy! We worshipped the Lord in English and Lugandan and felt the Lord’s presence. Glen and I cried a lot! God was gracious and used us to share our testimony of how the Lord connected us to Agape and brought us here for the month. The children seemed totally engaged, and the new headmistress was deeply moved. God is so amazing! After the service, I was extremely sick and had to return to the hotel. Glen and I spent time in prayer, read Scripture and listened to Praise music. Jesus ministered to us so beautifully, and I had such peace. After a good night’s sleep, I am feeling 100%! We believe that we discovered the cause–however, it could have just been a test of our faith. God is good, and today, it has been wonderful being with the children. The new students are excited to meet us and seem so glad to be here. Tomorrow will begin our teaching classes. I know this is long and does not include pictures, but I am working on it. I will get it done soon! ~ Marie Uganda: The Jacksons arrive at Agape!Glen Jackson, a member of the SIFAT board of directors, and his wife Marie are currently in Uganda for a month visiting Agape Total Childcare Center. Glen and Marie have gone on short-term mission trips to serve at SIFAT graduate William Nsubuga’s project for the past two years and are leading a team this summer. They will be sharing their experiences with us as they experience life in Mukono! Click here to read more about SIFAT’s work in Uganda.  Glen Jackson and William Nsubuga discuss details for the construction project at Agape Total Childcare Center in June 2012. Hello, everyone! We are here!!! It has been a great day already–seeing the children and William. We have already had a meeting with the children. There are around 32 new students attending Agape Christian Academy. Uganda: Agape Total Childcare Center opens school today! Visit to Uganda As many of you may know, Agape Total Childcare Center in Uganda had to move last month from Lugazi to Mukono. Because of unforeseen circumstances, William is forced to open the Agape Christian School now; he has been given one month by the Ministry of Education and municipality authorities to bring the school into compliance with Ugandan regulations. We need your support to open the school immediately, so the older children living at Agape will be able to attend secondary school this year.Gerald and Sue Paulk are currently in Uganda on a mission trip sponsored by Four Corners, a ministry with whom SIFAT has partnered many times. SIFAT executive director Tom Corson and international team coordinator Peggy Walker are also on this trip. While in Africa, they are serving with William Nsubuga and his son Sean at Agape Total Childcare Center. William, a SIFAT graduate, started an orphanage in Lugazi for children whose parents died because of HIV/AIDS.
Day 4: Moving Day
Today, we relocated from the Colline Hotel in downtown Mukono to the Rainforest Lodge in the Mabira Rainforest, much closer to and about 6 miles from the Orphanage. This Paradise, uh…we mean “facilityâ€, is one the new geo-lodges in Africa constructed of native woods, stones, solar hot water heaters, and if Tarzan and Jane (if they REALLY ever existed and lived somewhere in the 21st century), it would definitely be here. Needing a few “grocery†items, we drove a mere 30 miles to Kampala (actually William “drove†as one would use that term in a very general sense). We went to a “mall†which had, among other stores and shops, a K-Mart, kinda, and a Piggly Wiggly, kinda. We made our purchases, exchanged some money, and traveled back to the Rainforest Lodge. After we were settled in our cottage, we enjoyed a gourmet meal under the stars in the heart of Mabira Rainforest. Before dinner, we were attracted to the fire pit adjacent to the dining area by several laughing and conversant “mazungus†(“white person from the westâ€). Now bear with us: in the first 4 days in Uganda, we have seen a total of 5 muzungus, anywhere-anytime. Now we see 6 in one setting. As many of you know, we were born/raised in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. So, we strike up a conversation, and detecting this one guy with an almost Southern accent, we ask “Where ya from…originallyâ€, and HE says “Montgomery, Alâ€. [Rest of story later] It’s Saturday, but Sunday’s a’comin, and we’re looking forward to worshiping with the locals here in Uganda. Gerald and Sue Paulk are currently in Uganda on a mission trip sponsored by Four Corners, a ministry with whom SIFAT has partnered many times. SIFAT executive director Tom Corson and international team coordinator Peggy Walker are also on this trip. While in Africa, they are serving with William Nsubuga and his son Sean at Agape Total Childcare Center. William, a SIFAT graduate, started an orphanage in Lugazi for children whose parents died because of HIV/AIDS. Day 2: This day began with thunder claps, and then it started, again…rain. The Four Corners’ gang, along with Tom Corson and Peggy Walker from SIFAT picked us up at the Colline Hotel, and we headed for the Orphanage. When we arrived, the crowd was enormous, as word travels quickly when free medical care and medicines are available. In fact, one lady had traveled from Kenya, at least 50 miles away, to be treated. We were without electricity for the first hour, so we made that “tough love†decision to see only 150 on Thursday. We saw and treated, or maybe even just consoled, everything from a man with a club foot to a mother who brought in her child with Down Syndrome (about which she apparently knew nothing). At day’s end, many were still lined up for treatment, but had to be turned away. I doubt any of us will ever fathom how well off we really are, amidst our griping about only manna in the “wildernessâ€. While Sue and the gang were finishing up with clinic patients, William and Gerald took Tom and Peggy on a tour of the newly acquired (still not fully paid for) property near Mukono and then traveled to the “annointed†garden for a brief tour. Tom and Peggy were, rightfully, impressed with both. The facilities on the new property were designed to house a school, but midway through construction, the owner developed other interests. When construction is completed, some 50 orphans can have a new home and facilities to attend school on site. God is doing some amazing things through this Ministry. Day 3: We again were awakened this morning by the sounds of (noisy) African birds. Breakfast today included unsweetened mango juice; sounds healthy, looks good, but not so great. After breakfast, we enjoyed the private gardens here at the Colline Hotel. The gardens are quite large with several areas for outdoor events, but within 50 yards of this quiet and expansive area is the main road from Kampala to Jinja, which resembles the African version of the Massachusetts Turnpike, lined with hundreds of makeshift businesses, most of which offer cell phone and internet cards. William picked us up at the Colline, and the three of us headed to Jinja, Uganda’s second largest city and the location of the source of the River Nile. It is really an incredible site seeing the slow moving waters of Lake Victoria turn into the rapids of the River Nile. Actually, technically the Victoria Nile, where several river sources and the headwaters of the White Nile combine to form the River. Then, along about Sudan, the White Nile merges with the Blue Nile to form the Great River Nile, which flows through Egypt and finds its way in the Mediterranean Sea. If you dropped a floating object in the Lake where we were situated, three months later, it would end up in the Mediterranean Sea. We then toured downtown Jinga, which, well, you just have to see the photographs. In many areas, it was bumper to bumper vehicles, motorcycles, people and vendors (most of whom were selling fresh fruits and vegetables). On the way back to Mukono, we continued to be amazed more accidents (actually fatalities) do not occur on this main road: no yellow lines, no road signs of ANY kind, no stop signs for intersecting roads, no traffic lights, only one out of every 100 motorcycle drivers wears a helmet, etc. People in Uganda are so soft-spoken and in no hurry until they get behind the wheel of a car/van or on a motorcycle. When we stopped at a pharmacy to get Sue some medicine for the cold she was developing, two motorcycles collided head on. We just wondered, just possibly, if a contributing factor was that one of the motorcycles had no light on and it was dark! Incredibly and thankfully, no one was injured. Long, but beautiful day. Despite the congestion and sheer numbers of human bodies concentrated in such small areas along the main road, you can gaze upward and see lush rolling hills covered in seas of green: sugar cane, tea and coffee plantations and rain forests. Churchill appropriately labeled Uganda the “pearl of Africaâ€. |
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