Posts Tagged: awaken

Uncategorized — 2 Comments
15
Jul 07

Not Alone Denver

It has been about a month since the last update, so I thought that I would write a blog entry and fill everyone in on what has been happening and what will hopefully happen in the near future.

The last 2 months have been pretty crazy, even though I have only been in the States for a little over a month now. When I first got the vision for this show, I really had no idea how involved it would be until I got back home. There was money to raise for the trip, venues to book, sponsors to find, prints to make, details to tie up, and finally, the event to put on. God has really paved the way for these shows to go through, first of all, blessing me with Cierra, a friend from DTS. She has really been the influencer behind the event, all I really did was print out some pictures. He has also given us favor with countless individuals and companies. If I were to list all of the amazing things that he has done, you probably would stop reading because the text would go on for pages.

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So, on Thursday the 12th, the first show of the Not Alone Benefit Photography Tour kicked off in Downtown Denver at JC’s Ground. I would say probably 150 people showed to support the orphans in Africa. Family and friends came, but I would say that I probably didn’t know the majority of the people that were there. There was even a young man from Zimbabwe that has been living in Denver for a short time. I won’t tell the amount that was raised, because I want to save it for the end of the tour, but it was so encouraging. I really didn’t expect what happened, with the amount of people and money that was given. It was great to see people moved by the social and physical damage that is going on in Africa. To Him be all glory!

Thank you as well to all of you who helped make the Benefit a reality!

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(http://i14 NULL.photobucket NULL.com/albums/a311/johnkwali/blog3 NULL.jpg)[All photos courtesy of Matt Loevenguth]

I leave tomorrow for the next leg of the trip, which will be Chicago and Toronto. I still don’t know what to expect from these places, but I know that people need to see what is happening and get involved in some way. Please pray that people’s hearts will be open to see these children as God sees them. You can also check the Benefit’s website for more information…

Not Alone Benefit Photography Tour (http://www NULL.matt28 NULL.com/notalone)

I have also been accepted to another school from YWAM that I have mentioned in previous posts. It’s called PhotogenX Around the World, and it starts this September in South Africa. From South Africa a team of us will travel to Egypt, Sinai, Israel, Ethiopia, Spain, Morocco, the Netherlands, and Costa Rica before going to Kona, HI for more training. The whole program is 17 months long with only short breaks for Christmas and New Years. The focus of the school will be on social justice in the areas visited, how to capture and record injustice to portray an accurate display for the rest of the world, learn about the different cultures that we are immersed in, and to learn more about the Word of God. The program comes with an Associates of Arts in photography too, which isn’t a bad deal, and a portfolio from across the globe, which is amazing.

I have been particular about not asking for support on the blog, and there is a reason for it. I want to make sure that I am providing insight and information with no strings attached. The blog isn’t a gimmick for raising financial support for myself and I would like to keep it that way. So, if you are interested in the next program that I will be involved in and how you can help, please contact me (at the email address on the side) and we can discuss further. If you aren’t, then there is no pressure, I still need as much prayer as I can get!

I will continue to update the blog on my future travels so stay tuned!

God Bless!
Servant of Christ
John Paul

Uncategorized — 7 Comments
20
May 07

New Life at Hopeland

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What a week of changes; not only for our team, but for the base in general. Honestly, this last week was the best week I have had in a while. We were extremely busy, but focused on the issues and tasks at hand. It brought us together as a team.

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It was Tara’s Birthday on Monday as well, so we got together and watched Sleepless in Seattle (I couldn’t make it through the whole thing) and ate bananas roasted with chocolate. It was so good! We were even able to use a projector for the film, so we didn’t have to huddle around a laptop.

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We went to Sam Kisolo’s house this week for a time of fellowship. Sam has 15 children… That’s right, 15. Four of the kids are his by birth, the others have been adopted by Sam in response to the tremendous need for parental care in Uganda. In some ways, Uganda is extremely blessed with resources, fresh water, and help from many international NGO’s. Uganda also has some tremendously complicated problems. So many parents have died from the AIDS pandemic and many also from the war areas. It is also very common for me to have more than one wife. They also value having many children. So, the end result is so many children, and not enough people to take care of them. Even, Job, a member of our team from Gulu, has four children of his own and takes care of his niece as well. The story is the same all over Uganda. On one hand, it is sad that children aren’t getting taken care of by their parents, on the other, it’s a miracle that they are cared for by family or people like Sam.

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There was a new addition to the team this week as well. P’toni and Lupe, a Tongan married couple that are leaders of the Frontier Missions Outreach, had a baby girl on Thursday night! They had been planning on going to Kampala on Thursday for a couple of weeks because the baby wasn’t actually due for another 2 weeks. They ended up leaving on Wednesday and it is a good thing. Both mother and child came back to the base on Friday and are both doing extremely well.

Like I said, it has been a very busy week. We have all been working everyday and then occasionally relaxing during the evening. Many times there are things to do during these times as well. Since the DTS left for outreach, there hasn’t been as much help in the kitchen so we have all had to take double shifts in order to get all of the food out on time. It takes away from the conference work, but it enables us to build relationships with others on the base as well. I was able to spend a considerable amount of time in conversation with the men from Sudan who are doing their SBS here. I am still blown away by their stories. I appreciate those who have been looking into what is happening all over the world as far as oppression goes. The more that we know, the more we can do to help!

I have to make an apology to the readers of this blog. There have been so many times when I wanted to share what I had been thinking, but was afraid. Afraid of people and what they might think of me. During the course of this week, though, I have been discovering that it doesn’t matter what I am thought of as long as I am being obedient to God in what I say in the blog, no matter if only my mom and dad read it. There is so much that I have been wanting to say, but have been disobedient is saying it. Because of this I am sorry.

One of the reasons that I started this blog is to encourage people to take action. When we live our lives in a way that resembles Christ, we have no other options. Christ himself stated his mission when he was back in Nazareth at the start of his ministry. He was in the temple as he often was. When he went up to read the scripture, the book of Isaiah was handed to him. This is what he said (from Luke 4:18-19)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

As this was his call, it is ours as well. Does this in any way do any damage to the world? Of course it doesn’t, but there are so many people that aren’t doing anything about it. In the US and Western we can be so comfortable with life. Many of us want our children to get the best education that they can get so that they can life a “comfortable and satisfying” life, free from worry. In reality, we should be sending them to school to be witnesse
s to Christ and to discover ways to help God’s creation (humans especially). The rich young ruler followed all of the laws, he loved God and loved his neighbor, but was unwilling to sell what he had to give to the poor, the last request that Jesus had for him to be called a disciple. Are we willing to pick up the Bible and follow Christ’s teaching and his life, no matter what actions that we have to take?

I don’t say all of these things because I am mad or disappointed. I say them because I have discovered the fulfillment that comes from following his command to GO! (Luke 10:3). I am not perfect or “there” or anything like that, but these aren’t my words; Jesus is the one that spoke them. I need them just as much as anyone. There is no doubt; I am a sinner, truly unworthy of salvation or any blessings that I have. But, God is good, and he is faithful when we are not. I say this not to condemn, but to encourage you. If we get (understand) what is in the Bible, we will understand that we are called to live in a completely different way from the world. Not only will we understand it, we will do everything we can to live the life that Christ wants us to live.

I have heard some people saying that they don’t feel like God has called them to anything, when the New Testament, especially the Gospels, is full of Jesus’ “calling”. When we step out and try some of the things that he wants us to do we have nothing at all to lose! In fact, Jeremiah 29:11 says that he has plans for wholeness, not for harm; and a hope for the future, that we will one day be united with Christ. We really have nothing to lose, plus, when we are helping others we open doors for them to share in salvation. When you have next to nothing here on earth, and dying seems better than living, a hope for a future is something to get excited about. I know that hope is something I take for granted in the midst of all of this “stuff” on earth that distracts me.

Anyway, the point is, that we all need to be doing something! James talks about how faith without obedience to the works that Christ called us to is dead! I thought that by coming to Africa, I could get away from this because I was going to Africa, but it has been especially hard here in Uganda to do those things that God wants; to give even a glass of water or a little cookie to someone in His name. We can all be getting involved. Pick up your Bible and discover for yourself what he asks you to do.

Thank you for reading another entry. Please continue to pray for us in this remaining week until the conference. The conference begins next Sunday, but I will try to upload a new entry before all of the activities start. Please pray that this conference will be a success, not it terms of how many people show up, but in the amount of fruit that comes from it. We know God has great plans!

Also pray that the team will be able to stay focused on what God has us here for and not to look forward to the time we leave in a way that distracts us from the present.

In Christ

John Paul

Uncategorized — 5 Comments
22
Apr 07

Goodbye Rob and a Home Gets Some Help

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Greetings from the Hopeland Base in Jinja. It has been a bittersweet week for us here in Uganda. Another one of our team members has left for home this morning. Rob decided that it was time for him to go home a couple of weeks ago, so he prayed about it and felt that the Lord gave him the O.K. to do so. He left for Canada this morning, so pray for traveling mercies on the long series of flights necessary.

Rob was one of my closest friends throughout the entirety of my YWAM journey thus far. The Lord has blessed me so much through him physically and spiritually. We will be dearly missed by all of the team members and especially by me. Rob, I will miss you, bud… See you this summer Lord willing!

There was another tragedy in the United States this week that I am sure all of you are aware of. The deadliest shooting spree in US history occurred at Virginia Tech on Monday. It comes almost 8 years to date from the Columbine Shootings in Englewood, Colorado. Tragedy is a constant reminder to me of the state of our humanness. I am from Colorado and remember the day of the shootings at Columbine. I know how devastating that these actions can be to communities and to my country as a whole. Every 20th of April, I remember the shootings by listening to the “Lullaby for Columbine” album and take time to pray for our country and especially our youth. The song that impacts me the most is one called “Friend of Mine” written by Jonathan and Stephen Cohen, two students of Columbine… These are lyrics that all of us should keep in mind. Please take time to pray for all for all of the victims and their families of both Virginia Tech and Columbine. Pray also that we will act in Love toward all people.

“Turn our pain, to your gain,
Keep our hearts, on the mark
Comfort us, with your love, love again.

Christ of grace, Oh turn this place to
Look to you, honor you,
Fix you in our view”

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On a lighter note, there is a definite praise report this week. The Lord has spoken to someone back home through this blog. I got word early last week that St. America’s Home [refer to previous blog entries] will be getting a monthly supporter! The donors will remain unnamed, but most of the technical information was handled today on a journey to the orphanage. This will be the home’s first monthly supporter since it was started in 1994. It is such an answer to prayer. They were so excited to hear the great news! I am so thrilled that they will be getting the support because I have seen the tremendous need that they face. I am also honored that the Lord would use this humble blog to accomplish his will!

I will also be supporting St. Ameria’s Orphanage with some of the funds that will be raised during the benefit art shows later this summer. If you would like to help out as well with any of the ministries that I have highlighted in this blog or the Team Ethiopia blog, please let me know.

It was so nice to see the children again today. Tara came with me and it was her first time to St. Ameria’s. The children sang again today, but instead of singing of how AIDS killed their parents, they sang of the hope that is found through Jesus Christ. The headmaster/choir director was also there today (he had been at a conference in Kampala the previous visitations). He was telling us of how the children use songs and dances to the Lord to comfort them when they are in pain. I felt such hope today, more so than the other times I had visited. It was such a blessing to be there.

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The Vocational Training School (VTS) put on a coffee night for the base on Friday night. There was food, great coffee, and wonderful entertainment. A group from Tonga are here on outreach for a Frontier Missions School and have been helping out with the VTS. Another couple of staff in the VTS are getting married soon as well, so much is happening in that arena. The Tongans did a number of traditional dances for us, so here are a couple of the pictures from that night. They were also able to raise some money for the school as well!

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Plans for the benefit photography shows are also coming together as well. As is stands right now, the cities are as follow (in order): Denver, Chicago, Ellensburg, Seattle, Santa Barbara, and Las Vegas. Please pray for the dates and places to be solidified. The ministries that will benefit from the shows will be: Bereket Orphanage (Ethiopia), YWAM Mercy Development (Ethiopia), Hope Enterprises (Ethiopia), and St. Ameria’s Orphanage (Uganda). To learn more about
each one of these ministries, please refer to past blog entries both in this blog, and the Team Ethiopia blog (http://ethiopiadts06.blogspot.com (http://ethiopiadts06 NULL.blogspot NULL.com/)). If you want further information, please contact me and we will work something out.

A portion of the benefit will also go for my student tuition for another YWAM program called PhotogenX “round the world” tour. I think I have posted information about it before, but will go into a little bit more detail now. It is a program that starts at the end of September 2007 and ends at the beginning of April 2009. As the name suggests, it involved photography and going around the world. For the first 12 months or so, we will be traveling the world starting in India then proceeding to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Chad, Southern Africa, Germany, Venezuela, and then back to Kona. In Kona we will be taking some more classes in photography and then going back out into the world for outreach. During the course of the school, we will be focusing on child trafficking and the sex trade. Part of the course will be taking the short version of the School of Biblical Studies as well. The final product of the course will be an Associates degree in photography, a portfolio from across the globe, a published book of all of our work, and a wide range of experience. More than what is seen, what I wish to make a difference in the world that was entrusted to us. I hope to fight some of the injustices that plague humanity as a global community. For more information, check the resources available on the internet. [PhotogenX (http://photogenx NULL.net/)]

Thank you so much for reading yet another blog and for the encouragement that I get from hearing your comments. I have mentioned this before, but to all who get the link to this site from the email I send out, I don’t just add everyone in my address book to the list, but because I want to. I don’t necessarily want this to be a one way mode of communication, but more of a two way mode. Please leave comments and questions you would like me to address and I will do my best to get back to you. And, if you just want to drop by and say hi, or have a prayer request, please feel free to email me and I will reply as quickly as I can. Thank you again.

Please continue to pray for all of us out here in Uganda. The struggle against HIV and AIDS is an uphill battle; we are behind in the fight and are still losing ground on a wide scale. We hope that with this conference we can stage an offensive and finally make some of it up.

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In Christ Alone

John Paul

Uncategorized — 3 Comments
15
Apr 07

The Week of the Slash –or- Spared in Kenya

This week has been extremely busy. We have all began to realize how much work needs to be done here at Hopeland. Since there is so much work, we decided on Monday that we would slash twice a day for the remainder of the week. Slashing is not necessarily an easy task, so the week has been pretty tiring. Most of us have blistered fingers, sore hands, and weary arms, but we did get a lot of grass cutting done. I would have taken more pictures, but either I was slashing or too exhausted to get the camera. We still had all of our other responsibilities to take care of as well, so the week was full of work. In some ways it was hard, but I really feel like we accomplished quite a bit. A few of us have become rather experienced at slashing from the whole thing as well and Tara, Alex, and I all have our own slashers.

We had a team member join us this week and we are all pretty excited about it. She is Sarah, a Nigerian girl who was doing here SBS (School of Biblical Studies) in Arusha, Tanzania. While Alex and Ruth were on outreach, they met up with Sarah and became quite close with her. Another girl named Sarah came with her, but she left this morning to begin the long trip back home to Washington State.

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[Sarah (WA), Sarah (Nigeria), and Ruth... photo compliments of Ruth]

The story of how they got here is very extreme, but God’s glory and protection can be seen through the whole thing. So they left on Wednesday night (the 11th) to get here. They ran into some visa problems getting into Tanzania, but eventually were let through on transit visas. Not long after they had passed the border, they came to a road block. One man boarded and went to the back of the bus. Then other armed men came aboard and emptied the first 4 or 5 rows of people and took them outside (including women and children). Then they proceeded to command all the money from all of the passengers. Sarah (from Washington) was one of two white people on the bus, but she quickly covered her head with a blanket so she wouldn’t be targeted. An elderly German man was sitting two rows in front of the Sarahs and was not complying with the robbers orders. The men holding up the bus walked out and their commander walked in and shot the German man twice, one in the arm and one in the chest. While he was bleeding everywhere, the men continued to shake down the bus for money and valuables. The German was still being defiant and saying things like, “look what you have done to me”, and “why are you doing this?” The Sarahs were able to hang on to their passports and a little bit of money as well. The men ended up leaving (without raping anyone, thank God) and soon the Sarahs were headed back to the Kenya/Tanzania border. They stayed there for a while answering questions. The German had been cleaned up and the bullets had gone all the way through, so he was going to be okay as well. They were there for a couple of hours and then escorted for a couple hours into Kenya. It wasn’t a restful night because there were many other roadblocks that night as well, but thankfully they were all police roadblocks. We finally saw them late Thursday night and they were thankful to be safe. God’s protection had been with them the whole time. We are so glad that they are safe as well. It’s so good that they are here, Sarah already adds a lot to the team by here presence.

Alex and I had originally planned on going to Tanzania and Kenya to speak to YWAM base leaders about the conference and to visit some of the Masai villages in Tanzania around Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro. We knew that Sarah would be joining us as well, so we were going to bring her back here to Hopeland, Jinja. Because of some frustrating visa problems in Uganda, we were unable to go. First we were upset, but now that we know the scenario of what we would have come back through that night, we have quite a different perspective. Sometimes we don’t understand why we go through certain obstacles, but God knows and he cares… If we only knew everything that he spared us from… reminds me of 4 flat tires coming back from Bahir Dar in Ethiopia (read the blog here). We are thankful for his grace in sparing Alex and I from that situation. Who knows what would have happened. Needless to say, Alex and I won’t be going to Kenya anymore.

Another scary incident happened to me yesterday (Saturday) in Jinja. We were there getting some cash from the ATM and getting an actual breakfast from a café. On our way back to the special hire taxi, we stopped at a supermarket to get a couple snacks. I stayed outside and was watching a group of Ugandan people gathered in an intersection. I watched for a few minutes and proceeded to ask someone that had come from the scene what was going on. He told me that they were confronting a thief. I stayed on the opposite corner for a while when, all of the sudden, one of the accused took off running down the street toward me. He jolted past me evading many Ugandan men trying to tackle him. He ran out of sight, but was back about 5 minutes later in the custody of the angry mob. The crowd gathered around again when all of the sudden, a sedan screeched to the middle of the intersection and the man was forced inside. 2 other people were in custody in the back as well and the car was off in a hurry. I was taking pictures of the man being arrested, and after the attention was off what was going on in the street, a few of the bicycle taxi drivers directed their attention onto me. Alex and Jonathan were still in the supermarket so I was all alone. One of the taxi drivers proceeded to threaten my life by mock slitting his throat then pointing at me. Others did the same, so I hurried back to the supermarket to hide out. I was tense, paranoid, and anxious for the rest of the day…

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[The scene on Saturday afternoon in Jinja]

Our team hosted a base-wide fun-night on Friday, and we had a great time. Some of the games included musical chairs; limbo;
a form of rock/paper/scissors involving men, women, and gorillas; and jumping through hoops. It was a really fun night, the only casualties were a few chairs and Pila’s (one of the Tongans) shoulder being dislocated… He was fine and came back to play some more games. Everyone had a blast and it brought the base together to be more unified, which is always good in the body of Christ.

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[Ruth and Gina displaying some of their limbo talents at fun-night]

There was also a sad event that happened on the base this week. It started out great because one of the base cats had kittens on Wednesday. Many of the girls would visit them everyday and marvel at their cuteness. During fun-night on campus, many of the people were getting bitten by soldier ants on their way to the DTS classroom where the fun-night was held. The next day, Saturday, there were so many soldier ants everywhere. The base cat was also walking around meowing at everything that moved and looking for affection with everyone she came across. Rob finally discovered that an entire colony of soldier ants had found her new litter and had eaten them alive. The four kittens were covered by ants, all of them dead. They kittens hadn’t even opened their eyes yet. It was a gruesome sight to behold. I took pictures, but I will not post them here due to the unnecessary graphic nature. I wouldn’t have thought that ants could do such things, but I guess huge colonies can come through small communities and clear them out, taking down cattle and even babies if they are left behind.

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[Poor Mother Cat]

That’s about it for this weekend. Please continue praying for the team and for this conference. We are beginning to feel that the world, even the YWAM Christian world is not ready to take on God’s heart for HIV/AIDS. We believe that we should be overwhelmed with people trying to sign up and get here for this conference. I guess it’s a good indicator of the spirit of the fight against AIDS.

I am also starting to promote a ministry called Halfway There Water Project (http://halfwaythere NULL.org) based out of San Diego in the US. The ministry is raising money for drilling projects in Africa to provide clean, drinkable water to areas who have none. If you would like to support this ministry, please click on the link to the right of the page. Their website contains some staggering statistics and information about the water situation in most of Africa.

Please also be praying about the support tour that is taking shape for the summer. God Bless.

In Christ Alone,
John Paul

Uncategorized — 6 Comments
1
Apr 07

Less than 2 months until the conference.

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Happy April! I can’t believe the year is ¼ over already… and that there is less than two months until the conference.

This week we have experienced a range of emotions. I went with Lucy to pick Ruth up from the airport last Tuesday. It is really great to have her back. She adds a lot to our team and I guess I might not have realized it until she was gone for the 10 days. She was able to share about her time in London and was really blessed by God for the entirety of her trip.

Other than that, it has been a busy and hectic week. We all really feel that there is some kind of block on our work; like we are fighting against something. There is so much going on here at the base that isn’t really related to the conference, but affects it and our progress greatly. Please pray that we will be able to stay focused on the Word of God, His promises, and our personal relationships with him. It’s hard to explain such things…

The preschool was broken into by little girls this week and the managed to take off with a lot of equipment, lesson plans, books, and toys. They also bit Job’s wife as she was trying to stop them. It was in the middle of the day and they were the same girls that took some dog shampoo from our girl’s room earlier this week. Since the base is so large and spread out, its hard to keep tabs on everyone that is on base. The grass was long around the school building, so our team spent some time slashing at it on Friday…

Like most weeks, we had a team dinner on Thursday night thanks to Rachel and Rob. It was vegetarian spaghetti and garlic toast topped off with chocolate pudding (don’t ask me where they got it)… So Good. I haven’t had garlic toast since Ethiopia when Anna made it weekly. The team dinner is starting to become a bit of a competition, so I am eager to see who raises the bar next week.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket (http://photobucket NULL.com)Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket (http://photobucket NULL.com)

We also went out to a place called “2 Friends” in Jinja-Town on Friday night as a team. It was a great time of fellowship and a great time to get to know each other better. We all shared about some embarrassing moments from our lives, some movies that we felt embarrassed about tearing up over, and other random things. We all needed that time to get a fresh breath of air. It was amazing (and so was the Jack’s Chicken Tikka pizza that Alex and I split).

Since there wasn’t too much that happened this week because of all the craziness, I will tell you what I am doing, thinking, praying about, and reading.

This last week I finally turned in my application for a YWAM program coming up in September of this year. I have been taking pictures for a while, but have received no formal training; everything has been picked up along the way. A ministry within YWAM called PhotogenX is starting a photography DTS. This DTS is about to start this April and will run the normal length of a DTS. After that session is finished they are starting another session called “round the world”. It’s a track that starts off in India in September of 07’ and continues around the world, going to every inhabitable continent. From India, the tour goes to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Chad, Southern Africa, Germany, Venezuela, then to Kona, Hawaii. We will stay there for a few months and then go on outreach again. Throughout the course of the tour, we will be learning many things. We will be taking photography classes, a school of biblical studies, graphic communications courses, as well as learning about the cultures that we are immersed in. Since we are going to a wide array of places, the program is lengthy; it doesn’t end until April of 09’. This may seem like a long time, but when I was hearing about the program back in Hawaii, it seemed to be perfect for me. I love to travel, take pictures, help people, and learn about different cultures and traditions. I will also get an associates degree in Photography and have a published work at the end.

I know that this is the next step that God wants me to pursue. With the hope of going on this track comes a dream for this coming summer. I have been thinking about setting up some benefit photography shows in a few cities across the states. This is all tentative right now, but I have been thinking about setting one up in Denver, Las Vegas (Alex is going to help me with that one since he lives there), Santa Barbara/Ventura/Los Angeles (somewhere in that area), and Chicago (Ruth is also a photographer/painter so it would be a joint showing). I would be going to all of these cities to share about my trip and raise money for some of the orphanages that we have been working with in Ethiopia and Uganda.

What do you think?

Also, let me know if you would like to be involved in the process. Please pray for clear direction and guidance.

Click for PhotogenX Track Outline



Click for PhotogenX Track Overview (places and dates)



In Christ Alone

John Paul

Uncategorized — 2 Comments
25
Mar 07

This week in the "Pearl of Africa"

Another week gone by. Thanks again for looking at the blog, it is very encouraging to know that there are people who know about what we are doing and are standing with us in prayer.

Part of the YWAM HIV/AIDS Global Gathering is taking a trip to a local ministry right outside of Jinja. It is a ministry under YWAM called To.RCH (Together Restoring Community Hope) located in a village called Kangulumira. TORCH is split into three ministries and all of our team members had the opportunity to partner with TORCH in the recent weeks. We were all invited (on different days) to go out into the community and do home visits to people who are HIV positive. Last Friday was my turn to go. So Gina, Jonathan, and I left early Friday morning and traveled for about an hour total to reach Kangulumira.

When we arrived, we took a tour of a health Clinic operated by YWAM called KIHP (Kangulumira Integrated Health Project). Doctor Tim (who lives at the Hopeland base as well) is the doctor there and sees about 30 patients a day. It was heartbreaking to see all of the sick people, but encouraging knowing that there are people who are doing something about them. God has been providing for this project for about 10 years now. Each month, they don’t really know where the money is going to come from to continue the work, but God has been faithful to provide.

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[The KIHP Health Clinic]

We left on foot and ended up spending a large portion of the day walking between the different homes that we visited. All along the way there were children who loved to have their picture taken and enjoyed walking hand in hand with us as we walked down the path, even if the attention only lasted for a few minutes.

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The first woman we visited, Florence, lived with her husband and one of her sons. She had 4 children, but didn’t know the status (HIV positive or negative) of any of them. Only 1 of her sons lived with her and her husband was not the father of the boy. Her husband was HIV+ as well, but wasn’t around when we visited. Honestly, when I first saw her, I was a little taken back. After she had contracted the virus, some kind of legion had formed over the left side of her face and ended up taking her left eye. Most of the left side of her face was covered with a scar. I can’t imagine the kind of life she has had up until the moment that we met.

One of the first things that came up was the topic of being “born again”. [There is a big difference between being a Christian and being Born-Again. Christianity is a lot like many other religions, where people don’t become one, they are born into it. Thinking about it, I find that this definition of Christianity may be true all over the world.] She wanted to know more about what it meant to be born again, so I told her the story about the Creator of the Universe, Jesus Christ, and what he did for her on the cross. I asked her what she thought about salvation and accepting Jesus as her personal Savior; she said that “she needed it”. I had never come across someone being so open to the Gospel before. She was so sincere in her faith that I knew the Holy Spirit has really convicted her heart. It’s also great that Lavissa (a counselor from KIHP that does the home visits) was going to be going back there on a regular basis to encourage her in her new found faith.

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[Florence]

The second woman was a Muslim woman named Alima and she was beautiful. I noticed a spark in her eyes and smile the moment we arrived. She was even playing and joking around with her children and neighbors. In a way, I didn’t even want to tell her that we were working with HIV because it didn’t seem like the virus was an issue in her life. Her husband had died when their youngest of 4 children wasn’t even a year old. She had known someone working at KIHP that had been encouraging her to get tested, get the children tested, participate in lectures, and apply for income generating activity (IGA) grants. She had done so and now she has started a little bit of a business raising chickens. The youngest child is the only one enrolled in school and she hopes to enroll the others as well once she starts generating more income. We also talked to her about her ARV medication (AntiRetroViral) and it seemed like she had the complicated system of taking the medication down pat. She was willing to show us her medication, so I asked her if I could take a couple pictures of her with them. She was more than willing and wanted me to take photos of all of her children as well.

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[Alima and one of her daughters]

The third lady was Judith; the only one that was born again (when we arrived at least), but was also the only one that wasn’t on ARV treatment. She had received some IGA money as well and now owned a small shop (which was also her home) that she sold bananas and coal out of. Her 13 year-old also lived with her in the dark shop. She was scared to take the ARV meds because she had heard that if you stop, they will be even worse for your body and that you would pretty much die quickly. Part of this fea
r is legitimate because taking the medication outside of the guidelines can be very bad for your body. But like we have seen so many times, taking ARV medication the right way is more than possible and could extend her life drastically. Once she gets into the habit of taking it, it could be as simple as clothing herself daily. Please pray that she will be confident and bold in taking measures to extend her life and be there for her child.

It was a great day and there were so many opportunities to take pictures of some neighborhood children. We walked a long way and were rewarded by seeing some great sights of the countryside. Much of the land that we walked through was used for growing pineapples and bananas, and some was used for growing some other important crops like plantains, chili peppers, cassava, beans, and some other fruits and vegetables as well. I had never really seen a pineapple so young!

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Alex and I decided to go back to St. America’s on Saturday. There is something about that place that just captures me. There was a new soccer (football) ball in the team kit that was left over from outreach, so we decided to take it with us. We had to travel there by ourselves because Christopher (from last week) had some work for school, so he couldn’t accompany us this time. We didn’t even know the town where the orphanage was, but we managed to make a few calls and find out where it was. When we got there, about 25 children and the headmistress were waiting for us by the side of the road. It’s obvious that they don’t get very many western visitors.

We climbed up the hill and saw the boys playing soccer with a very small rubber ball that was tattered and flat. I was very relieved that we had brought the new one for them. When I took it out of my backpack and handed it to one of the teachers, the children started cheering and clapping… leaving me almost in tears. It was probably the first time that they had received a football like that.

We went into the office for about twenty minutes and it felt like an oven in there. We wanted to get some information about the orphanage and it’s budget to see if anyone would want to partner with them in getting some adequate buildings and food for the children(Email me if you are interested in some more information). We also wanted to just play with the kids and try to love them Christ’s love as much as possible. We both realized that the love we show will never look or feel like His love, but at least we can try. So after our office session we went outside to get some football in.

While we were in the office, someone had gone and actually put some air in the ball (we don’t have any pumps), so they were ready to play. Alex and I decided to be goalkeepers on opposing teams because we were both only wearing slippers (the children went barefoot on the sometimes rocky surface). It was a lot of fun out there except when we let the ball get by us on accident. The look in our teammates’ eyes was that of utter disappointment that we, their supposed friends, would have a hand in their possible loss. I hardly wanted to play after the first goal was scored on me because I didn’t want the kids to hate me if we lost. The game ended in a tie though, so it was okay!

The whole time we were playing, I was praying that they would be able to take their mind off of their situation for the hour or two that we were playing. That maybe, they would see a simple gift like a soccer ball as a gift from God; that there is more to life than sadness and suffering; that even though they didn’t choose the life the live (as they sang the previous week) there is still hope in it.

Please continue to be faithful in praying for us, we really rely on your prayers. Please pray for the various ministries that we are getting involved with as well, that God will continue to provide for them. Pray for the three homes that we visited this week as well, that the Holy Spirit will continue to comfort and minister to them.

My uncle Forest is still in Rwanda, but he is scheduled to leave this week. Please pray that he will be able to finish the business in an efficient manner, and that we will have traveling mercies as he heads back to London and then home to Colorado.

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May God richly bless you!

John Paul

Uncategorized — 3 Comments
11
Mar 07

And We're Off!!! 3-11-07

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(The football (soccer) field that some of us run around some mornings)


It kind of seems like it has been a long week, but when I look back, it flew by. We were assigned what we would be doing in preparation for the upcoming conference so we just started with our tasks. The responsibilities are broken down into three major areas: Communication, Program, and Logistics. I am on the Communications team with Jonathan and Gina. I am also going to working with Microsoft Access to database all of the people that register. Although we all were assigned to different aspects of the conference, we will all need to be working together closely to accomplish this task. Please pray that we will be unified and that we will not become easily overwhelmed by what lies ahead of us.

We have spent much of the last week in meetings, but also in prayer. We really want this time to be dedicated to the Lord. Even though we have the conference ahead of us, we all want to keep in mind the most important thing in life, our relationship with the Lord. It will be very easy to become distracted and even complacent in our relationship with God because of the busyness associated with the conference.

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(The building where the conference will be held [not quite finished yet])

I have been reading this little book called “The Pursuit of God” by A.W. Tozer this last week. Even though I am only half way through it right now, I strongly recommend that everyone read it. It was written a long while ago, but the descriptions of the church and the body of believers as a whole still rings true. It’s a very short book and an easy read, but I’m sure that it will change your life, just like it has changed mine. Here are a couple of paragraphs that have impacted me so far…

“When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the ‘and’ lies our great woe. If we would omit the ‘and’ we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing” (p.21)

“God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything over than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is” (p.43)

We also went to the Kingfisher again this weekend. It was a chance for us to spend some time beside Lake Victoria, but also a time where the Program team could plan something and work together to accomplish the goal. It was a huge success (even though the meat was extremely tough and sinewy). After we had all had our fill of beef, coleslaw, fruit salad, and chipote (pronounce chi-pot-ie) we gathered together and prayed for each team member individually. A few of us stayed behind until dark to have some quite time with the Lord before going back to the base.

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(Rob and Ruth getting ready for the Bar-b-Que)

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(Fishermen on Lake Victoria, and children commissioned by their parents and communities to carry water for long distances back to their homes) [check out Halfway There Water Project (http://halfwaythere NULL.org/en/index NULL.html) ]

There are some other team members which I don’t think I have announced yet. Their pictures will be posted later, but here are their names for your prayer lists and your thoughts:

Tom: from South Africa, he has been on base here at Hopeland for the last 2 years.

Job: a native Ugandan who spent a considerable time in Northern Uganda at a base in Soroti.

Lucy Burrows: the conference coordinator (our boss) from the U.K. who has been involved in the international HIV/AIDS crisis for some time now.

There is a website for the conference if anyone is interested in checking it out.

YWAM Global HIV/AIDS Conference (http://ywamhivaidsconf NULL.org/)

or, Click on the Image Below!



(http://ywamhivaidsconf NULL.org/)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support, they are definitely felt and appreciated by all of us. Keep then coming!

Also, if you have any words of encouragement for the team, please feel free to leave a comment on the bottom of this blog and I will be sure to pass the word along to the individual or the whole team.
Thanks again!

Grace and Peace through Christ our Lord,

John Paul Vicory

1 Corinthians 15:58

Uncategorized — 4 Comments
4
Mar 07

With Blistered Fingers!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting (http://photobucket NULL.com/)

Our first week at the Hopeland Base in Jinja is almost over. It is much different than I had originally expected. Before we got here I thought that it would be a lot like the base in Ethiopia, which had only 2 people living on base (besides our team). There are three schools running here and over 50 people on base.

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(Jonathan, Jack, and Rob before going into Jinja, Jonathan and Tara walking down a local road)

The base here is so beautiful. It is so lush and green. The campus is pretty big, but reminds me of where we were during lecture phase in Hawaii; Makapala. Its kind of outside of towns and cities and has a lot of open land. Many places on campus have a view of Lake Victoria…. One of the most spectacular views on base is from the soccer field at the bottom of campus. One of the first mornings we were here, a few of us went down there to jog and I was blown away by the beauty. The sun had just risen and was the biggest I had ever seen it. I will try to get a picture of the view for next weeks blog update, so hang tight.

For the community base clean up on Friday, we spent the morning with these tools called “slashers” slashing one of the fields of grass. All of us have blisters now because we aren’t used to that kind of work, but I’m sure that our hands will toughen up because we will probably doing the slashing every Friday. It was a great workout, however, and my muscles are still a little bit sore.

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(Slashing Day… it was a little rough for us)

We haven’t been too busy this last week because we only had orientation to do. So we spent our time in various ways: going into Jinja (we are a few minutes outside of it), working out in the mornings, having brief meetings in the evenings, one-on-ones with Lucy, a bit of base management as a community, and yesterday (Saturday) we went to a resort on the shores of Lake Victoria called Kingfisher for a day by the pool.

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(Gina, Rob, Tara, and Scott [another staff member at Hopeland] at the Kingfisher pool)

Base life is different here than in Ethiopia as well. Since there are so many people, meals are prepared for everyone and served as soon as the bell rings. Alex and I learned pretty quickly that if you don’t heed the bell, you may not eat! Now every time we hear that bell, we run to the line. We have a cup of milk tea with 2 rolls every morning for breakfast (similar to what we fed the children at the feeding center for breakfast at Hope Enterprises in Ethiopia), but we have also bought some fruit, bread, peanut butter, and jelly to supplement our diet when we get hungry.

Alex, Jonathan, and I went to a church this morning called Abundant Life Church of Kikera (Kikera is the nearest town to the base; about 30 min. walk). We went with a staff member from Uganda in the DTS School whom Alex had met in Arusha, Tanzania. There weren’t many people who attended, and it was a bit hard to understand the pastor because the translation was pretty much sandwiched on top of the English, but it was still amazing to see how God works in the lives of the people here. It will never cease to amaze me. The minute I got there two kids came over and grabbed both of my free hands and held them through the whole worship service, testimonies, encouragement, and announcements.

During the last week, we have only begun to know our team leader, Lucy Burrows, in a better way. Like I mentioned, she had one-on-ones with all of us and found out about who we were and what God was doing in our lives. She found out that I was the only one with Microsoft Access experience (thank you, Mike at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History) and was pretty excited about that. She had convened with one of her good friends and intercessor back in the UK before she came out and also had stuff to share with us about what she had received from the Lord. Some of what she had received was precisely what I had communicated to her in my one-on-one (she shared at the end of it), so it was very encouraging to me because I had never met her before. God revealed to her exactly who I was and who I am wanting to become. God is so good!

This next week we will be going through some team building exercises and planning out what we will be doing for the next three months. It will be a key week in the grand scheme of our future at the Hopeland Base, so please pray for clarity of vision, teamwork, and unconditional love especially in this next week. Please continue to pray for our team members that have already gone home that they may continue to experience the Lord in new and powerful ways and that they may be witnesses to God’s glory! Thank you so much for your prayers, we see the effects of them in a powerful way at our end. I pray blessings over you for your faithfulness.

John Vicory

Uncategorized — 2 Comments
18
Feb 07

Kampala, Uganda 2-20-07 with Slideshow from Ethiopia

This is my first entry after arriving in Kampala from Ethiopia yesterday. It was so good to meet up with fellow members of the extended team and catch up on everything God was doing in Africa over the last 2 months.

During the last week in Ethiopia, God continued to work mightily. We were able to hold a party at the YWAM base for many of the people that we had been working with in appreciation for letting us be a part of their lives. It was an amazing time of fellowship and closure for our brief time there. God opened so many doors for future teams in Ethiopia that it blows my mind. Continue to pray for the ministries that we were a part of and that God would unleash the Holy Spirit over Ethiopia in a new and dynamic way.

I was able to put together a brief slide show together for review night back in Kona that will take place this Thursday. It is just a brief sample of the stories, places, and pictures but i hope that you like it. The music in the background is “You’re Not Alone” by an amazing band called Saosin.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvxvGtwKMHg]

Now, it is time for Uganda! I can’t wait to see what the Lord has for us here. Everyone on the team thinks and feels that it will be a powerful time and that God is doing something BIG in Uganda. Please pray for us, for protection and deliverance from the enemy. He has already started tactics to dissuade us from our mission and what the Lord wants
Here is a list of the members of the extended team:
Rachel Donnelly
Maleea Morelock
Rob Broening
Jonathan Stoner
Jessie Gear
Ruth Dodgson
Jack Klinhomsopol (can’t pronounce) (from Thailand)
Alex Fung
Gina Kim
Tara Naylor
and Me (John Vicory)

A picture of us will appear soon, but i haven’t had time to get one uploaded yet…
Until next time, Grace and Peace from the Lord Jesus Christ

Uncategorized — 1 Comment
16
Dec 06

Intro and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia

This is my first post and i wanted to give everyone an update.
I leave for Ethiopia in a week from today and it’ll take me three days to get there. The time at Makapala is winding down and i have been reflecting on how much i have learned here. It almost seems like i am a completely different person. During the next few months, i will be posting pictures and videos of the time in Ethiopia and Uganda.

Here is a little video that gives some staggering statistics for HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
None of these photos are my own, but soon i will have some of my own.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi5YK3QEnnk]

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