Yahweh

Thanks to a generous boss who gives Visa gift cards at Christmas, I just bought a book of conversations with Bono, lead singer of U2. We might not always agree, but Bono's passionate about Africa and about Jesus Christ, so expect some quotes here soon. ;)

Anyway, I know I bring U2 up frequently considering that this is a blog about Karamoja. But for months I've wanted to post the lyrics to one of their songs, Yahweh. It tells so well what the Christian life is, in a world that's quite messed up.

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahewh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

But next time I hope I really will have some news. I'd like to know how Margaret and Josephine and Rose and some of the other ladies are, especially...

Aid and Manipulation?

Britain just cut down their aid for northern Uganda, because of this whole deal with Museveni not wanting to go down in the February elections. The Ugandan gov't says it is unfazed by this - let other countries do what they want, but Uganda is free to do what it wants. I can't help sympathizing; of course Museveni is undemocratically trying to hold on to his power, and Uganda really really doesn't need another war...but people are still being kidnapped and raped and murdered and forced to be child soldiers by the LRA in northern Uganda. Isn't there a better way for European countries to express their disapproval than by allowing a few more people to die when there's already little enough aid going there?

Politics are complex, and even humanitarian work isn't very straightforward sometimes. But it seems like either you offer aid, even as a country, because someone needs it and you are commited to giving it, or you just don't offer it. The way to hurt someone you suspect is on the path to dictatorship isn't to weaken the people, is it?

But I am also somehow forgetting how great is the gospel of Christ, who willingly suffered through beatings, mocking, torture, and death in order to free his church from the slavery of sin, and ultimately from death and hell. The displaced people in Uganda and everywhere need that savior, the "living water," along with food and shelter (because God cares about body and soul). That's hope no country can take away.

Karamoja sunset

Bobby and Kipsy playing in the field

I think Nolan took this one with Martha's camera.

Chrissie just got back to Billings last night. She was in church this morning, so we did the usual Karamojong handshake "ejok nOOI" greeting. :) Sounds like she had a great time - I'm looking forward to hearing more. Our friend Amy got safely to K'moja, and in other good news Onyang and Lokwan didn't have to have their surgeries. Having his knee bandaged for a while streched the muscles in Onyang's leg so that it's now ok. Lokwan apparently has TB in his hip, so it's treatable with medicine rather than surgery.

Pastor Al had many good things to say in the family Christmas letter; here's a couple highlights:

The language is rich and fun [if difficult] to learn. There are two words for salt [one for daytime use, one for the evening]. There are more than ten words for sorghum...There is but one meaning to carry the meanings of both salvation and redemption. The Karimojong alphabet is smaller than that of English and makes for much lower-scoring Scrabble games with no h, q, v, x or z.

Please pray for our own hearts as we seek to live happily under the kind rule of the Master. The sins of the Karimojong are easy to spot. Our sins [self-righteous and mental bigotry for example] are more subtle, but every bit as evil. How we all need the mercy of Jesus!

Al is truly a great guy to have there right now; humble, culturally-sensitive, and yet honest and always bringing the gospel to apply. And it sounds like the mission is working pretty hard to hand over leadership to Karamojong leaders, which is good news. It would be awesome to go back in a few years to all Bible studies led by locals strong and growing in their faith.

Random again...

I wish I could think of a good story, but honestly I haven't heard much from Karamoja lately, and have been too busy and tired to do much thinking out of the ordinary... But on Monday night I watched Cinderella Man (a great movie, if you haven't seen it yet) with my family, and for some reason that made me miss everyone in K'moja. I just would love to see everyone again. Pictures don't cut it, although they are definitely nice!

Addie, my idea about the spear curtain rods wasn't original. Here's a picture of the curtains in the living room of the main house. I like the blanket look, but something like this would be cool, too.

The curtains (and I'm not in the picture!)

And one more from Billings...

is in Karamoja now. Or going to be soon; I assume she arrived safely in Entebbe this morning (last night for us). My friend Amy went to Uganda on a missions trip a couple summers again, doing construction for an aids orphan group near Jinja. She's really interested in medical missions, though, so she's been wanting to go Karamoja and work with Kris in the clinic. She took all her finals a week early just so she could have an extra week of Christmas vacation to spend there! Anyway, I've been very excited that she gets to go. She traveled there by herself, too, which I admire a lot. (She just graduated from high school this spring.)

Actually, I guess Amy will be in Kampala for a few days at least. Kris and Craig brought two of the schoolboys there for surgery - Onyang had surgery on his knee, which has literally been bent out of shape (by polio?) although he can still play soccer amazingly well with it, and Lokwan, who had cancer maybe a couple years ago, and whose hip bones were basically rotting away from the chemo. Two of the other boys (Lokwi and Emmy) came to take care of them in the hospital. Of course, they also all got to enjoy the treats of a big city, including ice cream and pizza. Neither tastes entirely American at the Garden City mall, but they are pretty darn tasty just the same!

Does it seem weird to anyone that spears are still readily available in Karamoja? It just struck me today, as I was thinking about whether or not to use spears as curtain rods somewhere in my (future) house, that I just took spears and such as pretty ordinary. Now chickens being carried upside down or hanging from the back of bicycles always seemed funny in both senses of the word...

I got a group e-mail from Chrissie tonight - she enjoyed her "Markete Day" experience even though it sounds like the mzungus are getting mobbed by greeters and people asking "You give me 5000..." more than ever. (Must be the blond hair.) Tonight the people at the mission are painting salt dough ornaments - I hear Amy got a Christmas tree!

That's really all the news. I wish there was more, but Chrissie will be back soon I guess...

Oh, I got to see a picture of baby Morning! :) These guys just spent about a month in K'moja and have some great pictures as well as things to say.

Introduction to Nampula

Amanda has graciously invited me to share some of my experiences in Africa on her blog. She asked me weeks ago and since then I've had so many posts rattling around in my brain that I didn't know where to start. So I thought I'd start at the beginning:

I had a window seat when we flew into Nampula, Mozambique after six exhausting days of travel. Nampula is a big city - 350,000 people and 450,000 in the surrounding areas. But as we approached I didn't see any city, just a runway and a little airport in the middle of what I thought was some kind of forest. As we descended further, the realization hit me that I was indeed looking at a city, a city of mud huts with thatched roofs stretching for miles and miles in every direction. A city that was merely an endless forest of mud and thatch. Right then I knew I was an awful long way from home!

Here is a recent picture of Nampula, from the website of the missionaries I went to work with (more on them later!) It looks more developed than when I was there, although the central downtown in the middle of the picture was there in 1998; I just couldn't see it from the plane. I think most of the people of the city still live in mud huts in the surrounding areas, however.

Fellowship

This morning we celebrated the Lord's Supper at my home church in Billings. It's always the thing I most look forward to on the first Sunday of every month; not because I usuallu feel something really profound or some super closeness to God, but sometimes I realize my own sin and what forgiveness looks like. And how closely we're joined as one body in Christ (whether we always want to be or not).

Today as our pastor, Alfred, said "The blood of Christ, given for us," I thought of enemies for some reason (maybe he said something about that), which led to the Pekot, the old enemies of my friends in Nakaale. I had to repeat it in my head, "The blood of Christ, given for the Pekot" because it didn't sound right, like, will any of the Pekot really be saved? (As if they're somehow different than the rest of us!) But then all sorts of names started going through my mind, back and forth between Billings and Karamoja: Christ's blood, shed for Kyalo, Alfred, Joyce... God really does bring his children together at the table. It doesn't give me a warmy fuzzy feeling, but I feel like I'm kind of beginning to grasp the solid reality of God's kingdom.

And on the subject of the worldwide church...my friend Melodee spent a summer in Mozambique several years ago, on a trip with Teen Missions International. Hopefully she'll be guest-posting about some of her experiences there; I'm looking forward to hearing more about it!

I should have used this with my earlier Africa Mornings post. Just in case you're interested, you can kind of see my favorite tree through the window. It took my a few days to get used to the watchmen snoring on the porch right outside my window, but after a while it was somehow comforting. (In spite of many good memories, I did hate staying in that house alone! It was much more fun being at the Wrights for the last two weeks of that trip, thanks to an influx of visitors - either that or stay in the Prawius' old kitchen, which was a totally unused part of the house. The Wrights are MUCH more appealing. :) )

My bedroom (now Amy's) last summer


you can see why I wanted to stay at the Wrights... ;)

Bandits

I just got an e-mail from my friend Chrissie, who's been in Karamoja for the last month. She's having a great time and picking up the language much faster than me! But she shared that Kris and Craig got shot at while driving up to the hospital in Metane (sp?) in Northern Karamoja...I assume by people who wanted to rob them, as that's how it usually happens. (A catholic priest who'd probably been in K'moja for 30 years was killed earlier this year - this is all non-LRA or get-rid-of-foreigners related violence.)K & C are coming back a different way, but please pray for them today if you think of it. So far everyone's been pretty safe, but there's always risks.