If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion-- how can God's love be in that person? 1 John 4:17
Women’s Ministry/Sustainability Project
I don’t even know where to begin. Today we began week 7 of
Sozo Women’s Ministry! How in the world has it been 7 weeks?! Time is flying by
and we are soaking up every gathering with approximately 85 women in attendance.
In total, 141 women have come through Sozo Women’s Ministry joining us in fellowship/bible
study at least one time. Every woman has received a Luganda Bible, notebook,
pen, and bookmark. And eye glasses for those who needed them. They have learned
how to open a Bible, reference the Table of Contents, flip to a book, and look
up scripture. We have given them an overview of every book of the Old Testament
and next week we will begin on the New Testament. They are enjoying the study
and are very engaged in learning and eager to share their life stories.
So, the big question everyone has (including us)…. WHEN does
the sustainability project for this group of women (bigger than we ever planned
for) begin? Landing in Uganda December 29 we had a small number of women in mind
(maybe around 14 or so) that the Lord would bring to this ministry that we came
to launch. He obviously proved us wrong, very quickly, and reminded us that His
plans are greater than we could ever imagine. Praise God for this because looking
back we were thinking “small small” (as Ugandans say) compared to what He is
unfolding now. PLEASE pray with us on this topic – for creativity, clarity,
discernment, and wisdom on the specifics and logistics - to make some large decisions soon that will
mark the beginning of the sustainability project. We are in talks with a US
ministry, which has operations in Uganda, discussing our women making a type of
bag that will carry this ministry’s product, which is a solar panel for village
families. We have identified 2 example bags, which we will soon take to a
seamstress to get an idea if we might be able to make a combo bag which includes
perks from each (and serve as a model for our women to copy). In addition to
that sustainability product, we also have a few jewelry ideas for our women to
make! We are excited about these for the here and now as this could potentially
solve an issue we are currently praying through with our women in the
village. Long story short, a Chinese
group bought land in Ngongolo Village and are hiring women for gardening. Job
hiring in the village is rare and great except this group is refusing their
employees to attend our gatherings. A few women in the group are lying to their
boss using the excuse that they have a sick baby in order to come to our
gatherings, therefore risking their jobs. Lately these women have been approaching
us in distress asking for our opinion as to what they should do. Make money in
order to feed their children and send them to school … or continue as part of
the Sozo Women’s Ministry as they wish.
Needless to say we feel the pressure now more than ever to get the
sustainability project moving so these women aren’t torn and can do both… make
money WHILE being a part of the ministry. Praise God in advance for the way He
is going to work all this out, even with such a large group number. We are
eager to see what God’s plans are for these heroes of ours and are anxious to
see how it is all going to happen!!! Please pray with us and email us with any
ideas you might want to contribute. You never know if it could be exactly what
we needed to think of.
Amanda & I teaching the ladies of Sozo Women's Ministry
Song and dance at a women's gathering. Yes, we are in the middle of the bush.
Our women proudly showing off their first Bible
Land
In other news, after the last 3 long years of praying and
searching, God has given Sozo 27.72 acres to call home in Uganda. We closed on
the land 2 weeks ago in Ngongolo Village and The Village Project is underway.
We absolutely cannot wait to see the building plans unfold and break ground. We
hope to be finished building within the next year and everyone from our four
Sozo homes will finally be on one piece of land surrounded by village
community! Not to mention it’s right down the dirt road from where our women
currently meet. God is good!
Our Ugandan Executive Director, Daudi, and & I excited to walk Sozo's beautiful land for the first time since the closing
Birthday party
Have you ever experienced a birthday party in Africa? Until
yesterday, we hadn’t either. It looks a little bit like this… the one year old
birthday girl, Nina, holds a huge knife to cut her “birthday cake”, we sing
happy birthday with a few extra sentences that aren’t included in your typical
Happy Birthday tune, the muzungus (white people) being us (the neighbors of
Nina) are the majority of guests in attendance, the brother steals the toy that
the muzungus gave the birthday girl, and the list goes on. We arrived with
birthday masks and horns that were the hit of the party. What a great
experience to take part in which served as a fun reminder how different our
cultures are but we can all come together in love and support.
Nina and her mom cutting the cake
Birthday girl's 1st birthday party
CoRSU
March is here which means we started our work at CoRSU
Hospital (Compresensive Rehabilitation Servces in Uganda) last week. They have
asked us to start by working in the classroom. The hospital’s patients are
severely burned children from all across the country of Uganda. Because they
come from near and far we found ourselves running into a huge language barrier.
Even our mediocre Luganda we have picked up while here isn’t even understood by
most of these children because they come from other tribes and tribal
languages. But nonetheless, Amanda & I had about 20 children broken up in
groups based on age. Anywhere from 2 years to 15 years. I’m not a teacher but
I, myself, couldn’t think of any lesson plans that would be beneficial for kids
of such varying ages, not to mention whom cannot understand you. So, that led
me to “shading” coloring books with the small babies as well as making videos
on my phone (could entertain them for days) while Amanda tried to read a book
to the older ones with the help of a translator who knew a few words in
English- haha- like I said, it’s a challenge. But we go back tomorrow expected
to have a “program” together as the teacher asked us what ours was on the first
day last week. We looked at her stunned and were speechless… T.I.A. We are not
getting stressed about it though because we know in our hearts how blessed we
were in one day interacting with these joyful small children with missing
limbs, burned faces, entire body skin graphs, etc. And we can only hope that
the love and attention we are sharing with them will make a lasting impact.
That they never forget the Light they see in us as long as they live.
Some of our baby heroes who are patients at CoRSU
Power
What is power? Sometimes when you’re living in Africa you
wonder. Why do you seem to lack electricity some weeks more often than have
power? Who decides to turn off the city power? Now we are in Africa and don’t
expect life to be the same as US but this is one thing that we can’t seem to
get used to. This past week we have
experienced little power. Almost every night the power has been off and we have
tried to learn how to sleep without a fan, to keep the mosquitoes from eating
us alive (even under a mosquito net), but we find ourselves longing for power
and even rats (a common thing) instead of mosquitoes due to no air flow. But as
we all joke when things happen over here that we as Americans just cant wrap
our head around we simply say T.I.A. (this is Africa!). Without forgetting we
are thankful to have it when we do because afterall, we are in the minority
when the power is on.
Teams
The last month we have had Sozo Directors in town from the
US working on the land closing and many other things. This has kept us very
busy while allowing us to have our hands in all kinds of “off-the-wall”
operations. It has been an adventurous time but we do apologize for the lack of
updates during this hectic time! Beginning Saturday the first of our March
teams will arrive in Uganda. When teams are on ground we are also going
non-stop but it’s going to be great to continue on with our normal schedule in
the village, etc but also experience life with them for 10 days. Amanda’s
parents come in the following weekend for a quick visit, and then another team
(with a few of our friends!) arrive at the end of March. Bring it on is all we
can say about the rest of March!!!
Sozo boarding school kids at Kitende Primary School (just because we're proud)
All our love to you!!!
By the way, the title of the blog "halfway there" marks halfway for our first 5 month stint in Uganda. We are 2.5 months down and couldn't be doing better! We'll be seeing you all over a trip to the US June 1.
We love you and love hearing from you! Thank you to those who have sent us such sweet encouraging words. We know you are in this with us and feel your prayers.
MADE for More,
Chelsie & Amanda
