Christ Reigns in our Purity Clubs!

As a young man growing up in the villages of Uganda, my eyes were kept away from the immoralities of this world. All i knew was that one had to grow up, by the age of 15 if he or she wasn't at school or was deemed over aged, the elders advised him or her to get married. The young man's aunts would then recommend various good girls where they themselves were married to the young man and he would pay his aunts different visits to have a look at different girls and from among them, he would pick for himself a wife! This was the way, the sure and respected way for every young man.

With years however, the trend started changing and young people would just pick one of their classmates when they reached adolescence or puberty and get married, or the boy would make the girl pregnant and in return, the girl's parents would chase the girl to marry her "husband". Getting young people who went through their teens without getting married started becoming a rarity.

After primary education, my sister took me to the capital Kampala in search of better quality education. Not did i only see some new and interesting stuff like many cars, tall buildings, new kinds of dressing by the females, i also witnessed immorality at it's peak! My cousin, the one i used to share a room with, a student like me just a class ahead of me one night shocked me when he brought his "sweet" stealthily to our room as i was sleeping. I later woke up and the scene wasn't good. After pleading and vowing not to do it again, i didn't report him. But as they say some habits take long to die, my cousin repeated the same thing after a few days and i walked out in the wee hours of the night for about a half kilometer to where my elder brother was staying. Surprisingly when i told him why i was knocking at his door at such a time, he wasn't amused and curtly told me that "don't mind, one day, you will also grow and go though the same experience". I didn't know what to make of his statement, a curse or a statement of fact?

Some how, these events, coupled with what i was seeing all around me, made me curious and many questions started to linger in my mind. After three years in the city, i decided i couldn't take it any more and returned to study in my sweet home town Soroti. I thought the foolishness and wickedness in Kampala hadn't reached Soroti, how wrong! 

In Soroti, my classmates would talk about sex and how they enjoyed sleeping around during broad day light and all these things. I was shocked to hear all these nonsense. What made it even easier for students in Soroti was the fact that over 98% of them were renting and staying all by themselves in various ramshackled houses. They were their own bosses and couldn't control their appetites. From this set of events, my roommate, who was another cousin of mine was sexually active even though he was much younger than me. After hearing lots of lies and cunning words, i got a girl that i had known for some time and lost one of the most precious gifts i possessed. All the lies i was told didn't make up for any slight enjoyment i had been made to believe. I was broken, full of regrets and even doubted my salvation after this fall. I thought God was angry with me, but thank God after years of feeling the full weight of guilt, i forgave my self and all those who convinced me and helped me sin, and once again, i felt the full love of the Father and started serving him in knowledge and in truth.

When i reached university, albeit after lots of other hurdles, i came to realize the full extent of the broken sexual world around me. My university room mate was addicted to sex and tried several times to make me follow suit, but my earlier experiences made me resolved not to fall under this temptations again. With the grace of God, i sailed through university and came out intact. But inside me, i felt there was a part of the story that was not being told. A story of Love and Reconciliation, a story of a God who forgives and restores. I had a thirst to teach young people that all talk about the bliss of teenage sex was not as nice as they are being made to believe. I wanted to start a campaign that would counter the condom lies, but the time wasn't right. I shared this idea with several friends, but none of them seemed to care about it.

It was later after i got married to my dream wife, that one time i shared this dream with her, only to realize that God had put the same thing in her heart. How God managed to locate two people from different continents to come together in marriage and unite forces to stand for the same cause, shows his awesomeness! with other friends from church and outside our church, we teamed up to start Loveworld Community Development Initiative (LOCODI) to champion this cause as well as child sponsorship for many orphans, some of whom are orphans because their parents engaged in pre-marital sex and conceived them as well as getting infected with the deadly HIV virus. The death of my Kampala cousin from HIV/AIDS early last year left me thinking of many other young people who are destined to go the same road, unless someone told them the truth and the benefits of waiting until marriage. Today, we have purity clubs in two primary schools and one secondary school with participation and membership higher than any other club in these schools. Many other schools are inviting us to start the same in their schools, but we can't because we are short of volunteers. In just less than a month, we have led over 200 students to Christ and are now in the much tasking task of discipling them! Jesus is now reigning in our Purity Clubs and the joy and the laughter that takes place during these sessions, is just amazing. Today, after sharing in Pioneer primary school, a host of students came to greet me and as if they were trained to say the same thing, they all kept saying "Thank you for teaching sir, may God bless you". I was startled and elated at the same time. God is doing a lot of stuff through us and there's no better opportunity to partake of what is happening than now, you can partner with us today and if you are already a partner, we want to say thank you very much for making God's dream come true. Now we need Bibles and other christian materials for our new converts.

Sorry the post is long, but i hope you enjoyed it. With much love, we say, God bless you and may the knowledge of him and his grace increase in your own lives.
Ruudy and Beckie.

           

A bacon cheeseburger

Two of my favorite foods are bacon and cheese, and when a new restaurant opened up in town with a bacon cheeseburger on the menu I thought about trying it out. Then when a teammate passed on the word, that yes the bacon cheeseburger was indeed good (b/c here you don't always get what you might expect), I thought yes, I need to try it. The teammate did mention that when his wife got the burger it was missing the meat paddy, or shall I say the "burger" part of the burger,  that we so often consider an essential part of the burger, but after a quick trip up to the then embarrassed manager, it was settled and the burger was added to...well..the burger. Confident that that confusion was now settled in the newly established restaurant, I went with Ruudy plus one of our other teammates and I was so excited about trying the burger that the others came on board and also decided they too would go for the elusive bacon cheeseburger. When the waiter came to take our order and we asked whether the bacon cheeseburger was available today, because sometimes, ok most of the time, the things on the menu are not actually there. So our hearts were still not too settled, and then the waiter told us he wasn't sure about a few ingredients in the burger so he would have to go and check. This is good, because normally he would just take the order, go back to the kitchen and come back 10 minutes later and inform us that, actually, it's not there. We patiently waited, and shortly he came back and announced, that yes, all the ingredients are surely available. So now with happy hearts we decide all of us to go for the glory of the bacon cheeseburger. He told us it would be 20 minutes, I told him, I'm going to time him, b/c most of the time I multiply by 3 when I'm given a time in this country. He laughed and changed the time to 30 minutes, I laughed and started the timer as he ran off to the kitchen. About 35 minutes later, yay! not 20 times 3, the waiter comes forth bearing what appears to be bacon cheeseburgers! We are excited, the saliva is already dripping, and the anticipation is great. He slowly sets the plate down in front of us. We smile, we cheer, I slowly pull back the bun, to reveal neatly stacked cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and even special sauce...but wait...alas, something is missing, could it be? why yes...the burger, the paddy itself is surely missing. Waiter, the burger is missing, no, no it's there, um....let me check, yeah, it's missing. oh. We look at each other, was the burger the ingredient that earlier he thought might be missing? Could the cook have thought that it was a nonessential part of the burger? We may never know. We kindly ask the waiter to add the burger to the burger, he kindly replies, it's not there, tomorrow. tomorrow? Am I really ready to risk such utter devastation again tomorrow? No way. Well, at least sir, could you please discount the meal, since it's missing a main portion of the...well...burger? Tomorrow. Tomorrow? You'll discount tomorrow? Are you already anticipating that if I come tomorrow as suggested, I may run in to the same problem? No way, please, just discount today, I may not make it back tomorrow. He finally takes the receipt back to the kitchen, and gives a small discount.  And we quietly, slowly eat our bacon cheese"burgers". At least the toppings were good. I can't wait to try the whole thing some day, but I've learned my lesson, and will verify that, all, whether considered essential or nonessential ingredients are available before I order again. May you also learn from my mistake.

Partakers

I was reading Luke 8 this morning, and after I finished the last sentence of the chapter, Holy Spirit was quietly whispering in my ear, "Beloved did you see that? Did you really see what you just read?" Then I thought back through each part of the chapter, what happened? There was a parable, Jesus redefines his family, and 4 different miracles happened. One demon possessed man restored, one storm silenced, one dead girl raised to life, and one lady healed of constant bleeding. Again Holy Spirit whispers, "This is your God, see His power. Over the spiritual realm, over nature, over death, over sickness." And this is all in one chapter. Now as I again look back through the chapter, I see just before this, at the very beginning of the chapter is the parable of the sower and seed. In this parable it is taught the importance of the Word of God in our lives, and then just after explaining the parable Jesus says, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." Immediately after this statement follows the four different miracles, as if God is to say, "Hey, hello, uh, you see, if you listen to my Word and put it into practice, there's no limit to the power that you may experience in and through you." 
I guess I write this as an encouragement. That whatever you may be going through, cling to what God tells us in His word, cling to Jesus, and put it into practice in your life, let Jesus have His way in your heart and there's no telling how God is going to work in and through you. He has power over the physical and the spiritual and He has shared that power with those who believe in Him. We are partakers. So let's partake, and bring glory to His name and joy to our lives and the lives of those around us.

it might be dry season if

It might be dry season if:
you find yourself almost wiping out in the sand every time you ride your bike around town
you shower three times in a day and still feel dusty
your lips have become like sand paper
your skin has become like crocodile skin
you sweep the house three times in a day and still it feels dusty
you find yourself laying on the cool floor tiles in the afternoon
you get passed by a car and your visibility goes down to zero
you drink 2 liters of water and you're still thirsty
you see babies are wrapped in only one blanket instead of 3 or 4
your hair turns a light shade of brownish-red after a trip from the village
you only stop to talk in the shade
you are sweating before 8am
you are sweating after 11pm
you try to dig and the hoe just bounces back of the hard ground
you don't even think about showering with hot water
you actually want the shower to be colder
your skirt gets blown up by the wind when riding your bike
it takes you twice as long to ride to the north than to the south
nothing happens between 2pm and 4pm
you go to the bank when you don't need any money just because it's the only place to cool down in town

Since all of these things are occuring now, I conclude by saying, that yes dry season is in full swing. It's hard to even think about 3 degrees Fahrenheit or negative degrees. We are definitely in opposite worlds right now. At least God always gives us the greater grace, whether it's too cold or too hot. We learn to be thankful in all circumstances. So thanking God with you this season.

a necessary debrief

I feel like i need to debrief after today. How can we be so cruel to each other? Today was a day of sad stories. First Dinah, an 18 year old girl that I've been sponsoring for school came back from the her home in the village to tell me that her relatives are mistreating her. She's what they call a bastard here and they keep reminding her of that.  Her mother had her when she was young and for a long time she didn't even know who her father was. About 4 years ago her mother died and so she's been staying with her grand mother and aunties. But while she was at school they ate the food that she had planted which she intended to sell when she finished with exams so she could build her own hut on the compound. Now the aunty wants her out of the house she is currently staying in and yet she has no money to build her own, they complain about feeding her, and wonder why she doesn't contribute money to the food. they're just generally mean to her and the grandmother mainly wants her married off so she can get some cows out of the deal. ugh. Now here she is in my living room crying and asking for help. I want to go and shake some sense into all of the relatives but instead I'll just look for some money and try to help her build a hut. and more importantly speak words of Truth over her and to her.
After she left we went to a school in a nearby village and was talking to the headmaster, Julius, about which students are most vulnerable in the school. We have begun researching for students who we can look for ugandan sponsors for. He told us there are many, 32 just in the bottom two grades, meaning they are either orphaned or living with HIV or their parent or guardian is living with HIV, etc... Then he told of one exceptional case where there are 5 kids in a child headed home. The oldest kid is a boy who is in 5th grade, then one in 4th and one in 3rd and two girls in kindergarden. The father killed one of their siblings so the village decided to kill the father and the mother ran away to her village which is reasonably far away, leaving her precious children behind to fend for themselves. ugh. So julius asked that even if we focus on the youngest ones if we could in this case think of at least two older boys too. Julius is currently letting them all attend school for free and taking it upon himself to pay for their uniforms. Please pray for these kids, i don't know their names yet, but God knows. And the two little ones only go for half day of school, so when they finish they don't go home and eat lunch, but they have to wait for their brothers to finish the full day and then go home around 4pm. And then they'll start cooking, which means these little kindergardeners probably don't eat breakfast and definitely don't eat the whole rest of the day until a late supper. Seeing them just standing around the school, just the two of them, broke my heart. I wanted to take them and just keep hugging them. Needless to say we will be trying to find sponsors for that family and the 32 other vulnerable kids in those lower grades at that school, and will also try to do a saturday program with them sharing with them the word of God and also giving them extra help in school work. I just needed to get that off my chest. I release them to our Good Father and entrust them to His care. To Him who sees us and is with us even when we feel so alone and invisible. amen.

I will not, I will not, I will not

I recently got the Amplified version of the Bible on my kindle and it has made reading some of the scriptures that I've gotten used to over the past several years come alive in a new ways. I love the way the writer in Hebrews 13:5b
"for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]^"

Isn't that great? He says, I will not fail you, or give up on you or leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I WILL NOT in any degree leave you helpless of forsake you or relax my hold on you.

Makes me wonder...will He ever leave me? Umm....let me check...nope, looks like He's pretty faithful and trustworthy.

Love this God.

Be Strong and Courageous!

The other night thieves tried to break into our house. We have metal bars on every window, so it's almost like trying to break into a prison. It was around midnight, somehow they had managed to begin to pry the bars away from the window so they could enter and grab whatever they wanted. Thankfully we heard them and scared them away before they were able to accomplish what it is they wanted, and they just stole a bicycle from the shed and some of our hen's eggs. The next night someone picked my tennis shoes off the front porch at 8:30pm, while Ruudy was sitting near the door. Seems crazy, when both times we were obviously home, they were quite bold and daring. I was kind of shaken up by it at first, I couldn't sleep well that first night, half asleep trying to hear any funny sounds, and dreaming of the completed break-in, etc...
BUT... God has not left us or forsaken us, He is with us, and cannot leave us. He has been quietly speaking to my heart reminding me that the enemy wants to steal, kill and destroy, and wants us to fear him and become paralyzed by fear. But my Father, He comes with His peace, and allows me to run under His wings of protection, and tells me not to be afraid, that He who is in me is greater than He who is in the world.
Lately Ruudy and I have been feeling a growing burden for the youth in our area, particularly in regards to sexual purity and intimacy with God. Also, one of my musl:m friends just accepted Christ. We think as we continue to pursue these ministries, the enemy is not happy and is pulling out all the stops to make us back down and paralyze us, to think twice about moving forward. In church on Sunday we read from Joshua 1:5-9, which reads:

"No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. ⁹ This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Wow! What promises. My heart is encouraged with this reminder. People are missing out on the full inheritance in Christ when we are paralyzed with fear.  I can confidently tell the enemy to bring it, knowing that he cannot touch me, and I am not alone. I am fixing my eyes on Jesus, I am not looking to the right or to the left. I am studying Him continually, I'm obeying Him, not fear.
Be encouraged with me friends. What the Lord has called you to do, it is worth it, no matter what opposition may stand in your way, no matter what the enemy tries to do to sabotage His plans, it is worth it to move forward in obedience, keeping your eyes fixed on Christ, we run the race with endurance. Be strong and courageous!