Ministry in Uganda

Here is a description from Global Expeditions of the ministry we will be doing in Uganda this summer!

Come bring hope to Uganda! Come reach out to those who have lived through traumatic circumstances and who desperately need Christ’s love. Your presence in Kampala will bring hope, healing, and restoration. Join ministry efforts with community churches. Many of the young people have been abused and have lacked parental attention and love. They have also experienced abandonment and rejection because their families are not involved much in their lives. Bring drama, dance, and music to the crowds at the schools. You have the chance to break into discussion groups where you will share your testimonies and will have the opportunity to ask questions to open their hearts to hear the Gospel.
In Gulu, you and your team will be working with teens and children who were once abducted and are now living in refugee camps. Most of them are orphans. In the refugee camps, teams will participate with the after-school groups of orphans who congregate to do art, sing songs, and make crafts. Come attract the children from the camps each evening, and share the Gospel through Bible stories and testimonies!
Ministry Tools: Personal evangelism through testimony sharing, discussion groups, drama, dance, and music.

Housing in Uganda!!

I found this video on YouTube. This is from last year's trip to Uganda, but I think this is a good idea of what the housing will be like.

Update from AliDup and Embera Puru

One of my leaders (her name is J-Lynn) from my Panama Holiday trip in 2007-2008 works for Global Expeditions. She travels to the countries before the teams go and make all the arrangements for the trip. She traveled to Panama a few weeks ago to check out the villages and decide which jungle and island villages the Panama teams this summer would be ministering on. As it turns out, she had the opportunity to go to AliDup and Embera Puru. AliDup was the island village that I worked in and Embera Puru was the jungle village I worked in, in summer 2007. I was so excited when I heard that that is where she went. Both of these villages hold a very special place in my heart and I talk about them very often. I can still picture the people who I ministered to and can still name their names. When I saw J-Lynn’s pictures I got so excited. I recognized the places she was and the people. I knew where she had gone even before she told me the village names. I was so encouraged to see Pastor Reynold’s, the pastor of the church on AliDup, in one of the pictures and know that he was doing well. Here are some of the pictures that J-Lynn posted of the places I had been.
(Top Pic: The man on the left is Pastor Reynols, 2nd Pic: This is in front of the church on AliDup. I specifically remember the girl in the middle with the orange shorts. I think her name as Maria and she took a special liking to our Team Leader, 3rd Pic: The good old bathroom... it doesn't look like its been updated to much. The path seems to be a bit shorter, 4th Pic: This is Embera Puru. Up this path is the school building in which I stayed in. 5th Pic: This is the hut that I made jewelry in with some of the women in the village. This was one of the most unique and memorable experiences during my ministry time in Panama, 6th Pic: The Jungle Bathrooms have not changed... the door however appears to be missing :) haha)

100 Day Countdown Begins!

In 100 days, I will be headed for Texas for training and then off to UGANDA for a month!! I'm very excited!!
Some of you may be wondering what exactly is going on in Uganda. You may have heard about child soldiers and a war, but are still wondering what is actually happening and how it all fits together. I did a little research because I was wondering the same thing. This is what I've come up with:

In 1987 one of Africa’s longest running conflicts began. This conflict still continues today and effects people in ways that are unimaginable to so many. The Lord’s Resistance Army emerged under the leadership of Joseph Kony, who makes claims that he is the “spokesperson” for God. The LRA has engaged in armed rebellion against the Ugandan government and is made up of abducted children who are forced to kill and participate in acts of war. Many children would commute from their villages to larger cities at night to avoid night attacks and abductions. They were called Night Commuters. Because the LRA was attacking villages, the Ugandan government forced many people out of their homes and into overcrowded Internally Displaced Persons Camps. Within the past few years talks between the government and the LRA to end the conflict failed and the war raged on. Since those peace talks failed, the LRA has spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and southern Sudan. In the past few years, 800,000 of the 1.8 million people displaced from this conflict, have been able to return home. But they have nothing to return home to. Villages have been destroyed and famlies have been torn apart. And 1 million are still left in IDP camps. While these camps provide places for these people to live, they are over crowded and are over run with disease. Many of the children who have been rescued from the LRA have no family and have been through extremely traumatic experiences. They are scared both physically and emotionally.

Here is a video I made with some statistics about Uganda.


Keep praying for the finances to come in and also pray for the people of Uganda!

(information found on: ugandarising.com, invisiblechildren.com, savethechildren.org, wikipedia.com, hcareuganda.org)