Outreach / Graduation / Teacher Training Course

Dear friends,

Unfortunatly my laptop is broken. So I'm using a friends laptop right now. For that reason I wont have enough time to translate in german this time - I'm sorry.

Because of some visa issues we couldn't leave uganda on the day we were supposed to leave (Nov. 24th) so we left 4 days later on the 28th. The bus driver was supposed to pick us up at 4pm but he came at 1:30am the next day... these 9.5 hours of waiting were exausting. The whole time me and my friends were complaining about how we wanted to be in the bus insead of waiting. But after about an hour on the bus we regretted this wish. Because of speedbumps, hours of waiting at the border to kenya (and later at the border to tanzania) and lack of food and water the journey wasn't comfortable. And instead of taking the expected 18 hours, it actually took 28. We arrived in Arusha on the 30th at 6am.

The first 2 and a half weeks we stayed at a place called "Mayi ya chai". The name of that village is in swahili and it means "Water like Tea" - it has the name because the water in the rivers there is broun like black tea. In Mayi ya chai we did programs with hospital patients, orphans, street kids and leprocy's. we also worked together with some local churches. One day I led worship in one of the churches and on another day I led the sunday school. Both times my leaders told me on the same day that Im supposed to lead. So I was a bit nervous because of lack of time for preperation, but I could feel how God gave me courage and how he worked through me.

One of my favourite days in Mayi ya chai was when we did a programme at the leprocy home. I was a bit scared because I had no idea HOW I could help people with leprocy and how I should reach those people with my little swahili... But God did a great job. I felt like I had even more fun during that day than they had. Just because they were literally soaking in the joy we bought. We danced for the people and sang songs and just sat together, sharing the love of God. Most of those people had experienced so much rejection during their life because of their disease. Most of them had lost fingers, hands and \ or legs and were not able to work any more. Some were blind and some used wheelchairs. Just greeting them and showing an interest in their feelings meant so so much to them.


The second half of our Outreach we spent in Kakatiti. The house we had there didn't have running water or electricity. Every day we had to fetch water from a well about 500 meters away from our house. That doesn't sound very far away but when you are carrying 20 liters of water every meter feels like one kilometer... Because we were only allowed a certain amount of water every day which we had to use for cooking, drinking, cleaning the house and washing plates and soucepans, excluding each of the 5 liters we were given a day for personal use (showering, washing clothes, brushing teeth..) - that was quite hard but definitily doable. It made me so much more grateful for every single liter. But sometimes the well didn't have enough water for every one. So my friends and I went a week without showering and washing clothes... that was an interesting feeling.

Apart from that the time in Kikatiti was amazing! My friends and I did a kid's programme for the kid's of the church we were working with. But we also invited street children and other children from our neighbourhood. The first day we had 8 children and by the end of the week about 50. We did games, songs and biblestorys with paper work. It was not easy to get all the materials we needed because we were in the middle of nowhere but God provided. We had enough papers and pens of every single children each day.

Christmas and new year was different than I expected. In Africa people do not really celebrate these holidays and when you have 35 degees celsius outside its hard to have a christmas feeling anyway. On the 24th of December we had a free day (like every monday). Me and two of my friends spent most of the day laying in bed and talking about how similar christmas in the heat is to the original christmas day over 2000 years ago. Next to our house we had cows, sheep and donkeys - that gave the real feeling of christmas.. or should have given.. How ever, Chriatmas morning was interesting but good. We woke up at 6 in the morning. We read the christmas story out of Mark then cleaned the house and then went to church. One of our students, Joe from the UK, was preaching about the real gift of christmas - the salvation through the birth of Jesus Christ. That helped to show me that I didn't have to be sad even though I was not with my family and there was no presents for me and no good food.. the most important thing about christmas is to know that I have received the greatest gift already.

New year was also interesting. There was no big party, no fireworks and no champagne. But we talked about every single month in 2012 and the good moments we had had. It made me realise how amazing the last year has been and how blessed I am. I went to bed at 10:30 not sad that there is no party, but grateful for the last year and excited for more blessings in 2013.

The first day in the new year we spent in an orphanage. Normally I sleep the whole day on the first day of the year but being productive and spreading joy seemed to be so much better. The kids were so so happy to have visitors and we sang songs together and ate good food and prayed for the new year.

We returned to Uganda last week and at the weekend we had our Graduation. We had a big party with many visitors, a long programme and good food. But even though the celebration was amazing we all were so so sad. It was the last day we spent all together. I cant believe how fast DTS went but I had the time of my life. I have so many new close friends now and some of them have left Uganda already. I can't tell you guys how much I miss them... It is unbelivable for me how a group of 44 students from different cultures with nothing in common except the same spirit of Jesus can get so close together. We were a great team and God worked through us and did amazing things in our lifes and in the life of others. I feel so blessed that I had the chance to be part of that.

This week and next week I have been given the opportunity to be part of a Teacher Transformation Course at the Hopeland Base were I live. Its a course for christian pre-school and primary school teachers from Uganda to get to know how to give chi;dren a biblical foundation in their education. I have learned so much the last two days and I'm excited for the rest of the course. The speaker is a woman from Germany who lives in Ghana and is in the leadership of the Early Childhood Development Center in YWAM.

　

I am coming home at around noon on the 31st of January. I can't wait to see all of you soon!

Much love from Uganda,
Rafiki