first update

Jambo Rafikis,

The last 2 weeks have been full of highs and lows. But I know that I am at the right place right now. God has been so faithful and I know he will continue to do beauiful things.

Okay I dont know really where to start now. So maybe I'll start with writing about my first day in Uganda. We arrived on Monday the 16th of September around 1pm at Entebbe Airport. After we got our luggage we faced the first difficulty. There was no one picking us up from the airport. I tryed to call somebody from the base but my Ugandan phone was not working. Then finally Benni called me. He said that Charles, who was supposed to pick us up, had to do something else. So another man from the base was coming. But it took us about an hour to find him. So at around 3pm we left the airport to start our way to Jinja. Because of traffic and a problem with the petrol we arrived at around 9pm. Just 120km and it took us 6 hours. Unbelievable! But thats african time. By the time of arriving I was not feeling very good. Just the fact of travelling for 19 hours without sleeping was too much for me. But then the people on Hopeland just welcomed me so full of love . Everyone was just hugging me and telling me how great it is to see me again. That totally changed my mood and I was so excited for my time in Uganda. I could feel how God used those people to show me how happy he was that I made my way to Uganda. And then I saw our nice room. We had our own shower and even a sitting toilett (not just a hole on the ground like I had it during my DTS time). I was so grateful.


So my first week in Uganda I spent at Hopeland. I was attendig a staff orientation week there. I thought it would be just some thoretical stuff but it turned out to be more like a time of fixing the relationship with God and growing in my real identity to be able to lead others - like the motto 'You can just give what you have.' It was so good to focus on God and to give him everything that was holding me back. I could release all my sorrows and just trust in a new way. At the end of this week we had a free day so we went to the nile. It was nice to see the beauty of uganda again and to spend some time with Benni and his fellow students.






On Sunday the 22th of September we travelled to Soriti. One of the leaders from Hopeland was going there by public transport and we decieded to join him. We could have also taken a privat car but that would have cost us about 200 Dollar. Taking the public transport was just 6€. But chosing the cheeper way was not very comfortable. We just had very little space and by the end of our trip I could not feel my butt anymore. But we made it safely to Soroti that was the most imortant thing. And it just took us 6 hours for 250km. So I guess that was good for travelling the african way. 

The people in Soroti welcomed us full of love as well. And again we have a very nice room, just for us two. And we even have a sitting toilet. God is really blessing us with those small but very important things. But the food here is a bit different than it is in Jinja. Here they eat more Posho but less Noodles and Potatos. I guess I just have to get used to Posho now. Maybe there is a little chance I will like it at the end of the 6 weeks here. And the other thing is that I feel like we won't have power very often. The last week we hardly had power and the last 3 days we went completely without. And we don't have Internet where we stay. Just at Amecet there is internet sometimes.





 

I really like working in the pre school though it's very different to austrian pre schools. Here the children have to know how to write when they start primary school. So in public pre schools they start to teach the kids how to write when they are 2 or 3 years old. And here the teachers are allowed to beat the childen when they do mistakes. And public schools are quite expensive so not all the children here in Uganda are actually going even though they are supposed to. The pre school I'm working at right now is a private one running over YWAM. It's called 'Harmony' and the school fees are very little so that even poor kids can come. Harmony Pre School is against violence and all the teachers are christians. This pre school has 3 classes: Baby class, Middle class and Top class. I teach 35 childen in Top class together with Teacher Betty from Kenya and Teacher Lorenz from Uganda. I really like working togehter with them and I'm glad that they help me with getting to know the Ugandan curricuim. I have to prepare now two lessons a day for the subjets 'general studys' and 'social studys'. Each lesson takes 30 minutes. It's new for me now to prepare without all my materials and books. Last week we didn't even have power or internet . So to prepare the first lesson was very hard for me and I almost lost my courage. But teaching them was great and I felt how God was using me.

 

 

 












Today I did some paper work with the kids. It was very new for them because normally they don't have paper. That sounds very weird I know, but the school just doesn't have the money to provide paper. It took me quite long to find paper by the way. I had to ask several people in town where to get it. But the most important thing is that the kids had a lot of fun today.









Because school ends at 12:00 I work in the orphange called 'Amecet' in the afternoon. It's so sad to see all this little babies without parents. Some stories are so touching that I had tears in my eyes when I heard them. But it brings so much joy into my heart to see them smiling when I play with them. Amacet has about 14 babys and little children and 2 teenagers who got raped and are pragnant now.















Last weekend we went to the clinic with one of the babys because it was vomiting for 2 days. When they gave her the IV I almost cried because it was so hard for me seeing her in so much pain.  I feel so sorry for little Alice that she has to go throu all that without even having a mommy who cares. I feel so blessed to have a mom.

  

On thursday and friday last week we went to the prison. There we did worship with the prisoners and one lady from YWAM was preaching. I went there with mixed feelings. Someone told us that the prison we are going to has all the murders and mans how raped from this area. I thought:"How could I ever feel love for those horrible people and minister to them?" But God made it possible. As soon as we reached this place I felt so much love and couldn't stop smiling at them. It's was so good and necessary to show them that they are love by us and God although they did horrible things. Others may not believe in them anymore but God will do it forever.


I think that's all so far what happend. I will try to write my next blog when I finished my time in Soroti.



Thanks to eveyone who is praying for me!

Miss you all!

Love from Soroti,
Raphaela

Going back to Africa

Dear friends & family,

Most of you have already heard about my plan going back to Uganda. While I was there the last time I just had the strong feeling that God wants me to come back to serve specifically in the area of kids. So I was talking to my base leader Dr. Tim and shared my feelings with him. During that conversation he told me about his big vision for the pre-school and a coming primary school on our base. He said that it would be so helpful to have a trained teacher during the time of planning eveything and also during the time of starting the projekts. So I deceided to come back when I was still there. That made it even harder to leave this place. But now its hard to leave Austria as well. I feel like I belong here too. I was spending beautiful 6 months in a christan school in Vienna. I learned so much in the area of teaching and about the way how to talk about God in school. But I know God will use those skills.


I'll be leaving on the 15th of September at 10pm. And I will arrive at Entebbe Airport at 1pm the next day. Then I will stay on Hopeland Base in Jinja for a week to attend a staff orientation week. After that I will go to another YWAM Base in Uganda. This one is in Soroti. Its about 6 hours from Jinja. There I will stay for about a month. This YWAM Base has already a primary school so while I will work there I can find out how they teach in ugandan schools. That will help me a lot to support the development on Hopeland. On the 1st of November I will be going back to Hopeland. There I will work in the pre-school and beside that I will help with the planning process of the coming primary school. During the summer break in December I will work with street kids.

This time I am not going on my own like I was last time. I will be flying with my friend Noemi. She will stay about 3 months with me in Uganda. My boyfriend Benni is already there. He is doing his DTS right now. After that we will probably work together in the pre-school. So our time in Uganda will be a time defining our relationship as well to find out what we going to do afterwards. We both don't know yet how long we going to stay exactly. At least we will stay till the end of March. I was thinking of maybe staying till June.


My adress in Jinja on Hopeland is:
Raphaela Seehofer
P.O. Box 739
YWAM Hopeland
Jinja
Uganda

If you want to send me some stuff, I would be so grateful. Just a chocolate bar or some tea bags and you would make my day! But if you want to send some stuff for the kids (for example some sweets, clothes, pens, books,...) I would be even more grateful. To see them smile just means everything to me! I could send you some pictures of the kids using your stuff in reverse.
If you are too busy to send a package you could also put some money in my account and I will buy the stuff you order for the kids.

(This picture is from a friend from America. She got clothes from a lady named Maria for the kids while I was in Uganda last time. The kids were just so happy.)



Prayer requests:

-  HEALTH, I need Gods supernatural protection in this nation full of malaria, typhus and so on. When I was in hospital the last time I was shocked by the condition there. It was a miracle I got well when I was sick.
- GUIDANCE & WISDOM, It's very important for me to hear God clearly and to get his direction. One of the questions I have is how long I should stay. An other one  is concerning my relationship with Benni. If God wants us to stay together and marry we have to decide if we move to Austria or to Swizerland (for those of you who don't know, hes from Switzerland) after coming back from Uganda. These are just two of my questions where I need Gods wisdom.
- VISA, Because I will be staying longer I need a long time visa. This one is quite hard to get. What makes it even harder is the fakt that all my documents are in German.
- MONEY, I have to pay staff fees (200$ per month) and I have to pay my own insurance. I saved a good amount of money during the time I worked in the school in Vienna but like it was last time there, you always need some extra money. I just hope I'll have enough money to stay as long as God wants me to.


If anyone wants to support me not just in prayer but also financially, here my bank details:

Raphaela Seehofer
BAWAK PSK
Konto-Nr.: 20110036400
BLZ: 60000


Thanks to everyone who is supporting and praying for me!

May God bless you!


Love,
Raphaela