Today is Thanksgiving. My family has a tradition of going around the table while we eat and each of us says what we are thankful for. Every year I try to be clever but usually end up with the generic answer:  family, friends, and health blah blah blah. I am thankful for those things but what does that really mean? Until I lived in Africa it was only once a year that I would think of what I had to be thankful for. So even during time that I am struggling I try to remember that I everything to be thankful for.  

I have just spent a few days up in Soroti in Northern Uganda. The purpose of the trip was to check on some families who participated in a relocation program, visit some families living in Internally Displaced People Camps (IDP Camps) and to train some staff and volunteers in excel.  Most of what I just wrote doesn’t mean a whole lot to us, we don’t know what relocation or an IDP camp is. We hear about death and war but to most of us they are a concept not a reality. We know there are people who have nothing to eat and nowhere to live but it’s hard for most of us to truly understand poverty and hunger. Even amid these uncertain times in our countries history. (Sorry to those of you who don’t live in the US but I think you all get the idea) We are still rich beyond most of the world’s wildest dreams.  So heading into the holiday season from half way around the world, I have spent time today contemplating what I am thankful for: Family, friends, and health. Even as I sit in fear about my future I think that I have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be thankful.

The Lords Resistance Army, the rebel forces in Uganda, attacked Soroti district in 2003.  They are known for their brutality and abducting children and turning them into soldiers and “wives”. They raid villages, kill, and rape women and girls. I will spare you from some of the stories I have heard.

Apollo, the coordinator of the Mercy Network at ARM, Beth and I headed out for Soroti at sunrise last Thursday our journey began with a pink sky. I needed some time for my coffee to kick in before I attempted to maneuver the roads of Uganda. The trip up was uneventful and I drove the most difficult section of the road where the “pot” holes are as big a bathtubs. We were staying at the home of Pastor Julius. We rested and went to bed having an early start the next day.

After a breakfast of tea, home made peanut butter, chapatti and honey we headed out to visit some of the families who relocated from the camps to their villages.  Many of the homes were Pastors who have left the camps and have started village churches.  The church has become a central meeting point and system of support to the rural communities.

Relocation is a group effort. They share a pair of bulls to plow the land. One woman has been back for one year but only has sorghum and sesame seeds to eat.  They pound them into a flour substance and mix it with water. Her husband was not around and I got the feeling that he does not take an active role in the farming.

Another house we visited was the home to a pastor.  He and his friend brought out the bulls and hooked them up to a plough. They seemed to be doing very well. Their crops were producing and they had food to eat.  They were growing a variety of crops including sunflowers, peanuts, corn, cassava, pineapples, and orange trees to name a few.  They fed us fresh hard boiled eggs and grilled corn on the cob.  One of the hardest things to do is accept food from people who have so little.  Each house we went to was more and more rural. We drove for hours on dusty dirt roads and when we pulled off the main roads we drove on little more than paths to get to these homes. Sometimes there was not even a walking path to guide us. They shared with us some of their struggles and their triumphs. They told us how they ran from the LRA all the way to Soroti. (50 Kilometers) They stayed off the roads so that they could escape.  Not everyone made it. 

Almost every home brought out cokes for us. Again making me wonder how you can get a coke in the middle of the bush but there are no antibiotics. Each home showered us with gifts, fresh oranges, peanuts, and of course chickens! The last family we visited served us cokes and cookies. Then as we were getting ready to leave they said “Wait! We had to trick pastor with the cookies and soda. He never stays for meals but now we have you and you have to eat something.” They brought us chicken and rice to eat.

As we were leaving one home an elderly woman came running out to the truck saying Julius!!!  He stopped and they talked some. The tone of the conversation was mostly light hearted and I could tell she was asking why he didn’t come around more often. Then he gave her some change from between the seats. She was so happy she clasped her hands and then took his hands in hers and kissed them. It was 200 Uganda Shillings.  About $0.02.  It took every ounce of will to not empty my wallet into her hands.

The launch of the Child Sponsorship program was a great success and a way for the church to tell the community what they are doing. There were two members of the local government who spoke and one of them even sang a song that the children performed with some new lyrics. Sadly it is important to show that the program is transparent and has the government’s permission to operate. There have been several cases where the parents have paid to participate only to find out that there was no program. Or in the worst cases the children are brought to Kampala to go to school but end up working as house help or making bricks as slaves. 

I was able to train a few of the staff but it didn’t my look the way I thought it would and ended up being much more effective. I worked with a few of the staff one on one and was able to teach them while they were working with the program. They now know how to write formulas in excel and were amazed at how quickly it works out the calculations that they would spend hours working on.

Once again it is the Africans who have taught me what to truly be thankful for. Since I am not at home this holiday season I will tell you what I am truly thankful for:

Family: For always being there and supporting me in to many ways to name.

Friends: For knowing all of my faults and still loving me.

Health: Even with all the times I have been sick over the past year I am still healthy and have access to medical care that will at the very least make me more comfortable.

My Supporters: For all your kind notes, prayers and for providing me with the finances means to be here doing Gods work. Even though I am behind on my support I have never felt that I have had to go without.

I am counting the days until I return to the US,

Renee

 

 

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PS Renee did not ask us to send this, but we felt it was the right thing to do today so we can really count our blessings. We get updates every few months from her.   If you would like to help support Renee with a donation, or moral support with a letter, or a combination of both, let her know.  She will tell you the name of the church/organization to send it to so that she will get it.  They do not tell her how much you donate, nor if you do even, she just gets a check once and a while to cover expenses.  She returns back to the USA once and a while for a rest, then goes back to help folks out, often in an orphanage somewhere in Africa.  She has been doing this for years.  We think she has a website with a lot of pics, but don’t know the address.  She would give it to you if you ask no doubt. You could also get on her mailing list. 

Her e mail address is ....

 

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PSS Here is the section on our website detailing Michael’s spiritual journey, if that’s of interest to you: http://www.seewald.com/spiritual_influences.htm , don’t forget to read about the ‘accident miracle too, located on the upper left links there. 

Here is the beginning of the ‘spiritual influences’ page: “Michael did lots of odd jobs after graduating San Diego State University in 1976, but all were photo-related. Years later, he found he was stuck in a quagmire of running a photographic gallery he had opened in 1983 (too much time trying to sell his older work, no time to create the new). So he took a positive thinking class a friend had told him about to help try to finance a trip planned to China in 1986. His new 'guru', Robert J. Sturner of La Costa, explained how most of the top successful people of the world trusted in a 'higher power', and would 'plug into it' by prayer! This rang strange to him at first. Michael was, after all, an ex-catholic, and now an atheist. ...“