Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A Tale of Three Kings
We were in Kampala for the past few days, dealing with passport issues etc, and while we were there we got the chance to attend the Watoto Church's Christmas Program. Unfortunately the children's choir didn't take part in it, but their adult choir is huge, and when they performed their very African songs and dances they were great.
(Sorry for the blurry photos- no flash was allowed during the performance.)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Another Goodbye :(
Goodbye to Scott, who left for home on the twelfth, and Natalie, who left yesterday.
Love and miss you guys.. can't wait to see you in Vancouver Natalia ;) xox
A Christmas House for Shrek ("This is the Part Where You Run Away")
Our classy gingerbread house didn't turn out the way we expected, what with having only minimal candies, green & red icing, and 4&6 year old helpers... so it became a Christmas house for Shrek :)
Return to Eagles Wings
Last October/November our family, along with Carissa (my friend, who was traveling with us at the time: Taking the Midnight Flight to Cairo, Cairo to Uganda! , No Need to Say Goodbye...), got the chance to visit Eagles Wings Children's Village for a week (look at these two posts from last year to read a bit about our time there: Uganda!!,
and A little bit of Grace).
We loved spending time with the children, and so when we moved up to Masaka, and realized that we were a mere five minute walk to the compound, we were very excited.
It was amazing how much the children had all grown in one year... but they all remembered most of our names!
We had a great time playing with them, and getting to know them, and are looking forward to spending more time with them in the near future!
This little guy -Elisha- was new to us, but we quickly fell in love with his chubby cheeks! He was brought to them in January of this year, starving and around the size of a small baby... now, less than a year later, he's a healthy, happy, fat little two year old boy!
Ibra Jr was tiny last time we saw him... now he's so big, and doing great!
Fred & Peter, my favourite boys xox
Thursday, December 9, 2010
New Year's Directions...
Once again, this post is borrowing my parents’ words, and is extremely long! But please take the time to read this, it holds news of exciting new ministry possibilities for our family in the new year!
***
“Greetings from our family to yours at this time!
We trust that you are not too stressed rushing around in this busy season. It is strange to be hearing reports of snow, ice and freezing temperatures in Europe and Canada as we continue to bake in the African sunshine. Our doors are open, chickens wander in and out, we long for some cooler weather and Ayana and Moses run around in shorts and t-shirts all day long. Christmas carol lyrics about “Winter Wonderland” seem so incongruous as we don’t remember the last time we put on coats!
As we approach Christmas and another New Year, we want to let you know what is happening for us. It is a season of new beginnings and new directions in many ways…
As you may know, [most of our family] visited Zimbabwe last April/May and we have very close connections with a few people that are both from there and live there. We are eager to let you know that we have an incredible opportunity to be part of founding a new work there that completely fits with the vision that we have always had and has additional elements to it that are very creative and exciting. The work will be community-based and focused on orphaned and vulnerable children, the under privileged and the "least" in the area. While we had planned to stay in Kibaale for a longer transition period, this opportunity has come up sooner than we had anticipated, and fits with our original dream and vision perfectly.
Our Zimbabwean friends have many acres of land with established buildings in a rural area called Musana. The plans are to establish the ministry on this land. There is already permission from the area chief, which in Africa is vitally important as it means that the whole community is automatically in agreement too.
Our primary focus in our own vision has always been the emotional healing of the orphaned/vulnerable children, while simultaneously providing visible care for them in their own communities. We want to see these children being raised up, given a chance to dream, given skills that enhance their self- esteem and that elevate them from thinking they can achieve nothing…to knowing that they are skilled and valuable. Our aim is to give these children a hope, a dream for the future.
The initial goal would be to start with a simple feeding point a couple of times a week which would begin to engage the children, clearing an area of land for the children to play in, providing a few basic toys (soccer balls, “parachute” for parachute games, see saws etc) and then to start building relationships and holding small creative classes (dance, drumming etc.) In time and when trust is established, there would be an opportunity for the children to participate in art projects and art/play/pray therapy … looking at healing through the arts. Community visiting would also be happening simultaneously.
There are currently no services of any kind in this area; no clinics, no welfare or social services, no community centres etc., and so the snacks and play areas will be an immediate draw as the majority of the kids are living in very impoverished circumstances. In fact, in the local school, a large percentage of the children are from child-headed households or live with relatives as they are orphaned. From our initial investigations, we anticipate as many as 75 children coming for food weekly within the first month.
We will be working with a woman called Esther that lives in the house on the property (where we also stayed when we were there) and already takes care of five children there. She is well connected locally, and has dreams providing food, care and counselling to the many vulnerable children in the area.
We will also be working with Esther’s nephew, a young man named Adonis whose dream and passion will be to oversee the creative side of the ministry. He is a professional dancer and an accomplished drummer and musician. He is Zimbabwean, and has already relocated to Zimbabwe from South Africa and is in the initial stages of contacting schools and compiling lists of the most needy children in the area.
We tell you this to show you that a lot of the hard mapping work and relationship-building essential to pioneering new work is already in place. We are working with Zimbabweans who know the area, the local people, the culture and the language. This makes establishing a work in this area significantly easier than starting from what is termed a "cold" community.... in fact if we were to start from scratch, it would take at least one to two years to get to the point things are already at.
We will be renting a house in the capital of Harare which will enable us to have access to the very good infrastructure of the city with internet access and amenities, while being only 45 min drive away from the ministry site. We plan to move in the middle of January 2011 so that we are there to begin the ministry at the start of the African school year.
We are so very excited at the beginning of this ministry…we hear God’s heartbeat for these children in Zimbabwe and feel privileged to respond.
This is long J Thank you for taking the time to digest all of this.
With much love,
David and Lesley and family.”
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Primary Speech Day
On the second last day of school, the Primary School (from Nursery to P/Grade 7) had their "Speech Day". All the parents and family came, and each grade did their own special presentation or performance. I stayed for nearly all of it, and although it was 99% in Luganda I still quite enjoyed it.
At the end of the day, awards were given out for things such as "Most Improved", "Best English", and "Most Intelligent", and I was so happy to see my youngest sponsor girl recieve one such award!
After everything was wrapped up, a hot meal was served for everyone who attended... the lines filled up immediately!
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