Back to Africa

Ok I said this was coming so here it is...

Beth and I are preparing for a trip to Africa this summer. We will be leaving around May 16th, traveling to Zambia, Kenya and Uganda for 6 weeks. The purpose of the trip is to help a man named Duane conduct HIV prevention/education/motivation seminars. A secondary purpose is to go back to Ntungamo, Uganda; which is where we went last May with Purdue Christian Campus House. The final purpose is to get a more accurate taste of the missionary life, in order to determine if God is really telling us to go to Africa for the long-term. I will speak briefly on all of these things.

Origins
Last summer Beth decided before I did to go to Uganda with Campus House. Even though Josh was going too, I felt that it would be a good idea for me to go, spiritually and to protect Beth. Although missions was never in either of our plans individually or after we met, the trip changed everything.

We found out about the National Missionary Convention in Cincinnati and went to it in November. We knew that we wanted to go back to Africa and that God would show us who it was going to be with. We met Duane, who founded an organization called HIVHope, which is an affiliate of New Mission Systems International (NMSI). We also met several folks from NMSI and had a great feeling about them. So we contacted Duane a short time later and said that we would like to join him on his trip to Africa. And here we are.

Details
May 16th. 6 weeks. Zambia, Kenya and Uganda. Details about which cities and how long are still being worked out. However we know that the seminars are 5 days each and we would start on Monday. Leaving the weekends to travel to each new location.

The seminars are intended to facilitate local leaders to create a culturally relevant program for educating people about HIV and preventing the spread. It works so well because Duane does not go in, rattle off a bunch of scary statistics, and then try to implement a plan that would work in America, but fail miserably in the villages of Africa. The leaders and volunteers own their solution, they come up with the real details with Duane's help, and it is their responsibility to see it through. Africans that I know are proud, hard working people, regardless of their status, and I think it is received well.

We will also potentially have a chance to do some work in a few orphanages in Kenya. Uganda is purely for the purpose of visiting all the friends that we made last summer at the Compassion child development center. To see all of those kids again is going to be one of our greatest joys. For however long we end up staying there, we can just volunteer wherever is needed and spend time with the children. We will also hopefully be able to make the short drive to Mbarara, Uganda and visit Emmanuel, which you may remember from a post I had several months ago. Emmanuel is our sponsored child from Uganda.

Most of you have or will soon be receiving our support letters. I am so appreciative of Mr. Doug Sindelar creating a logo for us, which you can see to the right of the page. It was made in black and white for our letters, maybe he can enhance it later. He made that off of my 1 sentence description in less than an hour while he was sitting in an airport. He says it can be better.

Until Then
Until May we will just be working as normal and raising our funds. We will hopefully be able to talk to our home churches in late February and March. We obviously appreciate any support you can give, most importantly your prayers. It means so much to us and the people over their that we have a legion of prayer warriors back in the US. Trust me, you are automatically friends of them if you are our friends and living in the US.

Kenya is having some issues right now, but I am fully confident that it will be worked out by then and we can travel in safety. If not, well then we will just improvise and go somewhere else. Our friend Steve Rust is actually on his way back from 6 months in Kenya. His visa expired but he plans to go back I think. He was right in the middle of the violence but was saved from anything by God's grace. I can't wait to hear his stories.

Duane is leaving for India and Myanmar(Burma) this week. He has done these seminars all over the world. So we are excited to hear how that goes. You could pray for his safety and success if you would like.

Some cities you can look up if you are curious are Kitwe, Zambia; Narok, Kenya; Nakuru, Kenya; Entebbe, Uganda; Ntungamo, Uganda; and Mbarara, Uganda.