August 2013

Reflections on Kenya and Uganda: Two Musings

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Two unrelated observations today . . . Lots of Children. One thing that strikes you as you drive the countryside of both Kenya and Uganda is that there sure are a lot of children around. Schools both public and private, day schools and boarding schools, dot the landscape. You can’t help but notice the kids in their school uniforms walking along the highways and byways, acting as young people do everywhere. After making this observation, when I got home, I looked up the statistics provided by the Central Intelligence Agency, of all places:  Uganda’s median age is 15.5 years (birthrate […]

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Reflections on Kenya and Uganda: Raise the Roof!

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Our second full day in Uganda was dedicated to exploring ministries to children at risk in both Makindye (a district of Kampala) and a rural village. Surprises awaited us, all of them delightful and encouraging! First stop was to visit St. Mbuga Primary School adjacent to Gospel Messengers Church in Kampala at 8 a.m. Six hundred twenty-five students and about twenty faculty were gathered in the central patio of the school, arranged by class and therefore by age and size, from the teeny-tinys to the right all the way to the upper grades to the left. They greeted Andy and

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Gospel Messengers in Kampala

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A long day of road travel, through construction traffic and a border crossing into Uganda, we arrived late and weary to the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. Pastor Moses Semanda awaited us there in the lobby; he was also weary after his return from Rwanda where his church group was completing a week-long mission trip. We agreed to call it a night and rejoin in the morning, when we would come to Gospel Messengers Church. I was scheduled to preach two services there. Andrew our driver picked us up at at 8:30 after a rather rough start to our morning.

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Village Enterprise

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After our 5:30 to 8 a.m. hike above the rainforest canopy, we switched gears and climbed into the safari van for a trip into Kakamega to meet the Kenya team of Village Enterprise. VE was started in 1987, the year I was ordained in the PCUSA, by Brian Lehnan and Joan Hestenes Lehnan, Presbyterian friends of ours. They had graduated from Eastern College (now University) with the hope of becoming overseas missionaries. A medical condition prevented their call from becoming a reality, and so after prayer and an assessment of the needs, they founded an organization to address deep poverty.

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Above the Canopy

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Next stop on our great Africa adventure itinerary was Kakamega, Kenya. Two features drew us to this city in the west:  the Kakamega Forest Nature Reserve, home to many unique birds, and the Kenya office of Village Enterprise. I will cover VE tomorrow, but for this Sabbath, let me share some thoughts evoked by the experience of walking through a rainforest before dawn. The Kakamega Forest is an equatorial, tropical rainforest of about 250 square kilometers. It used to be the eastern end of a vast forest that stretched uninterrupted all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. But over time,

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Neighbors

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As I contemplate our next, briefer, visit with a local Kenyan family, Mr. Rogers’ theme song “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” comes to mind: It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?  Could you be mine?… It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood, A neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine?  Could you be mine?… I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day. Since we’re together we

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Getting Our Feet Dirty—Part II

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“Have you been on a farm/ranch/pasture? Have you been in close proximity of livestock?” The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Form is reinforced by a Customs Agent’s direct question. When I answer “Yes,” he writes a big red “A” on my form and points me to the agricultural inspection line at San Francisco International Airport. The agents want to see the shoes we wore in Kenya and Uganda. Inspecting the dirt in the tread, they took two pairs and gave them an antiseptic bath. Yes, we got our feet dirty in equatorial East Africa. My thoughts drift to our first

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Getting Our Feet Dirty

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Over the years, one of our objectives for a vacation has been to “get our feet dirty.” This is our code phrase meaning, “Get out into the country, behind and beyond the tourist magnets, into the everyday world of our destination.” Like bird-watching, traveling through “the back door” (Rick Steves’ helpful image) enables us to sharpen our focus on a way of life different from our own. We have gained insight into the social, political, and economic realities of the places we visit by having heart to heart conversations with the locals in their natural habitat. On this trip, the

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: God Created the Beasts of the Field and the Birds of the Air

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A trip to Kenya means “safari,” an overland journey to view wildlife in its natural habitat. We had several opportunities to do this, and what a geography lesson it provided! After our brief stay in Nairobi to adjust to Africa time, we made the half-day drive to the great Maasai-Mara National Reserve. This huge park, which straddles the border with Tanzania, is home to the largest concentration of animals in all of Kenya. We were there during the great wildebeest migration, an annual event that temporarily changes the focus of the entire reserve.  An African legend describes the wildebeest, somewhat

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Reflections on Kenya & Uganda: Travel as Withdrawal

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Yesterday, I made the observation that travel is a sort of incarnation. In our case, a seventeen-day adventure in Kenya and Uganda included a ministry of presence with impoverished children at risk, new small-business owners, school teachers and pastors. Just being there brought a message: “We see you. We know you are here. There are people praying for you. We support your work for the Kingdom of God in this place. God knows what you are doing here with so little, and he will provide for you.” Over the years, we have discovered our best vacation memories revolve around encounters

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