goodbyes

So, a week ago today the Myhre family left Bundibugyo. Hard to believe it's been a week already. We are pressing on here, after a couple of days' rest in Fort Portal (pictures to follow). It's a strange limbo we are in here...a small band of us in a wide variety of siutations, some lingering emotionally in the past, some focused ahead towards the future, all of us meanwhile trying to get whatever presents itself to us today, done...so getting by day to day, but not all that sure that we are doing very well much below the surface... I have a few photos to capture a few of the events that led up to the departure of the MAF flight piloted by Samuel last monday morning. First: take off! Wesaloeh!
our attempts to say what's important!
the Myhre's and their boys.
church on Sunday, the begining of a day of celebration of what God has done, and in this moment, prayer for what God will do!
the proud purchaser of a single papaya in the offeratory auction for a mere 21,000 Ush!!!! Given then as a gift to the Myhre's
The celebration at Christ School of what God has done in the last 17 years. The highlight performance = Alpha Kindergarten's muleddu
Scott and Jennifer with 3 of the doctors in training they leave behind...seeds in the ground for the future of health in Bundibugyo. So glad to see the faces of these guys.
Jack at work
drumming attempting to keep cool
Desmond testifying to God's work at CSB with the backdrop of the Rwenzori's
Jofrey and Vincent testifying to God's work in the church. I would post pictures of Pat and Scott and Jennifer's words of testimony and encouragement but it was so close to dark by the time that came, the pictures aren't very good.
RMS commencement for Jack and Julia on Friday afternoon...small but sweet.
stellar student - recipient of the "most helpful" award = Julia Myhre
teacher and students - the end of an era of RMS teachers in the Myhre family's life

NHC staff - 17 years of working side by side
fun and games in the process :) Scott and Biguye.


So, there you have a few snapshots of the festivities. What you don't see are the tears. What you won't read are the words we didn't have...what to say. WE LOVE YOU MYHRES!

just a few tidbits on a saturday morning

• killed 2 HUGE rats in our house this week...both in a 24 hour period of time...picture this: Heidi with the push broom, Anna Linhart with the aluminum t-ball bat, a slightly poison-drunk rat the size of a small ferret shimmying across the front room floor...shrieks, cracks of the bat on the cement floor...a squish followed by groans and a high five in the hopes of a couple nights of ratless sleep! Wuh hoo!!!!!!!
• torrential downpour at dinner time yesterday shortly after a conversation with my sister about monsoons in India...pretty sure this was something like she's seeing in Mumbai...but as our porch began to flood I donned my rain boots (thanks to Susannah Eisenbraun!) and braved the monsoon of sorts in order to unclog leaves and brush from the rain ditch that runs around the side of the house...I wasn't quite sure if it was effective in the least, but when I had done all I could, I looked up at the porch and the water had receded...success!
• last team mtg. with the Myhres on thursday...quiet tears during priority prayer and praise, a heavy hearted dance party.
• "Mujungiri" (stubborn one) = Jeff and Carrie tell me that I'm the most stubborn person they have ever met, and many others would probably join them in that claim. This has been a week of battles waged inside my head and heart...thursday I realized I need to give up the fight. I am not in fact an orphan that has to fight for and stick up for herself in order to survive. Giving in is like death to me...I've done a lot of dying this week, and believe me, it's not pretty.
• Last saturday morning walk with Jennifer. I don't get up at 6:30am on Saturday mornings for just anyone. These have been really sweet times, blessings of friendship in the midst of work. Again, quiet tears.
• Anticipation of the party of a lifetime! Tomorrow there will be church followed by a meal and party to celebrate the work God has done over the last 17 years of service in the time God has given the Myhres and Pat here in Bundibugyo...There will be choirs (like 4-6 of them I think), there will be dancing, there will be testimony. I most look forward to the singing and dancing of the choirs...the drums, the harmony, the voices - so beautiful...gives me goosebumps...
• Anticipation of many tears monday morning on the airstrip...I'm thankful for the tears, it means there's much to be thankful for.
  

4th of July: Bundibugyo Style

Miss Anna and her older students sporting their red, white and blue
The current RMS contingency singing the Star Spangled Banner to wrap up their parade
Mama (Amy) and Aidan
Miss Anna gettin' her hoolahoop on!
The hoolahoop toss face-off...a penalty toss elimination round...Amy vs. Scott
The cheerleader's focus
the hoolahoop toss is serious business...

Standing in the gap, vol. 4: the REAL deal (the BEGINING and END of the story)

I know, I know, enough with “the gap” already…but bear with me for one more volume, because this is probably the cream of the crop…and I can take absolutely no credit for it…this is what came from sitting with my computer at the dining room table on a Saturday at lunch time. Anna was Miss Scripture Interpretation and Amy was the source of the tip, so they are clearly the brains behind this operation! I guess you can chalk it all up to teamwork, but I’m just the messenger. Bear with me as I put on my “Pastor’s kid” hat and sermonize a bit.

Amy mentioned the other day that there was an Old Testament reference to this idea of “standing in the gap.” The gap is a two layer analogy of sorts…there is a gap between what WHM used to be, and what WHM will be in the future, but the supernatural “gap” is a chasm between us and God that is full of our sin that separates us from Him. Unsure of exactly where this passage was, we talked about being interested to find the context and situation in which the term was used to begin to make comparisons. Webaleh biblegateway.com ☺ I typed “stand in the gap” into the search engine and voila, there it was, Ezekiel 22:30. I know virtually nothing about Ezekiel, so I went and started by reading the whole chapter.

It seems Jerusalem was pretty much a hotbed of sin. The chapter goes on and on about the evil and wickedness going on there at the time…bloodshed, idol worship, mistreatment of the poor and needy, sexual craziness, bribery, extortion…sounds like most places in the world today, eh? The United States and Bundibugyo both. Well, God wasn’t so fond of the situation. God speaks very clearly of his wrath that will surely come to Jerusalem, fiery wrath in fact. Doesn’t bode well for Jerusalem.

Well, this is where verse 30 comes in…

"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”

When I read it, I thought, hm, he looked around for someone willing to speak up and say no, don’t destroy Jerusalem, but no one was willing. But here we are in Bundibugyo, willing to stand in the gap and say, no, don’t destroy Bundibugyo. Well, Anna went way deeper. She pointed out, “He couldn’t find anyone because there wasn’t anyone, there was no one who could, no one who could save Jersusalem from their sin.” Likewise, there is no one who can stand in gap between God and me and save me from my sin that separates me from God. No one except Jesus.

Jesus is the only one who can save Bundibugyo from it’s sin. We can be physically present in the gap, but we cannot “mind the gap” so to speak, we cannot fill the gap. We can be representatives of God, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, but we CANNOT be Jesus to Bundibugyo. But because we are physically present in the gap, physically present here in Bundibugyo, people will look to us to be Jesus to them, they will look to us to save them, but we cannot be their savior. We will fail them. We will be offensive and not love them well. As far as saviors go, as far as looking around for someone to stand in the gap on behalf of Bundibugyo - there is only one, and His name is Jesus.

Standing in the gap, vol 3: not the end of the story

The valley of death is rough, but it isn't the only view from the gap.

There are few bigger pleasures in life for me than making sick children smile. And yesterday, smile they did!

• Baluku, the malnourished boy who we put on TB meds after noting the older sister with a dramatic spinal TB protrusion
• Kabugho, Baluku's older sister with the dramatic disfigurement from TB - I remember her initial diagnosis admission and referral to Kampala and remembered that she had become my friend during that admission and had brought me an avocado as a discharge gift.
• Byamukama, the malnourished toddler who came for weighing and as he swung in the basket scale, I looked smiled and cooed at him in lubwisi and english and he shot me half a dozen ear to ear grins that were life changing at that moment :)
• Simon, who has a hole in his rear end the size of a tea saucer (his rear end isn't much bigger than a tea saucer) where an abscess from an private clinic injection gone bad was removed, but who reaches for his sweet and after we caused him a great deal of pain and anguish in changing his dressing still found it within himself to smile at Travis and I...likely because we were heading out of the door on our way home.
• Masika, a malnourished developmentally delayed girl with microcephaly AND sickle cell disease, who managed a little slobbery grin when I took her picture sitting on her mom's lap.
• The 17 year old mom who was sitting on the bench when I arrived on the ward with a 750g premie born 3 hours earlier (EGA 20 weeks based on mom's self reported LMP, but clearly would not be breathing and alive if 20 weeks were accurate...) tucked inside her dress for warmth. When I asked if it was a boy or girl, she reported girl and smiled when I said "ah! Webaleh."

Then there was the middle aged woman who Biguye (the lone clinical officer at the health center) was seeing last week when I stopped into the Outpatient Dept. to ask him a question. She looked strong and healthy and was in her last month of the 6 mo. treatment course...a result of Biguye's wise clinical judgement and functional diagnosis and TREATMENT, totally outside of the realm of influence of any of us World Harvest staff.

Also the Antenatal Care seminar that the In Charge Midwife, Rose, applied to the district for funding for and got it and was fully underway with posters and handouts when Pauline and I did inventory of our Nutrition store the other day.

The Christ School crisis last weekend when a teacher was locked inside his house by students, and the strong calm that Deus handled the situation with, the wise spiritual input and presence of Eric; riots averted.

The presence of 2 teachers at the Bible Study the Anna's are doing for the female CSB Orphan Sponsorship students, and their friendship with and encouragement to the Anna's this week.

Speaking of Pauline, meeting with her and Lamech and Baguma (our Agricultural and Nutrition Extension Officers) the last few days (speaking of standing in the gap...) and hearing their view of the gap. It is so encouraging to have wise, insightful, experienced coworkers in the gap. Pray for them too, they feel the effects of the gap probably just as much as we do as they are seen as extensions of us in the community.

And that bring me back to the subject of prayer...

I hope you get the picture: We are FEW, the expectations and needs and resulting challenges are MANY, but God is at work, giving us the HOPE we need to continue on.

But PRAYER is needed. The minute we think we can do this on our own, we fall flat on our faces...We are in desperate need for you to join us in putting Bundibugyo before the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe in these ways:

• Pray that people will to turn to God with their needs/hopes/desires and not only to us
• Pray that God will bring health and wellness to Bundibugyo through the Ministry of Health
• Pray that corruption will be brought down
• Pray that Christ School would have the resources it needs to raise up Christ-like leaders for the future of Bundibugyo
• Pray for unity, and spiritual growth and encouragement among the church leaders and therefore in the churches as well
• Pray for the provision of clean water for the district since the water system which is precariously positioned just below the surface of the road will get displaced when the road is paved
  
• Pray for the gospel to encourage and sustain Pauline, Lamech and Baguma Charles, the Nyahuka Health Center staff, Deus and the rest of the Christ School staff, in their work
• Pray that the culture of fear and jealousy will be replaced with hope and love
• Pray that we would see Bundibugyo and every interaction we have everyday in light of God's movement of redemption in us and this place.
• Pray that God would give us opportunities for rest and rejuvination.
• Pray that God would help us discern how he would have the few of us spend our time, energy and resources, on a daily, monthly and yearly basis as we look to the future.
• Pray that God would send us "fresh blood" so to speak, just the right new teammates we need to do the work He has called us to and has set before us.
  
• most importantly, pray that the GOSPEL will reign in power here, in all of us
  

Standing in the gap, vol. 2: Look, listen, feel

What does life look like in the gap? Here is a snapshot from my view:

Upon arrival in Bundibugyo you realize quickly that if there were a book written in Lubwisi about “love languages” there would be only one chapter. The title of this lone chapter would be “Ompeh” (“you give me…”). Gifts are the currency of friendship and the demonstration of love. Combine this cultural norm with the following cultural norm - relationships are communal…if you are “friends” (in a relationship involving the giving and receiving of gifts) with one person, you are by default friends with all of their friends/family/clan, etc – and for our team right now you get: a lot of saying no.

When you have a history of 20 + years of WHM missionaries in this community, that equals a lot of inherited “friendships” and a lot of expectations for our, now very small in comparison to the past, team. So, when any of these friends loses a family member or gets sick or has any problem, they come to us as their friend for assistance. The fact is, we cannot be “friends” to all of these people, not by Babwisi or American cultural standards. Now, that might be easy for you to understand, but for the person who just lost their cousin-sister’s daughter’s child and is expected to contribute to burial costs but doesn’t have the money and was friends with Alan Lee (for example – a pioneer WHM missionary in Bundibugyo), it’s not only impossible to understand but also offensive when we tell them we will not give them the sum of money they are asking for. So, with such a long history of friendships and so few of us, that’s a lot of saying no. With such a long history of really cool ministries and programs and resources, that’s a lot of blessing God has given our team the privilege of doing. It’s also a lot of expectation. Does that mean that the cool friendships, ministries, programs and resources are/were not so cool afterall? NOT AT ALL, please hear me out on that…it is just a reality of “the gap” and what it looks like to be standing here.

Saying no so much is exhausting…way more draining than saying yes. So, standing in the gap is what? It’s exhausting. But it’s what God has called us to right now. I believe it’s good for us and good for the community, but it’s hard.

When there have been 17 years of cutting edge community health initiatives; health promotion, disease prevention, outreaches, community education, acute care diagnosis and treatment, PhD’s in Public Health, PhD’s in Nutrition, several MPH’s, PA’s, and MD’s – the word gets out…there’s health care to be had…we were making contacts with people all over the district and people flooded to a health center that is poorly staffed at best. Medicine was provided, care was provided, lives were saved, medical and spiritual training was done, all as work was done alongside our Ugandan coworkers.

We are now a part time nurse and a part time doctor, Ugandan staff are few (many off getting more education), no National Medical Store essential medicine deliveries in several months despite bimonthly orders, hunger season getting underway (gardens are small and cocoa is in it’s off season), our own WHM medicine stock depleted and plans for purchasing still yet to be made amidst all of the transitions…The word is out that medicine is scarce, that those of us with white skin are few & far between, the wards are eerily empty compared to their usual packed to capacity volume, the ones who are coming are coming on their death beds, and we offer what we have but most often it’s not enough. Death is frequent, common, and has cast a heaviness in the air on the ward. The malnutrition section of the ward was totally and completely empty this morning, save a lone bottle of Normal Saline hanging at an empty bedside where the last of the occupants died yesterday. A few nutrition patients remain scattered throughout the ward, but nobody wants to be moved into a section where all but one patient died instead of being discharged. I don’t blame them. I stand here, 3days/wk I stand in the gap with my Ugandan coworkers, as does Travis 2-3 days/wk. I am honored to stand there with them. I am honored to stand where few white people have stood before, not able to offer the necessary solutions only able to offer a few resources, and mostly support and encouragement. This honor is mine not because of anything I’ve done, but because this is where God has called me right now, for just a time as this. Watching death is hard, it’s not what we were made for, it’s not what children were made for, but it’s where God has called me right now. What does the view look like from the gap? It looks like the valley of death.

But the valley of death is not the end of the story…

Standing in the gap, vol. 1 : the BIG picture

So yesterday morning the tears came….they came as I watched my little buddy Chance take his last breaths sitting on “the bench” next to the nurses’ desk, in the arms of his mom as tears trickled down her smooth dark skin…You should see the “deaths” column of the nutrition admission book…take my word for it, there are far too many check marks. I admitted 4 nutrition disaster patients last wednesday, and a week later, they are all dead…So, my tears joined mama and mamba Chance’s…but none of my coworkers seemed so affected, so I tried my best to keep them to myself…they probably thought I’m getting the dreaded “red eye disease”…no, instead, I have the disease of privilege…

These are hard times around here…the times they are a changin’. I’m going to try to do the best I can, from my meager 2 and a half years of experience, to describe just how it looks and feels and gets worked out here on the ground…it will likely take me a few installments to get all that jumbled around in my head down in some coherent fashion “on paper.” And I’m likely to get details wrong…and granted this is only my perspective on reality, so it is likely skewed.

When I came to Uganda in January of 2008 the ministry of World Harvest Mission here in Bundibugyo looked very different. We were a team of 4 families and 6 singles, each of us directly involved in ministries in the areas of Health/Nutrition, Education, and Water.

3 or so months before my arrival, God called the Gray family away from Bundibugyo in order to care well for the medical needs of their children. After their many years of service here, their departure necessitated the handover of the church planting efforts here in Bundibugyo into Ugandan leadership (no more missionaries whose primary responsibility is mentoring the leadership of and overseeing the churches in the area that have been planted by World Harvest over the course of the last 25 or so years).

2 weeks after my arrival, God called the Bartkovich family away from Bundibugyo after spending 10 years spearheading and nurturing the establishment of a Christian secondary boarding school for Ugandan youth here in Nyahuka called Christ School Bundibugyo. 2 years later, God called the Pierce family away from Bundibugyo after serving in leadership at Christ School after the Bartkovich’s moved. After strong solid leadership from the Barts and Pierces, Christ School also moved into Ugandan leadership with it’s first Ugandan Head Teacher, Tumwesigye Deus.

About 9 months after my arrival God called the Masso Family away from Bundibugyo to start a new WHM team in Mundri, southern Sudan. After establishing a water system that provides access to clean water for a large part of the district of Bundibugyo, Michael handed over control of the water system to the district water office. Now water is also in the hands of Ugandan leadership for operation, maintenance and repair.

So that means that the ministries of church planting, education and water have all been handed over to Ugandan leadership. This is a big deal! It is so encouraging to me to see God working in Bundibugyo in ways that make this possible! You also should know that this is not the end of the story for the connection of World Harvest to any of these ministries. We still support the Ugandan leaders in the church (for example, bringing the opportunity for Biblical teaching and education to them with visiting pastors), we still support the leadership and students of Christ School (with financial oversight, staff encouragement and Bible studies, farm consultation/oversight, accountability for the Head Teacher, and in Direction of the Board of Governors, etc), and we still support the water system’s leadership in communicating to them when maintenance/repairs are needed, in bringing Michael back for assistance with ongoing mechanical issues, etc. So, we are very committed to all of these ministries and are glad to remain connected and involved. It also all takes time.

All of these steps towards Ugandan leadership require steps of faith on our parts. It requires faith and trust in God’s love for Bundibugyo, to believe that these churches, this school, this water system can and will not just survive but THRIVE without primary involvement from one of our missionary staff, to believe that God will continue to raise up capable and hard working and Godly leadership in Bundibugyo. We COVET YOUR PRAYERS for each of these ministries as we trust God with them.

In less than two weeks we will add to the family departures from WHM Bundibugyo with the Myhre family’s move away from Bundibugyo for scheduled furlough and the new role of WHM Africa Field Director for Scott. This means, with the departure of 2 physicians, that in large part the health portion of our ministry here will be returned more fully to the national leadership in the Ministry of Health who have technically been in charge throughout the Myhre’s time here.

This is where God has called us: today is the first day of July, and when this month comes to a close, we will be 2 families and 3 singles, with all of the same ministries present as there were with the 4 families and 6 singles here when I started. Not sure if you noticed those numbers…but it is exactly ½…we will be half the size with the same number of things on our plate as a mission. The solution: our roles will simply have to look very different – how exactly? That’s a VERY good question. We are in the throws of figuring all of that out (and it may never get totally figured out), there are many decisions to be made in this regard. For how long will we be few? All that said, I really do believe that this is where God has called us as a Mission. I believe very strongly that God’s hand has been at work in the callings of each missionary away from this place in the last 3 years, both for their good and the good of the community here. I simultaneously believe that His hand has been at work in the call of each of us here right now. We are each here for a reason, we are few for a reason, and our Father is sovereign for exactly this reason! I haven’t got the foggiest idea of what the reason is, but my comfort is in the fact that there is one, and for now that is enough…most of the time…

So, what does this mean for us? It means that we are few, and will be even fewer…but this is what God has for us for now. It means that we need A LOT A LOT A LOT of prayer. It means that the Bundibugyo community needs a lot of prayer. It means that the Mission’s involvement in the community looks very different than it has in the past, and it means that a community not very welcoming of change is having and will continue to have a hard time accepting and adjusting to that. It means we are standing in the gap – the gap of what there once was and what there will be.

What does life “in the gap” look like?…stay tuned…