Sam's Posts

It’s hard to believe that our team has only three days left here in
Uganda! What have I seen? What have I experienced physically, emotionally, and spiritually? I wouldn’t be doing justice to search for a few words in my limited vocabulary to wrap it all up in a few generalized sentences to describe this trip for myself and others. So, it’s my turn to blog, but I don’t really know where to even begin.

Well, with that said, I’ll attempt to describe one of the things that occupied majority of my time here in
Uganda, which has been trying to finish the STAO building.

Pastor Nelson often says, “In U.S. you use dollars, here in
Uganda, we use shillings, but in heaven, we’ll use faith”. Although it seems to my Western mind, inconceivably impractical, somewhat unwise, and ridiculously mind boggling, the STAO building construction began with that phrase in mind – simply by faith only.

Without any resources, a budget, nor a construction background, pastor Nelson and pastor Ivan started to construct a building solely with faith in God that He’ll provide. The building construction has taken around almost two years now, sometimes with stalling gaps of upto few months along the way.

Although Tusubira had made attempts to support the building construction this past year, without a designated supervisor or a consistent budget along with limited resources, it was very unproductive and an inefficient effort.

Therefore the task of building completion has been dropped on my plate while I was here as I had some background in construction management and I truly had a passion for this building and STAO staff’s vision for the building.

It has been very difficult and challenging dealing with technical problems with our bank atm, inconsistent budget, underestimated time schedule, workers who continually demand abnormally higher wages from me just because I’m a mzungu, material shop owners trying to charge me more, the language barriers (or some people pretending to not understand English even when they did), noone else with managerial skills or construction knowledge on site, some workers showing to work drunk, realizing that these workers who’ve been demanding money on a daily basis with an excuse to feed their family has been spending their daily wage on alcohol, substandard craftsmanship, very loose sense of productivity, and often times stealing of materials on site. (sorry, my rant stops here).

It was very discouraging and honestly seemed unattainable to complete the building.

As end of the trip drew near, my frustration and disappointment level only grew higher. However, after much prayer from the team, pastor nelson and pastor ivan, I realized that a lot of those frustrations and my will to finish the building sprouted from my own pride and insensitive and ignorant approach to their culture and the way they work. Moreover, it was eye opening and tremendously humbling to realize it has been absolutely a divine appointment from God to provide our team with abundance so that we may assist in finishing the building. He has been really showing us that He’ll provide when it is needed as long as we remain faithful and trusting of His power. We were able to withdraw just enough money day by day to pay off materials and laborers and the building is now around 90% complete. Truly all things are possible by God. We won’t complete the building by this Sunday, but the remaining final touches will be done within a few weeks after we leave. Praise God that He truly works things out for us.

For those wondering what this building is for, the building construction originally began to bring more children to STAO. However, we realized that STAO does not have enough resources to barely take care of current children. Thus the building will be used for sustainable income generating projects for them. We’ve just purchased sewing machines today for the widows and we’ll also be buying computers to start a vocational computer skills training program for the locals. God truly has best plans for us and the children and staff at STAO. It is incredibly exciting to see God moving.

Prayer request is for continued protection of children at STAO who are left so vulnerable especially since Mafubira is one of the most dangerous areas around Jinja. With all that’s been happening at STAO, we’ve been drawing much attention to the place and especially with increased robbery in the area, the children are left extra vulnerable.

Thank you so much everyone for your continued prayers for us and the children here. I hope I can rely on faith more often when I return to the states, as “in heaven, we’ll all be using faith”.

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I can’t even begin to fathom sheer number of kids we’ve met since we’ve been here. For me personally, it is actually very daunting and draining at times. At some moments, their joy, energy and vibrancy almost makes me forget that they’re orphans. It is incredibly moving to see what a spiritually healthy environment that these kids have been provided by pastor Nelson and pastor Ivan. In mist of the overwhelming madness of kids swarming us and pulling us in every direction possible, each of us are finding our selves slowly being drawn to certain kids at STAO.

I’ve been finding myself really drawn to a kid named Kitimbo. We first met during service on Sunday. This is rather embarrassing to post, but I was bawling during the service, especially when all the kids were singing on top of their lungs, “Touch my body, touch my soul, touch my spirit, and make me whole”. Kitimbo pulled my hand down and wiped my tears off my face and gave me a smile that I simply cannot describe with words. I pray that God will show me how to love him as it seems like he won’t be letting go of my hand anytime soon.

When we arrived at STAO this morning, pastor Ivan introduced us to a girl named Sandra. We noticed a tumor on side of her head, and also realized that she wasn’t like the other kids that’s been swarming us. Sandra is 7 years old. She has full blown AIDS. However, she just contracted TB (tuberculosis) and is not sure if her body can even handle ARV(AntiRetroViral)s. What was really heart breaking on top of that was she is actually not an orphan. She has a father, but apparently he does not care about her and completely neglects her. The team was able to pray for her, and the healthcare team will be taking her to the clinic to look at treatment options tomorrow.

It is very difficult for me to articulate the thoughts and emotions I’ve been trying to process. However we have hope because our God loves us and the children here beyond our comprehension and His heart truly breaks for the children here. We pray that He’ll continue to reveal himself more and more to our team as we try to process everything we’ve been experiencing.

Pictures:

Sam and Kitimbo at the STAO church

Melissa with Sandra

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In less than 24 hours, I’ll be leaving for Uganda. I’m not too sure where to begin.. what to think, what not to think. I’m still trying to barely comprehend the fact that I’m actually going! Plus, just the mere thought of the impact this trip is going to have on my life has been absolutely mind boggling. However, I guess I’ll never know what this trip will have in store for me until I actually get there.

Just around ten months ago, four of my friends and I had been given the opportunity to start a non profit organization named Tusubira (We Have Hope) to help support an orphanage (STAO) in a small village called Mafubira located just outside of Jinja in Southeastern Uganda. Three of them had just gotten back from Mafubira at the time, where they spent three months of their summer volunteering at STAO. Though two of us haven’t seen the situation first hand yet, we all felt convicted and called to respond to the absolutely tragic and incomprehensible circumstances in Uganda we’ve been exposed to and informed of.

Frankly, as much as it has been an exciting journey, it has also been one of the greatest challenges I’ve had to face. The challenge wasn’t the grueling 501c3 documentation process, endless hours of fund/program development and budgeting, or logistical complexities we had to manage as five college age students with no experience in managing a start up non profit organization.

The real challenge was in trying to grasp what it means as followers of Christ to respond to the ways in which God has broken our hearts accordingly to hurt for those suffering beyond our imagination. The real challenge was countless nights of losing sleep over contemplating about what it means to be an NGO, what the definition of “sustainable development” is-and our role in walking alongside them and working with them, and trying to comprehend the utter reality of our status to live in an absolutely opposite world this very moment. And most of all, “why us?”

I’m simply hoping to grow and learn more about God’s heart through this trip. My main prayer request is that our team will stay as faithful servants and learners, and that He’ll continue to grow our hearts for love, compassion, and justice – and keep our minds and hearts open to see it, regardless of whichever form it may present itself to us in.

I can’t wait to finally meet the children and the STAO staff in Mafubira – Uganda!
Looking forward to updating you guys on our adventures in Uganda!

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