Rats, Chickens, and Good-byes

Well, most of you have heard the adventures of the rat that has been living in my room and terrorizing me at night, like climbing into my mosquito net and across my face. He comes out every night about 3 am and drives me crazy with his noise for about 2 hours. I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore. The other night I retrieved a trap from Karina and Andy's house. I placed peanut butter on it and set it against the wall where he usually plays at night. About 11 pm as I was falling asleep I heard the little guy already scurrying around the room. All of a sudden, *CLAP* and then no sound. I thought since there was no crashing around the rat had escaped so I rolled over, turned on my flashlight and there he was, killed instantly. I rolled back over on my back and did a little victory arm dance in my bed. As I fell asleep I had a huge grin on my face looking forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep or that's what I thought. Finally, there is no more rat in my room but of course someone thought I needed to be woken up. About 3:45 am I awoke to someone in the building praying loudly. I don't know if I've explained the building situation but there's just a roof and walls, but not actually ceiling on the rooms.So you can hear everything anyone does. This guy was praying loud and fervently. I let it go for a little while and then I couldn't take it anymore. I asked a total of 3 times for him to please pray quietly or leave the building. The other thing about the prayer was that it was super creepy. I could tell he was battling. Here in this culture spiritual warfare becomes hyper-spiritualistic. It's really annoying. Just being honest. So when he was praying he was making super eerie noises and it sent shivers up my spine. He just prayed through all my pleadings, probably thinking the devil was using me, haha! He eventually stopped his prayer about an hour later.

Yesterday, I decided to start cleaning out all my junk and give stuff away and to start packing my tub for travel. Only 9 days til I fly out. Only 6 more days on this island. I'm leaving my awesome first aid kit I put together thanks to the list made by Neil at the farm. Also leaving some of the Fry family gifts they gave me at Christmas. I donated the book The Knitting God to the library. Of course dumped off my doxy and batteries. There is a boy that comes around named Emma. He helps out around here and loves muzungus. To be honest, he can get annoying. People in ministry can relate to this one. There is always that one person that just clings to you and you can get frustrated with. Emma can be really awesome and then the next, well you just want to tell him to bug off. He is always asking me for jobs and I try to think of things and sometimes they get ridiculous because I want to give him things to do for money but I don't have a lot. Yesterday I had him fetch me a bucket of cow manure for plantings and clean out the trash cans and wash my book bag and repair the strap. I am really glad that he asks for work to earn money and doesn't just ask for money, so that's nice. He is always asking about getting a flashlight, so I gave him the flashlight I got from the Fry's in Texas and a pack of batteries. I told him it was a gift and he couldn't pay me back for it and that is was a thank you to him. He was so excited. He has been without a flashlight for a while. I wish I could have given him a more useful flashlight that's was solar charged or something but it will last him a long time with all the batteries I gave him. So he took off and was gone for like an hour and then he was back again. I heard him call for me in his little whisper. I came around the corner to greet him at the door and there he stood with a chicken under his arm. He gave it to me and explained it was a gift and he had been saving for it. I was floored. That is a HUGE deal!!! To give someone a chicken, which are not cheap here, is just a great gift. I couldn't believe it and I was so humbled.15 year old Emma that could really use some meat to eat gave me a chicken. I totally got a pic with him and it's pretty great because what he was wearing that day. T-shirt, tan pants and a purple neck tie just around his neck. Haha! Love it. Oh I'm going to miss this place.

April 23rd- Last Day!

Today we got up early and got on the YWAM boat going back to the mainland. Ben and Justin both left a lot of stuff at the base as a donation and gifted some of the SHIM staff. Julius now has Ben’s goofy fishing hat. Hilarious. We reached the mainland and were picked up by Pastor Bob and got us to his house for showers and relaxing and INTERNET!!! The guys and I then went into Ozzie’s to eat with Andy and Keeky. We talked about the week and told them stories of all that had happened. Then I took the guys to 2 shops which was torture. I hate shopping myself and then I’m with 2 guys, one of which does want something for his boys but they both hate shopping. Haha. So I took them to Mama O’s sister’s shop and then the Art Studio that I go to. Success. Thank God. The central market was on the next stop and they enjoyed walking through it. After that we took motorcycle taxi’s down to the source of the Nile.  As soon as we ride up there is a huge monitor lizard in the road and monkeys running around. It was awesome. We paid for our entrance and the guys started feeding the monkeys bananas. They were walking around our feet. It was awesome! We walked down to the water and hung out there just taking it in. I saw another monitor lizard and a huge snake. Justin and I walking across these old iron beams towards the middle past the “it is dangerous beyond this point” sign. I of course put my feet in the water… good idea? Probably not. Oh well, I still have both my feet. 

We headed back to the Peterson’s for a surprise birthday party for Keeky. The food was so good, the cake was even better and we played pin the tail on the donkey. Justin won. He got some Rolos for a victory prize. After that we all talked about the week the guys had and how awesome SHIM is. I was starting to feel sad knowing the minutes were running out and the guys were getting ready to leave. Their car came and I hugged them good bye and Justin called me sis which was pretty special. Thanks for that! I said good bye and sent them on their way! Now I only have 2 weeks and 2 days left here! Can’t wait to get home to my family but rather said to say good bye.

April 22nd- Sunday

For church this morning, Justin went to Lingira village to preach and Ben preached at the church in Kyoa. I went with Ben since a lot of the Kytonga people go to Kyoa. It was a good message and 3 women gave their lives to Jesus. We then spent the rest of the day just relaxing around but of course it was eventful because there seems to be something that happens every day. A woman came right after church for council about her children who see demons. Ben talked with her and prayed too. Then after she left a young man showed up and he had cut his finger off!!! GROSS!!! He smashed it between 2 boats. It was like hamburger and the bone was protruding out. I said I didn’t even want to look at it. I just avoided the whole situation like a plague because I didn’t feel like passing out or throwing up. I cooked the guys a stir fry and rice meal with meat in it so of course it was a hit. Later the woman with the demon problem came back with her son who sees them and Ben talked to them again and prayed for them. It was cool to watch. Then when they were done and they were all just visiting, Ben taught the boy a new game and Mama O played with them. It was so fun to watch. 

Ben, Justin and I went to the village of Kyoa before the sun set to get some sodas and sit. It was so much fun because there was a big group of kids hanging out. Ben kicked around a soccer ball and Justin did the pulling off his finger trick and I sat on the big log with all the little kids handing out pieces of doughnuts for them and had a little guy snuggled up in my lap. He was so sweet. 

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and talking with Papa and Mama O and Julius. Papa O tickled Ben’s ears with stories of crocodiles and Julius was giving me my language lessons. Which are always super fun! This week he started having me put stuff together to make sentences. I learned how to say, “please give me (insert noun)”. It was a lot of fun. And I learned how to tell someone to please sit down. Papa O then shared his testimony about meeting his wife and how they got married. It was so awesome and then Mama O shared her side of the story. Julius also shared about meeting his wife and how he tried to marry her sister but ended up with the other. Hahaha. We got to bed and then after hanging out for like 10 hours, we decided to yell over the wall at each other about the plans for traveling to the airport. Haha. Justin said, “Did we really just do that?” It made for a good laugh. Onto the last day with the guys…

April 21st- Lingira and Kytonga Village

We went to Lingira village in the morning to do door to door. We met up with one of the students at the secondary school named Chris, who is professor’s step son, and then took off to Lingira. We reached the YWAM base in the village and met up with David, the leader of the YWAM base and also Pastor Fred. We decided to split up into 2 teams. Ben, Chris and David were team 1 and Justin, Fred and I were team 2. We started on one end of the village while the other group started elsewhere. We first talked to 3 men, one of which was hiding behind his door. One of them received Christ. We went from house to house. The next one was 2 women and one of them was really sick. We are pretty sure she had HIV. She had some sores and was super drained. We prayed with them. We went to a house with 2 teenagers sitting outside and a group of little kids. He was 19 and she was 16. They had their radio on and were giggling. We tried talking to them and they kept turning their radio on and Pastor Fred basically told them not to be rude. They listened for a bit and she got really somber and serious. The boy was still laughing and carrying on. Finally she decided to receive Christ and he rejected. I began to then tell them about my own life and you can’t just live care free and think you’re untouchable! Then the Lord began to work on that boy’s heart. He got really serious and you could tell he was thinking deeply. He never decided but it will be good for him to now wrestle with it. One to the next place, two more ladies accepted Christ. On the way to the next house Justin decided to do his ‘looks like I’m pulling my finger off’ illusion for a couple of the kids. They freaked out! They screamed and took off running, grabbing any kid they could that was nearby. We went to the next house and talked to two young men, one of them choose Jesus. When we walked out of that house there was a group of like 20 kids waiting for Justin. The leader of the little gang held up her hand and tried pulling her finger off. So Justin did his little trick again and they freaked out! Laughing and carrying on and grabbing adults now and telling them. Then Justin showed them how he did it. I teased saying, “Great, now they think you’re a muzungu witch doctor!” We finished our time at the house of a young couple who are actually already born again and they are friends of SHIM! Their little baby girl is named after Madame Joy. Stephen, the husband and dad, dreams of being a pastor but explained he has some past strings that discourage him from going forward. We prayed with them and then headed to June’s house for lunch. Fish, payapa, and rice. SOOOO GOOD! 

We went to Kytonga after we got back to SHIM. We invited Chris to come along with us and Mama O also came along. I so love that village. My heart is always so excited to go see those people. So I was fired up to bring Ben and Justin and go door to door. We reached there and Ben’s boy that he had recruited just the other day, Reggie, was there. So Ben got him to come into the prayer meeting. So we decided we would just do door to door ministry since a lot of the members of the prayer meeting were out in their gardens. We split up into 2 groups. Mama O, Phillip, Justin and I were one group. Ben, Chris, Reggie, and Rose (one of the prayer meeting women in the village) were in the other group. Now this is hilarious because Chris is the leader of the Christian kids at the school and Reggie runs the opposition. Now they are stuck together. So funny. We could see storm clouds off in the distance as we stepped into the first house. We sat down at a table with a couple of women and a man cooking fish over a charcoal stove. The main girl we were talking to was very resistant but asked a lot of questions. It was really good but soon they started walking away and as the last girl left the room a man came rushing up to the building. “I came to hear about the gospel! Will you tell me?!” We ushered him in and he sat down. He spoke very good English so it was easier to talk to him. He was the vice chairman of the village and since the chairman was the witch doctor that got eaten by a croc, he is pretty much the leader now. We shared with him and he said, “For me, I want to follow Jesus, but there is one thing that is stopping me. I have one piece of luggage. I have 3 wives so how can I follow Jesus? How do I handle that?” At this point… I’m stumped. Wasn’t expecting to answer a question like that. Things they don’t teach you how to answer at Bible college. Haha. So I just looked at Justin and the answer he gave was really good. He said, “I think that you made those commitments to take care of those families and you should keep to that. Now, I would say you shouldn’t take anymore wives but you should keep the ones you have. I think God would want you to continue to care for them and your children.” My jaw hit the floor because I can imagine saying that in the church in America and the absolute disgust that would have followed. We were pretty sure he had probably been told that in order to follow Jesus he had to get rid of 2 wives and pick one. He was so happy to know he could continue to take care of them. When we left that building, we could see the storm was going to hit. The wind was blowing up but we decided we wanted to keep going and I’m so glad we did. So Phillip took us to the next house structure and stopped. Mama O and him were discussing something and a woman was setting up a bench outside the door. Mama O said, “Can you enter a bar?” Justin and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders and said we sure can. We went in to find a couple of benches filled with a handful of guys. There was a clay pot on the ground filled with the local brew which is made from millet with the filter tubes coming out of it that the guys drink from. As we sat down, one by one, they started putting their tubes down almost in shame, except for the one guy hiding in the corner still sucking down his brew while looking over his shoulder. Haha. Justin began to just share the message of Jesus with them and they were listening. One man, who is Olivah’s husband, was asking a lot of questions. He seemed to be receiving the message. It began to absolutely pour outside. Crazy storm. Then I saw Olivah outside the door running to her house from being in the garden and I popped my head out of the door of the bar and she about fell over with laughter because she didn’t expect to see me in there. She eventually joined us and another man came in to find shelter from the rain and to have some beer and stumbled upon missionaries preaching the gospel. This new guy that sat down started being really mouthy; asking all kinds of questions and being argumentative. Mama O just took over and starting laying into the guys. She later told us what she was saying, “Will you lose your soul over this drink?!” That was the base of it. Mama O then turned to me and said, “I think we should leave because this guy is causing trouble and just arguing.” But then she engaged them again and talked for a bit longer then she pointed at the guys and said, “ok, this guy is ready to receive Christ.” I said oh well, which guy and she pointed at the one who was arguing with her. So we left the bar and took him back to Pastor Phillip’s house. Mama O and Phillip talked with him and he accepted Jesus. He then began to explain why he was so resistant. A while back there had been a child that was bitten by a snake and he knew of an herb that would heal the boy. The boy’s parents were born again and refused any herbals to heal the boy because of the strong connections to witchcraft so they just prayed and prayed and the boy died. We said we were sorry that happened and that herbs aren’t bad but when someone gets them from the witchdoctor they are because of the rituals involved. It was so encouraging for the group of believers there in Kytonga because they had been praying for that guy to get saved. Justin, Mama O and I were on cloud 9 as we walked back to SHIM with the sun setting. Mama O began to share how that afternoon had affected her. She had been despairing over having her visa rejected to go to Australia to see her son and new grandson. She felt like she didn’t want to do ministry and felt hopeless, but spending time with Ben and Justin and doing ministry encouraged her in the faith and she had a breakthrough to get past those things. Seeing someone commit to Christ brought a beautiful smile to her face again and she realized that not all is lost. You could tell her joy had been restored. 

I am so in love with that village of Kytonga. I have even started joking that I’m going to build my house down there in the village and live there. I even called my mom that night and cried for a good while about how sad I was to be leaving in a couple weeks. I could just go there every day and worship with them. I get excited to go there and feel awesome when I leave. I was telling my mom that it is starting to sink in that this is my life of traveling and preaching the gospel. You get attached to people and then you have to move on. It’s hard. But God began to show me the much larger picture and helped elevate me to see beyond my life here and to think more eternally. Yes, it’s sad to leave but yet I will see them again one day in heaven so no worries! And then on the other hand it instills a sense of urgency to preach the gospel because this life is just a blink compared to forever.

April 20th- Kyoa village and Bugulu

On Friday we went to do door to door ministry in Kyoa camp. Madame Joy was going to be our interpreter and it was a great experience. She is such an outgoing woman. She just directed us the whole time. “Ben, you go talk to this person. Justin, you go over here. Becky, please talk to this one.” She split us up the whole time almost because she has such a sense of urgency for people to hear the gospel. We first visited the chairman’s house. His daughter was home so we shared the gospel with her and she accepted. We then just talked to people throughout the village. Ben of course recruited the first young guy he came across to help him meet people. We will call him Reggie because there is no hope for spelling his real name and Reggie is the closet English name we could think of. Reggie is the son of the foremost Muslim leader on the island. Back before the secondary school was built his dad strongly opposed it. At that time, Keeky was leaving in a mud house down in Kyoa village. She was in her house and said it was a really weird night. She found a snake outside her house, a snake under her dishes, and in the night a candle in a stable glass jar feel over and started her mattress on fire. She found out later that Reggie’s dad did a bunch of witch craft outside her house and her night guard didn’t even tell her. So Reggie grew up with that guy and is now kind of the leader of the unsaved kids at the secondary school. Reggie told us a lot that he wants to follow Jesus but is fearful of his dad, because his dad will stop paying his school fees. I talked with a woman who lived on another island. We talked for a bit and in the end she rejected what I had to say because she was fearful of her husband and what he might do if she accepted Jesus. When tried to finish by going to visit a very sick man. He has AIDS and TB of the bones and is pretty much in his last moments of life. His house is a little circle mud hut about 4 feet in diameter. He said to come back later but when we did he refused anyone in his little house. We finished by having couple sodas and some mndazeas (Ugandan doughnut). It was a good intro to door to door for the guys. In the afternoon we traveled to another island to Bugulu for a church meeting. We were almost 2 hours late because of some problems with arranging a boat and we took too long getting back from doing door to door in Kyoa. It took us like 2 hours to reach the village and we went right up to the church meeting. I could hear the music as we stepped on the shore. There is no better way to get excited about  church then to hear those African drums as you walk to it. Ben spoke about living out of the secret place and Justin spoke on David’s mighty men. The place was full of on fire believers. It was so energetic in that place. They even blessed us with a song special by 3 little girls and they even did a dance. It was so awesome! The pastor of the church attends the pastor trainings here at SHIM. Super great guy. Papa and Mama O also came along and Mama interpreted for the guys. Then they had people come forward and they prayed for them. Then we headed back to our island and the sunset on the water was absolutely incredible!!! Of course we had another night of visiting and laughter.

April 19th- Shim prayer and Buwanzi

Today is Thursday and Thursday is a prayer day for SHIM. We fast and have a time of worship and prayer together. Today was special because since school is out Keeky invited a few of the teachers to come and join us. Professor and Madame Joy came to the meeting and I so do adore Madame Joy. She has the heart of a worshipper. She led us in songs and it was so great. She even delivered a powerful message of freedom. She gave us a whole new perspective on the story of Lazarus. They had sent word to Jesus that he was sick and then that he had died. She said she pictured them waiting for Jesus to come after he had died and they didn’t bury him right away. They wanted Jesus to come. People probably starting saying, oh this man is smelling, please bury him! So they put him in the tomb and then Jesus came and called out to him and the stone was rolled away. When Lazurus came out, Jesus said to take off the grave wrappings. Joy said Jesus tells us to take off the grave wrappings! Take off that old dead stuff and walk in your new life. When she shared the word, it was mighty. After the prayer time we took off to Bwanzi. 

We departed to Bwanzi in a private boat with Pastor Sampson. He has been doing a discipleship training school on another island in the village of Bwanzi. Sampson asked Justin and Ben to teach his students on the subject of atonement. Of course the guys were really excited about it. We were a few minutes late to the meeting but we reached and Sampson had me introduce our visitors and Ben started right in on teaching. It was really awesome and everyone was excited and receiving. Justin spoke next and again it was really good. It was good for me to be under that teaching again and to be filled. Sampson did an awesome job translating and he is a really great guy. I haven’t paid much attention to him since being here because he is so busy and we just never cross paths but after spending the afternoon with him, he is really incredible. We came back and I had been feeling a little worried that Ben wasn’t getting enough ministry to do for such a short time. He told me as we walked back to the boat, “That meeting right there just made the whole trip worth it.” What a relief. I felt like I could relax finally. 

When we got back from the class, we had just enough daylight to make it to the top of the mountain and back again before dark. Ben, Justin and I hurried to get ready and took off down the path. The path goes along the edge of the jungle for a little bit and then turns abruptly right into the jungle and you go up. It’s a thick path. As I turned onto the path going up Ben says, “Uhhh… you guys go on up.” He didn’t want to walk through the jungle. Haha. So Justin and I continued and it’s only a little bit of Jungle and then about 20 minutes of grass and rocks until the top. I was having a hard time that day because my allergies were in full swing and I couldn’t breathe out of my nose and as we went up the pressure in my ears was so painful. But it was all worth it when we got to the top and Justin was really glad we went. It’s so beautiful up there. You feel like you can see forever. We then climbed down and joined Ben at Keeky’s house for cold passion fruit juice and visiting.

April 18th- Prayer in Kytonga

The next day we just took it easy in the morning and of course I was excited for the prayer meeting in Kytonga. Lunch came and went and all of a sudden as we were about to leave to head down to the village and it started storming and boy did it storm! And then it kept raining and kept raining and kept raining. Now here on the island, when it rains, everything shuts down. You don’t go anywhere and meetings are delayed. So hours passed and I was so sad because I knew it meant there would be no meeting since it was getting late, but then it stopped raining. It was almost 6 p.m. and any sane person would have just stayed. But I gathered up Ben and Justin and we made our way to kytonga. I just wanted to say hello at least and let them know we didn’t forget them and the rain just delayed us. Philip was really glad we came and he gathered a few ladies. We sang a song and prayed for a little bit and then said goodbye. Justin started talking pictures when we walked outside and that of course attracts every kid in the village. Haha. But I was so happy the kids delayed us because then Olivah came around the corner and I was so glad I didn’t miss her and she was so excited we were there. She came running when she saw us and greeted us with big hugs.

A little background on Olivah. She is only a few years old in her faith. She was pretty much the leader of the women in Kytonga village and hard to the gospel. She refused to listen. But then a few things happened, like the chairmen of the village who was also a witchdoctor was eaten by the croc and her house caught fire. She then accepted Christ when an evangelist team came to the village. Now she is the leader of the Christian women in the town. I know you’re not supposed to have favorites, but she is my favorite villager on the island. I just love being around her because her love for Jesus and her joy are so stinkin’ contagious! You can’t help but smile and laugh when you’re around her.

We came back to the compound and called it a night. Just sat and visited for a bit and then slept. It was always fun to hear Justin and Ben talk the next morning about their creature adventures in the middle of the night. We have a ton of wasps around but they are so docile and harmless. They just keep busy building their little mud houses on the walls. Ben was on edge because of them. Every time he saw one, he would have a knee-jerk reaction that would crack me up. Oh how fun.