A Double Marathon Day

So I feel like I should immediately say that I did not in fact run two marathon's in one day. I didn't even run one, really...so now I should explain...

So I am not a runner. At all. I think the longest I may have ever ran before is a little over a mile. But for some reason when I found out that there was a 10k race here in Kampala, I wanted to do it. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I'm just in an adventurous place in life right now, but I just really felt motivated. So for the past month or so I've been training to run this 10k. Now for those like me that don't know their race distances or can't convert from metric to US units, a 10k is 6 miles. Pretty long ways for a guy that's never really ran more than a mile before. But I did it.

Training to run around here is rather interesting. The roads are bumpy, have a lot more people walking them than the US, narrow with cars going by with little consideration of you running, and plus there's plenty of exhaust coming our of the cars, since it seems pollution is less of a concern here. Oh and the elevation is hear is much higher than back in Alabama, so that's another disadvantage for me. Oh and I forgot to mention the hills. You may think of Africa and think big flat plains. Well not Uganda. At least not where I live at. There are plenty of hills, so you get quite a work out. So overall, it's a tough place to run. But I feel like training here has been good for me, compared to the US.

So I ran in the Kampala MTN (a cell phone company here) marathon. Just the 10k, though. It was crazy considering the nearly 20,000 people running. The race was apparently rather unorganized compared to US races, and the beginning of it involved being trapped in a massive crowd of people trying to push their way to the starting line. A little unnerving, but ok. Then the first 15 minutes or so of the run involved weaving in and out of people to get to a good spot in the crowd to actually run. After that I did ok. There were no markers to know how far along I was, so pacing was an issue and I had to walk a little bit occasionally, but I think ran the race in right about an hour (still waiting to find out the real time). It was a crazy experience, but a lot of fun. Some people were running the race in jeans and dress shoes (I'm assuming they just didn't have anything else), so I was amazed at how good some people did.

The four EMI staff that ran. From left to right: me, Jaclyn (intern), Brad (director), and Janet (staff)

I'm tempted to take the racing thing and turn it into a big analogy (you know, the typical "running the race" that Paul calls the Christian life in Hebrews). Not because I don't want to, but because I think other people have done the analogy better than I could. But I can say that running along with all those people was really inspiring. Definite motivation. I guess you could say that's how the Christian life is. Running together, looking to each side and seeing others running, too, and that pushes us to keep going when we get tired or even fall. And also the finish. Wow, finishing the race was so cool. To see the finish line, just push yourself to get to it, and then throw your hand in the air as you finish knowing you made it. I can't even imaging how it will be when I finish this life and can (hopefully) say that I lived it well and lived for Christ. I ran the race well. Even as cool as the feeling of finishing the 10k was, it can't compare at all to finishing the race of the Christian life well.

Now the second marathon. I've come to know the music teacher at a Christian school down the road, and I helped him lead worship at chapel at the school one Friday. Through that, he invited me to be one of the worship leaders at this worship night he was hosting this month. Just a kind of general time of worship for anyone in the area to come to. It ended up being a really cool experience. There where 3 leaders for it. Francis, the Ugandan music teacher, Andrew a guy from the UK, and myself, and American. So 3 leaders, three continents. Cool. We ended up with a full band for the night, which was great to play with some Ugandan musicians. The whole night consisted of 23 worship songs, and lasted about 2 hours, which is why I called it the worship marathon. Also considering that I ran the 10k that morning, it definitely was a long day. But it was such a great time of worship. One of the coolest musical worship experiences of my life. There were people from all over the world there (maybe 50-75 people), and it was great to just celebrate God, who He is, what He has done, and what Christ has done. I feel like God really refreshed me during that night, and kind of filled me with strength and focus to finish well in my last 3 weeks here. It was also such a cool reminder of how God is at work around the world, and that I am part of a huge plan of redemption that God's been working out long before I was here. Oh, and it also reminded me why I love leading worship, and how much I've missed leading in a corporate setting. There's just something about it.

So I only have 3 weeks left! So crazy. I looked at my calendar today, and there's a lot happening between now and when I leave, which is good, since I guess I'll go out with a bang. Please keep praying for me as I close my time here, that I can finish strong and keep serving until the moment I get on the place (and after, too).

Well I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and I'll be seeing some of you in the US in just a few weeks! As far as Thanksgiving goes here, I won't be missing out. We're having an eMi Thanksgiving with all of the staff and their families. Should be great. I'm going to help teach a Ugandan how to make mashed potatoes. Should be interesting : )

See ya!

Kyle

The Ministry of Surveying

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17

About a year ago, I would have never imagined that I would be living in Africa working for an engineering ministry. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do then I graduated, but doing international ministry/missions was just a blip on my radar. Plus working for an engineering ministry? Didn't even know those existed. It's funny to think how God led me to this, how he closed doors, opened doors, pushed me in one direction when I was unsure, and basically placed me here. And in all that, it's funny to look at the kind of ministry I'm doing right now. Not quite what I expected

Part of the services that eMi provides to ministries here is doing surveying of their property. This is a huge help to them because they can find out how much they land they have, how good the land is for certain types of development, and they can have a map of the site to use for master planning. Plus we provide the survey nearly for free, minus some transport costs and things like that. So us doing a survey of their site for them is a big benefit to their ministry. For us that work at eMi, it's kind of like a ministry of surveying.

Honestly, that sounds funny to me. Ministry of surveying? Isn't ministry something more spiritual, like preaching, evangelism, working with kids, praying with people, that kind of stuff? Well yes those are all ministries, but I don't think ministry is restricted to just "spiritual" things. I think it can go much farther than that. I think it all comes down to the heart of the person doing what they're doing. For me, doing a survey for a ministry is in part a personal ministry of my own. Not because it's some super spiritual thing, but because it's a service to them, it's helping in furthering God's Kingdom but equipping this ministry, and I strive to do a survey as a service to the Lord.

Not does that mean that I always have that mindset? Honestly, no. It's easy to forget about the ministry part when you're hiking through the African bush with a survey rod to get a shot of that tree out there (especially when you're hoping there's no snakes around). Or when you lose al of your control points for the survey because some of the kids on site pulles up your ribbons, and the torrential rain has covered your stakes with mud so they're almost invisible. It can be tough. But through all of it I have to remember that this is a ministry and service to the Lord. I have to work at as if I'm doing it directly for God. That's a challenge for me, but looking at the verse I quoted here is a great reminder. God doesn't just overlook the things we do that aren't super spiritual acts of ministry. God is looking at our whole lies wanting us to serve Him in everything and seek to enjoy and glorify Him in everything. That's really freeing, honestly. That we can glorify God in surveying. In working at a restaurant. In answering the phone for 8 hours a day. In teaching kids how to count. In being a good parent/child. We don't have to feel guilty or obligated to always be doing something that looks "spiritual" to others. We can glorify God in the day to day.

Now that doesn't mean that we can try to play it easy and just say we're glorfying God in the day to day and not live lives that stand out for Christ and preach him in word and deed. We're called and should be compelled to serve Him in very obvious ways. He's worthy of it. But it's not that God ignores the time in our lives where we're at work doing something that seems completely unconnected to the spiritual realm. We can glorify God in all of that. All the time. That's a big challenge for me. I've been working at doing that lately, and I have to say it's hard. When things at work get tough and it's easy to be frustrated, it's hard to glorify God in your heart and mind. But that's a growing process for me that won't just end here, but continue for the rest of my life, I'm sure. I want to challenge you to do the same. Try to view every moment, everything you do (even they mundane things) as a service to the Lord and a way to glorify Him. First, it will keep you constantly focused on Him. Secondly, it will keep you farther away from sin and more aware of it in your life.

So this all goes to say that I've been surveying again lately. I went back with another intern to (attempt to) finish up the survey we started in September. We didn't quite finish, since it's a big site, but we made progress. It was a good time, even if it was somewhat frustrating. It's all a growing experience though, right? Before that, I've been working in the office still finishing up our project. The design is pretty much done, we're just doing some revisions to the report and drawings. It's a tedious process, but it's necessary. Soon enough we'll be done and we'll be able to hand over the design to the ministry! I'm so excited to have the final product done. It may be nerdy, but I'm excited to show people back in the US the site development for this school that I helped design. So cool.

Well, I'm going to call this blog a wrap. I have more things to talk about, but I think it's worth another post to keep things from getting too long. I hope all is well wherever you are!

Kyle

A Journey To The Land Before Time...

Hello All!

So you may have read the title of this blog and wonder what in the world I'm talking about? Well let me explain. This past weekend we had our intern weekend here at the eMi office, which usually involves the interns going off to a resort-ish kind of place for fun and relaxation. For our intern weekend we decided to go to a place call Sipi Falls. It's a beautiful place in eastern Uganda near Kenya right near Mt. Elgon (a mountain in Uganda). It's a really fertile place with waterfalls and and mountains. Absolutely beautiful. Oddly enough one of the volunteers here commented that it looked like the Land Before Time (an old dinosaur cartoon movie). It really did. Thus the name of this blog.

But anyways for the past week or so I've been doing the usual of working around the office on the secondary school design. I have deadlines that are quickly approaching, so I've been putting in plenty of hours around there. But like I mentioned in my last update, I know this is a service to the ministry we're designing for, and ultimately to God. So because of that, the amount of hours (and nights working) I have to put in is no big deal, because it's for the Kingdom. But the work is tough on the brain sometimes, so I definitely have to space out my work. Got to conserve what sanity I have left, right? : )

Aside from work in the office, things have been pretty calm here. Most nights are spent hanging out with the other interns and people that live around here. We cook dinner together (which has been quite a learning experience for me) and sometimes watch movies or TV shows we managed to download offline. Life during the week is very relaxed, which is has been nice, since it gives plenty of time to get work done if needed, and it also has lead to plenty of time for reflection on life. It's been really good for me, since I have a lot of things ahead of me as a recent college grad. God has really been using this time to point me toward the things that really matter in life, and also just to really work in my heart about a lot of things. Even though I know life back in the US will probably be more hectic than here, I really want to carry back some of the elements life here with me. We're so busy in America, sometimes I wonder what God could do in our hearts if we just took more time to slow down. Just spend time actually getting to know the people that we live right next to? Just a thought.

So a few more details on our trip this past weekend. We left on Friday morning to go to the Falls, around 10 in the morning. Transportation in Africa takes a lot longer than the US, so it took about 8 hours to get somewhere that should take about 3-4. The majority of that was sitting in the bus for 3 hours before leaving, since they won't leave until the bus has filled up. But we got there Friday night and got to enjoy a great dinner and some hang out time with all the interns (the Jinja interns joined us for the weekend). We stayed at (in my opinion) a super nice place. There was a waterfall that you could only access from the property our camp was on, so you could see it as you walked around and you went to sleep to the sound of a waterfall. Pretty cool. Saturday we went hiking to see the four waterfalls that are around the area, which was great. The place was almost surreal, like a dream. We got to get behind the waterfalls and got pretty wet in the process. Tons of fun. The hike was probably the most intense I've ever been on, since we hiked (what felt like) miles and then down and up a valley. But it was worth it. The next day we headed back to Kampala, which took a much less intense 5 hours. Overall it was a great weekend.

So I've found out that in the beginning of December I'll be going to some villages in north-east Uganda to check out some water issues. It's a pe-project trip, which mean we'll just scope out the situation and makes some contacts for when a full team comes next year. The trip will involve taking a 5-passenger plane there, and then camping in the bush for two nights. I feel like it will be a trip of a lifetime. More info to come later.

This coming weekend is our time to go rafting on the Nile, so I'll definitely let you all know how that goes. Know that things are great here, and I wish I could do a better job of explaining things and taking pictures. I guess you'll just have to come and see it for yourself : )

Until next time,

Kyle

Babies...and What Am I Doing Here?

Hello all!

So it's been about two weeks since I last updated. In that time I can't say that things have been incredibly eventful, but a lot has been going on (if that makes sense). For the past two weeks I've been in the office working on the design for the secondary school and training center, like I've been doing for a while now. It's a big project and the civil design has lots of different elements, so that gives me plenty to do. A lot of this stuff is new to me, so it's a learning process as I go, but it's been good. From an engineering standpoint, I've definitely already picked up a lot of practical knowledge that I'm sure will be useful in the future.

So last weekend I and the other interns took a trip to a babies' home in town. A babies' home is just an orphanage for babies and toddlers, by the way. We went there because a few interns had an interest in helping out, and we all decided it would be a great thing to do. So we went. I should preface this with saying that although I love kids, I'm not so good with babies and toddlers. If I can't carry on a simple conversation with them, I have issues. So I knew this would be a stretch for me, but it turned out to be great. Basically we just showed up and starting playing with the kids. There were about 20-30 toddlers there (only one real baby actually) so we had plenty of kids to play with. Of course since it's an orphanage, none of them have parents so the only kind of parental figure they have are their house mothers. So no real guy influence at all for them. The more I thought about their situation, the more it hit my heart. So we just played with them in various ways and let them climb on us, we held them, etc. The orphanage seems to be low on money, because none of the kids had any diapers on, which made things interesting. A lot of them had self-control issues and relieved themselves all the time. So we all got relieved on a few times. No big deal. But in the end it was great to just go and love on these kids and serve. We got recruited to move some firewood as well, so there was some manual labor involved.

Also in that weekend I got to spend more time hanging out with Jordan, the son of a woman that lives with my supervisor. He's a fun kid, and we had a great time playing around at the pool and playground. Hopefully I'll be able to have some positive influence in his life. With no dad around, I know how that can turn out, and I don't want that for him (not to say that everyone who grows up without a dad is second-class or anything, but I think everyone could really use a father-figure).

This past week I was in the office again working on the design for the school. It's coming along, but there's still plenty to do. Along with that there's opportunities to go out to villages for projects, so the pressure of finishing enough work to go can be stressful. In the midst of working on the all the engineering work, I've realized that it's really easy for me to lose focus on why I'm here. I've honestly had time were I've wondered what good I'm doing sitting the office working on the computer all day. I'd like to be out in the community more, serving in a more practical way, but I had to realize that's not where I've been placed. Plus the work I'm doing is serving in a practical way, I just haven't been looking at it that way lately. I let the tediousness of the work distract me from why I'm here. Did you know that around 5000 children die a day from lack of clean water? Or that 40 billion work hours a year that could be spent doing something else are spent carrying water in Africa? Or that 884 million people don't have access to clean drinking water? Also...it takes abut 10 US dollars to provide someone in a developing country with clean water for a lifetime. That's how much I spend on iTunes buying a CD, when I already have hundreds. So it's things like this that led me to be here in Uganda, and they remind me of why I'm here. Sure the work may be tedious sometimes, but someone has to design this water system so that these girls and future teachers don't have to walk miles for clean water, but instead they can get an education. That's why I'm here. To serve those in need just like Christ has called us to serve the least of these. In this case He's put me here as an engineer to design the necessary water systems. In the future I may be serving in a completely different way, but I'll still serve. It's what I'm commanded to do.

So no pictures this time around. No cameras were allowed in the babies' home, sorry. But know that great things are happening here in Uganda, and that this place is beautiful and full of wonderful people.

Running this race,

Kyle

PS: So I've decided to run a 10k downtown in November, so be expecting to hear more about that later. I've never ran more than a mile, so a 10k (6 miles) will be quite a feat! I ran for the first time today and did did 2 miles and felt pretty tired, but I think I can make it up to 6 by the race!

A Little James 1:27

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. - James 1:27

So I didn't quite make it to the widows this weekend, but I did get to visit some orphans! Let me give some background...

This weekend, me and the other Kampala interns took a visit to Jinja (about an hour and a half away) to visit the interns there. Their work consists more of managing construction of projects that eMi has designed in the past, mainly with a group called Arise Africa. Some of them work out in the bush during the week on a site, which always leads to some great stories. But anyway, we went to visit this weekend. Friday we got to have a Uganda-wide intern hangout time, and then Saturday morning we got some coffee at an excellent place in downtown Jinja. If you're ever in Jinja, go to The Source cafe for coffee, and then grab a cinnamon roll from Ozzie's across the street. Amazing. But after than Saturday, we got to go visit the orphanage across the street from where the Jinja guys live. The Jinja interns have established a relationship with the owner of the orphanage, so they've been helping out over there. They spend time hanging out with the kids, playing soccer, and helping build a tree house there. The tree house is really more like a fort. The plan for it was already pretty big, and when you get 4 construction management guys involved, you can imagine what happens. But it's a great ministry there, and some of the kids who started out their lives being abandoned in the bottom of pit latrines are now followers of Jesus. At least one I know of is going around preaching at other orphanages now. Amazing.

All of us at the orphanage.

I know this pic seems funny, but I thought it was funny how he was just playing with the machete. He showed me a thing or two about it.

So Saturday afternoon we just spend some time playing soccer and building the tree house with some of the orphans. One of the interns likes likes baking cookies and giving them to people (his cooking baking ministry, as he calls it), so he did that for the kids. We had a great time, and it was great to just spend some time around the kids and just love them. For kids that had such a rough past, they seemed really joyful, and it was cool to see how they interacted with some of the Jinja guys. The whole thing kind of made me think of the concept of adoption, and what that looks like both spiritually and physically. I've considered adopting (possibly internationally) later in life, but that was only part of what I saw. At one point before I left, the pastor at my home church in Mobile preached on spiritual and physical adoption and how God has adopted us as his children. He used his own experience of adopting two kids from Russia to show how God brings us in as His own. Really cool, and it led me a lesson I've been learning a lot lately: that salvation belongs to God alone. We don't do anything we obtain forgiveness of sins, it's all God working to draw us to Him. In the same way that a adopting parent comes to a child and chooses them as their own, God chooses us as His own. I'm not going to get into the election/free will deal, I'm just saying that it shows God's glory even more in the fact that He is the one that does everything in salvation, and that we are too sinful and fallen to really come to Him, so He comes to us.

This is Gordon. Cool kid.

So enough theology for now. Overall we had a great time at the orphanage, and I wished we could have stayed longer. Hopefully I'll get to go back, and maybe I can find something similar to help out with here in Kampala. We'll see.

On a side note, this past Friday was Uganda independence day! Uganda is 47 years old as an independent country. Pray that God continues to work here in the coming years. There's a lot going on here, and a lot of things will be happening in the near future with elections and such. Pray that God will just work in the hearts of the leaders here so that innocent people won't have to die and that more people will come to know Christ in this country.

As far as eMi work goes, things are coming along. I should have the grading plan for the school finished by Monday afternoon, and I'll begin work on the water and wastewater systems. A lot of that has been thought out by the civil volunteers, but there's some fine-tuning and rethinking to be done, plus I have to make it all fancy by drawing it out on the computer.

Well, I hope you're all doing well! I'm sure fall is on its way now, so enjoy it. That's my favorite season, but I'll suffer for the mission by being here and missing it ; ) Honestly, I'm okay, it's not like I haven't experiences 22 falls already or anything. Ok, well until next time!

PS: If you notice, I've started a list to the right of my updates that I'm calling my "Post-Africa Resolutions." These are just things that I want to put into practice in life based off of what I've learned here. Maybe you all can hold me accountable to these things once I get back.

PSS: Also, if you have any kinds of questions about Uganda or anything I'm doing here, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. If you don't have it, it's kylestevenbryant@gmail.com

My Own LOST Experience

Hello all!

Well here I am again trying to fit weeks of experiences into a few paragraphs. I'll do my best. But overall, I think I need to say this: you had to be there. It's hard for me to really relate to you how things have been here in Uganda. But here we go.

So like I mentioned in my last update, a few days after we returned from our project trip/safari adventure, me and another intern Travis got recruited to travel to Ssese Island (on Lake Victoria) with a ministry called Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). A quick little background on these guys. They're an international ministry (locations all over the world) that transports missionaries and humanitarian worked to hard to reach areas so that they can share the gospel and help those in need. Their mission statement is "sharing the love of Jesus Christ through aviation and technology so that isolated people may be physically and spiritually transformed." Really cool ministry. Well MAF wants to put an airstrip on Ssese Island to provide safer access to that island and the smaller ones around it. Apparently around 5000 people die a year in the areas around Lake Victoria due to unsafe transportation to the islands. Also, the islands are not a very strongly churched area, and providing safer means to get these would open up lots of doors for the church (and the gospel) to grow there.

So eMi has worked with the MAF Uganda office in the past, so we were asked to assist in locating the property line that is critical in locating where the airstrip can go. Property lines oddly enough end up being a big part of what we do in terms of surveying. Property issues are kind of a nightmare in Uganda, with lots of property "surveys" being drawn by hand and property corners not necessarily existing anymore. Anyways so our job was to figure out this line based on a few documents they had and then lay it out (approximately) in the field. This wasn't an easy task, and required some less-than-perfect surveying, but in the end we got the approximate line to within about 45 meters. That's pretty big, I know, but when the airstrip is a kilometer long and you have the amount of space they had, its good enough. We gave them the best we had, though.

This is the boat we took to the island, not too bad!

The village where we had the meeting

So the trip itself was really interesting. We left from a dock in Entebbe (where the airport in Uganda is, which is right on the lake) around 7. The boat we took was a safari ski boat, which is apparently a lot better than the inflatable boat that was used for the last trip they took. The boat took about an hour to reach the island, where we the met the leaders of the local village. The last trip out there MAF met with leaders of another village on the island (I think there's 3 total) to explain some things. We did the same thing this time basically. Apparently in the past mzungus (what white people get called here, it's not derogatory, it's just what they say) have bought smaller islands on the lake and then kicked off all of the Ugandans and made it their own private resort. Awful, I know. Well we wanted to make sure the locals understand what we're doing, so we had a village meeting. These are interesting. Introductions are a big thing here, so about 30 minutes of the meeting consisted of just that. Once we were all introduced, the meeting itself went smoothly, and we were done in about an hour and a half (not too long, I guess). After that we went out to the field of the proposed airstrip, and started looking for survey markers that we had been told were there. After a brief scare of not finding them, we found them and got to work, which ended up with us getting a decent line. After this, we had to walk a total of a few miles through tall grass to plant bamboo poles to mark the line. Praise God for His protection from snakes, we didn't see any! There were plenty of locals with us to help, so we had fun trying to speak a little Luganda (their language) with them. They thought mzungus speaking Luganda was hilarious. So after we finished the line, the MAF guys with us had already staked out where they wanted to strip based on the property line. We did some simple soil tests to see if the ground was appropriate for airplanes to land on (it'll work) and then the locals got to work on clearing the land. The cool thing about the strip is that it will be completely owned by the community, and MAF will just use it. That way it can be used for all types of community development. So after some clearing, it was time for us to go. Overall, it was a great experience. I see some great ministry going on in the island villages in the future.

Some boats on the shore of the island.

Well, I think I'll keep this update at that. I'll be updating soon about some other recent occurrences. I hope you're doing great wherever you are, and thank you again for your prayers and support!

Adventures of a Lifetime...(now with pictures!)

Whew! So much has happened since my last update! First off, before I even start, I just want to thank those of you who have supported me in coming here (both in prayer and financially). The amazing experiences I’ve had here couldn’t have happened without you. God is using this time to literally change my life and the way I view things, so thank you so much for supporting me here!

So in my last update I mentioned that I was about to go on my project trip. Well that’s exactly what I did and it was great. Just to fill you in, eMi’s main deal is their project trips. The way those work is that a group of volunteers from around the world (mostly the states, but also the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and so on) joins some eMi staff and interns on a trip to a developing area to do some engineering and architecture work for a ministry that needs it. Trips last around 7-10 days and range from really rural areas to areas that are a little more developed, but still need help. I think the best way for you to understand is if I just describe my trip.

So the team arrived on Tuesday (Sep 15) night. It consisted of 2 civil engineers from Georgia (oh yeah! close enough to Alabama, even though they went to Auburn), an architect from New Zealand, an architect from California, and a surveyor from Pennsylvania. The eMi staff was me (civil intern), an architecture intern, a structural engineering intern, and our project leader, Janet. The ministry we were working for in Masaka, Uganda morning picked us up Wednesday morning. We were working for a group called Pacific Academy Outreach Society. They’re an extension of a Christian school in Canada. PAOS opened up a school in Kibaale (in Uganda) a few years ago and has around 1000 kids going there now during the day. They bring in all kinds of kids from well off to impoverished and provide great Biblical education. They also offer sponsorships for kids as well (see here). Great ministry. Anyways, they want to expand to a new location to offer education to senior secondary school girls (about 11^th and 12^th grade in the US). The new school will be in Masaka and will be a boarding school that will also have a teacher training center as well as some agricultural training. So we arrived on site the first to some rain, but soon cleared up and we started surveying the first day! Quick start. At first I thought I would be working with the civil engineers for the work, but things changed and I ended up running the instrument for the week. At first I was a little let down, but I soon began to really enjoy surveying on the trip, so no regrets. The remainder of the week consisted of surveying all day, dinner at the hotel or PAOS staff house at night, then devotion time with the team and then bed. I should mention that PASO spoiled us all week by putting us up in a super nice hotel. I felt like I was on vacation ; ) But by the end of the week we had surveyed all the necessary points and generated a topo map (elevations and such) of the area. That was our part. The engineers worked on water supply and wastewater disposal all week, and the architects got the master plan and building designs together. In the end things looked great and the ministry seemed really blessed by the services we donated to them.

This is the existing site layout we made from the survey. It's actually drawn by hand (I did my best ha!)

So a few highlights from the week. I got to hear stories from the ministry about how God has been working there, and it’s amazing! God has brought many people to Himself just through the beginning phases of the construction on the site. One guy named Carl was cool. He just felt God was leading to share about who He is one day to the workers, so he gathered them under a tree and starts talking about God (not necessarily salvation). Suddenly a worker asks him about accepting Christ. This eventually leads to this guy and his family getting saved, and numerous other people in the community accepting Christ as well by seeing the change in this guys life (he was an alcoholic, mistreated his wife, etc.) Carl also told about how he wants to do ministry through beekeeping by offering to pray over people’s beekeeping areas that they start on the property. He believes that through that opportunities for the gospel will come up. I believe him and it’s so cool to see such a faithful man of God. Huge encouragement to me. My view of what “ministry” really is was expanded a lot through the process of the project trip. But also, we go to go to church on Sunday and that was great. Church here is amazing. The people here have so much less that what we have in America, yet they worship God lie they have no needs but to be closer to Him. Amazing and convicting. I wonder how churches in America would be if the country was in the same state as Uganda. How would you worship if you had little to nothing? Hard questions. I’m beginning to see that the less we have distracting us, the more God can get a hold of us and consume of lives. America is kind of distraction central, so I’m hoping for God to change my views of that, as well as other’s views, when I get back. But it was great to worship with those people in such a celebrative way. Our team has some time designated in the service, so we introduced ourselves, one guy gave a sermon, and myself and another volunteer lead some songs (but we definitely still has worship Uganda style before that). It was great to get to lead worship in a Ugandan church! Also some other highlights were getting to present the design to the ministry, getting to worship together as a team, and also the time of Bible study. It was a great experience.

At the end of the trip, we spent some time at Lake Nabugabu besides lake Victoria. Great place. We just spend one afternoon and morning there as a time of processing over the trip and sharing. We also got to take a boat ride on the lake which was interesting, especially since the driver had to keep bailing water out of the boat. We had a safe boat ride, though. Nice and relaxing.

After the project trip, I came straight back and left for a safari! It was so much fun, and will definitely be a lifetime experience. We saw so many animals (lions, hippos, giraffes, etc.) and had a great time. We stayed in tents and had warthogs and hippos hanging around the camp at night, so it was really cool. We also got to see some rhinos up close and personal (about 50 ft away!) and ended up getting caught up in a rhino fight! Pretty crazy really, and it involved some running and hiding in trees. Sounds dangerous I know (probably was) but the tour guided acted like it happens a lot and thought it was kind of funny. Who know really. Not sure if that would have been ok in the states, though. Hey, it’s Africa, right?

After all that excitement, we arrived back in Kampala to get back to normal work. I’m excited to start getting plugged into the community here now, and I’m looking forward to doing some engineering, too (don’t worry I’m not just surveying all semester).

Thanks for all your prayers, and keep praying that God will use me here for whatever He desires, that He would teach me and grow me, and that He would work here in Uganda. Also pray for the team volunteers that are back home now, that God would use their time here to grow them and give them opportunities for the gospel and encouraging others.

Ok, well until next time!

Kyle

PS: So as I write this I just finished an exciting day on an island in Lake Victoria. Yes an ISLAND! Did some survey (kind of) work down there for a group called Mission Aviation Fellowship. Crazy time. I’ll blog about it very soon!

Workin'

Greeting yet again from Uganda!

Wow, it’s been too long since the last update! Sorry about that. There’s so much I could talk about, but I’ll keep it short this time. Basically I’ve been working at the office the past few weeks getting ready for our project trip next week. I also spent three days surveying some land for a ministry in Etebbe here in Uganda. That was a fun experience. It was great to get the refresher on surveying, and also fun to do it in Africa! It was hot (but not as bad Alabama in the summer) and there lots of kids and chickens running around, so things were interesting. We ate local food straight from a hut everyday, but it was great actually. We also got to meet some cool people from the ministry Cherish Uganda, which has set up a school for HIV positive orphans. Very cool place. We didn’t finish the survey cause it was more land than we thought, not as clear as we thought, and a weirder shape than we thought. We’ll be heading out there later on this year to finish, we hope.

Work in the office has been good. It’s definitely a lot different than working in a normal American engineering office, but I like it. Definitely has a family atmosphere. I’ve been spending plenty of time researching things for the trip, making visits to product suppliers, and having meetings discussing things. I’ve learned a lot already, and I know I’ll learn a ton more. I really like this engineering design in the developing world. I actually feel like what I’m designing is going to make a real difference in these people’s lives. Plus it’s for a ministry that is dedicated to preaching the gospel, so it has eternal significance. Awesome stuff. I have a feeling I’ll be involved in this kind of work for a long time. I also really like the water supply/treatment part of everything. Definitely a necessary thing. I think when I get back to the states I might look for a job that involves some kind of water resources/treatment engineering. Either that or maybe go to grad school to learn more about it. But who knows.

Apart from work, I’ve had some chances to hang out with some kids from the international school down the road. I helped out at a youth group kind of thing last Friday, kind of doing games and a Bible study, and that was great. I also helped lead worship this morning at chapel at the same school. It’s a cool place. We also visited another church this past Sunday called Calvary Chapel. It was a ton more western, but was great. I’d say it was still 80% Ugandan, but the service was a lot like what you’d expect from a contemporary American community church. It was cool. The pastor is American and had some great teaching. There also seems to be a lot going on there with ministry, evangelism, and service, so that’s great too. There’s a possibility I may start going there regularly, depending on the few other visits I make around town. As much as I loved the more traditional local Ugandan church, I feel like I could be more involved with this other church. We’ll see.

Also, just for updates of other things, one of our teams has been in Kenya this past week doing a project. They’ve had some things stolen from their room (computers, wallets, etc.) so please pray for them in the process after that. I’m not sure how that’s all going to work out, I know its hard to deal with. So pray for them. Also my project leader left for the DRC (District Republic of Congo) yesterday to work with Samaritan’s Purse doing water testing. The DRC is a dangerous area, especially near the Uganda border. There’s a group called the LRA that has attacked villages around there, so pray for her.

Also, things have a been a little crazy here. Riots have broken out downtown from some political tension (I’ll spare you the details). Around ten people have been killed so far from the clash between police and rioters, and things may get worse this weekend. Rioters are burning cars, tires, even police posts. Overall its kind of a mess. So please pray for Uganda. Don’t be worried about me, though. Where I live and work is away from downtown, so we really haven’t experience anything here. We don’t expect anything to happen here either. We’re just steering clear of downtown for the weekend and things should be fine. By around Monday things should have cleared up. Overall I haven’t felt unsafe, so don’t worry. There’s plenty of people here that know a lot more about the area than I do, so I’m just following their directions on safety.

But yeah things are good here. I’ve heard some cool stories of what God has done here before and got to have some great time fellowshipping with the interns, staff, locals, and other people in ministry here. God is teaching me things here, and challenging me in a lot of ways. He’s doing some housecleaning in my heart, I’d say. Life is much more slower paced here, so there’s plenty of time for reflection, reading, and praying, so that is definitely helping, too.

Again, I appreciate all of your prayers and support. I can already tell that I’m not going to leave this place the same, and you’ve helped me get here! Thanks so much. I hope you’re all doing well, wherever you’re at!

In Christ,

Kyle

In Africa!

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Sorry about that! The past few weeks have been busy. Since I last updated, I’ve made it to Uganda! This place is amazing, and it’s really hard to explain in words. But I’ll try…

Anyways, so after a great (but long) orientation in Colorado Springs, me and the team flew out to Uganda. We left around 8:30 last Monday night, and got to Uganda at 7 AM Wednesday morning. That’s a lot of travelling. It was fun, though. We got to travel through London (a place I’ve always wanted to visit) and spend about 8 hours there. We saw the basics of the city and then flew out to Uganda. Once we arrived and made it through customs, we were picked up and got a ride on a mutatu (a bus/taxi thing that is supposed to hold around 14 people, but usually holds a lot more). We met our intern director Jill, and got to visit a youth camp being built right outside of where the airport is in Entebbe. It was a really cool place that will be for a African children’s choir that pulls kids of out of the slums. Cool ministry. After that we began the many meetings and more orientation. Jet lag was pretty rough and I literally almost fell asleep walking down a street at one point.

Over the past few days since we’ve arrived, we’ve gone through plenty more orientation about how things go here, and we’ve also got some more training. The full time staff here are great. Hearing the stories of how God has called them here to serve the poor using their engineering/architecture skills was great. The full time staff consists of Brad Crawford and his family and Janet Strike (my project leader). Some long term volunteers (they stay for around a year or so) consist of the Burgs and Jill. Just thought I would throw those out there so you know who I’m talking about in later posts.

I’ve had plenty of interesting experiences since being here, and it would take forever to list them all….even already. But some big point were going into the city for the first time and seeing how crazy it is. There’s a taxi park where these small buses get so packed together you could literally walk across the tops of them and not have to jump. The city itself is also crazy busy with people. Lots of people. It’s a great place, though, with some cool markets and other various things. It’s really fascinating. It’s also really easy to see the needs (both spiritual and physical) in the city from just walking around. Hopefully I’ll get some chances to minister to people around there at some point.

Another high point was church! We went to Amazing Grace Christian Assembly, which was a great experience. The worship was really celebratory, which I loved. They danced as they sang, and I just loved to freedom and expressiveness. Overall, I really enjoyed the service, and I’m looking forward to checking out some other churches around town. I think next Sunday I’m going to go visit Calvary Chapel, which is in town. We’ll see how that is.

On Saturday, we went to Jinja to drop off the construction management interns and have a service day. We helped dig some foundations for a building and bend some rebar. We got rained out near the end, which was actually fun since I ran through the rain putting stuff up. Got chased by some kids. Fun times. That was a great day really.

Today is Monday, which means it was the first day of work! Today we spent a lot of time learning how the office works (computers, etc.). Then we got to work. I spent most of today getting some info to use to get a map of the area we’ll be working at on the trip. It’s a secondary (high) school for girls AIDS orphans. I also spent a little time looking at some stuff for fish ponds that we may be designing for it. That’s new stuff to me, but it seems interesting. We’ll see how that comes. Tomorrow through Thursday me and a few other interns are probably doing some surveying of a site near here. Should be cool. I get to refresh all that surveying knowledge I got in school/work. Overall I’m looking forward to the work.

Anyways, that’s a very quick recap of my time so far. If you’re curious the food is great. Pretty simple. Lots of beans, rice, and bread. But I’ve loved almost all of it so far.

Thanks for all your prayer and support, again! I couldn’t be here without you guys. If you would continued to pray for God to guide me during this time and give me boldness in strange new situations. Also, please pray that I’ll be flexible and seek to glorify Him through work and every other situation I find myself in. I want to make the most of this time (I know I’ve said that a lot, sorry). Well, until next time, see you guys!

Covered By Christ’s Mercy.
Kyle

Orientation!

Hey everyone!

So I've spent the past week in Colorado Springs at orientation for EMI. It's been an amazing experience. This place is beautiful. As I write this, I'm actually looking at Pike's Peak out the window. Crazy. Colorado is a great place, and there's so much beauty here that it's almost impossible not to glorify God in your mind when you see this place. It's crazy to think that the same God that created these mountains is the one that desires a relationship with us and has called me to Uganda.

This week has been long, but a great preparation for Uganda. We've spent a lot of time this week discovering how God has equipped us in different ways. We've done personality tests, spiritual gift tests, formulated mission statements, and plotted out our life story. Lots of deep thought. But it's been good. Just so you know, I'm a practitioner (a perfectionist that's task-oriented but can be outgoing at certain times), one of my dominant spiritual gifts is service and giving, and I have the natural strengths of seeing things in life connected together, strong belief, and responsibility. I also was surprised at how some of the tests pointed to how I value relationships. I knew that was sort of true, but the more I think about, I really do enjoy being intentional in relationships. That's something I'm definitely going to be focusing on while in Uganda.

We've had lots of sessions on many different things, and I won't go through all of them here. Some of the highlights include culture training, where we learned how North America tends to differ from other places in the world. It was really eye opening, and it will really help as I adapt to Uganda's relationship-oriented (not-task and time oriented) culture.

One of the best parts of the week for me was hearing every interns testimony. God has done some awesome things in out lives. It's really col to me how God draws people to himself in different ways. It's not this simple formula, it's really complex, but awesome. It also brought us all closer together, since we know where we're coming from and what God has done and is doing in us. We also got to be really honest with each other, so that's great. I love honesty.

Hearing all these testimonies really got me thinking. I honestly don't know the testimonies of a lot of my Christian friends. Thinking about how much closer we became because of that really put in me a desire to be a lot more intentional about things like that back home. I guess that's lesson one.

God has also been revealing some inner issues to me lately. There's definitely some sin in me that God is wanting to get rid of, and so it's a tough process. I love it's happening, because I hate sin in my life, and so God sanctifying me like this is great. But it's discipline, and that's never easy. If you could, really just pray for humility for me.

But we've also done some fun activities like hiking and rock climbing this week, which has been great. I've got to see more of COS, so that's great. Great times.

So I leave for Uganda TOMORROW! Our flight leaves tomorrow night at 8:30 PM. We fly through the night to London, have a 8 hour layover there, then another 9 hour flight to Entebbe airport in Uganda. Crazy. Please pray that God protects us according to His will, and even gives us opportunities to share what we're doing while traveling.

Well, that's it for now. The next update will be from Uganda! I hope everyone is doing great back home. The adventure is about to really start, and I'm excited to let you all know what happens and how God works.

Much love in Christ,

Kyle Bryant

Leaving On A Jet Plane (The First of Many...)

Well, it's finally here...I leave in the morning.

It's funny how I've spent so long thinking and planning for this trip, and now it's hard to believe I'm actually going. I don't really know what to say to people when they ask how I feel. It's hard to explain. I just know I'm ready to do this. Sure, a part of me will miss home, friends, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Texas, etc. But I know God has set this deal up for me, and so I'm ready.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who has supported me in this. I literally wouldn't be going without you. God has encouraged and really surprised me in all this. At points the money didn't seem like it was going to be there, then suddenly it was. All the praise goes to God. He's the only One who deserves it, anyway. But, of course, I'm still so appreciative to everyone who contributed! You've become a partner with me in the ministry I'll be doing over there, even though you'll p ' robably never set foot in Uganda with me.

Well, I don't have much else to say right now. It's been a good summer. Full of all kinds of things I didn't expect. But God is good and He keep drawing me closer to Himself and opening my eyes to His Kingdom. It's a good Kingdom. Things are backwards in His Kingdom compared to the way we view the world, but that's how things really should (and will) be.

A friend of mine posted a facebook note the other day that really go me thinking. In it he brings up Matthew 16:18:

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock. I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Anyways, so he pointed out that gates are a defensive tool, not offensive. Kind of seems obvious now that I think about it, huh? But if you think about it, so many of us get so caught up in feeling like we're fighting off Satan and sin and worldliness, that we forget that Christ told us that we're going to be attacking hell. We're to be on the offensive, not defensive. That was good for me to hear, since the closer this trip gets, the more worries get thrown at me. I need to realize that my tim over there is for me to storm the gates of hell and bring CHrist and hope to people, not for me to have to just fight off attacks. Sure, I'll need to be defensive, but offensive, too. That gets me pumped.

Anyways, from here on out, I'll be posting from other places (aka not home). I' spending a week in Colorado Springs for orientation for EMI, and then I fly out the 24th for Uganda. Not sure how readily available the internet will be, so it may be a week before you hear from me again. If so, have a great one, and pursue the Kingdom! It's coming!

much love,

Kyle

Been A While

So, it's been a while since I've blogged. It's actually only the second time I've posted so far. That'll hopefully change once I get to Uganda. I'll aim for once a week.

Since the last update, I got a job! That's a pretty big blessing considering how things are right now. I'm a construction inspector with the engineering firm I worked with after my first year of school. It's a little different than what I'm used to, with being on construction sites all day checking measurements and making sure things are being built right, but I'm definitely thankful for it, even if I don't always seem that way. I'm learning a lot about the construction side of things, too which helps. And I'm learning about decentralized wastewater treatment systems (fancy, I know). They're kind of cool, I guess. Anyways, having a job really helps right now! God provided for me in that way, so I'm really thankful.

Aside from work, things in Mobile are good. The first few weeks of life back home were tough, especially because I really wasn't sure how I got back here. I guess I just didn't see myself back in Mobile living at home working construction stuff again. Part of me wanted to be back at camp, even though God pretty much told me that wasn't where he wanted me this summer (which was hard to hear). I stuggled with that, especially when I looked around at life and wondered, "God why am I hear watching guys dig holes in the ground, when I could be sharing Christ with kids at camp again?" Hard question, but I eventually realized that God wants me at this job this summer to be a witness for Him to the guys I work with just as much as He would want me being a witness to kids at camp. Seems like a obvious answer now, but it was hard to see in the midst of things. Applying it is hard, though, because of the kind of people I work with on site. They're not exactly the kind of people I'm used to being around. They're a little rough around the edges. But I'm praying for boldness to being a witness for the gospel to these guys, and I'm praying that the Spirit would work through me to draw these guys to Christ. It's all in His timing, anyway.

But basically, I'm cool with being in Mobile now. I actually kind of like it a little bit (don't tell my parents ha). I'm getting lots of opportunities to serve at church and other ministries, and I get to hand out with some old (and new) friends. Yeah, I still miss camp, but I know God has me here for a reason, even if it's now always so obvious.

As far as Uganda goes, it's getting close! Last night, I got to meet up with two guys that will be there working in the construction management side of things. That office is in Jinja (spelling?), which is about an hour away from Kampala, I think. They both went to Auburn (mmm rivalry), and are cool guys. I'm excited to hang out and serve with them more, even if we're not working in the same city.

I also got the majority of my shots yesterday (2 in each arm...ouch). Just missing yellow fever, they were out! But I'll get it soon (the shot, not the disease). I'm also preparing by learning more about Uganda and doing some reading that EMI gave me. I watched the latest Invisible Children movie, too, to kind of get an idea of what's happening in the northern part of the country (crazy stuff).

Lastly, I do have a concern. The support raising process is going really slow. I've only got about a quarter of what I need for the trip, and I only have 5 weeks until I leave. I'm trusting God to provide it, but the closer it gets, the more faith it takes to say that. I really want to do this (obviously), and I feel like God has led me to this and confirmed it with scripture, but to see the money not there is hard. I'm trying to get in contact with a few more people now, so we'll see how that goes.

Well, that's that for now. Life is good. God is good. I hope everyone else is having a great summer. I'll try to blog a little more as August 16th gets closer (that's when I'm leaving).

PRAYER REQUESTS THIS TIME:

-That God will provide the money for the trip

-That God would allow people to experience His blessing and faithfulness through giving for His kingdom

-That I would have the boldness to be a witness for Christ at work

-That the Spirit would work in the lives of the guys around me at work, to draw them to Himself

-That God would give me direction for after Uganda

Step One

So, it looks like thing are finally getting started here.  I've got the blog up and going!

So...if you're wondering about the colors, they're the colors of Uganda's flag (or as close as I could get them, anyway). I was trying to stay with the whole Uganda theme.

But the past few week since I found out that I got the internship have been busy. Since then I've finished finals, graduated from college, and moved back home. It's been kind of surreal, since it feels like I just started college yesterday. However, as I was packing up today in Tuscaloosa, I realized how truly blessed I've been for the past four years. I don't mean that just in the standard way of having good friends (which I have had some great friends while in college), but I also mean in the extent that God has grown me over the past few years. He's given me so many great opportunities to serve and learn. It was kind of funny because as I was packing I was kind of bummed out, because I'm leaving all my friends and everything that I've known for the past few years to go back home, but as I looked through all of the memories I had accumulated, I couldn't help but see how amazing God has been to me. It made it hard to pout when I realized how much I had been given.

Over the past few weeks I've gone through lots of different feeling about Uganda. There was the initial excitement stage, which was followed by the logistical "getting it to work" stage, which was then followed by the "oh wow can this really happen" stage, which was then followed by the "maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to do" stage, which finally led to the "God has led me to this so I will follow Him" stage. A lot of stages, I know. But I figured this would happen, since this whole path of going to Uganda is a little different than that of a normal new college, and is not really what I even expected to be  doing about this time. But I'm trusting God will guide me and supply all I need in this.

So now I'm beginning the support raising stage, which is new for me. I've never had to ask for money thing before, so it kind of feels strange at first. Like I'm soliciting or something. But a packet EMI sent to me highlights all the different times Paul asked for financial help in his ministry. It was quite a bit. From those scriptures I can see that supporting missionaries and people in ministry is just as important as going yourself. God says he will reward those who live sacrificially for the gospel, in both giving and going. Cool stuff. So that makes me feel less like I'm soliciting, and more than I'm offering people an opportunity to join with me on this crazy adventure. It also makes me want to be supporting missionaries myself as well, when I get back form Uganda. I haven't really been obedient in that area, and I'm honestly excited to be part of that when I'm not on the support raising side of things.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm in Mobile for the summer, and I start the whole summer job search process tomorrow (maybe...the temptation of a game of golf has reared its ugly head). Hopefully I can find a job with decent hours so I can enjoy my time here. But, the economy is kind of crazy right now, so I'm pretty flexible. I know God has all of this worked out, so I'm not worried. Anyways, I'll keep you all updated as thing progress!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

- summer job in mobile

-God will provide my needs financially for Uganda

-God will prepare me for my time there