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