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