EDEN in Africa

Well, 2017 has been a year for the books!  I’d say it has been one of highs and lows.  I’ve had the worst corn crop I’ve had in over 20 years.  Just a perfect storm of things going wrong.  I’ve seen my son graduate high school and prepare to enter Clemson University. 

I had so much fun planting soybeans the first time, I decided to do it again!  I had some herbicide damage and the beans were stunted and not growing.  And still aren’t growing!  Those larger plants in the above photo are 9 weeks old!  They should be over knee high!  But these might be 8 inches!  Do you remember the story of Jack and the Beanstalk?  Jack’s mother just threw the beans out of the window and they grew into an enormous beanstalk.  That’s how beans usually are.  But not this year.  Not for me.  I am beginning to wonder what I am doing trying to train others about agriculture if I can’t even get beans to grow!  I might need to turn in my ‘farmer’ card!  Farming does nothing if not keep you humble!  But God is faithful through it all and I am thankful for His blessings.

And speaking of blessings!  A container that was loaded in October of last year finally made it to Nairobi!  Yay, GAiN!  There were so many starts and stops to this process.  But drip kits are now in the field in Namanga with some more awaiting transport.  The container also has parts for an electric fence to help with animal control, but they haven’t unpacked that yet!  These are boxes of bucket drip kits that will be used by families in southeast Kenya and northeast Tanzania.  And these are the buckets to go along with them!

EDEN has two trips on the not so distant horizon.  Jon Ozmint will be leading a team back to Uganda during the first week of September.  They will be taking a large drip irrigation system to the refugee camp at Kiryandongo.  EDEN is also purchasing a corn (maize) shelling machine for them to use to process their crop.  This will save money on the refugees’ food supply and also serve as a business start-up.  The team will also distribute improved crop storage bags (PICS) to help protect the harvested crop.  They will also train on irrigation at the Rhino camp in northern Uganda.  At a South Sudanese church in Arua, Uganda, they will work out the details of establishing a sewing center.  The ladies there will be trained on how to make Luopads for other ladies as well as general sewing.  They also hope to help distribute Bibles provided by With Open Eyes while in the Rhino camp and in Arua. 

The second trip will be in October to Kenya and Tanzania.  Jim Mixson will be leading a team to work with several schools and orphanages on irrigation training.  We are also looking into providing a well at one of the orphanages.  We will also go back to the Maasai village that was visited in February to install a large drip irrigation system there.  Sewing centers will also be established in several locations.  What?  Ya’ll didn’t know Jim could run a sewing machine?  It’s got a motor on it doesn’t it??  All joking aside, Kristin Mixson has done a great job with video training on making the Luopads.  So rest easy, the pupils will be well trained.  

We feel that now is such an opportune time to minister to and teach the South Sudanese who are in the refugee camps in Uganda.  God has brought so many out of their country and congregated them in the camps.  The logistics, while not ideal, are much more conducive than those in South Sudan. 

All of these efforts are costly.  We first ask you to pray for us as we undertake the ministry that God has laid before us.  Second, we would ask you to consider helping us financially.  EDEN is fully registered as a 501(c)(3) corporation and all donations are fully tax-deductible.  Any contribution can make a big impact.  Donations may be sent to our mailing address:

EDEN

1110 Blakely Court

West Columbia, SC  29170

 

My apologies for not posting for a while.  It has been a busy season on the farm!  But I got some pictures from Africa and I wanted you to see them!

This is from inside the new church at the Rhino Camp.  These folks had been meeting under a UN provided tent.  You can see a picture of the tent in my post on the Rhino Camp from April.  The roof and the walls are up.  They will cover the walls with mud to finish them.  With Open Eyes provided the funds for them to construct the structure.

This is a new church at the Kiryandongo Camp where we visted in April as well.  These folks had been meeting under a tree.  They will also finish the walls with mud to complete the building.  With Open Eyes also provided funding for this building.   I am so happy they have a building now!

EDEN has a lot of projects on the horizon!  Several of our team are looking to be back in Africa in Septemeber.  Watch for details!

 

On Wednesday, we went to meet with the leaders of the Moru Christian Fellowship Center in Arua.  This church started in 2003 and has had several rebirths over that time as the numbers of refugees in Arua has changed with the fighting in South Sudan.  These believers are mostly from the Mundri area in South Sudan and are from the Moru tribe.  They are currently meeting in a public school room and are having to pay rent to use the room.  They have a maximum of around 600 people and they are meeting in a room designed for 60 students.  About 250 of this number are children.  They have about 80 orphans who live in the community with other families.

I do not have many pictures from this visit.  We met in the home of the lay leader, Penina Samuel.  It was a small room and because of the lighting, many of the pictures did not come out well.  As with most meetings like this in Africa, we had to eat.

The ladies of the church had prepared a wonderful spread for us with chicken, ugali (something akin to mashed potatoes made from either corn or sorghum), beans, bread, and one other dish I can’t remember!

Before a meal, one of the hosts comes around with a pan, a pitcher of water, and soap.  The guests can then wash their hands before eating.  The South Sudanese don’t use many utensils, so you sometimes have to eat with your hands.   I have finally gotten pretty good at eating beans with a piece of bread or ugali.  My mother would be mortified!  All I can say is that when in Rome…….  After eating, the water and the pan come back around for you to wash your hands again.  Two things strike me about this process.  One is the servant heart of the one coming around with the water and pan.  The second is the cleansing that comes as a gift – not something we can do for ourselves.  We need help.  That reminds me of how Jesus died on the cross for us.  A beautiful picture indeed!

The needs are great here.  We heard from several of the leaders of the church.  They had each prepared a typed presentation, which was informative and helpful.  They only have five Bibles that they must pass around the leadership for Sunday preparation.  That means that the general member really has no access to a Bible.  They have bought part of a sound system to use on Sundays, but need to complete the system.  As you can imagine, it is hard for 600 people to hear with no pa system.  They would also like to have a keyboard to use for worship.  Music really is a drawing card to bring the unchurched in.

Their mother’s union would like to expand a sewing project.  They are already making handbags by hand and selling them to raise funds for the church.  With a couple sewing machines, they can branch out into other areas and increase their output.  I discussed with Penina the possibility of them making Luopads.  She was very excited about this idea.

With Open Eyes (withopeneyes.net) will be starting a fund raising campaign for Bibles in the next week or so.  We are still nailing down prices, but hopefully the Bibles will be about $5.00 US apiece.  Take a look at their website if you’d like to contribute toward that.  These will go not only to the Moru church but also to the churches in the refugee camps.

EDEN will be looking at how we could help facilitate the growth of the sewing project.  This would be teaching a life skill to new ladies as well as providing income for the church.  The production of the Luopads would also be a blessing to many women in the area.  We could also use your help to cover these expenses.

I am going to bring this puppy in for a landing for now.  I have a few other thoughts I want to share and I will try to share a couple videos we took if WordPress will cooperate!  So stay tuned.  I will try to get that up soon!

 

It wasn’t until morning that I found this gash in the screen.  The screen where the lizard had been hanging out!  Glad I didn’t wake up to new bed-mate!  Below are a couple of scenes from our journey on to Arua.  We stopped at a roadside stand to get some mangoes which are now ready.  Several ladies were selling shea oil in reused water and soda bottles.  In the second picture, there is a carcass of some description under the leaf covering.  We did not partake of that!

We made it to Arua around lunchtime on Tuesday.  The road getting there was paved and in good condition.  Arua is a larger town northeastern Uganda, near the border with South Sudan.  Our hotel was very well appointed and had air conditioning!  It worked well until the power went out on the first night.  But the room had already cooled down and we were able to sleep well anyway.  Electricity is fairly dependable in Uganda, but you can run into random outages every once in a while.

We decided to go on out to the Rhino Camp that afternoon.  We got several differing estimates as to the amount of time it would take us to get there.  It ended up being a 2 hour excursion on an unpaved and bumpy road.  I believe the distance was about 60 km (37 miles).  We were surprised at the size of the camp.  Once we passed the entrance, it took us another hour to get to the first church we wanted to visit.  These are a couple shots from the road to Rhino.

I have already published this on Facebook, but let me state it here also:  Let it be known, now and forever more, that Pastor Simon Kariuki was the first member of our With Open Eyes team to set foot in the Rhino Camp on the 25th day of April in year of our Lord, 2017.  If you can’t tell by the picture, our team had a lot of fun together!

Below is our welcoming committee when we arrived.  The ladies even sang for us.  Tom and I had the honor of being the first white men to visit the church.  It was started in October of 2015.

Pastor Simon (#2) is in the middle of the above left picture in the dark blue shirt and on the left in the below left picture.  Pastor Sunday is on the right in the below left picture.  They are refugees and Mobile Messengers living in the Rhino camp.  This church is the one that Pastor Sunday works with and is an interdenominational one.  You can see the exterior in the below right picture.  Pastor Sunday’s son is on the left in the below left picture.  What a handsome boy!

We did not know that the church was going to have a formal program for us.  They had been waiting for us to arrive since around lunchtime.  We got to hear about each area of the church and their specific needs:  youth, Sunday School, worship, women.  The people are hungry for Bibles.  Many of them had to leave South Sudan in such a hurry, they left with nothing but the clothes on their back.  They want musical instruments to help in worship.  They are using drums now which are mostly handmade.  And they sounded great, by the way!  They see music and worship as a means of attracting new people to the church.  Many of the women do not have cooking utensils.  The pastors would like to get some Bible training.  Many of these people have experienced trauma in their flight from South Sudan.  Trauma counseling and social counseling are needed to help reconcile victims and those responsible.  So, so many needs.

Above is the With Open Eyes bunch:  Pastor Tom Burger, Pastor Simon Kariuki, and Pastor Sosthen Lahti.  Sosthen is translating for Tom.  Note the bullhorn behind Tom that is used as a pa system.

I also got a chance to speak to the church briefly about the agricultural training we are doing and the drip irrigation kits.  Pastor Sunday is translating.  We had planned on returning on Wednesday, but God had other plans for us, which I will detail a little later.

This is inside Pastor Sunday’s house.  It is a tukul and has dirt walls and a thatch roof.  We were not aware that they had prepared a meal for us until we finished the meeting and where trying to go to the next church.  I cannot tell you how humbling it is receive food from people in a situation like this.  To know that many times over the past year or so they have probably been hungry and now they are giving food to you is just incredible.  So, we sat and we ate.

This is Pastor Simon #2’s church.  This is a shelter that the UN provided, nothing more than a pipe structure and a tarp covering.  A really strong wind had just come through the area while were at the first camp and I was a little surprised the tarp was still holding on.   We were able to say a brief hello and then get on the road back to Arua.

It is difficult to fully describe the spirit of these people.  They love God.  They seek to learn more about Him and to worship Him.  They are so very thankful for the things they have, even when we would say it is very little.  They recognize that everything comes from God.  Their hearts overflow with joy when they worship.  They are faithful givers, even out of their impoverished situation.  And they are active in spreading the Love of God to their fellow man.  This was my fourth trip to Africa and each time I have been touched in a different way.

The duffle bag in the above picture has 50 kids t-shirts from Shandon Baptist Church.  We also brought 20 drip irrigation kits that were supplied by GAiN USA.  I am so thankful for their US staff and the help of Marvin Bozard in getting these kits for us.  This is truly a team effort!

In the background you can see the water point near Pastor Sunday’s church.  You can see a light pole on the left with solar panels on top.  This water point is connected to a central well at another location.  They have the same problem as the camp at Kiryandongo with there not always being water available.  Below is another water point we saw as we were driving into Pastor Sunday’s church.  You can see all of the water jugs lined up.

We were also told that food distribution has also been spotty.  The UN is struggling to keep up with the demands of so many refugees, with over 50,000 at Rhino camp alone.

The needs are staggering and can easily be overwhelming.  It is our belief that God has brought the people of South Sudan to this point for a reason.  After being in South Sudan in 2015, you could have never convinced me then that the country would be where it is now.  We see this as an incredible opportunity to reach many people in a somewhat confined space.  Once they go back home, the logistics of ministering to them become so much more onerous.  When you are doing metalwork, you put the iron in the fire and get it red hot and you must bend it into the shape you want while it is hot.  Strike while the iron is hot, the saying goes.  We believe that God has brought the South Sudanese to this place to make them more open and receptive to His Word.  We are redoubling our efforts of teaching and support to do as much as we can as soon as we can.

We finally were able to get back on the road to Arua.  Brian, our driver, had wanted to get us off the road before dark.  There were some very dark clouds also building in around us.  About half way back, the heavens opened up.  It was the kind of rain that would drown a frog.  And remember we are driving on a dirt road.  At one bad spot, our 4 wheel drive van got stuck and started sliding into the ditch.  The ditch that had a river of water running in it.   We got out in the pouring rain to try to help push.  That didn’t really help that much, but finally with us out of the van, Brian was able to maneuver the van back up on the road.  But we were soaked!  Wish I had taken a picture, but I was just ready to get in out of the rain!

We continued up the road and finally hit the paved road on the outskirts of Arua.  I think I could ring water out of my pants when I got to the hotel!  Because of the condition of the road, we had to make the hard decision to not go back to the Rhino camp on Wednesday.  But, God had plans for us to see something else, which I will detail in another post.

Above is a shot of us eating dinner once we were back and cleaned up at the hotel.  Going from left to right, it is me, Simon, Brian, Sosthen, and Andrew, a Bible translator who is a friend of a friend of Tom’s from Charlotte.  I think Tom might be a little camera shy, so that’s him taking the picture!  But his food looks good, doesn’t it??  Thanks for reading!

 

These are some scenes from our road trip from Kiryandongo to Arua.  In total about a 5 hour drive.  We did 2 hours on Monday afternoon and then completed the trip on Tuesday.

Somebody call Columbia Farms!!  They are hauling chickens the wrong way!!

A little monkey business.  I would not want to try to try to wrestle an ear of corn from that fellow!

I wish that we had time to stop and take a lot more pictures of the beautiful African landscape.  Simply wonderous to look at.  Tried to get a decent picture of an elephant we saw, but it just didn’t turn out well.  You’ll have to take my word that we saw one!

This is the Heritage Safari Lodge we stayed at on Monday night.  It is right beside the Nile River.  Beautiful.

The guy on the right up there was trying to eat a few bugs, but he wasn’t making a dent in the population!  It wasn’t until the morning when I noticed a 4 inch gash in the screen he was on.  Hoping he didn’t stow away in my luggage!

On Monday morning, we headed back out to the Kiryandongo refugee camp.  With Open Eyes is sponsoring over 30 pastors to go through a pastor training program.  Tom Burger spoke to the class and encouraged them in their studies.

Below is a very real experience all over Africa……trying to get fresh, clean water.  Pastor Sosthen’s group has three water points tied to the large well provided by the camp.  But they cannot always get water.  The water table has dropped with the drought and the authority only cuts their water on in the middle of the night some days.  If they want water, they have to get up and fill their containers at night.  In addition, the refugees have to pay the Ugandan government for the water!  We are looking into the possibility of putting in a well for the church to use to help alleviate these problems.

These next photos are the future and the hope of South Sudan!  Pastor Sosthen started a nursery school last year.  They have 3 classes with almost 100 students in each class!  Sadly, almost one half of these children are orphans.

Well, I lost power last night at this point!  Trying again this morning!  While we were talking in Sosthen’s office, we had someone try to come and put in her two cents!

I did a little talk about the drip irrigation to reinforce what I taught last year.  The church really did well with their garden and were able to use the money they got out of the okra crop to buy 2 acres of land!

We brought about 80 Luopad kits to give to the women,  They were absolutely thrilled to receive them and to know that others cared for and thought about them.  Great thanks to all the ladies that worked on and bought supplies for these pads!

We then left the camp and started our journey north to the Rhino camp.  Oh, the stories I have to tell……..but that will have to be another post!

This is Pastor Sosthen’s church at Kiryandongo.  They have added on to it twice since we were here in February of 2016.  There were people everywhere!  And lots of kids!   The church was full.

And I had more than a few onlookers over my shoulder at the window!

Many of the kids were excited to see the mzungu (white men).  Tom Burger preached and Pastor Sosthen interpreted.  Tom spoke about Jesus having compassion on suffering people.

Many came forward during the altar call.

When the service was over, we went to another church at the camp.  It was started about a year ago.  They have a thriving congregation that is full of the Spirit.

Two ladies who had received charms from a witch doctor brought them after our time of fellowship.  Pastor Simon broke the charms and we then burned them.  We also prayed for deliverance for the ladies.  This spiritual war is real.

We then went to a third church and met with the leaders.  We were able to pray with them and encourage them in their work.

We finally got a chance to eat!  What a spread!  Chicken, rice, beans, cabbage, and some good ole cat head biscuits!  In case you aren’t from the southern portion of the US, cat head biscuits are just biscuits the size of a grown cat’s head!

As we were talking after eating, a wonderful, refreshing rain started to fall.   It has been so terribly dry here.  Everyone is praying for better rains this growing season.

This is the nursery school that Pastor Sosthen has started.  They have almost 300 children that attend.  He has plans to add a primary school as well.

I’ll have some pictures of the cute kids in the next post!  If this laptop doesn’t end up in the Nile River!  WordPress and I are not getting along well!

Tom Burger, the operations director for With Open Eyes, called me a few short weeks ago and asked about the possility of me accompanying him on a trip to two refugee camps in Uganda in April.  My thinking was that I would have all my corn planted and be at a little bit of a break in the process.  Ha ha!  I worked up until about an hour and a half before I was to be at the airport trying to get the rest of my irrigated corn planted.

But here we are, safe in Kampala.  We brought 40 more drip irrigation kits with us.  The shipment I had been waiting on from GAiNUSA is also in place.  So we will have 140 kits to work with!  We also brought over 80 Luopad packs to share with the ladies in the camps.  (That’s almost 500 individually sewn pads, if you’re keeping score!)  We have 100 Shandon Baptist t shirts to give out to some of the kids.  And we have 500 Jesus bracelets for the kids too.  Pastor Sosthen has nearly 300 kids in his church and school alone!

All of our luggage made it to us at Entebbe.  Tom said that was a first for him in Africa.  I guess I’ve been blessed so far in not having any problems.  The drip kits made it through customs without a hitch.  The only thing that didn’t make it was Pastor Simon!  He dropped his passport and couldn’t make his flight.  But he later found it and will be joining us in Kampala in the morning.  We will then drive the 3.5 hours to Kiryandongo.  The roads are good, so it should be a good day.

We will be at the Kiryandongo camp Sunday and Monday.  Then on Tuesday, we will drive north to the Rhino camp.  Still waiting on final approval to get in there.  On Thursday, we will fly on a charter flight back to Entebbe and start the journey home.

This is a followup visit for me at Kiryandongo.  Jon Ozmint and I were here last year and did training on drip irrigation.  They really mastered it and did well with it.  They ran into a water sourcing problem (dry well) that we will be looking at for correction.   There will also be a meeting of Mobile Messengers on Monday and we will encourage those pastors.

At the Rhino camp, With Open Eyes is looking to start a congregation.  I will also be looking at ways to help them with ag training and supplies.

The internet was down at the hotel this morning because it was raining!  So I am late in posting this.  We have stopped for lunch on our way to Kiryandongo.  That is Pastor Simon on the left, our driver Brian in the middle, and Tom on the right.