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Jul 9, 2013    |      Comments Off on Africa 2013 Begins…

Africa 2013 Begins…

My brain hurts and my body is numb. I can’t remember what time it is in the U.S., yet I know I still have a 10 hour flight from London Heathrow airport to Entebbe Uganda. Riley and I during our first flight to Detroit found out that our connection to Amsterdam was delayed two hours due to bad weather. Finally released to fly from Detroit to Amsterdam, we soon discovered that we would miss our connecting flight to Uganda. When we arrived at Amsterdam I quickly got in line and was told that we wouldn’t arrive in Uganda until late Wednesday night. At first I accepted that horrible news and prepared to spend the night in Amsterdam in some hotel. As I contemplated the whole scenario a bit, I began to doubt the lady who curtly told me that there were no other flights. She must have been tired or just plain impatient and rude. As I used my free 30 minutes of WiFi I discovered there were multiple ways to get to Uganda…I would just have to get creative. So…I marched back to the same lady, showed her my iPhone App and asked her if she really tried her best. She apologized and forwarded me to an official desk…instead of kiosk…and Riley and I were off to London! As I type this I am currently sitting in the London Heathrow Airport with Riley and we are using our electric converters to charge our ever important Smart Phones!! We are tired, but excited. Our plane leaves London at 9PM tonight and arrives in Entebbe Uganda at 7:30am. I’m going to watch a couple of movies and try to get some sleep. We arrive just a half day in front of the majority of the group. Hopefully we are early enough to help Hope 4 Kids International prepare for 50 Plus people eager to make an impact for Jesus Christ in Uganda.

I hope you will stay tuned over the next days as I will blog about this incredible journey. It has already started off with some shifts and I know that we will have to remain flexible throughout this whole trip!

Shift Happens.
Lesson I’ve learned so far….Never take NO as a blind answer without looking into the possibilities yourself. I’m convinced most people are not trying to promote your progress or your purpose and are only trying to get home from a long days work. I don’t blame them…but I pray that we as followers of Jesus Christ will always be about promoting other’s progress and purpose. (I think I should give a disclaimer here…not for bullies.) If you are bully, followers of Jesus will behave like Jesus and make a “whip” and without sinning, put you in your place!.

However…for everybody else…followers of Jesus should be about promoting other’s progress and purpose!
If we do this…I believe Jesus will take care of our progress and purpose!
He’s one we can count on!
He can handle our progress and purpose better than we can!

Uganda…Here we come!
By the way…Riley is a stud. He has a great attitude and is enjoying the journey so far. He’s as tall as I am now and we are suffering cramped quarters together. However…as we venture into Africa together….we will soon be reminded we have nothing to complain about!

Stay tuned.

Trent

Nov 9, 2011    |       7 comments

Medical Wednesday in Africa

Just when I think I’ve seen it all and can ‘t be caught off guard in Africa…today did it. 

Woke up this morning…still no water in the plumbing.  Had to get a big jug full of water from the front desk of the hotel and pour it into my toilet to be able to flush.  Did I mention in all the plumbing problems yesterday that I discovered that I can take a Water Bottle shower in 3 and 1/2 bottles?!   Try it at home for your next shower.  If you can do it…you qualify for the next Missions Trip to Africa!  LOL

Breakfast was the same as yesterday…eggs…scrambled and hard boiled…or you could ask for the staff to make you an omelet.  Bacon…Its good too…but thats a no brainer…I’m not sure I”ve ever had bad bacon.  Coffee, fresh fruit.  The bananas here are to die for…they  have so much taste.  

I had to eat a really quick breakfast because I found out last minute that the Medical Team was headed out to a remote village to help people who needed medical attention.  We drove out into Africa for 2 hours.  Rough roads, packed bus…made for a pretty uncomfortable ride.  As we pulled up to the village there was a brick church building where all the chairs were pulled out and the  main room is where we set up camp.  We had boxes and boxes of medical supplies, medicines and we were ready to take on the crowds.   As they began to pour in…what I saw is just sheer helplessness.  I mean…what would you do if you had 5 children…beautiful children…and they had temperatures of 104 and you had no doctors, medicine, vitamins, our cleanliness?  You wait for years for someone to offer some hope.  
The very first patient that came in was a little girl of around 9 years old.  She had this huge infectious sore on her forearm that was full of puss and anything else gross that you can imagine.  The mother told us that she had the sore on her arm now for 2 and 1/2 years.  The little girl was so brave as the medical team used a scalpel to begin to cut away the infectious skin.   She had no pain medicine.  She would cry out in pain…but not move a muscle.  She trusted us so much and knew that we were there in the name of Jesus Christ to help her. So brave and tough.

  I could type on for pages at the different types of people and problems that walked through the doors begging for any help they could get.  I’ll tell this one story…in comes a man with his 2 wives.  He has 16 children…8 of them are with him.  They all have raging fevers and are malnourished.  Both the wives have STD’s from the husband.  The 8 year old girl had the same STD..which means she was raped…maybe by the man of the house.  The youngest of the two wives was basically a skeleton with skin and she had twin boys.  The boys were just one year old.  Had we not intervened today…one of the little boys would have died in our arms today.  He was barely alive and the mother simply said they have no food and no money and she can’t support her babies with milk because she is malnourished too,  We spent time first saving the babies lives.  Giving them water, electrolytes, some bananas, medicine, etc.  With in about 2 hours the baby began to come to ‘life.”  We had some people run in to the town village store and buy some food, baby formula and we spent time teaching this family that they must begin to provide food and use some common sense or their babies would die.  We will not leave them hanging.  Hope 4 Kids will work with them until they are self sufficient.  H4KI will train them and not just be a welfare program for them.  That is what I love about H$KI.   

 We saw children with cancerous mouths, epilepsy, Malaria, Aids, ring worm and all kinds of skin diseases.    

I’m not a medical person, but before I become a pastor I was desiring to be in Sports Medicine, so I was fascinated all day today watching a team of people with medical backgrounds be their very best for Jesus Christ.  Nurses, Doctors, Dentists, EMTs, Physical Therapists.  Amazing, sacrificial people.  

I helped mostly with the dental hygienist.  Which means I held the flash light so she and a local dentist could pull teeth, clean teeth and sometimes just gasp at the condition of some peoples teeth problems.   The hardest subject on the dental side today was an 8 year old boy who had his far back molars on both sides rotted out and they had to be pulled.  We numbed his mouth and proceeded to pull.  I had to hold his arms and legs from flailing and we all cried as his teeth were removed and the whole village could hear his screams.  I swear he was cussing at me when we were finished but it was in some African dialect and I pray someday maybe he’ll thank me.   Man…he was mad!  Poor little guy.  

The best person we helped on the dental side was an 86 year old woman.  She was maybe 4 foot tall.  Her dark skin was wrinkled and leather.  She had a total of one molar left in her mouth and it had to go.  She literally jumped up on the desk, laid down and opened her mouth and we gave her some quick numbing meds and pulled.  She jumped down and went about her life.  I would love to hear her stories.  Born in 1925 in Uganda Africa.  Wow.  She smiled went home.  All she had left were her top front teeth.  All other teeth are missing.  I couldn’t help but to say to her as she left…”No more Peanut M&Ms for you!”  We all laughed…she didn’t understand a word I said.  

We did this all day long.  From early morning until 7pm.  We didn’t have lunch and not one of us complained.  We got back to the hotel around 9pm…had a great dinner.

And yes…Hot Showers!  The Water problem was fixed!!  

I wish you were hear with me.  It is life changing in a way that I never could have comprehended.  Many of you are wondering what I am going to do now that I have resigned from the Parkway/CCV merger.  I will not make a decision right now, because it would be an emotional decision.  I will be back in the US soon.  Spend time with my family and make an educated decision that is led by God.  When I know…I will share it with you.  

I hope your Wednesday is good.  Serve the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. If  you are reading this…I really do have a strong love for you and I want you to be your very best.  Your very best can only be achieved through Jesus Christ being your Lord and Savior and you doing what Jesus has commanded you to do.  

I will sign off with this….AWINJO…the meaning is this.  “If you hear it…you must obey it.”

“Go Into all the world, make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.”–Jesus
Trent

PS…I saw Tom Eggum’s name tag today and he had 4 different names in the African language on it.   I asked how he got the names and what they meant.  He told me that you have to eat a White Ant and then the African people will give you your African name.  Tom told me to make sure I rip the wings of the ant off first, then when you put it in your mouth you grind it up good or it will grab the inside of your throat and try to climb out.  

I want an African name.  The first chance I get.  I”m doing it.  I’ll video tape it.  
Stay tuned!

Nov 7, 2011    |      1 comment

African Monday…

What a day.  It was this time last week that I was packing for this trip and today takes me through the halfway mark.  The way this trip has been organized is perfect.  It seems that every other day is an emotional roller coaster.  That was yesterday.  So today was a day of physical strain.  I am wiped out.  

First of all, last night after I had finished blogging such a long post and went to my room, brushed my teeth and went to bed.  However…I started to get complacent and used a little water from the bathroom sink faucet to brush my teeth.  Didn’t think about it until 3 am when the stomach starts telling me that something abnormal is growing in it!  I got up…took a “cipro” which is a stomach and intestine antibiotic…spent the next 3 hours in the bathroom…(you don’t need details do you?!)  So its needless to say…if you can do the math…that I got a total of about 2 hours sleep last night.  After a couple of hours the Cipro did its job and I am totally fine now!

So we got up early and headed to what is called “The Rock”…it is a towering moutain that really only takes about 30 minutes to get to the top because it is straight up.  Many places they have permanently fastened ladders to the mountain because of the extreme slope.  The view from the top overlooking the African plains is breathtaking.   I also was completely inspired to lose about 20 pounds off my bod.  I am starting now.  Eat less for dinner!  Repeat at Breakfast and Lunch too.  Hopefully that works.  
If you want to see images of “The Rock” Just google The Rock in Torroro Uganda.  

Once we got back down the mountain we grabbed a late breakfast and had an all group meeting to get the rest of the day planned.  There were several options and so today I chose to keep it physical.  I went to a local village school and simply helped clean and paint a new building that was just built to expand the villages school.  Sounds pretty simple, but you mustn’t forget that when we “Muzungo’s” show up…you get 50 little kids swarming around you wanting to touch you and play with you.   They are fascinated by the hair on my arms.  I saw two 8 month olds today who had never seen a white man.  They screamed in utter terror.  The mothers just laughed and try to calm their infants.  Of course I had to try to get the infants to relax by smiling and approaching them again…but it didn’t work.  Complete terror.  Oh well.  

That’s what I did all day…painted and took breaks to play with the kids of the Jubba Village in Uganda Africa.  

I am in Africa!  I really have fallen in love this mystical place and even more so its people.  On the way home we stopped in the city square of Torroro.  It is a very busy place.  Some of the group stayed on the bus, the medical team with us went into a pharmacy warehouse and bought some medications for helping some African people and I took the few moments we had to wander down to the local market store and buy an Orange Fanta!   It is quite a strange feeling to be walking about hundreds of people and be the only white one!  I loved it.  The people in Africa love to greet you.  Little children will come up to you to shake your hand and when you do shake it, they go to their knees as a sign of respect and kindness.  Its strange, but its their culture.  

I wonder how I can get my wife Kelli to do that!?  LOL

Well…I’m back at the hotel and I’m going to try to catch up on some lost sleep from last night.  This trip will soon be over…and I know that Africa will forever be in my blood.  I so want to return as soon as I can and bring some of my family with me to experience what is such a remarkable and mysterious place. 

Trent

Nov 6, 2011    |       3 comments

Ugandan Sunday! Whoa….

What words can I possible use to explain such an ovewhelming day in Africa? Let’s get right to it.
We got to sleep in a little today because the church service didn’t start until 10am. Breakfast was at 8 and then we gathered as a whole group to get our plan. The group of nearly 60 split up into 4 groups to go to 4 differnt villages to experience and participate in a Church Worship Service with the Ugandan people. I chose to attend the largest worship venue and village because I wanted to see a large gathering and how it all goes every Sunday. I chose to go to True Vine Ministries where nearly 1000 people gathered in a Church building made of concrete and an A-Frame roof that had a few ceiling fans stirrin the humid and deoderant-less air!!!

Wow is an understatement. I’ll start by saying that the worship service started at 10 and we got out at 1:30 and everybody kept saying it was as short service. They said that often it can go until 4 pm. I have never seen such joyful and energetic worship music. Dancing, jumping, screaming, and praise. Very good music. Done with great quality and authenticity. I know you’ve heard it before…that high pitched very fast tongue roll…la,la,la,la,la…if you don’t know what that sounds like, ask Kelli my wife to do a rendition for you. She an nail it!

But really…I am sitting in a service with some of the poorest people in the world and they have nothing but praise and thanksgiving and joy for the Lord.

The most adrenalin rushed moment for me was when…without hardly any warning the pastor of the Church said that we are going to have an Amerian Pastor preach this morning. I thought to myself…”I wonder who that is going to be?” Well it turned out that when we broke up into 4 different groups that morning…I was the only pastor in our group. Yep! Imagine. 1000 Africans joyful and praising God that the “white-boy” is going to deliver a message! Gulp. I walked up…pretended like I knew what I was going to do and in sheer panic mode dug into my mind of past messages and chose to just begin with Genesis Chapter 1. I can only say that God came through for me as the Scriptures say He will. We had fun and I encouraged the crowd and found myself getting into rythym with my translator. What a rush. All I can say is, Thank You God for such a great honor.

After the service we hurried back to the hotel and freshened up a bit and then headed off to a local Ugandan Hospital. I was not prepared for this experience. When we arrived we found nice looking buildings on the outside and somewhat cleanliness on the inside but it was basically a military style barracks where rows of beds were filled with sick and dying people. There is no medicine. Two doctors rotate through the wards only two times per week. So we showed up with toilet paper, soap, toothbrushes, and some hard boiled eggs and water. Oh, how grateful the people were. We explained that we were not doctors but we just were Americans who traveled over to serve them and show them how much we loved them and wanted to know if we could pray for them. They were so grateful.

The first patient we prayed for first needed some immediate medical attention. It so happened that 3 guys with us were EMT’s and had a few supplies with them in thier backpacks. The man we first came across had just been hit by a car in the leg and had nasty 4 inch wide and 8 inch long chunk of flesh missing from his lower leg around the chin bone. When we removed the nasty wrapping there was no broken bone, but this huge wound. All the guys could do was ask me to hold the man down and try to tell him he was okay while they took care of the wound…without any pain medicine. The intense pain made the man scream, but he knew we were trying to help him. Once we got the wound cleaned up, we gave him one antibiotic pill and some water and prayed he would be healed and get some rest. As I sit in the comforts of my hotel room, I know he is still there in a hospital with no medicine, no glass in the windows and no screens. The EMT guys went back there tonight with some more medical supplies, pain medicine and some blankets. Other patients we prayed for were dying of Aids. One man had what could only be described as a flesh eating disease all over his legs and he was begging us to cure him. All we could do was ask God to cure him and leave him in the hands of God. Believe it or not…the man was comforted and grateful we were there. I feel so helpless in the whole situation. Another man had Malaria…the #1 killer of people in Africa (damn mosquitos). All we could do was pray. Another man had massive adominal pain and on and on and on. When we finished in the Male Ward we had a few minutes to go over to the Children’s Ward. We announced that we were not doctors but Christians and we loved them and wanted to pray for them and give them a few supplies. Well, due to time we could only pray one big prayer for everybody. The translator announced that I was a pastor and that I would pray one prayer for everybody and that God would be okay with that. When he announced this…all the desperate moms and dads grabbed their sick children out of the cribs and rushed up to me and held thier babies out to me asking me to help them and touch them and pray for them. I was so overwhelmed. What could I do. I just looked up to God and cried out a prayer for God to come through and His will be done. The parents were so thankful and I walked away feeling so….(words can’t describe.)

When we were finished there, we went back to the hotel to clean up. I have never scrubbed my hands and arms so hard. That hospital is a place of desperate sickness where diseases of biblical proportions exist. I believe God will heal many of those patients. The presence of God here is real and obvious. Its hard to explain.

We then headed off to an orphanage where 5 years ago a 70 year old man in Conneticut retired from is engineering career and chose to move to Africa and serve orphans who have lost their parents from Aids. He started with one orphan 5 years ago and no property. Today at 75 and several acres and the best kept facilities and yard I have seen in a long time he now has 50 orphans with the age range of between months to 17 years old. These orphans gathered in a small room with the 30 who chose to go. Imagine nealy 80 people in a room that was a small living room. These 50 kids sang to us for 30 minutes. The room was mostly concete so you can imagine the acoustics of 50 vibrant and joyful African children crowded together, swaying together and singing at the top of their lungs. I wept as I heard 50 orphans who have no parents because of Aids sing over and over…”God is so good….God is so good…God is so good…He’s so good to me.”

I will never be the same.

Its 1am and I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow. I must get to bed.

I must say this at the risk of offending some. Please don’t be offended and simply try to understand my point. Its a good point if you think about it deeply.

All day today I heard the most desperate and poor people of the world sing worship songs to Jesus Christ. The only slow song I heard all day was these orphans singing about how good God is.
Nothing slow…or singing about broken desperation.

Every song was full of gratitude and praise and thankgiving. Full of energy and dancing for joy.

What is it about so many Christian songs that are originating out of America that are so full of sorrow and desperation and brokenness? We can do better. We are so blessed.

If you are reading this…I am honored. I pray that you will make a journey to Africa.

You need Africa. I would have never thought that I needed Africa more than Africa needs me. But its true.

I will never be the same. I must come back. Our churches must do more.
To whom much is given…much is required.

Good night.
I pray your Sunday is a blessed one.
Trent

Nov 5, 2011    |      Comments Off on Laid Back Day in Africa…Saturday

Laid Back Day in Africa…Saturday

What a good day. Very simple. AFter yesterday I needed a mental and emotional break. Today we went back to True Vine Ministry and visitied some of the same kids as we did on Wednesday. I guess we did more than just visit. We played basketball with the kids, the ladies in the group let the girls braid their hair, other guys in the group played soccer and volleyball. Today was just a relational day.

I had a chance to run downtown Torroro and purchased some soccer balls and basketballs to give to the ministry and school we visited. I took a motorcylce ride back. I went with a group of about 8 and we most definately stand out. We where the only white people in town. The Africans call us MUZUNGO…which means White and rich. Its not meant as a slam, just slang. Kinda like Gringo in the Mexican world. So as all 8 of us rode back on separate motorcyles and our drivers all lined up in a single file line people shouted Muzungo Train!

I have never met such a freindly and kind group of people. They actually see it as improper to not greet one another with a “Hello, How are you?” Everybody smiles. Its so refreshing. I think we Americans could work on this a bit. We have a tendency to be so independant and nervous around each other we’ve lost the art of friendliness. I want to challenge you for the rest of the day to say hello and smile to every person you make eye contact with.

One other quick story that is just fun and differnet and it proves that God is the creator of all things and He made everything very similar. So here’s the story. Just outside the front of our hotel is one giant tree that has a whole bunch of yellow birds. You know the kind you see only in cages in America. They are called Yellow Weavers. Beautiful bird. They are all making these round nests. Its seems like you could count 50 or so nests being woven together in this tree. The nests are round and about the size of a large Grapefruit. These Yellow Weavers hang upside down from the bottom of the nest and weave them together. In fact I found out that males are the ones who do all the work weaving these nests. You can watch these passionate men working away trying to make thier womans home just right and see all the energy and effort it takes. They leave a hole in the bottom of the nest and the birds enter the nest by flying up into it and then there is a flat inside the nest that they grab and rest and lay eggs in. Well after all the hard work of making the nest you can watch the male stop his work and sit on a branch close to the nest and he is chirping away with great pride at all his hard work. What happens next is amazing. The female then flies up into the bottom of the nest. She seems to remain inside for about 30 seconds to maybe a minute. If she approves of the nest, she flies out and then lands next to her male mate/husband and they chirp in agreement. If she doesn’t approve of the nest she flies out and lands just at where the Male Yellow weaver attached the nest with a braided string and she snips that string with her beak and the nest falls to the ground and is destroyed. The male looks at his work as it falls…seems to take a sigh…shake his head and then starts all over. Typical Wife….moving the furniture. God really did make all of creation very similar. You can tell there is only one great creative artist!!! LOL

Well, we’re back at the hotel. Its raining again. You can hear the rain coming down and you can actually hear monkeys running across the roof. Not sure what dinner is tonight, but I’m glad I get to blog a little early tonight and therefore get to bed earlier. .

Africa is outstanding. I hope you will plan on going someday. Traveling with Hope4Kids International makes it very simple.

I am so blessed to be here.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll update tomorrow. I’m going to an African Church service tomorrow…I have heard they can go on for many hours.
Gather with your church family tomorrow and celebrate how much God loves you. Don’t just go and attend a show…really give thanks to God. Bring your tithes and offering with you and sing out with all your love for God and take great notes as your preacher shares the Word of God. Then Go out and Be The Church!
The Hope of the World is the power of God working through your hands and feet and heart. Gather with people you love, enjoy the community of it all and keep being the Church! It really is the only hope our world has that lasts.

Love ya…
Trent

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