Uganda!

I'm in Uganda now! I arrived without any travel difficulties. In fact, the Lord had all sorts of unexpected blessings as I was preparing to leave Kenya for Uganda. One of the girls on the DCF team in Nairobi, Ellen, had a couple of friends who are living in Nairobi temporarily, Ryan and Victoria. They were supposed to be moving the Friday before I was leaving. But in true African style their moving date was postponed. Most of the team except Rachel left last Friday night and then she left Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I was not sure about going to church. There was a church just around the corner from the guest house and I'd thought I'd walk there. But a team from Chicago came in the night before and offered for me to go with them, so I did. Then after church Ryan & Victoria gave me the name of a good & fair cab driver who took me to their home. I spent Sunday evening and Monday morning talking with them about God's amazing provision, about the fact that missionaries are normal people living the normal Christian life somewhere other than home, and the fact that we do not know the answers to the poverty, sickness & spiritual darkness... but we know Jesus does! So whether God sends one of His children to "deep dark Africa" or suburban America EVERY believer in the Lord Jesus Christ should live sacrificially walking according to God's Word & His Spirit. So what does that look like for me?

And since I know everyone was concerned... I did get to skype my momma!
But I didn't get to tell Daddy "Happy Father's Day!" so, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

I am staying at Kijaguzo Guest House. I prepare my own meals or go out for food. You would not believe the number of ways you can prepare bananas! There is a retired nurse midwife named, Nyabo (madam) Margaret, who is staying at the guest house with me. She has already taught me the "fast" way to prepare matoke (green bananas boiled in peanut sauce). Her niece, Lydia, is in cullinary school. Last night she taught me to make greens and I'll learn next week to make Chipati (tortillas).

Today Lydia took me into downtown Kampala. It was incredible. There is an area of taxis (big vans) bumper-to-bumper with NO organization at all. Some are getting a push to get them cranked. I never did figure out how Lydia knew which one to get on. This is where we were dropped off and we walked around seeing all of Kampala. The market was bigger even than any I saw in Nairobi. TONS of produce all over the ground which was a good reminder that I need to ALWAYS clean the produce with bleach! The butcher "shops" are like you wouldn't believe. The skinned cow will just be hanging there sometimes it's just out in the open, not even any walls. There there will be pieces of meat lopped off and sitting underneath. The men are cutting it with bear hands and big sword-looking knives. I saw a jackfruit for the first time. Do you know what that is? I didn't either.... still don't.

The Lydia had to go to school so she took me back to the taxi stop. We walked seemingly aimlessly through about half of them and then she told me to get in one of them. It would cost 800 Ug shs (about $0.40) and would drop me off near the hospital. Then Lydia left to catch a taxi going the other way! What an experience!

Wish I could show you pictures.
I was able to post some pictures on older posts while at Ryan & Victoria's
Don't know when I'll be able to get back online.
There's a limited amount of dental work that I'm able to do here because of the size of the hospital, the fact that it's in the city & the clientel.

Please pray that I will not waste my time here but instead make the most of every opportunity to be the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Philippians 2:7

http://www.kenyachildrensfund.org/about/history.php

We finished working at the primary school on Friday. After another lunch of peanut butter sandwiches we were invited to visit the home of one of the students. With headmistress Jane, Pastor David, the social worker Karen, and two guards left through the gate with us to escort us to the home.

We are on a muddy hillside covered with trash. From a distance it looks as if there are hundreds of boxcars without wheels side by side covering the hill. Some have a roof made of scrap metal. There are goats and barefoot children everywhere. We walk a few steps farther and one of the guards turns left. I thought he was picking something up from between two houses but he motioned for me to follow. The walkway was not wide enough for two of us to walk side-by-side. There are panels of scrap metal sheets on either side. He pulled back one of the scrap metal sheets and propped the "door" open. To my right there was just enough room between the "wall" and a pile of trash as tall as me to walk down and turn again into an unlit room. There was a little bit of grungy furnature. I went in and sat down in one of the chairs on top of some of some garbage. The whole family slept there: mother and four children (7 mths, 4,6,7). There really wasn't a roof but instead there was more wood, metal and trash overhead but you could see the sky through it so when it rains... When we were leaving we asked about the pile of garbage which included a ratty platform shoe, a plate of rotting pineapple and rice, a broken metal frame of a bed & a child's training toilet which had been used. The guard told us they were collecting the garbage and would try to sell it.

I really respected one girl on my team for her honesty later when we were talking about it. She was grieved to admit it but she said, "When I was there I felt dirty and filthy, uncomfortable and sick."

"[Jesus] made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Phil.2:7)
We can not fathom the riches that Christ left from His Father's side in heaven to come and wash our feet.
"AMAZING LOVE
HOW CAN IT BE,
THAT THOU MY GOD
SHOULD DIE FOR ME?"

Every time I get on I am torn about whether to write about what the Lord is teaching me and doing around and in me or about all the fun and unusual things I am experiencing. But I know the two aren't mutually exclusive.

One of the girls on my teAm here, Gabi, has a track meet the weekend she gets home so I've been jogging with her some here. Usually we jog around the guest house parking lot but Thursday on the way home traffic was bad so four of us decided to get put and jog the last mile or two back to the guest house rather than waiting and running when we got back. Needless to say four mzungu girls attracted a lot of attention jogging through downtown Nairobi during rush hour!

Gabi and I have had some wonderful conversations during our jogging time. (It's a bit of a miracle in itself that God gives me enough breath to talk while I run with her!) Gabi is 16 and God has gifted her with a strong passion for His Truth that excites me! One day as we ran we discussed God's will. We may all be able to agree that there is nothing we can do to deserve God's grace, but When 'disaster' strikes a person's life or someone dies young we tend to say we don't understand because that person was always so good or always helping others or maybe just that they'd done nothing to deserve death. But it can not be both. Either you deserve death or you deserve life. Everyone who is sinful deserves death. God's word tells us ALL are corrupt and if we have never said it aloud we have said in our hearts and lived as if 'there is no God.' (Psalm 14:1-3) Praise God for showing me that because now I know my deepest desire is not fulfillment of my personal aspirations but truly 'I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.'... You make me know the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy.' (psalm 16:2,11)

I'm living in psalm 16 these days. Please pray that psalm for me!

Randoms:
to type this I am on a friends iPhone sitting in the middle of the guest house parking lot cause it's the only place we get wifi.
Saw a taxi today that said 'better late than never'
saw a sign that said,'road works ahead' Not convinced it's true.
Worked at Kinyago Dandora secondary school last week. Will be at the primary school this week.
A lady on my team has a son named Baker!
Visited Lake Nukuru yesterday

Nairobi

Safe in Nairobi with the DCF team. Working at a high school. The ministry for me here has little to do with dentistry. PleAse pray for discernment and for me to speak only Gods Word. Teammates are great. Pray for them.
Gabi
faith
sassers
Andy
Rachel
Ellen

at Lake Nukuru National Park

Skyping Momma

So, I have somewhat decent internet access here in Kijabe. Yesterday I was trying to Skype my Momma. Any of you who have received a phone call via Skype know that it appears as a sketchy number like +00001234. So I called Momma about 5 times and I could hear her but she couldn't hear me so she naturally thought it was someone either playing a trick or a telemarketer or worse so she had the number blocked. I sent her a facebook message to let her know it was me. She wrote me back and said "OH NO, I didn't know I was blocking MY LITTLE BUNNY!" I wrote her back and thought that I'd put that message here too cause it talked a bit about some of the stuff that's been going on the past couple of weeks:

"Hey Momma,

Oh good! I was concerned the international police my come get me or that there might be a CITIZENS ARREST!!! I'll be leaving Kijabe tomorrow for Nairobi where I'll meet the Sassers again. And I just received an email from Dr. Chapman who was confirming my travel plans to Kampala on the 21st of June. I got to talk on skype with C-ton [my brother] for about 5 minutes yesterday before Skype cut me off.

Last weekend Dr. Rich's son, Micah, and some friends of their family, 3 Congdon boys (Robert, Stephen & Paul), took us for a hike. It was more like bushwacking through a ravine so now I can say I’ve been romping in Kenya!

Fun story… Dr. Rob & Mrs. Nancy Congdon live in Kijabe right now but are involved in SIM Sudan. The missionaries I stayed with in ’07 were SIM missionaries. So though I’d never met them before this summer I’d heard of them back in ’07. They have 6 boys & 3 of them went with us romping. ☺

This past weekend we went to a place called Sunrise Acres in a little town, Eldamo Ravine. It was like a retreat place for missionaries. They try to be mostly self sustaining so they had a garden, chickens & cows. The lady there made strawberry jam from the garden. They sold eggs & milk. I got to milk a cow!!! I knew you’d be pleased with your little bunny all grown up and milkin’ cows!

I love you!
jj"


The Rich's who hosted me in Kijabe

Fun Facts

Burundi

• If a single Burundian man asks you your testimony, it might be translated, "Are you an eligible, godly woman?"
• Learned to give local anesthetic.
• With supervision, extracted a few teeth.
• Saw a 3 year old with ANUG
• Got in and out of prison in one day & in one piece.
• Was welcomed "as royalty" with a Burundian drum ceremony.

Kijabe, Kenya

• Was invited to tea with my cab driver, Wilson... graciously declined!! :-/
• Restored a fractured #8
  
• Nairobi Eye - bug that burns if you touch it
• Watched my first Rugby game!
  
• romping is even more fun in the forest in Kenya than the woods in Columbia
  
• Learned to do Composites & Amalgams.
• Witnessed a mandibular reconstruction after it was shattered by a gunshot. (well... actually never got to see it... technically)
  
• Helped wire a fractured mandible. He'll have to keep his jaw shut 6 weeks.
• Met a sweet friend, Julie, a nurse who will be spending 7 months in Doro (near Yabus, Sudan)
• Met a lady who lives in NW Columbia & knows some mutual friends there

Eldamo Ravine, Kenya - visited for the weekend with the Dr. Rich's family

• Milked a cow!