Osbornes In Africa Colorado

Dryden @ 6 weeks old

2009-02-24T14:40:00.000-08:00

2009-02-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

2008-11-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Born at 3:56 am Nov 8, 2008. He weighs 8 lbs 8 oz, and is 21.25 inches long! Also, Mom is plenty healthy.

I love him so much.

Egypt - Part 8 - So What Now?

2008-10-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

As I’ve explained in a couple of a thousand words, God led me from thinking of Muslims of the Middle East as people I could never understand or bond with to people I can easily relate to and bond with. God has now given me a heart for the Muslim people.

So what does that mean for me and my family? Stephanie wants to go to grad school so we can’t exactly ship ourselves overseas at this time. So what does this mean for us as American Christians?

Well, I don’t have much of a practical answer right now. But I do know this, there are Muslims who need Christ right here in Colorado Springs just like in Egypt. Maybe God will use me to minister to them? Or maybe God has given me this new heart and perspective to pray for Muslims around the world.

At this point I don’t know, but I’ll pray about it.

Next, I'll start my transcript of a Muslim Born woman telling her story about how she came to Christ.

Egypt - Part 7 - A Surprising Empathy

2008-09-30T08:56:00.001-07:00

Morals

For this last one, what surprised me was not something I learned. Instead, I was surprised by how well I can relate to muslim culture.

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church with black and white morals. The concept of morality has never been difficult for me. I’ve always believed in right and wrong. It’s so engrained in me that I have difficulty empathizing with moral relativists I know.

There is no question that Muslims have a strong sense of morality. The Koran is full of moral law. Now I certainly don’t agree with all of the morals they have, but I can empathize with them easily based on the fact that they have morals.

A strong part of my testimony is when I realized that Christianity is more than a set of rights and wrongs. The Bible has a list of rights and wrongs that no human has any hope of following their entire life. But God stepped in, became a man and paid our price for our sin. Christianity is about accepting God’s grace more than it is about rights and wrongs.

It is this lesson that both Muslims as a culture, and I as a person need to learn. That we need to lay down our own struggles to obey every rule and accept God’s grace through his son Jesus. I can easily empathize with someone who is trying to live up to a moral code and has difficulty doing so. I have the same story.

This revelation shocked me more than anything else.

p.s.
I know moral relativists have their own code of morals. I just don’t identify with their set of morals as well as I can with the mindset of Muslims. At least that’s what I get from first impressions of Muslim culture.

Egypt - Part 6 - Casual Mosque-goers

2008-09-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Nominal Muslims / Radical Muslims

I knew that there would be cultural Muslims just like there are cultural Christians, but seeing that acted out was an experience.

Radical Muslim men are very easy to spot, that is they all have a spot at the top of their forehead. Due to praying so often at the mosque, the top of their forehead develops a visible callous. It’s obvious that there are those who have this callous, and those who don’t.

All the Muslims there are Muslim in some sense. Most people practice fasting for Ramadan. It’s more in the life altering realm that people start to ease off traditional Islam. Not everyone goes to prayer five times a day is a good example. But the best example is probably...

Western Influenced Fashion

It was interesting to see what practices became part of the culture so much so that the meaning is lost. The most visual example of this was the way the young Egyptian women dressed. Most women, wore a head cover. Some wore the full burka revealing nothing but there eyes, others wore just the head cover exposing their face. I saw many examples of young Egyptian women wearing a head cover, but their clothes were western, and even skin tight. Though the laws of Islam were obeyed, they were covered from the top of the neck down to their wrists and toes. Some women even had gloves on. But the clothing styles were obviously western.

Egypt - Part 5 - Standards and Holidays

2008-09-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

A Happy Religious Holiday

Islam is known for being a strict religion with a very long list of solemn rituals. This side of Islam is visible everywhere in Egypt. Several times a day I would hear the words "Come to Prayer! Allah is Great" chanted in Arabic over the megaphone. More than once we had to cross the road to avoid a mosque whose attendance was so high people started lining up to pray along the side walk.

But there was a much less formal and even happy side of Islam that I got to see in Egypt, Ramadan, which operated similarly to Christmas in many ways. There were traditional Ramadan decorations all over the city. Streamers were zig zaged between high rise apartment buildings. Christmas lights (though I doubt they were called that) are also strung along windows. Fanoos (Arabic for lantern) were hung outside of shops and homes that were beautifully decorated. If you look, the Fanoo in this picture has certain familiar arches on it.

There was an atmosphere of happiness and goodwill. My favorite example of this took place while I was purchasing a bookmark for Stephanie with her name written in Hieroglyphics. I joked with the woman writing her name saying, "How do I know this says Stephanie. I mean, you could write "Your wife is ugly" and tell me that it said Stephanie and I wouldn’t have any way to know the difference."

Her response was simply, "Oh, but you must trust us. We would not do that to you during Ramadan, so you can trust us."

Of course it’s still true, that this lovely bookmark may say "Your wife is ugly."

Also, many people told me that during Ramadan, people get a lot more time off to spend at home, and not as much gets done. This also has to do with the fact that they don’t eat from sun up to sun down, so they are sleepy during the day. The soap operas on TV tend to be more engaging during Ramadan because they know people will be relaxing at home.

It was just neat to see that a religion so foreign to me, yet it developed a religious holiday time similar to Christmas.

Note: Yes I know that the reasons we celebrate Christmas are different then the reasons Muslims celebrate Ramadan. But you cannot deny that a large bulk of what we associate with Christmas is cultural tradition, and not religion.

Engineering Standards

In the third world, there are often no building standards. Often, all that is needed is approval from a city official, which of course can easily breed corruption.

This was not the case in Egypt at all. Even though the building codes were probably not as strict or extensive as exist in the USA, they still exist. That’s important.

Fanoo shaped decoration

Streamers between Apartments

An Egyptian Market

Some old buildings

Egypt - Part 4 – Smiles and Esplanades

2008-09-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Before I go into the specifics about what surprised me, I want to point out that most of my observations come not as an American, but as an American who has lived in East Africa for a year. Since Egyptian culture has more in common with Uganda than with America, I found myself making Egypt vs. Uganda comparisons rather than Egypt vs. America.

A Friendly Atmosphere

As is customary in America, I didn’t say anything as another person entered the elevator. But to my surprise, the man asked my name and then offered me a cookie. This was one of many instances where I experienced the friendly and social culture in Egypt first hand. The Egyptians I came in contact with, which were a mixture of Muslims and Christians, were quick to smile, laugh and help the silly foreigner. It surprised me a lot.

People were not shy about showing the Americans new things. One man was not shy about asking me for a light. Another encouraged me to get a video of him blowing beans into the mouths of pigeons he was selling, though I never got an answer about why he was doing this.

One of my favorite memories from the trip was giving a very long list of food orders at McDonalds for my entire team with a Muslim woman. She was very kind and patient with my inability to speak Arabic and scribbled mess of a list. It included such items as a McArabia. It was just nice to admit my lack of Arabic skills while being accepted. I even joked with her.

Even though I didn’t belong to their culture, every Egyptian I met made me feel welcome and not just because of the tourist dollars I brought. Actually, I didn’t have any money the whole time until someone gave me five Egyptian pounds.

Divided Highways

Driving in developing nations can be a scary experience for westerners, and an even scarier experience for former Transportation Engineers. Nobody pays attention to the lane lines, honking is used to communicate such things as "hello" or "good job," and stop signs are no where to be found. In Egypt however, it was nice that all two way roads were divided. It took a lot of stress off my nerves.
I haven’t posted any picks yet, so I think I’ll just post five a day in no particular order.

Old Fairhaven Building

Egypt - Part 3 - The blinders come off

2008-09-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

Ever read a story with a shocking truth revealed at the end of the story that causes you to replay previous moments of the story through your mind? Whether it’s the true allegiance of Severus Snape, Norman Bates mental health or Mr. Darcy’s social skills, the climactic revelations give the reader a new perspective on previous scenes, and he or she replays them through their mind looking for new information to support the revelation.

While in Egypt I felt like the main character of a story who had come to a climatic revelation about the world around him. I replayed numerous stories from my life with new perspective. Stories I didn’t even know I remembered.

The blinders had come off. I went from completely uninterested in all things regarding Middle Eastern culture to hungry for more information. Along with replaying latent memories in my mind, I started asking team members, who have studied Middle Eastern Culture extensively, tons of questions.

The answers to many of those questions, surprised me. Not because I found the answers strange, quite the opposite. I found many of the answers relatable, exciting, welcoming and even inviting. I realized that not only could I identify with the culture, I could enjoy being immersed in it.

Like I said, surprising.

What's Stephanie been up to?

2008-09-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!
This is an update to let everyone know what i (Stephanie) have been up to. Since we have been back in the U.S. (we got back around mid-July) I have been gradually getting larger and larger. At times its hard to believe that my due date is still 6 weeks away. It feels both very very far away, and also very close. I can't wait to meet our little boy. The pregnancy has been very healthy, with no problems, which is terrific since we have been traveling around so much and did not have a regular doctor for quite a while.

This summer Greg and I enjoyed visiting family, and living with his parents in Houston. Many things were difficult to adjust to again (and not the least the heat and mosquitos) but we have been gradually getting back into the swing of American life. I was very excited to be in one of my best and oldest friends' (i've known her since I was one year old) wedding about a week and half after we got back into the country. She had 3 pregnant bridesmaids out of 5! I also spent some time studying for the GRE (I need a larger vocabulary!) and doing some work for Greg's mom.

In mid-August we moved up to where we are now, Colorado Springs. I was hoping to substitute here until the baby came, but unfortunately, it takes at least 3 months to get a certified substitute license in Colorado, even with a teaching certificate from another state, and they can not hire you until you have it. By that time the baby would be born, so there's not much point. But now, instead, I get to help out at the eMi office here in Colorado Springs. I have been helping with office administration tasks, such as check processing and mail outs. It's a nice place to hang out and work.

Another great blessing in our lives this fall has been obtaining health care! I came into the country pregnant, so regular insurance was out of the question. But volunteering with eMi right now and living on support doesn't just pay a whole lot, so I qualify for medicaid. So now I once again have regular doctor appointments (I haven't really had that since we left Uganda)and will be having my baby at a great hospital here in Colorado Springs.

So that's a short update on my life. Were settling in nicely here, and I think we've even found a church we like. Except Greg hasn't been yet because he's been in Egypt. But I think he'll like it. It's called Boulder Street Church. It's on Boulder Street. Very creative naming.

-Stephanie

Egypt - Part 2 - Preconceptions

2008-09-19T07:50:00.001-07:00

Be honest with yourself for a moment. What comes to mind when you think about Muslims? Not just Muslims, but Muslims in the Middle East?

Preconceptions are a great taboo in our culture. We would all like to believe we don’t have any preconceptions or prejudice, but I think if we are honest with ourselves we would recognize what rubbish that is.

Before I continue, I want to make clear that I am speaking about Muslims in the Middle East. I have numerous friends who are Muslim in America, a few from Bangladesh. My preconceptions of Muslims living in the Middle East never applied to them.

In the Blog entry I wrote prior to leaving, I stated:

"I really don't know much about [Muslims] besides what few Muslim friends I've made in America and what I see on the news which we all know are not an accurate representation of Muslims worldwide."

Right there, I state that I know I can’t use what I learned on the news to form an accurate understanding of a foreign culture. However, after my visit to Egypt, I realized that I had preconceptions anyway.

And they were smashed.

What I didn’t write about in my previous blog entry was how I didn’t expect to be changed. I was open to change, but I doubted it would occur. I thought I would return from Egypt with the same heart and opinions towards Muslim culture that I left with.

Before I left, I thought Middle Eastern Muslim culture was the ultimate antithesis to Western culture. I assumed there would be no way I could relate to such a foreign mentality and belief system.

Not only was my heart and mind changed during my time in Egypt, so was my desire. It scared me how one short week in the Middle East had such an impact on me.

In the same blog entry mentioned above, I asked this question:

"Is there something God wants to do in me during this trip that is connected to the location?"

The answer, was yes, and I’ll tell you why in the blog entries next week.

Egypt – Part 1 – The Basics

2008-09-18T08:10:00.001-07:00

I know I was cryptic about where I was going online, but I’ve now learned that I can publish that our project trip was in Egypt. Before I tell you about what happened on the project trip, I’ll tell you a little bit about Egypt.

Egypt was taken over by Muslims in 642. Interestingly, the Gospel was already present prior to this. There are many theories about how the Gospel came to Egypt, but what is important to note is that it was present prior to Islam.

The reason I say that is important is because unlike many countries in the Middle East, Egypt gives a lot of freedom to Christians. It is legal to be a Christian. There are churches all over Egypt. However, you may only be born a Christian. Everyone’s ID card identifies whether you are a Christian or a Muslim. If you are Christian, you are welcome to convert to Islam. If you are Muslim, you are not allowed to convert to Christianity. Your ID will say Muslim unless you get an act of court, or you leave the country for ten years and reapply for an ID.

So, Churches have to give the impression that they are only ministering to their own. They are not allowed to evangelize to Muslims, and if it is discovered that they are, their ministry can be shut down.

Of course, a lot of religious persecution does not come at the government level. Muslims are taught that Christians are disgusting. Not only are they infidels, but they don’t bathe themselves regularly. Muslims who convert to Christianity say that one of the biggest steps for them was learning that Christians are not filthy awful people.

Of course, these are just stereotypes. Muslims and Christians get along well in Egypt on the surface level. There is no open war between the two groups, and little open animosity. If a Muslim meets a Christian, they treat them with respect as a human being and vice versa. But there is hidden animosity towards the other on both sides.

Muslims can quickly turn violent when a Muslim they personally know becomes a Christian. It is not uncommon for Muslims who become Christians to be beaten or killed by their own family members, while police turn a blind eye.

Therefore, Christians who were born Muslim must be very careful. They must only show their ID when they cannot avoid it, and they must not be seen going to church or associating with Christians to much.

So, one of the ways the Church reaches out to Muslims is by offering social programs. Churches will offer daycares, health care, and other services at reasonable prices for both Christians and Muslims. This provides a good way to share the kindness and love of Christ without evangelizing.

The counts of Christians in Egypt vary between 1 to 5 million. As often is the case with numbers, the truth is somewhere in between. But never the less, Egypt has the strongest presence of Christianity in the Middle East. There is great potential for what God can do with Egyptian Christians. Pray that the Church of Egypt rises to that potential.

The eMi project was to provide the ministry we served with plans for a new center to help continue their current ministry on a larger scale. The project trip was heavy on architecture and light on civil engineering. I didn’t get to do as much as I hoped on the project trip, but now that we are back in the office there is plenty for me to accomplish. Also, I think the extra time allowed God to move in me in ways I’ll begin to describe in the coming, already written, blog entries. Check here daily for a bit.

North Africa in less than a month

2008-08-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have been selected to serve on a project trip to North Africa, the project leaves in less than one month. The goal is to design a 13-story school for handicapped people that will include a school, nursery, vocational center, medical clinic, and guest housing. The ministry currently houses 220 students and 60 staff.

I'm really excited about this project assignment because I will be able to get back to America with plenty of time to see the birth of our son, and the project will have plenty of water / wastewater design applications. The prospect of working on a project like this was a large factor in our decision to extend our time with Engineering Ministries International.

I could continue to jargon about this project, but the truth is I don't know much about it yet. So I will send out another email with more details as they become available to me.

Steph and I are currently saying goodbye to Texas, visiting various friends and family members before we move to Colorado on August 17. My first task with eMi will be to act as golf caddy for my father in law as he plays golf for the annual fundraiser. People sponsor him on a per-hole basis ($1 per hole, $2 per hole, ect…) so his goal is to play 100 holes of golf in 12 hours. I think he can do it, I know I couldn’t. That’s why I am just a caddy.

We’ll be in Texas a little longer, so if any of you guys want to hang out with us, shoot us an email and we can make plans.

Goodbye Uganda

2008-06-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Stephanie and I are now leaving Uganda, with no immediate plans to return. So as I leave Uganda, I thought I would share some of my thoughts regarding our time here.

Professionally, working for eMi has been tremendously encouraging. I have grown a lot as an employee and hope to continue growing in Colorado Springs. There were several factors involved here, but I think chief among them were my fellow interns. Seeing their strengths encouraged me to try harder. Getting direction and guidance from such wonderful project leaders was also a strong component.

On a personal note, I think the main thing I’ve learned has been what I take for granted regarding "needs." When I go back to America, and there is always running water, electricity, nice roads, families of four who live in 5-bedroom homes, couches, wide screen TV’s and grocery stores, I hope I can remember Uganda, where none of those things were available on such a wide scale. I hope I can remember that my per diem to cover food was more than typical worker’s daily wage. I hope I can remember families of six sharing a single room home that is less than a hundred square feet. I hope I can remember how privileged my life is in America, and thank God for it.

I am curious if a life in America is for Steph and I. While I lived in America after college, I grew restless and ambitious, leading me to an internship with eMi. Will I get restless and ambitious again? Does God want me to live in the USA for the rest of my days or does he have something else in mind for me? I’ve never felt so unsure about the future as I do now, it is partly liberating, and terrifying. But God is a good God and I am certain that if I put my faith in Him, things should turn out ok.

While I’ve been here, God has shown me that I am entirely too hard on myself. I’ve always had self esteem issues. God’s been showing me I am a good person through the wonderful relationships I’ve made. My friends here really like me. I haven’t felt this accepted by a group of people in years, if ever. People are constantly telling me that they will miss me, and that the office will not be the same without me. The part of me that thinks I’m an awful person can barely believe them, but they mean it. I will really be missed here at eMi EA.

If I believe Jesus really can change lives, I also must believe that he can change my life. So now I hope and pray that God will give me a better self image.

So I think about all God has done for me during my time here and I think about all the laughs I’ve had with the friends here, and then I remember the fact that I’m leaving soon. It almost brings tears to my eyes. I love Uganda, I love the people here, I hope God brings me somewhere else (or back here) where I love the work, people, and place as much as I do Uganda, but I don’t know if that’s possible. But once again, if I trust in Him, I’m sure I’ll be in good hands.

Goodbye to Uganda. Hello to Colorado

Greg

Support Update #8 – Project Trip Report - Iganga

2008-06-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Iganga project trip was successful, though there were a few design challenges. The purpose of the project was to design a secondary school for 300 students who live on campus. The campus will be funded by a retired Irish couple who came down to share their vision for the site with us.

As I mentioned earlier, the design challenges were numerous. First of all, the property had power lines running through the middle, meaning we couldn’t build buildings 15 m on either side of the power lines, which eliminated 20% of the site. Then we discovered a spring in the middle of our site, further limiting what we could do. Our architects had to be creative and strategic in their placement of the buildings, but they got it done.

I was charged to work on both the water and waste water, which I had never done before. My only instructions were a previous eMi project report as a go-by along with a design guide, but I managed to get it suitable for the project presentation.

On the relational side of things, Heather and I had a lot of fun getting to lead worship during the week. I forgot what a joy it is to lead worship. Heather danced with the Ugandan choir on Sunday morning, which I am certain will be talked about for years. A girl named Norah and I translated the song "I will worship" into Luganda so we could have cross cultural worship.

All in all, the project was a success. I am very sad that I don’t get to stay with eMi for a few more weeks to finish the project, but was glad to be a part of the beginning of it.

Heather Dancing with the Choir

Multicultural Worship

Our whole team

Support Update #7 – The Next Step

2008-05-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Boy have we got some big announcements with this blog entry. In fact, we have some of the biggest announcements of our entire lives. For starters we’ll get to the one that excites us the most:

Stephanie is pregnant. We will have our firstborn in October of this year. We are both excited and scared about becoming parents, but isn’t everybody?

Next: I thought I would only go on one project trip while in Uganda, but I was pleased to learn that I’ll get to serve on another project trip in Iganga to serve Abundant Life International Ministries by designing a secondary school. Click the link to read all about it. I leave in two weeks.

The final announcement is preceded by an awesome testimony.

God has really provided for us.

We sent our letters and made our calls and then just figured God would provide enough money. What blew us away was not that God provided what we needed, but that he provided ABOVE AND BEYOND what we needed.

By the time support raising was completed, we realized we had enough money to extend our time with eMi an entire semester. So we thought and prayed about it over the past year and decided to extend our time with eMi. I will serve at the eMi world headquarters in Colorado Springs.

Some of you may be thinking: What? Colorado? I thought eMi served in third world nations?

Well, yes, we do. The difference between our office here in Kampala and the Colorado Springs office is in location and scope. Here at the East Africa office, we serve ministries in Uganda and the surrounding nations exclusively. We bus/fly to the ministry site for two weeks on the project trip (see the last update) and then we come back to our office to finish the report portion of the job.

The Colorado Springs office operates the exact same way, except they serve ministries all over the world. They fly to their ministry site, stay for two weeks, and then come back to the office to finish the report portion of the job.

I won’t know what project I’ll work on or where they will send me until June, but I’m told that they’ll probably send me to Africa.

So our time with eMi will continue, even though our time in Uganda is coming to an end.

We return to Texas on July 9th where we will see friends and family for about five weeks (If you can employ either of us during this time, we would greatly appreciate it). Then, Stephanie’s parents will help us move to Colorado Springs in mid August. Doug will participate in the annual eMi golf marathon fundraiser where he’ll golf for the East Africa office (for more info or to sponsor him, email Doug: vettedoug@gmail.com). The semester will last until December and then THE THREE OF US come back to Texas for the Holidays.

After that, who knows.

Enough of the future, now I’m going to talk about what we’ve done since the last update. Both my parents, Stephanie’s parents and her cousin came to visit us for a week. Here’s some pictures:

Doug, Diana, Mari, Steph and Greg at Murchison Falls

Greg, Bob, Christina and Steph at the source of the Nile

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for Steph’s health and the health of our Baby (16 weeks now)
2. Pray that the eMi team will serve Abundant Life International Ministries with the best design possible. That communication will be good and people’s lives will be changed.
3. We only have a month left in Uganda, so pray that we finish out our time here well.
4. Pray for Heritage International School, they are switching from an American Curriculum to a British one.

Thank you all,

Greg

(Since I’m such a dork, I put a code in the Project Trip Report – Kapchorwa update that announces Stephanie’s Pregnancy. It’s only in the section I wrote though, not in Steph’s section)

Turns out the Bible is a Forgery...

2008-05-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

At least according to Libyan leader Col Gadaffi.

Yes, it is a forgery simply because it never mentions the prophet Mohammed. Therefore it could not be the word of God. That's what he told the crowd in Uganda that gathered to celebrate the opening of a new mosque in downtown Kampala, complete with President Museveni's attendance.

Ok, so this kind of silliness would at best be reported in the religion section of a newspaper in America. But nope, not here in Uganda. The front page headline read: "The Bible is a Forgery says Col Gadaffi."

I read the article cause I was in the mood for amusement, and what shocked me was this:

"President Museveni said he would put the Archbishop of Uganda, Luke Orombi and Bishop Cyprian Lwanga of Kampala Archdiocese to task to explain the omission of Prophet Muhammad from the Bible."

What on earth, does he want to give credibility to such a ludicrous claim?

So a few days later, the Arch Bishop replied, and the front page headline read "Bible is real says Archbishop," Another shocking headline.

And then the BBC picked up on the shocking story.

I guess Americans have their silly front page headlines as well, a few pop figures drug records, prison sentences, divorces and custody battles come to mind.

Greg the Preacher

2008-04-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

So during the Kapchorwa project trip, the entire team was asked for three people to volunteer to preach on Sunday morning. I realized quickly I would be one of the three, simply because the idea did not seem deplorable to me. In other words, I would do it. True to form, only one person volunteered at first, then I said I would do it and then we had to goad one of the other team members into preaching.

So I gave a sermon for this rural Uganda Anglican church. It was fun, I’ve never been translated before, and I got the privilege of being translated into Kupsabiny, a language spoken by less then ten thousand people.

The idea for the sermon started with the most obvious question. What would a Houston suburb boy have in common with agriculture workers in Uganda? The only thing I could think of was sin.

So I started the sermon talking about the differences between people around the world, like how they say hello. Here in Kampala we say “Oliyotiya,” which means “Hi how are you.” In Kapchorwa they say “Chikaste Jesu” which means “Praise Jesus.” I unashamedly claimed Texas and taught them how to say the traditional redneck greeting, “Howdy!” I even got them to yell it really loud, it was like being back at A&M, except everyone was black.

Seeing that everyone in the audience was a church goer, I decided to talk about culturally acceptable sin. Everyone knows things like drinking and adultery are sinful. I asked them, “Are those the only sins we need to avoid?” There are many sins that are found at every church, no matter what culture. Gossip, greed, lust, jealousy, impatience and other sins don’t seem as bad, and are therefore considered acceptable in Christian cultures.

I was told the best way to get points across to Ugandans was by telling stories, so I told a few stories about people dealing with the sins listed above. People told me afterwards that the sermon went well, but who knows.

Anyway, I got a guy to take two very poor pictures of me while I was preachin, here they are:

Greg and the Translator

Greg and the crowd

Oh, and by the way, I was reading through some old journal entries and I came across this post from Nov 18 2005 which is basically the same as my sermon I briefly described above except for a western audience. I had forgotten about this post, but it is well written and explains the ideas I spoke about in the sermon better than I could write them now, so here it is:

Rescued from...?
It is easy for someone to be critical of their own culture, but this is often an effort to portray themselves as different from their society. It is better for someone to search their own heart for problems and discover they are not alone, that many people in their culture share their problems. Then they share what they find, in a message with conviction as opposed to judgment.

Well, I am going to try to do that.

So I've been thinking...

What do you think of when you hear the words "sinful people"? Do you think of drunks? Liars? Fornicators? Adulterers? Serial Killers? Drug Abusers? Televangelists? Anyone else? When I hear the words sinful people, I tend to think of the low class in our society, that only care for themselves. People who have 6 kids with all different fathers, and the fathers who made them. Parents who teach their children that domestic violence is common, children who won't hesitate to use force to get their way. People with no responsibility, don't care for anyone but themselves and continue to walk the path of suffering their parents paved for them and never walk the way Jesus wants them to.

And now I think... What would I be like if I never walked the way Jesus wanted me to? Would I be like these people, or would I be something else? If I never learned a single lesson about Christ, I doubt I would resemble the people that I described above at all. Just by living in suburban culture, I have learned responsibility and decency towards others, and just those two values alone would separate me from the people above. I didn't just learn these values at church, but through my parents and school also. So what if I never went to church? My values, although different, would be similar to the values I hold today, simply because I was raised in suburban culture which promotes good values.

A large portion of what I learned at church was rules: Don't use drugs, don’t have sex before marriage, don’t cuss. Those were the main sins that we were taught to steer away from. Nobody thought we would be tempted to get in a gang or beat our girlfriends, those things don't exist in suburban culture (with exceptions of course) so they never taught us not to.

So I had a revelation, I asked myself “What did Christ rescue me from?” Drinking and Cussing? Just because I don't commit obvious sins does not mean that I don't sin. All of us have our demons, including those of us who were raised with good suburban values. Our hearts are no less evil than the people we consider scum. It just manifests itself in different ways, possibly more subtle ways. Materialism, obsession, idolatry, greed, a judgmental spirit, the list could be longer. These sins are a little less obvious, and therefore accepted, sometimes promoted, by society. Just because greed is more acceptable in our society than spousal abuse does not make it any less evil.

The truth is, our salvation as Christians is not saving sex for marriage, our salvation is a relationship with Jesus. We need to remember that our religion is not a rulebook, but a sacrifice of our hearts. Just because we steer clear of the most visible sins, doesn't mean we are more righteous than anyone else, or righteous at all. In fact, if we never drank, smoked, did drugs, had sex or cussed but had no relationship with Christ, our hearts would be just as evil as someone who did all of the above.

Let's face it, we need Christ as much as the most disgusting person we can imagine.

So in Christ, I am rescued from myself, from the evil desires of my heart, and the sorrow of my soul. Christ has forgiven me and set me free, and He is continuing to heal me from the pain in my soul that life put there. And only through relationship with him can I live a satisfying life. I am no different than any man, and if I abandoned Christ, I would be just as sinful as anyone else. My actions don’t make me Holy, Christ’s sacrifice did.

So don’t take pride in what you don’t do, have humility and remember what you struggle with, remember what you’d be like without Christ, remember how reliant we are on him. And don’t judge the lowest in our society to harshly.

And I need to learn these lessons more than anyone reading this.

Culture Shock - Uncensored

2008-04-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

The following is a silly story designed for the eMi East Africa website, the culture shock section. It was supposed to inform future interns and volunteers about some things they might find frustrating in Uganda. The final published version is significantly cut, much more tame, and even includes a disclaimer. Lousy editors. But, I decided to preserve this story here. Remember, this is written to someone who is about to go to Uganda to serve at eMi for a period of their life.

The story is a collection of true stories people here have experienced put into a narrative about someone who just arrived in Uganda. In other words, it's real.

Here it is:

Culture Shock

You read every millimeter of this website along with the Ugandan culture book, you have an encyclopedic knowledge of Museveni’s presidency; you volunteered for several invisible children screenings at your university, you even sought out 13 Ugandan’s in your town and had dinner with them.

You were ready for Uganda, or so you thought.

In the dead of night your flight is about to land and you look out the window to see Africa up close for the first time, and you are surprised to see nothing at all. Blackness, along with about two or three cars. Then you land and look out the window and see that the strobe light on the tip of your plane’s wing has attracted a swarm of large insects equal in number to the population of Wyoming.

You get off the plane, get your luggage and exit the airport terminal. The first thing to catch your eye is a mass of chickens tied to a small van. Then you learn that this van is how you and 13 other passengers plus luggage are getting to Kampala. You have never been so squished in a car in your life, you wonder if anyone’s legs can fit in these seats and the lady nursing next to you isn’t helping anything. You almost gag when you notice she’s nursing twins.

Then there is what’s going on outside the car.

Aside from the awkwardness of driving on the left side of the road and no street lights, the driver seems to be in a rush. He is constantly honking at people while passing and swerving into oncoming traffic. At the same time there are Boda Boda’s (small motorcycles) everywhere, who appear to be allowed to drive anywhere there is space for them to fit. One of them was even carrying 13 foam mattresses (yes, you counted). Another had a row of chickens tied to the handle bars, with a rooster hanging near the center. If it tilted it’s head, just a little bit, it’s life would be cut short by the front wheel.

The bus finally stops where you see what seems like 300 other buses that are crammed as tightly as possible in a parking lot. High density seems to be a theme in Uganda. While you are carrying your luggage you were instructed to keep shouting “Kiwafu” over and over again to find the bus that takes you to meet the eMi missionaries. You keep shouting it and everyone looks at you as though you are crazy, finally one person looks you and says “Oh CHEEwafu.” You are curious why the website misspelled such an important word.

After another crammed taxi ride, you arrive home and are surprised to see that your new neighbor, an 11 year old boy, is completely naked. He doesn’t seem to mind though, he stops using his porch as a slip and slide for a moment and turns toward you and to your horror says “Hi my name is Joseph.”

Awkwardly you state your own name and he looks at you curiously and then asks your name again. After repeating your name several times he finally realizes that the word you are speaking must be your name, and repeats it with a confused tone.

After your shower at 7 degrees Celsius (that’s Ugandan for very very cold) you lie down in bed at last. Before you are rested the roosters start crowing, and continue to for the remaining four hours of night.

Then you wake up and realize you left your razor back home. That’s ok, they will surely have something acceptable at the grocery store. Once you acquire some schillings, you head to the grocery store and ask for a razor, you are told to go to a different grocery store. This occurs at least eight more times before you finally conclude that you will have to email Mom back home and request your first care package.

You find an internet cafe and learn that slow internet connection refers to something quite different back home. After 13 minutes of loading, you finally get to the page that allows you to type your message. You type out an email explaining that you are safely in Uganda and requests a razor. You press send. The next page that pops up is, alas, the error page. You click back and then type the entire thing out again, press send and by then your email service has timed out.

You have now experienced culture shock. Your preparations are futile. You will experience this while you are in Uganda. The question now is…

How will you react?

Risk Management Vs. Luke

2008-04-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Shrewd as Serpents. That is one of many things we Christians are called to be. We are not to be foolish. We are not to throw our lives away wastefully. We are not to wear a T-shirt that with a cartoon representation of Muhammad when we are going to Ahmadinejad’s house for dinner. We are not to hold a King Cobra claiming our lives are in God’s hands and if he wants to strike us down he can do so whether we hold a snake or not, Although if you are doing that, I wouldn’t doubt our maker would take the convenient opportunity to get rid of you.

But…

We are also called to risk our lives for the gospel. We all know the stories, the Martyrs and the Underground church. We all have a deep respect for martyrs in places like Iran or China, and hold them as the strongest of our faith. We’ve all asked ourselves “Would I deny Christ if I were tortured? Is my faith as weak as Peter’s was that night?” Yet we know in our hearts we will probably not ever be in a situation where the answers to such questions will be tested.

My answers are tested in Uganda in a way I didn’t expect.

I am a transportation guy. The economics, risks, benefits and disadvantages to different systems of transportation have fascinated me since I wrote a report on air bags in my college technical writing class. So naturally when I observed the needless and foolish risks Ugandan’s take on the road I was both disgusted and terrified.

Imagine what the roads would be like if there were no traffic lights, no signs, no stripes and no law enforcement, where if someone is hit by a car, the liability lies on the pedestrian and not the driver, where right of way is determined by the size of your vehicle. It’s madness. Drivers casually swerve into oncoming traffic to pass people. Motorcycles drive anywhere that space exists for them to fit. No one wears a seatbelt. Not only do cars not slow down for pedestrians, they don’t even stop accelerating. If you are hit by a car and survive but cause damage to the car, the driver can take you to court, sue you for the damage you caused to their car, and win. But if the driver hits someone’s goat, they are liable and have to pay a fine.

Whenever I am in a car, I am terrified. Although this has a positive effect on my prayer life, my mental health suffers. Adjusting to the transportation system is more difficult for me than any other aspect of Ugandan life. After all, dying in a car accident isn’t martyrdom. It sure would seem like a foolish waste if I died on the streets of Uganda. Or would it? Is living in Uganda and dealing with the transportation system here risking my life for the gospel, or can you only do that with the underground church?

Yesterday I read the following verse, and I will end what I have to say here because the verse speaks more powerfully than anything I could write. Needless to say, the words of Jesus changed my perspective.

Luke 9:24

"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."

Project Trip Report - Kapchorwa

2008-03-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Project Trip Report - Kapchorwa

Returning to Kapchorwa, Janet and I (Greg) were accompanied by nine other folks. Seven engineers from America, one engineer from Zimbabwe and one new eMi intern. Our team assembled to create the best possible potable water distribution and gravity flow irrigation systems for the people of Ngenge (pronounced Nay-Nay). We had irrigation experts, business planners, geologists, water engineers and interns. Needless to say, we were all excited.

Eventually we determined the project was not as simple or as feasible as we originally planned. The eMi project scope describes the natural conditions as “ample water supply from streams on the mountainside.” Unfortunately the water is not enough for the planned amount of irrigation the community wanted. Watershed analysis and rainfall data determined that the only way to get irrigation water for the dry season was massive amounts of storage, like a dam, making the building cost way more than available funds.

Gravity flow irrigation was what the Anglican leadership sponsoring the project wanted and expected from us. They were disappointed to learn within the first few days of our trip that such a system was not economically feasible. Janet and Andrew, our business planner, spent 2 days in meetings with the leaders explaining why it wasn’t possible. The engineers continued to develop the most cost effective way for the improvement of the villagers lives. I helped with all map related issues as well as watershed area calculations.

Noticing that proper sanitation measures were not practiced near boreholes (Ugandan for wells), our first recommendations were for community health education. For a very small budget, a community health specialist can teach the leaders proper sanitation practices. The leaders can then go back to their areas and teach the rest of the community. The sanitation practices are simple things like don’t allow livestock near boreholes, or don’t use the same jerry-can (bucket) for stream water and borehole water.

Additionally, we noticed that many of the boreholes were not maintained correctly. Well over half were broken, and it was obvious that none of the boreholes we looked at had been checked on since installation, this is supposed to happen twice a year. So our next recommendation called for the development of a business plan for regular maintenance. We are still working on the details of this.

Next, there were other communities that had to walk too far to get their borehole water. There were not even broken boreholes within a proper distance. Their women (that do most of the hard labor in Ugandan village culture) would get harassed by drunkards as they were walking back from the boreholes at night. So our obvious recommendation for this part of the problem was the drilling of new boreholes in those areas.

Then came the project presentation. Needless to say everyone was nervous about it. We were not sure how the community would react when we told them we could not build a gravity distributed irrigation system. We prayed about it quite a bit prior to our presentation Monday. God answered our prayers. We only had one complaint regarding the absence of the gravity distribution system. So, the presentation was a wonderful success, everyone was pleased with our work.

Personally, I want to thank all of our supporters. Getting to help out the people of Ngenge was a dream come true for me, and it would have been impossible if it were not for our supporters. I am also greatly happy to report that your money is well spent. We are continuing to work hard with the Anglican church to make our recommendations a reality. And now, pictures.

Recognize the bald guy in the middle?

Excellent view and Jeremy

Greg did not go into the field much for this project trip, most of his time was spent in this office.

Noting corrections made to the map by the Ugandans

And more corrections

No one is caught sleeping while listening to Pontet (Respectful term for an old man in chipsabene, the language spoken in Kapchorwa)

Thank you all again. Please continue to pray for the work we did, particularly that funding is raised by the Anglican church to implement our recommendations. Send us any prayer request you may have, remember that the key to divine revelation is the patterns in your life.

Stephanie’s update:

Hello! February has been a pretty busy month. At Heritage International School we had Spirit Week, where the kids dressed up every day and learned about how to be peacemakers. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed getting to work on it. Last week also brought the International Festival. This was a lot of fun. There are many many different nationalities represented at Heritage, and at the international festival everybody brings traditional food from their country and dresses in traditional clothes (which mean a t-shirt and jeans for the Americans).

It was a lot of fun to see the students and their families wearing their traditional clothes and to sample all the wonderful food. We got to try Korean, Ethiopian, Italian, Australian, Ugandan, and many other kinds of food, as well as see some performances!

It is hard to believe that it is already March and we will be leaving this June. Time has really flown by. Pray that we will be sensitive to what God has for us.

Keep Kenya in your prayers as well. You may have heard about the violence that has broken out there recently over election issues, and they have recently reached some sort of agreement. So pray that this agreement will work out and the violence come to an end.

-Stephanie

“From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done.”

-Isaiah 43:13

Also, here is a picture of some baby bunnies with their momma. Hopefully these creatures will be leaving my house this week.

Update #5 January Update Time (Coming to you in February)

2008-02-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

Greg and Stephanie did their own updates separately, so read them both! At the end is information about Greg’s upcoming project trip from the eMi website.

From Greg:
Hello Everyone,

Christmas felt, well a little odd. We Houstonians have had our fair share of hot weather on Christmas day, but I don’t think we’ve ever had one where the weather didn’t cool off at all for the entire month. It felt odd.

Christmas here is not as big a deal as Easter, but everyone celebrates it none the less. We decorated our house with a Christmas branch for 1000 UGX (50 cents) on Christmas eve. In this picture you can also see the set of wise men Stephanie bought me for Christmas.

Both of us got time off for Christmas, we took it easy. We thought about going to Kenya during that time but we decided we needed a break from traveling (if you read our last update, you’d see why). Our exhaustion may or may not have been divine, since the violence started around the same time we would have been there.

The new interns have now arrived and they are a great group of folks. Intern Orientation was successful and all of us are ready to serve God this semester.

This month will be a big month for me since I’m going on my first eMi project trip. I’ve done a lot of prep work for it, including both trips I made to Kapchorwa (see updates 1 & 4), so it’s exciting to see it finally happen.

eMi’s main ministry is the project trip. It mobilizes a team of engineers from all over the world to come and offer design services to a ministry in need. The prep work and project report is done by the interns and full time staff before and after the project, but most design decisions are made during the project trip.

The goal for this project trip will be to design a sustainable potable water system for the people of Ngenge village (pronounced Nay-Nay). We will attain this water by either drilling large scale wells or redirecting water from mountain streams. We will decide which option is best on the project trip. Then we will design a network of pipes that leads down to the local villages so everyone can have quick access to water. I will attach the entire project scope at the end of this update, you can also find it here.

For preparation, I’ve created a series of maps of the area and attached village names with estimated population statistics. During the project trip I will help the team by analyzing the surface water currently in use.

So, I ask all of you to join me in prayer during this time. Specifically during our project trip, February 17 – 27. Here are some things to pray for:

1. We need to have a lot of meetings with various people in the area. So please pray we will find all the right people at the right times.
2. Most of the team will meet each other for the first time when the trip begins. So please pray for our team dynamics. That we don’t get at each others throats during the long working hours and cross cultural situation, and that all of us will work our hardest to provide the best design for the people of Ngenge.
3. God tends to do things in people’s lives during eMi project trips, so pray we will all be open to God’s teaching.
4. Pray that we have a heart of service for the people of Ngenge
5. Finally, and most importantly, pray that we will listen to the villagers ideas of what they want, and give them a design that they will use for years to come. There is a lot of potential for projects of this kind to fail due to miscommunication, making our work fruitless. If we tell them to go to a bore hole, but they don’t want to, they will continue going to the bacteria ridden stream they’ve used for years. But if the community sees the project as their own, there is a higher probability for implemented changes to become permanent, passed from one generation to the next.

Thank you all for your prayers and support during this time.

And lastly, our pair of rabbits has multiplied. We now have 4 baby rabbits, that may or may not be slightly cute.

Thank you all for your Prayers, please send us prayer requests if you have any.

Greg

From Stephanie:

Hello! Thank you everybody for your prayers and support. Sometimes it feels so strange that our time in Uganda will be ending in June. I miss my family and friends back in Texas, but I get very sad also when I think about leaving Kampala. For some reason it feels more like a hometown than Houston ever did. I think its because we walk everywhere, and everybody else walks everywhere, so your always running into people you know and saying hi to your neighbors as opposed to going from your garage to your car and back to your garage again. It’s nice. Greg has already told you about his project trip and the prayer needs for that. Here’s a few more prayer requests and praises:

Greg and I have found a cell group in our neighborhood. It’s not actually with the church we go to every Sunday, but with a different church that we go to every now and then. They have cell groups all over the city. It’s very organized.

School is going well, and my class has grown from 7 students to 9 students! The 6th grade also now has their own teachers (which is wonderful for them) so now I am back to just teaching the 5th grade.

This upcoming week is Spirit Week at Heritage International. The kids will be dressing up according to the different themes every day, and they will also be learning about how to be peacemakers. Please pray that everything goes according to plan (I’m sort of in charge of it) and that the students really learn something from it. The number of students at Heritage went up a lot this year, and I think we are experiencing some growing pains that come along with a large influx of students from varying backgrounds.

Thank you so much for your prayers,

Stephanie

Galatians 3:26 – 29 (our theme verses for Spirit week)

Project Scope (From eMi website):

The Kapchorwa district lies along the northern slopes of Mount Elgon and reaches down to the plains area to the north. The plains area includes a series of settlement camps in the area of Ngenge (the largest settlement camp in the area). In the Ngenge area, there is a serious lack of potable water for human consumption or use. A number of boreholes exist throughout the area, however, over half are not functioning and of the remaining working boreholes often provide little or low quality water. There is insufficient water supply currently for the population, estimated to number approximately 4,000 people. There is a high amount of water-related disease and death due to lack of potable water and personal hygiene.

This is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the country where disease, malnourishment, poor personal hygiene and death could all be greatly reduced by improved adequate water supplies. In Ngenge and environs, the people were originally cattle keepers; however, due to threats from cattle-rustling tribal groups from the north and neighboring Kenya, many of these people have been displaced to these settlement camps where the Ugandan military provides protection. There have not been raids in the area for approximately a year and many people are looking to resettle in their land; however, are reluctant based on the limited water supply. In addition, many are now looking to agriculture as a substitute to cattle-keeping. However, the plains areas are susceptible both to drought and flooding.

Systemic change is possible, given the availability of natural resources which could be harnessed (i.e. ample water supply from streams on the mountainside). This change could potentially affect the quality of life of the entire Kapchorwa District having a population of 193,510 according to the 2002 Census. Readily available water resources could be utilized for cash crops to grow, including aloe vera, rice, maize, sunflowers, greens, beans, tea, etc.

EMI's role will be to assist with both short and long term planning for water use in the settlements in and around Ngenge. Short term planning will include evaluating interim water supply measures such as repair of existing boreholes and low technology water treatment. Long term planning includes: 1) Performing a feasibility study to assess various large scale water supply options to assist in systematic change in the community. Known potential water supply options include water from a mountain stream and drilling new large-scale production wells in the plains. 2) Completing a preliminary/schematic design (for a general cost estimate and fund raising) for water source/collection, potable water distribution, and irrigation. 3) Based on community meetings, assisting the church in forming a business plan for a large scale water supply and giving feedback to the community on their action plan for long term health and hygiene.

Who needs the arcade?

2008-01-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

Eating Rolex’s when I am on the go is one of the things I’ll miss most when I am back in America. You can find a Rolex stand anywhere in Kampala in less than 4 minutes. Rolex is the words “Rolled Eggs” smashed together. It’s scrambled eggs and Chipati which is like a thick tortilla. They're awesome.

I was waiting in line to get Stephanie and my dinner at a Rolex stand when a cow started running towards me. I had to get out of it’s way as it tore down the front of the strip mall. Several people had to move quickly to avoid getting trampled. Chasing the cow were a group of three or four boys laughing their heads off as they slapped it’s bum with sticks. The poor cow was trying to get away, and while doing so was causing mayhem in the little shopping area.

I pictured a group of kids going with their mother to get dinner and getting bored while waiting in line. So instead of whining to their mother for some quarters so they can shoot bandits in the future with “Time Cop,” the kids here in Uganda just grab a stick off the ground and start chasing cows and wreck havoc on the whole shopping center. Quite an amusing alternative I’d say.

Although I was the only adult that couldn’t stop laughing.

Update #4

2007-12-21T01:39:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness,

We have not updated for two months. I am SOOOOO sorry, but when you read this post I am sure you will understand why we haven’t updated.

In the interest of brevity, I will shortly describe our adventures across planet earth over the last two months.

1 – Murchison falls – We saw some giraffes, elephants, pumba’s, deer, kingfisher’s, hippos, the works. We even had a hippo, which happen to be responsible for more human deaths than any other mammal, rub up against our tent at 2 am. Scary.

Giraffe

The smaller of the two baby elephants in this shot is probably only a few days old

The African Buffalo – Water Buffalo

We did not get close to this croc

Warthogs (Or in Swahili – Pumbas)

Our group who went

2 – Rwanda (which we learned is pronounced Ronda) – We saw an active volcano (complete with red glow). We were surprised when people braked for pedestrians. We learned the way to call a taxi there is to hiss like a snake.

Our bus wrecked on the return trip causing much frustration and paranoia.

Behind us is mountains of the Congo

Rwanda is very densely populated, with farms that go up the sides of hills.

Pretty

Our welcome home sign

Don’t take this bus line

3 – Kapchorwa visit 2 – Greg went back to Kapchorwa to continue his project that he started his first week at eMi (See update #1). This time the locals drew up a map for he and Janet made out of dirt, berries, sticks, garbage and other items. Greg is still excited about this project

A Ugandan Engineering meeting

4 – Entebbe botanical gardens – Greg joined Stephanie and her kids on a field trip where we all swung on vines like tarzan.

Yes he beat his chest afterwards

5 – Aber (aka “The Village”) – Stephanie and I went with our house-girl (maid) to her village in central Uganda. We ate gizzard, pet a goat that was slottered five minutes later, and we came back with 60 lbs of vegetables and a chicken.

In Kampala, most people are attached to a rural village of some kind, each with a different name. But rather than identify each one by a different name, people refer to any of them as “The Village.” (I am going to the Village this weekend - she went to the Village - have you been to the Villages?)

Our giant Kasava and young chick we were given as gifts

6 – Harlem, Netherlands – Greg and Stephanie went to Holland for a day and learned that even though Greg has always said he loves cold weather, he doesn’t when all he has is clothes from Africa. We had to buy some wool socks. After that we greatly enjoyed the luxuries of cheese, decent roads, dikes, hot chocolate and blending in with other white people, even if it meant explaining we don’t speak Dutch repeatedly.

Pretty

The square outside our hotel

Greg is feeling slightly ridiculous

The church next to our hotel

7 – Houston, Texas – and then the rumored trip to America commenced, and we saw Melody get married and ate a piece of pecan pie.

Greg got to meet the presidents head (We don’t know what this was for either)

Love birds

Darcy and Lizzy

8 – London, UK – Greg drug his sleepy wife around London and we saw all the typical sites in under four hours. Greg and Steph are both excited about our trip there in June where we can spend more time there, but it was sure fun to see London in the winter time.

Not any good pictures of us, but here’s a nice one of some clock

9 – Return to Uganda – Fairly uneventful these last two weeks (which was intentional) but we did see some of our fellow interns off, they have all arrived in America by now.

Stephanie wrapped the semester with Heritage’s Christmas program with ballerinas, actors and even a band. She will enjoy her two weeks off.

Greg, Stephanie and their house-girl they went to the village with, Monica

That’s a wrap, enjoy the pictures.

Happy Independence Day!

2007-10-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today is Independence Day in Uganda. This means I get the day off, but Greg has to work, so the first grade teacher from my school and I decided to go downtown to the mall to see Hairspray. Yeah, I was kind of surprised they have those things here in Kampala, too. The movie theatre was even air conditioned. I was freezing.

Nothing too exciting has happened lately, but maybe that's good because it means we are settling in. I've started running in to people I know around town (not just ex pats, but Ugandans), and it makes me feel good, makes me feel like I really live here and I'm not just visiting. Living here has also made me feel like the world is huge and tiny, all at the same time. I can talk to my friends and family over the internet, which makes them feel so close, but sometimes the culture here is so different that it reminds that the world is also huge. I'm pretty sure Greg and I make cultural mistakes on a regular basis, but the people here have a lot of grace for muzungus.

We have found a church home, Calvary Chapel Kampala. We really like it there. There is even a cell group that meets not too far from where we live, although we haven't been able to go yet because they are on hiatus for a few weeks. But we are looking forward to joining that when they get started up again. Greg has also been able to volunteer at a babies home in our area, and I hope to be able to join him soon. eMi allows their employees a little more flexible schedule than a school, so we are trying to find a time when we both can go together.

School has been busy, but it will return to normal for while now. We had our rain festival last week, (which is kind of like a Halloween substitute - which is really funny since most of our kids don’t' even know what Halloween is, but the school was started by Americans, so traditions stick.) and 5th grade was in charge of the weekly Chapel. They did a very good job. My students put on two skits, one about Abraham and one about Noah, and they led the elementary students in worship. I was very proud of them.

Greg and I are getting ready for a busy few weeks, we will be going to Murchison Falls National Park this weekend, up in the northwest part of the country, then the next weekend we will be traveling to Rwanda. In November we will be heading to Northern part of the country to visit with a friend's family. Time is flying by for me, but that usually happens when your life is divided up into semesters. Greg says that life is not going by quite so fast for him.

We are thinking about you and praying for you, and are so thankful that you are doing the same. There are some things we would love you to pray for Greg and I about. I think i will put them in a list format.

1. Pray for one of the eMi staff's (Monica) family. They live in Northern Uganda and their crops have been ruined by the floods.

2. Speaking of Northern Uganda, they have been really flooded, and lot of people have lost their homes and crops. Please pray that they will be able to make it through the year, or the next few months, and be able to rebuild their lives.

3. Pray for Greg and I, especially that we would be able to make good relationships with our neighbors. Sometimes it is difficult because we are not sure what is and is not culturally acceptable, but we really should be reaching out to our neighbors mroe, because they are our neighbors!

Ok, i hope everyone has a wonderful day today!

-Stephanie

p.s. there are some pictures too!
p.p.s. If you scroll down more on our blog, you will see a couple of small entries that weren’t sent out over e-mail. Sometimes we update randomly and don't send it out.

This is John's graduation party. John is an intern for eMi this semester, and he is from Jinja, a town down the road from Kampala, and at the source of the Nile! We felt very awkward. For some reason, it is tradition to sit muzungus up front at parties and such. I don't really know why. John is the guy with the wearing robes on the left. It was a lot of fun to go to a Ugandan party!

While in Jinja, we went on a boat road and got to see the source of the Nile. It was neat! There was lots of bubbling going on at the source, you could really tell that there was springs around us.

Another view of the Nile.

This is a cool little bug in Jinja. Isn't he pretty?

Here's a monkey along the Nile. They were cute.

These are Ankole cattle. They're the cattle in Uganda. I love their horns! In fact, I bought some.

These are a couple of little punks we got. They will probably be food when we leave, and if they have any babies, they will be food too. This probably shocks a lot of you who know me well that I could talk of rabbits this way, but it is fun to have them while we are here. Its really easy to feed them too, here. All I have to do is go to a market and ask them if they have any greens they are going to throw out, and they just give them to me! It's awesome. We call them Squash and Potato.

What is Greg Doing?

2007-09-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is what Greg is doing. He's drawing up a survey of Stephanie's school campus. Click on the picture, he even pointed out Steph's classroom for those curious. He has found this a very difficult assignment. He's never drawn up a survey before, he's never used AutoCAD before, and he was told that this is the most complex survey his office has done, EVER!

But he is thankful that if he can do this, he can do anything.

Hopefully his next entry will not be in third person.

2007-09-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ah, I just felt like writing a little mid week update.

I really enjoy living in Uganda. Its very pretty and I enjoy not having to have a car. There are some things to get used to. For instance, friends coming over and staying for 2.5 hours even after you told them that you are sick. The upside is you don't get lonlely here.

I am also teaching 6th grade English and Bible now in addition to 5th grade. It has been interesting have 2 classes in the same room and trying to teach diffrent subjects, but it is not bad, considering that there are only 4 6th graders, and 8 5th graders.

Greg and I are also really excited because our house girl (maid) has asked us to go visit her family in their village with her. We are very excited to get to go. We feel special that she would want us to come, and we have also been told that since we are living in Kampala, we do not know what it is really like to live in Uganda. Over a million people live in Kampala, but the majority of the population still lives in rural villages. She has not been home in over 2 years. She tells us that they will probably slaughter a goat for her homecoming! We will not be going until November, however.

Well, this has been a random update, but have a great day!

-Stephanie

Uganda Oyee!

2007-09-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Uganda Oyee!

I don’t know what this means, but everybody has been saying this all night at the Cranes Game. The Cranes are Uganda’s soccer team, and tonight we beat Niger, which means Uganda qualifies for the Africa cup…I think. Greg and I were able to go with a few other people, and the game was fun, but getting out of there was way more fun. The stadium is kind of outside the city, and all the way back to the city on the matatu (taxi) from the stadium was just one big giant party all over the place. Everybody was so excited, and people came out to watch all the people leaving the stadium walking and driving home. Everybody was yelling and cheering, and traffic was bad because the streets were blocked with people celebrating. It was awesome.

I hope everyone is doing well. In these past couple of weeks all the other eMi interns have arrived, and Greg has begun regular work there and I have been continuing on at Heritage. In my opinion, life here is much less stressful than in the states, but that may just be because I have 8 kids at school instead of 170. All my students are great kids, and it is a real joy to be able to teach them this year.

I am really enjoying teaching at Heritage, it is a great place to be. The staff there is very nice and helpful to new teachers. The staff is made up of probably about 60 % nationals, and 40 % other. The principal is British, but we follow an American curriculum.

Greg is actually working for Heritage, too…sort of. He has been assigned by eMi to survey Heritage, because they would like to build a new wing for their high school. They have a high school, but the school is growing quite a bit and will not be contained in the present buildings for long.

We are much more comfortable with getting around now then we used to be, which is very nice. We are still looking for a church, but we think we may end up at a church called Calvary Chapel. Apparently there are Calvary Chapels in the U.S., but I have never heard of them.

We are also getting to know more Ugandans, and understanding the culture and country a little more. And in Uganda right now, there is something going on that needs prayer. November is bringing with it something called CHOGM (cho-gum). I don’t know what chogm means per say, but I do know that it is when the Queen of England is coming to Kampala along with a lot of other foreign diplomats and dignitaries. So because of this 3 day event, Uganda is trying to “get ready.” While getting ready, they are doing things such as road repair(this is good), rounding up beggar children in the town centre and sending them…who knows?...and kicking people out of their stands used to sell things if they’re structure is not permanent (these are bad).

This is sad, and I would ask that you would pray for people that are having their lives and livelihood affected by this.

Last weekend we were able to visit an orphanage called Watoto (meaning children in Swahili). It is sponsored by Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC) here in Uganda, (which is probably the biggest church in the country), and we went so eMi could look around to see how they built it and how it was laid out. KPC goes and searches the whole country and tries to find children who are the most destitute and have the least likelihood that someone will take care of them, and they bring them to Watoto to live, be loved, and get an education. They have 3 orphanages around Kampala, and they are all very good homes for these children. Watoto also has a children’s choir that travels the world performing. Please pray for these children that they would grow up to loving God and praising him.

There are many orphans here, largely due to AIDS. I know you have heard this of Africa, but it becomes much more of a reality when you are here, and you talk to so many people who are affected by this. Please pray that more and more children would find homes, and that people could have their lives emotionally and physically healed.

Pray for Greg and I, that God would use us here, and that we will make sure and listen to him so that we follow his will!

Namboole Stadium in Kampala. Yes, if you look closely, you will see a man with a big flame caused by lighting hair spray or something on fire.

Watoto

This is also at Watoto. Another child is taking the picture (those kids sure love cameras), and I told the boy in my lap to make a funny face. I love this picture.

This is one our way to Mabira Forest, a rainforest outside of Kampala. We were able to go there last weekend. This forest has a lot of controversey surrounding it, as the President wanted to tear down 1/3 of it for sugar plantations, but the people of Uganda did not like that. So that plan has been put off, or possibly stopped for good.

Here's a huge tree in Mabira forest!

Here's the nile river in Jinja, right after it comes out of Lake Victoria.

This is our apartment. Across the street is a cell tower with a very loud generator, which is actually quite nice because it blocks out the dogs fighting that used to wake us up every night.

Chickens! I love all the barnyard animals that run around.

A monkey in Mabira forest. He wanted food.

A Maribou stork. These are trash birds that are extremely numerous in Downtown Kampala. They have got to be the ugliest things I've ever seen. They probably stand about 3 or 4 feet tall.

Thanks for reading and praying! We love to hear from you!

Update # 3 - 2 weeks in Uganda

2007-08-18T12:29:00.002-07:00

8/18/2007

Hello Everyone!

This e-mail is kind of long. At the end is a summary of what I have written. There are also pictures at the bottom of the post.

I hope this e-mail finds everyone well. Greg and I have been in Uganda now for two weeks. I just wanted to e-mail and let everyone know what’s going on. First of all, let me tell you a little bit about life in Uganda:

1
Greg and I have been happy to find the weather here very mild, and it never really getting as hot as it is in Houston. I am even pretty cold sometimes in the morning and nights. We were also happy to find that the mosquitoes are not anywhere close to as bad as we thought. I don’t think either of us have been bitten by one yet (although we certainly have been bitten by some sort of bugs…), and we find there is no need to sleep under a mosquito net. It is very beautiful here, with rolling hills as far as they eye can see. If you walk a little uphill from where we live you can see Lake Victoria.

There are several neighborhoods in Kampala, and we live in the Kansanga district in the southeast part of the city. It’s sort of the suburbs. There are children and goats and chickens and very surly looking dogs all throughout. The people here are very friendly. Lots of people will say hi to you, and everyone is always willing to help you out and answer questions.

Getting around and getting what we need is much easier than what I expected it would be. There are 3 small grocery stores within a kilometer from our apartment, and one of the main roads, Ggaba road, is also within a kilometer. There are also lot of stands on the side of the road selling various items, such as fruits and vegetables, eggs, and bread. If we need to go somewhere else, it is very easy to catch a matatu (public transportation) to pretty much anywhere around town from Ggaba road. On a side note, the public transportation here is great. All matatus charge the same price for different areas of town, so you never have to worry about being overcharged, and you rarely have to wait to get on one. On top of that, it only costs 500 schillings to ride one into downtown, which is about 29 cents. They are actually 12 passenger vans, so if someone in the back wants to get out, everyone has to get out and then get back on.

Greg and I have only experienced one power outage the whole time we have been here, and it only lasted 10 hours. This is apparently amazing, and we are thankful for that. I’m afraid we will get spoiled, though. We’ve heard that a hotel on the same line as us has some diplomats staying with them, and that is why we have had power for so long. That’s how it goes, here.

Its amazing how God has taken care of us since we have been here. The first week, I was sick with a fever, but it passed in only a couple of days. I have been working at Heritage International School for two weeks now, and I love it. I only have seven kids, which feels amazing to me. I have 2 students from America, 1 from Canada, 1 from Italy, 1 from Rwanda, 1 from Uganda, and 1 from S. Korea. Most of them are missionary kids. Teaching at Heritage is really a blessing.

Greg has hit the ground running as well, and has already been on a trip out to Eastern Uganda to an area called Kapchorwa. He was able to go and do some preliminary work for a water well project for that area. Greg is really excited about this, because it will be something that affects a whole community of people, which is really what he wanted to be able to do. He also had a blast getting to play with the kids who followed them around while they surveyed. Greg will tell more about this project later on.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We could not do this without you. God has provided for us so much in that we got here safely, none of our luggage was lost (which I hear is rare), and were able to get settled and get to work without much to stand in our way. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, but God makes sure that they don’t. We have been able to meet some wonderful people here, both western and Ugandan who have made our transition easier because of their caring spirits.

Please pray that Greg and I would find a home church to be a part of while we are here. We have visited two, and will be going back to one tomorrow. There are international churches here with more western style services and local churches as well. We will be going back to a local church tomorrow. The long services take a little bit of getting used to.

Please pray also that we would adjust to the culture here and be able to learn the language well enough to communicate with people. A lot of people do speak English here, but a lot don’t, too. We have to adjust to sticking out like sore thumbs and people (especially children) yelling “muzungu” at us all the time. Muzungu means foreigner or rich person. They are not being rude, but it can be difficult to get used to.

Pray for us that we would seek after God, and he would provide opportunities for us to serve outside of Heritage and eMi.

Thank you again for your prayer and support! We would love to hear back from you, so e-mail back and let us know what’s going on!

God bless,

-Stephanie

Summary:

1 Life in Uganda

2 Heritage International School

3 Greg in Kapchorwa

4 Praises and prayer requests.

PICTURES - You can clikc on the picture to see a bigger version of it.

What we think is the Sahara desert, or close to it from our plane window.

Sipi falls in Eastern Uganda. Greg saw these on his way back to Kampala from Kapchorwa.

Greg at a well site in Kapchorwa with another eMi Staffer, Janet.

A view of Lake Victoria we are able to see if we walk uphill a bit from our apartment.

Ggaba Road. The vans with blue checkers on them are the matatus (taxis).

Greg surrounded by kids in Kapchorwa.

Update #2 - Stephanie has a passport!

2007-07-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I hope this update finds you well!

Thank you everybody for your prayers and concern for my passport. I now have one! I called my congressman, and they requested expedited service for my passport last Thursday. However, by Monday, the Passport Agency had still not even looked at my passport. So I decided it was time to head downtown.

In order to get my passport downtown, I needed my birth certificate, my marriage certificate (which was already mailed off with my original application), and a plane ticket stating I was leaving the country in the next two weeks. I was able to get a certified copy of my marriage certificate, and I still live right next to the county I was born in, so it was easy to get my birth certificate as well. So I had everything I needed ahead of time, and I headed down to passport agency at 6 a.m. today.

I know God is taking care of me because getting a passport today was not at all like so many horror stories I have heard. I got to the building a little before 7 a.m., and I had an appointment at 8 a.m. I was 3rd in line, and there was lots of friendly people to talk to while I waited. I got to go into the building at 7:45, and I was out by 8:20. I also did not have to pay again, since they had a record that I had already payed when I mailed in my application in May. It was a pretty good experience.

Now that I know I can leave when planned, I'd like to tell you about our travel plans, and some things we can be praying for!

Greg and I will leave on August 2nd from Intercontinental Airport in Houston. We will have an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, a 3 hour layover there, and then another 8 hour flight to Entebbe, Uganda. From there we will have about a 1 - 2 hour van ride to our new home in Kampala.

Please pray for safe travel, and for everything to run smoothly. Please pray for us that we would continue to seek God with all our hearts, even in all the craziness of leaving the country. Please pray also that God would begin to work in our hearts and people in Uganda that he would have us to meet, that we would be able to accomplish what God has planned for us. Also, please continue to pray for Engineering Ministries International, and Heritage International School, that God would use these organization to show His love to the people they are involved with.

Greg and I will be praying for you, that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that he will reveal His amazing love to you!

-Greg and Stephanie Osborne

P.S. I've attached a couple of pictures of Greg and I with a baby lemur that we got to play with while were in New Braunfels visiting my parents. I just thought they were fun.

Please Pray for my Passport

2007-07-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

Greg and I will be leaving for Uganda on August 2nd. That is just 2 weeks away from today! Most things are ready to go, and we are getting really excited. I do have a big prayer request to ask you to pray about, though. I have not recieved my passport yet. Since today is the two weeks mark, the Passport agency is finally willing to talk to me about it. My congressman is supposed to be ordering the passport to be expedited today, and If that does not work by Monday, I will be going to downtown Houston to stand in line all day to get my passport.

Orientation week for Heritage International School, (where I will be teaching) starts August 6th, so it is important that I get there on time. Thank you all for your prayers! Please let me know if there is anything at all I can pray for you about. This was just a quick update to let you know about my passport, but I will be updating again soon, before we leave.

Believing in the power of prayer,

Stephanie Osborne

(by the way, Heritage International School does not currently have a working website, so if you google it, you will find a school in Canada, which is not where Stephanie will be teaching.)

Counting Down to Africa

2007-05-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

A video about what we are going to be doing and why, made by our friend Juila Johnson. Click on the play button in the middle of the screen to watch it.

Stephanie and I have accepted a position with an organization called Engineering Ministries International or eMi for short. On August 2nd We will be on our way to the East Africa office in Kampala Uganda for an eleven month stay.

eMi is a Christian organization that gives free designs to 3rd world Christian ministries in need. It works like this, if there’s a Christian group in a developing nation who own a piece of land and want to use it to build a hospital, orphanage, school, dormitory, Church, Bridge, water pipeline, Dam, Hydro Electric Power Plant, Poultry Factory, ect… they can submit a request to eMi and get plans for a complete site design free of charge. eMi has their world office in Colorado Springs, CO and international offices in: Calgary Canada, Guatemala City Guatemala, Kampala Uganda, and Mussoorie India.

I will join the internship program for two terms. I’m not sure what I will work on since eMi’s projects change rapidly, but I imagine I’ll work on the types of projects listed above and learn all about site design. Stephanie will teach 6th grade at Heritage international School during our stay there.

All eMi staff, including me, are strictly on support, there are no salaries for anyone, and even though Stephanie’s job will be a paid position, the amount of money she will make does not cover both the eMi office expenses and the living expenses of two people in Kampala. So we are doing the standard missionary thing and sending out support letters. If any of you are interested in receiving one, please message me in one of the many ways available in cyber space with your snail mail address. I would prefer an email to: g_osborne@yahoo.com

I have several other things I want to share, like what’s going through my head, but I think I’ll save that for another day since this blog entry is rather long already. So last, here are some eMi related links:

Kampala Uganda on the web's most reliable source of information, Wikipedia
eMi world headquarters
eMi Kampala Uganda

To support us, click here: https://secure.emiusa.org/donate.html. Please put "Greg Osborne" and the account number (2669) in the designation space. To give monthly for the duration of our trip, Email me your snail mail address and I will send you a letter that explains how to set it up.

My email: g_osborne@yahoo.com

Our Family

2007-05-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Certainly, we would not be the people we are today without our family. Here are some pictures of our loved ones:

From left to right: Christina, Bob, Greg, Stephanie, Tim, Jessica, Melody (All Osbornes)

Greg's mother and father are native to California. They moved to Houston Texas shortly after they got married where they raised three kids (Greg, Melody and Tim) born two years apart. Bob is a software designer for Conoco Phillips. Christina, CFP was a stay at home mom until Greg was in late High school when she began a career in financial planning.

Bob Woodward and Melody Osborne

Greg's sister Melody is two years younger than him and lives in Houston. She went to TCU and majored in International Economics. Here she is pictured making a small life decision as to whether or not to marry the guy on the floor. You can tell by the look on her face that she is carefully considering a life with this man who says he is a Technical Graphics Designer. She chose yes and she will marry Bob in November.

My parents are kind enough to fly us back to America for one week so we can attend Melody's wedding. It's important to note that our airfare for this return will come out of Melody's wedding budget and not out of our support.

Tim and Jessica Osborne

My brother Tim is four years younger than me. He went to Hardin-Simmons University where he met this lovely girl in the picture. He and Jessica have been married for a year now. Tim is a Math Teacher and Jessica is an English teacher, they live in Round Rock Texas.

Left to Right: Sarah, Darren, Doug, and Diana Hibbs; Greg and Stephanie Osborne

Doug and Diana raised their family in Lake Jackson Texas where Doug worked for Dow Chemical for many years. They now live in New Braunfels and Doug commutes to Houston for work at a Chemical Engineering consulting firm. They have three children, Richard, Darren, and Stephanie.

Their oldest, Richard, is not pictured, he is 13 years older than Stephanie, lives in Dallas and works in carpentry.

Darren and Sarah Hibbs

Stephanie's brother Darren is five years older than her. Darren and Sarah went to Texas A&M University and were friends with Greg before he was family. Darren studied construction and now works for a construction company. Dr. Sarah is currently in her residency as an OBGYN. They have been married for four years and are now expecting a child due at Christmas. Their child will be the first person Greg and Stephanie want to see upon their return to the United States