Ojera Jenaro works with New Song of Grace (NSOG), the small organization I am working with for the summer. Ojera is his Acholi name and Jenaro is his ‘Christian’ name. He has no last name because his village, Paicho, is so small, people don’t need last names. Everyone knows each other, and his family has lived there at least three generations. He knows enough slow, thoughtful English to communicate most work-related issues, but he is not fluent. He is gentle, kind, has much integrity, and knows virtually everyone in Paicho, but he has very few ‘work skills’ as we would understand them. He volunteered for NSOG for two years before he was finally hired when a financial supporter took on the responsibility to faithfully pay his monthly salary. He’s never used a computer before in his life. He’s about 46 years old, married, and takes care of his six kids and two orphaned nephews.

This summer, it is my privilege and honor to teach Jenaro how to use a computer, access e-mail and put student interview information online so it can be shared with related organizations. We practiced turning on and off the computer a few times. Then I showed him how to connect to the internet, open Gmail, and enter his logon and password.

To help him understand what e-mail was, I showed him a letter my mother had sent me, and explained the similarities between e-mail and ‘snail’ mail. He knew what a snail was and exactly how slow it moved – lol! My mother had enclosed a beautiful poem in her letter to me, and I used this poem to explain what an attachment was.

We practiced opening his e-mail account a few times, from the beginning. Then we started reading the emails that had already been sent to his email address. One was a group e-mail to friends and co-workers who were now 8,000 miles away. We read this e-mail, and I showed him how to reply-to-all, and watched him very slowly type a single sentence: “hello i am very excited to learn the computer.”

Then he turns to me and says, “I am so blessed. I see now that my life can be so big. I never thought I would learn this [computer]. I am so grateful that you are not a jealous person [i.e. possessive of your own knowledge and skills] but you have sacrificed to show me these things.”

As he said this to me, II Corinthians 3:2, 3 came to mind:

Prayer – to stay focused, keep my eyes on Jesus. Finish the race.

After going to Uganda the first two times, it was no longer a real scary risk, my “boat” had gotten a little bigger, and I now decided to live in Uganda for four months, as another attempt to step out of the boat into unfamiliar territory. This fourth time, living in Uganda is not as big a deal, and I now have the opportunity to go without a team, by myself, and work with a smaller organization.

As I visualized each of these times that I stepped out of the boat and tried to walk on the water, I realized that there really was no boat, there was no water. There never had been. The whole time, there was only Christ, the solid Rock beneath it all, wherever I stepped…

A few weeks later, a young woman expressed some very familiar fears, of not necessarily even wanting to hear the voice of God, because she was afraid of what He would ask of her. I fully understood her fear that God would definitely ask her to get out of the boat, and might even ask her to walk on water! And who wants to do that, really? It’s so not possible.

When does anyone really believe it’s possible to raise all the money you need? Who believes they’ll be able to deal with the culture shock, the language barrier, and all the travel details? Who believes their family will really understand? Who honestly believes they can overcome every obstacle and barrier? I don’t.

Luckily for us, these are not the things we’re called to believe in. I understand now that God doesn’t ask us to walk on water. He asks us to get out of our boat, to obey His call, and have trust in our Rock, Jesus Christ, who is steadfast, who never changes, who never leaves us, and who says, “Come, follow Me.”

So what are we afraid of, really? Are we afraid that God is going to ask us to do impossible things? He’s not. He’s only asking us to stand firm, to trust Him, and to step out, one step at a time. He has even promised us a lamp unto our feet, not to illuminate the entire journey to the finish line, but just our feet, one step at a time (Psalm 119:105).

Peter did get out of the boat, and while his eyes were on Christ, he was standing firmly. But when the strong winds came, his faith wavered. When he thought that God expected him to walk on water, he knew he couldn’t do it and he began to sink.

And that will happen every time. When you focus on some impossible demands that you don’t think you can do, you’ll drown every time. It’s much simpler than that. Just trust, obey, step out, and stand on the Rock that upholds the universe (Hebrews 1:3), the Rock that is before, behind, and even under all things, holding it all together (Col 1:17). God does the rest. He really does.

Sunrise on the Nile - Uganda, Africa

As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country. Prov 25:25
Back to South Africa safe and sound Praise the God
Swaziland was a gift from God. So very beautiful and so different from South Africa. I did home based care and walked three and four miles to each homestead, i would visit at least six people a day. God kept my legs strong it is very hilly.
A few short stories….
……Visited many little children at one homestead. One of the children was badly burned on top of his legs, we sang Jesus loves you… and all their little faces lit up. I can see people just longing for a touch of love.

…..John a broken man, yet a smile on his face to be visited and have someone listen to him. He lost his leg and can’t walk and I asked him what he would like me to pray for. He said for his son and family to prosper, and at that point he fell apart sobbing so i embraced him and held him for a long time….. again unselfish prayer, and I am humbled thank you church for all your prayer. I really feel them.

Prayer:- Please for the World Cup that is here, our orphans are at risk, human trafficking
“in His hands”
Love Sandy

We drove and walked past thousands of tent/tarp homes.  In parks, on tops of trash heaps, surrounded by rubble.  Even a row of hundreds of tarp homes erected on a median in the middle of a busy highway.  It just seemed incomprehensible how the Haitians have been able to move on with life in this new, drastic way.  I fear what the ramifications of these new living conditions will give birth to in the coming months and years.

But there was hope.  We met with Pastor Jaques Henry and Pastor Daniel today in their community.  Such good men, leading passionate followers of Christ in the midst of pain, darkness, and brokenness in their communities. They really were an inspiration, not by what they said or shared with us, but by what they were doing.  They took us around their community (by foot in a slow, hot drizzling rain) to visit with different children and women who were the most vulnerable since the quake.  We met grannies who had taken in their grandchildren after the parents had been killed by the quake.  We met moms who were widowed and left to fend for themselves.  And we met one little 10 year old girl who lost both of her parents in the quake and was now being cared for by neighbors.  All these people were connected to and cared for by these two pastors and their churches.

This little 10 year old girl was very special to me.  She had never been to school in her life and now her parents were gone and she was basically staying with strangers.  She looked so alone, so scared, so empty.  But we talked to her about Jesus.  She knew some, but said she did not follow Him yet.  Pastor Daniel prayed with her and promised to spend some time teaching her about Jesus.  Later, I shared a vision I had of her as a grown woman, serving as a strong leader in their church and their community.  It turns out, Pastor Daniel had a similar vision as he prayed for her.  There was hope.

We spend our last morning here tomorrow and then head home.  Many thoughts and decisions to be made for the future.  We are thankful to have been here for this short time.  To God be the glory.

- Nathan

- Michael

Our newly scheduled flight for today left relatively close to on time (7am) and we landed in Port-au-Prince, waded through the chaos of “customs” and “baggage claim” (all housed in a makeshift warehouse) and met our contact, Alan Hunt, outside in a mass of humanity and in the blazing, wet heat of Haiti.  As we were warned, the city was an “assault to our senses” as we drove through the devastation and a relative return to “normalcy” in this poorest nation in our Western Hemisphere.

We stopped at our guest house in town to be briefed a bit and change our clothes.  We then headed out to visit two different pastors in their communities, connect and hear about their ministries, and walk the streets a bit.  Everyone is willing to tell you stories about “where they were at on January 12th”.  As we’ve been told, every single person here has a story.  In some way, the entire population has been affected by this natural disaster.  And in the midst of desperate poverty that has prevailed in this nation for generations, you would think that this devastating earthquake would have been the “icing on the cake” that would have done these people in.  But they are a resilient people.  There even seems to be hope in people’s eyes.  God is at work in a powerful way.

I will note here (and add more later I’m sure) how proud I am of Michael DiGesare!  What a trooper…first missions trip, coming into one of the hardest countries in the world, seeing all these new things…he’s been awesome!  Can’t wait to see how God is going to wreck his life:)

I am exhausted now.  Lots of travel, lots of heat, lots of learning a new culture.  It’s time to sleep for now.  To God be the glory…

But we have also felt for months (long before the earthquake even hit) that God may be opening a door for us to get involved in Haiti.  The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.  Our side of the world.  So that is what this trip is about: exploring the potential of a future partnership and commitment to the local church in Haiti.  We’ve been prayerful and patient and now we prepare to leave.

I’m not sure what the next few days will hold for us.  No doubt we will see trauma and tragedy, but I am so hopeful as I hear the stories of God’s miraculous and powerful hand on this nation.  In the darkest hour, God’s light is shining bright.  

Keep us in prayer as we travel and especially that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide to the right people in this sea of need.  God is on the move…

- Nathan