Tuesdays are story telling days. The women on our team have undertaken the daunting task of teaching a group of women and children in our neighborhood Bible stories. At the first meeting only two adults and a handful of children out of a group of around 40 had heard the story of creation.
Do you remember the first time you heard the good news that there was a God who created the world and that there was sense to be made of your life, there was hope? Living in Kotido among the Karimojong people has showed me what life can be like with that gnawing feeling that there is something out there behind the scenes, hidden and unknown, that has power over this world. It is unsure if this being is good or bad, maybe both, and it is unsure what it wants from us. These are the questions that confront these people and remain unanswered. The joy that we have in a living God who is Holy and just, righteous and merciful, demands that we make this known. We are excited that we have begun to shift our focus towards church planting a little more these days. We have not stopped working with Shalom by any means, but we have sensed God leading us to start concentrating more on planting churches. So where do we start? How do we teach the Bible to a people in which 8 out of 10 cannot read (and that number is much higher in the villages)? We have started the journey of putting together and writing 40 stories from the Bible that go from creation to pentecost. We will then be taking these stories into the villages so that people can learn who God is and how he has been working through history to redeem mankind to himself. The plan is to story several days a week in a village over the course of 2 months. At the end of the stories there is an invitation to become a follower of Christ. We will begin meeting regularly with those who choose to follow to study the Bible and disciple them. Please pray with us as we do this. This is our heart for doing discipleship in Karamoja and our hope for reaching our people with the gospel. We are excited to see what God will do!
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It's been a rough week.
We came from a relaxing vacation full of greenery, water and fat people to what feels like a desert wasteland with hunger everywhere. The common greeting right now in answer to, "how are you?" is, "I'm hungry". It's hunger season. And we, although not hungry, are feeling it acutely. This week Michaela and Cody were given a baby. She was two weeks old and severely dehydrated and starving. She hadn't been fed since birth and weighed in at 2 1/2 pounds. She suffered from a chromosomal abnormality called Trisomy 18 which caused her feet to be deformed (rocker bottom feet) and her hands to be twisted. She was so small I could hold her head in my hand. That same day we got a call from a pastor down south, asking us to take a baby. His sister is 14 and recently had a baby she cannot care for. She has no food and hence, no milk for her little one. Her baby is five weeks old. Yesterday Rainbow Mike spent the day with a family whose mother had died last week. Two of the older boys are street kids, and there are four little girls that lived with the mom at home. They have no other family and are now living with a neighbor. She has no room for all four at night, so she parcels them out to her neighbors. They were sobbing because they don't know what will happen to them. Life is so harsh here. As we have said often this week, only the strong survive. And through these situations we see so clearly the heartbeat of Christ for his children. Oh, how his heart must break when he sees the lack of compassion for his little ones. Oh, how he loves them! Please pray for our hearts to survive....that we can love until it hurts and then love more. Jesus loves the little children All the children of the world Red and yellow, black and white They are precious in his sight Jesus loves the little children of the world I apologize for the lapse in communication...again! We missed a week and decided to just wait until we were down south with power and a faster connection. We thought we'd share a few pictures of the kids and our vacation time so far. It's been so nice to be away from Karamoja without needing to "do" anything except rest and relax. Although we've traveled a lot to Kampala, none of our trips have been relaxing in the least! This one has proven to be different so far, and we are loving it :) I have to start off with these pictures of Selah because, well, she's just so stinkin' cute! She's sitting up well by herself now and has two teeth! She'll be 6 months old on Feb. 8th. My boys are so proud of their little sister! They are always asking to hold her, and I often have to tell them to give her some room to breathe! It's great to know that she will be well cared for when the boys come a-knockin', as we know they will! Izzy decided he needed to help me make brownies! He is definitely more of a mess-maker than a good helper, but he never fails to make all of us laugh hysterically! He wrote a new song for this Ugandan election season called "Museventy". He sang it quite a bit on the drive down south, especially as Museveni's posters became more and more prevalent. He's a very smart kid and can point out Egypt, Liberia, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Madagascar and a few other African countries on a map thanks to his Auntie's help. We usually go over this bridge on the way to Jinja (because it's the only way we know), but thankfully it was dry season and we were able to drive through the riverbed instead. I guess there are benefits to having no surface water across the region. We will probably need to find a new route come rainy season! On the first day of our vacation we took a trip to Sipi Falls and stayed in a little backpacker outfit called the Crow's Nest. This was a short hike we took to a waterfall. It was overcast on that day or we would have gone in swimming! The kids found a cave and were posing with their friend and our tour guide, Dennis. A couple of days later Izzy is still asking me, "Where's Dennis?" The view from our hotel is beautiful! Here the kids are posing on our balcony in front of the Nile River. They have enjoyed a lot of swimming so far this week. Hopefully we'll complete a swimming crash course before vacation ends. We hope you all are having a wonderful week! We'll add more pictures soon!
We have these friends, Locuge (Lo - chu - gay) and Nakapwon, whom we first met through the Mercy Ministry. They are quite an inspiration to us so we thought we'd share their story with you. Locuge and Nakapwon are married and have 7 kids. They are HIV positive and live outside of town. Awhile back they came to Rainbow Mike and asked him if he would promise them to take care of their children when their disease takes their lives. He agreed. They are both lacking strength of normal people but they manage. The borehole where they get water is a couple miles from their house. Nakapwon broke both her tibia and fibula last year (bones in her leg) and is not able to fetch water, so Locuge does it. He carries a jerry can per day. For income they find used burlap sacks, and used mosquito nets to make these little bath scrubbers. They sell them for 25 cents and can make up to 2 a day per person. They take these things with them wherever they go and they are always working on them.
. Locuge is a different kind of guy. In Karimojong culture, the women do all the work while the men mostly sit around under trees and talk about life. Locuge is a kind of servant leader in his family. He and his wife are always together. He peddles her on the back of the bike wherever she needs to go and generally takes good care of her. He does this so much that I am told people around town have taken notice and comment on it when they go by. This couple is an inspiration to us of the human spirit that God has endowed in each one of us, determination, an uprightness of character, and a continual joy. They work together, make less than $1 a day, and are filled with joy and in turn fill us with joy. It is such a privilege to be around people like this and to learn from them. Shalom Home has recently offered them a job to move onto the property and cook for and help raise the children. We are going to be building them a house (really more of a yurt styled hut), getting started this week. Keep our friends in your prayers. As I was looking back over my journal for blog ideas I was overwhelmed by the harsh circumstances that we are confronted with daily. We are often jaded to how difficult life is here because we can no longer look at life objectively. We are so immersed in this culture now that peoples' pain and suffering have become almost normal for us. However, that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. My heart breaks daily as I hear various stories from friends and strangers, and I just hope that I always remember to never take my blessings for granted.
Apparently word is getting around town that we are taking in orphans. This is not exactly true as we are only planning on taking in one orphan. However, that part has not gotten around town. Yesterday we had a visitor, a man we had never met. He is from a large village near here, and is struggling to raise his six children alone. Both of his wives died, and he is afraid he will not live much longer because he has HIV. He heard from a nurse in his area that we were taking in children and decided to drop one of his off at our house. You cannot imagine how forlorn and terrified this little boy looked, sitting on our front porch. He had probably never even seen white people before, and now his father was planning on leaving him with us! We tried our best to explain to the man that we are NOT taking in orphans, but would try in help him in any way we can. Thankfully he was very happy and satisfied with a huge bag of beans and a shirt for his son. Not exactly what he came for, but we are becoming good negotiators! Amazingly enough, this is not the first time we have been offered a child. Last week Kenneth was running errands, pumping gas, etc, when he was approached by a woman who wanted to show him something inside her shirt! He, of course, tried to tell her no and push her away, but then realized she was trying to show him something. She was suffering from breast cancer and had a huge tumor growing on her chest. She told him that she had recently seen a doctor who confirmed that she has breast cancer and will not live much longer. She is a widow with no family and only one child, and had approached him to give him her child! Kenneth once again tried to explain that we are NOT taking in orphans but would try to help her in any way we can. So far she has not come to our house, but who knows what this next week will bring? Last week our gardener and friend Zachariah's daughter was seriously burned on her leg. She was removing boiling water from the fire (she is about 7!) and spilled it on her leg. He took her to the clinic where she received several injections to fight possible infection. However, they did nothing else for her leg! I am not a nurse and don't claim to know much about medicine, but it seems unwise to me to leave a child's third degree burn completely open, especially a child who rarely has access to clean water for bathing and spends all day cleaning and cooking outside in the dirt. We (meaning Andrew) have taken on the task of cleaning and bandaging her burn daily and are happy to see new skin growing! I don't know if we are doing everything right, but God is caring for her and healing her wounds despite our lack of knowledge. Please pray for continued healing for little Ludy. These situations we face daily have taught me so much about my role in this world. I used to think that I had too much...I almost felt guilty for the things that I had, even though I strove to live simply and give generously. This place has taught me that the things I have were given to me for a reason. Just as God blessed Abraham He has blessed us. To whom much is given, much is required! And so we continue to strive to live simply and give generously, but oh, what new meaning those things take on here! When we live simply we can afford to give generously, and the difference that makes here is often life or death. Please continue to pray for us that we will not only share physical things but can share also the hope we have in Christ! The physical and the spiritual are so closely intertwined that we cannot share one without sharing the other. We love you all and are trying hard to begin blogging weekly, so you should hear from us again very soon! It's been awhile since we posted but not for lack of things to share, but rather because of a lack of electricity. We've had some problems with our portable solar panel lately. December has been filled with things to be done, things like going to obtain a new visa in Kampala, buying presents for those at Shalom and the women in our mercy ministry, visiting each of them and much more.
Our first Christmas away from friends and family and familiarity of the United States has been testing but we have also found moments of joy. There are the small disappointments of not having the food you love at Christmas, not seeing the decorations everywhere, not hearing Christmas music around town but it is not being with friends and family that makes this time so difficult. We got a little joy in sitting on our front porch Christmas morning drinking tea in 70 degree weather. The highlight of Christmas was buying gifts for the ladies in the mercy ministry, women who are widowed, handicapped, etc. and have no way to earn a living for themselves. We bought clothes, cups, bowls, washing soap, cooking pans, for every family for Christmas. We gathered them together and distributed the stuff. Everyone was so happy and thankful to receive the much needed items. Finally, Kristi and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on December 16th. We have been blessed to enjoy a great marriage and see how God has grown our family. He has brought us through so much together and we are thankful for every day he has given us in one another's company. On the 29th of November we left Kotido heading for Kampala. We were going down there for a few days to renew our visas as well as make a trip to a rehabilitation center where Karimojong street kids are taken when removed from the streets of Kampala. We traveled in a two car convoy along with the Fulk family, the Meadors, Misty Kearns and our friend, Monks.
An hour into the journey we had our first flat. After checking both vehicles, we found that both of our spares were flat also. We were in the middle of nowhere, so Cody and Andrew took a car with 3 flats back to Kotido to get them patched up. The rest of us hung out on the side of the dusty road and played soccer, guitar, and talked. A few hours later we were on the move again with a good tire and two good spares. Thirty minutes after restarting our trip, another flat. This time, a quick change and little time was lost. We made it Nakaale, the halfway point of our journey and stayed the night there with our good friends at the Presbyterian Mission. The Wrights, Aukins, Tricaricos and Dr. Knox greeted us warmly, and we were happy to be there. Dr. Knox tested Israel for malaria and found out that he was positive. At this point Zion and Israel had malaria while among the Fulk kids Carter had malaria and Malachi had typhoid. After a good night’s rest we set off the next morning, hoping to arrive in Kampala after 6 or 7 hrs. Three hours into our journey our car started to smoke, and as I pulled off the road, the engine locked up. I had filled up the radiator the day before, but it had gotten a leak somehow during our travels, and the engine had overheated. As many of you know, this car is familiar to problems. After two hours and the scariest tow truck ride we have ever been on, we made it to a trusted mechanic. He told us the car was toast, and that it would take him two months to fix it. After assessing the car’s situation we realized it would be best to buy another vehicle and sell our current car when it was fixed. We had already dumped quite a bit of money into trying to keep it running and now had no transportation for 2 months. After getting things settled with the mechanic, we left our car in the town of Mbale, spent the night there and hopped on the bus the next morning. The bus had limited space so the 9 of us shared 5 seats. We arrived in Kampala after 6 hrs on the bus. Once we arrived in Kampala the bus got stuck in traffic and decided to let its passengers disembark. Kristi and a couple of the boys hopped off, and as Nevaeh was getting off, the driver decided to hit the gas, throwing Nevaeh out of the bus, halfway onto the curb and halfway under the bus. I (Kenneth) tried to jump out of the bus after her, but one of the bus workers grabbed me around the neck because the bus was still moving. I freed myself from his grip, pushed him against the driver and jumped out. By then the crowd had pulled Vaeh to safety. Monks and Akelo Rikot managed to get off safely after me. After our bus incident we hopped in a taxi and traveled to a house we had reserved in Kampala. We made it to the house, and there was nothing there; no linens, towels, toilet paper, nothing. We called another taxi and went to a guesthouse we usually stay at and were happy to finally be done with our trip. There are a few things that we really sensed God speaking to us in the midst of this. Prayers are more often than not, not supposed to take away the pain and problems in our lives. They are often about God sustaining us through his grace and strength in the midst of our situations. When Kristi and I reflect on many of the toughest situations in our lives, we see God’s grace at work sustaining us with strength and encouragement. Thank you for your prayers. One thing that has made this all so difficult for us is that we’ve taken a young six year old girl into our home who is sick and cannot speak our language, not a word (more on this in the next blog). It has been difficult trying to set boundaries, teach simple hygiene, communicate, etc. In the midst of adjusting to this girl in our lives and all the difficulties surrounding it, I am reminded of a portion of I Cor. 13. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” We pray that God will fill your lives and our lives with love and that those around us will be changed through knowing Christ. Our Beloved Friends and Family, Nov. 17, 2010
We hope this letter finds you all doing well, living in the presence of our Lord and Savior. Home is in our thoughts daily this time of year. We are missing the beautiful autumn of Colorado! The weather here has been changing as well, and we have now finished the transition from rainy season to dry season. Everything in sight is brown, and the wind is constantly blowing with dust devils kicking up here and there. The Karimojong have gotten themselves ready for the season as much as possible. Their basic attitude is to endure, and if God is willing, we will see April rains soon. Our garden has almost come to an end for the year. We have a few more tomatoes to pick and thankfully, a lot more lettuce. Since we have written you last we have been joined by the remaining members of our team, the Fulks. Cody, Michaela, and their 5 kids arrived the first week of Oct. and seem to have made a smooth transition to life in Kotido. They jumped right in and started helping with anything that needs doing, including housing all of the Shalom Home crew while the building is under construction. Their kids have made many friends already, and have given our kids the courage to spend more time outside our yard playing. We can already see many ways in which they can be used here in Kotido, especially with the children from Shalom Home. We thank God for bringing them here to join us! We have been blessed this past month with some quiet time here in Kotido. We have not done much traveling and have been able to really sink our teeth into the work. Rainbow Mike, the director of Shalom Home, has been overworked and as a result, in poor health. We have taken over some of his responsibilities including a ministry to the vulnerable people (widows, sick, elderly, blind, lame, etc.) in the area called the “Mercy Ministry”. Included in the ministry is a crippled lady with five dependent children, a grandmother raising her grandchildren because they lost a parent to AIDS, a family of nine where both parents are HIV positive, and other situations very similar. We have starting taking food to them in the villages, helping with medical care, and providing whatever other help we can. It has been such a blessing to meet these families and be reminded of how blessed we are! Construction on Shalom Home is coming along very nicely. Work here is slow since there are no power tools and all construction is done with hand tools. The building has had windows put in, concrete plastered on the outside walls, a ceiling put in, and the fence and gate finished. Until construction is finished, Rainbow Mike and his family are staying with the Fulks. Please pray that God will stretch our funds as he did with the bread and fish so that we will be able to finish the project. We can’t wait to see the kids back in the home and off the streets! As for our family, we are doing really well. Kristi and the kids are in their second month of home schooling, and the kids love it! Ezra is now reading and has quickly caught up with Vaeh in math. Zion and Israel enjoy their “school” as well and are learning shapes, colors, numbers and letters. They all enjoyed making hand “turkeys” this week in preparation for Thanksgiving. Selah is growing like a weed and has been wearing her 3-6 months clothes for over a month now! She is rolling over and smiling all the time. She is such a delightful baby and is loved by everyone in town. They call her “Nakiru” which means “rain” since she was born during rainy season. All of our kids have really flourished in the last two months, and are adjusting amazingly well. They have made friends and often go out to play football (soccer) and jump rope. They especially enjoy all of our fun pets which have included a dove, two baby ducks, a puppy, a kitten, and 8 baby chicks (also various frogs, turtles and lizards). We are so proud of the way they are learning to care for the hurting among us by giving of their “abundance” to those with less. They are such a blessing to us! We thank all of you that read our letters, pray for us and support the work that God is doing here. Please remember that correspondence goes both ways. We want to hear from you as well! We look forward daily to checking our email and facebook J We always say it, but we truly believe that we are sustained by the prayers of those back home. We will end this letter with things you can pray for and opportunities for you to be involved if God leads….. - Pray for the completion of Shalom Home (funds will stretch, laborers will be diligent, kids will be back in soon) - Pray for a health worker. We have been asking God to send us a nurse, doctor, or any health worker that can live in the Kotido area and go out with us to the villages to do basic medical care in the villages. The people in the villages need access to medical care so badly. - Pray for Israel’s health. (Israel has been having regular rectal prolapses for over a month now. We do not have medical care here that can deal with this, so we pray) - Pray for our language progress. We take classes 3 times a week, we struggle, progress happens slowly, but we know it is an act of love towards the Karimojong, so we continue. - God will provide finances to do all the things we believe he has called us to do. “Where there is vision, there is provision.” - Laborers to join us here! Everything takes more time, so much so that we can’t get everything done and could use more help. We love you all! Thank you for being a part of our lives. In Christ, Kenneth, Kristi and the Williams clan (Nevaeh, Ezra, Zion, Israel, and Selah) Thanks to Mike Barbee for his inspiration for many of these projects pictured above. Mike, since you left we (meaning not me, but the guys) finished the drying rack, the chicken coop, the salad garden, the fences, AND the oven (almost done). You should visit more often J Love you all! The Williams Kenneth and I have been brainstorming this week about things we would like to see happen in our first year here. We decided to write down some goals and share with you, our supporters and friends, in order for you to hold us accountable for our lives here. As many of you know our hearts have always been for church planting in the villages. This did not make our list of goals for the first year because of the necessity of having a good grasp of the language first and having relationships with key people who can bring us into the villages. An important concept we learned while doing church planting in Nepal is Prayer, Care, Share. We’ve been living in the “prayer” phase for awhile now as we planned and prepared to come to Karamoja. We are continuing in that, and God has been faithful to speak. So far he has pointed us to Matthew 25:31-46. These verses fall in line with the second phase, “care.” Jesus modeled this again and again in the gospels as he met physical as well as spiritual needs. Unless we can first show people the love of Christ in tangible ways, they will not hear our words. “Share” is the last phase and grows from the relationships formed through our care for others. Church planting for us will take on this model.
Now on to our goals for year one: 1. Language learning – Our friend, Monks, has been coming over once a week to give us a language lesson. We then spend the rest of the week practicing what he gave us in the community. His work (with a local org.) will be ending soon, and we should be able to go more in-depth with our lessons (meaning daily, for hours at a time). 2. Complete the orphanage construction – We have received some donations and are moving forward with completing the next phase of the orphanage. 3. Support Rainbow Mike and Shalom Reconciliation Ministry in every possible way. 4. Make and develop relationships with people and look for persons of peace – Person of peace comes from Luke 10. We are looking for people who will open doors to the community for us and for the gospel to travel. This person may or may not be a believer yet. 5. Help Monks start Karamoja’s first dental clinic – Our friend, Monks, recently graduated from dentistry school and has come back to Karamoja, his home, to establish the first dental clinic we know of in the region. We want to help him raise funds and get supplies to get going. 6. Develop Bible storying for our area – Once we start going to the villages, our first task will be to start telling a series of Bible stories to the community. The list could go on and on but I think that’s enough for year one. We would love feedback and/or questions on these goals. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. We thoroughly enjoy every email, blog comment, facebook comment, and phone call. Speaking of prayer, here are a few needs: 1. I have been having a hard time breathing the last couple of days. My chest hurts, and I’ve had some high fever. Pray for healing. 2. Kerri and Andrew (my sister and her husband) are both sick with various illnesses. Pray for healing for them. 3. Our friends Cody, Michaela, and their kids bought their plane tickets yesterday to come. They will be arriving around the beginning of October. We are so excited! Praise God for that. They have a lot to do in a short amount of time so please keep them in your prayers. We love you all! |
Would you consider partnering with us financially to serve Liberia?Kenneth and Kristi Williams The Williams Family
Kenneth and Kristi
Nevaeh, 20 years old
Rikot, 20 years old
Ezra, 19 years old
Zion, 18 years old
Izzy, 16 years old
Selah, 13 years old
Acuka, 13 years old
Benaiah, 9 years old
Jubal, 6 years old
Jireh, 3 years old
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