Uganda Transformational Travel Journal: Thursday, August 7

What expectations do you have of the Ugandan people? Country? Pillars? Yourself? Read through the cultural summaries reports that the group developed. Did this change your perspective? Come up with a list of questions you can ask Ugandans. There may be times when you have an opportunity to fellowship with Ugandans but because of a lack of sleep, the heat, or many other reasons you can’t think of any questions to ask. These questions will help you understand and appreciate their culture, allow you to better minister to them, and help create longer lasting relationships.

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal: Wednesday, August 6

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal
Wednesday, August 6

Have you started to pack yet?


Here’s an opportunity to make a list of what you plan to bring – physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, to Uganda, to the group, to the Lord, etc. What do you plan to leave behind?

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal: Tuesday, August 5

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal
Tuesday, August 5

Are you ready to share your faith with the people of Uganda? Instead of preparing a defense of the Christian faith, prepare your testimony. Here are three easy steps below.
1. Read Paul’s Testimony in Acts 26.
2. Think about the following questions. When has God worked a miracle in your life? How has He blessed you? How has He transformed you? How has He encouraged you? When has He allowed you to break down, and then came in and healed you? Why do your continue to go to church when there are so many other things you could do?
3. Write a simple three step outline. First, what was your life like before your experience of faith? Second, how did God transform you or use you? Third, how have you lived in a different manner since that time?
Try sharing this testimony with somebody in the US before sharing it in a foreign country.

Travel Journal: Monday, August 4

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal
Monday, August 4

Yesterday you read a good example to follow. Today’s example is…well…not so good. However it still provides important lessons and insight. Please remember to pray to the Father that the Spirit will provide insight during this time.

Jonah’s transforming travel to Nineveh
Read Jonah 1, 3, and 4
Who transforms in this story, Nineveh or Jonah?
What is the result of Jonah’s travel?
What insight do we gain about the Lord at the beginning of Jonah 3, but Jonah know all along?
What do we learn about the nature of God’s work?

Travel Journal: Sunday, August 3

In preparation for our travels to Uganda, each of the Pillars was given a journal. The following entries are the questions found in the journal. I will post my journal entry as a comment. I hope that this will encourage a wonderful sharing, discussion, and an encouragement to my fellow travelers.

-----------------------------------

Uganda Transformational Travel Journal

Sunday, August 3

One way in which to prepare for the trip is to scour the scriptures for examples of transformational travel, good and bad. Below is a passage you can read in order to gain insight into God’s will in your life. You may have read this story many times. The amazing aspect about scripture is its ability to speak to the seeker’s needs despite the fact that the content never changes. That is why the writer of Hebrews writes, “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword…”

Before starting any Bible reading, start with a prayer for revelation from the Spirit. To dive in without Him is arrogance.

Abram’s transforming travel from Ur
Read Genesis 12:1-8 and Hebrews 11:8-10
What similarities and difference do you see between Abram’s journey and your own?
What emotions do you and Abram share?
What did Abram sacrifice? What do you sacrifice?
On what did Abram have his eyes set? On what are your fixed?

A Goat can Change a Life. Can I?

In this article, sent to me by Priest Horst Olk, the writer talks about the huge impact the gift of a goat can make on an individual, a family, and possibly a nation. Which left me to this bone chilling question, "Will I make a difference?" I know it's not about me. But, will my toil, sweat, and tears improve lives and advance Christ's kingdom? Or should I just send a goat.

---------------------------------------

The Luckiest Girl
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

This year’s college graduates owe their success to many factors, from hectoring parents to cherished remedies for hangovers. But one of the most remarkable of the new graduates, Beatrice Biira, credits something utterly improbable: a goat.
“I am one of the luckiest girls in the world,” Beatrice declared at her graduation party after earning her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College. Indeed, and it’s appropriate that the goat that changed her life was named Luck.
Beatrice’s story helps address two of the most commonly asked questions about foreign assistance: “Does aid work?” and “What can I do?”
The tale begins in the rolling hills of western Uganda, where Beatrice was born and raised. As a girl, she desperately yearned for an education, but it seemed hopeless: Her parents were peasants who couldn’t afford to send her to school.
The years passed and Beatrice stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent’s squandered human resources.
In the meantime, in Niantic, Conn., the children of the Niantic Community Church wanted to donate money for a good cause. They decided to buy goats for African villagers through Heifer International, a venerable aid group based in Arkansas that helps impoverished farming families.
A dairy goat in Heifer’s online gift catalog costs $120; a flock of chicks or ducklings costs just $20.
One of the goats bought by the Niantic church went to Beatrice’s parents and soon produced twins. When the kid goats were weaned, the children drank the goat’s milk for a nutritional boost and sold the surplus milk for extra money.
The cash from the milk accumulated, and Beatrice’s parents decided that they could now afford to send their daughter to school. She was much older than the other first graders, but she was so overjoyed that she studied diligently and rose to be the best student in the school.
An American visiting the school was impressed and wrote a children’s book, “Beatrice’s Goat,” about how the gift of a goat had enabled a bright girl to go to school. The book was published in 2000 and became a children’s best seller — but there is now room for a more remarkable sequel.
Beatrice was such an outstanding student that she won a scholarship, not only to Uganda’s best girls’ high school, but also to a prep school in Massachusetts and then to Connecticut College. A group of 20 donors to Heifer International — coordinated by a retired staff member named Rosalee Sinn, who fell in love with Beatrice when she saw her at age 10 — financed the girl’s living expenses.
A few years ago, Beatrice spoke at a Heifer event attended by Jeffrey Sachs, the economist. Mr. Sachs was impressed and devised what he jokingly called the “Beatrice Theorem” of development economics: small inputs can lead to large outcomes.
Granted, foreign assistance doesn’t always work and is much harder than it looks. “I won’t lie to you. Corruption is high in Uganda,” Beatrice acknowledges.
A crooked local official might have distributed the goats by demanding that girls sleep with him in exchange. Or Beatrice’s goat might have died or been stolen. Or unpasteurized milk might have sickened or killed Beatrice.
In short, millions of things could go wrong. But when there’s a good model in place, they often go right. That’s why villagers in western Uganda recently held a special Mass and a feast to celebrate the first local person to earn a college degree in America.
Moreover, Africa will soon have a new asset: a well-trained professional to improve governance. Beatrice plans to earn a master’s degree at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas and then return to Africa to work for an aid group.
Beatrice dreams of working on projects to help women earn and manage money more effectively, partly because she has seen in her own village how cash is always controlled by men. Sometimes they spent it partying with buddies at a bar, rather than educating their children. Changing that culture won’t be easy, Beatrice says, but it can be done.
When people ask how they can help in the fight against poverty, there are a thousand good answers, from sponsoring a child to supporting a grass-roots organization through globalgiving.com. (I’ve listed specific suggestions on my blog, nytimes.com/ontheground, and on facebook.com/kristof).
The challenges of global poverty are vast and complex, far beyond anyone’s power to resolve, and buying a farm animal for a poor family won’t solve them. But Beatrice’s giddy happiness these days is still a reminder that each of us does have the power to make a difference — to transform a girl’s life with something as simple and cheap as a little goat.

Shackled by the comfort of my couch

After returning from my last trip to Uganda I was in this odd funk. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know why God had brought me there. I had a whole mess of questions, mixed with a whole mess of emotions.

I stumbled upon a song by Andrew Peterson that helped me sort out my experience and give purpose to my trip. I hope you take the time to listen to it and that it makes as deep an impact on you as it does on me. Here are some lyrics to the song that are specifically meaningful to me…
-------------------------------------------
‘Cause I’m just a little jealous of the nothing that you have.

You’re unfettered by the wealth of a world that we pretend is gonna last.

They say God blessed us with plenty, I say you’re blessed with poverty
‘Cause you never stop to wonder whether earth is just a little better than the Land of the Free

Well, I’m weary of the spoils of my ambition

and I’m shackled by the comfort of my couch

I wish I had the courage to deny these of myself

and start to store my treasure in the clouds
‘Cause this is not my home, I do not belong

where the antelope and the buffalo roam.