As I write this, I am sitting in the airport in Entebbe, Uganda waiting to board Ethiopian Airlines flight 810 - I am coming home from a week of missions work with Designs for Hope (www.designsforhope.org). I sit here trying to decide exactly how I would describe the past week. If I were being "Super"-Spiritual, I would say that the week was awesome and fantastic. There was great Kingdom-work done. We installed 47 Designs for Hope Bicycle Generator kits for pastors and church leaders in the many villages surrounding Lira, Uganda. We also provided 48 water filtration kits capable of providing 1,000,000 gallons of safe, clean water each - that's 48,000,000 gallons of clean water. We preached the Word of God to hundreds of Ugandans. In conjunction with a local nurse, we treated many hundreds of Ugandans with basic medical needs and medicines. We passed out eyeglasses, read Bible stories to kids, colored with kids, played with kids, and visited a ranch where Ugandans are schooled as children and vocationally trained as older youth. We have made many new friends, as the people were absolutely fantastic, putting Southern Hospitality to great shame. They were genuinely glad that we were there and showed us so regularly. The work had both eternal value and practical value. They were blessed by our work and we were blessed by their love and joy. What more could you ask for in a mission trip? Wait, I know...salvations! Despite the fact that this trip was primarily to love, serve and minister to the Ugandan church, we actually saw five salvations. If I were "Super"-Spiritual, this trip would have been a grand slam. The problem is, I am not super-spiritual and if I said this were the case, I would only be telling part of the story...
On the other hand, if I were being unspiritual, I would say this was the worst mission trip I've ever been on. The trouble began when we arrived at the airport in Entebbe only to find that not only had the airline lost four bags that contained very critical components to our mission, but also our driver was not there as planned. In fact, he thought we were coming in the next day so we had to wait at the airport for three hours till he got there. Then what was supposed to be a two hour drive to arrive at our first venue at dinner time turned out to be a 5 hour drive that did not arrive at our destination until 11:30 pm. We left Birmingham at midnight Friday and did not arrive at our locale until 11:30 on Sunday (3:30pm Sunday Bham time). It was absolutely brutal! In fact travel in Uganda was never as expected. If a trip should reasonably be expected to take an hour, the Ugandan would say plan for two, but in reality it would inevitably take three. Our schedules for the week were completely in turmoil at every stage. We spent more time in the bus than we did ministering. In fact we missed several meals as a result. Add to that, one of our team members became deathly ill the second day of the trip...and I am not kidding when I say deathly. We were very concerned for a while and he was completely bedridden for three days. During the course of the week, several of our team members became sick with one ailment or another..some milder than others..so that on our last ministry day roughly one-third of our team was impacted. The conditions were difficult - dirty, hot, and third world. There was garbage everywhere! The culture was equally difficult - there were so many expectations placed on us and we were constantly tiptoeing to make sure we did not offend them...which I am pretty sure we did on a couple of occasions. Once we got stuck in the mud and spent over an hour pushing our van through the mud - followed by an interesting journey where the van four-wheeled through the jungle on a walking trail because that was the only way to back track the van to a real road. One night our hotel lost power during a very nasty thunderstorm, which was especially rough on me since I haven't yet lost enough weight to have weaned myself off of my CPAP sleep apnea machine. Plus, if I were taking a critical view of things, I cannot say with certainty that the bicycle generator kits we installed will be used as we intended for the purpose of advancing the gospel. Because of tribal politics, several received kits who I would suspect are not directly engaged in evangelistic efforts. If I were unspiritual then I would have to question whether this trip was a success at all.
Fortunately I am neither super-spiritual nor unspiritual, but rather a spiritual realist if you will. So I would have to categorize the trip as challenging but rewarding. It was a test of both our determination and our faith - and God proved that he is trustworthy every step along the way. Whenever something bad happened, God showed up to make it right. Our bags arrived just in the nick of time to be used as planned. All sicknesses were overcome, no one died, and there really was great work done for the Kingdom of God. The culture was challenging but the people truly were amazing. I don't know whether the hospitality was genuine or just a response to the fact that we came bringing hope, but it certainly seemed genuine enough. While it was difficult to see how hopeless the vast majority of Ugandans appear to be, it brings us great joy to see that many villages will have clean water for the foreseeable future. I really do believe lives were...and will be... saved and enriched because of our efforts. We have seen God be faithful, so we have faith that the bicycle generators that were funded by so many of you will be used as God wills them to be used. We have learned much in the last week, and as a spiritual realist, I hope to take what I've learned home and use it to evaluate our Designs for Hope mission and strategy, so that the next trip will be even better.
We are all tired, but encouraged. We are glad to be going home, but sad to leave behind new friends who are also brothers and sisters in Christ. This was our (that is Designs for Hope's) coming out party, and I think it was a very good one... With many more - even better ones - to come.
India anyone?
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