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Page 1
July 5,2011
Greetings once again
from Northern Uganda, where God has blessed the people with
fertile ground and plenty of rain this season.
The second week in Uganda has flown by
like one of their evening storms which blows in, pelts the land
with life giving water and leaves as quickly as it came. It was
a week of abbreviated visits to Anyangapuc, Bala and Alito,
villages in which Hands Across Nations, HAN, has been working
for almost 10 years. It was a time to introduce Kemper and Bowe
Rojas to people they’ve heard about for many years, and see the
church at Alito which has been under construction since our
first mission trip to Uganda in 2001. The church is continuing
toward completion with the painting of the inside walls during
this visit thanks to the many contributions from the HAN auction
last year.
HAN Advisor Felix Omodi, kneeling center left, helped deliver a
new set of instruments to Alito Church
New sets of traditional musical instruments; the stringed
adungus from tiny to large enough to sit on along with a new
drum, were donated to each of the three village churches. Alito
church’s large adungu had just recently been broken and unusable
from many years of use so the new ones were celebrated as an
answer to their prayers, a God send. The other two villages had
never had a set and had used only a drum to accompany their
singing.
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Page 2
July 5, 2011
Bowe had the thrill of taking part with the Alito music worship
team, pounding out the rhythm on the new drum alongside his new
found friend on the old drum.
Tuning up the new instruments at Alito
Sweet music will come from the first set
of adungus Bala church has ever owned. Levi Abongo, HAN Uganda
Board secretary is on the far right, Pastor Solomon is kneeling
by the drum.
The message
our friend Felix gave to the Alito Church members was simple but
powerful – based on the story of young Jesus who went to
Jerusalem for a festival with his parents.
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Page 3 July 5, 2011
They left to
go back home and for 3 days didn’t realize he wasn’t with them
so they had to go back and find Him. Often, we have church
and religious celebrations about Christ, but then go on our way,
not realizing we’ve gone on without Him and must stop and go
back to find Him. That could describe some of us who are
believers in Christ, but yet, at times we go in a direction
without being sure we’re walking with Him. Carolyn, Kemper
and Bowe had a short “seminar” with the Alito ladies about our
“love languages”, quality time, physical touch, acts of service,
words of affirmation and gifts. It was a lively discussion
of how we give and receive love which is universal, no matter
what our culture.
Bowe honored by gift of a chicken from young Carolyn. Young
Carolyn was born while Carolyn was in Uganda in 2009 and the
folks there like to name children after visitors. At the same
time she was named two family members gave their hearts to the
Lord.
Another important visit this week was to Ayira Hospital. Dr.
Opio and his wife and chief nurse Semmy have been serving both
the physical and spiritual needs of God’s people in N. Uganda
with passion for many years.
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Page 4 July 5, 2011
One
baby boy had been delivered the night before and Bowe had the
privilege of having his name given to the boy, now known as
“Okello Bowe”. See
photo in Carolyn's Letters June 28, 2011
Photos of Ayira Hospital
While at Ayira, several patients needing physical therapy were
seen for evaluation and a treatment plan set up.
Carolyn gives a Physical Therapy Evaluation of Marcy who has
physical problems due to Cerebral Malaria
The physical
therapy instruction Carolyn has given to the nursing staff of
Ayira over the past 3 years has been useful as one woman said
that she had been to several doctors without help for the
injuries she had received in a car accident but had been
recovering and getting better once she started “physiotherapy”
with Semmy. We also noted that their groundskeeper was
sweeping standing upright with a long handled broom rather than
bent over using the traditional short broom, a back saver we’ve
tried to implement.
(See
photo in Carolyn's Letters June 28, 2011
Photos of Ayira Hospital)
Another 50 baby quilts from Joy Talbott and two other quilt
makers from Chewelah were delivered to Ayira – symbolizing the
loving arms of the Lord wrapped around those precious new lives
as they leave the hospital.
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Page 5 July 5, 2011
A safari at
Murchison Falls National Park was the topper at the end of the
week – a fitting goodbye for Kemper and Bowe to a beautiful
country which is recovering from a 25 year rebel war in the
North. The animals were plentiful but the highlight was
sitting on top of the land cruiser, watching a male lion.
A section of the photo safari will be
posted under Carolyn's letters soon.
Close up
views of elephants, giraffes, wart hogs, many types of antelope,
hippos, water buffalo and crocodiles made us grateful for our
creative God who made them all and provided the beautiful Nile
River as a setting.
Fervent prayer by Nursery School students at Bala.
Kemper and Bowe are at the writing of this letter, on their way
home to the US.
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Page 6 July 5, 2011
They have had
an amazing experience of meeting the people of the Langi tribe
and seeing their culture close up. May God continue to
join us in Hands Across Nations, encouraging each other to
follow God’s leading in our lives on both sides of the world.
Go with God
Carolyn,
Kemper and Bowe
A special
safari page will be posted soon.
Page 6, July 5, 2011
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