some pictures from the trip!

Mosquito nets! We slept under those every night

These are some drummers at Nkoyoyo's Chain Foundation, orphanage for both sighted and blind children. They prepared some songs to sing for us!!

These are some of the children at the Chain Foundation. The boy playing guitar is blind, as is the boy in the green shirt. Too cute!

Peter Tetrev and Father Greg in one of the Chain Foundation classrooms. They're so studious.

It was a cramped 5 hour ride to Gulu!

People get very very dressed up for Sunday church, even little kids like this girl :)

Leila Baldwin playing with the Bishop's youngest daughter, Peace 

We saw too many of these bullet holes throughout the town, scars of the war that left their region devastated.

Retired Bishop Gideon in his living room where he and his family were attacked by the rebels during the war. You can still see the bullet holes on the wall.

Bishop Johnson Gakumba, Father Greg, and Bishop Gideon!

Women greet men by bowing. She's already learning to greet!

The team! Plus our friend Tom.

We got to eat rice and beans with our fingers! Quite the experience.

This little girl found a friend in Thom Pennington.

Some of the clergy's children. they were great!

At our farewell dinner, the youth performed the traditional Acholi dance for us! It was so neat!

Father Greg talking to our friend, Lillian, who has an incredible story!

National Park and safari!!!

Murchison Falls at the Nile!

Home! !

We arrived in Charleston after about 20 hours in the air, almost 50 hours total travel time from Gulu, but all safe and sound.  After an unexpected stop in Washington, DC, we missed our Atlanta connection but were able to get another one and get into Charleston at 1:48 Thursday morning.  Boy were we tired!  Please give up some prayers of thanksgiving for safety for all of us and for true ministry that went on both ways while we were on this mission.  God is a wonderful God.  They are a people of great need but also of great openness and faith. 
We had extraordinary experiences while there and can't wait to tell you all about it.  Please come to the annual meeting for our first report, hopefully we can share some slides during the lunch too.  Thank you again for being such great "senders" of resources and prayers.

Ichoma Ber! (Good morning! depending on when you read this)

Hello from Uganda! We are using internet in a restaurant, so this will be very brief. We are having a great church, meeting great people! Its a blast, thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts, they are felt. We have done a lot of neat stuff: visited churches (one under a tarp in the bush), visited schools, talked with the clergy, and today we talked with their children about their struggles here in Northern Uganda. Especially today, our hearts are heavy for the people here, especially the children. There is so much poverty, desperation, and devastation from the recent war, but so many people trying to make a difference. Pray for strength, joy, and boldness, for both the team and the people here. Thanks so much everyone! Can't wait to tell yall more about the trip soon!

pictures

January 4 from Clair

We had a hard but amazing experience visiting one of the past Bishops.  We sat in his living room where the walls were full of bullet holes where he had been attacked.  The Lord's Resistance Army came in and killed many of his family members and tortured him.  After he recovered, he returned to his parish to serve them and was beaten and tortured again.  He recovered from that and returned again only to be beaten and tortured a third time.  He said he just couldn't leave his parishioners alone.  What a man of God and courage!  Another one of our best friends here is Willy who is also a war casualty.  I can't wait to share his story with you as well.  The people here are so brave and have been through so much, have so little but still have so much joy and hope.  This has been an eye-opening mission.  We give our testimonies a lot which seems to be a great encouragement to them here. The Youth Rally is coming up so I am sure a lot more testimonies are expected.  Please pray for us all!

January 4 from Greg

I am so amazed by the outpouring of love for our St. John’s Team!

One of our highlights was going to the site where the first Acholi tribe members were baptized in 1904…they consider it the birthplace of Christianity in their area! We had an amazing experience there, and were so very moved to be on such sacred ground! Tomorrow is the Clergy Retreat, where the entire team is participating (always be prepared! It is Africa!!) They have asked us to serve as a panel, to field questions from the local clergy. The Youth Rally is Friday, and the entire team will be there in a similar role. Saturday brings some more touring of Gulu and perhaps IDP camps, and Sunday is our last day, where I will be preaching to one of the congregations, “Under the Tree”…literally! Pray for good weather! The Game Preserve on Monday, and then the long road of traveling back to Entebe for the flight home! Leila and Clair are now officially the “videographers” of the trip, having taken videos and pictures of all of their experiences, and their new brothers and sisters in Christ!

In other news, the long-awaited suitcase arrived at the hotel very late last night! It was shipped to a Postal station in Gulu, and arrived strapped on the back of a bicycle…(all this was filmed, by the way!) There is a praise dance that they have learned to thank God for their blessings, and the girls filmed me doing the dance, in thanks for my clergy clothes! We can’t wait to share that!!!

All are healthy and well…they all send their love to you all!

Bishop's letter Jan 2

Dear St Johns,

Thank you for the work you did to make all the arrangements for the team to visit. They arrived in Gulu yesterday and had dinner at our residence before they rested at the Hotel pearl AFRIQUE.This morning we had a a service at the Cathedral at which Gregg preached and then headed for Christ Church in town where we attended two services which were all packed to capacity.

They are very happy they came and they are over joyed to be here in Gulu We shall keep up dating you.

They will be  having tea and Dinner with us again with us today

Please continue to pray for their time here that they will be a blessing and they to will be blessed by coming.

 Yours in the Lord.

BISHOP JOHNSON GAKUMBA

January 2, 2011

Hello everyone! This is the first update directly from Uganda! I think I can safely speak for everyone, this has been an incredible journey and it’s not even half way over. We have had opposition but thankfully the Holy Spirit has been with us and carried us safely to one place after another. On our first day in Kampala, we got the magnificent privilege of visiting the Archbishop Nkoyoyo orphanage, called The Chain Foundation. As we pulled up in the driveway they began to clap and cheer. Immediately, we were all impacted greatly. There were nearly 200 orphans in the school and around 30 of them are blind. There’s a school within the orphanage and they showed us around and everything they were proud of at their home. As they sang for us, we all noticed this one blind boy, he was singing and dancing with gusto. His clapping wasn’t rhythmic and his singing wasn’t in tune but he was the one that impacted me greatly. As I watched him, the tears began to swell up. I thought, as I watched teary-eyed, they have so little and he is blind even, yet he celebrates all of the things that God has given him. The lyrics to the song were, “Lord, I want to thank you for the love and care You’ve given me.” I think that I question God’s love and care for me all too often, and I have so much. I know that the way the little blind boy was celebrating his father is how it will be in heaven. Praise God! We also saw the Nile! And lots of monkeys! We are having a great time with Bishop Gakumba in Gulu, with a lot of plans to see the town, meet the people, and take lots of pictures and videos. Can’t wait to share them! Thank you all for your prayers for our trip! Please continue as we’re not even home yet. I love you all dear brothers and sisters. 

--Leila

January 2

Greg preached at the Cathedral in Gulu today and again at another local service. The first was with a translator since the predominant language there is Acholi, but the second sermon he preached in English with no translator. The Bishop's chorus was definitely a highlight with a terrific version of the Hallelujah Chorus!

The timber frames are up on the Bishop's guest house, so we may be doing some work this week on its final construction. The team met to debrief  their Sunday experiences in the evening (which we will do every day). Even "normal" things done on a mission trip have so many wrinkles that need to be ironed out at the end of the day with good conversation, prayer and fellowship.  Greg says that the van ride up to Gulu was very powerful as he saw the Holy Spirit continue to knit the team members together. Later this week, we will attend a youth rally in our honor which the Bishop thinks may draw 1000 youth!  What a humbling experience that will be.  Greg is leading a clergy retreat on Ephesians this week (please read along and pray along with him this week as he prepares and teaches).  In the next couple of days we will visit an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp/refugee camp which will be very moving!  Many of the children, up to 20 years old, in northern Uganda have never lived outside a refugee camp where they survived on the welfare of the United Nations.  One part of St John's missionary effort will be to help children and families get off of welfare and reintegrate back into their villages - which many have never even seen.  Everyone remains pretty healthy - Leila has a bit of the St Johns cough so pray for her.  Greg's luggage is in Entebe but will probably just stay there due to transport problems until we head back to the US.  He does look awesome in lionskins though!

December 31

I can't stay online long, we're paying for internet, but just wanted to tell you everything is great! We did a lot today, it was a good day. Highlight was definitely visiting Archbishop Nkoyoyo's Chain Foundation orphanage.  They sang us songs and we got a tour and made balloon animals for them! I love and miss yall and we will see you soon!
Clair

P.S.   Keep praying for Greg's luggage to show up!