There Must Be Another Way

If I had been born in Uganda, my house might look like this:

If I grew up in Uganda, my belly might look bloated from not eating enough. I would gain very little weight over the years and look much younger than I really am. I would've walked along rust-colored dirt roads for hours every day with my mother to fetch water. My family would live on what would equal $2 a day.

Before even reaching the age of 5, I would have a high risk of dying from diarrhea, pneumonia, tuberculosis, or malaria, all of which could have been treated for what people in developed nations would call a "cheap price."

I may have developed asthma at a young age from air pollution and cooking over charcoal fires around my home.

While people in other countries are concerned about buying cigarettes, cosmetics, and pet food, my family would sit in our one room home and wonder where our next meal will come from. My education would consist of learning how to take care of my younger siblings.

If I had been born in Uganda, at 22 years old I would be approaching middle age.

It shouldn't be like this. There must be another way.

- Aly

Connections

From the desk of Dean:   There are many connections that are a part of our everyday life.  There are electrical connections, travel connections, communication connections and the list goes on. Almost all owners' manuals, for the many things we own and use, suggest that we check for a "good" connection. I have come to learn that the most important connection we have is with God and then with His people.   God is the inventor of connections. He wants there to be a connection and to have relationships established. I have been called and blessed, along with my family, to be the connection between many people. Our short-term missions work has connected us with many people here in the United States as well as the people of Uganda , connections between the people who love, pray, support and make a difference in each others lives at both ends of the spectrum.   It is truly rewarding to see the changes in peoples lives even though there are challenges. One of those challenges has been Aly's being sick after returning for our last trip. As Aly continues to improve many have asked why we would want to go back and chance her having a relapse or getting sick ourselves.  Why would you want to spend that much time traveling to work in those terrible conditions and in a country that has so much difficulty? If it's money they need, why not just send the money?  Good question. My reply has been that if we just send the money, it becomes just about the money. It needs to be about a connection.   This came to light this morning as I was listening to church service on TV. The pastor had relayed that early in his career, when the pay was low or unable to be met, he had received monetary gifts in the mail from anonymous sources. While this gesture was appreciated and came at just the right time he couldn't give exact details, even though he knew and recalled it happened, because the action had faded. He went on to say another time a family went to a local store purchased groceries and other items they thought the pastor and his family needed. This family then delivered and placed the items in the pastor's house for them.  The pastor stated that he can tell you about this clearly because there were faces connected to the action. A relationship or connection was established.   In this age of multi-tasking and trying to complete as much as possible all at once yes it would be easier to just send the money. We could avoid giving up the comforts of home and not have worry about a variety of things that may happen as we travel however, the past 4 years has taught me the importance of making connections. God asks us to take the time and make the effort to focus on the faces of the people that have become a part of our lives. Through a large network of people we have been able to deliver much needed food, clothing and share God's word with hundreds of people in Uganda . We stress to these people that while we are the ones they see, there are many people involved in supplying the many items. We are just the "connection."   The next time God opens the door for you to help someone I encourage you to go through it, to make the connection, establish a relationship. God does His work through connections and through you and me no matter where we may be called to serve.

From the Archives: A 3 Hour Tour

The Day We Hit A Hippo

The day was going so well. After a week of hard work, little rest, and lots of beans and rice, we were off to Queen Elizabeth National Park for a day of relaxation. We sat down for a lunch that began with an ice cold "soda," our first in a week. And by ice cold I mean sweat dripping down the bottle, feel the chill as it goes down, down, down into your belly kind of cold. Refreshing.

Once we finished lunch, we were ushered down to the river for a boat ride. We saw a large double-decker and assumed that was our ride for the afternoon, but were brought over to something that looked like it wanted to be a pontoon boat when it grew up.

I was taking in the view next to my good friend and roommate, Madie. We were enjoying our group's private tour of the Kasinga Channel which connects Lake George and Lake Edward in Western Uganda.

We were watching an elephant parade

Hippos hydrating

And bathing water buffalo who had us breaking out in song.

I leaned back to relax and put my arm on the seat behind Madie.

About twenty seconds later we hear an awful chopping noise, a grunt, and we all start flying. People are yelping. The boat's edge meets the water's edge. And I start having flashbacks to my 12th grade physics teacher telling us that if we were ever in a situation where the edge of the boat became level with the water GET OUT OF THE BOAT! But he didn't tell us what to do if the boat happened to be in an African channel full of angry hippos and hungry crocodiles!

And just as I was remembering that all I have to do is be able to swim faster than the slowest person in the water, Madie goes flying into the air, and like some scene from a movie everything started going in slow motion. I grabbed onto her with the arm that was behind her as I was bringing my other arm around to pull her back down to the seat, and I may or may not have been screaming like a little boy who screams like a girl.

And suddenly, it was silent. I sat there for a few seconds holding onto Madie for dear life. Then we glanced behind the boat to see the face of a very disoriented hippo. He had had large gashes on his back, some looked like they had already healed. He stared at us as if to say, "Oh man, not again!"

Here is a reinactment of the moment of panic as we thought we were going into the river and proof that when you hit a bump in the water of life, make sure you have someone next to you who will laugh with you after you've been screaming like a little boy (who screams like a girl).

- Aly

Insects of the World Beware

To insure this

doesn't happen again.

Leading to this

and this

and all these

I will be wearing these

So insects of the world

BEWARE!!

- Aly

Day by Day

Writing is my release. It helps me process what's going on in the world, in my life, and in my heart. So I hope you'll bear with me tonight as I process...

Today I've felt overwhelmed. It's been a rough day physically for me. Though I'm steadily improving, every so often a bad day will sneak its way in. Sometimes it's from reintroducing a new food into my diet too quickly (my body is very sensitive to changes in my diet right now). Sometimes it's from trying to do too much the day before. And sometimes it's as if it was just bound to be a day of achiness.

If I'm being completely honest, there are days that I wonder how I will do in Uganda. Actually, I should rephrase that. Some days I worry. How will I keep up? Will I be able to minister to my fullest potential? Will I end up being a hindrance to the ministry because of my physical limitations?

I realized tonight that, unlike the worries other people have about my return, mine have nothing to do with my physical surroundings. I don't worry about the conditions because I know what to expect and can plan ahead. I don't worry about getting sick because I'm already sick. My worries lie in the ministry aspect of the trip.

But although my body is weak, my spirit is as strong as ever. I recently put a plaque up in our kitchen. It says: Faith - Hope - Love. It serves as a reminder. Weeks ago I wrote in my trip journal that these three things (which come from the verse in 1 Corinthians 13:13) are the driving force of this trip. I feel that God is calling us to step out in faith to share the hope of the Gospel and God's love for every person.

Sometimes I think people get the impression that because we've gone on these trips before and since we feel God leading us to go again that we just sort of join hands and skip off to Uganda every summer. But it's a process, and each year it seems that God seeks to stretch us a little farther. He asks us to rely on Him a little more, trust Him a little more, and take a bigger step of faith. Some days that is easy, but more often than not it's very difficult. Is it rewarding? Of course!

But the thing about true and genuine faith is that it often requires elements of the unknown, and that can be unnerving at times. 1 Peter 1 says that even though we face trials on this earth, we have reason for great joy if we keep trusting God because we have an indestructible reward waiting for us: our salvation. That's the hope I want to others to know. I believe God has a message for me (for all of us) to share, and He'll give me the strength to share it.

So how will I make it for 4 weeks of ministry in Uganda? The same way I made it through the last 9 months: taking it day by day.

- Aly

It All Started With a Child

Some people have been wondering how it was that we started in short-term missions, why we chose Uganda, and why we have focused all of our attention there instead of going other places as well.

This time six years ago we had never even heard of the ministry of AMG International. But one Sunday morning in fall we sat in church listening to a man named George Miller sing (well with George, it's more like belt out) songs to the Lord. He also shared about a ministry he was involved with that dealt with child sponsorships.

I'll never forget sitting there on that wooden pew as George sang his last song, You Raise Me Up. While he sang, he sent around a poster filled with pictures of children - children who didn't have even their basic needs met on a daily basis, children whose eyes looked through the picture and straight into my heart, children who were in such desparate need of knowing what love feels like.

I don't think there was a dry eye in church that day.

After the service I looked at my parents and whispered, "We have to do this. We have to sponsor a child." They both agreed and my dad gave us the task of finding a child, our child.

So as we looked through the bios, seeing one face after another we thought, "How do you choose?" Finally we found a sweet, little, 8 year old girl named Eva. We decided to choose her because her birthday was April 18 (the same day as my Aunt), and also because her father was a prison guard (just like mine). What we didn't realize at the time was that it was God who chose her to be our child, my sweet sister.

I began to fall in love with this little girl. And as we drove home from church that morning, I made a silent promise that one day I would find her and tell her face to face how much I loved her.

It's amazing to me to look back and think how much that day changed our lives. A few years later (in 2006) George Miller, who had become a good friend of our family, called my dad and invited him to come along on a 2 week trip to Uganda. I had really wanted to go with him, but as a family we decided to let my dad check things out first.

He was able to meet Eva, along with hundreds of other sponsored and unsponsored children. The night he returned home, we all sat down in the living room and hooked his camera up to the tv and started looking through the photos. He was exhausted after traveling for days to get home, but there was something in his eyes that changed when he talked about Uganda. After hearing the stories and seeing the pictures, Mom and I decided we were definitely going on the next trip. And so began our yearly trips to Uganda.

We give a lot of credit to people who take short-term mission trips all over the world. We have one friend who has been to India, Haiti, and Guatamala. We have another friend who has been to Uganda, Peru, Guatamala, and is now headed to India. We think that is so wonderful when people have a heart to reach others no matter where that is. At this time, we feel God is leading us to continue working in Uganda, and there are many advantages to that. We are able to build lasting relationships with the AMG national workers, as well as the children we see year after year. We are able to regularly check up on children we know and also children whose sponsors we know.

And most of all, something changed when we all first went to Uganda. It's not always easy to explain, but we know our lives will never be the same. And it all started with a child.

What's Going on in my Head

I know I started this 40 day thing a few days ago, and at the risk of sounding completely insane, I have to say that today it hit me...We leave in 37 DAYS!!

This realization sent me into a tizzy and I started to run around like a chicken with its head cut off (except I rarely run anymore so it was more my mind that was running around like a chicken with its head cut off which is ironic if you think about it...)

There's a lot to get done in that time! Today has been one of those days where I feel like I did so much, yet accomplished so little. It's planning the little things that often take the most time. For instance, today I was trying to figure out what we'll do for prayer cards this year. Last year we made bookmarks, the year before we made postcards. So I was looking up ideas online, but then I got sidetracked after finding a site that had all sorts of great information for people taking missions trips. I read many things I already knew, but also picked up a few tips. Then I started to think of all the important things I need to pack, like medications and deodorant and duct tape. You may laugh at that last one, but last year it saved me from having to walk around barefoot for two weeks after my sandal broke while trekking up and down hills doing home visits.

This is the earliest we've ever left for Uganda so until now it hasn't felt like we're as close to leaving as we are. It's kind of like how a mild December makes it feel like Christmas isn't really coming.

I was attempting to attach a video of the kids singing to this post for you to enjoy as well as to help calm me, but my computer is being ornery. So really I guess it's had the opposite effect. Maybe another day...