Saturday, March 27, 2010

Why move to Uganda?

When the subject of moving to Uganda comes up, I sometimes get asked, "Why?". Sometimes the answer just flows out of me and other times I have to work on how to put it into words.

I am reading "The Hole In Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. His book helps me to understand why. Besides seeing how God has opened so many doors from the start of our trips to Uganda, He makes it feel right to me. As I read the previous mentioned book, I see many reasons from scripture and also words from the author as to why. "God wants to see the authenticity of our faith put into action, not the emptiness of a faith without deeds." "...we cannot say that we do not know about the suffering poor; we cannot claim that we don't have the means to help. We, too, will one day stand before God and give a accounting." These are just a few words, but help to express the willingness I feel to go to Uganda and also to go without while I am here.

Rarely do I miss shopping for the things I have wanted in the past. When I think of the needs in Uganda, I more clearly see the difference between the "needs" and the "wants" in my life here. We could all do well to examine the difference of the needs or wants in our lives and then think what is it that God would want from us.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

A few facts

I often get asked what is it like in Uganda. Besides being a beautiful country, the people are beautiful, friendly and very giving. They often remind me of the widow who gave all she had to the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:8-16) . She had really nothing to give but gave what she had. The people in Uganda seem to live this way, giving to each other, depending on God instead of the government. They don't have assistance programs as we do here in the U. S. Can you imagine if we all depended on God and each other, that we COULD depend on each other??

Some statistics found on BBC. com:

The GNI -(gross national income divided by its population, this reflects the average income of a country's citizen) for Americans is $47,580 (= $130.35 per day), for people of the Dominican Republic is $4,390, for Guatemalans is $2,680, for Haitians is $660, for Ugandans is $420 (=$1.15 per day).

Life expectancy for Americans is 77 years (men) 81 years (women), for people of the Dominican Republic is 70 years (men) 75 years (women), for Guatemalans is 67 years (men) 74 years (women), for Haitians is 59 years (men) 63 years (women) and for Ugandans 52 years (men) 53 years (women).

A few other statistics I've found on Uganda from other sites are interesting to think about.
48% own a radio, 4.5% own a TV. 22% of Ugandans own only one set of clothing (or less), 43% own a pair of shoes. 8% have access to electricity and 97% cook with firewood or charcoal.

Think you can't change the life of one person? Or even change the lives of a few? You can!