Reflections One Year In
We have been in Uganda over one year now, though it seems like forever and yesterday all at the same time. We’ve actually been here for over 13 months and I’m just now getting around to writing this blog post about our experiences here for our first year. We have had highs and we have had lows. This has been the hardest thing that we have ever done as a family. I would like to say that it has been rewarding, but it doesn’t always feel that way. All I know is that we have been obedient to God’s call on our lives and we are told again and again in the Bible that we will face persecution, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
God has really blessed our ministry and here are some things that He has used us to do:
- Started up four discipleship classes that will last for one year
- Taught business classes to Ugandan entrepreneurs
- Taught two financial accountability courses at the Uganda Baptist Seminary
- Train and mentor the Ugandan General Manager of a NGO
- Taught communications classes to the managers of a NGO
- Appointed as an elder at Acacia Community Church
- Volunteer at Sole Hope jigger removal outreaches most weeks (Vicki)
- Developing a Farming God’s Way farm
- Purchased 22 acres of land to teach vocational training and Farming God’s Way
- Helped lead evangelism efforts in a village called Kimaka
- Established a partnership with Global Theological Seminary to teach vocational training to their seminary students
- Am taking night classes two nights a week called Bible Training Centre for Pastors
- Volunteer at Amani Baby Cottage (Vicki)
At the same time, we have faced significant trials including:
- Leaving behind a great job, friends, family, home, church, etc
- Learning to live in a new culture
- Dealing with corruption
- Dealing with language barriers
- Learning how to deal with a whole new pace of life
- Dealing with terrible roads
- Learning how to manage workers from a different culture
- Fending off attacks on our marriage by the Enemy
- Fatigue
- Missing life back home (births, holidays, weddings, etc)
- Feeling forgotten by folks back home
- Dealing with government bureaucracy
I really made a big mistake by becoming so busy, so quickly and unfortunately had reached burnout. I was so busy with ministry and was burning my candle at both ends and really just hit a wall. I was neglecting my quiet time, reading time, my kids and my marriage. I was frustrated because I really didn’t have anyone to talk to about it on this side and I didn’t feel that anyone back home would really understand. Thankfully, some great friends came to visit and helped us work though this. I’ve learned that I need to be intentional about making some time for myself and Vicki and the girls. The sad thing is that I had wise council from people early on that I needed to do this, but I’m really a slow learner and often have to learn things the hard way. Vicki will be writing a blog post about a little get away that they blessed us with that refreshed and reenergized us!
We are now refreshed and focused on what God has for us next. We are so grateful to the people that have supported our efforts both prayerfully and financially. I can’t say this enough, but we can’t do it without that support. Thank you so much! If you are interested in coming alongside the work we are doing in Uganda, you can become a monthly or one time donor at www.heartforuganda.com/donate.
We will be continuing efforts to disciple and teach vocational training to young men in Uganda. Thanks to some great donors, we have been blessed to have been able to purchase 22 acres of land in a district that has the second highest percentage of Muslims in Uganda. We feel that God has intentionally placed us in this area so that we can be salt and light. We will be teaching the youth in this community job skills so that they can provide for their family’s needs without outside support and break the dependency syndrome. We feel that if we can throughly equip these young men through job skills training and discipleship, there will be fewer orphans, widows, hunger, HIV, etc. We have hired a bi-vocational pastor to teach small engine repair to these young men and assist with discipling them. We will also be teaching them farming practices using Farming God’s Way. If you would like to come alongside us on this project, we have many needs on this land including: building a fence around the land to keep out cows, goats, chickens, thieves, etc, building a small home to house our farm manager to keep him from having to ride a bicycle 5 miles to work each day and to provide security on the land, building a small storage room on the land to store our tools instead of keeping them at a neighbor’s house, building latrines, building a well, etc. If you would like to help with these needs, you can donate to our “Needs List” by clicking here.
We will also be teaching Farming God’s Way, business and small engine repair to between 55-70 seminary students from all over East Africa at Global Theological Seminary. We have taught one term and the second starts up on August 3rd. We feel blessed to have this opportunity to equip these pastors to equip their congregations.
God is good!
Meegan Weaver Photography http://meeganweaver.com
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