Forestview Uganda 2020

Suitcases packed – check……. Passport – check……. US Money – check

Preparing my heart and mind is what I am working on for the next 5 days. How? I am focusing, as completely as I can, on serving others.

Why do I feel called to Uganda?  Grace….God has graciously chosen me to go, so graciously and willingly I go.  The first time I went to Uganda the people, their kindness, and their love of Jesus amidst all the hard times captured my mind and my heart.  I loved everything about Uganda.  I get to experience grace, mercy, peace and love.

I will respond rather than react, especially during the difficult times (if it rains too much, if I don’t sleep well – I don’t usually have this problem, if there are a lot of bug bites, whatever obstacles I face)….I hold on to the fact that this is where God has called me to be and that I have a purpose in my heart.

My prayer for this trip is that the Lord will increase and enrich my faith. That God will walk beside me in the Ugandan communities with the right frame of mind.  I pray that I will be able to embrace their everyday life asking what their greatest needs are – physical, spiritual or both. Eyes to see, ears to hear and hands to help wherever I am needed.

A letter to your team….

When I realized that your trip to Uganda was quickly approaching I decided to go back to read some of my old blog posts to reminisce about my first adventure to Uganda back in 2013.

Before going I had been reading about Uganda and was both excited and apprehensive but I trusted it would be good! When considering whether or not to join that mission team I had stumbled upon a prayer, “Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.” So even though Uganda was landlocked and plunked right on the equator I knew it was a fitting prayer and a challenge for me to surrender some of my North American comfort to take that risk so as not to tip toe carefully through life just to arrive safely at death.”

My song for that trip was Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) because, midst a million unknowns, I was still confident that “God’s grace abounds in deepest waters, his sovereign hand will be my guide. Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me, He’s never failed and He won’t start now.”

And now I’m so excited for you, particularly those visiting Uganda for the very first time! I’m quite certain that you will be wowed by Uganda’s beauty! “For magnificence, for variety of form and colour for profusion of brilliant life – bird, insect, reptile, beast – for vast scale – Uganda is truly the pearl of Africa.” (Sir Winston Churchill).  The fresh passion fruit, pineapple, and avocadoes will knock your socks off! Skilled drivers who navigate around deep ruts in the red dirt roads will wow you! Joy and gratitude seep from the people.  You will  love them!

And, of course, you will be visiting our sponsor kids! To be honest, that’s a pretty emotional privilege. I will warn you that passing along a gift from someone you know and love at Forestview to a child whose life has been profoundly impacted by sponsorship may bring some happy tears! It wrecked me a few times…..

I’m sure you’ll be stretched in spiritual and emotional ways. During my very first workshop there Robeena led us in the singing a beautiful rendition of, “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary; Pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary, for you.” That’s a great prayer for anyone, anytime! Trusting that as your teams spends two weeks together in Buikwe, Uganda, God will overwhelm you with countless informative, love-filled experiences so that you will indeed be changed for life! I look forward to following along here……

Love & peace,

Rose Tamming

One Week To Go!

Romans 12:9-21 (NIV)

Love in Action
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Some great verses here that we can each apply to our daily lives right now as well as for our up-coming trip to Uganda. We are to be “Love in Action”. We are to credibly care for each other and for those we meet and with whom we will interact.

Get ready to be blessed.

Ephesians 2:7-10 (MSG)

“7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! 9 We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! 10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

I chose to use the paraphrase of these verses from “The Message” Bible because I thought they were clear and very much to the point.

I’m hoping that each one of us is ready for this trip. By ready I’m not referring to vaccinations or packing or money, but rather I am referring to your spirit – your mind, body and soul. How ready are you to join Jesus Christ in the work that he does? The best way to prepare is to know that you will be uncomfortable in many situations, not knowing always what to say or how to act. Seek God then, listen for Him and be prepared to become even more uncomfortable, but joyous and fulfilled.

You’re trip will be so much more beneficial to you and those you encounter if you approach it with eyes wide open, ready for anything because God has planned this for you! Engage with those you meet, make friends, laugh love and cry; pray and seek Him out in all things – He is there waiting for you.

We don’t leave for about another six weeks and a lot of the prep work has been completed. It’s a quieter time which we can all use to pray and contemplate on where God is leading each one of us. Each of us will experience something unique and personal, prepared for us by God. That could be a new friendship with someone on the team, or with someone in Uganda. Many who have been before still stay in regular contact through various digital means with people they met in the past, and now call each other friends. That’s one of the beautiful things about going back to the same location and organization; it gives us all an opportunity to create meaningful, long term friendships as well as partnerships. We view our arrangement with International Needs Uganda as a partnership between equals.

Fifty more days until we leave for Uganda.  Yes I am counting down the days until I head back to a country that stole a lot of my heart in 2017.  It is actually hard to put into words the feeling that I get when I think of Uganda. It’s hard to appreciate everything that I have here until I was surrounded with people who I thought had nothing. They may not have material possessions, but they have so much more. Their lives may be hard, but they have smiles that light up a room, they have joy in the simple life,  they have a community that would drop everything to help one another. I can’t wait to get there 🙂

Republic of Uganda
Area: 236,000 sq km

Population: 35.7 million (July 2012 est.)

Capital City: Kampala

Largest Cities, with Population (2012)
Kampala: 1,353,000
Gulu: 146,000
Lira: 119,000
Mbarara: 97,000

Religious Affiliations:
Catholic: 42%
Anglican 36%
Muslim: 12%
Other 10%

Climate

Uganda is located around the equator. Because of this, the climate is pleasant the whole year through! Traveling in Uganda is, for this reason, not limited by climate! The temperatures average between 22 and 32ºC. In the higher location areas the temperature drops quite a lot (mainly at night). This is in areas like Bwindi, Kisoro, Lake Bunyonyi, Mount Elgon, Sipi Falls and Rwenzori Mountains.

Due to climate changes it’s hard to predict when the rainy seasons will be. However; the heavy rainy season is normally in March – May, light rainy season is November – December, though there will always be plenty hours of sunshine.

Visa Uganda

A visa for Uganda is $100 US per person.

The Ugandan currency is the Ugandan Shilling.

In Uganda they do NOT accept US dollars given out before 2008.

When you exchange money, use big notes (50 or 100 US dollar). The exchange rate of smaller notes is much lower.

Make sure notes are not cut, or damaged in any way. They will not be accepted.

Thanks for joining us!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

We leave March 10th from Toronto. We’ve been ready seemingly for a long time and it is now less than 2 months before we leave.

There are 14 of us going. Wow, the largest group ever from Forestview.