The Serious Side of Life

Godfrey is still standing strong despite losing both his wife and baby in less than three weeks.

Hello friends,

I just returned from visiting the family of a young boy from our Sunday school who died yesterday . He was only about 12 yrs old. He drowned in a small lake by the side of the road that had formed by rain water. Apparently he thought he would go swimming in the pond. Because the water was quite cold, his legs cramped up and he drowned. His friends had motioned to some grown-ups to come and rescue him, but apparently they didn't take the children seriously - God knows if they would have been able to save the boy. Even now as I write this blog, I am reminded of another church member who recently lost both his wife and young baby in a span of less than three weeks. They had been married less than two years, when tragedy struck. The wife was having problems in her pregnancy and eventually the child died. After the pre-mature delivery the wife remained at the hospital under the Dr.'s care. She seemed to be getting better and then a day later she was pronounced dead.

One of the things that constantly goes through my head while living in Uganda is how often people die of things that are rarely taken serious. Many of these deaths could be avoided, if their was a sense of seriousness that surrounded them (Bystanders, Dr's, Policemen). Many of the schools that transport children to and fro or on field trips are just flat bed trucks with a bar around the back end. They pile them in and make them stand up and hold on to one another to balance. I have literally seen small pick-ups with what looks to be about 25 or so students. But here is the ironic thing, the driver drives like he is in race (with no regard for those in the back). But the real ironic thing is this - the students are happily singing and caring on with no regard for the danger. What are they singing?....well.....something like this (I am not making this up) "Driver, Driver keep driving faster and if we crash, at least we will be in the hospital together". Huh............. hard to figure out isn't it.

I am in no way saying that in the two cases above that (both the young boy and the wife and her baby) the people around them did not care enough or do enough to avoid the tragedy before it took place. But, I often get this underling feeling that seems to be within the culture, that says "Life is tough and you never know when your going to die - so don't take life too serious because if you do, you will be disappointed". And so we end up with a sense hopelessness here - that most people in the first world never live with. Sometimes it hard.....Pray for us as we pray for you.

Hold on to today and live it as if it was your last and when you make it through, thank Him for another one!

Happy New Year from the Woodson's

We pray that this blog finds you blessed and ready for a New Year. As a church we are going through the book of Joshua - from the first Sunday of the year. Our theme is "Step over the line in the year Two Zero Zero Nine". I am sure their are some things that we all need to step over this year to get to where we are going. Whatever that is for you; be it a difficulty at home, at work or school we hope you cross over (from your own strength) into His grace to get you through it. We pray that His Spirit is strong and steady throughout this coming year. The Year of our Lord! God Bless you and your family in 2009!

Read on as this blog continues below..........

A December of pictures.

Hope you had a great Christmas. As I has mentioned in my last blog, my mother was here from the States, we had great time with her. In the three weeks she was here she took over 1000 pictures!!! Here are a few of shots of what our December looked like here in Uganda. Be blessed!
We had a Christmas Production at the church entitled "Miracle Child". It was a story about three mothers (Hannah, Elizabeth and Mary) and the birth of their children. In the audience was a manager of a Local TV station, who so impressed with the production that he offered to broadcast it for free on his station.



We also had something called "Talent Time" were we had all our G12 groups (cell groups) perform some skits. Lorraine brought her girls out dressed as "Kung Foo" artists and show that they were not to be "messed with"

Our annual Christmas Carnival drew well over a 1000 people, probably closer to 2000. In an event that we get our members to bring in donations of food and clothing to give away to those who are very poor (living on less than a $1.00 a day). The people come and receive free; haircuts, shoe shine, eye bow cutting, nail polishing plus the food and clothes. We also have games where they win prizes such as gift certificates to local super markets and much more. People came as early as 8:30 AM to line up (we do not begin until 2 PM).

This girl had her face painted at the children's carnival that runs simultaneously about a 50 yards from the church at another location.

This picture was taken on Christmas day. The choir worked extremely hard to present some incredible items that blessed the congregation immensely.

Lastly we took my mother up to see the animals in one of the Game Parks. We were blessed to have found this lion who had just killed a African buffalo. We were able to get quite close and no one became dessert!

Merry Christmas

Christmas in Uganda is always great. We have no snow and we have no Santa's, but we have Jesus and it's not against the law to put a manger scene up in the city. Most people look forward to this time of year to be in church on Christmas Day and then with friends or family in the afternoon. The whole world does not revolve around what you will "get" or "shopping" or many of the other things that take away from the real significance of this season. Most people think about giving a person a card, sending them a message on their phone or just saying a kind word as a gift. It's mostly about encouraging a person in whatever way you can. If you do give a gift - it's not so much what you got - but more on the fact that you got anything at all. We will often go through our house and find whatever simple gift we can to bless some of our church members, it could be shirt (a 2nd hand one), a pen or watch (not new). The people will enjoy just the fact that someone was thinking about them - more than the gift. I thought I might share these few words with you in hopes of you having a simple Christmas and not getting too busy as tough as I am sure that will be. However it turns out, please do have a wonderful one. We we will be blessed to my Mother here for about three weeks, until the 26th. We will also be having our annual Christmas carnival at the church. Otherwise - enjoy your December!

Uganda goes to East Timor

This is our missionary in East Timor, Pastor Brain Korton. We sent him there in January of this year. We raised the money needed locally in Kampala for his airfare and have been sending him money for his upkeep. I had a chance to visit him last month (East Timor is about a 3 hour plane trip from Singapore)and He has done a great job! He learned the local language in just three months. He is from the Acholi tribe in Uganda and only God knows how - his local Acholi language is similar to the Tatum (a combination of Portuguese and Bahsa Indonesia) language that the local people speak. There are missionaries that have been there in East Timor for over two years and they have to yet to learn the local language as well as he can speak it. He has also been given great favor by the local people and has been able to construct a 5 bedroom house for the team that we are sending early next year. He has also been the given the money to build an orphanage in the town in where is. He has many testimonies that I hope to share in future posts. Otherwise, Uganda has arrived in East Timor and God is doing tremendous things.

Here is short clip of him speaking with the local people.

Prime Time at the Pool

Prime Time at the Pool is an evangelistic outreach that takes place at Uganda’s largest University. Usually about once a year they ask me to come and speak for them. The crowd consists of both Christians and non-believers. There are usually about two thousand or so young people that crowd around the pool every Saturday night. Every year they have a week long series of meetings that I spoke at this year. It’s not an easy crowd to preach to – being that it is outside and much of the crowd is a bunch of unsaved rowdy university students. Many come only for the music, so by the time the preacher comes there is a lot jeering and hollering. But, I really thank the Lord for the students who were bold enough to step out in front of their friends and make a decision to follow Christ. It turned out to be a good evening.

"To each his own"

That's right! Want to gain some weight? Especially around the hips? I don't think you will find this advert many other places in the world, but here in Uganda people actually want to make their hips bigger. I remember once when a couple was getting married in our church. The girl was tall and slender. Her relatives didn't approve of her getting married so thin. What did they do? They told her cousin to "fatten her up". I am telling the truth!!! Needless to say these days the girl has met the expectations of her family and is now nice and uhhhh (what's the word to be politically correct?) big.

Teen Challenge Uganda

A few weeks ago we had tremendous time with two brothers from Teen Challenge in the States, Bernie Gillot and Mike Zello. They came here to Uganda to help us transition our Recovery Home into an official Teen Challenge. Though we still have few things to iron out – it looks like we will be called Teen Challenge Uganda in a few months. We are looking forward to the relationship we have begun and are believing God for greater things in the future in helping us reach the hurting in our city.

We visited High Schools, slums, churches as well as did numerous Television interviews for a great time of impact. Bernie is an accomplished singer/song writer who raps, plays the guitar and keyboard – almost all at the same time. Mike Zello the Africa Director for Teen Challenge who has one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard. We thank the Lord for sending them to us at this time.

New Church Web Site and CD

We have a new church website that you can log into at http://www.vccntinda.org/.

We have also published our first 5 song CD entitled "Forevermore". You can download the songs for free from the website. We wrote and produced all the songs ourselves. They are birthed out of our love and devotion to the loveliness and beauty of Jesus. Listen and let us know what your think.

Doing the hard things

My wife and I recently decided to stop in and check out this "Health Club" as it is called. It's quite close to our church and home and so we thought it might be a convenient place for us to "work out". We stepped inside and looked around and then we were taken on tour. We first went to the left which led us into a room where there was a lounge and you could watch television get a facial or a massage. Then we were shown the Sauna and the Steam rooms. Then we were led around the corner to outdoor lounging area and then our final destination was a fully stocked bar (not a juice bar - but a fully stocked alcoholic bar). At that point our tour guide informed us that our tour was over. We asked "and where are the weights and the aerobic machines, you know the treadmills, bikes and fitness equipment?” The lady said "Oh, they are coming" well I lived here long enough to know that this was probably not the case by the way she answered us. She told us they were going to be put in upstairs, but I have since noticed a sign advertising for a hair saloon in that place.

If we are not careful our Christian walk can be like this. Our Christian experience can be reduced to: church attendance, cell group, tithe and a daily devotional. It becomes a Christian club with very little discipline involved. We are saved, yes - but are we "working out" our salvation with fear and trembling as the word tells us in Philippians 2:12 .

I recently bumped into a website called "do hard things" it is a website put up by two of Josh Harris (the writer of "Why I kissed dating goodbye") brothers. The website is for young people and it challenges them to do something with their lives and not settle for being an iPod professional. They are convinced that many young people (and their parents) have bought into a lie – which says - life is about them and their comfort. They have written a book by the same title that I have not read but I am intrigued by the subject. Some people would say that we are doing “a hard thing” by living in Uganda. But I know the reality of what my life is challenged by and what has simply become “everyday life”. A few days ago, in our family devotion time I challenged our 5 year old son to take a cold shower. Why? He asked. I told him because someday you may go to the village where they don’t have hot water and because you’re not used to cold water you will complain and end up seeming “rude”. He understood the logic and agreed it would be helpful to take the cold shower once in a while. Maybe your thinking that I am tough…he is only five. Let me assure you ….it’s only water and it’s really not that cold.

Do you need to take a cold shower? I know I do, otherwise I too - will complain and seem rude when I challenged with small and minor things.