Day 2: Back at UCU 3 1/2 years on

Our first full day in Uganda as a complete team was spent on the UCU campus. I still remember the last time I was here, during my first trip in 2008. I now recognize that time as a pivotal moment when everything changed. In 2008, Erin and I were travelling with a group of 32 Compassion sponsors as we toured around the country learning about each of Compassion's programs in Uganda. Our UCU visit was toward the end of the trip, the day before we got to meet Ronnie, the child we sponsor. We were so excited about the day that was to come, that we didn't put much thought into what we were about to experience on campus. We had already been overwhelmed by the people we had met, and were inspired by the hope and generosity we saw in the the children and families participating in Compassion's programs. By this time we were just ready to meet Ronnie.

I was surprised to be greeted by more than 20 students, each with a level of motivation, enthusiasm, and sense of purpose far exceeding anything I usually see in college students in the United States. A few of them were selected to share the stories of how they emerged from lives of absolute poverty to become strong Christian leaders and ultimately selected to be part of Compassion's Leadership Development Program (LDP). I was moved by each of these stories, and even more so when I took the opportunity to speak with some of them individually afterward over tea. It didn't take long to realize that there was a real opportunity for Baylor students to connect with the UCU business students and strengthen each other as they prepare to be business leaders in their communities.

A few weeks before the trip I had been thinking about how two of Baylor’s 2012 Imperatives (XI – Emphasize global education and VI – Guide all Baylor students through academic and student life programming to understand life as a stewardship and work as a vocation) were very similar to Ernst & Young’s global priorities of emphasizing international work experiences and corporate responsibility. I had also recently learned about BU Missions and its discipline-specific approach. My international experience at Ernst & Young, the relationships I had developed with Baylor faculty, and my experience with these LDP students in Uganda all came together to form an idea for a mission trip designed specifically for accountants. Seven months later, after lots of hard work on the part of Baylor faculty and Compassion staff, a phenomenal group of 14 students, along with representatives from Compassion and Ernst & Young, left for Uganda to conduct a conference for local pastors, moderate a panel discussion on the global economic crisis, and consult with local small businesses, among many other activities.

Fast forward to 2011. I've been waiting for 3 1/2 years to return to Uganda. In 2009, I stayed home to fulfill some responsibilities at work. In 2010, I was lined up to go until Erin and I learned that our unborn child died at 11 weeks just days before I was scheduled to leave. So after years of waiting, I'm back at UCU touring the campus with a group of Baylor students and faculty who have put in hundreds of hours preparing for this moment. Kaila and Tori are ready to kick off the week by teacahing presentation skills to about 75 UCU business students. Meanwhile, Wyatt, Blake, Taylor, and Scott Orsak were putting the finishing touches on their entrepreneurship session.

I was so impressed by the quality of these presentations and by the attentiveness of the audience, even if some of the class participation was incentivized by bags of Skittles. Kaila and Tori introduced some new PowerPoint techniques, the concept of the "open face," and professional presence. Afterward we brainstormed about ways this session could be expanded in future years, and some UCU faculty expressed interest in participating in the future.

The entrepreneurship team explained the elements of a business plan and Scott Orsak gave a quick but powerful lesson on how to prepare a break-even analysis. The session included a case study where participants divided into groups to discuss ideas on how a shoe store would go to market in Uganda. They ended their presentation with a call for groups to submit business plans by the end of the week. Winning business plans would be awarded grants of start-up capital. The UCU students quickly began collaborating in their groups and within a few days, put together a number of interesting business plans for consideration.



One of the really interesting aspects of this trip is that the faculty leaders were not telling the students exactly what they needed to do or where they needed to be. Most of the agenda was student-led, with students calling all the shots, and taking full ownership over their sessions. It was fun to see the Baylor and UCU students interacting together and sharing ideas with each other. They were beginning to realize that God has given them valuable skills that they can use to encourage fellow Christians who grew up in a different education system.

While students from two universities learned from each other, I reflected on the past few years and thanked God for the unexpected opportunity to be back on the UCU campus in partnership with Baylor University and Compassion International, and the circumstances that brought about this connection. I thought about all of the hard work and sacrifices that so many people made for this experience to be possible, and I prayed that the coming days would be perspective-changing for everyone involved and above all else, bring glory to God.

Day 1: I met Ronnie's family

(This and the next several blog posts will be from John. He wants to share about the trip to Uganda with the Baylor accounting department and Compassion International.)

Last fall shortly after I decided to travel to Uganda, I signed up for a credit card. This is not surprising to those who know that I inherited from my father a passion for paying as little as possible for just about everything. The particular offer I signed up for this time around seemed too good to be true, even by my standards. But the 75,000 miles they offered me was too tempting to pass up. Especially since this is exactly the miles I needed to get a free flight to Uganda. Fortunately for me, I got my 75,000 miles a few weeks after getting the card, and then immediately booked my flight before the fuel surcharges got out of hand.

The one downside to booking my flight this way was that I was not able to travel with the rest of the group because I used a different airline. The flight schedule put me in Kampala at around 7:00 am, when the rest of the group would not arrive until 11:00 pm. With the prospect of spending 16 hours alone in a hotel room not looking too appealing, I got on the phone with my friends at Compassion International and asked if I could use this time to travel to the home of Ronnie, my sponsored child. My wife, Erin, and I began sponsoring him in 2005 and had the privilege of meeting him during our first trip to Uganda in 2008. That time he came to see us at our hotel, and we didn't get to meet his family. This time I wanted to meet everyone. My friends at Compassion were eager to help me set this up, and within a few days all the plans were in place.

After landing in Kampala early Tuesday morning, I was greeted by Chris, who is one of 86 full-time in Compassion employees in Kampala. He stays busy throughout the year facilitating visits like mine. We set off from the airport and drove 4 1/2 hours to the site of Ronnie's Compassion project, which is about 16 kilometers north of Uganda's border with Tanzania and just a few kilometers south of the location where the HIV virus was first discovered in 1982. As we were driving through the nearby towns along Masaka Road, Chris talked about the devastating impact HIV/AIDS has had on this area. It would be almost impossible to find a person living in this area who has not lost at least one family member to the disease. Child-headed households are common because so many families lost both of parents before antiretroviral therapy became available. Communities in this area are now fortunate to have access to this life saving treatment.

We soon arrived at the site of Ronnie's Compassion project, which is on the property of the church that administers it. On this day, families were preparing for the start of the new school term which would begin the following week. The church was handing out blankets, backpacks, and mosquito nets to the families of each of the 250+ children registered at the project. All of this was provided by Compassion sponsors, who contribute $38 per month for the well being of each child they sponsor.

I took a tour of the facility and saw the pigs that they children learn to care for. I saw the cows that are owned by the church and cared for by widows as means to earn a living. I saw the primary school that Ronnie recently graduated from, and the secondary school where he is currently studying physics, chemistry, biology, English, Swahili, math, and other subjects. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up, and could not stop talking about it. He spoke to me in English, which he was not able to do with confidence when we visited him in 2008. Most children in Uganda don't make it past primary school because secondary school can be prohibitively expensive, and many times children are needed to help the family earn income. I'm thankful to have the opportunity to help Ronnie receive an education that has made him fluent in English and that will prepare him well for a future as a doctor, or whatever else he may decide to do with his life.

After touring the site, we got in the van and drove a few kilometers down the road to the path leading to Ronnie's house. Our van got stuck in the mud so we walked about a quarter mile to the house. This is a moment I had been looking forward to since 2008, when Erin and I asked a representative from his project what his family needed most. We learned that over half of his family's income was being used to pay rent on a small mud hut that he, his parents, 4 brothers, sister, and a cousin were living in. It didn't take us long to decide how to respond to this need. About six months after making a donation to Compassion that equates to less than the amount we would spend on cable in a year (we don't have it so I don't really know how much it costs), we received a letter from Ronnie with a picture of his family standing in front of their new brick house. In his letter to us, Ronnie quoted Psalm 138:4, "All the kings in the world will praise you Lord because they have heard your promises," and said "Dear friends, thank you so much for the gifts you sent us as a family. We were able to build a three roomed house and soon we are shifting to our new home. All of us don't have right words to express it. May God bless you for that great love."

Ronnie and I didn't get too far down that dirt path before his brothers and sister ran toward us and overwhelmed me with hugs. The boys were wearing matching taupe-colored shirts, and his sister was wearing a dress that seemed to be made from the same material. I was later reminded about one of the gifts we gave his family in 2008: a single bedsheet. His mother had used this piece of fabric to make clothes for her children. This just blew me away.

What blew me away even more was the fact that I did not recognize the house we were now standing in front of:



It did not match the picture that I received a few years ago. That's because as a result of his father's consistent employment and the additional disposable income that comes from not having to pay rent, the family has been able to save up and build an addition onto the house that we bought for them. The original three room house is behind the one shown in this picture. The addition shown here is five rooms and is almost complete. The family's life has been completely turned around as a result of the very small sacrifices we've made over the course of six years, and more importantly, as a result of the efforts of my friends at Compassion International and the church in his village that Compassion partners with. I can't think of an easier or a more effective way to share the resources God has entrusted to me than to partner with organizations like Compassion International who are saving lives and lifting families out of poverty day in and day out, all in the name of Jesus.

Every time I look over at those ugly "rabbit ears" towering over the old-fashioned square TV set in my living room, I just think of Ronnie's family and smile.

Baylor University Accounting Mission Trip 2011

I can't believe this year's group of 19 Baylor students and professors (plus our friend Mel from Compassion International) are nearing the end of their mission trip in Uganda!

Hopefully as I write this they are getting some much-needed sleep! John declares the trip to be 100% successful, and viewing the photos and reading about their adventures on their blog only confirms this for me.

This group has poured knowledge, the love of Christ, and encouragement into the lives of countless Ugandan pastors, college students, business owners, and children. I know that each of the team members on this trip would tell you they have learned and gained more from the people they went to serve than they gave. (It's probably not entirely true, but having been on trips before, I understand feeling that way.)

Please take a moment to read the blog posts some of the students and professors have written during their time in Uganda: Baylor Accounting Mission Trip 2011.

There are different way you can contribute to future trips, from praying to donating Bibles or financial gifts. Or maybe you know an accounting student at Baylor. If so, they definitely need to consider this mission trip!

The Remains of the Day:

 

I can honestly say never in my life have I seen half of a cardinal upended in my yard as if it was a sacrificial marking.

Or an artistically violent warning to other creatures.

Mice? Rats? Opossums? Are you listening?

(OK, not really on the opossums. I'm pretty sure a cat wouldn't kill an opossum. Why is that word spelled that way??? And is it really "an" in front of the word instead of "a"?)

Empty Arms

In the past, infertility has tainted my view of Mother's Day. I became less than enthusiastic about attending a church service where all the mothers were congratulated, prayed for, and even given flowers while those of us unable to have children were left out.

I became more mindful of all the mothers whose child, or children, are not here on this earth with them.

This year I am not only in the category of "infertile" (maybe rather "subfertile"), but I am also in the category of the women whose children are in heaven. My sentiments about Mother's Day haven't changed so much since the blog post I wrote last Mother's Day, except that the pain of losing a child is extremely close to my heart. Just days after writing last year's post I went to my 11-week OB appointment and had to endure a sonogram of my child, unmoving, no heartbeat.

Please say a prayer this week for all of us who carry the hurt of losing children or not being able to give birth to a child. I imagine children whose mothers have died are having an equally painful time this week, though I can't say I understand that pain personally. Please remember them, too.

And to put some positive action to our good thoughts and prayers, may I suggest a way to help mothers with little or no resources prevent the deaths of their own young children? Compassion International's Child Survival Program helps moms provide proper nutrition and medical care for their babies before and after birth. Many of these children would die of preventable diseases without the help of the Child Survival Program. Please consider reaching out to these mothers this Mother's Day.

Uganda

John is finally going on the Baylor Accounting Department mission trip to Uganda this year! After suggesting this discipline-specific mission trip and coordinating a partnership between Baylor's accounting department and Compassion International in 2008, he's going to actually participate in this third trip.

About 20 professors and students are signed up for this mission trip to work with Ugandan university students, pastors, small businesses, an orphanage, and Compassion projects in the span of about ten days. They'll be offering ethics, business and accounting training all through a Christian worldview. If you're interested in meeting the students who are going or want to keep up with the trip, you can follow their blog: Baylor Accounting Mission Trip 2011.

Unfortunately, if you've read the news you know that unrest has popped up in Uganda, specifically in Kampala. High food and fuel prices led some to start peaceful protests. In an effort to squelch protests, President Museveni is now using what the UN describes as "excessive force" against Ugandans. Eight people have been killed and more than 250 injured since protests began a few weeks ago.

Please pray that the violence will end and the riots be resolved peaceably. We do not want to have to cancel the trip, so we need things in Uganda to be safe again. John and I also sponsor two children in Uganda. Fortunately neither are anywhere near Kampala since they both live in rural areas, but we're also praying that they will stay safe and healthy. Of course, you can also pray for all the churches and Compassion staff and children in the midst of this crisis.

I know God works miracles, and we are definitely praying for one right now!