God's Small Voice

Pig's Head and Slashing

Here's the first weekly update!

One week ago a good friend of mine, Sara who is Nigerian, came to the Hopeland base to work on staff with the AIDS conference. Sara and I met each other in Tanzania when I was on outreach and she was in the middle of her YWAM School of Biblical Studies. Last week myself, Sara, and my other friend Sara took a trip to the Nile River, which is close to Jinja Town. It was quite the adventure. We jumped on the back of local motorcycles and went down to the source of the Nile, sailed on a wooden boat, and ran into a thunderstorm! Needless to say, we were all fine and felt exhilarated after sailing on the Nile River and Lake Victoria even though we were wet!

(Sara(Washington) Sara(Nigeria) Me(Chicago))

(Lake Victoria-the source of the Nile.)

This last week at Hopeland has left me very tired and sleepy but I feel a sense of accomplishment. For any improvements to happen on base the leadership must be informed and have detailed plans about the future changes for the conference. Lucy (my leader) met with the head Hopeland Leaders this last week to discuss plans to decorate, clean, and build up the base to prepare for the conference. We got the OK on everything and now starting to move in full gear. There are five weeks till the starting day of the conference! Yikes! It's a little crazy but the Lord is blessing the works of our hands as we run around and plan!

One exciting new aspect to our team is the joining group members from Tonga! A group of YWAM missionaries from Tonga came to Hopeland last November and are committed to serve in Uganda for two years. There are eight Tongans who have put aside their other commitments to help our AIDS conference team to prepare for May 27^th. Having them part of our team is a true blessing because of their undivided commitment to prayer, strong hands, and good attitudes. It is a pleasure to work with them, pray with them, and be their friends.

Every morning we meet outside at 6am to walk around the base and pray. At times it is very hard to wake up but I believe it is vital to seek the Lord's face in everything we do. After that, we have tea and biscuits for breakfast then start right away on slashing or a meeting to go over the day's schedule. Everyday this week I have slashed for about two and a half hours….my muscles are looking a little manly! Jk There is a lot of tall grass that needs to be cut down and we don't have a machine to do it. Overall it is not too bad since the Tongan men can do twice as much as a normal person!

The Tongans are good friends of mine now and I enjoy working with them. All the staff played a game called 'Secret Angel' this past week. Each person picks a name out of a hat and secretly blesses them for a week. The person who is blessed is called the mortal and the blesser is called the angel. I was the moral of Zachious, who was my secret angel. He blessed me all week with little gifts and yummy food. A few days ago all the Tongans invited their mortals to have a pig feast! The pig was amazing and I even had the chance to hold the head! Yuk!

(Pila, Lupe's husband, and me eating the pig's head...jk)

My main project this week is designing and transforming the hang out room, called 'The Common Room'. There are many repairs needed to be done but also a touch of artist love in the room. It's a bit of a challenge to plan out a nice looking room with a small budget but I will try to do the best with what we have! The Common Room will be turned into a café for the conference for our guests to sit down and relax. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to help out in this area!

A few of my team members Rachel and Rob are leaving to go back to Australia and Canada. Their time had ended here and they both feel it is God's timing to go home. It is hard to see them go but I know God is my strength. They leave this week and last night our Makapala team went out for a special good bye dinner. It was so nice to just sit back and think about all the memories starting from Hawaii up till now. I had a curry dinner and when I woke up this morning I felt sick. I feel better now but I want to take it easy this weekend.

Friday night all whole base celebrated together for a wedding fundraiser. There was plenty of African coffee, cakes, and dancing. The Togans put on a benefit dessert night to raise funds for a YWAM couple that is getting married in a month. In Uganda, it is custom is to ask family, friends, and the local church for money to put on your wedding. It seems strange to us from Western cultures but here it is normal to ask others to support you.
It was a night filled with laughter. The Tongans put together some of their Tongan dances and then a few Ugandan women shook there bums to a local Ugandan dance. It was a night to behold...I joined in dancing also!

Overall this week has flown by and I can't believe all that has happened. Praise God!

A few points of prayer:

1.Commitment to prayer and seeking the Lord daily

2.God's protection from sickness and from discouragement

3.To work diligently and dedicate everything to the Lord

4.More applications for the Conference

5.Conference Finances (we still need about $70,000) we are sending a PEPFAR applicaion in for US funding and contacting others for support.

6.Finances for a laptop computer for my work as well as preparing for this fall's photogenx trip

I didn't realize how crazy this week has been until I started writing. I truly appreciate your prayers and I would love to hear back from all of you if you have the chance. If you have questions or want to know more of the details I will do my best to keep you updated! You can email me at Rudytudy88@gmail.com.

posted by Ruth @ 6:18 AM Comments: 2