Journal Entry- You Did Not Choose Me

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit…fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. “
John 15: 16
Bob and I walk in the back door of Brandi and Lew’s home in Boma, the hill which originally was home to the British as they colonized Fortportal Town, and still is home to many mzungus living here. Bob is bearing the gift of lunch, fish and chips, and I am bearing a simple gift – all to celebrate Brandi’s departure to Nairobi. She and Lew are expecting their second child and she will deliver in Aga Khan Hospital, the medical facility which presently boasts the best reputation in East Africa. She will spend the next two weeks to a month – December 6 her delivery date – in a guesthouse/hotel, sharing a living/dining/kitchen facility with other Baptist missionaries, and sharing her own bed with her 18 month old daughter, Elizabeth. Lew will go only so far as the Entebbe airport, kiss his wife and daughter goodbye, put them on the 540 plane to Kenya and pray the appropriate entourage is at the Nairobi Airport to escort Brandi and Elizabeth to the guesthouse. He will follow in the car along the 15 hours of road to Nairobi on November 20th, 2 weeks later. We will do our best to keep Lew occupied during his family’s absence – he and Bob take weekly hikes into the back country around Fort Portal and we can always share a meal.

Brandi’s mother and father wait at home in the states for news of the new grandchild. They are camp parents at a Christian camp in Arkansas and have no extra funds to spend on the $5000 trip to Nairobi. At lunch today, Brandi receives gifts of lotions and soaps to help her feel pampered, but as she opens she is reminded that with Elizabeth’s delivery, her mother was with her, rubbing her feet, her back, braiding her long dark hair, and tending to the needs of a woman nearing delivery. This time, Brandi will need to be tending to the needs of Elizabeth as she scurries around the small quarters, with no help from Lew and no way to leave the compound for fear of going into an early labor. She has already been sequestered at her home in Fort Portal, patiently passing the days cooking, cleaning and playing with Elizabeth. But in Nairobi, nothing and no one except her physician will be familiar and each day will pass slowly with few distractions. Certainly she will find time to pray for Lew who will be home ministering to the boda boda drivers and the Baptist ministers in the area whom he is discipling. As we leave today she hands us small items we may be able to use in her absence so they do not go to waste – no one wastes anything here.

Destiny shares the latest dilemma that she and Doug are facing…which is not to say that this is their first. Not only are they in the throws of registering Calvary Chapel as a legitimate NGO in Fort Portal and fighting the continuous battles with the authorities, nor are they simply faced with the threat of going to court to battle the father of a young girl who ran in front of Doug’s car on the road to Kampala and had to have stitches. Doug is innocent of any negligence, many witnesses attest, but the father continues to use every deception he can to get money out of the Calhouns for his own benefit, not for any medical treatments for his daughter which Doug and Destiny have already paid. The stories of both issues are long, twisted and difficult to explain, but now, on top of these issues, they are working through how to best minister to their cook and nanny who is unmarried and pregnant. Compassion, mercy, grace, integrity, trust, truth, forgiveness, repentance, restoration – they all march before them as they work to sort out all their challenges in their ministry to the people of Fort Portal.

Bob and I leave the Johnson’s home, filled with food, laughter, encouraging conversation and sweet prayer time for Brandi and the new baby, run Destiny home and head to the Wootens. We have promised Connie that we will check on her as she babysits her 4 grandchildren while Isaac and Clea are in Kampala hunting for a new stove (we all hunt for new stoves on occasion). Connie is a youthful 62, full of energy and passion for life. She is somewhat of a free spirit, embracing new experiences like an eager child. Her role in the Wooten household is not only loving grandmother to her daughter’s children, but homeschool teacher to all four of them. Connie and I have committed to Friday afternoon tea as an opportunity for her to weekly reclaim her 62 year old self that she willingly sacrifices all week long for her family. We spend 2 solid hours sipping dark African coffee, letting the rains fall beyond the shelter of the Mountains of the Moon verandah, and chatting about adult topics of faith and politics.

The Wootens have recently moved here from Kenya where they helped run a school. Connie has other state-side children, but committed to help Isaac and Clea in their ministry in Africa as long as they needed her loving arms and educated mind. Isaac grew up in Israel where his parents were missionaries in the shadow of the temple mount in Jerusalem. If he goes back to Israel, he will be called into the military to serve as he is a citizen by birth. His parents now live in Kenya, having taken over the work that Isaac and Clea just left. He understands missions, and despite the fact that he has just completed his doctorate in engineering and could earn a 6 figure salary in the states, he, Clea and their four children ages 4 and under have landed in Fort Portal, Uganda to serve God.

Connie shows us through the house, filled with the scent of onion and garlic, so commonly used in most dishes here. They arrived with no furniture, so the brightly colored floral chairs and sofa in the living area are small gifts the generous landlord left for them to use. The dining room is filled with plastic table and chairs normally used for outdoor dining, but here, the obvious inexpensive choice for a family of 7. The kitchen is bright and cheery, painted a pale yellow and white. An enormous window above the narrow countertops looks out to the back yard. The familiar 2-burner butane stove sits atop the counter, firing up the pressure cooker of vegetable soup, the heavenly source of the onion and garlic which greeted us at the front door. A small sink and an office-sized refrigerator complete the necessary equipment to produce daily meals. There is no laundry room, which most mzungu homes have recently acquired. Susan and Fred, the help who came with the Wootens from Kenya, wash everything by hand. Even with 11 people on the compound, we’re sure there is not much laundry.

Each of the 4 bedrooms in the house is reminiscent of a convent or monastery – a bed to hold the room’s occupants and a small side table with no lamp. Thin drapes cover the windows and blow in the gentle breeze that the afternoon rain has brought. There are no screens on the windows and no mosquito nets over the beds. One of the bedrooms also serves as the “one house school room” where Connie spends part of the day teaching reading, math, science and social studies to Nehemiah, Elijah, Ezekiel and Hosannah. She doesn’t brag on them in vain, as Nehemiah reads off the story of the moths that make baskets from twigs they gather. So while we look through their house in awe of how little they have in material possessions and consider what they could have in the United States, we pray for God to doubly bless them in any way possible for the choices they make to serve God overseas.

Add to these three families the young Andrew and Amy with their 15 month old daughter and a son on the way in January, a family of 6 who hale from Texas and Oregon, and a family of 7 who have adopted 2 American and 3 Ugandan children. Each one has humorous and not so humorous tales to tell of the mountains of trouble they have climbed to minister here – angry and corrupt Ugandans, people yelling in their faces that they should go back to the United States, threats of physical harm, church members who turn their backs on years of ministry and walk away to follow other gods. The list of what could undo any one of us on an average day is endless – and they take it all in stride, pray for God’s guidance and discernment, and keep their faces pointed to the prize ahead. They rejoice over the relationships which are blessed and pray over the relationships which struggle. When they hit walls, they go to God in desperate prayer to find the answer – and here are some of the results…

-Brandi and Lew are investing money in printing a book of the Bible in stories – a simple way to minister to the uneducated or minimally educated who are not able to read sophisticated English. It may be 2 months before they are home from Kenya due to how the hospitals issue birth certificates, but on their return we will all rejoice with them in the birth of a new little Johnson, and they will pick up where they have left off and begin to distribute the booklets.
-Jeff and Cheryl are waiting for a container and a mechanic – the container bringing over a dismantled airplane hangar and the mechanic coming to fix the small Cessna which no longer lifts off the ground. Their goal? Continue their ministry here in Fort Portal at New Testament Church of Christ, but begin an airborne ministry into the hazardous jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo just across the Rwenzoris. Roads are frequently impassable there and to reach the tribes buried underneath the canopy of trees of the eastern DRC, a plane is the best tool. Their eyes light up when they talk about their new challenge of crossing into Congo to bring much needed physical aid and the grace, mercy and love of Jesus Christ.
-Destiny and Doug have committed to at least 5 more years here. Why? Because Doug is teaching through the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, to a group of 30-40 Ugandans who attend Calvary Chapel. Most people who attend church here are not very familiar with the Bible – more familiar with a culturally adapted form of worship which incorporates scripture reading, but no actual teaching of the historical background which gave foundation to the writings or in-depth study of the expanded meanings of the scripture.
-The Wootens have arrived to begin a Bible School at Calvary Chapel. So instead of using his engineering skills to build great bridges (and Clea is an engineer, as well), Isaac is building a tree house for his children that looks out on the beauty of Uganda…and building lives of faith based on the truth of God’s word for those who attend his school. Everything is the Lord’s, is their motto – children, home, health. Their trust in God’s sovereignty is a witness to us all. Connie feels blessed to be with her family, sleeping in her small bed, on a foam mattress, in an unscreened room off a tiny hallway with no carpet under her feet. Bob and I watch her offerings of tender mercies to her grandchildren and miss our own, so very far away.
So while our days are filled with our own personal adventures in helping to bring Christ-centered education to Kicuna through Christ Aid Academy, we are also privileged to spend our days learning from and sharing with a group of dedicated Americans who come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, bring an interesting list of talents and abilities to their work, and have different understandings of God’s word from denominational backgrounds. For some reason we have all landed here on the planet at this moment in time, signed, sealed and delivered by God to Fort Portal, chosen by Him alone to accomplish His purposes. Families with young children to be an encouragement to each other, young mothers sharing teething stories and recipes, young men in ministry able to overcome denominational differences and pool their resources, children to be playmates to each other, and the gray heads of grandparents to try to keep up the pace and to love and nurture them all.