Signs & Wonders – White Rhinos

 Adam: Its hard to pick out particular memorable moments over the past three months because their have been so many. YWAM Arua marked its ten year anniversary with a large gathering of people who have been a part of its development over the past decade. 

A slide presentation charted the development of the staff community, the base and its ministries. And it all materialised from nothing from several verses and pictures a small team of YWAM staff felt God impress upon them back in 2001. 

Thank you John & Vikki, Sharon, Sam and Agnes. When we met Sam & Agnes in Uganda for the first time in 2007, Helen and I felt God was calling us to be a ’bridge of healing’, between the mostly separate worlds of W Nile’s deaf and hearing.

         Related, obliquely perhaps, is the plight of mankind’s relationship with the white rhino, mistakenly described by a colour rather than correctly by the fact that it has a wider mouth than its cousin the black rhino. Both animals are in fact grey! 

The word ‘wide’ was mistaken as ‘white’ by a prominent public figure and has been used ever since! I and Austin’s team recently visited Uganda’s White Rhino Sanctuary on our way back to Entebbe. The Sanctuary,  is midway through a twenty year plus project to breed them for gradual re-integration into parts of Uganda where they hope they will flourish. 

For me, there seemed to be some interesting parallels between the Rhino Sanctuary’s re-integration work and ours. In both cases ignorance been a major cause, but the near extinct ‘animal’ in our case has been interdependence. 

Our breeding program therefore is to co-create communication and D/H sensitisation tools that foster opportunities where D/H are happy to live, learn and earn serve together.

Signs & Wonders – Story time & The Blessing Boutique

Adam asked me to write about another couple of projects I’ve started. Story time, one hour each week, was introduced by us on our arrival in 2009. It has continued from strength to strength. Parents are encouraged to come and learn with their children whose ages range from 0-13. We teach basic reading skills and then provide a weekly library.

   Currently I am trying to provide some extra reading coaching for children/parents with learning difficulty. Only yesterday Coco Moses 13yrs sobbed silently as I explained that he was able and not stupid as I think he had believed and that his only difficulty was reading and writing and that we could progress with it, but it would need extra time. Moses is only too eager to put the time in. I will try to give him ten mins  reading/ writing each evening when he comes for a ‘knock about’ with Laurence.

The ‘Blessing Boutique’, a place to exchange quality unwanted items is another small project I recently set up. Many of our visitors have items they need; have forgotten; or; items they want to leave behind when they return home. So I along with the help of some visitors have set up what looks like a beautiful blessing boutique (charity shop). Five months on and it is working really well under supervision. Helen

Signs & Wonders – The Grasshopper

Signs & Wonders – Six deaf in paid building work ...

… alongside their hearing colleagues is ongoing at a new building site at YWAM Arua since April, I was so delighted to see this .  Team adoption of interdependency was the the key. All are developing new skills and growing in their love and understanding of God. We have enjoyed watching each work to his/her potential capabilities alongside a hearing employee, on a separate task.. Bernard, their boss praises them and their teamwork mentality.

  

Temia, assistant building instructor‘ for  deaf students, was giving sign support at the construction site. She is highly regarded and she is thriving.  Back in 2009, on Bernard’s advice, and with our help, our partner vocational training school (WNEVTC)  was able to accommodate Temia, a speech impaired partially deaf woman at where she gained a credit in building. She’s now employed there.

 Deaf DTS graduate Philliam and Deaf Go-Camper Herbert were also on the construction assisting  two new deaf -building student, Kenny ,and labourer Edmond. Neither Kenny or Edmond had sign language skills 6 months ago but thanks to Bernard , Temia, Philiam & Herbert they are picking up. Edmond, hopes to have gained the communication skills to earn a place there next year. We think this is very likely and thank God for these developments. We’d love to share the video clips with you.

Signs & Wonders – Claudine & Boniface

Helen: Panic stricken Boniface left home three days before his wife, Claudine, experienced the traumatic birth of their son Isaac. The next day her father in law, Benjamin (centre picture) received a call saying “he’s relapsed, you’ll find him in a ditch on the Congo border.” Before leaving, Benjamin pleaded with the hospital to take his son in - again!

Katie and I visited the baby first. He was perfect and mum was doing fine after her ‘section’. Mother in law Benedicta, was so proud and we took photos of the three generations nestled together perched on the bed. Then the trauma…

Benedicta led us to a nearby small room where her son lay, with Benjamin caring, in cramped conditions. Boniface slipped in and out of consciousness as he panted for air. The battering was evident across the whole of his body.

Katie felt called to pray aloud and I was most grateful. She described a picture of Jesus carrying Boniface and as she did so I felt he had two stark choices; to accept Godly guidance in his life or die.
Boniface is still in a critical condition. His parents are YWAM staff who have supported their son over three years of drug addiction. They have sought help for their only son and continue to support both him and his wife. Our heart goes out to them.

Helen’s Signs & Wonders - Surprises

Ruth (left), the deaf lady who was baptised last year and Aliisha (centre), the deaf Muslim lady who is so committed to attending church, came to our Sun Run on 27th. Unfortunately they arrived after the event. Ruth had walked all the way from by the airfield and probably set off at 7.00am - the same time we started the fun run! 

When she arrived on foot at 9.00am she was in time for the ‘bring and share breakfast.’ We enjoyed a laugh together.

Exemplary time management by the deaf for our Kings Kids planning meeting was encouraging; however I had a challenge because the interpreter was late! Eventually she and more hearing turned up and we had useful deaf awareness training followed by planning. We hope to have a total of 40 mixed deaf and hearing for our Kings Kids week commencing 16th Jan. 

Our friend, Walter, also a  UK YWAMer who is deaf in one ear is coming to join us on staff so we look forward to that.

Christmas Day we had a surprise visit from Ivan. He   cycled 10km on an oversized bike with bare feet in order to greet us and thank us for supporting him through Eruba Deaf Unit. Ivan came to the Kings Kids programme last year and as a result of seeing his enthusiasm to learn we spoke to his mother and Pastor and agreed a financial partnership to get him into deaf school. He is doing well. It was a blessing to see him and to share some time together. The kids on the base were so friendly to him which reflects the increasingly warm welcome that the YWAM base gives to deaf visitors. H. 

Signs and Wonders from Adam, a novice blogger/facebooker

Have discovered some deaf and hearing Chinese writers are following our blog. Thanks to google-  translate I now know most weren't spammers writing hieroglyphics but are giving some encouraging insights. I've discovered a few deaf who don't understand our deaf partnership work are sharing their feelings anonomously in a more constructive way.

Mission update Feb 2011

Milestones in December and January

Taste and see that the Lord is good’ Ps 34:8  

• Key findings from Educational tour of deaf units in South Uganda
• Arua deaf use their acting/IT skills to produce a new USL resource.
• Former Deaf DTS student Sam gains employment as a carpenter.
• Deaf driver training course pilot
• Innovative 2011 deaf church programme co-planned
• Mixed hearing-deaf holiday club builds scriptural understanding; friendship & leads to deaf education partnership.
• Village Outreach: Paranga, Maracha

Signs and wonders: spiral effects

Welcoming family, Marjorie and Ray, below centre, and our good friend
Netty, far right, pictured with us shortly before they returned to the UK.

The convincing proof that we were crossing the equator was observing
water in a sink draining out with no spiral effect. Five metres either side
of the Equator water drained out spiralling in opposite directions!
Please pray for a positive growth spiral between all our local partners.
Partnership, serving and enjoying each others growth is new to some.

Hearing & deaf students graduate, thank you & plan

The deaf DTS students are circled in white, with the letter of appreciation shown written by Sam in the centre. The hearing advocates are circled in dark blue, were a great support

Signs and Wonders from the mixed hearing / deaf DTS team in Gulu town, N. Uganda

Learning from/working with Gulu’s needy townsfolk...

Whilst deaf DTS students like Gatrude (circled), encouraged local deaf students preparing for exams, other students were challenged to respond to several isolated people.

William, my Sudanese outreach co-leader explains:

Lazarus, left, is aged about 48. His relatives rejected him but he has managed to get to the Year 6 standard in primary school and can speak English well. He is about 1m tall and moves by tilting his head back and wriggling his back.

This he has done having been born severely lame with unnaturally short legs and arms. His head is unnaturally large. We showed him the love of Christ by washing him, his clothes, cleaning out his hut and buying him food and a blanket. This is a great testimony in my life.

One woman, a former Lord’s Resistance Army abductee, got healed from back pain after we prayed for her. She has suffered ever since she was beaten whilst in the LRA.

Living in Labone’s community.

Our mixed hearing/deaf team of 11 students and 5 of their dependents was here for five weeks.
YWAM Arua has local contacts here.

Malaria forced me to travel to Laboni a week later than the rest of the team, by public transport. The journey took 36 hours instead of 12 in a 4WD.

One part of our route was the most dangerous in all Uganda, in the years of conflict. Many of the camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) are still there.

Our team began and ended each day with time together to get to know God more and ask for God’s specific guidance for the day’s needs/opportunities and challenges. No drainage and a wet season made me very grateful to the person who advised me to bring gum boots.

To make a phone-call I needed to walk ¾ mile to get even an intermittent signal (front page photo).Our shower room (right) is shown just after one of our deaf students gave it a make-over, adding a bamboo shelf and mat.

Learning from/working with Labone’s deaf.

The speed with which our deaf students (circled) found and persuaded local deaf and a hearing friend/relative to learn sign-language was breath-taking.

They were a magnet for local hearing kids and youth too, who loved the races to grab the object signed from a topic.

Learning from/working with Labone’s deaf.

The speed with which our deaf students (circled) found and persuaded local deaf and a hearing friend/relative to learn sign-language was breath-taking.

They were a magnet for local hearing kids and youth too, who loved the races to grab the object signed from a topic.

Signs and Wonders from the mixed hearing / deaf DTS team in Labone, S. Sudan

Learning from/working with Labone’s youth

This local youth, came to us to help treat his severe case of jiggers (tiny worms that breed under the toe and fingernails).

He later shared that although only about 1.4m tall, he was aged 20, a heavy drinker and rejected by his close family over ongoing disagreements. He was near starvation and his isolated, rundown hut(Page1) a haven for pests and disease).

A nurse on our team persuaded the local health centre to treat him. A couple from the team visited him most days to chat & bring food (not provided).

Local youth, Joseph, (left), told me how he has left home because of his parents’ dependence on alcohol. His younger deaf brother is unable to leave home and has to fend for himself. We taught them both sign-language. Here, Joe shows the sign-name our deaf students gave him.

On request, one of our mature Kenyan students, Boaz also spent two long mornings teaching nutrition and more productive ways of farming from the expertise he had in this area. We also shared biblical insights on enriching our relationships following requests for support from many youth, single, dating and married

At the Refinery - Learning about ourselves on outreach in Labone, S. Sudan (Adam):

It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways my Lord God speaks to me, often repeatedly on the same topic, until I act on the message. He used people’s comments, a vision, a voice in my mind, animals, problems and sicknesses. No method was too. Heavy language I know , but I am constantly reminded of His desire to teach me if I am receptive am expectant, responsive and faithful.

Three passages were really impressed upon me whilst in Sudan. The first was about continuing to ask from Luke 11. I realised even more, now, how God answers me through my ‘neighbour’, and how greater neighbour-liness may well have prevented the death of a mother and a two year old whist we were in Laboni.

Then, I was struck afresh how the steps and lessons our DTS teams were going through were very similar to the account about Jesus beginning his work in Galilee in Matthew chapters 4 & 5. I also understood, more starkly and precisely, the needs, vision , mission and goals Jesus’ saw. Like the team accounting (above left),he wants nothing wasted

Then the parables of the sower and the wise and foolish builders were miraculously acted out - twice each, by the local villagers, and then the local weather system on two of our tents! Laboni peoples’ minds, and ours are very much like the different types of soil in the story about the sower. Laboni peoples’ lives and ours are also not built on totally firm foundations, but over the years the Lord has strengthened mine. May He do so for you too.

One of the local delicacies, bush-rat, (left), was a real mind battle for me, because of their distant cousin’s lifestyle in the UK! But, it was so tasty!

Being a multi-cultural team meant accepting different attitudes to stray dogs who needed care, discipline & work, but who carried disease and wanted our food. Using scripture we slowly learnt to see the truth in other’s views, the flaws in our own,change & forgive! Do feedback. Lets israel - wrestle with God!. CU. Ad

Signs and wonders I noticed this month included.. …:

.. a bus leaving Arua, bound for Kampala, 6 hours drive away, in the pouring rain, with no front wind-screen except a motorbike helmet over the driver’s head. Forward seats were occupied!

.. a motorbike cruising with a brightly-painted coffin strapped sideways on its rear seat/rack.

.. An ‘improved’ breed chicken whose skin split open at 3 months because they grow so fast! Ad.

Signs and wonders: new needs highlighted

This month’s work with Arua’s deaf community has highlighted two needs.

First to encourage their hearing relatives to partner those we support too, even if only the distant relatives are supportive. We are making a renewed effort to do this. It is definitely raising the deaf students’ performance, and the relative’s expectations of them.

Secondly, we are seeing the need to seek ways to raise the literacy levels of unemployed deaf youth. This is proving crucial to them gaining/holding onto training and jobs.

Positive Impact of AlioceUSL Buddy Workshops

The hearing buddies (parents) of the village deaf thanked the team for the improved relationship they are having with their deaf children – in terms of communication and behaviour.

"My son can now tell me he is hungry!” "My son is calmer now and stays around instead of disappearing all day."

A polio mute(L) and a deafblind(R) also loved hearing kids relate to them in a deeper way.

Signs and Wonders at the Refinery - Adaptability, flexibility and trust

The Lord is teaching us to handle varying local interpretations of the support we’ve committed to offering. Also:

- to adapt to the dry season and unexpected guests;
- to better appreciate the progress and challenges other base team-members have experienced in 2009 and and their expectations for 2010.
- to be more flexible when bad weather, sickness, meetings at short notice or an incident frequently interrupt our plans.

We’re realising more that God craves to show us unexpected blessings or mercy or if only we’ll turn to Him, in the opportunity and the temptation as well as the crisis.