Uganda Love It! ...Again!!

Greetings from Uganda!  Just in case you found yourself wondering...We have arrived safely and have been kept quite busy.  It was great to see old friends from last year. Everyone is in good spirits and the weather here has been wonderful.  On Tuesday we started building a new toilet block for a widow in the church.  It is always a blessing to work along side the Ugandans and learning how to mix cement, plaster walls, or lay the toilet floor.  As reckless as it sounds I have found that using my tire shoes for my work shoes are by far the best.  Concrete destroys shoes and my tire shoes are indestructible.  My feet on the other hand...well, so far so good.  The Ugandans have really enjoyed watching Barry "The Muzugu (white) American Banker" getting all dirty building a toilet.

 I have divided my time in many places this week.  Sometimes building the toilet, sometimes working on computers, running around getting the team supplies, running errands for Calvary Chapel and a small number of personal projects.  My largest personal project was following up with Frank.  I'm sure you all remember the story about Frank from last year.  It was a heart wrenching story that took Katie and I's trip by surprise.  After we arrived home our story with Frank was long and frustrating.  In the end we arrived at a dead end with Western Union "losing" Frank's school fees but refusing to do anything about it.  Tuesday I was able to go see Frank again and he is doing great!  He is enrolled in a very fine Primary School and he is even learning English.  It seems that we are now back on for helping with his school fees.  If you are interested in contributing any amount at any time over the next 12 years please let me know I have set up a paypal account: frankstuition@gmail.com Even $5/month helps.  This is not a one check and forget it project. Schooling is 12 years long and he deserves every year.  His school is high above average in quality (i visited and saw his school work) and costs about $600/year split between 3 terms.  Pray that Frank will have what he needs to succeed, most importantly: Jesus. We are still unknown about his age but he is growing up fast.

I would love to post pictures from our visit to London, my delicious plate of fish and chips and my pint...of water.  But during a boda boda ride on Tuesday night my memory card was lost along with all the software I brought to work on the computers here. ish... All was not lost though and most of my disks were backed up on an external hard drive, just not any of my pictures.  Life goes on, I brought extra memory cards and I can say that we are making excellent progress toward both a working computer lab in each classroom at the Calvary School and a new toilet block.  Praise be to God!  Tomorrow we hope to finish bricklaying on the toilets and hopefully start deploying computers to the labs.  In the afternoon I plan to take the guys up to Kampala to do a little sightseeing and shopping (more tire shoes?)  Pray that we continue to be in good health and in good spirits.  More again soon!

-G
ps: I put the google maps location of Calvary Chapel Entebbe down below if you want to check us out!

Will the real Grand Davies please stand up

This morning has been full of excitement!  After a whopping 5 days in America I'm off to Africa again today.  Uganda this time. I woke up at 3:58am after a solid 3hrs of sleep.  I quickly showered and began loading my duffle and rollie bag with supplies.  The duffle was full of personal stuff while the roller bag was for computer tech stuff.  I finished some last minute windows updates on 2 laptops while franticly making trips to the bathroom scale.  My final step was to pack up the desktop computer I brought home last year to fix.  This was when panic struck the deepest part of my geek.  The motherboard tray was missing!! How? Without that it would be impossible to rebuild the computer in Uganda. Long story short I had to resort to removing the tray from my computer in the parking lot of Calvary Chapel...not fun but I got it done in time. And my wife deserves a gold star for patience and grace! In all this excitement I discovered I had left my tire shoes! Luckily we still had time so we quickly ran back home, droped off what was left of my computer and recovered my treads. God is good. : )

Today is full of new spellings of my name.  On a new debit card my first name is spelled w a D... somehow... haha.  Within just hours I received a confirmation email for our hotel in London next month. My last name was spelled the british way with an E.  So I'm Grand Davies now : ) I guess that's no too bad. Better than Grane Davids right?

Here in Dallas DFW we have a 5hrs layover so I was able to take advantage of the lull and walk out of security to see my sister and brother-in-law.  Drew just bought a new motorcycle! awesome.  It was good to catch up with them after 6 months!

Please pray that this new team will continue to come together. Having an all male team is already proven entertaining and is new even for me. Trips that you know everyone can sometimes be the most difficult to become truely unified.  Please pray Eph 4:14-20 and Col 2:2-3 over us these next 2 weeks.  Your prayers were powerful and effective in South Africa and I can already look forward to God's work in Uganda.

Uganda Love It!
-G

Ezra is crawling!!

Let's Go South!: Home Safe!

Let's Go South!: Home Safe!: "30 hrs and three flights later we landed safely in Oklahoma City @ 7:25pm on Sunday (the very last flight was mysteriously delayed for 1 hou..."

I've got a fire down in my soul...

...that I can't contain and I can't control.
I want more of you God. I want more of you God.

Its always difficult to put Africa into words. Even pictures don't explain the experience.  On Saturday last week (11th) the team went to work with Crossroads Street-boys Shelter in Pretoria. It was a long day that included painting, window cleaning, a football match that came down to penalties, and finished off with Nacho Libre. 

Sunday we rested and went to Echo church and picnicked at the Union Buildings (The SA White house).  Echo is a community of South Africans that have committed to the idea of Acts living.  Its incredible...absolutely mind blowing to see some of these communities of people literally share everything in common so that no one is in need.  Yep its communism but when Jesus is the cause and love is the motivator it works. Some of the notes I got from the sermon:

"Don't tell them Jesus loves them until you're ready to love them too."
"The best meal won't satisfy the deepest hunger."

"It's not that we don't care about the poor, it's that we don't know the poor." -Shane Claiborne

It was incredible to see the poverty gap in South Africa but it was even more incredible to see how much complacency has paralyzed the church there...not unlike America. It's easy to judge but what am I doing in Norman? Who am I reaching out to? This is what Echo was all about changing.

While we were staying in Pretoria we lived in two houses: a girls' house and a boys' house.  These homes were part of a movement of young adults called Intentional Living. Its purpose was to live together as Christians and intentionally reach out within their community to reach Pretoria for Jesus. It was awesome to see these guys & girls, all the same age as us, do something so real. I want that... A few of the guys on the team want that too. I'm excited to see what God will do in Norman.  Pray that we don't loose that fire.

Monday we departed early for the Hebron Rehabilitation Centre. This was located near Potchefstroom, a 2 hour drive from Pretoria. It was kinda funny when we arrived because we expected Hebron to be a small town but in reality it is 3 small buildings and a large barn in the middle of a huge field. Regardless of its size God was working and we were blessed to be part of it.  About a mile away is the home of the 70+ year old woman, Tanni Gretha, who built everything with her own hands and God's anointing. Around her home she has built a beautiful retreat center called Immanuel. She uses the funds from that to finance everything. Immediately next to the retreat center is an awesome little rocky hill with 700 verses written on all the different rocks. We climbed to the top on Wednesday night to worship and watch the lunar eclipse.

We started right after arriving on Monday with a tour of Hebron and throughout the evening we had some group discussions lead by our contact Adriaan Adams. Tuesday morning we started early with cleaning out the barn. Tanni Gretha regularly goes to auctions looking for inexpensive building supplies and she regularly receives donations of all kinds.  Overtime these built up in the barn creating a monster of a mess.  Some was rubbish while most just needed to be sorted out into piles.  From our sorting experience in Kwamhlanga we put ourselves to work and knocked out half of the barn in just a few hours.  While we did this the girls sorted through the mountain of donated clothes. Afterwards we shared a meal with the families at Hebron and I met Steven for the first time.

Steven was climbing in a tree acting like a monkey.  He was about 7 and knew about 2 words in English: Come and Stop. At first he was very shy and would barely look me in the eyes from his tree branch. That didn't last long and by Wednesday night we were best buddies playing tag, piggy back/racecar, looking for snakes outside with my flashlight and he even took me back to his family's room to show me his toys.  He spoke to me in Afrikaans like I knew what he was saying, but we made it work.  Sometimes I was lucky enough to have a random resident translate while we raced by but most of the time we just made do with his 2 words.  His energy reminded me of Nigel, it was hard to say goodbye. I sure miss my family. It feels good to know I will see them again in just a few hours.

Tuesday night we were invited to lead the weekly Bible study.  We teamed up with our co-team of Afrikaners and afterward we all split to pray and fellowship with our brothers and sisters staying at Hebron. As a leader it was incredible to see my team pursue relationships with the people at Hebron with very little prompting.  Everyone split up and just loved on these people.  We didn't have much time with these people but we made up for our lack of time with Christ's love and intentional conversations.

Wednesday we visited New Life Day Care and spent the entire morning with them.  It was located in one of the squatter camps just west of Potche. As we arrived we found out that there was miscommunication about our visit and they expected us to make breakfast for them?! We felt terrible and scrambled to make plans for a super special lunch for all 80 children in this tiny 2.5 room metal shack.  In the end it worked out even better and we were able to buy hot dogs for everyone! It was awesome.  We also spoke with the school master and she was telling us that parents pay 80R/month or about $12/month for school fees and many parents cannot afford that.  They struggle to buy enough food for the children.  So we went and bought 20kg of potatoes, 20kg of rice, and 5L of cooking oil.  2wks of supplies and it was less than $100.

Thursday we start for home...

How can you lead a bunch rock-star missionaries?

So this blog post is like 4 combined into 1.  I write this while we are returning from our last outreach, Hebron Rehabilitation Centre.  Being a team leader x2, a husband, a father, a missionary and a blogger x2 is a lot to manage but God is good. Before I explain this I must take time to give glory to God for the amazing experience he has given me and the team.  You hear about God's power in the Bible but in America its difficult to remember God is still the same God.  God is still capable of healing the sick, making the blind see and parting the Red Sea.  1 Thess 5:19-21
Well last week in Kwamhlanga (pronounced Comm-Shlonga) God straight up threw us straight into hardcore ministry with home visits.  For three days we went out to the local township going house to house praying for the sick, the discouraged, the lame, blind, widows, orphans, and even encounters with demon possession.  One my teammates, Zac, pointed out that each day of ministry no matter which place we went out to teams came back with stories about similar themes of God's power.  Tues last week it was healing.  If that was healing from tormented sleep, discouragement, and one woman was healed from blindness. When I heard the story I could only think about Jesus' healing of the blind man in Mark 8.  God is real.  The Wednesday last week was more about the power of Christ over evil.  There was an incredible story where one "team" was just walking between homes and was pursued by a random woman in the street.  She begged them to come to her house.  Once they arrived they began praying and after a dramatic confrontation with evil spirits she was set free from her bondage.


On Thursday we went out to a neighboring town called Sun City. This experience will forever change my life.  The spiritual theme of this outreach was community (something we recognized afterwards).  It started much like the other outreaches.  After speaking with a few homes and praying with a few families we found ourselves sitting with Sister Martha. Martha was 92 years old, a widow and she had been bedridden since 1996.  She had debilitating arthritis and from the years in bed she had lost both her legs.  Despite her situation she was still praising God!  When we asked her if there was anything we could do for her she said she was very hungry.  There was a pause as we thought about what we could do about that.  James 1:27 We had some snacks and an orange but not much her 2 teeth could handle.

Steven (Africans teammate) and I both felt very convicted to serve her and meet her physical needs.  Our interpreter spoke with Martha's neighbor and said that Martha was hungry because in the winter her caregivers are too lazy to clean her and wash her sheets... instead they starve her so she doesn't dirty herself as much. Ish...after hearing this our mind was made up, it didn't matter if we have to walk to Pretoria (1hr drive) We were going to make sure she had dinner. We couldn't solve all her problems but we could buy her dinner.  21.50 Rand is all it cost to feed a starving widow.  That is less than $4. God provided and Martha's neighbor (a young widow we prayed with earlier) was available to cook the eggs and bread we bought as well as some tea. While we sat with Martha and I helped her eat the neighbor said to me that I care too much.  At that I began to weep.  I wonder how much more Christ cares about Martha.

As we walked away that night Steven explained the significance of 2 white men serving and caring about Martha.  For those that know about apartheid have a pretty good idea; for nearly 60 years this women was heavily oppressed by racism and a government that gave her no value. Now after so much hate she still accepted us into her home and allowed us to serve her. Whao...God is good.
So Friday afternoon Jessica and I organized the first ever Kwamhlanga Olympic Games! With all the random junk we found in a storage room we had plenty of options (see letsgosouth.blogspot.com).  The games included wheel chair races, a javelin throw, a tire stack relay, botchi ball toss, a hands-free tennis ball relay, and finally a Coffin Carry! Yes, we found a new coffin in the storage room. God's protection is great and I think I was the only one hurt when my wheel chair collapsed in mid-sprint 3 times!  Somehow I bruised my kneecap, but I was very thankful that the crash I did not tear anything in my knee.  After Excedrin and 72hrs I was back to 100%.

That pretty much finished off our time in Kwamhlanga and every night we had opportunities to teach, worship and preach with the South Africans in prayer meetings. That was in itself amazing to see God use the team to share His love and watch them boldly proclaim His goodness.
How can you lead a team of rock-star missionaries? You don't...you just point them in the right direction and watch Christ do the rest. This has been the biggest blessing for Jessica and I as we have watched the team blossom in worship, courage, boldness, love, and service for Christ. Before the team Jessica and I prayed Eph 3:14-20 and Col 2:2-3 for our team and God has not disappointed.

-G
John 8:36

Let's Go South!: Say Kwamhlanga 5x Fast...GO!

Let's Go South!: Say Kwamhlanga 5x Fast...GO!: "So we found some internet this week. Here are a few pictures of our last 48hrs in Kwamhlanga (Comm-shlonga) as well as a few from thro..."

Picture day

In a bit of a scramble, the day before Grant left for South Africa, we set out to get some last minutefamily pictures taken. Wise parents we are, we took every precaution to ensure we would have happy smiling faces for the 6pm shoot. Both children were fed then put down for a good long nap; then fed yet again before we headed out. On the drive we talked excitedly of where we were going, and how much fun we would have. "Are you going to smile for the Camera Nigel?""CHEESE" he would say with a demonstrative grin.

Looking back it is difficult to pin point when exactly it happened. But somewhere between getting out of the car, and sitting down for that first picture. Our children resolutely vowed they would show little or no sign of cooperation or familial happiness for the next hour. We will spare you most of the painful details, but share that during one of the dozens of jo

int efforts to chase down and drag back our 'adorable' screaming toddler we did look at each other in despair and disbelief as to how much we were actually paying for said effort.

In the end, we are quite surprised to have gotten a few keepers. We're very thankful for our photographer, Galen, for putting up with us and making the most

of a difficult situation. She has a 2 year old too. :)

Arrived Safe!!

After 2 full days of traveling we arrived safely in South Africa this morning right on time!  Praise God! We did not lose any luggage.  As we counted our bags we were missing 3 but out of nowhere a man just showed up and gave us the exact bags we were missing! We give credit to God because South Africa is infamous for losing luggage.  Our London layover went wonderfully and the hours I spent researching last week paid off.  Continue to pray for us as we adjust to the new time zone. About 30mins ago I got sick but after drinking some water I am already feeling better.  Thank you for your prayers!

Will Jessica Cox Please Report to the Airport Police!

So this announcement over the OKC Airport loudspeaker started off our trip.  My co-leader Jessica Cox is called by the airport police for trying to smuggle explosives in her checked luggage.  And by explosives they mean, party poppers. Haha, after a slap on the wrist and confiscation of the contraband we were back on track.  Made it on our flight and have landed safely in Chicago. Our flight for London doesn't leave until 8pm so we have a comfortable layover.  Already missing my family but so far so good.  Please continue to pray that our travel in London goes smoothly.  We have about 9hrs and plan to go visit a few of the sites.  Looking forward to goin' South!
-G

Here We GO!!

South Africa Itinerary