12 May 2006

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

Today is yet another unscheduled public holiday that was only declared yesterday. If you recall from our March newsletter, back then there were four days of voting and each was a public holiday. Well, today the country shuts down yet again for the inauguration. Democracy at work, even if people arent!

 

 

 

In the above picture Im teaching a class of new seminary students. Were meeting outside because it was so hot in the classroom without fans. And the fans werent working because we were on what they call here load shedding24 hours with electricity and the next 24 hours without. But even when power is supposed to be on, its often off due to some fault. Its been like that since the first of the year, and will continue so for 42 months. Thats when a new dam is supposed to be completed a few miles down river from us. This new dam already should have come on line, but the work stopped when the main witchdoctor in the area declared that the so-called Spirit of Bujagali was not pleased with the meager gifts that had been offered by the contractors.

 

In addition to our 24-hour on-off rotation plan, we now have what they call supplemental load shedding whereby every tenth day is an additional night off. And to add insult to injury, as of June 1^st there will be a 37% rate hike to make up for lost revenue. Together with an 18% tax, well be paying 45% more for electricity that we only have about 40% of the time!

 

 

If I were to give a name to the above picture, it would be Good Stewardship. This is Dave Anderson, an electrical contractor from Bakersfield , CA . At the end of March, Dave came to Uganda for a two-week mission triphis third one. But after deducting travel days and jet lag downtime, those two weeks are substantially reduced when it comes to having enough time to actually accomplish something. I had a big list of things we needed done, and at the top of the list was the lighting and sound system installation in our new 1200-seat auditorium. Lighting was Daves expertise, but his knowledge of sound was limited.

 

This trip was one of those last minute things, and were so grateful for our friend Steve Sabaloni taking the initiative to organize and finance it. Before leaving the States, Dave said, I cant go over there without any funds to buy materials. So God placed it on the hearts of some individuals to donate money for the projects.

 

On the side of sound, we had only a vague idea of what was needed. But good enough, God sent a man to show us the wayone of the African pastors at the seminary. He not only had books on sound systems, but he also knew what kind of equipment we needed and how to install it and make all the connections.

 

So Dave and I and Pastor Mathias went to Kampala to buy the equipment. What an ordeal! First of all, theres the problem of doing battle with some of the worlds worse drivers. Then you need the gift of discernment to know what equipment is genuine and whats not. Hintmost of its fake. Buyer bewareSQNY is not SONY! Especially be careful about buying counterfeit MAX speakers because even original MAX speakers are no good, and most speakers sold in the shops bear the MAX label. Then you have to assume (and correctly so) that just about everything youre told by the salesperson, including the final price, is a lie. Other than that, it was a delight. God, however, made our journey successful, and we got the equipment we needed.

 

A few days before Dave was scheduled to return home, God answered my prayer to keep him longer. Without being asked to do so, he volunteered to stay over another week in order to complete the work. This enabled us to get the sound equipment set up in time for the Good Friday showing of The Passion of the Christ (photo below). And there was hardly a dry eye in the house. Daves comment was: This has made the whole trip worth it for me. If I had not stayed over, I would have missed all this.

 

 

 

What Dave didnt know at the time was that God would need him to stay even longer. As another week quickly passed by, many items on the to do list were still not crossed off. So Dave changed his ticket yet again. Altogether his mission trip lasted a month. The picture of Dave shown above was taken late the night before he was to fly out early the next morning. Up in the control booth there were some crossed wires that needed sorting out.

 

As I said, I would call that picture Good Stewardship. Unfortunately, theres a new emphasis on missions these days whereby churches in the West send out teams to Africa to do evangelism, something that the African Christians are quite capable of doing themselves and something that the short-term missionaries do not do at home but somehow think they should do in Africa. I could say more about this concerning goals, motives, and results of such misguided endeavors, but heres not the place. I will, however, say that I would much rather have one or two Dave Andersons come over than ten or twenty others who come to do so-called spiritual ministry. I can testify that Dave, like our Lord (Mk 7:37 ), truly did all things well! He came and accomplished just what we needed done at the time.

 

 

 

I want to take you now to the Middle East where our son Christopher is doing his third tour of duty in Iraq . He serves with the Marine Corps elite EOD unit, which stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. These are the guys whos job it is to find and destroy enemy munitions, including those deadly roadside bombs. Chris is the one on the right, standing in front of an armored truck called the Cougar. These half-million-dollar vehicles have recently been issued to Marine EOD units in Iraq . Besides Marine personnel, EOD teams also include robots and bomb sniffing dogs trained in Israel . Two weeks ago Chriss Cougar hit a landmine that completely blew away the front wheel (see photo). The explosion took place right under Chris, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. If it had been in another vehicle he probably would have been killed. Heres his story as it appears on the website of Force Protection, makers of the Cougar:

 

Just wanted to write a quick note to all of you at your company to thank you for the hard work you put into the Cougar vehicle. We are stationed in [omitted] Iraq and about 2 weeks ago our JERRV/Cougar ran over [deleted] mine coming back from a call downtown. It had been raining that night and the mines were placed in a hole filled with water. Right after the explosion, the Cougar was driven for two miles on the three remaining tires at speeds in excess of 20 mph so that we could make it to a safe area. Once we got to the safe area we were able to survey the damage and everyone was amazed how far the vehicle had driven. The three of us inside were all okay other than slight concussions and a headache that lasted a few days. We know that if we had been in another type of vehicle that the outcome would have been much worse. We were also able to get a replacement Cougar within 24 hours. Thank you for everything and keep up the good work.

Sgt Chris Clair, USMC
EOD Team
Somewhere in Iraq

 

This story and photo along with other testimonials can be found at

 

http://www.forceprotection.net/news/testimonial.html?id=12

 

Needless to say, Mom and Dad are very proud of Chris. Please remember him in your prayers along with his entire EOD team and all our service personnel who are risking their lives to combat fanatical Islam.

 

I would like to inform you of something that the US government seems to be misinformed about. Islam is NOT a religion of peace. Its a militant religion having the goal of world conquest through armed struggle. For the true Muslim the world is divided into two campsthe dar al-Islam, territory under Islamic control, and the dar al-Harb, territory of war. Its the mission of every true Muslim to be involved in a so-called holy war (jihad) against the dar al-Harb with a view of causing all non-Muslims to either convert to Islam, submissively live under Islam, or be killed. Be wise and know your enemy.

 

Thanks to each of you who prays for and supports this ministry. We appreciate your faithfulness.

 

Blessings to you,

Jim & Diane

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14 March 2006

 

Dear Friends,

 

It’s been a long time since our last correspondence, which concerned the terrorists’ threat warning missionaries to leave the country or face reprisals. Much has happened since then. National and local elections have just ended. You might find it somewhat unbelievable, but there were four days of voting spread over a three-week period, and each voting day was declared a public holiday! During this past week there were two days of voting, and together with Woman’s Day we had holidays on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Can you imagine shutting down the country for four days to vote? Voting is very important here.

 

 

We’re nearing completion of a new dormitory for Alpha-Omega Seminary. I designed it to be in a neo-traditional African style. Each of its two floors has four dorm rooms with their own bathrooms. (Bathrooms are the “neo” aspect of the style.) Each room will accommodate three or four students. Future plans call for two more buildings like this one. This picture shows me with a group of students who helped to build the dorm. In the seminary I teach a course called “Principles & Practices of Construction,” which gives all the seminarians hands on experience in building. Three different classes have had the opportunity to work on this project. Remaining interior work will take about three more weeks, and exterior plastering and stonework will take another three weeks. If you would like to make a special gift to help furnish the dormitory, each of the eight rooms will cost about $600.

 

 

Last summer it was our privilege to host another mission team from Calvary Bible Church, Bakersfield, CA. Pictured here from left to right are: Pastor Ted Duncan, who taught at the seminary for the fifth time; Art Reagle, painter extraordinaire; me and Diane with co-workers Jose and Sol Nunez; Nick Heath, a.k.a. “Big Nick,” retired businessman; Cherri Nickolson, a teacher who helped out at Riverside Academy; and her husband Nick Nickolson, a.k.a. “Little Nick,” a retired airline pilot. The insert at bottom right is Vance Furtado, who came before the others and taught at the seminary for the fifth time. We suspect that Vance keeps coming back for the African food. We don’t know about Pastor Ted—he doesn’t really care that much for dodo (pronounced doe-doe) with groundnut sauce.

 

 

Now back to the dormitory. No, this is not some kind of Alpine horn. Big Nick and I worked together to install the rather intricate plumbing system for the eight bathrooms in the building. Since neither of us is a plumber, it took a while to figure out all those twists and turns that are so necessary to keep things moving along. "Go with the flow" became our motto. A successful test run proved that we had done things right!

 

 

Little Nick (he’s only little compared to Big Nick) exchanged his American Airline pilot’s seat for a chair in our workshop. Much of his time was taken up with the fabrication of 240 metal frames for the benches in the new assembly hall. Thanks to a previous donation by Calvary Bible Church of welding and metal working equipment, we’re able to do all our steel work on site. The big question among the Africans was this: “Why do the visitors work so fast?”

 

 

After Nick had finished grinding, Art put his painting skills to good use by spraying several coats of paint on the metal frames. Art made the work look like fun, and all the African workers wanted to have a go at it and learn how to use the spraying machine. Art was more than happy to oblige. Several of the Africans proved to be quick learners, and soon Art had it made in the shade. Hey, didn’t Tom Sawyer use this trick while whitewashing Aunt Polly’s fence?

 

Thanks to each of you who prays for and supports this ministry. We appreciate your faithfulness.

 

Blessings to you,

Jim & Diane

 

Contributions through: Alpha-Omega Ministries · P.O. Box 5605 · Bakersfield, CA 93388 · USA