"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7)

There's a little boy I mention A LOT his name is Becaham. He was a part of serving his children's malnutrition rehab program back in the spring of 2010. That's how Joe and I got to know him and fell in love with him. Every time something was happening with his family/situation the director of SHC would call us and let us know. We prayed for him and loved on him and desired for him to grow in Jesus. We took him in for the month of June while the Director was in America and during that time a lot of people told us that we should "just adopt him" there was "no hope for his family" and so I became vulnerable and really wanted to adopt this little boy and make him a part of our family. I daydreamed about taking him to America and about meeting my family and how great it would be to have him in our lives forever. and then in July he went home - I was selfishly hurting and felt like I had lost a child and was unbelievably bitter towards all the things "standing in the way" between Becaham and I being together. I tried to distract myself so I dove head first into Tukula - designing, relationship building, sourcing materials, building a website/online store, getting promotional materials, etc etc and I loved it. I was so happy to be doing what we set out to do here and to be spending some time learning about three very incredible women. But this little boy captured a large part of my heart so I constantly thought about him - about what he was doing - if someone was loving him - if he was happy and healthy...

In early November we decided to visit him in his village called Mayuge. We took a translator and we learned that Becaham was "good but not so good" we started interceding on Becahams behalf and my heart ached - "WHY GOD can't he just be with us?" - We went back the very beginning of December to check up on him again - once again we took a translator and heard so many different things - women of the village kept saying "just take him there is no one here to care for that boy" - we heard stories of cowives coming and going of arguments about who would care for the boy. Once again my heart was aching - "WHY GOD can't he just be with us?". I pleaded with God and asked him to take the desire to have him away from me if it was not His will to have Becaham be a part of our family - I wanted so badly to guard my heart.

We asked the family if Becaham could spend Christmas with us - they were excited and happy that we wanted to take him. Two weeks passed and we went to pick up Becaham up and the father told us that all his wives had left and there was no one to care for Becaham (his 7- year old twin brothers were currently the ones to do so). He asked if we could take him for five years and then bring him back for school. Joe told him our situation - about how we didnt know if we would be in Uganda for five years and that if we took him we would want him forever. the dad immediately said "NO" - almost chuckling like Joe was crazy for even thinking that he would give his child up forever. We were shocked - all we have ever heard was "just take him" we never knew there was a time limit or that the dad actually cared (or at least what it seemed like). After the next three days he was with us we thought about everything - we thought about the possibility of fostering him and decided that if he was going to return to the village living with us, learning english, getting used to us being his "parents" was not a good idea so we decided to tell the father that we would be willing to help him with anything but we couldn't take him for only 5 years. my heart ached and again I pleaded with God - "WHY can't he just be with us?"

The day after Christmas we made the trek back to Mayuge to return Becaham and give the dad the dad our decision. When we arrived who was there to greet us but a NEW WIFE. I was SHOCKED - seriously THREE DAYS LATER. The father was in good spirits and looked relieved - he told us that his family now has hope for Becaham - that basically a new wife had solved all his "problems". As we drove away I just stared and stared at Becaham on the back of his brother. I cried - I cried for Becaham - for his little life and out of how unfair it is that his mom had to die of AIDS. I cried for his dad - that he is so unbelievably wrapped up in Satan's lies. I pray for them a couple times a day and constantly think of him and miss him and wish I could just be his mom. I still continue to ache not just for myself now or that he could just be with us but for Becaham that he will grow up knowing that there is God who LOVES him and DESIRES him and that no matter how many women go in and out of his life - they do not leave because of him.

To be honest I am about to break.
Dealing with this experience and also just seeing other friends who have been hurt because of there husband/father has had multiple wives is ripping my heart apart. I know that it's a different culture here and it's hard to understand without seeing but I ask you please to pray for the women and children around the world feeling unloved, unimportant, and neglected because of men in their lives who are having multiple wives or committing adultery.

I know that for now Becaham is happy - that he knows no different and that he loves the children in his village and they love him. Everyday it gets easier to "let go" and God is bringing me a peace that surpasses all understanding.
hallelujah...

GUEST BLOG

It took about 17 hours to fly from my home in America to Uganda, and about 3 more to realize that I was actually there. Three hours: the approximate amount of time it took for me to shatter every rule and piece of advice that had been offered to me about visiting Africa. . .

Do not travel with undocumented drivers, do not eat uncooked fruits, vegetables, or any food prepared under unsanitary conditions, do not walk in open toe shoes, do not make contact with anyone who appears ill. . . (to name a few).

Yes, believe it or not, people actually said these things. People who I am guessing have never been to Africa , but after all, I had never been there either and although I seriously doubted that these guidelines would be realistic to follow, I did not completely disregard the advice. . .at least on the plane ride there.

Our first afternoon in Uganda and a walk up the rutted red dirt path in Bukaya to the main road gave me a chance to really breathe the air and absorb my surroundings for the first time. I tried to take in the view from ceiling to floor – the open sky, the mountainous island, the sliver of Lake Victoria hovering between the trees and roof tops, the haphazard gardens tumbling to the edge of the path, a goat here, a goat there, a piece of an old flip flop, a chicken, another chicken, more trash, another chicken, a baby playing in the ditch – wait, a baby playing in the ditch? Melissa smiled and pointed up the road, “It’s OK her mother is probably up there somewhere.” Sure enough, two small brown houses down the path was a woman sitting in the doorway, quietly watching us.

We reached the main road and stopped – “Now what?”. “Well, now we just kinda wait for something to come along,” Joe shrugged . . . and just like that, rule number one cracked wide open. Two young Ugandan men on bodas (small motorcycles) pulled up and scooted forward on their seats. Two passengers plus the driver to a boda, a barter down to about 2000 shillings to take us into Jinja town, and suddenly the first ride of my life on a motorcycle was happening in a cotton skirt and sandals, clinging to a stranger in a strange country, weaving around potholes and cutting between trucks.

Exhale, I thought as I loosened my white knuckled fingers from the edges of my boda driver’s jacket . . . just let go. And I did. Within the next hour, I had devoured a vegetable egg wrap (rolex) made by a boy on the street who handed it to me in a scrap of paper from his flour sack and I had gashed my blood gushing bare toe on a rock on my way down to the Source of the Nile. I was quickly drifting from the familiar territory of “be careful” to enjoy the land of “just be.”

I have heard time and time again that Africa is “a different world,” the terrain, the people, the culture. . .but although that is an easy way to describe the physical differences of a country like Uganda, I never really felt that way at heart. When I was able to let go of what I had been told, and began to trust what I was experiencing in the moment, it was as if I was just wandering my own country, my own home, and had somehow come across a bizarre part of town that I had not visited yet - a part of town that was bright and chaotic, lovely and scarred, but more human and real than any place that I had ever been before. Each day seemed to be an enigma of “predictable unpredictability” and that lack of structure often forced our “to-do list” to become more reliant on the people around us rather than on elusive plans. Sometimes it seems easier to trust and depend on plans rather than on people, but the latter requires that one trusts and depends on God a little more.

In an environment that sometimes appeared to be out of control to me, I learned to allow God to take command of my perspective, I began to identify the line between carelessness and faith, and to realize that as much as I needed to let go and trust that my boda driver would take me safely to Jinja, he was having to trust that this nervous American would pay him fairly when we reached our destination.

One of my last days in Jinja I was walking through the market and a woman who had only seen me once before reached out and handed me her baby to hold for her while she helped bag fruit for a customer. While she worked, she never glanced in my direction to make sure that I was still there with her sleeping child in my arms and I wondered if she didn’t care if something happened to him, or if she simply had faith that her baby was in good hands….either way, I like to think that she trusted me in that moment with her most precious gift.

Fortunately it took more than a couple of hours for me to adjust from the Ugandan lifestyle when I returned home. I walked more slowly for awhile, I worried less, and I thought about other people more than my agenda for the day. . .but I am sad to admit that I feel these wonderful side effects wearing off.

When I miss Uganda, sure I miss the red dirt and the beautiful people whom I was blessed to meet, but more than anything, I long for that raw state of mind that forced me to be fully present in each moment, to depend on the “undependable,” and to concern myself with keeping only one rule in this life: an unwavering faith in the God who did not form “Ugandans” and “Americans,” but who simply breathed life into the dust and created willful, fickle humans to love Him. I will never claim that I understand a place like Uganda anymore than I understand a place like America, but my trip across the Atlantic has taught me so much more about this life… “For we are (all) fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Thank you Melissa and Joe, for an experience we will never forget.

Laura Pritchett

To my very best friend:
On Saturday we leave for Lebanon.
I don't have words to express how I feel and how excited I am for you
but Dr.Seuss offered some help...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go...

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest...

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV...

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

I love you...and if my love was an ocean I would have to take many MORE than two airplanes to get across. Thank you for letting me a part of this.
onward and upward...
Lebanon here we come!!!
-m

standing in the gap

When Abdallah cut his foot open that night at central market we knew what to do after we heard the older street children tell him that they would kill him if he came back to the streets. We took him home and after a week he went to live with a really beautiful family here in uganda. We stood in the gap for Abdallah it wasn't easy but we knew what we had to do.

When Mama Yusuf was dying of AIDS we knew there was nothing we could do for her but stand in the gap and pray with her during her last few days and bring her beef stew. It was hard to say goodbye when she passed away but we knew it had to happen and we rejoiced at the thought of her not being forgotten anymore.

When we first met Becaham my heart stopped. Those big brown eyes and that smile made me melt. We stood in the gap for him for a small period of time caring for him loving him and then returning him back to his family in the village. It was hard but we had to do it and we were excited when he would visit jinja and we could see he started crawling and was a bit chunkier. I closed that gap and praised God for all he did in Becaham's life.

Until yesterday when that gap was ripped wide open.
We went to visit him in the village where he now lives with two moms (neither of which are his own) and his father. Friends, I wish it were as easy as giving his family a job or food or money - I wish it was only a matter of him just needing to go to the clinic. I wish it wasn't this hard family dynamic and lack of love. Our translator said that "he is good but not so good" and that sums it up completely. I wish there was some sort of closure he was either really bad or he was doing great. This time standing in the gap is hard and confusing and I have no idea what stepping out of this will look like.



Joe kept telling me yesterday that this is what being obedient to God looks like.
So here we are praying and waiting and filled with so much love for this little boy.
Please pray with us for his family we know that only God can place love in hearts and change lives drastically through it.

On earth as it is in heaven...

autumn update

hello dear blog readers!
we have a lot of exciting things happening over hear and a few not so exciting things.
I'll start with the not so exciting:
-Bennah has been SICK. malaria. She's just started eating and we are praying for a SPEEDY recovery because we really love her and she's making some stellar new designs.
-Our dear Norwegian friend Eirik left last week. We selfishly wished he could just stay forever or until we leave but we wish him all the luck in the world! Thank you for making us laugh and for introducing us to the Nyenga community, but importantly thank you for your friendship! we miss you!

now for exciting news!:
-We are meeting with a possible NEW TAILOR this Wednesday.
-We are starting the endeavor of teaching money management to our tailors - this doesn't sound that exciting right? well, it was THEIR idea. talk about self-empowerment!
- There are 11 kids right down the road from our house (ok so they're far down the main road branch left onto a very dusty dirt road slope right at the train tracks onto a "path" pass the evangelical world vision church and there they are!) who are part of an ever growing children's home.

(me & paulina)

(edward)


(ivan - one of the newest additions :)

The children's home also currently teaches kindergarten to children from the community who can't afford school and gives them each a nutritious meal a day. They also will be teaching English during school holidays. They have future hopes of building a clinic and a school. They currently do not have a clean water source...that's where tukula comes in and where YOU come in. The excess profits from the sale of the bags goes towards building them a rainwater harvesting tank (which we will start constructing in December for the home and in the future for the school!) - so keep shopping, friends!

lots of love,
The Terranova's

snaps

happy October, friends : )

sometimes...
I walk down the road and one of the neighbor kids will ask for money and I just smile at them...because honestly I just want to cry. why can't I give them money? I'm given reasons on a daily basis "they will come to expect it and that's not good... they cant be reliant on white people" "because then you will just give them reason to ask other mzungus for money" "because you're making their parents lazy" and I keep smiling and walking and wave bye when I get to the main road.

sometimes...
One of the tailors, or a shop owner, or someone I'm meeting with doesn't have what I asked for the days prior, is late, or has a long list of excuses about something and I can't get too frustrated because it's "African culture to be late" or "I dont know english" or "we're all out I have to go to kampala for it come back monday"... so I just smile and say "see you next week".

sometimes...
my husband asks me what happens if tukula doesn't work out and I have a panic attack and I smile and say "I've never thought about it before".

sometimes...
I miss a little boy named Becaham so much and I think why can't he just be mine - his family doesn't even care if he's with them or not. But I'm told everyday "he has a family" and I smile even though it doesn't make me feel better.and the toilets don't flush, there's a million ants on our "clean" dishes, I wish I had someone other than my husband to hang out with, some one is always at our gate asking for a job, our best friend is dealing with witch craft spells, It's rainy season and I get caught in the rain several times a week....I just want to pull out my hair...but then...
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

And I smile because I know there is a new day and God has placed me right here right now in the middle of Uganda for such a time as this. And I realize all this messiness that's inside of me isn't mine to carry alone. and if I threw in the towel then I would be saying that my best friend, the one who created me was wrong for bringing me here.
and He's not.
He says..."It's ok if you want to pull your hair out. I do too sometimes because of this mess you've created, but I love you....I love you with my whole life. So, stay here with me."so I stay and the same neighbor child dances in my front yard, and the tailor makes me laugh, the shop owner says "thank you for loving us" , If it doesn't work out I took a really beautiful risk, and Baby Becaham has a heavenly Father who wants him to be right where he is.

And I have absolutely nothing to worry about.