Question

If you have an answer... please give your input.


Are belief and Action inseparable?





more thoughts on this later...

I participate, therefore I am.

Hey guys,
I have so much work to do, but I started these pics to upload while I worked (takes about 45 minutes) so you could have something to look at. The people on the boat are fellow IMMEs (intercultural ministry and missions emphasis), the bird is a weaver who makes little ball shaped nests in trees, and the last one is one my friend took and it just kinda made me a bit happy.
anways, I'm doing pretty good, school is hard. I always have so so so much reading and deep wrenching discussions to carry out (which are quite fun, but sometimes a little too numerous and constant) I know that might sound funny coming from me... I mean I love "deep" convos but sometimes there's just so many questions, so much brokeness, so little time for rest, I just wanna go swimming or play guitar. Or chunk the frisbee with the neighborhood kids!
But life is so blessed in the end. The Lord is teaching me so much and just showering grace upon me. I love you guys so much. thanks for reading the blog.

oh and if you wanna see pictures of the family I'm staying with... check out Josh's blog... www.joshuaweed.blogspot.com
or at least I hope that's it.
anyways... back to reading about historical Christian political thought and its application for modern day uganda! haha.

drew

To get a clearer picture.

My African mom sits next to me preparing Matoke over a charcoal fire. Josh just walked by and grabbed the torch (flashlight) to equip his venture out to the squattie-pottie. By my shoulder, little Mark is trying to cram more random Luganda words into my head, and under the table the cat Max is preparing to claw my feet again. Just another night in my Ugandan house and I’m now just trying to be present. Its quiet except for the TV (a computer monitor with 2 channels) breaking the noise softly in the background, which is quite different from then the monsoon-sounding rain that pelted our roof earlier today. Our house is a nice brick house with cement floors about a ten-minute red-dirt walk from the university. The academics here are pretty great so far. The schooling is British so lots of lectures, one or two huge papers, and mountains of nightly reading. Discussions are constant here, and I’m trying to learn how to prioritize my inputs and save my (unofficially) limited comments for times when they matter (which is hard because as I’m sure you guys know… I always have things to say.) The issues we’re dealing with are mostly new for me, and so for the first time in a while I’m trying to struggle towards solid answers over hard scenarios. Its fun, and I’ve been blessed with the ability to meditate over several issues. It’s amazing what GOD will do when you are constantly expecting HIM to teach you things.
On a lighter note, most of my free time in the neighbor (which isn’t a lot) is spent tossing the Frisbee with about 14 neighborhood kids… who all run away from it, but still call for “mzungus” to throw it to them. This last weekend we went to the farm where we’ll work “a good amount” on the Saturdays we’re in town. The grow matoke (a cousin of the banana and the staple food here), cassava, sweet potatoes (my favorite with g-nut sauce (peanut)), beans, cocoa, vanilla, and other things. Its very pretty here as its still the rainy season and so many trees have brilliant color flowers on them.
I still miss home quite a bit, but am slowly getting more adjusted to my schedule here… which on weekdays goes like… 7 am. Wake up. 7:30. Morning tea. 8 go to school 8:30 classes start. Work on school stuff almost unceasingly til 7 at night when we go home. Once home we have evening tea, wait and talk, and then eat around 9-9:30 where we watch part of the news and go to bed. Repeat.
It’s a good schedule and I’m starting to enjoy the restfulness of it. Since being here joy has come some easily, and I feel free. I’m constantly thankful to GOD for the grace and am learning how to live in the joy. Sometimes, that ever so familiar darkness threatens to rear its head. But GOD has strengthened me to be able to recognize it and refuse it for the lies that it brings. Freedom, Hope, Life, Love, and questions, and refusing the flesh are what my mind dwells on. I have received comfort from the confidence that I will go where the LORD wants me, and I will be who He wants me to be. This semester will not be easy, but that’s not what I would want anyways. Please pray that GOD would continue to transform my mind as is also my constant prayer.
Know that I am always trying to keep praying for those I am not with right now.
Love you guys,
Drew

Catch Up...

Well… its been awhile. I’ve moved into my home in Uganda and classes have already started, but lets backtrack just a bit.

We arrived in Uganda very tired, albeit quite excited. Josh and I were really excited to meet new people and get into a schedule. Once arriving we stayed at the university for one night and then were taken to our new African homes. Believe it not Josh and I were randomly paired up to stay together, and as we were approaching our house there was a tired silence in the air. However, our African host mom ran out screaming for joy and enveloped me into her very large arms. Sometimes a good hug is all you need to completely change your attitude. Haha.

We stayed in their house for 2 days, were treated like royalty and then traveled with the rest of the Group to Rwanda where we studied, missions, development, and the genocide.
First lets talk about the missions and development… we talked to many different missionaries in all different capacities in Rwanda. Some were starting up businesses, others facilitated the selling of local crafts, others worked with different projects that centered on Discipleship through development and encouraging independent self-initiated reform. Pretty awesome stuff. Development work is a really tricky, long process where sometimes your heart has to be put on hold in order to long-term love the people, and not just satisfy their immediate needs.

The genocide… Its not possible to communicate everything that I encountered. Straight up. It’s one thing to watch Hotel Rwanda, and another thing to stand in front piles and piles of bones. It’s commendable to encourage forgiveness and reconciliation, but its hard to listen to a guy who squeezed under the bodies his dying family to escape his murdering neighbors. Man… its hard sometimes. A country of 10,000,000 where 1,000,000 were killed. 500,000 women survived rape (often by men known to have AIDS) and 2/3 of the country either displaced, fleeing, or held hostage.

That being said, I know it can’t matter to most of you. Numbers are impersonal and for me, impossible to grasp and associate with real people or real pain. I did however look in the eyes of the victims, and their stories are impossible to discount or shake off.

After Rwanda we went for a debrief and relaxation time on an island in southern Uganda. Definitely one of the most beautiful places on the earth.

On the way back, our bus broke down, we told life stories, sang Disney songs, and saw some zebras.

I am also beginning to think that this will be the hardest academic semester thus far in my career. Thank goodness for the grace of Pass or Fail when transferring grades.

I love you guys… Pray for me that I will love Jesus Christ with all that I am, that I will seize the many opportunities to gain discipline, that I can be a servant in my house, and for my friend Matt Lester.

Peace out from Africa,
drew

I'm tired, but ready.

Well its over, and its just beginning. In about 4 hours Josh and I will wake up (at 3:45 am) and Leave England... (yeah... sorry I've been behind... I'll tell you how Switzerland ended up and how France was.)

uganda here I come.

(please pray that we will find energy in Christ. Neither of us will sleep much more than 4 hours tonight.)
love you guys...

all the way to the alps

So... lets skip past the boring parts and just summarize my three days in florence and cinque terra. Super hard. I began to be heavily conflicted by the fact that I was backpacking in Europe while people starved. Could I still be in GOD's plan? Needless to say, that question tore me apart, and the wrestling's pain has been ebated by the decision to rejoice in my blessings and redouble my efforts to glorify GOD in everything I do. (Although before we completely skip past those super hard days I will admit that Florence is a lovely, if not very touristy, city, and the beach at cinque terra (which is a collection of 5 villages along the coast of western Italy) was pretty spectacular. The sand glittered. Seriously. The water was torquoise. At one point I had swum out about 40 yards and looked down through the water and could still perfectly see the bottom. So i thought, hm... must be about 8 feet deep. NO. I don't how deep it was but I couldn't reach when I dived down the couple of times I tried.)

Ok... So now we are in switzerland, and it is baller beautiful. Today was the most relaxing, music, bible, prayer. crazy love, napping, swimming, and being amazed by GOD's creation, day yet! Tomorrow I'm going to try to rent a motor bike and rip it up through some mountain trails... ;). Just kidding mom. (well, no not really... it'll depend how much it costs... its better than skydiving though right?)

anyway josh and I have 4 more days in Europe before we travel to Uganda and its good. I'm so excited for the remainder of the time, but I'm excited to move on to what's next to!

thanks for the prayer. It helps. I love you guys.

Drew

p.s. read josh's post. It^s usually most detailed than mine. plus, its funny to compare.

p.p.s. I^m trying to learn not only to love myself, (which has been super hard in the past) but how to obey the command to rejoice in the lord always. NOt that I^m against rejoicing but sometimes we make excuses and take ourselves to seriously or too critically to remember that we're just supporting actors in this wonder, epic, descriptionless, love story.

hey dizzles,

The last two days have been pretty chill. Yesterday we went a just walked Rome for the majority of the Day. We saw a big ole castle and stuffed ourselves on pizza. The Trevi Fountain was also on the agenda so we stopped by and took some pics of that... (honestly, it looked like something that belonged in Vegas, but considering it was designed in the 1630's, its a mountain of impressiveness. Oh, and we stopped by the spanish steps. Lame. (Except for the nearby pirate looking ship with portholes that everyone filled their waters with.)

Last night we had fettucini Alfredo (a rare dish here) and pineapples for desert (a delicacy of sorts.) YUMMY!

Today we traveled to Pompei and Naples (but we're going to skip talking about Naples, becuase I don't want to come across rude.) Pompei was awesome though. Its a huge huge, brilliantly preserved archeological site, and it has a great view. It's just mind-boggling to walk around streets and buildings that could be up to 2500 years old. Also if you remember your history, people died pretty much instantly too. So, they have casts of their bodies... rrrreeeaaaaallllllllllyyyy weird.

Idk... I'm going to keep this post short, I'm kinda tired of typing already and people are waiting. So ciao!

drew

P.S. I began reading the book Crazy Love today. Please pray that GOD can use it to refresh my soul and sharpen my focus. Josh and I are on a unique mission field, and its hard to remember to seek, or even at least grab opportunities (especially when they hit you in the face and you're scared.) Pray that we walk as we should. Thanks.