Primary Retreat - Day 1

Day 6 - Arlene's blog day

Our day began with a breakfast of bananas, ground nuts, boiled eggs in which the yolks are also white, tea with lots of milk and sugar, and biscuits. The biscuits are round and flat, but somewhat dry. They are very good dunked in tea and then dipped in sugar.

The Timothy Children had started singing, and the church walls were rocking with the volume and strength of their voices, along with their enthusiasm. It was hard to just observe, so we all joined in the praise and worship. Each child received a Bible.

The children decided on some rules to follow like respecting one another and a list of things not to do, like stealing and not leaving the compound.

Pastor Jamez taught a lesson about following Jesus, which is the narrow, right, and good way. He contrasted this with following Satan's way, which is wide, wrong, and bad. Rebecca began our program by telling the children the story of how God created the world. She told what God did day by day.

I (Arlene) told the story of Adam and Eve and how they had a good thing going and messed it all up by disobeying God. They sinned and their sin was passed on even to us. Theirs and our relationship was broken with God. The children listened very intently.

We sang some songs. One of them being Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus. We caught the children off guard when we turned into hippos, and they roared with laughter. We had to do the song a few more times and taught it to them.

After a lunch of fish, rice, sweet potatoes, pasho, and beans, along with tea, we continued our program.

Katherine taught about Jesus' birth and life and that he came to earth to restore our relationship with him. She had the children participate in the Nativity Story. We helped the children make wooden sticks with bells attached to be shaken when we sang a few Christmas songs, including Jingle Bells.

Bryan spoke about the crucifixion and Jesus' sacrifice for us followed by Steve telling about the resurrection. Steve gave a powerful talk and invitation to accept Christ as Savior. Six children came to kneel on the floor and prayed to receive Christ. (Aihila Mary, Munyes Mercy, Agan Brenda, Angolere Anna, Longora Mercy, Lowii Lokure)

Then next we played some games with the children. They really liked London Bridges and Duck, Duck Goose. I couldn't believe when I picked the smallest child, and they still would beat me back to my spot.

Following a supper of rice, beans, goat and pasho, the children watched The Jesus Film on the church wall with a projector powered by a generator.

The conditions here are hot, dry, very dusty and dirty. The women have a hard job cooking in pots over an open fire. Their days are long and difficult, and yet they smile and are full of joy. Our food is covered with flies at times. Someone sits with a pitcher of water over a basin and trickles water over our hands to clean them (usually no soap). The latrines have a nauseating odor and are full of flies and mosquitoes. The village children wear clothing with such rips and tears that they wouldn't even make good cleaning rags for us. These hardships seem to disappear in the laughter and singing of the children. God has also blessed them with a beautiful land. The sunsets, mountains, and greenery are breathtaking. It is a privilege to serve my Savior by ministering to these people - His children.

Video: Children Singing

The Children Arrive

Day 5 - from Katherine's perspective

Greetings to you from Uganda! On this day we met the primary Timothy Children. We drove from Soroti to Kangole, a village in Karamoja. It was over four hours long on a dusty, somewhat bumpy road. I made a friend on the drive. Frank, a six year old boy, is one of the CLIDE staff nephews. He is one of the Timothy children from Soroti. At first he was very quiet and fell asleep. When he woke up I gave him my Quaker chewy peanut butter and chocolate chip granola bar. He then discovered my camera and quickly figured out how to work it and became my official photographer on this drive. When we got out of the van at the border of Karamoja, which was marked by a tree, Frank joined our group picture. He is quite the kid!

The local flora of Karamoja is the thornbush with thorns bigger than I've ever seen before (click on photo). The fauna is cattle and the Karamojong historically believe all the cattle in the world belong to them.

We arrived at the church compound in Kangole where the primary retreat was held. We had left Soroti and arrived in Kangole before the CLIDE staff. The children were sitting quietly on the benches. "What do we do?" It was a little awkward just having the children sit there. We greeted them and shook their hands.

"Ejoka." Then we taught them Simon Says. That brought smiles and laughter. Afterward some of the kids huddled around those who were showing their photo books from our team. I pulled out a little notebook and children wrote down their names. A young girl wrote Awas Kuno. I was so happy! It even brought tears to my eyes. I told her my mom sponsored her. An older girl translated. Her face lit up and she smiled. I also met Amei Monday. Bethany, if you're reading this I wanted to let you know that Amei Monday would like to be president of America someday. : )

My immediate impression of the children is that they are very respectful and very well behaved. They must train them well in school. : ) The children just finished school for the year. After the retreat they go back to their homes/guardians. Life for them during the two month break can be very difficult. We should all pray that the children will not be tempted to go back to the streets and will return to school on February 1st. Praise God for the Timothy Project and for these children!

Proverbs 22:6- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Heading to Karamoja

We are heading to Karamoja today and will not have internet access for the next 4-5 days. When we get back to Soroti we will update the blog about the Timothy Retreat in Kangole.

A Very Special Thanksgiving

Day 4

Our first day in Soroti started with a cultural orientation about the people groups in this region. Since we found the history helpful in understanding the people we will be interacting with, we thought we would share some with you:

Migrating from Ethiopia, the Karamojong people settled in northern Uganda along the border with Sudan and Kenya. Karamojong means "young man has grown old", a name given by the Teso people who broke off from the Karamojong to continue migrating, settling south of Karamoja. The Turkanas also broke off from the Karamojong people and migrated into Kenya.

After settling here, the Karamojong divided into 8 sub-tribes, who inhabit distinct areas of Karamoja. All tribes speak the NgaKarimojong language, but have distinct dialects depending on the tribe. Most of our time in Karamoja will be spent in Bokora County with the Bokora and Pian tribes. Bokora County includes the town of Iriiri, the peace villages (Nabwal & Nakoyot), Matany town, Kangole (location of the Timothy Retreats & St. Mark's Church, photo of "main street"), and Lotome.

This region has been heavily impacted by warring and conflict, with cows being the major source of the problems. The Karamojong people think God made all the cows in the world for them. When the Teso people separated from the Karamojong after migrating to Uganda, they took many cows with them. The Karamojong people followed them to raid and get the cows back, starting a cycle of raiding between the Karamojong and Teso people that has resulted in much bloodshed in the region. Most people have had a relative killed due to the raiding, furthering the hatred and fear between the people groups. As little as 2-3 years ago, one could not travel through the region at all, for fear of being killed.

There is a great need for reconciliation in the area, which is why the peace villages and Timothy Project are so vital to the continued progress of the region. The peace villages were established over the past two years bringing the Bokora (Karamojong) and Pian (Teso) tribes together to live in a previous no-man's land. Nabwal was established 2 years ago and has about 9,000 people. Nakoyot was established one year ago and has about 3,000 people living there. The conditions are hard in the villages with little water and crops failing due to the current drought. Yet, the people endure these hardships in order to establish peace in the region. (For a video about the peace villages, click here)

The Timothy Retreats are also a step toward reconciliation. By bringing children from the conflicting tribes together, relationships can be built among the young, which can be carried forward into the future. In addition, the goal of the project is to provide education and spiritual mentoring to the children in order to raise up godly leaders who can teach future generations (2 Timothy 2:2). God is doing great things here and we can't wait to see it first-hand over the next couple of days and share it with you.

After our orientation in the morning, we began to prepare our Thanksgiving dinner. Being in Uganda, this was a different experience than we normally would have experienced at home and provided a great time to fellowship with the CLIDE staff and the chance to share an American tradition with them. Below are the steps to a thanksgiving dinner, Uganda-style in photos.

1. Catch and slaughter the turkey

2. Pluck the turkey

3. Clean the turkey

4. Bake the turkey (thankfully, Val has an oven in her Soroti home)

5. Boil potatoes over coals and smash

6. Prepare bread and let rise, make into rolls

7. Make the pumpkin pie (with supplies brought from home)


8. Make stuffing using dried bread and whatever spices/soup mixes we can find on Val's shelf


9. Prepare the gravy from turkey juices, giblets, and all


10. Play with the children


11. Juice the passionfruit and oranges


12. Add the Ugandan dishes - boiled sweet potatoes, cowpeas, and warm cabbage salad

13. Create a table in the CLIDE office using a table and two desks


14. Carve the turkey

15. Pray and enjoy our fabulous meal with our new friends: the CLIDE staff (Val, Moses, Christine, Julius, Jamez, Christine, Anyakun Moses, Judith and Judith), Mercy and Joy (the Otim daughters), Jason and Jennifer Johnson (visitors from Arkansas exploring options to serve here full time), and Adriane Wai (a Corvallis native staying with the Otims through December)

16. Share the things for which we are thankful and laugh - ALOT!

Posted by Michaella

Getting to Soroti

Day 3

We woke up this morning to a bright sunny day. After breakfast at the guest house, we loaded up our luggage and headed into Kampala. At the Garden City Mall, we met up with Paul and Karen Berg (fellow Northwest Hills members working on EMI water projects for 10 months), exchanged our US Dollars for Ugandan Shillings, and picked up some bottled water at the store. We sent the van of luggage on its way and headed to the MAF airstrip for our 12:30pm flight to Soroti. Driving through Kampala in the daylight we could see many interesting sights. The unpaved roads are very bumpy (especially if are you in the back seat of the van). Traffic was heavy because it was the start of the school children's summer holiday.

Our MAF flight was on a Cessna 208B Caravan 15-seater plane. We took off from the airstrip over the banks of Lake Victoria and then turned to head North over Kampala. The countryside was green and spotted with villages, rivers, and lakes - the most prominent being the Nile and Lake Kyoga. We landed smoothly in Soroti, where we were greeted by Moses Otim in Val's Landy. He took us to the Starlight Guest House were we ate lunch and then rested for a couple of hours.

At 5pm, we walked to the CLIDE Office to meet with Moses and Christine Otim and other CLIDE staff (Judith, Jamez Akoko). After a overview of the schedule for the Timothy Retreats, we ate dinner together - fish and pork with accompanying soup, rice, collard greens, chapati (flat bread), millet bread, and orange juice. After dinner and many laughs with the CLIDE staff, we retired to the guest house for the night.

We've arrived!

Day 2

After an 10 hour flight from Portland to Amsterdam and an 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Entebbe, we have arrived in Uganda! We were met at the airport by Jonathan with 2 vans; one for us, one for our luggage. The night air was warm and moist as we drove an hour to the MAF Hostel. After two long plane rides, we were thankful to have a place to stretch out and get a good nights rest.

And we’re off…

9 team members

2 drivers

900 lbs of checked luggage

200 lbs of carry-on luggage

9 hearts ready to see God working in Uganda

We leave Northwest Hills at 8am today, flying out of Portland at 12:40pm.

Below is a map of the locations in Uganda we will be traveling. Click to enlarge.