Bugs and Spiritual Heart Surgery

Hello Family & Friends,

I am writing this blog with my headlamp while sitting in bed under my mosquito net.  The electricity is out again and has been very intermittent all week and weekend.  We were spoiled the first couple of weeks here as it was on more than off, but we are told that this week is more of the norm, so thank the Lord for headlamps and candles!

Animal update:

I have not been stung by any more caterpillars. Yahoo! This week all the bug incidents seemed to happen in one day for me. I think it was Friday after dinner, I decided to sit down for a bit in our hut and read and journal when I felt a tickle between my bottom and waistline. It was really hot that day so I thought maybe I was just sweating. As I reached my hand back to give myself a little scratchy scratch, I felt a lump. Hmm…sweat is not lumpy as far as I know. Miracle of miracles, I remained calm and decided that whatever I was touching through my skirt needed to perish before I found out what it was so I pinched and it squished. I stood up holding the material of my skirt tightly and called outside for Chris to come in. I couldn’t bear to identify the squished creature alone. Well, when my skirt had been removed we discovered a green goo mark and one in tact black and green striped leg.  Needless to say, the poor grasshopper that somehow hopped into my skirt never hopped out.

A bit later, Chris and I were sitting in our front room reading when we saw two little flying ant type creatures on our coffee table. We both killed one and then all of a sudden, within seconds the table was filled with these things, it was like they were falling from the ceiling. We ended up DOOMING the entire room and going to our dining hall to wait out the fumes only to find that they had invaded that area too. The weird thing is that it was like they hatched and then started dying and then it was over. Chris swept up the remains and out the door they went and that was that.

Then we decided to go to bed and as I hugged my husband goodnight, I saw him glance up at the ceiling behind me. I thought he was trying to kid around with me but then he looked somewhat serious so I turned to see a very large cockroach making its way across our ceiling. This bug was also swept out the front door by my hubbie.  I then told God I had reached my bug quotient for the day and was going to sleep and would appreciate it if no other creatures found their way into my clothing or home. God heard my prayer.

Other than that one day, things have been much better. Our latrine is under control and for the most part all is clear. We have started seeing frogs this week with the increase of rain which I think are very cool. Oh, and I forgot, we did have a centipede in our room earlier in the week. Just a note, when you take a picture of a centipede with the macro lens on your camera, perhaps wait until you are out of country before you zoom in and see all of its tiny legs and fine hairs. It creeped me out. But, again, the frogs are cool. Yay for frogs.

School Update:

School is incredible. I can’t even begin to describe the training we are receiving here. It was a rough week spiritually, and all of us students decided to nickname this week Open Heart Surgery week. Some of the topics covered were: self-deceit, idols and idolatry, our true motives for doing the things that we do, repentance, what is an orphan?, what does an orphan heart look like?, what are the characteristics and behaviors of the orphan heart?, what are the differences between living like you are a slave of God instead of living as an adopted son or daughter of God?

Most of us, Africans and Westerners alike, felt like we had been cut open and left to bleed by the end of the week, but then Friday brought hope and the reminder that in spite of the wickedness in our own hearts, despite the areas in which we live out of our wounds and in turn wound others, as well as the ways in which we replace God with idols in our lives, that God in His love comes to us to offer freedom, love, and a new inheritance. That in our brokenness and inability to even know what to do with ourselves, He comes to us.

There is so much I could write about, say, and flesh out for you in regards to what we learned this week, but it is too much right now and we are honestly still trying to process it all. This is difficult stuff to look at and face, but it is so worth it. Many of the Africans shared today about areas they have found freedom since the teaching last week. We too can feel our hearts being stirred and worked on and we are all just praying for the courage to allow God to do the work He needs to do.

We also have started to get involved in our family groups this week and have begun meeting with our mentors. This whole experience is awesome, really hard, in every way completely draining, but in ways we don’t have words for, it’s transformational.  We all looked at each other today and talked about how we are already seeing that the truth we are learning is already making a difference in us and how we view our areas of ministry, but that we can’t even imagine what we will all be experiencing after many months more of this. Only God knows what He has in store for us. J  So the adventure continues.

Business Items:

Many of you have emailed lately and asked what our address is in case you want to send us something. Here is that info and some basic tips:

Mail to:

Attn: Chris and Aimee Haywood

New Hope Uganda

PO Box 16
Luwero, Uganda, East Africa

It is best to send packages in envelopes or slender boxes. Big, cubelike boxes tend to get damaged or take a really long time to come. A slender box can take 2-4 weeks to come. Letters usually get here in 2 weeks. Airmail is best obviously.

Support:

Some of you have asked how we are doing on our financial support. We first of all want to thank all of you for the tremendous outpouring of support that came in to get us here to Uganda in this season of our lives and for your generous gifts. We were overwhelmed with all of your financial and spiritual support and encouragement to take this next step in our training. We would not be here without all those who prayed and gave to us. THANK YOU.

We are in need of more support and are focusing on three things with the money that will come in during our time here.

1) School Fees: We are hoping to continue to be able to make payments towards the education, housing, and food costs that New Hope so generously allowed us to pay for as we go.

2) We are praying about going to visit the Musana Camps that are about 6 hours away from where we are now as they do a lot of discipleship training, family counseling, and other things that we are interested in possibly doing in the States.

3) Our family group is looking to begin a pig project that will allow them to have a form of income that will make them more self-sufficient. The family father is hoping this will help him to provide for his kids who are at the age where they will need money to continue their education. Many of them are ready to go into more of a skill and trade training or university and there are costs associated with that. The pig project will need some funding to get off the ground so we are hoping to possibly contribute to the building proposal for this.

Again, as stated in our original email, if you’d like to contribute financially to us while we are here, you can send a check to my parent’s home and they will put that in our bank account for us. We do have access to our bank accounts here in a small village about 30 minutes away thankfully, so that makes things easier. If you need their mailing address, please email my Dad, Paul, at pjpavlik@gmail.com and he can give you the address to mail checks to. I just don’t want to put their address on the public blog. J

Thank you in advance for giving to us as God leads you. God has provided for our every need so far and we know He will continue. He is good and faithful. Also, please continue to pray for us as that is very important as well. We have been comforted and blessed by your prayers.

Until next time, may you experience the love of God today in all its fullness and grace,

Aimee & Chris

Latrine Update and Caterpillars

Hello everyone!

Sorry it has taken so long for us to post another update. The internet service here has not been cooperating with me at all this last week, at least not for long enough to write a blog.

We are doing well. Since we have arrived, much has happened. We continue to adjust to the latrines and bucket baths, but I am happy to report that the latrines have indeed gotten better and the cockroaches are staying down in the hole (most of the time) and not keeping us at bay. One did scurry past my foot the other day and I only squealed a little so yay for me! Prayer, Doom Bug Spray, and teamwork have made conditions much more tolerable. The fear has also lessened, so thank you for your prayers. My most common companion in the latrines this past week was a baby lizard. He climbs down the wall while I am doing my business and we watch each other. I’ve named him Teeny and I like him, he eats other creepy crawlies that I don’t want to see. J

The First Lady of Uganda was here at New Hope last weekend and that was very exciting. New Hope chooses a day every year to celebrate “Thanksgiving”. This is the day they have set aside to celebrate and thank God for all He has done since New Hope’s beginning. She was very gracious and kind and truly enjoyed the festivities. She was here years ago and was pleased and praising God for all that He has done here. She was a breath of fresh air as far as political figures go as she is very open with her faith and by her words and actions you can tell that she is genuine in wanting to see her people here in Uganda recover and thrive as a people living with biblical morals. We were all impressed with her. There was also a group from a deaf school in Kampala that performed worship music for us. They danced and worshipped only by feeling the beat of the music. It was pure joy watching their smiles as they worshipped God.

We have also completed our first week of classes at the Institute here and that has been AMAZING. Our teachers are so engaging and what we are learning is very eye opening. I hope to write something on it to share with you all, but that will have to be done another day.  We are enjoying our classmates and have our first report due soon on a book we are reading. We are so thankful to be here and learning what we are learning. It is so important to what we will be doing in the future, whatever and wherever that might be, but God hasn’t let us in on that part yet.

This next week will be the first week we will return to our Pacific Family group. We are excited to join up with them again. We will be a part of their family during our time here helping with chores, being there for devotions and just being involved in whatever way Uncle Rukundo deems best.

Hmm, let’s see what else, oh CATERPILLARS.  Yeah, they are poisonous here and are not to be touched. They look similar to ours except when you look close they have barely visible spines (cactus like) all over their body. Anyway, one decided to crawl onto my sandal while doing laundry the other day. I kicked this baby caterpillar and he stung me. Needless to say my toes have felt like they’ve had little needles in them for a couple days now. The first day my toes that were grazed got really hot and itchy. I’m fine though and may have gotten stung on the other foot as I type this by another one, but I might have kicked that one in time, I’ll get back to you on the status of that next time.

I must go to dinner now! The meals are delicious, and we are enjoying it all. I have more to share but I will try to write again this weekend. Please be praying for us as we continue here. I’ve been having stomach issues for a few days and am trying to wait to see if it will pass before having to do antibiotics, so time will tell.

I’ll post pictures as soon as I can. It’s taking forever to upload a pic so I need to figure out a different way.

With love,

Aimee and Chris

Hello all!

Chris and I have safely arrived at New Hope in Uganda and are getting settled in. We were greeted at the airport by Jay and Vicki Dangers and one of our fellow students, Devon from South Dakota. We ran errands most of the day which was fun because we got to see a lot of local places within Kampala which we had never seen before. Chris and I did fall asleep for about an hour in the car as Jay and Devon were finding some much needed items in a market. Vicki watched over us closely as we took naps that were desperately needed!

Upon our arrival at New Hope, we were shown our living quarters and then walked up the road to the Vogt family home for dinner. We ate Indian food here in Uganda and we had never had it before but it was delicious! Another student joined us that night for dinner, Rachel from England. She and I have become fast friends between being the only girls here so far and our trips to the cockroach infested latrines. More on that later.

It is nice to be back here at New Hope. Anyone who has been here would say that coming back is like coming back to a kind of home. The people are so welcoming and so kind and just love that we are back. Since we have arrived we have used the pit latrines, had our first bucket baths, eaten a few Ugandan meals that were super yummy, attended church this morning, and I even did my first load of laundry, hand washed and on the line as we speak!

Our first day of school is tomorrow so that will be fun to get started with our studies. I'm so glad we came a few days early though as it was nice to be able to adjust and take time to settle into our new home for the next 5 months.

A prayer request: the 4 of us who have been here the last few days have been struggling with the latrines. We have ones that are assigned to us and because they've been sitting for a couple of months since the last Institute students graduated, cockroaches have taken up residence. We have been given cans of Doom and have been spraying and sending many a cockroach to Heaven, but a few of us still feel fear and anxiety every time we have to go to the bathroom.

My husband is awesome and has sprayed and cleaned and swept dead ones out for me to try to help. We have been told they will go away once we have been using the latrine more frequently and dooming them, and it is much better just within a few days of attacking them.. But I'm not the only one who has had a rough go of it. All 4 of us have had some yuck/fear moments. Part of the adventure, but a real obstacle we have had to overcome.  Who knew you could bond with other people so much over bathroom talk?

Anyway, things are going well here, and oh!  My parents home in Colorado is still standing!  Thank you for your prayers!

Love you all,
Aimee