The Heart of an Orphan- Part 3

Here is the second half of some of the various characteristics of the heart of an orphan. I am so thankful for my friend Mark Stibbe (author of an amazing book called From Orphans to Heirs) who gave us the idea of describing some of these characteristics through his own list of characteristics. Mark is a humble brother who speaks on the doctrine of adoption out of personal conviction since he himself has been adopted by an earthly father as well as his heavenly Father. He has recently moved into full-time ministry of sharing the message of the Father's love to God's people all over the world. He has a special place in his heart for Africa's orphans. Check out his organization (The Father's House Trust) and website at http://www.fathershousetrust.com. You will find New Hope Uganda listed there as one of their ministry partners.

INSECURITY: Tied into fear. A sense of feeling unprotected all the time and therefore feeling unsafe. The result is great care given to make sure that the heart is protected. A defence mechanism is constantly employed where one is quick to interpret what people say and do, whether in trouble or safe. One often reads intentions into statements and actions that were not there. Offence is easily taken where none was intended.

POVERTY: A feeling of constant scarcity that says there will never be enough even in the midst of plenty. The goal is therefore to get what is needed NOW, because what will happen the next day is unknown. The now becomes the focus without thought or hope for the future. Decisions are made based upon what seems temporarily best for needs in the moment. Hoarding becomes a lifestyle.

GREED: Tied into poverty. The constant need for more and more whereby the heart is never satisfied but is driven to be. Care is not given to whether others have what they need so long as individual needs are met. There is no consideration of others, or if there is it is only in what can gotten at their expense.

ANGER: Anger is always present in the heart because of what has been experienced in the past and comes out over even a small thing. It often seems like an eruption that has come out of nowhere, but it has always been there, only suppressed. Fighting at a moment's notice among children is a very common outflow of this anger that is constantly present in the heart. Another aspect is that there is always someone to blame for anything bad that happens.

INDEPENDENCE: The heart posture of doing what is desired without being questioned. If questioning comes, then rebellion will follow. Things have to be done “my way” and anyone who gets in the way of that is an enemy. Accountability is rejected and life is lived according to what is best in one's own eyes.

STRIVING: This defines life. Since there is no one that cares, one has to do what it takes to make sure that things will work out for good. One will try at all costs to do anything possible to make life better, even overworking, yet without finding satisfaction in it. Often, identity is tied into what is being strived after. The need for success can even be with an attitude of revenge- “After I have succeeded then those who have rejected me will turn back to me and I’ll get them back!” One's value is attached to the accumulation of what he or she has.

ESCAPE: Pain in the heart leaves it continually unsatisfied. Therefore the heart seeks satisfaction in things that give it temporary value or identity- things like sports, drugs, sex, and alcohol. At times the false world created by the heart can be more real than the painful one that is a reality, and thus the false reality is sought after at all costs and at all times. In the West, entertainment, video games, pornography and the internet become some of the favorite modes of escaping reality in addition to the ones listed above.

The picture above is the family that we work with here at New Hope called Samuel Family.

The Heart of an Orphan- Part 2

When I first began working among orphans I was surprised at how different it was from what I expected. The media of the 80's had made me think that all African children had large bellies, suffered badly from malnourishment, and were for the most part quite miserable. Yet when I came to East Africa, I found quite the opposite. Though you can find destitute situations of impoverishment, most of the orphans I was around in the countries of Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda were incredibly happy children. I was stunned at how children who had known such tragedy could yet have such joy in life. Yet even in this I was quite deceived.

It was only after living among orphans here in Uganda that my eyes were opened up to the reality of the destitute state that many orphans carry around in their hearts. For many, the joyful external is a mask of the deeper pain of the heart, and for others, the joy is only momentary, giving way to a gloom that reveals the isolation of the heart. It was Paul Kusuubira who put flesh on this for me in his description of the heart of an orphan, drawn from his own experience and journey to healing in the Gospel.

I'm going to post half of his description in this post and half in the next. Let me add though, the orphan heart or the orphan "spirit" is simply a description of the human heart that we are all born with but which is drawn out in the specific context that orphans face. You will find many of these descriptions in the Apostle Paul's descriptions of the flesh throughout the New Testament revealing the connection to the sinful human heart, and if you have eyes to see you might see these same things at work in your own heart and life regardless of whether you are a physical or spiritual orphan. These are also helpful to understand why many fatherless children act or respond as they do to your attempts to love them or move into a heart relationship with them. I'd love some feedback here, so please feel free to interact.

ABANDONMENT: The deep feeling of having no one to turn to for answers or help. One has to make his own way because those who would help are not there. Even when people are there, they cannot be trusted because they will probably leave, too.

LONELINESS: The loss of identity in family leaves the feeling of being out of place and isolated, even when surrounded by people. The preference is to be alone in a self made “cocoon” rather than to be involved with people. The feeling of loneliness is often both hated and enjoyed. It is hated because the heart longs to be free to relate and enjoy relationships, but is enjoyed when it is able to gain sympathy from people without the tie of strong relationship. Self-protection is at the heart of this.

REJECTION: The feeling of being unwanted by people. One feels like a misfortune whose presence is a burden for those around you. The thought is, “Why should I even exist if I’m an inconvenience to others?”

HOPELESSNESS: Because the present is so unstable, one cannot even imagine what the future will hold. There are no dreams. Life becomes a puzzle of trying to put pieces together again to make sense out of life. One just exists with no sense of purpose or meaning.

WORTHLESSNESS: A conviction that says I am of no value. If a person comes who seeks to bring value to you or to appreciate you, it is denied and the person rejected.

LOSS OF IDENTITY: Tied into worthlessness. In the African culture people are identified by their fathers. Children are a priority because a man’s name and identity is continued in them. To die without children is to “perish”. On the other side, to lose a father is to lose the one where that identity is found. “Who is his Dad?” is asked of every child. If the father has died the reply is, “He’s just an orphan.” A result of this loss of identity is that one cannot identity himself with anyone (especially male figures who can easily betray). One can not lift his or her head- it stays “down” because the father, the source of identity, has died.

SADNESS: Tied into loneliness and the outflow of the hurt in the heart. Happiness can come for a moment, but it always gives way to the feeling of sadness. Even in the midst of a conversation, one's entire demeanour can suddenly change as the heart reconnects with its deep sadness. It is unexplainable by the person feeling sad, but it is the fruit of pain. It can also be a tool to keep people around to bring comfort, but without the commitment of relationship.

MISTRUST: It is hard to believe and trust what people say and do. Because one is alone, without value, and abandoned, one can have no confidence that people are truly there to help or that they are not trying to use him or her for their own benefit. The heart will ride out the relationship to the point of what one can get, but it is always ready to leave as soon as there is reason to suspect any kind of rejection. The heart is careful to select who it will allow to enter into its sphere. It operates in comfort zones.

HIDING: This is both physical and emotional whereby one does not really want to talk about real things, but it is free to talk about things surrounding the real issue, careful to make sure no access is given to the real issue. Authority figures are suspect and kept away because of the fear of experiencing the pain they might cause. Any correction means rejection and the heart retreats away from the corrector. Accountability is very difficult to accept, as the true problem is never dealt with, only surface problems.

SUPERFICIALITY: Tied into hiding, it becomes the guard of all relationships. One can never know the true heart as it is guarded and protected. Relationship is kept at a distance for fear that the true heart will be revealed. When the heart is pursued intentionally, the person will end it all together.

MANIPULATION: Using the situation one is in to convince people to give you what you want. Emotions, sadness, loneliness, all are used for the advantage of the suffering one. Life is a drama where acting becomes the key to gain.

DECEIT: Constant lies are told to make sure that the heart remains safe and protected. Truth will hurt and pain is to be avoided at all costs. The memory becomes selective and only exposes what will provide safety in the situation.

FEAR: This defines life. Anything that has the potential of causing pain or the memory of pain is to be fearfully avoided. Fear of what “could be” or “could happen” is always on the mind. It pushes the heart to pursue safety at all costs. Obedience does not flow out of what is good for me or out of love for the person asking, but because of the fear of what could happen if I fail to obey.

Sacrificing Children to Molech, Witchdoctors, and the Spirits

When I was in graduate school at Wheaton College, I took a class on Ancient Near Eastern History with my friend and professor Dr. John H. Walton. Dr. Walton often had us do research projects on the cultural backgrounds behind various Old Testament passages. Since I was moving toward ministry to orphans in Uganda, I tried to dig into as many passages dealing with orphans or children in the light of the world of the Ancient Near East. During that time I had come across the warning in quite a few passages about not offering up your children to Molech. The texts seemed plain to me in that they were warning against the age-old practice of sacrificing children, in this context to a god named Molech who especially demanded this ritual as a part of his worship. However, instead, I found quite a few authors arguing against this interpretation, making a case instead that it had more to do with “dedicating” children than actually sacrificing them. The same argument was given for the texts that speak about passing children through fire. Ultimately, then (as it seemed to me), these cultures were not so barbaric as to sacrifice children in any sense that would have to do with killing them. I mean, how could such a barbaric practice be found among “civilized” cultures? And yet it still does today.

I was caught off guard and quite alarmed a few years ago when I found out what all of the buzz was around New Hope. I had wondered why we were told that kids could no longer walk home alone, but had to be in groups and with older kids present. Evidently a new shrine was being dedicated somewhere in our vicinity (a shrine is a place where worship of spirits/ancestors takes place), and the witchdoctor had demanded that in order for it to be dedicated it had to have five human children skulls present (my wife remembers it as ten). This all hit a bit closer to home when a friend of ours who lives in the village had to run off one of his ex-employees who was hanging around his farm, trying to entice a few of the local children to walk home with him. He knew that this man was a part of the cult who was dedicating the shrine. Since the farm is only about a mile from us, it put all of us with small children on red-alert. Eventually the police got involved and to my understanding the shrine was never dedicated, but it did open up to me the stark reality of child-sacrifice that is still alive and well here in Uganda.

A few years ago I sat and talked with a couple of children’s workers from the Rakai area of Uganda. I had heard about Rakai from the Dangers, who to this day have some interesting stories about the times they have stayed in that place. What I heard from these children’s workers, though, really stunned me. Rakai is on the border of a lake (I’m forgetting the name). Now, here in Uganda, bodies of water are feared and reverenced as places where spirits dwell, sacred places if you will. Certain rituals are practiced by multitudes of people who want to both appease the spirits and while binding themselves to fear are attempting to get free from it. Well, these workers sat and told my wife and I an interesting fact: there are no (or few) abandoned babies in Rakai. Interesting, I thought. But it was the “why” that hit me square in the eyes: because they are all thrown into the lake. There is a serious spiritual/demonic bondage in that place unveiled in the reality of child sacrifice that is occurring there up to this day.

Over the last couple of months the topic of child-sacrifice has been popping up more and more in the news. I picked up a newspaper in Kampala (pictured above) with the headline, “Ritual Murder: Man Sacrifices Nephew for Shs50,000” (which is around $30). It’s been gaining press because it seems that of late it is happening on a wider scale within country. A good friend of ours had a serious scare when her nephew wandered off and was not seen again for a week. We were all praying against abduction, and it turned out that it was not. But the scare is all over the place.
The closest to home that this thing has hit has to do with the mother of our friend Fiona. Jaja (grandma), as we call her, has been keeping a young boy (11) and girl (13) to help her with her daily chores for survival (i.e. fetching water, digging in her small garden, etc.). Well, the week before Christmas, a neighbor man just showed up and took the children off with him to Kampala. No word about where or for how long, they were just simply gone one day. This put Jaja into serious concern. When the children had not returned after a week, the police were brought into the situation and her neighbor (who is another close friend of mine) Kibeti found himself going back and forth to the police for Jaja. Then suddenly the man showed up back here in the village, but without the kids. That was enough for the police who quickly told the man to go back to the city and to return with the children. He did, and then he was promptly arrested.

Though it does not appear that anything serious happened to the children (I only say that because of external appearances, not because of medical exams or their own testimony as of yet), what the man did had caused an uproar in the village around Jaja. With the man in prison and facing serious charges, his father decided to step in. The man’s father lives a bit of a distance from Jaja, but he journeyed to her house with one purpose in mind- scare Jaja into dropping charges against his son. God be praised that Kibeti “happened” to come up at just the time that this old man was yelling and threatening Jaja with serious words here in this culture. You see, the man is a witchdoctor and was threatening with statements like, “I can kill you, just like that. I just speak and things happen. If you don’t drop this right now, I will be against you. In fact, you must pay me the 200,000USh I have had to pay because of my son.” He then began chasing Jaja around her house! Kibeti told me that it took everything within him to stop from tearing the man’s head off!

But this is where I stand as a proud father, so proud of Kibeti- he never backed down in the face of serious threat of witchcraft. FEAR is such a controller here, and no one wields it better than a witchdoctor. In fact, as Kibeti moved around the village to find witnesses who would testify against the witchdoctor, no one would dare speak a word unless the man was already in prison. Kibeti and his wife stood alone, though, sure of the truth of Jesus authority in heaven and ON EARTH, refusing to allow the fear to stop their defense of the widow Jaja and the fatherless children who had been taken advantage of. They testified together and the witchdoctor now stands to be arrested (if they can find him!).

Yes, child-sacrifice is alive and well here in Uganda, but so are the continued injustices against helpless widows and fatherless children. In a way, they are all related. Pray for the church here to stand in the face of the evil powers that continue to destroy lives. Pray for freedom from fear and a boldness that can only come from truly seeing Jesus and basking in the truth of the Gospel that alone can free from fear- both fear of death and fear of Satan. Pray that child-sacrifice would end and that it would not be replaced with that sacrifice of another-kind called abortion, which is presently not allowed in this country.

[picture is taken from the Daily Monitor, edition Tuesday, December 30, 2008, No. 366]

An Adopted Son...

This Christmas we have been reading a little devotional book called Immanuel: Praying the Names of God through the Christmas Season. It has been wonderful to meditate on various aspects of Jesus' name, birth and life as we prepare to really celebrate Christmas as a family here in Uganda. As we've been reading and praying together as a family, one person in particular has really struck me. I mean, the kind of struck where you just sit and think about it for a long time. The person is Joseph.

I wonder what it would be like to hold the very Son of God in my arms. In fact, Joseph would have been the very first person to hold Jesus period, even before Mary herself! When my three sons were born, I was privileged to be the one to catch each of them as they came out into the world, but I had doctors there helping me. Even if I missed or the baby slipped through my hands (they come out slick!), there was an extra pair of hands there with mine. But Joseph was in it alone! Talk about pressure! How do you catch the Son of God? I had nurses there to show me where to cut the cord, and of course they took care of cleaning the babies properly. Joseph did not have any of these things either, and I don't think that men were typically "in" on births in Israel so he could have had very little idea of exactly what to do. Actually, there were midwives who normally handled these things, but cows in a barn are not very good midwives. I can just picture Mary there telling Joseph what to do, Joseph scared to death, tears and laughter. What an emotional experience that must have been, to catch, cut and clean the very Son of God Himself! The humility of God will forever stun me just as greatly as His sovereignty.

One other thought has struck me within the whole Joseph side of things. He bore the public "shame" of taking into his home what was thought to be an "ill-begotten" baby boy. But then he went further than this, Joseph in all reality adopted the Son of God into his own family, he himself becoming the boy's father. Growing up I never quite thought about this, and it never really hit home until I heard a message by my friend Justin on Joseph. But what really amazes me is this- could Joseph have known that it would be through this very Son that he was adopting that he himself would be adopted by God who would become His very own adopted Father? I don't think Joseph could have grasped this apart from faith, but how amazing are God's ways!

I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas as you celebrate the birth of the one who was born to die for the Glory and unveiling of the Father, the one who has promised, "I will not leave you as orphans (Jn. 14:18)" because He Himself has died that we might be justified from sin and adopted into the family of God. We are orphans no more.

A Ugandan Thanksgiving

I LOVE Thanksgiving! In fact, there are very few holidays that get me as excited as this one. I thoroughly enjoy being with family, hanging around in the kitchen, talking, laughing, and of course expectantly looking forward to the coming feast. I enjoy reflecting with my family on the things the year has held, while also looking ahead to the coming year yet to unfold.

Here in Uganda, it is a bit tough for us to be away from family during this holiday. The weather is hot, Christmas is on the horizon, and there is nothing here to remind us of this distinct mark in the American calendar- no media pounding us with images of turkeys or the coming great shopping deals, no signs hanging in the stores, no music, nothing.

But we do our best to “get into the groove” of the holiday season. We have some fake colored leaves that we scatter on the table, along with a fake pumpkin, and even a funny looking decorative turkey. TURKEY…yum…my favorite. Actually, I can only remember one Thanksgiving when I did not have turkey on Thanksgiving and that was when I was in college and decided to stay at school for the holiday in order to study! I went out with a friend for Giordano’s Pizza hoping they’d be serving a turkey pizza, but to no avail.

So what exactly DO we do here for Thanksgiving? Well, the first thing we have to do is procure some turkeys from the village. Since we were over 30 Westerners (including children) gathering together to celebrate the holiday (yes, we invited our British staff members, after all, weren’t some of the original celebrators of Thanksgiving British?), we needed to find two good sized turkeys, which we found- though I must add that not many villagers raise turkeys so it can be a bit of a hunt. Since I am the only Westerner with a chicken house, we were the privileged ones to house and feed the turkeys, which I promptly named Miles and Standish. Our dog Mountie was so excited about the turkeys that she jumped over the mud wall and under the chicken wire in an attempt to have her own Thanksgiving feast- luckily we heard the turkeys going crazy and out of the cloud of feathers we pulled the dog out of the chicken house.

We set the execution for dawn on Thanksgiving Day- well, actually it was around 8am (after we spent time as a family giving thanks to God for His work in our family over this year- Noah was also thankful for the turkeys God gave us to kill and eat). My boys were as excited as I was (see the picture above), and with the help of our friend Kibeti (and my panga/machete), I got ready to let loose the two fell swoops. The first mighty swing was just a tad bit not mighty enough, because the head came mostly off (I apologize for the details, but this IS Uganda : ). I went executioner style with the second one and it was enough for a clean strike. I promise, both turkeys didn’t feel a thing! We then poured boiling hot water over the turkeys to make plucking them much easier. After a few hours of cleaning and gutting, the turkeys were prepared and in the oven.

What’s so funny to me is that my sisters and I have such DIFFERENT stories about Thanksgiving turkeys. My sister Angie went to the local grocer and bought her nice big turkey. I, of course, had to find and kill my own. And my sister Cara (a vegetarian) lives on a farm where she has a “pet” turkey named Phil who she would NEVER allow to be killed or to be eaten. How VASTLY different experiences!

Anyway, the rest of my story isn’t as exciting. I spent the morning painting my boys’ tree house, followed by an afternoon of “rest” and the holding of the elbow of my wife while she did what she does like no other- COOK. In the late afternoon (after the passing of the mid-day heat) we had an American football gave which was an absolute BLAST (Elisha made his football debut with one catch for a ten yard gain), and then we gathered and feasted on Miles and Standish- who were both a bit tough by the way. But I guess you could call these official “organic” turkeys. The food was wonderful, the people were wonderful, the kids running all around and playing were wonderful, and of course, back at the homestead “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and the “Mayflower Voyage” were also wonderful. I hope you all had just as wonderful of a Thanksgiving!

The Heart of an Orphan- Part 1

When Laura Beth and I first came to New Hope Uganda in 2002, we were a part of the first class of the New Hope Institute of Childcare and Family. Needless to say, the course rocked our worlds (or we wouldn't be working with it as passionately as we are!). One of the most powerful teachings came to us from one of the sons of New Hope named Paul Kusuubira. Paul walked us through his own story growing up as an orphan. He then opened up for us what he called the "orphan heart". It was a teaching that was both eye-opening and heart-rending. Eye-opening because suddenly I realized why the kids I was trying to work with at New Hope met me with such resistance, why they did the things that they did and why they responded like they responded to different situations. I also realized that the kids that I had worked with for four years in Cabrini Green (government housing projects in Chicago) were fatherless (orphans), which was KEY for me looking back and trying to understand the hearts of the kids I had wrestled with for those years.

Paul's teaching was heart-rending because I realized that the heart of an orphan is simply the human heart, the sinful human heart, drawn out in specific ways because of the circumstances of becoming orphaned, and in that my own heart was also revealed. The Gospel became so much bigger to me as a result, something I hope to draw out in the following posts.

But let me begin by simply putting Paul's story here so you can understand a bit better the characteristics of the "orphan heart" that I will post next. Here's Paul's story:

Paul Kusuubira lost his parents during Uganda’s civil war in the 1980’s that shook the country shortly after Idi Amin’s regime collapsed. The bloody war centered 35 miles north of the capital city Kampala in an area that became known as the Luwero killing fields. Paul’s family fled from their home and spent three years hiding in “the bush” . They were constantly running from the warring soldiers, barely able to survive. The family ate whatever food they could gather from the “bush”, mostly wild yams and papaya. They drank any color of water they could find. They slept on leaves under the stars. During the rainy season they huddled together under trees. On occasions when they heard bullets coming from one direction they could walk all day in the opposite direction only to be met by more gunfire. Exhausted and too tired to walk any further, the family would simply lay down on the ground to sleep, prepared to die there if need be.

Through these years God miraculously protected Paul and his family. They all survived the war. It was with great joy that the family was finally able to return to their small home in late 1986. Shockingly, shortly after returning, Paul’s father fell sick and died. As the family was still grieving the loss of the father, the pain still fresh in their hearts, Paul's mother fell sick and died as a result of tuberculosis. The family was in shambles, and as the community gathered around the grave, Paul could only weep and weep. The war had taken his father and mother, leaving Paul, his three brothers, and one sister, all alone to struggle for survival.

As they buried their mother, the realization of what they had become, orphans, quickly set in. Men and women from the community roamed freely through their house, helping themselves to whatever they desired. Cooking pots, plates and clothing disappeared. The children were helpless to do anything. Where could they turn? Who would care for them now? They were rejected by their community, including those they thought were friends of their family. No one wanted the responsibility of caring for more orphans. The title “orphan” became a label that led only to mistreatment and abuse. Food, clothing, and warm blankets, items that their parents had always secured for them, were now hard to come by. Paul gave up all hope for living. He would rather die than live in such despair. He was ten years old.

Immediately after Paul was orphaned, a sense of abandonment overwhelmed him. He felt abandoned by both of his parents, abandoned by those he had always counted on, loved and trusted. He felt helpless and scared. A deep loneliness came into his heart. He felt like he did not belong to anyone anymore, including his brothers and sister. He simply existed as an outcast, a nobody. Rejection by friends and the community left him feeling betrayed. Hopelessness marked his sense of the present and the future. He felt worthless. He had lost his identity, no longer bearing his father’s name but taking on the name mulekwa, which means orphan. The joy that he had known as a boy was turned into extreme sadness, a feeling that went as deep as the pain in his heart from losing his parents.

Paul’s struggles continued to grow as mistrust guided his dealings with people. He felt he could count on no one and that he would only be abandoned, betrayed, or let down by all people. Even when people would approach him to help, he found himself hiding his true self from them out of fear. He would only open up what he thought would help him to get something from people, keeping all relationships on a superficial level. Manipulation and deceit were the keys to getting what he wanted from people. Fear became the defining mark of his life- fear of man, fear of rejection, fear of failure, and fear of death. All of these things led to a deep sense of independence where he would only do things “his way”, refusing to be accountable to anyone and pushing away any who might get in the way of his accomplishing what he wanted.

The survival mentality that was birthed in him led to a deep seated greed, always wanting more and more, never content with what he had. He developed a poverty mindset that told him that he never had enough, even when living in plenty. He would eat each meal as if it was the last he might have for a long time, even when he was promised many meals to follow. He was always striving, striving for acceptance, striving for approval, striving for success, striving for love.

For many orphans in Uganda this striving leads to the practice of witchcraft to try to manipulate the spirits in order to secure success in various areas. Because death for a Ugandan is never by “chance”, but is always caused by someone, feelings of anger and revenge begin to rule the heart as they seek to find out who killed their parents in order to pay them back. This is often done through the local witchdoctors. Escape becomes the main “coping” mechanism for dealing with the pain and struggles, escape through sexual relationships, drugs, alcohol and even sports.

An Institute of Ethnic Reconciliation

(George Opuche- my Ugandan partner- and myself at a baptism for Kasana Community Church)

The New Hope Institute of Childcare and Family would not typically be thought of as a place where ethnic reconciliation would be on the forefront of happenings. After all, isn’t it a training for people wanting to work with orphans or in the area of family? Yes, it is an Institute for training and equipping people to work in ministry to children and family, but in actuality the training encompasses worldview-confronting, life-changing issues, none bigger than the racial issues that divide nations and tribes and that our unique context presents to us in an “in your face” manner.

Can you (as a Westerner) imagine sitting in a room with three or four other Westerners (perhaps coming from the UK, Canada, or from east and west-coast America? Perhaps across the room sits a Congolese and beside him sits a Kenyan couple. To their right and left are twelve Ugandans, but seven of these come from different tribes within Uganda, some tribes extremely different from the others in terms of cultural beliefs and practices. And to top it off, just to your left sits and man or woman from India! Talk about a cultural melting pot!

One of the most exciting times in the course is right at the beginning when we begin exploring the different worldviews of the cultures represented. The Westerners are typically very shocked at how vastly different their own culture’s beliefs and values differ from one another. The shock becomes even greater as they uncover the vast differences in beliefs and values from one African country to the next, and then from tribe to tribe within the same country! You find Westerners saying of Africans, “You all really believe that?!?" And then the Africans say of the Westerners, “You are really believe that?!?" And all stand with gaping mouths at the vast difference of belief systems in an Indian context! And what is also quite shocking is to look at how each of the Christian cultures have been greatly influenced by the “secular” cultures they are a part of. Wow! The question then becomes, “So, who’s right?” Which “Christian” culture has it right? The obvious answer is no one, and it gets to be our joy together to work towards building a Biblical worldview that transcends culture, confronts “fallen” culture, and unites together in “redeemed” cultures that together unveil the beauty of the Kingdom of God. That’s what our little 20 week course is all about! And you thought it was just a course on “how to” work with orphans : )

Now to the point of this article- after we have explored the above, which is always a very humbling process, we then take a look at how we as cultures view each other. Talk about opening a can! It is here that the roots of “racism” or “ethnocentrism” really come out. Americans and British folk view each other vastly different then one might expect, and Ugandans from various tribes still carry much pain and anger towards others because of past atrocities committed against one another. But when one begins talking about Westerners views of Africa, and then Africans view of the West, oh my! Though of course, the true pain comes out when Africans talk about what they have been told about the West and Westerners in general. Without taking the time to explore this here, let me sum up what typically is presented as being passed on by media, family, and parents, by saying that at the core of many Ugandans is the belief that ultimately all problems in Uganda are a result of the West.

The first time we “uncovered” this fact in the Institute, as I stood and read on the board all that the Ugandans had written there about what they have been told or believed about the West, I wanted to run and hide in a hole somewhere! Though not all of what was stated was true, there were yet many that were true! I found myself standing before the group and simply repenting for the things that the West HAS done here in Uganda. Tears flowed from a few and it was obvious that these issues were very deep for many and that healing was coming. I should also note that when we asked the Ugandans what they thought of all that was written on the board, one young man spoke up, "We can't blame the West for all of our problems! We need to own our own failures and mistakes!" Amazing.

After that class time ended, one of our students asked to talk with my wife and I privately. She confessed to us that she had heard this and that and that she had vowed never to step foot in our home and never to eat in our presence! We were shocked. We were shocked because we had always thought of this woman as a friend. We enjoyed being around her and always had warm greetings from her, or so we thought. We forgave her and after time praying together she promised that she would begin to be a regular visitor to our home. And you know what- she has been, and to this day she is one of our closest friends and a dear “daughter” to our family.

One final note- I have been privileged to serve together with two other men who also reveal to me the amazing beauty of ethnic reconciliation that is found in the Gospel alone. George Opuche is my Ugandan partner. He comes from eastern Uganda from the Soroti area. Interestingly, when New Hope began as a ministry, it was in response to the orphans left as a result of the current president’s bush war with the former president, Obote in the 80’s. Many of the soldiers that fought for Obote were from the Soroti area. How beautiful to have not only George, but others from Soroti whose people were a part of the killing that took place in this area, now here as agents of healing and ministry to the children of this area (now orphans as a result of AIDS). My Indian partner also represents reconciliation, as typically Indians are not “liked” here in Uganda. Many of the store and business owners in this country are Indian, and for the most part they are not thought of well here. My partner is actually the first Indian Christian most Ugandans have ever met! They are amazed that he is here NOT to make money, but to serve Uganda and the children and families here at New Hope.

What a blessed privilege it is to serve here in the beauty of such a multi-ethnic community that truly is a picture of the throne room of God where men and women from every tongue, tribe, language, and nation will worship together forever and ever! Glory to the Lamb that was slain who has brought about (and is bringing about) such great and beautiful reconciliation of the nations and cultures of this fallen and broken world!