Safe and Sound

We are alive, and extremely sorry for being out of communication. Our internet connection here has been patchy and our solar panel won’t charge our team computer. That being said, we should be posting once a week from now on out, Lord willing. We figured this first blog in Karamoja should give context and setting to our story here. We are living in a house in Kotido, Uganda in the region of Karamoja on a team of 10 people including children. Kerri’s sister Kristi and her husband Kenneth are on the team and they have four children with one on the way (due this week). The children’s names are Nevaeh, Ezra, Zion, and Israel. Also on the team are two single girls, Kelly and Chloe. The whole team lives in the same house. Currently we are focusing on getting our house set up and getting settled. Up next on the agenda will be supporting Kenneth and Kristi as they welcome their newest child into the world. Then we’ll be starting language classes and figuring out in what ways we’ll be supporting Shalom Reconciliation Ministries, which is the organization running the orphanage we’ve been helping support from the U.S. That’s about all for now, if you guys have any questions or any requests for how this blog should take shape let us know.

Andrew Meador

P.S. Just wanted to give you guys a practical overview of what life here looks like. Next week's blog should be substantially more interesting.

Blogging

This being our first blog and all, I (Andrew) feel like some things need to be explained. Firstly, please bare with us because neither Kerri nor I are bloggers at heart and our posts will probably be a little awkward at first. Hopefully over time blogging will become more natural for us. We've set up this blog as a way to update friends and family about our time in Uganda. It's sort of our virtual newsletter. One of us will blog once a week and we'll switch off. You'll be able to tell whose post it is because mine will be long and poorly written while Kerri's will be concise, well-written, and spectacularly inspiring and also we'll sign them.

Currently on our hearts and minds:

1. "Team"
Lately when referring to the people we will be moving to Uganda with, we've felt like the word team is inappropriate. Nowhere in the Bible, that I can think of, does it refer to a group of christians living near each other as a team, but Jesus constantly tries to impress on his disciples that they are now a family (Matt. 12 & 23 for example). So we've been praying that we could have a family mentality within our community. We feel that when we call ourselves a team it seems as if we are banded together only to reach certain goals, but when our goal is to love our God and the people around us, our community isn't a group of "team-mates" but rather a family that showcases a kingdom where people are important not because of the roles they play but merely for being themselves. So please help us pray to love our community like our own family.

2. Pictures
A book I'm reading, of which I'll give you the title later, has spurred on a conversation me and Kerri started a while ago. I would like to say first that in no way is what i'm about to bring up meant to sound like condemnation on anybody else, it's merely us trying to seek the Lord in the way we carry ourselves, represent Christ and meet Christ in Karamoja. So the subject is what, if any, pictures do we post on our blog or use in presentations in the states? The reason to use pictures is to help people understand what we're seeing and help them connect emotionally with the people we are around. This side is well understood, and we've all seen pictures of African babies and I've even used some in different presentations I've done. The problem comes when you start thinking about these people as your friends. When your friend is starving, sick, practically naked, and surrounded by flies is it okay to take his picture and show it to all of your well off American friends so that you can raise money, support, prayer, or anything? Maybe, however noble the reason, if we use pictures of friends who are poor in their worst circumstances, just maybe, it's really exploitation.

Now it's your turn to participate. If you've read our blog, please comment. If you disagree with the picture thing, or think the team mentality has some upsides, let us know. We're fully open; feel free to disagree.

Scripture I'm contemplating this week: Isaiah 58

Scripture We're reading: Beginning of Genesis

Book I'm Reading: "Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission" by Christopher Heuertz and Christine Pohl (go order this book and read it...right now)

-Andrew