Mukama Yebazibwe!

Dear friends,

     It’s time for another blog post. My blog post name means Praise God in Luganda. I just want to start out by saying thank you to all of you for your continued prayers and love. God has been working in awesome ways.

     Mostly, this month has been great, but at times it has been hard. It has been two months now since an American guy has been here and it’s a bit tough. It’s hard not having a guy around my age to just talk to. It’s not that living with 15 girls is horrible, it’s just that sometimes I would prefer a little guy time. It would be nice to have time to talk about normal things and watch normal movies, and the girls don’t always want that. For instance, we are all sitting in the living room after a day of ministry talking and to start a conversation one of the girls will ask a question similar, but not limited to, this, “Soooo, let’s go around and everyone talk about their most romantic experience ever.” Or, “Agghhh, I miss shopping so much! What is your favorite store?” It’s at times like this where I either zone out or walk out. However, there is a lot to learn from living with so many girls. They are all great. Just sometimes I have to assure myself I am still a man. That might explain my crazy obsession with espn.com.

     I have now been playing with the Watoto worship team for 5 weeks. It has been an incredibly stretching experience. I am used to leading worship for my youth group with an acoustic guitar. I signed up to play acoustic, but they were in need of lead guitarists (electric guitar). I am not used to playing electric, and I am expected to know all the lead lines and solos. I realized that I am not that great of a guitarist, but I have now been challenged to grow and grow quickly. The second week of playing I showed up for practice and I did horrible. It was my first time playing with that band, so I felt like I let everyone down. That night I was freaking out, because the next day was Sunday and I felt nowhere close to being prepared. I seriously felt like it was the end of the world, but it wasn’t. God was teaching me to just give up myself. I know it would be really easy to make it about a show, but being on that stage is about worshiping God and leading others into the presence of God. That has nothing to do with me. In the long run, if I messed up no one would remember. I did mess up, quite a bit, but it went way better than I expected. I have to learn to continually give up my fears and my desires to God, and trust that He knows best and He will provide. I have seen Him come through for me time and time again, yet I still doubt so often. I need to learn to trust God so much more.

     The projects have been going great. At each project the kids know my name, well kind of. Craig is a hard name for African children to pronounce. I wish God, knowing that I would end up here, would have laid it on my parent’s hearts to give me an easy name for Africans to say. He didn’t so I have work with what I’ve got. Instead of calling me Craig they call me Craigay. After awhile, I chose to just accept it and now I introduce myself to all kids with that name. Other volunteers and staff now call me that too. However, all of you back in America cannot call me that. I know you can pronounce my name! J I started going to court with the boys from the Remand Juvenile home. The first week, 7 kids got to go home. The reason I am going along is to pay for gas that the ministry is paying for. They want me to go along to make sure the money gets used for that, and to also provide encouragement and support for the kids. Because of lack of money in the past many of these kids have missed numerous court dates. One of the boys was supposed to go home two months ago, but because he couldn’t get to court he couldn’t be released. It’s a blessing to be able to go along, and I feel like I am beginning to build some great relationships. After our project at the Remand Home last week, we played an incredible game of mud soccer. It was one of the most fun experiences I have had my entire trip!

     A few weeks ago, the daughter of Douglas, a Ugandan staff member, died from malaria/typhoid. She was only 9 months old. It was a very sad time to say the least. Please continue to pray for the family. Douglas has returned to work, but I am sure he is still very broken and grieving. A huge reason why I wanted to come to Africa was because of the disease and suffering of people, and especially children, here. I have seen it all around, but it never truly hit home until this tragic event. It hit me how real this all is. I realized that death of innocent adults and children happens every day. They die from causes that don’t exist in America. I feel like there needs to be so much more being done here. It angered me to see how selfish I am and how selfish America is as a whole. It re-ignited my passion for these people, which was much needed. I am so blessed to be here. Recently, I have really missed home. It’s been four months and American comfort sounds quite good. However, I need to continually remember serving God and these people is the best thing I could be doing with this year. It is an incredible opportunity to live alongside these people, to learn from them and to show them the love of Christ. I know God is working in me and through me in incredible ways, and His Kingdom is being furthered. That’s awesome! Please pray that my focus will stay on glorifying and God and serving Him wholeheartedly. Also, please pray that I would completely and continually give up myself. This is not about me, at all. I forget that a lot, because I am so selfish.

     Finally, I want to put forward a need. I still have around $750 that I owe the ministry. I know so many of you have already given to me, and I am so thankful for that. I would just ask that you prayerful consider supporting me further. I know by now that God will provide. I have seen Him do I constantly over the past year.  He has used you to do miracles. I remember breaking down last year, and crying out to God because I thought there was no way I could ever raise 10,000 dollars. But it turned out it wasn’t me raising it, it was God. He has called me to this, and He has been faithful every step of the way! If you would like to support me you can send a check written to Empower A Child to my home address, 596 Kimberly St., Galesburg MI, 49053. You can also go online and donate at this link: Donate on-line. Make sure you specify that it is for my ministry expenses.

     Thank you all so much for your continued prayers. I would love to hear from you, because at times it can get quite lonely here. It would be great to hear how you are doing and just to hear from my American friends. You can facebook me or send me an email at crazy4him92@sbcglobal.net. I am usually horrible at replying to people, but I promise if you write me I will promptly reply. It’s an area I need to work on. I miss you all so much. I miss my high school buddies, and just being able to go out on Friday nights to hang out. God has truly blessed me by putting incredible people in my life! Thank you for being used by God to encourage me and love me! May God bless you!

     In Christ,

           Craig