Dedication of the Lugwere book of Acts!

This weekend we had the privilege of attending another Scripture dedication! We journeyed to Budaka, in eastern Uganda, just 30 km’s this side of Mbale, to see the Lugwere book of Acts dedicated and launched. We had a great time!

These dedications are always so good for me. It can get a bit monotonous sitting in an office in Entebbe week after week, not really seeing the fruit of the labors of your work. It doesn’t exactly fulfill those visions I had in college that my life as a “missionary” would be! As well as coordinating all the translation consultant checks, supervising the translators and managing all the project finances, my job also includes organizing the publication of these Scripture portions. Lots of paper work which involves applying for funding, arranging for a typesetter and getting the finished project to the printers. So its always fun to see a portion of Scripture dedicated that I a hand in arranging the consultant checks and publishing for!

Now that I have children, it also a privilege to be able to show them just why we live in Uganda and why I have to go to work everyday. It’s also a great opportunity to get them out of Entebbe into “real” Uganda and for them to experience some more Ugandan cultures and traditions. Discover their Ugandan “roots” so to speak (how politically correct am I?? Ha!).

Lynette, Jaja Jennifer, Frankie and L

The kids and I traveled up with our good friend and colleague, Jennifer, and her niece, Lynnette. Jennifer is the finance manager for the outfit that I work with so we work together quite a bit and she’s depended upon a lot. She has also been my surrogate mother and a good stand in Jaja for the kids. We don’t get together as much as I’d like so it was a great opportunity to spend some time together!

We arrived a bit before the dedication ceremony started, so convened with some other friends from our organization, at the Lugwere office. Lynette and Frankie share the same furrowed brow!

My little munchkins : -)

Our friends and colleagues, Lydia and Enoch, with Frank. If Frankie ends up half the Christian man Enoch is, I will be blessed!

We are so blessed with good friends! Lydia is a member of our organization and Enoch is a translation consultant. He started out in the Lunyole project as a linguist, translator and project leader, and then moved on into translation consultancy. I work with him a lot. My Ugandan friends and colleagues have really opened up their arms to and accepted my kids, which means a LOT to me.

At the dedication Frankie had the good fortune of being given a really cool bug (the boy LOVES insects!). It looked like a super duper lady bug on steroids! This picture is of the two of them examining it. Ella really wanted to commandeer it but I quickly diverted her.

Ella was truly a crack up. She saw the group of men in nice black suits milling around setting up the sound system, organizing things, etc, and was right in the middle of it! It was so funny to look out between the tents and see all those big men in black suits and little pink Ellster scampering around in the middle of them!

Ella then spotted these men tuning up their instruments and had to join in!

Score a musical instrument for L! She got a little hands on experience in the musical instrument department. She LOVED it!

L’s a natural on the drum! This is your usual Ugandan drum, made out of cow hide

This is Ella sitting on a traditional musical instrument that is also made out of cowhide. It’s like a cross between a harp, a drum and a chair! It’s usually straddled and the strings played like a harp, as well as occasionally being whapped like a drum.

I thought this was a pretty cool rendition of the traditional cowhide little harp thingy, made out of tin, wood, wire strings and...

... nails! It made some pretty good music, too!

This little Mugwere dude liked to play too! Little guys like him are the reason I go to work everyday – he’ll grow up being able to hear, understand and hopefully READ and study the Bible in his own language!

Here are some musical instruments in use (Ella wasn’t asked to join as she hadn’t perfected her art yet)

The Bagwere have LOTS of very enthusiastic, good, choirs -many of which performed in the dedication. They all involve dancing, usually tell a story and are often like a skit. So even if you don’t understand Lugwere you can sometimes still follow along!

Little Ella planted herself in the front row, right alongside the guest of honor, so that she wouldn’t miss any of the dancing and singing action. She is an incredibly odd five year old – she patiently suffered through the many speeches, in Lugwere no less, without complaint because she knew that another choir would follow! It was hot too, and she was sitting right in the sun. She had a little program that she would occasionally come back to “discuss” with me to see where we were at and to look where the next dancing would be. All done in extreme seriousness with a furrowed brow. And we were at this event for over four hours before we had to leave! Give her a tent, plastic chair, people, singing, and dancing and this kid is fine!

My favorite was when one of the speakers asked the "[our organization] team from Entebbe" to stand up and little Ella in the front row was the first to stand! So cool that she actually feels part of the team too :).

Here is Sam, the Lugwere Project Leader, on the right, giving his speech. He is an incredible man. He started working on translating the Lugwere New Testament in the 70’s, completely on his own initiative. This man has dedicated his life to seeing that his people can read and understand the Word of God in their own language. He is also one of the most kind, gentle, humble men I have ever met. If Frank turns out half the man Sam is, I will be blessed!

I never realized before how much liquid intake a five and two year old can take on a hot day, or how often they need to pee. If one wasn’t needing to go the other one was! Many trips were made to the bushes : -) Old Auntie Lydia stepped in once to escort L since I had a sleeping Frankie on my lap. Unfortunately he’d also had a lot of water, was sleeping really hard and let loose. Jennifer tried to give me comfort by telling me of a saying in her language (Lumasaba) that if a child loves you enough they’ll pee on you, or something like that. Um, whatever!I still had a wet spot on my lap!