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!

Dedication of the Lunyole book of Acts

This weekend we traveled east to witness the dedication of the book of Acts, in the language of Lunyole. This is the third and final Scripture dedication that they’ll have before they dedicate the entire New Testament in about three or four years. In 2006 they dedicated the newly published Gospel of Mark and then in 2007 the “T-Epistles”, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon and James. I have been to them all but Acts was the first dedication for my kids.

Ella LOVED it. People. Dancing. Singing. Playing on a mat with sticks and immature mangos. Heaven for a kid like L!

Frankie did great too but being as he’s not quite the social butterfly and only two, not quite as much as his enthusiastic sister. This was his first cross country trip and he did great however! And thank goodness, no sullen pouting (which, when sitting in the backseat, would I even have noticed?)!

The dedication was held in the far north of Butaleja district, in an area of rather marginalized Banyole. The normal road that would be used to get there was washed out by the previous rains so we had to drive up through Mbale and over to Busiu, then south to get to it. The funny thing is, we used the exact same little two rut road that goes by the Compassion center where my Mom’s sponsored child, Justice, goes!

The day was beautiful, the skies clear and blue!

We had a small convoy. One guy and his family in a big 4x4 SUV, the organizations big 4x4 van, then me in my little Toyota Corona : -) We traveled about 16 km on a little two rut road and my little car did marvelously! Sometimes the road was there and sometimes...

... only half of it was!

At this point I was beginning to wonder if me and my kids would need to be hauled out on a bike ;) I drove over this with the car tipped sideways so that the under parts of my car wouldn’t be ripped out. The first time over the kids slept, the second time over they hooted and cheered. I love my kids : -)

It was a little hard to concentrate on driving and taking pictures, but I did manage to snap a few. I liked this one with the little hut in between the big rocks which seemingly came from no where.

It was a little adventure getting to the dedication sight. Once there the guys manly chest beating for driving over the rough terrain (neither have ever driven Montana roads!) was pretty much put to a halt when I popped out of my Toyota Corona with my two chipper little kids. I actually heard someone say, “It’s a good thing we brought our bigger car!” (the big 4x4 SUV), to which I replied, “Yep, good thing I brought my 4x4 too!” And I wonder why some men are annoyed by me or my family makes them uncomfortable... ;) Ha ha!

Our trusty outfit

The dedication was supposed to start at 10:30 am but when we got there at 12 there was hardly any people there. Not unusual for an event here but we were surprised at the extreme lack of an audience. Because of the area and the rain that had been washing out roads, the turnout was lower than usual when it started two hours later.

While we were waiting, the kids and I checked out this small herd of cows.

I think Ella is wondering which one she wants her brother to tackle for her. The prettiest one of course!

Here Ella wants to head back to the people and Frankie wants to stay with the cows. Gotta love their two very different personalities!

This was the choir of about 200 students from the primary school, that sang and danced.

A sermon from a local pastor

Ella started out playing on the mat with the neighbors baby while the preacher preached, but the once the dancing started...

... She was right in the front row! She was so cute sitting up right next to the literacy guys with the table full of the Acts and other Lunyole booklets.

I tried to use the opportunity to explain simply to Ella what was going on, with the translation of Bible stories (she doesn’t quite know about books of the Bible yet) into a language that the Banyole people could understand, and how this was the reason I went to work at the office everyday. I’m not sure how much of it really sunk in. She was mostly just enamored with the dancing!

Enoch and Gesa.

Enoch (left) started out as a linguist and helped get the Lunyole language written down with an alphabet. Then he was the head of the translation team, and then moved on to being a translation consultant for all the translation projects in Uganda. His heart is still with “his” bible translation project though!

Gesa, right, has been the Lunyole translation project leader for about a year and a half now, and is one of the guys I supervise. Both are delightful fellows, who are fun to work with and I can learn a lot from. They were both previously pastors.

By 3 o’clock the place had filled up a bit more. These men area few of the eager audience.

They were pretty attentive! Well, except for Enoch. He looks like he has a headache... Or perhaps he’s just thinking?

Gesa giving his speech

The kids and I left at 3:30pm, right after Gesa’s speech, because we had to get to Jinja (about 170 miles away) that night before dark. I did NOT want to get stuck on that road in the rain or after dark! It’s a good thing that we did too because the dedication didn’t end until two hours later when it started to pour down rain. By that time we were almost in Jinja, where I’d made reservations to stay for the night.

Even though things didn’t work out quite as was planned, with the washed out road, late start and over 250 miles driven, we all had a marvelous time. God kept us safe on the roads which is nothing to be taken for granted as road travel here is really dangerous. Also, the kids had fun and didn’t get too tired or hungry. Quite an accomplishment for a two and five year old who had gotten out bed at 5:30am!

I loved getting out of Entebbe and seeing some beautiful scenery, not to mention driving through villages and seeing the different animals and “average” Ugandan people. Makes me much more grateful for what the Lord has given me (especially my beautiful Ugandan children!) and for the work that I’m involved in here in Uganda.