Some faces from the past. And, did they really use to travel like that?!!

We are putting together a book of old pictures of Bishop Tucker, hopefully in time for the centenary event this year. Rev John Hunter sent us this one, and I thought a lot of you might enjoy seeing it. John Hunter was a principal of the college from 1962-65, and he visited again in 1993 which is when this photo was taken. So I can name a few of the staff from 1993 but not all of them. The ones I know, l - r, are,
-----, ----- , Eliphaz Maari, ----, Elisha Mbonigaba, ----, -----, Lusania Kasamba,  John Magumba. John Hunter was here with his son Christopher. Any filling in of names appreciated...

This shows John Hunter's mother, who had lived in Uganda long before her son, travelling from Kampala to Toro circa 1909, in what they called "landies". Incredible. The road on the other hand, doesn't look much different...

Words on Re-entry from a friend

The following is an excerpt from Mark Meynell's blog, Quaerentia. Mark and Rachel are friends of ours who worked in Kampala, Uganda, at the same time as us and were also with Crosslinks. Mark blogs about all kinds of cultural, social, christian and media issues - very worth reading - but this one is about re-entry so I asked him if I could include it here - hooray for "cut and paste"! 

"It’s standard practice to help returning cross-cultural workers to anticipate the challenges of reentry. Reverse culture shock is common (though in my case, I had far greater culture shock going to South Africa for the first time, while living in Kampala, than I ever did living in East Africa or returning to London – but that’s perhaps a story for another day!).

But some of the trickiest waters to navigate come from the simple fact that the world had carried on regardless of the tumultuous experiences we’d lived through. Well, of course it had. Why should we imagine it otherwise? It takes a certain type of ego to assume the world should stop to admire every time we take a breath. But there is an exquisite sense of isolation for anyone returning home from life-changing exploits.

You can show your photos, describe the key moments, send out your newsletters. There’s only so much you can say, and so long you can go on before the subject gets changed (that’s if you’re lucky enough to encounter people who want to know about it in the first place; some seem never to exhibit any curiosity about others). But the simple truth is: while you’ll never be the same again, those at home seem still to be precisely the same. They’re still sitting in the same seats in church, they’re going through the same old routines, they’re pursuing the same old goals. Of course that is nonsense at one level: none of us is todayexactly the same person we were yesterday. It is all just a question of degree. Nevertheless, it can be painful and isolating.

We spent the last week watching the extended version of Peter Jackson’s entire Lord of the Rings trilogy – one disc an evening over six nights.... And it was magnificent – it doesn’t pall (despite my initial reluctance to sit through it again!). I saw all kinds of things I’d not seen before, inevitably.

But one of the most affecting bits this time came right at the end (in Return of the King’s notoriously drawn out but narratively essential last 20 minutes or so).

Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin have returned home at last. They canter into the Shire – the same grumpy old hobbit is sweeping his porch near the edge of Hobbiton and in the Green Dragon pub, people are singing the same old songs and laughing at the same old jokes. The four hobbits sit at their table (I seem to think we see them at the start of the very first movie at the same table) and drink their ale. Of course, outwardly they look identical.

But the scene is pitch-perfect. No one gives them the slightest glance. But they do look at and to each other. Each has endured great terrors; each carries deep scars, mental and physical. They don’t need words. It’s enough just to be together. They smile. They drink. They know.

We certainly didn’t defeat the power of Mordor in our time. But we had our own issues! And so I certainly relate to returning exiles far more readily than I ever did before.

So perhaps there’s a little challenge there. To be more aware of returning exiles. Even to ask a few gentle enquiries about what their time away might have meant can make a big difference. After all, looking after exiles has something of a kingdom resonance to it, does it not?"

Thanks, Mark!

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Slippery Slope...

My lecture today on the Preparation for Living and Working Cross-culturally course (Thrive!) was about emotional health, and keeping it. Well, hindsight is the best teacher, they say! Fortunately, I had the notes from the wonderful lady who normally teaches this lecture but is off on sabbatical. I found it enlightening and helpful as I prepared it, and I thought some bits of it might be worth posting.

Mags based the lecture on the Beatitudes (when Jesus says, "Blessed are those who..."), and suggests that they are Jesus' reflections on his experience of living cross-culturally - ie living on earth as a human being! And actually, if you read them in the light of living outside your home culture, you will notice how amazingly relevant they are...

Blessed are the poor in spirit...
Blessed are those who mourn...
Blessed are the meek...
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...
Blessed are the merciful...
Blessed are the pure in heart...
Blessed are the peacemakers...
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake...
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you...

One student pointed out that they are not qualities to be aspired to, at least, not all of them. But, they are states of mind which we will find ourselves in, in which we should rejoice because they will make us better, they will make us "blessed." So we should feel strongly our dependence on God, we should recognize our losses and grieve them, we should be meek in approaching others and another culture, we should strive to be righteous in everything we do, we should treat others with mercy, etc etc.
This last one, treating others with mercy, not judgement, is a real help when it comes to working and living alongside people of other cultures and sometimes other viewpoints, other parenting methods, other opinions...

Another part of Mags' lecture that I used and thought was very helpful is the slippery slope of the Ds:

Beware the Ds...:

Disappointment – when we fail to live up to our own expectations, or when our expectations of others or of our role are not met etc etc - we can experience disappointment which can lead to…

Doubt – of ourselves, of our calling, am I meant to be here... of God’s ability to care for us, that leads to…

Discouragement – so we begin to lose heart and lose motivation and energy, which leads to…

Depression – where our spirit is broken and that can lead to…    (= burn-out;)

Despair. Paul experienced this, see 2 Cor 1:8  Prov 18:14

Yes I get this! So I told the students, this really happens. But if you are aware of what is going on, you don't need to slide down the slope... If you feel the process starting, if you feel disappointment or resentment or if you start to doubt you are meant to be where you are, stop, and listen to it. See the flashing lights. Identify what expectation is not being met. Pray about it. If it is because your expectation was faulty, ask God to help you Let It Go. Ask him to show you what other thing he has for you, because, he does have something for you. Clearly, the further down the slope you go, the harder it is to climb back up.

Whilst our emotional health might seem like a worthy sacrifice to make for the kingdom, (as in the title of Marjory Foyle's very good book, "Honourably Wounded," about missionary stress) - I don't believe God wants us to sacrifice it, he wants us to thrive where he plants us, he wants us to be well, to be blessed. But, he knows us. It is not a sin to slide. God will bring good out of it. 

  

Too many socks...

One thing that still gets to me every week living here in the chilly northern hemisphere...

So many flipping socks!!!








And by the way, I am finding ways to keep warm...

Meeting Mrs Burkitt

This week has been a helterskelter of meeting up with old friends and new.

This week we have seen our former student friends Andrew and Carien, on a visit from the Netherlands, who taught us Carcassonne and Settlers!!! Yay! Also our friend Andy Sexton stayed with us, whose family we are very close to from Uganda days. Yay! I also spent 24 hours in Devon with my parents. We also had a Trustees meeting for UCU UK Partners and met with Tudor Griffiths, a former misionary in Mukono, from the 1970s. We also had our second ever meeting of our brand-new home group, with our new friends, former Wycliffe Ethiopia missionaries Simon and Lynn Caudwell, and another lady from our church.

On Tuesday, we drove to a small Cotswold village to meet a lady who had lived in Uganda for twenty years from 1943 to 63, Mrs Burkitt, wife of the surgeon Denis Burkitt, who worked first in Lira and then at Mulago for those twenty years.

It was a real privilege and so interesting to meet her, and to hear her stories of Uganda back in those days, taking out her young children via a six week boat voyage. Amazingly, she had masses of black and white photos, really clear and quite large, albums full - so we saw her and Denis on the shores of Lake Victoria, at the Nile Dam when it was first opened, shots of Makerere when it was a single grand building surrounded by trees and bush, a thatched bush hospital in Hoima, the Paraa ferry, and so on and so on. They were very good friends with the Taylors, which is how we got in touch with this lady.

It was like a trip into the past for us, to a green, beautiful, orderly, groomed Kampala, Mulago and Jinja, before the chaos, by the look of these photos at least, before the traffic, tarmac, potholes and pollution, before the rubbish piles at the roadsides, before the Maribou Storks. It looked so clean, tropical, and well-kept.

You might know that Denis Burkitt became very well-known for the medical discoveries he made during his work and then research in Uganda. He discovered what became called Burkitt's Lymphoma. He also discovered the importance of a high fibre diet, linking it to the prevention of colon cancer: so a book about his life was entitled "The Fibre Man." I remember my mother hearing about it on the radio and getting all excited about us eating brown rice, wholemeal flour and brown sugar, when I was very young. Although I didn't like the heavy food that resulted!

So, it was a wonderful morning, and an honour to meet Olive.  I hope we will get to visit her again and see more of the pictures and hear more stories. What struck me most, as it did when I read John Taylor's prayer letters, was that, although life was simpler maybe and Uganda less developed - no electricity, no internet, no supermarkets, no phones - still many issues of living far from home, living with househelp, learning culture, cross-cultural relationships and expectations, eating local foods, finding out how to spend days off, spending a lot of time reading, and eating with friends, were just the same as we are familiar with. Of course things have changed, and our global village may be shrinking but, missionaries are still strangers in a strange land, "bazungu," and I don't think that will ever go away.

The world we live in... again

This is ironic... Right after enthusing about how Scouts are maintaining a Christian presence in our secular country, and still encouraging boys to "do their duty to God and country" I read this as I was browsing through Christianity magazine:

"Scouts Consult on Including Atheists.

"The UK Scout "promise" may be changed to accommodate atheists and those unable to make the existing commitment.

A nationwide survey was launched last month asking members whether alternative wording should be developed.

The 105-year old organisation said the consultation was about 'finding a way to allow young people and adults who have not previously been able to join the movement to be part of the scouting adventure."

The UK scouting movement has been under pressure from secular campaigners over the religious pledge.

In October it was reported that George Pratt, an 11 -yr old from Somerset, was refused membership in his local troop after he said he was an atheist and declined to make the promise.

Assistant director Simon Carter told Christianity, "The consultation will be open until the end of January, If we do go down the pathway of offering a variation in the promise, there'll be another whole discussion around what that promise says. It's an open consultation, so even if you're not a member, you can make a comment, and we're interested in all views." Alternative versions of the promise are currently available for people of other faiths."
         Christianity February 2013 pg 10

In my opinion, non-Christians should not have to say a promise they don't mean, nor be excluded - but, don't take away the promise for everyone, just to suit the few. What will we be left with?

Alex's Promise

So pleased that Alex has joined the Boy Scouts and was invested on Friday evening. Dan and I went with him to watch the event, in a tucked-away Scout Hut, where an old boy scouter, Terry, who must be 70 if he is a day, manages to corrall a crowd of scruffy boys, make them stand in their patrols, make them all salute him, and then gives them a ton of fun every Friday evening. I take my hat off to him. It was only Alex's third time going, but his friends who have been there for a while rave about it. The moment the evenings get a bit lighter, all the meetings are held outdoors and involve being in the woods, lighting fires, learning outdoor skills. For now they seem to play wild games in the Scout Hut, and build things.

The investment included having to walk across a rickety plank bridge set up across some chairs, and then the usual exchange of questions and the promise, said with right hand held up by the ear in the three-fingered Scout salute.

"Do you know what your honour is?"   "Yes"

"So you can be trusted?"   "Yes"

"Do you know the Scout Law?"  "Yes"

"Do you know the Scout promise?"

"On my honour,
I promise that I will try my best
to do my duty to God and the Queen,
to help other people,
and to keep the Scout law."

In this very secular country where we now live, it amazed me to hear not only Alex but several other boys as well (!) promising to do their duty to God and the Queen. OK, they probably don't mean it... all of them... but, there they are, forty boys on a Friday night, laughing, playing, saluting an old man and showing him respect, inspecting their gangly green-cloth arms patched with tens of badges,
under the banner of promises of honour and trust. This is Good.

I am so glad Alex is a Scout. And I am grateful for Terry and others like him, who give their time, to give boys a chance to live well.