Day Fourteen, April 28:

When I was a patrolman, civilians would often ride along with me to witness firsthand what police do. Today, I got to do a similar thing only with the shoe on the other foot. We spent the day with Steve and Gina Gant, who welcomed us to tag along with them as they attended a Wells of Hope devotion and staff meeting, then spent much of the day shopping for a van for the ministry. What an eye-opener seeing the ministry from the inside like that! Oh, and every missionary probably wishes they could watch someone else shop for a car before they are forced to learn from experience when they have to do it themselves.

Our lunch stop today was at a restaurant called "Daytona" so it was like we are near home. Okay not really. Great food though: roast pork, Matooke, and greens!

In the afternoon, we were met at the Good Africa Coffee shop (sort of Africa's version of Starbucks) with Mark "Boog" Ferrell, who did his best to sum up the ministry of 60 Feet in a brief meeting over coffee and orange juice. The ministry's website (www.sixtyfeet.org) explains their mission better than I could, but I will say that advocacy and support for incarcerated children is the thrust of this ministry, since many children are only incarcerated waiting for it to be convenient for authorities to release them.

It was nice to have Steve and Gina at the meeting with Boog. One neat thing that keeps happening is the more we talk about what I have seen and heard from other missionaries, the more I find that some coordination between them would answer many of their needs. This one has a metalworks shop while that one needs metal bunk beds. This one needs inexpensive travel accommodations while that one runs a hostel or guest house. This one needs someone to transport quilts to the US while that one needs something in their empty suitcases so they can pack zip-closure bags, children's toys, and other such coveted items back home with them. While we were sitting in that meeting, Cindy began to write on a piece of paper. As Steve began to speak of how nice it would be to have a conference to join the interests and resources of Ugandan missionaries, the thought struck Cindy vocal, as she revealed what she had been scribbling: a Uganda Missionary Conference, which we all thought would be a good idea.

Our meeting with Boog was brief on account of the van hunting appointments, so we exchanged contact cards and invited one another to stay in touch.

After our van hunt proved unfruitful but successful, in that the ministry did not jump at the first four-wheel drive van that came along, we headed home. While the girls started dinner, Steve accompanied me on a walk down the busy road to a produce market about a kilometer away. While we talked we considered the possibility of me running an ambulance, and visiting the Wells of Hope Academy on certain planned days to man a clinic and perhaps take a mobile clinic to the villages when their family tracing efforts uncover a need for it. It is a possibility. I still don't know where or how God will have me serve here. We returned home a little after dark (which is a no-no) with avocado, mango, banana, pineapple, onions and tomato, to share with our hosts. Gina made a delightful beef with broccoli dish which she served over rice, accompanied by several fruits we brought from the market.

After Steve and I finished the dishes and comparing music preferences and collections, the four of us hung out and goofed around on our electronic gadgets, sharing interesting bits as we crossed them until bedtime. I'm certain these folks are family and not only new friends!

Day Thirteen, April 27:

Steve and Gina Gant prepared our breakfast and graciously explained the ministry of Wells of Hope (www.WellsOfHope.org). They take the true religion of James 1:27, tending to the needs of the orphans and widows, and combine it with visiting the imprisoned and meeting the needs of the needy which Jesus commended in Matthew 25:36.

James 1:27 NIV
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Matthew 25:36 NIV
I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Wells of Hope, and therefore Gant Ministries, visits men in prison, encouraging them, discipling them, and caring for them. One of their greatest needs is for someone to check on and care for their families. Wells of Hope does that. They go out and find the families, bring back photos, reunite children who have sometimes been told their fathers have been executed or died in prison, and they work to ensure the fathers have a place in the lives of their families, even if a small one. Furthermore, Wells of Hope operates a school and home for the children of these prisoners, who often have no one else to care for them. This is called the Wells of Hope Academy, where we attended church service today.

We drove for about an hour and a half to get to the Academy, the last few kilometers of which was through a swamp which overwhelmed the roadway in several places. The swampy landscape is what Steve credited for the affordability of the land on which the Academy is situated.

When we pulled up to the complex, we found two large white buildings: a dormitory and a school, with one large thatched-roof shelter in between them. Under the shade of that shelter on a concrete slab were about forty-five of the most precious little worshippers I've ever seen, singing, clapping, and dancing in the name of Jesus. One of their teachers preached, but then a few of the children preached too, and did an excellent job! Ella, a volunteer who is a children's music teacher by profession, led worship, and the children really worshipped the Lord like I have never seen kids of that age do. They weren't just singing, but each one was praying and loving God in an individual way. It was fantastic!

When church was over Steve and Gina took us on a tour of the facility. The dormitories were nicely constructed and adequately furnished, but with wooden furniture, and the state instructed them to replace the wood bunks with metal. The classrooms of the school were empty because the kids dragged all the combination bench-desk pieces of furniture out to the church shelter for prayer meeting and would carry them all back in when it was over. They could use some benches just for the meeting shelter.

We saw how the ministry works with what it has and is seeking to make it better. Steve talked about future plans for upgrading facilities, improving land for productive purposes like farming, and working to include the children in keeping their campus nice. We saw the chicken house, the piggery, the only cow, and we walked to the nearest borehole well, where all the kids have to go to fetch their personal bathing water. They carry it in Gerry-cans, big plastic canisters reminiscent of the fuel cans used by the Germans in World War 2 (thus the name), and have it poured over themselves as there is no running water in much of Uganda. Being among these children and worshipping in such simple purity was refreshing, and seeing how Wells of Hope is caring for the children of the imprisoned was inspiring. Being with the Gants was a lot of fun too. Steve and I are two peas in a pod!

We kept the Gants up again, this time Steve and I swapped war-stories from his Navy experience and my police career. We must have bored the girls, because we found ourselves alone laughing at each other's anecdotes. We are having a great time!

Day Twelve, April 26:

I misspoke about our driver, Anthony, yesterday. He is not Busoga, but Buganda. He confirmed that the Busoga people are very poorly resourced and a main target group for missionaries in Jinja.

He accompanied us to the Noah's Ark Children's Home (www.nacmu.org), where we met Peter Buitendijk, the CEO and founder. When we entered the property we thought we had entered a highly organized village, and security personnel directed us to the proper building. After we parked, a small child of about five greeted us and asked what we were there for. When we told him, he took Cindy's hand and escorted us to "Pappa," which is everyone's nickname for Peter. We were guided past huge buildings of western design and quality, and invited to sit on comfortable patio furniture outside a large, beautiful house. Inside the house, a Dutch man of imposing stature tended to business, addressed employees and dealt with someone on the phone, with all the appearance of a business tycoon or political leader of a small country. A few minutes later, Peter emerged and greeted us as if we were no distraction at all. He asked us our story and after showing slight amusement at our explanation, told us his. From his teen years as a misfit among his peers and exceptionally gifted bucker of systems and reinventor of wheels, aided by his wife whom he married at age 17 by permission of the queen of Holland, he started a life of enterprise and ingenuity, which flourished everywhere he went. When he got bored reinventing metal works in Holland, he began smuggling Bibles into Soviet countries. When that was no longer an adventure, he turned to missionary work, and since 2006, has carved out of this mountainside forest a complete village to sustain orphans and school children. With supporters from the US, UK, Germany, Holland, and other places, he credits God, the owner of all cattle on all hills with resourcing his vision for this enterprise. He didn't say how many children he ministers to, but with just under 200 employees, trucks, tractors, cars, intermodal containers, and thousands of acres of farmland and investment property, workshops, every level of school there is, and more children than I could estimate, he is a patriarch. He works on simple principles: if it's not good enough for me then it's not good enough for my kids; waste nothing but repurpose and reuse everything; use good business sense buying low and selling high; God's way works best. He uses the last one I mentioned as his first priority, requiring no less from his employees and business contacts. He is a wise man of enterprise, and he has obviously combined that with his heart for children quite successfully.

When we left Noah's Ark, we began to question the faith of ourselves and of mission endeavors which seemed to struggle, always at the brink of financial disaster. Peter's ideas pivoted on the supposition that if God is truly one's resource, His bounty would accompany His directive. Still, he cautioned that Uganda is difficult on new ministries, and said few last longer than ten years. Witnessing this vast children's project brought a strange mix of emotions that just left me with more questions than answers. It challenged the expectation that God's ministers live by daily provision and that blind faith drives beat-up cars and second-hand clothes. Godliness apparently does not require poverty.

Mukono, by the way, is considered the center for ancestor worship and dark arts in Uganda.

On to our friends Stephen and Gina Gant! These are folks we had heard very little about. Terri Terrill, a friend of mine from work told me she had friends who were missionaries in Uganda but knowing there are many, I gave it little thought until she actually connected me with them. The Gants invited us to stay with them in the capital city of Kampala, and were eager to introduce us to Wells of Hope, the ministry with which they are affiliated (www.wellsofhope.org). We followed the detailed directions to their house, and were allowed onto the compound in which their house and several of their neighbors' houses are situated. Warm smiles, firm handshakes, and the friendly barking of their sweet, silly dog, Molly, made us right at home. As we got to know one another it was uncanny how much alike we are. Not only so, but we discovered we were neighbors back home, with our houses less than a mile and a half apart. Stephen and I are about the same age, and he just retired from the Navy just before I retired from the Sheriff's Office. They made recommendations, encouraged us, and warned us about pitfalls of doing business in Uganda. We four had fun talking about ministry and the growth of our faith and relished the fellowship until yawns got long and eyes got droopy. I never know when to hush! It was tough, but I let them get some sleep, and we retired to our guest room. There were three.