African Muzungu

I've never seen such compassion in a child's eyes as I did that day. I had woken up on a Saturday morning feeling pretty awful but not wanting to miss AWANA that day. So I drove myself to Kamonkoli, determined to grit my teeth and push through the pain. By the time I navigated the mess of a 'road' we're calling a highway these days and arrived at the church, my endurance was already tottering. I climbed out of my Rav4 and weakly handed over the bags of supplies to one of my boys to carry into the church. The kids were already singing, jumping, and clapping in the sanctuary as they exuded the excitement that comes when our teams of western visitors are around. 10 minutes in, and I knew the tears converging behind my eyes would soon make a full appearance. Crying and tears are just not understood or accepted here, and I knew how uncomfortable they would make the kids. I stepped outside behind the church and vainly struggled to hold back the flow. Just then, two of m...

 Can you believe it's only 7 more days until Christmas??? Neither can I! This year has just flown by, and I find myself approaching my 3rd Christmas in Uganda. While you're enjoying time with your families, I thought you also might enjoy a look at the newsletter I wrote for my mailing list, and if any of you would like to be included in future mailings, feel free to send me an email at melanie.a.may@facebook.com. (click to open image, then right click, 'view image' to enlarge) 

These past few  weeks months have been overly full! When I sit down to try and remember everything that has needed to be done in these weeks, I am just amazed. To start with, Genesis is approaching the end of its third full year of school! Which is wonderful! And hectic. Final exams needed to be typed and printed. Teacher evaluations needed to be created, printed, and administered.  We had a visiting team 2 weeks ago who spent several days at the school. And all those extras are in addition to the usual work load of supervising teachers, preparing and teaching Bible study for the teachers, planning for AWANA, putting together presentations for the AWANA clubs back in the States, taking sick children to the clinic, troubleshooting all manner of weird circumstances (like the time the school's pit toilet started caving in), etc. etc. etc. And all of that adds up to early mornings and long days. Annnnd in the middle of it all, I'm needing to find a...

So in an unexpected answer to prayer, while a couple of our staff members were searching through old boxes, they found......AN AWANA CIRCLE!!!!! The ministry must have had it from a looooong time ago, because none of my leaders remember ever seeing/using it. But the point is, it's there! And on Saturday we had our first AWANA club using it for our game time. The kids loved it! The leaders loved it! And that's a good great thing. Buuuut it comes with an addition prayer request.... this circle is is just barely big enough to accommodate the kids we have coming now... and we're definitely expecting even more to come as word gets out about the new program we're doing. So we could really use a second circle, and soon. But since God answered our first prayer even before we asked, I'm sure He's got this one under control too :) Even so, I'd so appreciate it if you'd ask Him for another one for us! Annnnd.... Just because the frequent visitation of our fu...

Last year, we had cows in  the cornfield Handbook Time...... This year, we have chickens in the games circle. No matter what we're doing here in Kamonkoli, it's bound to have surprises! Saturday we had an all day training for our AWANA leaders by two trainers from the AWANA offices in Kampala. ( AWANA is a Bible memorization program started in the States and used internationally to teach and train children in the Word of God. See awana.org ) We were so pleased to have them, and to be trained well by them. While HUM has been doing AWANA for many years now, we have been in need of some fresh motivation and inspiration...as well as new material and training on how to use it! And while the training on the material was necessary and beneficial, our leaders definitely had the most fun with the games training! This was the first time for many of them to see an AWANA games circle, and if you haven't either, here's how they're set up: Translated int...

Just to make your day awesome... a video of our AWANA kids singing one of their favorite songs, Talemwa. Translated, it means: Our God will not fail: He grabs Satan and shakes him and shakes him all around, then kicks him and he falls down to hell. And this is just one reason my life in Africa is so awesome. Potholes, cockroaches, delays, language barriers, confusion, and difficulties. None of them outweigh the joy even one of these little ones brings! And in the end, they're right. My God will NEVER fail!

As a missionary, change is just part of the job description! I guess it’s a good thing God made me the adventuresome type, ‘cause each new change definitely brings yet another adventure! Now you may be clued in by now that since I’m talking about change, that must be because there’s been another change. I know, rocket science. And you would be right!  As of this month I have officially transferred from being a missionary with Tentmakers Bible Mission to a wonderful ministry called HUM (Hines Ugandan Ministries). I know, how appropriate (being called Melody and all…)!  This ministry was started in 1999 by a wonderful lady named Katherine Hines. While I was in Uganda, I was so impressed by her staff and ministry that I began praying about if the Lord would want me to partner with her. You know what He said? YES!  HUM’s ministry is pretty extensive, but the parts that I will be participating in are the primary school and the AWANA club. Katherine has asked...