Uganda Invitation from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

The next two trips we have lined up are May 25-June 3 (for college students) and June 8-18th.  For more information and to get in on this trip just email  Brian Johnson – brian@cornerstonebuzz.org…deadline is February 21st, 2010.

Read more posts on our partnership with Uganda.

Grasshopper Snack from Josh Agerton on Vimeo.

But we had much more happen on this trip beyond grasshoppers.  It was a great time to be with the leaders of Buloba Community Church and spend some time visioning and planning for the next few years together in our partnership.  More to come…working on some videos that tell more of the story.

Should be another great trip.  Be on the lookout here for more posts.  Hoping to keep the updates coming as the week goes along…all depending on internet access.

The Story of Buloba Community Church from Josh Agerton on Vimeo.

Trip is going great so far. We spent the morning at Bethany Village, a community for orphans started out of Gaba Community Church. They have 177 kids living there in homes of about 15 kids each…along with house parents. Each household becomes a family unit, dividing up chores of cooking, working the garden etc. and the kids all go to school there. It’s an amazing place of hope that is changing this world. I love it because it is such a place of redemption. Despair is turned into gladness, sorrow turned into joy. Orphans with nothing transformed into next generation Christian leaders.

We had a good lunch in Kampala then spent the rest of the afternoon in Buloba. The folks there are so grateful for the child sponsorships and support. We’re really beginning to see the affects of our partnership with them. The new church building now has all it’s walls and a roof. The original church building has now been converted to an office and two classrooms. A full time social worker from ARM (African Renewal Ministry) now works out of the office in the church to manage all of the child sponsorship stuff. They are doing an amazing deal with that and I’m so impressed with how organized they all are.

And I finally got to meet Miriam, the little 5 year old that our family is sponsoring. She’s a cute little girl how does not say a lot but loves to hold hands. She calls me her “American Friend” and stayed glued to me the whole time I was there. We are going to celebrate her birthday together tomorrow (turning 5).

Also got to see the new well that was put in last year. We sat around and watched the kids jump up and down on the lever, pumping fresh water out. This is so huge for this community. On my last trip a year ago these same kids were walking ½ mile to get water from a dirty run off drain pipe. So I look at this well now and just see a great act of love. It has been amazing to see both sides of this story. How people at Cornerstone rallied around this cause and then how lives in Buloba are being affected. This has been a kingdom investment. These folks are so grateful to Cornerstone for the support, hence the sign by the well.

We have a great team here and we’re having a lot of fun together…hearing bits of each others stories along the way. More to come in a day or so. Internet connection not so good here…TIA.

Also,  keep an eye out on Andi’s Blog.  She’s making good updates with pictures each day as well.

So here I am in Amsterdam at 2:15am CST. But over here it’s 9:15am. My body is beginning to get a little confused. The first leg of our trip was great…about 9 hours (saw a sunset and sunrise). Waiting a little longer here then on another 9 hour flight to Entebbe, Uganda.

I’m beginning to prepare myself for these next days ahead. I’m excited about what God has in store for each person on our team and those we will encounter. But at the same time I’m a bit heavy from leaving Leslie and the kids. It was a particularly tough good-bye this time. Benjamin especially was not too keen on Daddy leaving. So please pray for us all in this…especially Leslie.

Right now I’m in a pretty ritzy airport (I’m sitting right across from a spa). But on the next landing we will be in a much different place. I remember last time driving from the airport to the place where we stay and how tough it was to see those images of poverty along the way. It is a shock to the heart when you have not been exposed to it in a while so I expect to experience some of that again.

Well that’s it for now…about to run out of Wi-Fi. More to come later.

Really looking forward to this time with special Ugandan friends…especially Miriam Namatovu, the 4 1/2 year old little girl that our family is sponsoring.  Rocked my world last year and really shaped my heart in new ways.  Sure it will happen again.  Looking forward to living the African pace of life for 10 days.  I have much to learn from these friends.

But what I loved about Timothy was that he was such a servant.  He was technically working as one of our translators but he did so much more than that. In Buloba he walked beside me up from the well, carrying a 40 lb jerry can full of water. He dug ditches with us for the footings of the new church walls. And I mean this dude could dig…I nicknamed him “the machine”. He drove our van everywhere we went for 10 days. When we would get back home in the evenings he would stand outside and help the ladies who were cooking dinner for our team.

And then finally, on Sunday I’m sitting there in Gaba Community Church with about 500 people worshiping. I look across the room and guess who is standing there behind a video camera shooting the service? Yep…It’s Timothy.

But the thing about Timothy was that he could have easily played the “that’s not my job” card. He could have hung out at the van while we went down to the well. He could have sat off to the side while we dug ditches. He could have gone in the house and rested from a long day while others finished preparations for the meal. He could have asked others to share in the driving. He could have let someone else take care of filming the service. But he didn’t…he served.

I see Jesus in Timothy. He embodies what Paul talks about when he writes to the Philippians…

You attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant. Philippians 2:5-7

Timothy did not hold on to his rank. He was not entitled. He didn’t say “That’s not my job”. He had eyes to see needs and a heart to fill them. He took on the very nature of the one he follows and became a servant. I learned so much from Timothy. Want to be like him.

This is Mariam, a 76 year old woman who lives just across from Buloba Community Church in Uganda. After arriving in Buloba our first day she came out onto her front porch and insisted that all 10 of us come into her home for a visit. Once we were all in she made her way to the back of her home and returned with a stalk of sugar cane (the Snickers bar of Uganda).

But beyond her hospitality what makes Mariam so special is that she is unable to walk. She gets around completely by crawling on her hands and knees. It was humbling to sit while she served each of us a cut of sugar cane… chopping it up into bite size pieces like she had done it a thousand times. Then suddenly she crawled off to the back corner of the room.

A few of us looked at each other wondering what she was up to. Then we watched as she pulled back a chair that was hidden away in the corner. After getting it in just the right position she tugged at Hiram’s pants leg, instructing him to sit down. She had gone to get a chair for him so that he would not have to stand. We chewed on sugar can and laughed for about a half an hour while this saint served us. Watching this all happen was a perfect picture of what Paul talks about when he’s writing to the Philippians…

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phil 2:3-4

We have much to learn from people like Mariam.

It’s been interesting to adjust back to this timezone. We got back around 4pm on Thursday but my body was thinking it was midnight. So I’ve been working out the kinks to get back to CST. It’s a little akward…tired in the afternoons and waking up in the middle of the night.

But in the same way my body has been adjusting, I feel like there is some internal heart adjusting that’s going on as well. I keep thinking about what my friends over there are doing…working in their gardens; collecting eggs to hopefully sell at the market; working on a meal for later on; carrying water a few times a day up from the run off well; more digging for the footings & foundation of the church walls. My heart really breaks for the people in Buloba. There is so much work to be done there.

Then I think what would it be like for these people to be with me here and go where I have been in the last two days…Target; Winn Dixie; downtown Auburn; McDonald’s (Happy meal for the kids); my kitchen with dishwasher and refrigerator (which actually makes ice). It is really doing a number on me that I can’t fully explain. At the grocery store yesterday I was overcome with a paradox of feelings. I feel so grateful but at the same time I’m conflicted with the mass of consumerism, material possessions, and opportunity for instant gratification that we live with. It is so easy for us to get caught up in our little world and not realize the strife that a majority of people in this world deal with. This reminds me of something I wrote about a number of years ago when I went to a Hunger Banquet (read about it here).

So this is just where I am. If you’ve been to a third world country you’ll know what I’m talking about.

God is good all the time.