"We have no house, but we have homes everywhere we go"

"We need to quietly make friends with people; steadfastly stay the course. Jesus said, in training His disciples. "Go out and take nothing with you. Go out and make friends!" ...When the vision of our ministry matches what God has called people to do, they will help us carry out the work. When Jesus sent the disciples out with nothing at all, it put them in a vulnerable place - where they were completely dependent on God. They could not trust their own security or providence, but only in God. What is beautiful with the early Christians is that they were not just to wait around on God to rain down manna from Heaven, but they were also to make friends and trust that people along the way would take care of them and welcome them into their homes. It put the early Christians in a position where not only were they to practice hospitality, but were also to be dependent upon recieving it. As one of the early Christians said, 'We have no house, but we have homes everywhere we go.'" - John Perkins and Shane Claiborne, Follow Me to Freedom

It has been almost exactly a year now since David and I moved out of our apartment so that we could leave our full time jobs and really launch this ministry, UTST. We have lived in a camper. We have also lived for periods of time with many, many of our friends. And family. We just finished up a three week circle of the southern states where we visited many old friends and made many new friends, and shared the stories of our friends in East Africa. This post is a thank you. Thank you for being a community so like this early Church that is talked about in the quote above. Thank you for taking care of us. Thank you for loving sacrificially.

When we first started this journey, mentors told us that God would provide for our needs, but it might not look exactly like we expect. Well friends, it looks a lot like you. Thank you :)

We are on our way back to the stl right now. If you are there, see ya soon!
- Katie and David

This one is about the things that scare me.

Since we have been back from East Africa, we have been working to take months worth of video footage and compile is into a series of visual stories that share the heart of our work in Kenya and Uganda, and the lives of the people we work with there. I have been so excited to share all these things with the whole world. So for about three weeks, we are visiting friends and churches all throughout the southern US to share this thing.

This is where I get a little scared. There are a lot of things I am not scared of. There are also a lot of things I am terified of that I am constantly having to shove myself out the door to do anyways.

I am a behind the scenes person, naturally. I seriously dislike being the center of attention. And yet I constantly constantly  find myself up speaking, singing, leading stuff, and trying to say a big no to my introverted side. Good thing His power works best in our weakness. I am banking on that.

So this week I am a little scared. I have been given several opportunities in all these cities to stand up in boldness and share my heart, and hopefully raise up a good support network for UTST, but I fear the criticism of others. We made a "documentary," but we are not videographers or cinematographers in the least. Yikes. Yet, I find so many people opening their doors and welcoming us in. I love the people I work within East Africa, and i have the monumental privelege of sharing their stories.  So here we go.

The Last Month

Living in East Africa is a lot of things. I've always loved this place for its natural beauty, simplicity, joyful people, and unwavering sense of hope. We are constantly surrounded by a community that we have come to love so dearly, friends that we can laugh at anything with, and an abundance of avocados and mangoes. But it also takes an incredible amount of patience and flexibility. It takes a lot of letting go of expectations and control. It takes being willing to accept that most things are just not going to go your way. And that it's ok, because your way is not always the best way.

Now, remember that back in the US, we live in a rolling pop-up camper. Our life here is actually slightly more cushy than it is back there! The fact that the most simple, every day tasks such as getting a cup of water, taking a shower, cooking, or trying to log on to the internet take a lot of time and effort is not an unfamiliar thing. Sometimes doing these things in a simpler way makes me feel more human. 

Throughout the middle of March, we had friends from the US come to visit, and we ran around Uganda and Kenya non-stop. I was really impressed at how successful we were at making the most of their time here! (Why is David never in any pictures? He is always the one taking them.)

But after these past few weeks, I feel tired. Nairobi is incredibly loud, chaotic, crowded, and dirty. It is packed to the brim with innovative and hard working human beings, and I've been blessed to get to live among it all. I'm just a little tired. 

We have only a few more weeks here before we head back to the US and almost immediately hit the road again. We are putting together a show that combines live music with a documentary that introduces people to some of our wonderful friends here, and the stories they have to tell. We are really hoping that it connects people to the ongoing work here in powerful ways, and helps raise much needed program funds. That's what is next for us! I'll be sending out a newsletter about more specific happenings here in East Africa soon. But first, sleep!

Mexican food in Africa

This boy. I'm really proud of him. When we first started talking about pursuing ministry in East Africa, he was on board with no hesitations.  He left a lot of things he loves to come here with me - friends, musical instruments, consistent internet... and food. He's flexible. On days he doesn't feel well, he keeps going. He makes sure I'm eating and resting. He makes me take my vitamins. We're best friends. We're a really strong team. He wants me to be nothing but who God made me to be, and trusts me in this, and in life, in a way that really humbling. We don't always look like your average couple. Sometimes people make remarks to him that would seem offensive, because he isn't quite the "machismo" that culture would expect. But he rolls with the punches and turns them into jokes, and is completely comfortable being who God has made him to be. And I love this beyond words.

Since we've been in Kenya, he has been cooking every night. He and our friend Tom have been coming up with really good adaptations of all kinds of food - pizza, quesadillas, fajitas, curries, and last night - my favorite of all favorites in the whole world - fish tacos. Homemade tortillas, fresh vegetables, and whole fish straight from Lake Victoria. Wow. I just have to brag a little.

Quick Update from Nairobi

A quick update –

We spent the last few weeks in Uganda, helping a community organization lay the groundwork for a community development project and children’s home. We hopefully will have more updates on this project as it comes along!

We just arrived in Nairobi a few days ago, and are working to plan with the leaders for what will be accomplished during our time here. We haven’t met with the community members yet, but we’re really excited to see them again. We will hopefully be able to gather a lot of good information, and re-launch our sponsorship and support programs on the US side really soon!

Thoughts from David

Hi everyone, this is David! I know you all hear a lot from Katie, considering that she loves to write and this is her blog and all... but an update from me is well overdue.

There is a song that plays over and over again on the radio every Christmas. Maybe you find yourself singing to it like I do, but we don't think through what we are singing, (although we could say this about most of what's on the radio these days). I hummed along with this song for years, without ever realizing what the words were saying. This Christmas, the words to this song left me particularly puzzled. Here's what they say -

But say a prayer to pray for the other ones 

At Christmastime 

It's hard, but when you're having fun 

There's a world outside your window 

And it's a world of dread and fear 

Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears 

And the Christmas bells that ring there 

Are the clanging chimes of doom 

Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you 

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime 

The greatest gift they'll get this year is life 

Oh, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow 

Do they know it's Christmastime at all? 

Here's to you, raise a glass for everyone 

Here's to them, underneath that burning sun 

Do they know it's Christmastime at all? 

-Band-Aid (Bob Geldof)

Now, to be fair, this song was written in the 1980s to raise money in response to a terrible drought and famine that was going on in the Eastern part of the continent. However, I feel like the words to this song represent a lot of the perceptions that people in the US (including myself in the past), have had about this gigantic part of the world. After all Africa (a continent, not a country) is quite large.

The past few years in life have turned a lot of the stereotypes I grew up believing about Africa completely around. The song that I mentioned talks about nothing ever growing here. It talks about no rivers flowing here. And it assumes that they don't know it's Christmastime at all. (And based on that assumption, it also indicates that there are no Christians here).

Over the past week, my experiences have been 100% opposite of the stereotypes indicated by the lyrics to this popular Christmas song. I have driven hours and hours through the greenest landscapes that I've ever seen! Up and down hills that are surrounded by trees. They are growing everywhere. You can't look outside and not see plants growing bananas, jack fruit, pineapple, sweet potato, mango, avocado, sugar cane, maize, plantain, coffee bean, rice.. And those are just the ones I have heard of.  Also there are rivers that flow here. We actually saw the Nile River. It's debatably the longest river in the world and it is beautiful. They do celebrate Christmas here. We arrived just as couple weeks after Christmas and there are still decorations up everywhere. Within the first 10 days of being here I have been to 4 different churches. Each congregation was alive with enthusiasm, engaged in the message, and excited to welcome us into the worship service with them.

Now I know it seems like I'm just bashing this catchy holiday classic, but I really just wanted to share with you that my experience has been different here. And I think you deserve to hear it.

So you may be wondering why I wanted to come here, and what my role is.

Katie spent time in Africa as we were teenagers, and she started sharing stories with me. But these stories about people and their lives there sounded different from the stereotypes that I had heard and believed as a kid. It was actually very encouraging to hear these people and their stories. They actually weren't as "different" as I had heard. And eventually it clicked inside me that They are not only just people but that they also are equally loved by God.   Now the question that I held onto wasn't "Why are they so different from us?" but it was slowly turning into a new question: "How are we the same?"

As Katie and I got older, we knew that we were both being moved towards ministry-related work. It was what we did. It was what we always found ourselves doing with others. And whether they were mission trips to other countries or serving in and around our city in St. Louis, I know that as God leads with opportunities I would need to follow.

Over the past couple of years we have had the opportunity to help start a ministry that partners with locally led community based organizations here in East Africa. We are spending time here to work with our partners. Within Under The Same Tree, Katie's role is director of programs and operations. This means that she works in collaboration with our East African partners in administration, organization, strategic planning, fundraising, and overall direction for the organization. My role in UTST is public and donor relations. While here in East Africa, I will be working to make sure that those who support Katie and I and the work being done here are as engaged and informed as possible. I will be working as hard as I can to make them feel as if they are along on this journey with us, and connected with the people that we are working with. I will also be working to try and bring in new donors and supporters. So if you and your family, friends, churches, or churches are interested in partnering with us, I'm your guy.

I came here for the first time to help with this ministry, but also because We want to tell a new story about Africa- not about depravity, darkness and helplessness, but about dignity, local innovation, a church that's alive, endless natural beauty, incredible human spirit- and in the end, I want this story to be about my friends - the friendships here that are helping me to experience what it means to be a human being - formed by the hands of God and dependent on his green earth & the loving arms of those around me. There is life here that is unknown in the US. To me the new story of Africa is how much they have here that cannot be found in the US. It is a story that I would like to see children growing up hearing.

Love,

David

First update!

We've completed our first week in East Africa! Although we flew into Nairobi, we immediately hopped on a bus and took a 14 hour ride to the neighboring country of Uganda, where we are spending our first few weeks. We've had a really great opportunity over the past several months to build a relationship with a Ugandan community-based organization called Care for Orphans and Community Development Uganda, because up until now, their director Sam Mugaya was living in Saint Louis, studying medicine at UMSL. I was also a student at UMSL, so I was really excited to get to know Sam last year and talk about what has been going on in Uganda. Under the Same Tree works to partner with locally led community organizations in East Africa, and so we were naturally very interested in coming to see what Sam's organization is doing. Timing worked out really well, and we were able to set things up so that we were able to come here during the same week that Sam was moving back to Uganda from Saint Louis. So this week has felt like a big homecoming for everyone, and it's been really cool to get to be a part of it.

Sam's ministry, Care for Orphans and Community Development, or CAFOCOD (as they call it), is working to support 30 orphaned children in the rural village of Kiboga, Uganda, through the help of a local church. They also run free health clinics, and are working to build a medical facility in the village of Luwero, where the people have no access to health care. We were able to help out at one of the free clinics yesterday. We set up under tents in the middle of forest of banana trees, and people walked from miles around to get to visit a doctor. Some were mothers with tiny babies on their backs, and some were elderly people over the age of 80. They sat down and waited for hours to be seen, while chatting or dancing to the music of a drum circle. The ability to take care of the health of themselves and their families was so evident, and although I am not a medical specialist by any means, it was really incredible to see what could be done with a couple of doctors, a handful of medical supplies, and two tents.

The rest of the time that we spend in Uganda, we will be getting to know the orphaned children  that this ministry cares for, gathering information and compiling media to send back to the Saint Louis based team,  and helping with strategic planning. The team of people working to make this ministry possible here truly considers one another family, and they have been quick to welcome us into the circle. We have shared so much laughter already. We are excited to see how our relationship with this ministry and the rural communities of Kiboga and Luwero grows and develops in the upcoming year!

We will be heading back to Nairobi after another week or so!