Tension

There are many different types of tension that I am thinking of behind this blog post.

One of which relates to cultural differences that are had to get used to. As I write this, I am sitting in a little lofted restaurant and there is only room for three little groups to sit here. In this kind of setting in the United States, people might be talking, but if they were listening to music or watching something, they would use headphones. Some people sitting by me are listening to the radio loudly from a cell phone…something incredibly common here that has been wearing at me for a while now.

Another tension is being so close to the end of the program that some students are more focused and dedicated, and others are beginning to check out. As a leader, at times it’s hard to not checkout when students do because it seems that there is no point if they don’t care, but I’ve done my best to encourage them to finish strong.

There is also the tension that obviously comes from being in close proximity with people of different personalities constantly with small pockets of breathing room and alone time. It’s hard to be a peacemaker when you’re under pressure and stressed out, but it’s what we’re called to. Realistically, Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker under the ultimate pressure…can we really complain about our stresses? I don’t mean that quite so literally…we can complain about our stressed and God does understand, but we need to remember that he truly does understand to a level we will (thankfully) never experience ourselves.

However, within all of the tension, there is much to be thankful for and much that God is doing to help.

The program is coming to an end and although there will be more stress with missions far away and such, there are pockets of relaxation. I get to take a short trip with Lesley to Rwanda tomorrow for the weekend and visit some friends, and after the program ends there is time to rest.

I am excited about getting home and seeing everyone, doing our little tour through the states we’ve lived in, and of course getting married, but this is where God has us right now and I’m okay with that. I do want to be home quite often, especially with Lesley, but I am thankful for my time here.

God has blessed me so much with a fiancee who encourages me regularly to be as invested as possible in the program in our time left, although it occasionally is at her expense. I am also very thankful for fellow leaders who understand the difficulty of being in a different town (though the same country) when we will be married in under 5 months. My roommate and fellow leaders and amazing and the students I work with are incredible as well.

God has blessed me with some pretty incredible people in my life. Thank you for being one of them, whether you’re from home or you’re here with me

God bless you.

For Granted

Some people come back from third-world countries and try to adopt an over-minimalistic life style to counteract the culture they came from. I hope to know better than to do that to an extreme.

We shouldn’t neglect the resources at our disposal simply because others don’t have access to them, to do that would be absurd. We also shouldn’t try to use them as much as possible and become hoarders and gluttons because…well…there’s more to life than the things have. I think there’s a middle ground.

I’ve heard many times about living below, at, and above your means. Living above your means is often looked down upon as it’s a luxurious lifestyle that is often accompanied by debt, all for the sake of status. Living below your means often comes with an attitude of being better than others and tends to be accompanied by resentment of those who don’t live the same way. Living at your means seems to be the more sensible of the choices. Budgeting, having the things you need, giving as you’re able, and the like.

I do believe living a bit below your means so as to use that extra money for others, is the way that living below your means makes sense.

Something that I have grown in appreciation for is all of the things that I take for granted at home. Running [clean] water, consistent electricity, ease of access for most things, personal transportation, etc. All of these are things that, in a culture which considers these normal, we forget to be thankful for.

[This post was inspired by being stuck in our house all day due to rain coming and going sporadically. Our power has also been on and off and I usually have to wait until mid-day to shower since we live on a hill and water isn't always working.]

In James 1:2-4, Jesus’ brother tells the readers to “consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds.” He doesn’t leave it at that but explains that we know that difficult times breed things in us and in our relationships that are worth having. If we are to be joyful about difficult things that happen to us, how much more should we be thankful for the things that are clearly good and available?

I don’t think that Jesus’ call to “sell all your possessions” that he gave to the rich young ruler (Matthew 16:19-22) applies to all of us in saying that we literally should sell everything we own. The reason Jesus told this guy to sell all his stuff was because the guy loved his stuff more than he loved God.

Life isn’t about giving more than others, having less than others, or anything regarding comparing ourselves to others. Life is about glorifying God through loving him and following him through his example set by Jesus.

If we love something more than God, we really need to reassess it’s worth. If we think that anything is worth more than a good relationship with God, we are in dangerous territory. At the source of believing something is more important than God and choosing it over him, is pride. Truly, we’re saying that what we want or have is more important than what God wants or has.

My encouragement is to not compare your life to others to try to justify how you life, but instead compare your heart to Christ’s. It’s hard and we miss the mark consistently, but he is our standard.

Please don’t misunderstand me to be saying that “you must make yourself better.” You can’t. What I am saying is that you need to follow Christ’s example and to do that, you must know Scripture and you must follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who really can change your heart and your ways, not you. He equips you to do that which you need, but you also need to ask for his help.

Be thankful for what God has blessed you with, spend/steward your resources wisely, and as our director at ABIDE (Matt) loves to quote, “Freely you have received; freely give.” (Matthew 10:8 NIV)

Redheaded Ninjas

During the break I didn’t really have anything ABIDE related to talk about, but it was a great and needed time in which I had very much time with Lesley and was able to be in Mbarara which is a town I know a bit better. I was able to experience the joys of cooking, cleaning, and doing life with Lesley. It was a good picture of what is ahead in terms of working together and supporting one another in life. This may be a different experience and situation, but we both hope to see more of Africa or some form of missions in our future.

Now to explain the name of this post.

This past weekend, we had a mission to Kampala and Jinja (which my friend Kristin Thompson believes sounds like a ginger [redheaded] ninja, hence the title). It was a great time and God definitely worked through us.

The weekend started out to a rough start as there was some confusion on food and such, so we did not eat from 10am until somewhere near 6:30pm. God provided and we survived during that time and even carried out some ministry! We were blessed with a very large feast to prepare us for an overnight that we then helped run that night. I personally ended up sleeping from 2am (trying to sleep) on due to making a terrible mistake of having a large energy drink around lunchtime thinking we’d be eating soon…my body was worn out, especially after being Jesus in the Lifehouse skit.

After our ministry in Kampala, we went to Jinja (a well-known area as it is the source of the Nile river). There, we visited the homes of two students, David and Charles, and stayed with their families. We also visited Amaziima Ministries, which you may have heard of if you’ve read or heard of the book “Kisses From Katie,” as David and Charles were part of the ministry. The directress, Katie Davis, is a young, single, white woman who has adopted 13 kids and runs the school. It was cool to get to meet her and see the ministry after hearing of her. Not to mention…they have a monkey. So cool!

On Sunday we visited two churches (Charles’ and David’s home churches) and performed the Lifehouse skit for each. We were able to work with another mission group (Uganda based) at David’s church and both lead components of the service. The sermon was in Luganda (the main Central region language), but one of the other mission team members was incredibly kind and translated the whole sermon for me. It was a lot easier to stay awake in the service that way.

We had a football (soccer) match between our team and some boys from the church and it was a great time (it was a draw at 3-3). Later on, the other group showed a movie (I think it was based on “Pilgrim’s Progress”) and then we returned to David’s home.

On Monday, we had a free day, walked across the Nile and to Jinja town (a very far walk) and got to see much of the area. We then helped clean up David’s family’s plantation and later (evening) headed back towards Kabale. Due to delay in travel (we arrived at another student, Yonna’s place, fairly late and did not plan to be as late as we were) and low visibility, we stuck around Mbarara a bit (which I loved since Lesley is working there). We arrived back in Kabale on Wednesday evening.

This post is more of simply updating on ministry and less of some principle to be taught. I have just finished fighting my third or fourth (lost count) ear infection which seems to be due to changes in elevation when I travel between Kabale, Mbarara, or even further. So I’m a little out of energy with how much my body keeps needing to fight amidst being faced by some layer of culture-shock every day. Please continue to pray for my health and ministry.

I hope to be able to do another post this week and maybe have more of a theme as well.

God bless you!

(From left to right) Our team, a child who woke me up by climbing on me and later watched me bathe with a basin (so awkward), and our house’s new puppy (Peace)

 

No Remaining Sense of “Normal”

Last night I was talking with my fiancee, Lesley, on the phone about how thankful I am for the difficulties that we are facing in our current situation of being in different towns in light of knowing how God is using and will use this to strengthen our marriage. Within talking about this, Lesley brought light to the fact that we also need to give ourselves and each other grace, as we may not always realize it, but we are consistently undergoing some level of culture-shock.

Until she had said this, I don’t think I had recognized that not only did I no longer know what normal was because even standing outside of my room in Kabale felt normal, but because when I return to the United States, things will never be the same (though I’m more than alright with that).

This made me think of an ABIDE student’s post from earlier in the day, where he said:

straight roads don’t train good drivers so if you want everything to be straight know that its not good. you need big challanges to win

I felt the need to clarify that we should not seek out trouble or purposely follow a crooked path, but that instead going through big challenges is the result of staying on the straight path, which is quite difficult.

Being in Uganda, being away from home and all that is “normal” for me, is not something that I feel I did fully by choice. I feel that God led me to this after a series of events in my life. Did I have a choice in coming here? Yes. Do I feel I would have been right to continue with seminary and push this off until graduating? No.

I’m obviously glad that I’ve met my wife here, but even looking at the state of my life before coming here, God has me here for a reason. I was very burned out on school and feeling like I needed to be involved in ministry more heavily to remember why it was I was still in school. I feel like he has restored a passion for being further educated and he has equipped me with a new form of accountability that I hadn’t ever thought I would have while in school, a wife.

Although it’s disconcerting to not know what “normal” is anymore, I feel like I am within God’s will and that makes me feel more secure than anytime that I feel I completely understand the trajectory of my life.

Brothers and sisters, let me urge you to always seek the Lord’s will, even if it means abandoning everything you know for something that is unfamiliar and new. But let me also clarify in saying that sometimes God keeps us in a place for a while…sometimes we are allowed to form a new “normal” or at least have a sense of permanence. If you don’t feel God prompting you to move, you might be exactly where he wants you right now. Don’t feel like the way God moves one person is the way he will move you, which is a reminder of why it is so important to ask him for his direction in your life regularly.

Submit in the every day, because that’s what he asks for. You may not know where your life will end up, but if you are saying “yes” to the Lord daily, you will end up where you should.

God bless you.

Half Way Home

Although the second half of ABIDE is a week longer than the first, we have finished the first half and are technically half way through and we now have a three week break.

As I write this post, I am sitting in my fiancée’s apartment drinking an energy drink (power horse…not bad!) waiting for her to get back from the gym so we can go play with some missionary kids. Unnecessary details…I know…but I like saying that I have a fiancée and love being able to rest.

However, right before this break we were able to have a four-day joint mission to Kishanje (in Kabale district). Both ABIDE houses (Mbarara and Kabale) participated, Matt (our director)’s family came wit,h and Lesley (my fiancée) also joined us. It was a huge blessing to be able to all be there together and it was an awesome time. Apparently somewhere over 400 people were saved!

I don’t know that I’ll have much interesting to post about in the next three weeks, so I would love if you have any questions for me if you would post them as comments on this post and hopefully that will give me an idea of what I should post about.

One thing I’m really excited about with this break is the time that I have to communicate with friends from home and family that I have severely neglected due to circumstance.

Thank you very much for the support and please pray that this time of rest prepares me well for the second half of this program!

Life is Changing…

Although this is not about my travels alone, this has been the result of where God has brought me. I posted it in my personal blog but figured that many who read my travel blog and support my mission would be interested in reading about this: http://carlchomko.wordpress.com/our-story

It’s the story of my fiancée Lesley and me.

Enjoy

Anything But Stagnant

It would be wrong to regard the last two weeks as completely terrible, but it would also be wrong to regard them as completely great. This is not at all saying that they’ve been boring, as they’ve been anything but.

The past two weeks have consisted of the following positive things:

• My good friend, Dan Lee from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, spent about a week with me
• I was able to travel to Kampala with Dan and Lesley (my girlfriend) and the Trinity team was able to meet Lesley
• I was able to stay in Kampala for an extra night after the team left and have a slow trip back to Mbarara
• I was able to stay in Mbarara a few extra days and got to teach part of the Spiritual Leadership class and help the guys with preparing for leading a worship service on Sunday
• My ear infection went away
• There is plenty more that went well

However, they’ve also consisted of the following negative things:

• Some mixture of the travel and climate changes rendered me sick for about a week
• Immediately following feeling better, I started feeling more ill in a more serious way (although I’ve found out that I’m okay and have medicine to help with the symptoms I have)
• Our water and electricity still don’t always work in our house (this won’t likely change but it’s still something that gets under my skin)
• I’ve seen a bit of how men tend to view women here and it hits home a bit more having a girlfriend here

Maybe I’m forgetting things, but it sure looks to me like the positives outweigh the negatives. Although, health issues and little things that keep occurring tend to wear away at you, so I don’t feel it right to just try and brush them off.

I feel like I’ve communicated through this journal and the last that I’m having a terrible time…which is anything but the truth. I love it here.

I have no idea where God is calling me, but beyond having school left when I get back, I am confident that my future will involve discipling youth in some context. I love getting to see God work in young men’s lives and getting to be reminded of how much he’s done and is still doing in my own life.

This Wednesday, I get to participate on a call that I have been on the other end several times for in the past. It’s a call from the Trinity International University chapel during their mission week to call missionaries from Trinity around the world. I am incredibly humbled to be in a place right now where I am able to be on the other side of this conversation.

There’s so much ahead in these next 4.5 months and even more after that I’m sure. I can’t wait to see where God brings me.

God is good.

Sorry I haven’t posted more pictures, here are a few though!

Dan teaching Spiritual Leadership for Kabale House

Lesley and me

Dan taking a picture of hundreds of girls dancing like there’s no tomorrow during worship

 

 

Joyful in the Hope of Perseverance

I was wearing away little-by-little, but I didn’t realize it until it hit me.

There is so much about being in a different culture that makes it hard to be yourself and feel “comfortable.” Whether or not it’s good for us to feel “comfortable” is not the question, but when you go from living your whole life that way and then become fully immersed somewhere that is not, it’s hard.

I struggled a lot with feeling weak and like I should be able to handle this. Thankful I have friends who care about me too much to let me stay in that place.

The director from my program is primarily by the other house (2.5 hours away) and I’m only up in that town once every two weeks (regularly). He visits us about once every other week as well, so I get to see him most weeks…but that isn’t “regular” interaction.

My only regular in person interaction is with Ugandans.

I love Ugandans, don’t get me wrong, but after spending two months here, I’ve come to see just how different our cultures are. Now I’m sure this isn’t the only time that I will struggle with this or think about these things, but this is the first time it’s hit me this hard. Going straight from an ear infection to feeling a bit sick (sore throat and cough) has not helped much.

There are many things that I miss, and listing them isn’t going to help anything, but that doesn’t minimize the fact that God has me here and he’s already shown me quite a few reasons for that.

I trust that these “trials” are certainly going to lead to perseverance, and that is a reason to be joyful.

To be positive amidst this all, I recently was able to travel to Rwanda and visit my friend Eli and spend about a day and a half with him in both Rwanda and Uganda. That was awesome. I also currently have my friend Dan staying at the house in Kabale with me for the week and then will head up to Mbarara and subsequently Kampala to get to see the Trinity team (who brought me a ton of stuff and many of whom I miss) and spend the weekend out there for a mini-vacation.

This has all come just as culture-shock has hit me the hardest. God knew and he has provided. I don’t know where I’d be without these things he’s brought with the difficulty, but I know that it wouldn’t be a good place.

God is good.

Thank you for your prayers and support. God is doing something great in me and I know for a fact that I will never be able to be the same person I was before I came back out here this time. Thank you for making this possible. God bless you.

Admitting Inadequacy is Not Easy

As I mentioned in my last post, I have an ear infection.

I’m not sure if I thought to mention, but today we are to head to the town of one of our students, Nelson Mandela (yes, that’s his real name), to minister. We woke up at 5am (It’s almost 6:30am here) and are to set of at 7am. However, I had to make a decision that was very hard for me.

I’m not going with them.

Not only am I missing a chance to see Nelson’s home and family (which is very important here), but I’m missing an opportunity to preach tomorrow morning in the church service, which I haven’t been able to do in a while and was excited about getting to do with the guys around.

If you know me really well, you not only know what a big deal this ear infection could be based on my history, but you also might happen to know that I have a very hard time admitting that I’m unable to do something. When I don’t have time, I will often apologize and say I’m not able to, but when I don’t have strength, I try to power through often on my own and ignore God’s call to rest.

This morning I had to stop and ask myself, “is it better I go and do this and keep my pride but possibly have this ear infection get worse, even to the point of needing to leave the country or is it better that I humbly admit that I need to rest and set a better example for the guys in taking care of themselves?” If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others or teach others to take care of themselves.

This is me admitting that I can’t do this by my own strength and need rest. Please pray that I will recover quickly and not miss out on anything else. I will be resting most of the day, spending time in prayer for the team while awake, and also traveling into town to hopefully be able to find the ear drops that I need.

Thank you for the prayers and support.

Prayers Welcome

Something that I had feared going into this trip was, what would happen if I got an ear infection.

To some, this might seem like an oddly specific thought, but if you know me well, it’s likely you know I have a bad history with ear infections dating back further than I can remember. It’s through these that I’ve had to wear hearing aids for the last 7 years, have had three surgeries on one ear (consecutive Summers: 2007, 2008, and 2009), and now have to be incredibly careful not to get water in my left ear…which leads me to not swim very often…which was something I used to love to do but now get too concerned about what could happen.

The reason your prayers are welcome, is this fear has been actualized.

When I first arrived, I would every once in a while feel a bit of moisture in my ear as if a drop of water had just fell in…but things got better after a day or so. However, yesterday the same sensation occurred…and then started to hurt a bit and wouldn’t go away.

I went to visit one of the AIM team members who is a doctor, Derek, and he let me know that it looked red/irritated behind my eardrum and in my throat a bit, so he suggested I go get some Amoxicillin.

I am now taking the medicine and with a mixture of factors (including travel and not sleeping enough) I’m feeling fairly out of it.

We have a mission this weekend to a student’s home, so I would love prayers that the Spirit would strengthen me and I would be well soon.

Thank you for the prayers and support.