Its gone by to fast!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                                                            September 16th, 2011

 Hospital

      Hello everyone! Its Shailynn and I just wanted to share about my day on the 16th. Today we went to the hospital. I thought that I would be serving food to all the patients and their families, but God had something different for me. In the morning we drove to Pastor Moses and Betty's church. From there, we headed off to the hospital. Moses split us into 2 groups and sent one off to the men's ward and the maternity ward, and one to the women's ward. I was in the group to go to the men and maternity wards. In my group were Ashley, Virgil, and some other people I didn't know. It was very hard to keep the tears from running down my face. At the beginning of praying for people, I just stuck with Ashley and prayed with her. But when the Holy Spirit told me to step out of my comfort zone, I obeyed. Turns out it wasn't as scary as I imagined it would be.(: But I know that God held my hand the whole time. In the US people take for granted all we have. God healed that day for sure!!!!!
   

                                                                                                                            September 17th, 2011 Widows

       Today was widows day. To start off our day, we listened to Kevin Hall and Joy Ricks speak to all the widows ( around 275). After listening to them speak for a long time, Jessica and I went outside to get some fresh air. We met some little boys. Their names were George, Trever, Dennis, and the 4th boy didn't know his name so we named him Bob. George and Trever are in 4th grade, Bob is in 3rd, and Dennis is in 2nd. Jessica and I really became attached to these boys!!! We gave Trever and George each a pocket bible of the new testament. They will be preachers!!!!!!!!!!  I will miss them very much!!

                                                                                                                           September 18th, 2011

  School

        The 2 weeks have gone by so quickly!!! In the morning we had a team meeting and we talked about what we were going to do today. Sandy, Joy and Betty are going back to the hospital in the morning, Kevin, Ashley and Mark are going to a school, and Jessica, Virgil, Moses, Daniel, and I are going shopping for a mattress and blanket for Daniel's mom. On the way I found some gifts for my family. We got to give the mattress and blanket to Daniel's mom. She was so thankful. After that we went to the church to meet up with every one. Ashley, Mark, Jessica and I went off to a high school, while everyone else went to the prison. God moved at the high school and also at the prison!! God is a good God!!!! We got finished at around 5'oclock so we headed back to the hotel just in time to scramble inside while the wind was blowing furiously. We waited, and waited, and waited for the rest of the team to come back so we could go over to Moses's house to eat dinner, but they didn't show up till around 7:00. They came and got us and we went to go have dinner. The food was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could eat the food we had every night. After saying goodnight to everyone we went back to the hotel and packed up all our stuff for the next day.

                                                                                                                September 19, 2011

 To much sitting!!!!!

        To start off our day we were in the car. We drove to Moses's house to pick Moses and Betty up. Our van only fits 10 and we were trying to fit 11. So what we did for the 11th seat was we stacked 2 water bottle boxes up and Jessica and I sat on that. It was cramped, but we made it. After stopping to see 2 of Betty's children at boarding schools, we went back to Kampala to the Ivory Hotel. We ate then the Halls said their goodbyes to everyone as they left to Rwanda to see their sponsored child. Betty's other son and daughter came to spent the evening with us. That's all I have to write right now but God bless you and thanks for reading!!!(:

                                         -Shailynn
      
                                                                          

Rremember the little girl who could not speak?

Today is Sunday and from 9 to 10 am people meet to pray for the service which goes from 10 to 2 followed by lunch. At about 10:30 I noticed a familiar face several rows back from the front on the left hand side of the church; it was the little girl from the hospital that God healed 2 days earlier. Her father kept his word and brought her to church!  During the service people were invited to go forward and give a testimony to what God had done for them and from the video you can see that Fiona and her father came forward. He was so choked up that he could not continue speaking and cried tears of joy over his little girl. They could not stay for the rest of the service because he had to take Fiona back to the hospital because she had not yet been released.

God's glory and power(:

                                                                                                                   September 13th/2011
          Today we got to see Charlotte at breakfast. She is such a sweet lady!!   Later that day, we followed Pastor Jonah into the bush. Now I know that sounds weired, but its the Pastors that have churches in the country. It was heartbreaking to see all 12 pastors living in a little hut built of mud and cow manure, seeing the churches built of medal slates with holes and wood. Seeing one Pastor where she had tarp for her church. But God has giving an abundant joy that fills the Pastors!

                                                                                                                     September 14th/2011
       Today it was time to move on to a different part of Uganda. When our team went to breakfast, we met Charlotte, a women Jessica and I met one night. She was like a grandmother to me! Once I finished breakfast, I walked to the room and wrote Charlotte a letter to remind her we weren't going to forget her and to give her our email addresses to keep in contact. In the letter I told her she was like an adopted grandmother and that we loved her so much. She cried when she received the letter. She also gave us her business card and her phone number. She is so cute. Another women Jessica and I loved was the hostess. Her name was Joan. She is the sweetest lady. When Jessica and I were sick, she became our temporary mother. She came and checked on us often. God bless her and her family!!

     This is the day we went to see Pastor Hudson, and his wife, Mercy. We didn't arrive until dinner, but had a meal already ready for us. Mercy is such a great cook!!! After enjoying her meal we headed to Hudson's church. We got to hear Kevin Hall and Ashley Robinson teach the word of God. Ashley called all who need healing up to the front of the stage to get prayed for by the team, and about 89% of the group came forward. Before the group split up and spread out through the people, Ashley prayed for open ears to hear. Jessica and I looked up at the same person when Ashley said I feel like there is some demons here tonight. Once we started praying for the people, Jessica laid hands on the woman which was now flailing her arms and jumping up and down in pain. I was thinking if I should go and pray with Jessica or let her handle it on her own (at the time I didn't know she was manifested by a demon.) So I decided to let Jessica pray on her own. After about 5 or so minutes, Jessica pulled me by the hand and told me to pray over this woman, who was still shaking her arms. I went to go lay my hand on her, but when I did, I could feel pulses run up my arm and I could hear the demons talking. Automatically my stomach started to hurt, and my head throbbed, so I removed my hand from her. But then God reminded me that, "Satan can only do what I allow him to do." So from then on I laid hands on her and prayed out loud. At the peak of my praying God to cast out the demon, the woman tried to hit me. It scared me at first but then she calmed down suddenly. It was the strangest thing. We didn't realize at the moment that there were still demons within her, so we stopped praying for her and gave her a hug. But later that night we just were talking in the hotel room and remembered her eyes, how that they weren't clear. How there was no emotion. But God used Jessica and I to stir the water so someone later can come and finish the job that God had started in us.
                 Right now it in September17th and in Uganda it is 9:36 pm and it has been a long day. Tomorrow I will write again telling you about the Nile, the Hospital, and today was the Widows. God bless!!             Love,   Shailynn Miller(:
    

Flowers of his field

Today was entirely devoted to serving the widows in the area. When we arrived at the church at a little after 10 am, about 150 widows were already at the church singing and praising God. Pastor Moses and his wife Betty have a heart for the widows and he calls them "The flowers of his field." Joy Ricks, Kevin Hall, and Moses shared scriptures with them and encouraged them over the next 4 hours. Of course there was exuberant singing between speakers.

The sermons were followed by a time of prayer and the laying on of hands for all who wanted prayer and the touch of God on their lives. Because there were now 265 women by this time, we divided them up into 4 prayer lines. As Shai and I touched and prayed for the widows in our line, I was hit with the awareness that each one had needs and that each one was special to God.

 At about 3pm we passed out gift bags containing a bar of soap, a bag of salt, a handkerchief from America decorated by members of Joy's church, and a pair of new panties. Yes a pair of new panties and I will add the the women clapped loudly when Betty mentioned that they would be getting a pair (some of the donations from the US were used for this outreach).

The afternoon ended with a generous warm meal for all of the widows who came.

Pastor Daniel's Family

Once we reached Tororo, we took a detour to visit Pastor Daniel's family whom he had not seen for many months.We picked up his brother on the way and continued down a dirt road. Daniel instructed our excellent driver Moses to drive further down the dirt road, then right down a dirt trail, past several mud huts, and finally turned left after the third set of bushes. It started to rain pretty hard when we pulled up in front of his mother's house so we were ushered into the mud hut on the left containing chairs and benches (the other hut/house contained the sleeping quarters). Daniel introduced us to his mother and informed us that he was born in this house.

As we were about to leave, Virgil asked Daniel if his mother was Born Again. He said that he had talked to her about it before, but that she was not. Virgil approached her and asked if she would like to be born again like her son Daniel the Pastor. She replied yes and Virgil led her in a sinner's prayer after explaining the wonderful Gospel of Christ. Virgil then looked up and spoke to Daniel's brother and he too was led to Christ. We had much rejoicing on the way to the hotel.

Daniel is on the right and his brother is on the left.

Taking the Gospel to students, Praying for the sick, Feeding the hungry

In Tororo Uganda, Youth Pastor James arranged to have us speak in a college preparatory school. After being warmly welcomed by the headmaster, we were ushered into a room packed with 300 students ages 15 to 30 years old. We were given free reign to speak to them about Christ for about 1 1/2 hours. Nurse Sandy went first and told them how God had made it possible for her to go to nursing school and empowered her to excel. Sandy's daughter Ashley boldly went next and preached on the power of God and invited the sick to come up and get prayed for. She also asked how many were Born Again and about 1/3 of the hands went up. My turn was next and I told them how God had performed several miracles to get me through school and hired on by HP. I then did my best to tell then that while education was important, the knowledge of God was far more important. "Pastor" Kevin as he is now known spoke last and preached John chapter 3 and wrapped up his message with an invitation to receive Christ as their Savior.

Pastor Moses and his church body go to the Tororo General Hospital to feed the patients as often as they are able to afford it (the hospital is next to the church). We met with the hospital administrator who thanked the church for their commitment to the hospital. You see, the hospital is run on a very low budget (3 doctors for 250 patients) and they do not have the means to feed their patients. If family members or friends do not feed them, then they simply do not get fed. The staff also knows the power of God and welcomes any healing help they can get for the patients in their facility.



Lugazi

We left the capital city of Kampala yesterday morning to travel east and stopped in Lugazi to see Pastor Hudson and meet his family and church. We were warmly greeted by Pastor Hudson and his wife and walked into the door of his rented home to a Ugandan feast. I think we licked the plates clean.

We did not come empty handed and gave them a few small gifts. Before coming I thought about what to give a pastor in Africa? I decided to give them the word of God as taught by pastors I highly respect. I filled 16GBs on each MP3 player with the through the Bible teachings of Pastor Chuck Smith and Pastor Jon Courson,  The next picture shows me explaining how to use the MP3 players to two very thankful pastors; Pastor Hudson and Pastor Daniel.

Evening service: Because we were in town, Pastor Hudson held a special service to let his visitors from America preach to his congregation. Tonight Virgil, Kevin, and Ashley spoke to the congregation followed by a prayer session for the sick of body and soul.

Ugandan worship is lively and uninhibited, allowing for individual expression. They almost have me dancing in place along with the worship team and congregation. I am finding it increasingly more difficult to stand still behind the camera. During the preaching and teaching portion of the service, a Ugandan-English interpretor stands next to the speaker to translate. The next video clip gives you a slight glimpse into the evening worship and preaching service as Pastor Hudson welcomes us.

Pastor ... Daddy

I realize that I have not been doing this blog justice, but our schedule has been quite full and I need a day off to update this blog. Right now it is 5am and I am squeezing in some time before everyone else wakes up.

When Pastor Jonah came to Oregon, he told us that he had 4 children, but 49 children total living in his home. He now has 55 because the need is so great. The following video shows us coming down the hill from the school(174 children) to Jonah's home. The school was started by his church about 13 years ago in the heart of the Muslim portion of the slums. He is trying to reach the community by providing Christian education for the children of those who cannot afford it.

Here is how he sleeps 12 to 18 children per room.

The store room. How could we drive off and leave it this empty and still say that the love of God lives in our heart. We couldn't. This is one of the places where we applied the donations from Calvary Chapel of Corvallis Oregon to bless this Pastor, his family, and his children, all 55 of them.

Small gifts go a long way to those who have very little. Kevin had the idea of allowing members of our church to fill up 4 suitcases with gifts and toys to give to the children at Jonah's house. Jonah told us that the children were so excited that they did not get to sleep until 2am. "We have never had so many gifts and all in one day."



The school:

The school children:

Churches in the Slums

In the early 2000's, Pastor Jonah felt led to start a church and a school in the Moslem dominated slums. Today there is the main church building and several smaller rented church spaces. I was asked to speak at one of the rented church spaces below.

The main church building below can hold about 200 people. The building took about 6 years to get where it is now today. They build, then wait for funds, and then build some more. I don't think they have down here. They also made it a priority to improve the surrounding water drainage channel ditches before working on the building. Pastor Jonah told me that several babies were killed in the flooding which gave the ditch priority. Here in Uganda meeting the needs of the people is always top priority. Pastor Jonah is standing with the church to his right. This large clean church building stands out in the middle of the surround slum area.

How's the weather

In general, the weather has been hot and humid. We welcome evening when it cools down and the locals put on sweaters. It is really odd to see people wearing coats when it is hot enough to make us sweat.

It rained on Friday night which means that the rough dirt roads were now extremely muddy and slippery.

Phil. 4:13!

Hi everyone,
Its Shailynn Miller, and I just wanted to update you on the last 3 days. The 8th (in Uganda)  was our first full day of mission work. The first thing we did to start off our day, was meeting Pastor Daniel A. at his wifes sewing shop. When the adults were watching and talking to the sowers, Jessica and I were handing out candy. I have no idea how we had so much candy for all the kids. If you want to hand out candy over in Uganda... you must be prepared for all the kids to tell friends and familys, "the Muzugus have sweeties, the Muzugus have sweeties!!" (Muzugu means white people, and sweeties are candy.) After talking and handing out candy, Daniel took us to his brick company. We followed Daniel down to where he burns bricks as his final stage of making bricks to sell. We handed out "sweeties" to the kids and the workers also. Who thought that the adults are that crazy about candy as the kids are!! We finished up seeing Daniel bricks and left for his school. When we got to his school, all the kids sang and danced for us and gave us a hand picked boquet. Our team spread out through out the school and just played and talked with the kids. I met SO many friends that I really connected to! But 1 girl I REALLY loved this 1 girl named Fieonah. She is a blessing from God. I got to talk about her relationship with God and how to keep in touch throughout the school year. God is working miracles in my life.
         After leaving the school to rest at the hotel, we went back so Virgil Ricks could give a message. What an amazing man of God. Virgil and his wife, Joy, are the most amazing people. Once Virgil was done with the message he called a woman from our team, Ashley, up on the stage to pray for people with back pain to get touched by the hand of God. God did miracles in front of my eyes!! God healed all of the people with back pain!! Amen. Our whole team went to the stage to pray for people to get saved and healed. This the first time God has used me to heal some one!!! God is good!!!!!!
        On Sep. 10, we started the day with going to Hope Orphanage. God really convicted me that my life is SO GOOD but all I do is complain with what I dont have. The kids at the orphanage don't have anything except some ripped clothes and a bed. The moment I steped out of the van the stench filled my nose and shocked me. But once I got over the smell, God used me to reach out the kids in their own unique way.(: Jessica and I met a girl named Harriot. She is so sweet, she has the heart of gold, and another girl named Grace. She is a sweetie to! From the orphanage, we headed to the graduation at Daniel A's school. Things where going well till I ate some of the beans they cooked. The beans, on top of the Malaria medicine,the heat, and all the emotions that were going through my head, just pushed me over the edge. I just burst into tears and almost lost my dinner. But God held my hand every step of the way. When a woman from my team named Sandy, and I were sitting on a rock waiting for my stomach to calm, Fionah came and just sat with me and was always there for me. She is the sweetest girl in the world!! When it was time to leave, I looked out my window to see Fionah looking through the window, tears running down her face, not knowing if she would ever see me again. I couldn't take it. I almost jumped out of the car, not remembering I was still sick, and gave her the longest hug. I will never forget her sweet face.
        Today is a new day!!! Today is the day that we are going to speak in Jonah's churches. Jessica and I were sent to the childeren's church in the slums, while the others were sent to speak at different churches. We shared Gods love with the children, but had to leave early with Joy and Moses ( a pastor) to get Jessica and my hair plated!! It took 3 and 1/2 hr to plate my hair, but it took 4 and 1/2 hrs to plate Jessicas. Would love to share more but time to get some rest. I will send pictures tomorrow!!

God  bless!!!
                      
          Shailynn

Warm to Warmer - Friday

On the trip here I often asked myself, why on earth are you on you way to Africa? All I can tell you is that after our warm welcome late Thursday night I knew that God had a reason.

I missed breakfast Friday morning as I hurried to get my recording equipment unpacked and then packed again for the day. When we arrived Thursday night the electricity was out in the area where our hotel was located and we settled in by candle light and flashlight. We hopped into our van and started out for Daniel A's church/school and I am very glad that I wasn't driving. The streets are full of people, cars, and motor scooters not to mention that they are driving on the wrong side of the rode! We turned off the main road and hit dirt almost immediately and drove on a deeply rutted dirt road for another hour or more. On the way to the church/school We met Pastor Daniel who gave us a tour of the sewing school that he opened, his new brick making business, and his wood working business (I was told that he has others working these businesses to generate money for the church/school as well as the workers).

 

When we arrived at the school/church the children were waiting for us and lined up to give us a warm song and dance greeting Ugandan style.

We spent the bulk of the day with the children who soaked every ounce of love we were willing to give.



This next picture shows you the main church/school structure built by Pastor Daniel A (Ugandan's use simple American names for our benefit). The land was purchased by a generous gift from Say Yes International.

The evening was devoted to a bible study by Virgil Ricks followed by prayer for the sick. Many came forward for prayer and all were healed by the power of God in this simple place.

After a long bumpy ride back to our hotel we all crashed with thankfulness in our hearts that we were given the opportunity to visit our friends in Uganda.

Welcome to Uganda

Late Friday night we arrived tired at the Entebbe airport in Uganda. After another hour of waiting we passed through customs and walked onto African soil. I had been expecting 1 or 2 people to meet us when we walked out the custom's door, but to my surprise we were warmly greeted by 25 or more welcoming hugs. These friends of Virgil and Joy Ricks drove 1 1/2 hours or more to give us one of the warmest greetings I have ever experienced.

Final Details

With less than one week to go before we leave, it is down to final details and prayer.

• Just two more shots to go: Polio and Hepatitus B boosters (on top of Yellow Fever, Thypoid Fever, DPT, and Hepatitus A).
• Still trying to figure out how to condense my video and sound equipment into a few compact cases.
• Will be prayed for at this Saturday night's prayer meeting.
• Starting to pack our suitcases
• Spending time with the family
• Trying to get over a chest cold