Quick update

Hi, folks!  I'm in Uganda!  I've had limited internet access, because the wireless in our apartments hasn't been set up yet, so I've had little opportunity to post.  But orientation in Colorado was really great, and gave me a great perspective going into this trip.  The flight to Uganda was long, but considering that I ended up halfway around the world, very bearable.

The transition has been really good - everyone here is really nice, and I've been going through another orientation at the EMI East Africa office this past week.  There are 6 interns total - three from North America and three from Uganda, so it's been really fun getting to know each other.

Tomorrow, I'm going on a project trip to Gulu, in the northern part of Uganda.  We'll be working on this project: Hope Alive!
I'll be out of the loop for the next week or so, but hopefully I'll have lots of stories and pictures when I get back!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I'm at full support!  Thank you to everyone who gave to support my internship, and thank you to everyone who's been praying.  If you still want to give, the money will support EMI's work around the world, or possibly a future project trip for me.  If you're praying, don't stop!  This trip is still at it's beginning, and there are lots of challenges ahead, starting with this project trip.  Please pray:

• That our team of volunteers coming in from Uganda and North America will work well in the one week we have together
• For good communication with the local ministry (our client), Lugobo Baptist Church
• For energy, creativity, and perseverence as we try to plan out 350 acres in one week
• For protection, physical and spiritual

Thanks, everyone!

-David Wit

Preparation

So last week, I realized that I should probably have started sending these updates long ago - after all, people have been partnering with me since October, and my preparation is certainly a part of this trip.  So I wanted to give you a belated update on what preparation has looked like for me.  However, that post turned into a little essay on the importance of partnership - which is fine.  But here's the actual update: that is, what my preparation over the past few months has looked like:


Support Raising
You probably know about this one already, because this is when I contacted lots of people I know and asked them if they wanted to partner with me in this trip (and I hope the previous post convinces you that I take this partnership seriously).  I was both excited and terrified about this, because I got a great excuse to contact a bunch of people I hadn't heard from in years ... and part of that excuse was a request for money.  Interestingly, my trust in God oscillated during this process - it started out pretty strong, and then as I delayed sending out these letters I became more and more nervous.  But God works so wonderfully in our weakness, and I have found that He provides, even when I feel like I did a bunch of things wrong.  Anyway, I got to hear from a bunch of people, and hopefully encourage some more, which has been really cool - and hopefully some of you are reading this now :)

Classes
I'm part of a wonderful church in Columbus, OH called Veritas Community Church.  In October, I got an e-mail from them that said they've set up a missions training program, and that any missionary who wanted to be "sent" by the church should apply.  "Great!" I think, "I really want Veritas involved in this - I should get in on that!"  Then I found out that the program was designed to last a year.  And that the classes I could take would take up ALL of my available Wednesday nights (save the one before Thanksgiving).  I signed up for classes anyway, and along the way got a crash-course in missions, practically and theologically; met and was inspired by a bunch of people considering missions full-time; had some good conversations with our new director of missions; and started thinking about my life in the context of missions.  Before I left Columbus, this was a major way that I was thinking about and preparing for this trip.  Highlights include:

• Useful models for cross-cultural ministry (the five "F"s of culture) and for church-planting
• A presentation about how to decide where to go, in which the speaker told us he hated hot climates.  This was the first time I thought about the fact that Uganda is on the equator, and I'm from New Hampshire.   Hm.  Fortunately, the internet tells me the weather doesn't get much hotter than 95 (F)...I think I can deal with that...
• Reading a letter by Adoniram Judson and noting that the life expectancy for missionaries in the tropics was 5 years.  I am so very grateful for vaccines and anti-malaria medications, and humbled by the dedication of those who have gone before me.

Books
EMI sent me books!  I love it when people do that.  They are:

Mack and Leeann's Guide to Short-Term Missions
Strengths Finder 2.0 (a diagnostic that is supposed to help us identify areas of strength that we can cultivate in our work and our lives)
Tips on Ugandan Culture: A Visitor's Guide

This has been more a feature of my time in New Hampshire, and they are giving me perspective and making me think about the trip in new ways.  I'm very grateful for them.

AutoCAD
So...when I had my interview with the folks at EMI, I admitted that though I had seen AutoCAD before, I didn't really know how to use it.  Then I promised to learn it.  This finally happened while I was back home in NH, thanks to The Hitchhiker's Guide to AutoCAD basics (part of the Autodesk help site) - while I'm a long ways from proficiency, I feel comfortable with the basic commands, and ready to learn how to apply them!  This was a lot of fun, and a skill that I've wanted to acquire since I was an undergrad.  This is an internship, after all, so there's going to be technical learning as well as spiritual growth.  This is wonderful :)

Prayer
This is such an important part of spiritual preparation - and I wish I did more of it.  Still, I have had some really good opportunities to seek God while I've been home, and EMI has given us some scriptures to pray through in preparation.

Running
While in New Hampshire, I don't bike everywhere (I thought about biking to visit some friends about 2 miles away, but my parents insisted that it was a bad idea because it was after dark).  So I'm trying to stay fit by running.  It's not every day, and it's pretty painful, mostly because it's so cold.


Being outside
I wanted to experience winter this winter, and after some initial fears the season has delivered.  (I was worried this afternoon because I couldn't find my sandals; turns out I had unpacked and used them, because at one point in late December they were appropriate for the weather).  Also, being outside in New Hampshire is always good for me, mentally and spiritually - whether listening to the ice freeze or watching the stars (so many more than we get in Columbus!)

Yup, I live near this.

 

The swamp during winter is wonderfully barren and maybe almost accessible...

 Last Wednesday, J.T. and I went on a spontaneous road-trip to the White Mountains.  Amazing.

My preparation hasn't been perfect: there are a lot of ways in which I wish I had been better about prioritizing my time.  But I can still see the above ways in which God has been preparing me (and there's no such thing as being completely prepared, right?).  As of today, I'm in orientation with EMI, so preparation is much more structured.  But please keep praying for me - for all of the interns and staff members starting with EMI right now - that God would bring us to a place of humility and trust, and prepare us for whatever He has for us.

-David Wit

1st Transition

Hi, folks!

At 5:15 this morning, I left home in order to travel to Colorado for our 1-week orientation.  I'm there now, and it's been great.  We're at a retreat center near Colorado Springs, and the view is gorgeous:

 
I haven't explored much outside yet - that requires more sleep on my part.

There are 25-ish people here: many of them interns, but a good number of new staff and long-term volunteers as well. It's really exciting: the orientation schedule is packed full of wonderful-sounding stuff.  Please be praying for all of us as we learn about EMI and missions, are challenged to have God's heart for the nations, and are comissioned to serve Him with EMI.  Pray also that we would form good relationships, especially among our mission teams.  And please pray that we'd be able to get as much rest as necessary :) - the schedule is really full.

Also, you should be aware that this happened:

                           (Before)                                                                    (After)

And with that, I'm off!

-David Wit

Partnership

One of the books that EMI sent me talks about the importance of partnership.  It was a good reminder of something that - I'm ashamed to admit - I often forget: that this trip is as much mine as it is yours.  Even though I get to actually travel to Uganda and work in ministry there, your prayers and your financial support are essential components of this mission.

A favorite missionary passage is Romans 10:13 - 15:
    
..., for "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"  (NIV 1984)

I've usually heard that verse to encourage people to go (actually, I've usually heard it to encourage people to preach...there's maybe another post to come about that).  But notice the last rhetorical question there: "how can they preach unless they are sent?"  This passage is as much about sending as it is about any of the other actions.  To Paul, sending is essential - it is the first in a chain of necessary (well, maybe not necessary, but at least normative) actions that result in saving faith. [1]

And that's what you, good supporters of mine, are doing.  Without you, I don't go.  Even if I could have financed this trip myself, going on my own would be pretty ineffective. Because with your support, this isn't just David Wit going to Africa to Help People - this is David Wit being sent by the Church to do God's work. Now, both of those scenarios might result in some good engineering work getting done, but let me be honest here: on this trip, as always, the work of engineering is secondary to the work of spiritual transformation.  Structures fall down, roads grow over, wells dry up.  But when God moves, the results are eternal.  And believe me, in this aspect of the work your prayers will accomplish much more than I could do on my own.  (Perhaps in all aspects of the work, too.) [2]

So It would be foolish and ungrateful of me to not give you all equal standing in this endeavor.  And I hope that, whether you follow this blog regularly or just check in every so often or even find it years from now, you will think of it as your project, too.

So, let's go do this together!

-David Wit



Notes:

(1) normative is one of those words I struggle with, so I'm trying to use it correctly whenever I can.  Here's what it means:

"of or relating to a norm, especially an assumed norm regarded as the standard of correctness in behavior, speech, writing, etc." (Dictionary.com)

By this I mean Paul regards this chain of events as normal.  Which I suppose I could have said, but like I said, I'm trying to learn this word... 

(2) This is not to say that the engineering work is irrelevant on its own, or that evangelism is the only project with eternal impact.  But I mean to imply that any and every work receives its eternal significance from God.  Maybe the worker doesn't need to acknowledge this, but I certainly think it helps.

An Update about Updates

Hi, everyone!  Looks like I have a blog now.  Yup, this is it.  Don't mind me, I'm just looking around here...nice and roomy, actually.

I've toyed with the idea of starting a blog for a long time, but I didn't trust myself to post things with any regularity.  However, the upcoming trip to Uganda will give me a great reason to do so (learn more about it on the "Details" page!).  I'll make no hard and fast promises about the frequency of updates, but I will tell you I'd like it to be weekly, and I'll try very hard for it to be at least monthly.

So...right, update.  Being home has given me great opportunities to see friends and family, and I've been trying to balance this with preparing for the trip (and with finishing up some things for school).  Right now, I'm four (!) days away from leaving for orientation in Colorado, and trying to pull together everything that needs to be done by then.  I'd appreciate your prayers for things to come together!

Also, I'm very close to my support goal of $8,000, but not yet at it, so feel free to swing by the "Support" page over there :)

Let's keep the first update short - maybe then there will be more soon.

Thanks for reading!

-David Wit