Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

A very, Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours.  Please find below our latest newsletter and happenings.  Since our newsletter has gone to print, a new development in my health will require a few more tests and intervention and has delayed our return to Uganda by a few weeks.  Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate this and the upcoming transition!

Chaundra, Matt, Fred, Charlee and Theo

The Eagar's Speaking Schedule

There have been a few updates to the list since we last sent it out, we hope to see you all in our travels!

Douglas Baptist Church, Douglas NB on October 21st, 10:30am

Smythe Street Church, Fredericton, NB on October 28th, 9am and 11 am services.

Flying for Life - An Evening of great African coffee and stories with Matt & Chaundra Eagar - October 28th, 6PM, Smythe Street Church 

Hanwell Community Church, November 4th, Hanwell, NB, 11 am

Douglas Baptist Church Men’s Breakfast, November 17th, Douglas, NB 9am

Rusagonis Baptist Church, November 18th, Rusagonis, NB, 6pm

Faith Baptist Church, November 25th, Dartmouth, NS, 1030am

Our Fall Newsletter and Schedule!

Summer Newsletter 2018

The Guesthouse

I love our little guesthouse.  Not just the look of it, although if I have to say so - it’s pretty darned cute!  It's cozied up in the corner of the compound, right between the veggie garden and the coffee tree that hangs over the path.  It's needs cut back, but I can't bring myself to do it.  The sun comes in the front windows in the morning and the whole thing reminds me of a little fairy tale cottage.  But what I enjoy the most about having a spot in our garden where we can have people come and stay, is showing them a glimpse of life in Uganda, sometimes for the first time.

I love getting to know people from all  over the world.  I love hearing about other programmes and places, the happenings in South Sudan, Kenya, the UK or Australia.  So many nights are spent out on the porch, drinking tea, having a good laugh with everyone who comes through.  We’ve contemplated the installation of a zip line from the water tower to the trees across the driveway with with a guy visiting from Tanzania, player Beanboozled with company from MAF Canada and marched in a parade down Entebbe road with visitors from the UK.  

It’s fun, its sometimes hilarious and I still, after nearly 4 years, get super excited when we have people coming through.  I’ve lost count of the numbers over time, but the steady stream of people doesn’t slow down, and it’s great to have friends, new and old, from all over the world!

So, if you ever find yourself passing through Kampala, you know you’re always welcome for a visit, a good laugh and a night in our little guesthouse in the garden.

Darkness and the Light.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  John 1:5

The podcast that we listened to on the way out of town was fitting in a weird sort of way.  It explored darkness; stories about darkness.  Astronauts told tales of shadows falling across their arms in space, and it was so black, so absent of light, that their hands appeared to vanish into thin air.  It was the kind of darkness that swallowed everything it touched.

A version of that blackness is what we heard about when we arrived in the camps.  Our first interview broke my heart.  When she tried to tell us the stories of what happened, of rebels and death, of losing a first born. Of finding her mother in the garden, too late.  She stopped and cried and my heart stopped, too.  Like way too many of the stories we heard from the refugee settlements near the congolese border, it is better if I leave most of it to your imagination.

Right now, there are more than 250,000 Congolese Refugees who call Uganda home.  60,000 of these have come just since this past Christmas.  Here, it’s been called the silent crisis - one you don’t often hear about on the news back home.  There are hundreds of thousands of people running for their lives from raging violence, through the forest, across the lake.  You hear stories of families being separated in the chaos, going for years not knowing if their loved ones are lost, or lost forever.  Mothers haul babies on their backs for days, fathers lay on top of their children pretending to be dead.  65% of the refugees here are children, many of them arriving here on their own -  unaccompanied minors. This war in Congo has been called the greatest lost of life since World War 2 - with around 5 million lost to it since it began. Child soldiers, mass graves, massacre, rape.  I met people who carried photos of their dead, as proof of what is happening and in hope that someone will listen.

And yet, there is hope.

I was on this trip as part of a media team with Tutapona, as I’ve been working with them as their Director of Communications for a few months now.  Tutapona is a Swahili word - meaning, “We will be Healed.”  Our field offices and incredible field staff provide Trauma Care, group sessions and one on ones for those affected by the horrors and trauma of war.

Every single person we interviewed told us a story you could not imagine.  And every single one of them talked about forgiveness and how forgiving the people who have hurt them has set them free.    I’m humbled and awed by the human spirit.  We will be healed.

The sign above the door reads, "God is Here."

The Tutapona staff listen with compassion to each story, they care deeply and walk along side of the people in their programs.  They cry in the downs and rejoice in the victories - the love is so apparent in all that they do.  These programs easily draw 100 people, and many of those, eventually gaining back their joy, hope and peace go on to make huge differences in the communities they are living.  Tutapona will turn 10 this summer, and during that time, more than 40,000 people have gone through these trauma care programs.

That’s 40,000 lights shining in this darkness, and 40,000 people changed.  That is a brightness that no shadow can put out, and it makes me wonder, if they can shine so brightly, what am I holding on to?

“We are all broken, that’s how the light gets in.” Ernest Hemingway

#40thousandlights

www.tutapona.com

https://www.facebook.com/Tutapona/