Uganda Gear CheckList
Why this list? It’s a simple, last-minute checklist to make sure that you have the “essentials.” Some items are luxuries.
- Alarm clock (+battery) for travel + wristwatch
- Rolling duffel bags are ideal , but you’ll need several locks (see www.campmor.com )
- Backpack and/or nylon or other valise and possibly a fanny pack
- Breath spray or drops (dental gum?); “Odor-eater” spray for shoes
- Camera with extra batteries and1 gig media card, plus a recharger for rechargeable batteries,(for which you’ll need a plug adaptor). Make sure your recharger is good for 240 volts (same for hair dryer, a laptop, etc.). If you’ll need electric power, consider buying a surge protection/plug adapter: Go to www.walkabouttravelgear.com/for the “All in One Surge Protector” (about $20). Walmart may have one as well. Have a media reader if you carry a laptop, and CD-writeables to which to download photos.
- Cash for country visa, debit or credit card (you can pay with VISA at many places—good especially for shopping for gifts in duty-free shops. Note: for larger denominations, use large bills newer than 2004, without any imperfections.
- Clothing for 2 weeks: bathrobe, 5 dress shirts and 4 pants (zip-off pant legs are good), 4-6 sets of underwear, cap, rain jacket, sandals, shoes well-waterproofed, socks, PJs; Bring 2.5-gallonzipped plastic storage bags for shoes and to contain spills
- Driver’s license in case you need to rent a car.Have a copy of your passport photo page with you. Make sure your Team leader has a clear copy.
- Ear plugs and mask to block light (improves chances of sleep on jets and in noisy rooms). If you're a frequent flyer, consider noise-cancelling headphones.
- Email addresses that will be needed, in page-protector, or PDA; You can open a Yahoo.com email account and enter your address book online, for access globally.
- Flashlights: 2 bright LED flashlights
- Granola or protein bars— e.g. PowerBar Protein Plus (they have sugar-free bars); dry-roasted nuts, decaf or caffeinated tea bags & sweetener as needed
- Insect spray for bed (against bed bugs and atomic earwigs)
- Knife, spoon, fork set (sharp knife for cutting nylon cord and fruit—not in carry-on luggage)
- Laundry bags—2 nylon mesh (@ clean and dirty clothes)— soap powder inside 2 zip-locked bags for doing personal laundry, retractable laundry line and miniature clothes pins (craft-style).
- Locks, TSA-approved for all compartments with valuables
- Meds: anti-itch gel, aspirin/ ibuprofen, Band-Aids, chewable vitamin C, vitamins,Doxycycline (for use as an anti-malarial prophylactic, if you prefer), Ex-lax, Immodium,anti-malarial ( if don’t use doxycycline), triple antibiotic ointment with topical pain reliever (generic); multi-vitamins, sleeping pills—generic, or melatonin (carry prescription drugs in carry-on in case baggage is lost) GaterAid mix for dehydration (try potato chips to get salt)
- Money/passport pouch –concealed (mine goes around the neck); Bring some smaller-denomination bills—1’s, 5’s, 10’s for tips, etc.
- Mosquito net (use genuine Army surplus—without poles, see Amazon.com) & 25’ of lightweight cord; If you can, throw the net over your head to check for holes (seriously). You MAY want to treat the net with Permethrin before you leave, if you’re not allergic to it. Consider leaving the net in host country. DEET for mosquitoes (100% spray bottles can leak, melting various plastics, etc.).
- Passport & yellow immunization card. Ask someone to ask if you have your passport as you leave for the airport.
- Pillow—air horseshoe-style or compressible (camper) pillow, etc.
- Knife--sharp pocket knife/ scissors—put into checked baggage only.
- Suit jacket (wrinkle-free is good) and tie for preaching for men. Skirts for women (shorts are fine for traveling).
- Sunglasses, reading glasses as needed
- Sweatshirt or sweater for airplane/airports and chilly mornings and evenings
- Tablet for writing, pens, highlighter, page protectors in poly notebook covers—consider a small LED reading light that attaches to the book; compact Bible and compact concordance
- Toiletries: shampoo in small container (Walmart sells empty plastic bottles—unscrew top and put a scrap of plastic bag on, then reseal to help stop leakage), bar soap in container, antiperspirant for flights, safety razors, small-size shaving cream for men, washcloth, towel, shower thongs, smaller toothpaste, toothbrush in holder, travel mirror, nail trimmers (checked baggage), toilet paper roll; Wash N' Dry™--80 self-containedpackets and 2 packs of disposable washcloths; sunscreen. You may want a small travel hair dryer, with dual voltage.
- Water Bottle--Nalgeen™-style with wide 2" mouth for easy use with filtration systems
- Waterless hand sanitizer (1 small bottle with skin nutrients such as aloe)
To carry on your person or in carry-on for the flight:
Pen, small tablet or large lined sticky notes, prescription drugs, ear plugs, eye shades, travel-size deodorant, breath freshener/travel toothbrush & paste, reading glasses, travel pillow, copy of photo page of passport, address and phone number of destination. In concealed travel pouch should be your tickets, passport, debit/credit cards, and currency. Of course, if you bring a camera, a laptop computer, or a video projector, they should be carried with you, not as checked baggage.
For more difficult village living conditions (such as Sudan):
The MRS AutoFlow Gravity Filter is an excellent and easy filtration system (Campmor.com), Lipton “cup of soup”; salted nuts; beef jerky; Gatorade; trail mix; protein bars; fly strips (sticky) for flies. A “solar shower" is useful, but our Team does not need one.
A laptop?
Pros: you can dump pictures from digital cameras onto the hard drive and burn CDs to share pictures before the team disperses. A universal USB media card reader is useful. You may need an extra laptop battery. It's useful for projector presentations and to record expenses on a spreadsheet. You can teach and preach from it without the need of a printer.
Cons: it is a target of thieves, so you always need to protect it. You may be in situations where you cannot recharge it, unless you have access to a generator or solar charger. If weight is very critical, either don’t bring it, or distribute extra weight to other Team members, if possible.
- By Jim Sutherland
- Category: Uganda
Baggage Reference
Checked Baggage
Delta/KLM is our current preferred carrier from the USA to Entebbe, Uganda, via Amsterdam. Arrival and departure times for Entebbe are excellent, and layovers in Amsterdam either minimal or reasonable, and the airport has many amenities including a mini art gallery and tables with power supply.
British Airways allows 3 checked bags under its humanitarian fare, which is a great help getting items to the field. Their fares generally do not fluctuate very much seasonally, as other airlines do, so this has an advantage during summer flights to Africa, which is the high season. It's often possible to avoid overnights in London. And they have a good Starbucks at Heathrow.
Check with Delta concerning size and weight regulations and possible charges. Typically we're allowed a maximum of two bags not exceeding 50 lbs., with bags of combined dimensions of 62 inches. Team members are responsible for baggage expenses. Carry-on bag dimensions should not exceed 45 inches. Team members are responsible for possible baggage charges.
- By Jim Sutherland
- Category: Uganda
Short Term Missions and You
Each Christian is commanded, not invited, to support ministry to all the world. We can go, or pray and give. As we go Jesus never leaves Us (Matt. 28:19-20). Today the division between home and foreign missions is increasingly blurred. This is especially true concerning minorities living in the US. Jonathan Bonk has said that everyone who was ever born was born on the mission field. Each people and culture is up for grabs as a mission field, with EVERY generation.
The issue is, where and how does God want me to serve Him? If He has us, WHERE we serve is a minor issue.
God wants us to be faithful to our place of service: "Martin Luther said, 'If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." (quoted by Francis Schaeffer, The great evangelical disaster, The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, Vol. 4:333).
Here are testimonies of the impact of short-term mission trips
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Why Short Term Missions?
- Short term missions is probably the quickest way to light the afterburner on your spiritual life. Because we deliberately make ourselves vulnerable, we learn to trust God more in a completely different culture, because we must. Much like a refugee, we sense far more our need of the Lord on the field than we do at home. God gets our attention and works on us in new ways. He will sometimes enlist us in a secret course of study, such as Humility 101; 201, etc.
- "God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. Obey as God sends you where He can best work through you to accomplish His mission." The experience of Hattie Riley.
- "You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing. Expect God to empower you as you make the life changes that open you to co-labor with God according to His ways."
- "You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you. Expect God to guide you on His mission to reveal Himself and to reconcile a lost world to Himself." (Henry T. Blackaby and Avery T. Willis, Jr., "On Mission with God," Mission Frontiers, Jan.-Feb. 1999, p. 32).
- We can learn about our spiritual gifts and otherwise hidden God-given abilities. We may be equipped to do more than we realize in the more comfortable home environment. We might be able to transfer more of our experience than we thought into a different culture. E.g.. Church planting in Bubukwanga.
- We often gain new boldness to serve Christ here at home.
- We may not have the opportunity or the calling to fulltime mission service.
- We learn about our own culture by experiencing another one. We learn about our perception of time, of social distances, of values, of the level of technology, of the spiritual "temperature" of our own culture. We see more clearly both the godliness and the ungodliness. E.g.. Traffic patterns in Uganda, and materialism (paradise on earth) in the West.
- We become a catalyst to our own local church to become more involved with the needs of others, as they give and pray and learn.
- International travel is relatively easy and affordable. Local churches generally endorse and help raise support.
- English is the lingua franca of the world at this moment in history. Over twenty percent of the world’s population speaks it (Joel L. Swerdlow, "Global Culture," National Geographic Vol. 196, No. 2, August 1999, p. 5). If you can do nothing else besides speaking English, you have a missionary vocation.
- Your unique contribution of skills and spiritual gifts is needed, probably on many mission fields.
- You may have already completed one career, you are financially secure, and you want a fulfilling ministry.
- Short-term missions may well show us that God wants us in fulltime missions. My own research found that 40% of African American missionaries that I surveyed were motivated to get into missions due to a short-term trip.
- We can act as a liaison between missionaries and the home church.
- We can be used of God to lead people to Christ, which has eternal consequences.
- With the help of missionaries and/or the national church on the ground to line up our itinerary, we will probably have more opportunities for ministry than in a year in the US.
- Financially, our whole trip will probably cost less than support for a full time Christian missionary for the same duration.
- Your trip may encourage other lay people to go. Missionaries are good at recruiting missionaries.
- When you cannot go personally, you will be more likely to support others going.
- We have a unique opportunity to experience the oneness of the church universal.
- Because absence often "makes the heart grow fonder," when one spouse leaves for short-term ministry, a new appreciation often develops for each other. Short-term missions is usually PowerAid for marriage.
- Short-termers can be a great asset to fulltime missionaries in the field. One missionary said that some who stayed with her family for two years brought "freshness, willingness, innocence, and enthusiasm" to their work, and were "hands and feet" of the missionaries to do necessary tasks not directly related to ministry. They also generate prayer and other support of fulltime missionaries.
- Short-term missions often leads to fulltime missions. In my research into African American missions, about 40 percent of missionaries surveyed were motivated to go on the field by short-term mission trips.
- Short-term missions can generate new or greater church missions support and enthusiasm in the sending church.
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Short-term Trip Objectives:
- Learning trips—researching needs, assessing ministry effectiveness
- Confirmation trips, to see if we're called to full-time CC ministry
- Construction projects. However, sensitivity to the local situation is very important. If high unemployment is prevalent, we do not want to take desperately needed employment opportunities from locals. And we do not want to take away a sense of ownership. On the other hand, Christians from various ethnic groups doing manual labor together can be an extremely powerful message to the nationals.
- Overseas study trips
- Drama ministry trips
- Medical/dental ministry
- Donated expertise trips. Consultants in education, medicine, business, agriculture, community health, hydro project, etc. can be a great asset.
- Teaching ministry
- Trips for spiritual awakening. There is perhaps no better way to intentionally learn to trust God.
- Social justice trips
- Event-oriented trips (e.g. year 2000 in Rome)
- Researching unreached people groups
- Intercessory prayer trips, including "prayer mapping"
- Church planting trips
- Ministry to women
- Ministry to orphans and disadvantaged children
- Public health--water projects, for example
- Missionary children teacher
- Exposure trips, to raise missions vision
- For encouragement. For example a missionary or oppressed women or children would be encouraged by your coming to be with them.
- Unity trips, demonstrating ethnic unity among the parts of the Body of Christ, and so demonstrating the deity of Christ (John 17:21).
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Some resources for short-term trips:
- Among many websites, check http://www.adventures.org/ for many short-term missions resources.
- Check also information on the Uganda trips and Southern Sudan trips..
- Culture Link is a ministry, "enhancing cross-cultural effectiveness through education, equipping and exposure." They offer seminars for short-term trip leaders that are excellent, particularly in team-building training (I attended one, and recommend it).
- Teams Commissioned for Christ International produced in 1999 the "Go Prepared" video training seminar (3 videos) at about $100.00, plus shipping. You can check this resource at http://www.tcci.org (I’ve not seen the videos yet).
- Ministering Cross-Culturally (Rev. Ed.), by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers (Baker, ISBN: 081056322), is a wonderful, readable, short and insightful tool to prepare teams for such ministry. You may order it through Amazon.com
- By Jim Sutherland
- Category: Short-Term Missions
Uganda Team Manual
Uganda Team Manual
Thank you for wanting to serve Christ in Uganda! Please let us know how we may better serve you. We do not promise you a comfortable or an easy trip, but we do offer you ministry opportunity among a needy, receptive people and a chance to see the hammer-stamp imprint of the faithfulness of our King in an “uttermost” part of the world. You will also likely learn much—perhaps about worship, contentment, yourself and the Spirit of God.
The information in this manual is Uganda-specific and designed for both team-leader and team-member use. We want to make your trip as effective as possible. Reflections upon many trips to Uganda are condensed for your assistance. Keep in mind that some suggestions reflect our comfort levels. You will not need everything suggested. You’ll find great information and links at sites maintained by Bob Hayes and by Barry McWilliams. Check also our Uganda page for short-term Team forms and Uganda information. If you don’t personally have an email address or access to the Web, try to obtain it. Otherwise make friends quickly with someone who does. Such access speeds transfer of Team and personal information both before departure and while in Uganda, and provides access to tremendous resources.
- By Jim Sutherland
- Category: Uganda
History of Sudan
Northern Sudan and South Sudan: Two Separate Countries
By James Yugu Yangkole
1. Northern Sudan
Until the conquests of Mohammed Ali Pasha from 1821 (for Northern Sudan) to about 1869 (for Southern Sudan), Sudan did not exist as one political entity. The Northern Sudan, up to that point in time, was divided into two loosely knit separate entities: the riverain areas of Central and Northern Sudan and Kordofan as one entity under the Funj Kingdom and Darfur as another separate kingdom. The Two kingdoms were eventually united by religion, language and the Turko-Egyptian conquest and administration.
2. Southern Sudan
Up to the middle of the 19th century, South Sudan, in its known geographical expression and complex, did not share a political entity with Northern Sudan. The Sudd, the Nile System, the forests and a hostile climate effectively shielded off the South from the Arab invasion and Islamic-Arab assimilation. The Shilluk then dominated the White Nile with their canoes; the Nuer and the Dinka contained the Baggara Arabs in the North and the West, when both sides could only use spears and clubs. But with the invention of the sailing boat and modern arms, the Southern tribes became ill equipped. This enabled Mohammed Ali’s agents to penetrate South Sudan, thus exposing the people of South Sudan to the great dangers they had been resisting for well over 150 years.
3. Consequences of Mohammed Ali’s Success
The conquest of South Sudan offered an opportunity for the extension of the ancient Arab-Islamic frontier to continue a forced “civilizing process” of Islamic and Arab assimilation in South Sudan and beyond. This process now appears as “the civilization project,” the comprehensive propagation of Islamic faith and religion, the education system, the public control of mass media and the government-controlled humanitarian work and general governmental protection.
4. The Traditional Rulers of Sudan
The people who have been ruling the Sudan since 1/1/1956 are known as Jellaba. They are a social group which have developed since the fourteenth century from elements of foreign and local traders. They have established themselves in trading centers that later became important urban centers and towns like Dueim, Omdurmara, Sennar, etc. A hybrid of different races, and nationalities from the indigenous Africans and the immigrant Arabs, Turks, Greeks and others, they interacted and intermarried in the long historical process which took place mainly in the riverine Northern Sudan. It is hard today to trace the original inhabitants of the riverine areas and the Gezira. They have undergone a precise and complete assimilation. The Jellaba were better prepared to inherit the political and state power in 1956. They were also developed and aided by the colonial regime to assume power when direct colonialism became untenable. As such the independence was an affair between the Anglo-Egyptian colonial regime and the Jellaba. The South was not consulted.
The tragedy of the Jellaba is their narrow Arabo-Islamic outlook and their total failure to look beyond these two parameters of Arabism and Islamism as the sole uniting factors for the Sudan The Jelluba have set up an economic system which is responsible for the deepening of the inherited disparities among the regions of the Sudan. The funds and other resources of the marginalized areas were always transferred and invested in the Jellaba areas of Central Sudan.
5. Response of South Sudan
The South has drawn clear lines to resist the forced assimilation. Despite the heterogeneous nature of the people of South Sudan, regional nation has been expressed in armed movements (the Anyanya in the 1960s and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement from 1980-s to date), formation of Southern political parties (the Liberal Party, the Federal Party, the Southern Front, Sudan Africa National Union and Union of Sudan African Parties) to mention but a few. The people of South Sudan reject the imposed unity. They are aware their assimilation means forever assigning them to the tasks of “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”*While we have excellent reason to affirm and publish these reports, because of only very limited knowledge of the situation, RMNI is not responsible for the accuracy of this report in every particular.
- By James Yugu Yangkole
- Category: Sudan
South Sudan Home Page
Request a contact about going on or supporting a short term missions trip!
Sudan Team Information Resources
How to get to South Sudan - Find out how you can go with us to Sudan--here is your first stop.
S. Sudan Trip Essentials - The basic information about the trip: costs, needs, etc.
Application - The earlier your application is received, the better your preparation will be.
Waiver of Liability - The waiver must to be notarized, so don't wait.
Quick Gear Listing - The list of things you will want on the trip.
South Sudan Visa Application (updated 15Nov2018)
Uganda Visa Information (updated 7 Feb 2021)
Vaccines and Medicines for South Sudan
Other South Sudan Information Resources
World Fact Book - South Sudan Home Page (updated 7 Feb 2021)
World Christian Database--South Sudan Todd M. Johnson, ed. World Christian Database(Leiden/Boston: Brill, last accessed March 25, 2019).
Republic of South Sudan, National Bureau of Statistics
- By Jim Sutherland
- Category: Sudan
Subcategories
Short Term Missions Testimonies
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