Photo of the Month

Our street on a lovely Kampala evening.

A Quick Trip to the Southern Hemisphere

Uganda straddles the equator. Alhough small, it's amazingly diverse. In the south is Lake Victoria - the 2nd biggest freshwater lake in the world, and plenty of trees, green, and rainfall. As you move northward the land becomes increasingly dry, changing to deserts of stunted scrub - eventually turning into the Sahara desert in Sudan.

In the far southwest are the terraced hills of the Kigezi region, with the phenomenal Virunga volcanoes on the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. Recently Aggie and I were fortunate enough to visit this area, escaping the noise and dust of Kampala on a quick trip to the southern hemisphere. Enjoy some of the beauty of Uganda with us in this video.

Almost Live from Uganda (Episode 2)

Hi guys! The second in a series made for our home church back in Alabama, this video focuses on International Missionaries for Christ (IMFC) who we are working with here in Kampala. This really captures our heart, and the heart of the IMFC team, for the people we minister to.

Love in Him,

Simon & Aggie

(For more about us, what we are doing in Uganda and how you can support us in our ministry, please visit www.ugandajourney.org)

Photo of the Month

Caught in a thunderstorm, we (includes a chicken) shelter in the house of a family we were visiting during our Follow-Up ministry.

Almost Live from Uganda (Episode 1)

Hi everyone!

Below is a video that we recently made for Simon's home church back in Huntsville, Alabama Life's Journey Church). This is a really good overview of what we're doing here in Uganda - the various ministries we believe God has called us to be part of.

If you believe in what we are doing, we invite you to join us! We are still very much in need of financial support - specifically we need 35 more families to give US$1/day ($30/month) for our support level to reach 100%. If you would like to do this, please go to www.ugandajourney.org

Love in Him!

Aggie & Simon &:-)}

God of This City

Hi all! This week we'd like to share with you a video that a friend of ours back in the U.S. put together from footage he took when he was here in 2006. Actually I was on this same trip which was my first time in Uganda, and the beginning of this whole thing!

I could watch this video 100 times and not get sick of it! It captures so well the contrasts here - suffering and yet joy, poverty and yet astounding beauty, apparent hopelessness and yet so much hope! It will also give you a broader picture of life here in the city of Kampala than we've been able to give so far in our videos.

As well as all this, it captures the heart of the team here (many of whom you'll see in the video) - the hope, life, excitement and anticipation we have as we see God at work!

"Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city!"

Enjoy!

Simon & Aggie.


Africa - God of This City from Katlin Miller on Vimeo.

Growing Smaller Part II

This week Douglas, Agnes and Simon visited the community of Kifumbira to share our "Growing Smaller" vision. Watch this video to learn how God has developed this ministry, and gaze into the hearts of the trainers and trainees!

(For more info about what we are doing here in Uganda and how to be involved, please visit www.ugandajourney.org)

Growing Smaller!

Today we began training 4 women in the community of Kawempe to be small group fellowship leaders. We believe that as the Church grows, it also needs to grow SMALL. Small groups are where we can truly share life together! Watch this video to find out more (and to meet these ladies)!

(For more info about what we are doing here in Uganda and how to be involved, visit www.ugandajourney.org)

The Front Fell Off

Here is some good Aussie humour!! Love it!!!

"THE FRONT FELL OFF..............

On August 19th 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two, dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil. Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament, appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public*."

(*Disclaimer: this is not for real, of course!)

The Paech Family Singers!

The Ugandan portion of the Paech family (to varying degrees) are avid composers, singers and dancers! In this video, the family sings a worship song called "Mukama Yaminyi" which means "It's only God who knows". Apart from English, Luganda is the most widely spoken language in Uganda, and this native tounge is what the family sing this song in.

P.S. Aggie wrote this song!

Aggie Interviews Winfrey in Bbiina

Aggie interviews Winfrey, a recipient of Manna Ministry food, at IMFC's 1st food distribution in Bbiina (pronounced "Been-a", and yes, that's spelt right!) this afternoon - a community we will be ministering to during the next 6 months.



For more information about what we are doing here in Uganda, go to www.ugandajourney.com

1st Manna Distribution in Sebina

Hi everyone! Today we (the IMFC team) began a new work in an urban slum area of Kampala called "Sebina" where we will be ministering for the next 6 months.

Check out 2 videos we shot just a couple of hours ago!





For more information, go to http://www.ugandajourey.org/

Love in Him,
Aggie and Simon &:-)}

House Tour

Don't be scared off by what (below) appears to be a video of a ghost. This is actually a short video tour of the house we are renting here in Kampala. My personal favorite part is (are?) the chickens, *grin*

The Introduction

Photo: Misti (Aggie's Matron of honour to be) & Aggie,

Simon & Deo (Simon's best man to be).

Click here for more photos!

Ok, finally a blog post! We are doing well and 3 days ago we celebrated 5 months of marriage! We have been so continually busy here that it's hard to find time for such things as blog posts, but it is long overdue to catch-you-up on some of the big events of the past few (now long-gone) months (including our wedding!). But since I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I'll do things in order & start with the Introduction ("Okwanjula"), which was on November 9th, 2007.

It looks like a wedding (except for that pink dress and those robe things), but it's not. Or is it?? Even though Uganda is becoming increasingly westernized in a lot of ways, many traditions are still practiced. The "Introduction" is when the (potential) groom and his extended family are introduced to the (potential) bride and her extended family. Relatives travel from all over the place to come to Introductions: Aggie's father and Aunts came from far NE Uganda and her mother's relatives travelled from Tanzania - both about 10hr, uncomfortable bus trips. Close family friends are also invited, so it ends up being a big event!

I say "potential" groom & bride because this event also determines whether the woman's family approves of and receives the man and his family. This is firstly decided from a knowledge of the man's character, and secondly by the negotiation of a dowry ("bride price") and the giving of lavish gifts of food and supplies to the woman's side of the family, all furnished by the potential groom (!). If the woman's family is satisfied with the man, dowry and gifts, they will give him a letter of acceptance - approving of his marriage to the woman. If negotiations don't go well, the relationship of the man and woman cannot go forward (with family approval). I'm told his happens occasionally, but fortunately for me, Aggie paved the way by negotiating a dowry with her parents before the Introduction, and I guess they thought I was an OK guy! So I was "pre-approved", *grin*. No worries!

From that description the Introduction sounds like a serious & scary event (which it was in some ways for me), but it's actually mostly a big celebration. Both families have a representative master of ceremonies (MC) - paid professionals who speak on their behalves. The MCs banter back and forth with clever and HILARIOUS questions, comments and come-backs, involving and engaging the two families. An example, when they were discussing my history: "Paech is a wise man, as he has managed to read every book in the world. His family accomplishments are great - Paech's grandfather invented the first motor-car, which can now be seen in the Ugandan museum..." My favorite was: "Paech, it seems that your eyes are ever sliding 45 degrees!" (referring to me looking over at Aggie who was off to the side at that time, *laugh*). They also cleverly worked Australia into things. 90% of this was in Luganda, being translated to me by Deo.

The whole event typically goes for a long time (aside: after being to my own and a few others, I have to admit that I now try to avoid them, but Aggie makes me go). Ours went from 2-8pm, with all sorts of really special parts: Aggie choosing me out of the crowd of people (identifying me as her husband-to-be), me choosing Aggie out of 3 groups of girls who paraded by (identifying her as my wife-to-be); an exchange of rings, the cutting of a cake and feeding it (and drink) to eachother, all culminating in what everyone was REALLY there for - a huge meal! Beef, chicken, matooke (the Ugandan staple: cooked green bananas - it's good stuff!), rice, "irish" potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanut sauce, greens... As the guest of honour, my plate was the biggest of all (couldn't finish it)!

The Introduction is actually the traditional Ugandan wedding! By Ugandan law, the man and woman are married after the bride's family gives their approval, and the man is then free to take his wife. But Christian Ugandans also have the traditional wedding that we westerners are familiar with, which is what Aggie and I had 2 days later. So we waited the extra 48 hours, *grin*.

Some of you have already seen a few photos from our wedding, but stay tuned - I'm going to post an entry with a lot more, complete with written details. Hopefully it won't take me 4 months. Ok...

• If you would like a copy of our Easter newsletter, with details of what we've been doing with International Ministries for Christ and a recent family/life update, please email me: simon_paech@hotmail.com
• For more information about what Aggie and I are doing here in Uganda click here.
• And finally, click here for more photos from our Introduction!

Until next time!

Simon & Aggie &:-)}