Reflections during the flight to Dubai

Wow, this flight from Seattle to Dubai is a long one.  Actually about 14.5 hours.  Ken really put it into perspective – we could drive from Canby to Los Angeles in the same amount of time.  I have made the drive to Los Angeles many times.  That drive always includes several stops, for fuel, food and rest areas.  But on this flight, I am in the center seat between my wife, Danelle and Isaac Williams.  The two rows in front of ours are where the Peters family is sitting, along with Melanie and Julie.  In the two rows behind us sit Ralph, the Davis’s, Ken and the Dunfee’s.  We, along with the nearly three hundred other people in economy class, are not able to spend a lot of time standing to stretch our legs and there is certainly no elbow room.  

 

Even though there are some negatives, Emirates Air has taken great care of us so far.  A top notch dinner of either grilled chicken or lamb, along with a great dessert.  They also gave us a “snack” of personal pizzas, and have made several trips through the cabin with the drink cart.  We each have our own personal monitor in front of us where we have access to over 1200 different movies and TV shows, along with video games and a cool map that shows that we are currently flying over Russia somewhere between St. Petersburg and Moscow at a speed of Mach 0.83, about 560 MPH.  Our flight took us up and over the North Pole.  We were able to look down at glaciers and an iced over Arctic Ocean.  

 

One strange thing is that we have not seen any darkness, no night time.  Since we left Seattle at about 5:45pm and made it over the North Pole before sunset, we came down the other side of the earth after sunrise.  Most of us have taken a short nap by now, but no good night’s sleep.  We will sleep well at our hotel in Dubai tonight, which will actually be a good way to get acclimated to Uganda’s time zone which is 10 hours ahead of Canby’s.   

This flight is certainly a bear, and after we get to Dubai, we will still have another 5 or 6 hours of flying to get to Uganda.  However, I wouldn’t trade it for anything right now.  The opportunity to meet the 5 kids that we sponsor is so exciting.  I am so looking forward to talking to Sam, John, Scovia, Kyalimpa (K.K.) and Kevin along with their families.  I am looking forward to the hugs and laughter and being able to walk with them hand in hand as they show us their homes and communities.  

I absolutely love how God connected our church family with Africa Renewal Ministries (ARM).  It actually came at us from two different directions, which intersected about 4 years ago.  

Pastor Ken Harvey met a pastor from Africa while at a convention in Southern California several years ago.  They exchanged business cards and prayed with each other.  After the convention they each went their separate ways. 

About 5 years ago, my parents were visiting a church in Sisters, Oregon and while they were there the church was promoting a child sponsorship program.  They felt a need to sponsor a child on behalf of their grandkids.  They thought it would be a good opportunity for our kids to have a “pen-pal” in another country.  This sponsored child, Kennedy, was a part of a program through ARM.  At the time, I had never heard of this organization; I did quite a bit of research on the internet.  Our missions’ budget did not have the funds to support another organization, but I really felt that God was leading us to do something to support this organization.  I presented it to the missions committee and we decided that even though, as a committee, we couldn’t put it in the budget, we wanted to ask our church family to sponsor individual children.  In talking with Johnny Karls, who was the U.S. director of ARM at the time, we decided it would be best to have our church family sponsor children in one community.  Johnny suggested the community of Kachungwa, which he had recently visited.  Kachungwa is far from the big city of Kampala, and needed a church to partner with them.   

The missions committee felt that it was very important that the Pastors and Elders of the church be 100% on board as we began to promote this sponsorship program.  I remember fielding many questions from the Elders and Pastors and ultimately they gave their blessing.  Shortly afterwards we discovered that Stephanie Newman, who grew up in Canby Christian and was leading the missions program at a large church in Houston, had been working with ARM and had taken a couple different trips to Uganda.  She gave their program rave reviews and introduced us to Alex & Faith who were students at Multnomah Bible College at the time, they also were sponsored children when they were younger. 

Within a few weeks, I was standing in front of the congregation along with Amy (Crites) McCamish and Alex, introducing the child sponsorship program.  I will never forget the look on Pastor Ken’s face when I stood in front of everybody and announced that we had set a goal of sponsoring 100 children, a goal that I had not shared with Ken.  However, with the help of Alex & Faith and through the power of God, we reached that goal about 3 months later.   

Shortly after that our missions’ budget at the church was increased and our missions committee was tasked with finding a new mission to support.  It was an easy choice that we would help support ARM and the community of Kachungwa.  We also were happy to have Johnny Karls visit and eventually Pastor Peter, the founder of ARM came and spoke at our church.  This is where the connection was finally revealed and the way God was working behind the scenes became so obvious.  You see, Pastor Peter was that African pastor that had exchanged business cards with Ken so many years ago.  The one that shared his ministry with Ken and had prayed with him for God’s guidance.  There is no way to explain the connection that Canby Christian Church has with ARM, except to acknowledge that God’s hand was guiding all of it, all for His glory and to expand His kingdom. 

I am elated to say that our church family now sponsors around 180 children in Kachungwa and also Luzira, which is where Alex & Faith have their church.  We also have raised the funds to build a medical clinic in Kachungwa, which is in the process of buying the land and they will start construction soon.  In addition to this we are able to support the church in Kachungwa on a monthly basis too.  

God is so good and so amazing.  I am so happy to lead the missions committee at our church, which has such a focus and heart to reach the lost, both at home and around the world.  I want to thank every person that is sponsoring one or more children in Uganda.  You are truly making a difference in their lives, providing them with an education, food, and most importantly the love of our Savior.  I would like to encourage any of you that are not currently sponsoring a child to prayerfully consider doing so.  I guarantee that you will be blessed and you will bless a child at the same time.

 

In His Service,

Brandon Chase