Perspective

I never know what to expect here. The other day I got a call from our grounds keeper Andrew, "Mr. Brad you come this side. Four of your goats are dead." He seemed unwilling to give me any more information prior to me coming so I headed out to the village where the Amazima land is.

On the drive my mind went back and forth through possible ways that I could have lost four goats. I had just given them de-worming medication so I thought maybe it was that or maybe they had eaten some of the vegetation that had been sprayed around our tomato field. I really couldn't come up with any other solutions than these two.

As I drove I had the weirdest feeling. I was happy. I mean I was disappointed that I had lost 4 of my 12 goats and was hoping that it wasn't my big male, but overall I had a genuine feeling of happiness. It took me a bit to analyze and figure out how it could be. Finally, it hit me. I was overjoyed by the death of my goats because at least it wasn't a malnourished baby, or an HIV positive mother, or a young man in a car accident.

Over the past year my heart has broken for so many that have experienced death of a loved one. Just the other day before I had driven out to the land I was held up by a terrible looking accident. The young man was laying face down not moving in the middle of the road with blood coming from his head and mouth. I didn't get involved in this help effort cause there were many already working to get him to a hospital, but as I sat and watched I kept thinking about him getting up in the morning and sending his little ones off to school and kissing his wife goodbye. I sat wondering if he knew Jesus. I pray he did and it reminds me of our task.

The Harvest is now.



I didn't take this photo.

Upon arriving Andrew informed me that "wild animals" came and killed them. Nobody around knew what these animals were called in English, but I got enough information that I concluded that they were similar to dogs. That night I went home and looked up Ugandan wild dogs and printed off the photos. Sure enough these were the culprits. I guess there was a pack of 10 of them and boy did they do a number on the goats. A couple of them all that was left was 4 small hooves and a head. We butchered what was left and gave away the meat.




If you would have told me in high school that one day a pack of wild African dogs would eat 4 goats that I owned I would have told you that you were mad. Lucky for me I hadn't gotten around to naming most of my goats so it was easier to take. Unfotunately, one did have a name that a friend of mine had given it. Poor "Kisses"