One Decade

With approximately one hour and thirty minutes I sit here to chronicle this. But before I write much I should say that this article is inspired by another man’s. I rarely write the details of my life for the simple fact that I find them less important than the lessons that they present to me, so I concentrate on the lessons. Today however I find myself inspired by a better man, Isaac Tibasiima. And this one posting is mostly dedicated to him; I pray I do the art and the ministry, the justice due.

When this decade was ushered in little was mentioned of it because for most of us the millennium was a more important time block to focus on. But today as it comes to an end, I will summarize my life through it. At its birth I was getting to senior three at Kiira College Butiki a teenager just beginning to lose his way and a long way I got lost. The drinking, girls, pornography and foul language were my dark side; I was also the council speaker and had my share of excellent class performances. I was met by a kind woman, a teacher of mine whose importance to my life has kept unfolding, thank you Mrs. Muwanguzi Juliet.

I finished both my Ordinary and Advanced levels of education, broke up with one girlfriend to get to another, and broke up with her as well. I met Christ on the floor of my bedroom, saw Him fight the forces of darkness with the power of His Light and that moment has always stayed with me, because I did not read about it, I saw Him do it, in my bedroom. I experienced His power at work in me able to cast demons out and away, and then realized that they too are real and active, not dead.

I joined university, much to the discouragement of those that supported me, and realized how God can move time, space and nature for those that He calls His own. Strangers, friends and friends of friends, pulled funds to see me through university. I learnt that one good shirt was just okay if you learnt to wear it right, and that being skinny was only a thing everyone else saw but me. I realized that friendships start with a smile, sharing a sit, shaking hands or borrowing class notes and that the people that love always stay, through hurting and healing. I realized that though I knew so many people, not all of them got to know me and that was okay. I started a business with just 1500UGX and saw it multiply simply because I learnt to treat children right, and every home sends children to the shop, they are the main reason groceries are bought. I beat all my competitors, getting there before 7:00 and leaving by 20:00, making sure I had the time to play with two of my nephews, Jojo and Dickson.

I graduated from University.

I volunteered at my church and worked alongside some of the most amazing people, Liz Kitongo (Then Liz D) Robert Musoke, Kiiza Wilfred, Emily and Alfred. These people made me realize that a great group is not only made by those that catch the fish, but also those that wash the nets. Started another business and lost greatly because my completion was better placed. But I am forever grateful for starting Simply Fruity, with Liz Kitongo because I realized that all things are possible, if we are stupid enough to believe and wise enough to trust God.

I proposed to a girl, whose beauty I found more in her silence, and her strength in her words. She looked long at me and simply held my hand to pray. Eight days later she said yes, though I realized that she needed more time. We went through a time of simply trying to understand the situation and the two people directly involved, my only anchor being God, because I presented my case to Him way before I ever proposed to her and when I felt the peace in my heart, I proceeded with my desire. Many times I felt myself wanting to give her time off, because she might have found it harder than I imagined. I have seen that constant loving and trusting God brings results that the heart has never imagined. I have realized that this girl, who laughs like a child is the one I want to invest the rest of my life with, and that she gets the point.

Started some of the most amazing friendships, Belinda, Mildred, Timothy, Priscy, Sheila and most surprisingly, Isaac whom having met many years ago was still a stranger to me. I have enjoyed all the telephone conversations, the secrets shared the time and conversations given.
Got a job as a sales representative with PAX insurance Company, an experience that I will forever be glad I got. I realized that much as I wanted to be a finance student, selling was more my passion and that’s what I will pursue. I was able to stand by my little sister Anna when she was pregnant, though my own life demands remained a stumbling block. I learnt that people are more important than, laws, norms, order and property. That all those are useless if they do not value people above themselves. I had a quarrel with my big brother, a most heart breaking event, and one I had prayed would never occur. Well it did, and while I still stand by my beliefs in the quarrel, I found time and meaning to go and apologize to him for the simple reason that he is the kindest man, that slaved to raise me and all the others. I learnt that we may not always agree but love is forever.

Stayed with one of the most amazing and kind women I know and realize that sometimes, some things are simply not meant to be and that even the best of intentions can be failed if that is the case. I repented for my rebellion, and realized that there is no escape from the purposes of God and that the Israelites should have learnt something good in Egypt, a form of Character that was needed in them and that simply because honey is available, it does not mean it’s ours to eat.
Realized that family are the only people that stay after everyone else has gone and it’s important to stay for then when you can. The men I have met are not in there forties but they have touched my life profoundly. Mr. Ssembatya Edirisa, Mr. Rubibi Emanuel, Mr. Oyite George( who, along with his wife, Aziza, and daughter Lisa, literally took me in as a member of the family. I have enjoyed the delicious meals we enjoyed together and the conversations. I truly believe that George is the man for the job and the season), Mr. Kalule Robert and those I have already mentioned above have changed my life.

I got another job and realized how my childhood dream to travel the Pearl of Africa is coming to pass. I have met wonderful people, all my workmates are amazing, we have our stretches but most of the times we make business happen, and that worms my heart as I learn.
The best gift this decade is the eight children I got in Watoto Childcare Ministries. With an amazing mother, Mama Jacky Kabarisa, I have found that the blessings of God are simply amazing. Every time I go home, every Sunday, I realize how blesses I am to have the most handsome boys, Allan Kigenyi, Andrew Kisambira, Ibrahim Sendaula, Daniel Tushabe, and Kato Paul, and the most beautiful girls, Akankunda Mercy, Ajambo Leila, and Kisakye Noelina as my God given. I have also realized the strength of many other children, that have silently inspired me, Joshua, Nakkazi Lillian, Sapiri Lillian, Marjorie Mukisa, Alinda, Prosy, Mary, Michael and Livingstone, Douglas, Annet, William and Joel and I am glad I met them all. The men in the Father’s Heart Ministry have inspired me to be a better man and Father, Milton, Babu, Emma, Martin, Yosia, it has been a pleasure meeting you all.

I face the new decade armed with the knowledge that while great things are bound to happen, we need to be a praying people. That our prayer is going to not only propel us to great heights, its going to knock the hold the enemy has had on many of our friends off. That many are going to be rescued because we took time, not to condemn churches, but to pray for them. That our walk this decade is going to be more about God working with us that just us running the show. I have seen the Love of God, this decade I set my heart to Him that is Love. The Word, prayer and Fasting.

I start this new decade, going to the School of Community leadership, the Amazing investment Club, and My Family in Biira and Home, my friends, my job, person and most importantly my God closest at heart. By the time this decade ends……
If I have left any details out, its because I am tired and this has been written in just an hour, usually such an article takes more time, but hey, we leave all unforgiveness in this decade.

Amazing Investment Club-Profile

Amazing

Investment

Club

Together We Invest. We Grow.
Club Profile

1.0 Summary:

The Amazing Investment Club (AIC) is a group club of long term investors who have agreed to pull monies with the aim of re-investment. The club seeks to attract individuals from all professions. The club membership will comprise of professionals from various fields like banking, insurance, medicine, education and the private business sector. The club seeks to invest money in the various schemes that are available on the market. The aim is to jointly multiply our monies while making a profit, to learn as a group of all the other investment options available on the market and grow businesses that will span global boarders. We intend to invest in Unit Trust Funds, stocks, treasury bills, real-estate, farm product and other options as we will find with creativity until we have enough to invest in insurance, banking, transportation, medicine, education and other fields that will add to our goals and profitability.

2.0 Back Ground:
Investing as a culture is still very low in Uganda especially when it comes to making long term investments. The challenges range from lack of sufficient capital, to lack of the right experience and expertise to run business. Many times the business people lack the vision to see their establishments run for more than two decades, they are simply looking to today and that limits their ambition and resolve for a greater investment.
Looking at these factors, the AIC seeks to draw from a group of investors that are ready to invest in the short term for long term benefits. Individuals who are eager to see themselves own businesses that span across borders but with the persistent and careful culture of investment are who the club seeks to attract.
The power of a group of investors is that we have access to knowledge, expertise, gifts and talents, finances and strengths that only a group can posses and make use of. Individuals from the privates sector, accounting, medicine, law, politics, farming and all those other fields that we will seek to invest in will be the strength that AIC will enjoy on our way to thrive to greatness.






3.0 Objectives:

The objectives of AIC are as below.

a) To mobilize savings from its members by way of monthly contribution to the investment club fund and to encourage members to raise funds for savings in every possible way.

b) To carry on, develop and improve any trade business whether manufacturing or otherwise which may seem to the investment club capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with its objectives herein or calculated directly or indirectly to enhance the value or render more profitable any of the investment club’s property, assets or rights.

c) To invest the investment club funds in such ways as are financially profitable be it in buildings and other related ventures and for this matter to engage in property and estate development, habitat, environment and real property development and to deal with other housing and development concerns in Uganda and abroad.

d) To increase investment knowledge among the members through our monthly investment discussions and talks from successful business personalities as well as research reports carried out by the research and development team, aided by all the members.

e) To promote the investment culture in the country by partnering with different stake holders to reach out to the younger generations, in secondary and primary schools as well as the institutions of higher learning in the country.

f) To do all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the investment club objects or any of them or the performance of its functions.


4.0 Membership;

Membership to the club is voluntary meaning that members are free to join as long as they satisfy the stipulated requirements. Membership is not based on sex, religion, political ideologies or nationality. Those can be found on the club application form and the termination of membership form.

5.0 Administration:

The club leadership is comprised of a club president, the club secretary, the club treasurer and the vice president all who will be voted in office once a year at the annual general meeting. Their roles can very well be found in the bye laws of the club.
There will be committees to take charge of the different investment options and to give advice on those areas that will need their expertise. For example the land and construction committee will be in charge of determining whether we are buying legitimate land and if the price is good and fair enough. The other committees will be determined as we grown in investments and as we diversify. All these will be voluntary services but results will be very expected to be accurate and on time.
The goal is to get every member involved in something without burdening a single individual. It will also provide very good checks and balances as reports will be demanded and no single individual will have the space to dictate on a decision.
6.0 Activities:
The club will be engaged in such activities;

6.1 Monthly meetings: These will be conducted at pre-determined locations once a month. The members are required to have fulfilled their monthly contribution by then and at the meetings they will simply submit the pay slips to the treasurer as the meetings go on.
A review of the previous month’s activities will be done and a projection of the next month’s activities will be done, responsibilities will be assigned and taken as well as reports and updates submitted and given to all the members.
Business ideas will be given and reviewed and progress monitored. Major decisions will be voted upon and a tentative agenda for the next meeting will be given.
6.2 Sports Days and Group Outings: The club will have quarterly outings for building the team. The members will pay for this outing and not the club. The frequency of meeting may be adjusted as the members will see meet and the location of the outing will also be determinate by the members. This may also involve attending member’s weddings and other functions that will require our presence. All these will be done to help the group grow together and to learn more about and from each other.
6.3 School Visits: These will occur at the time intervals that the members will determine schools will be visited and encouraged to start investment clubs will form a point for the club to disseminate investment knowledge. More developments may arise from this program that will also serve as our CSR.
6.4 Investment Tours: The members will be under obligation to visit each and every investment onsite. This will help build a sense of ownership among the members of the club.

7.0 Collection of Money:

DFCU is a bank that has stood out to help and support investment clubs. So it’s very important that the account is held at the bank. The bank lends up to 150% of a registered club’s total savings which following 2400000 UGX monthly saving alone, gives us an annual 28800000 UGX. This means that at the end of the year it will be possible to borrow up to 42300000 UGX. Imagine what we can do with that.
Members will save a minimum of 50000 UGX a month, (or any other figure that the investment club members will find necessary) and any sum above that as long as it’s not more than 20% of the total monthly savings of the members. These monies will be deposited on the club bank account and the members will only bring the bank deposit slip as evidence of their making such a deposit.
This money has two channels that it will get to first. The club bank account will keep a pre-agreed upon sum and the investment option agreed upon will also take the amount allotted to it.

8.0 Investment Decisions

Members are free to come up with investment ideas that they are profitable for the whole club and not just the individuals. They will forward these ideas especially at the monthly or bimonthly meetings depending on what will be agreed upon.
Each investment decision will be preceded by deliberation by the research and development committee, these will determine whether the idea is viable or not. They R&D committee will work with the particular committee that are directly responsible for the investment. Say, if it’s a purchase of land, the land and construction committee will be involved. Each committee will be responsible to firstly develop the operation procedures in the particular areas that apply to their responsibilities as will be outlined.
We intend to look majorly in the areas of farming, poultry and piggery if agreed upon and also real estate for the start.


Below is a sample of the expected Investment and the Expected Returns. Neglecting the Transaction Costs and the Bonuses Rewarded. We work with the assumption that the monthly collection will be 2400000 UGX , but it could be more.(Sorry , it does not show on Bloger)
These are just some of the short term investments that we could venture in. there are others like leasing land for say real-estate or farming of any nature the prediction of whose returns is not possible for now. With more people and more ideas we shall make this an amazing success and experience as all of us will be active investors.

9.0 The Future:

It is true that wealth is grown and making dreams come true is a process that does not only come with a single person’s input. When people with diverse knowledge and placed in different spheres of influence come together to work together its very obvious success is on the way. We shall invest in real-estate and that’s just for the start. When we stay together, we shall see the club invest in other sectors of the economy like banking, insurance, transportation, farming, recreation and so many others.
Our collective experiences and energies will be relevant in making this happen. So I call upon all investors to join us in this endeavor. We can make this decade ours of achievements.

10.0 Conclusion:

At the end of the first year, we shall have a minimum of 28800000 UGX if all 24 people make their monthly contribution, and with DFCU we shall be able to borrow up to 150% of those savings. Imagine what we can do with amount of money. The opportunity is with us
As a group we have unlimited and unexplored horizons to reach. I ask you to join me in this effort as we build wealth, enterprises and grow businesses that shall span beyond the borders of the African Continent.

11.0 Way Forward:

A date for the meeting of all the interested parties is being discussed with other friends and consultants and will soon be communicated to all that will show interest. Then we shall discuss the more important issues like how to register the club because it requires a minimum of 5 people and also the other regulations as stated in the bylaws will be discussed and agreed upon. There will be other issues added to the list as will be communicated.

12.0About The Club President:

I am Ntumwa Edward Lubega a Ugandan by decent and a graduate from Makerere University Business School with an honors Bachelors degree in Business Administration.
I have worked with PAX Insurance Company as a Sales Agent and now I work with BASE Technologies, a solar lights company that’s a subsidiary of Barefoot Power in Australia, http://www.barefootpower.com/.
I am a member of Watoto Church and I love Christ. I love Travelling, taking risks, photography, music, reading, writing, investing and growing wealth. Children are my passion though I have none of my own yet. I have run two personal businesses in the past, one I sold off, one I was out competed and learnt my lessons. I believe that by making business happen from all tiers of the economy, we can achieve tremendously.
I am continually studying new subjects and I am an enlisted student of the school of community leadership, http://questleader.com .Classes start in February this year. I am ever grateful that you read through this profile and are to tell more friends about it. You can respond back to me on the addresses provided below.
Contacts:
Ntumwa Edward Lubega
+256- 752-720202
nentumwa@gmail.com
http://ntumwatoday.blogspot.com/

Making Life Happen

This morning, a woman woke up next to a man, a stranger, they have been married for years and yet now she feels she does not know him another woke up next to a stranger, a man, she doesn’t know him, but that’s the only way she knows to take care of her children, that’s the only way she has grown to know. A man walked into the public toilets this morning, that’s his work place, that’s what he does, keeps them clean for you and me, a woman woke to go to the garden, the rains are coming, another read through her presentation, at exactly the same time, she is the board chairperson. A soldier stepped on the front line, in a foreign land, his country, his mission at heart.

We all wake each morning, wake to the tasks, the thoughts, the decisions and the moments that belong to us. They are what we have to work through to make life. Life as we know it, life as we want it or to that life. We are all making life happen each day. The policeman that arrests a speeding driver and the taxi driver rushing to his next stop are all making life happen.
The question many times is not what life we are making, but how we are making life happen. If we care to think about it, how we make life happen for us always affects the way others will make theirs happen and more critical still, it affects what life they are making happen. When we travel on those upcountry journeys where man and animal share space on the bus, when we are served a drink in stained cups, with soiled hands and a smile, we experience how work contributes to the making of life and we see people that are passionate about that which they are doing, people that have not taken all the care as we know it but as they know it. And their care affects us in some ways, ways that we may appreciate, or grow to appreciate later.

The point is we are interlocked individuals, all of us. The taxi driver and his assistant, the waitress and the chef, the teacher and the student, we are all constantly affecting each other’s lives. Some from so close while others from distances we cannot fathom. When we pay less attention to our lot, when we despise the lot of others, we are only dooming ourselves. The husband that thinks his decade long wife unfitting, the wife that grows cold and distant to the man that’s father to her children, all have to get to a point where they realize just how important the life they make for themselves is to as far as their grandchildren’s children.

Our lot in life may be small, it may be great, but it is always important. We are not to live without accounting. When we neglect the virtue of work and the virtues that should accompany that we should look at our government and the services that need our tax money to make us better as a people. When we start a culture that we know to be wrong, we can only wait till the repercussions come biting at us. That’s why when we choose to make life, it should be in complete regard of all of humanity, those we shall meet and know and those that we shall never meet and never think about.

The summary is that we are all important, important to each other, to our race and what we think, say and do, affects all and then affects us.

Differences

Right now the only deference between you and I is that at this hour,22:42 in a village in Mbale, right below the Elgon Mountain, I have sat down to write this article. But that is what life is all about, differences. Today and at this very hour, there are many differences being created. A student, writing their last exam, a young woman making up her mind on who of the suitors to spend all her life with, a baby determining that she needs to cry, a husband deciding to confess to his wife of an adulterous affair and those many other differences that are being created.
When we stand in the crowds of the day, we easily isolate ourselves from the rest, from all that is going on around us. We identify ourselves by what we are not as observed from those around us. We have a small voice that helps us know by what is absent in us but present in those around us. But when we are alone, we see clearly, we are not a measure of what we are not but of who we really are. We are the person laying in that bed, seated at the computer reading this article, we are who we really are regardless of what is around us.

I have found that it is many times very difficult to isolate ourselves from the crowd and the comparisons that it presents to us. In that realization I have grown to know that we only make those comparisons, not because we know ourselves or the people we compare ourselves against, better, but because we are trying to understand ourselves. We are searching for ourselves in those around us, in what is and what is not in them. We are in the process of processing us. The journey can sometimes be very depressing until we truly get to know as we should.

But there are times when that comparison is in fact an attraction to something we believe ourselves to be. There are times when in those around us we see ourselves, a fraction of us that may be hidden or unattended to and we seek to associate with them with the hope that we shall express or experience ourselves in the abilities that they present before us. We are indeed drawn to ourselves and we want to tell ourselves about ourselves but we only use them as a means of doing this and we are wrong, because all that they will ever tell us about is themselves.
I have learnt that people are constantly in the process of telling us about themselves. The way we talk, what we talk about, how and with whom we talk about it, the way we walk, eat, and laugh and all those other human activities are ways of talking about us. In them we shall see the differences among us; we shall learn that in our differences, none becomes better than the other, but simply different. When a man tells his wife that he loves her, when he happily carries their daughter, when he yells at her, he is telling her about himself. When we think to ourselves, those thoughts that only we know, we are telling ourselves something about ourselves. Even the thoughts of anger against someone, or love or hatred, we are simply telling the rest about ourselves.

That’s why it’s very important for us to be quick to listen and slow to respond. Because not many conversations have the motives of the speakers open for all to view, only when we listen and consider the matters presented do we clearly get understanding of what was being communicated. Greater than understanding the main points and communicating them, is the need to clearly get the motives passing in those points. When we listen to people searchingly, with undivided attention and not just the waiting for them to stop talking so that we can join in, we shall be better people.

But this starts when we realize that other people are also very important and not just us and our opinions. I have noticed that many times we are only listening to ourselves and not the other person. It’s a form of disrespect that we exhibit and we don’t even realize it because we are so absorbed in ourselves.

Back to the differences being created. We are not only in the process of creating differences among us and other people, but also in our very lives. We should seek to make a difference in our individual lives by purposing to be better each day. And I have seen how easy this can be when we look at the lives that we meet and realize that more important than getting the difference and the similarity, is getting the lessons that are so rich in them. That will very well happen when we set our heart to value people and be consistent in this commitment. Then and only then shall we learn to make the most important difference, the difference that we make in our lives.
And this is simply what it should lead to, the ability to think through the other person and use what we understand and well in making the relationship we have with them better.

If We Looked

When I wake up many mornings, I realize that am alive and many times I say a brief thank you to the God of my life. If you are like me, that realization comes to you almost every day although you realize it differently. For some people it’s manifested by thinking of the many things that they have to do that day, the breathing of a spouse beside them, or the sound of the birds dropping into their ears. We all have s a way of realizing that we are alive for the day. This realization presents us with another, even more important, realization, the fact that we all are pulled or pushed or both by something. The reason for our awaking each morning. Many times we celebrate this pull or push, we are proud of it, there are also days when we don’t, when we simply loath it.

But there are people that we come across and we wonder what keeps them going. They seem so helpless down there at the bottom of the life chain. Sometimes I find children they are growing behind the very curtains of civilization and normal development. To me they seem oblivious of the very factors that affect their existence, the politics, the entertainment, the education and health and those other factors that have shaped life as the rest of us know it. Young men who have summarized their own lives to the nature of lives that their fathers that have lived. Women that are ignorant of the fact that the beauty of a woman can be better revealed, who go around their business without paying any business to their appearances or conduct. And the so many things that surround those societies.

When I look at those people I am saddened by how little their chance at life is, I can almost tell what type of men the boys will be by just looking at their fathers and the comparison is very disheartening. In those moments I realize just how many opportunities I have had all my life and how worse it would have been if we were in the feet of those that we tower above. They are so different in time and opportunity and the difference creates almost two separate worlds.

Life as we know it can be very varied, from one location to another. When we find societies that have nothing appealing to us, men and women whose lives, whose comfort we would give all to avoid, we are forced to reflect on our lives. But do we ever wonder why these people seem so happy in the pits that we assume they lay, do we ever see the hope in the eyes of the children, the need to please in the eyes of the young men and women? I think we don’t, I think we are so absorbed by the nature of our own lives that we have not found beauty in those lives that we deem inferior to ours.

The truth is that the men in those communities also, find the women attractive, and that the young fall in love, the women also wonder if they are still attractive to their men and take the effort to raise their children in the way that’s right. When we think of life is beautiful on any coast as long as we set our hearts to see the beauty that comes to us every morning and in the day.

There is beauty in work greater than money, there is satisfaction in a woman greater than her beauty, the confidence of a ready and steady companion and helper, and there is joy in raising a child greater than making a lawyer out of them. You see my friend, and then I realize that the rest of us have skipped the safe point of true happiness, the point where we just have to look where we are and derive all the satisfaction. We are upset by the small things, like the internet being slow, while they celebrate the smile of a passing friend, a salutation of a loved one and those small components whose power over our lives is so great.

If we care to look at people and that which surrounds them with a searching eye, we shall learn to appreciate them; we shall learn to realize the presence of God close by. The hug of a dirty child can be so worm when we realize the purity and eagerness with which it’s given. Our lives are easily touched with love and beauty if only we dropped all the complicated standards that we have created around us.

So when you next visit a poor neighbor and the water in served in a broken cup, look up in her face and you will the happiness with which it’s given and you will understand her motives for giving the drink. You will realize that while that’s all she had, it’s not all she has given, she has given her happiness, her attention and that’s what makes her special, the need to give beyond her means.

The moral of this writing is simply this, we are al human and we are all special and that we can see it in all people when we chose to.

Human Rights Part 1

A colleague of mine recently engaged me in a debate about the rights of a minority group in this country and triggered many thoughts, some of which I wish to share today.

You see, I hear of the rights of so many groups of people, humans, children, women, men and even animal rights. But what are the most important rights? I the think the collective rights of humans are the most important rights. Those rights need to be protected above the rights of anything else. When we say the rights of children, have we firstly noticed that in a way the rights that they should have access to as humans are being infringed upon or are we trying to close them out of the human bracket and make them simply children? When we think of the women, are we doing that to them, are we enforcing their rights as humans or are we just boxing them out of the human bracket. You see, I believe that if we keep segmenting the human race, we shall have so many minority groups and each will stand to fight for their rights much to the destruction of those rights that we are all entitled to as humans.

But it may seem impossible to remove this segmentation. The more we fight for or against the rights of these minority groups, the more we break the rights that we share as humans. To protect the rights of those small groups, we many times find ourselves sacrificing the general human rights that we once fought so hard to build. Today we all stand threatened, threatened by the protection of the minority and the majority. For we can’t do either without violating the rights of the majority. We are firstly human, and those rights that apply to many of us should be firstly upheld and protected without offending ourselves collectively as humans.

So when we stand to say wives should not be beaten by their husbands, the reason should be that they are human and not that they are wives. Yes this will call for all of us to stand.

So what was the discussion that I was engaged in? It was on the subject of homosexuality in Uganda. Not just homosexuality, but homosexuality in this country. So that’s why I say we should firstly defend the human rights against the rights of any minority or majority group, but in defending those rights we should not offend ourselves. Ourselves as the people we are, in this case, we are Africans and majorities are Christians. We need to stand for those things by which we measure right and wrong. Those identities that have defined the course of our culture and our very lives. Those are the cultures by which we are human and by which we are able to defend the rights of us all.

And because as humans we have the right to express ourselves, all camps should front their opinions, and they should be passionate about their views, but in doing so their subsequent actions should not be in violation of our rights and our nature.
To be continues.

Is This Loving

Recently, I experienced a degeneration in my will to stand for the things that I believe in, a weakness towards those evil pulls that had once held me captive until the time the power of God intervened. Like many people I tried to understand my situation, and tried to find reason for the sudden drift. A drift from a safe and steady standing to a very destructive imbalance. I tried to blame those that I love and those that are near me, those in the distant past and those in my present. Today and I realized that I was grossly in error.

The question that stands today is why we many times want to share the blame we find on our hands with those others. If we love as we claim, why are we, many times, quick to accuse them. Why is loving a series of imposed responsibilities and obligations, the failure of which to perform, automatically leads to persecutions of those we claimed to love. It seems as if this love we claim to give, comes with a heavy obligation to those that stand to receive it, a burden of sorts. It’s as if we use them to cover up for the flaws in our own character or resolve to perform certain acts.

The husband that cheats on his wife because she cannot give him children, the other that beats her up because she is disrespectful are all symbols of this burdensome loving. The father that banishes his daughter from the home because she got pregnant while in school and the so many that may come to mind are all examples. You see my friends, in my opinion, the nearest word to love is freedom. Freedom to thrive and freedom to err, freedom to speak and to be silent when we choose. This is a measure we are not going to be comfortable with always and we may fail many times until we get it right but we have to keep trying.

The people we love are bound to hurt us many times, but are we going to let them? We hold such power in love that an offence does not hurt, that a wrong does not hurt. This does not mean that a wrong is not looked at as a wrong, it is, but in relation to the wronging, we stand to forgive, our bridge of love unbroken and our will to love steady.

So if my moral stand broke, I have no right to blame it on anything or anyone. It’s purely my fault and a problem for which I should get the help of those that I love and love me. That is the reason why we love, that we may prove that divine value, that value that sees people as they truly are. Not measuring them against what they gave and what they held back. For while we ask for help, we should learn to make our asking as freeing as we can. Not to wrap it in thousands of obligations and traps that many times break human bonds but to leave it exposed to the air of choice. To know that those that we approach with the request for help, have a will and a mission in this life, that they may choose to help or not and yet that does not imply that they don’t care about us or love us. We should and learn that people grow and that in what may seem like an offence to us, lies a lesson to both the ‘’offender’’ and the ‘’offended’’

Our biggest joy should lie in watching those we love grow, even if that groth may mean taking them from us. Shall we commit to the development of others? The questions on the subject reamin many.

my friends are those I am careful not to hurt and yet not afraid after hurting them. Those are my friends, the people whose love I will always count on.
Correct me if am wrong.

From Where I Stand

It is always easy to tell a story when we have experienced the details it presents ourselves. It is even easier to tell that story if we are the subject of the story and if it is not a matter of presenting cases.From where we stand is always the most suitable position to tell any story truly though not always completely. I stand at a place today where to love is to abandon self, where the object of love leaves no motive to do so. I stand at a place where my judgment can easily be biased. To take a walk through the forest, one has to know the path well, but even more importantly, one has to know the forest better. To love, we need to know and understand even better that object of love.The more we know, the better we are positioned to love and though knowledge may never increase our intensity of love, it will surely better our quality to love. As we walk this journey of life, we discover that making the right decision is not always going to be easy and that dying is not always the brave decision to make. We are going to be inconvenienced some times we are even going to be hurt but our resolve to love with no expectation of being loved will see us through.When people throw everything we lovingly give back at us, when they spit in our smiling faces, they leave us many options. We can choose to see them as that or go to the root of their evil. Much of our upbringing had a lot of training left out. We were not taught to be loved, we were taught that what we give will be valued over who we are and that that’s how we are to treat the rest. We have not been taught to appreciate without valuing. When I see good furniture all I see is the beauty but there are many people that will first see the cost and then all that’s missing and by the time they are done, there is no beauty.We have to teach people a lot, even how to be loved. Men are often hurt by wives that value what they offer over who they are. Women too. It is a very simple principle we love to be appreciated over what we are able to give.We love to be measured by who we are over what we are. Treat people like trash and very soon you will trash both to them and to your self. That’s just the way it is. What we give we receive and when we keep receiving we become. What ever is deposited in our lives stays when we let it stay.Need I say more?

Today.

We often meet the question; ‘how was your day?’ and when we do, our minds begin racing through all the stuff that we have encountered in that one day. All the people, the places we’ve been to, the conversations we have been involved in and the other many that I may not be at liberty to include here. So, thus we sum our days, a series of events that we have been involved in. but do we realize how our day spans way beyond what we have been involved in, do we notice the numbers of people whose days we are a part of even without their invitation? The shop attendant, the taxi man, the children crossing the road in fornt of our car and the others whose lives we visit with neither them nor us noticing.

If that brief introduction is to be followed, I can proceed. It occurred o me recently that each day represents a last day to something or someone or somewhere. Every day at the same time represents a first day to the same. It therefore follows that when each day begins, it carries in it both the beginnings and the ends and that when each day is ending, it carries the same. So here we are facing the possibility of a beginning and that of an end and many times living in at least one of them if not both or combinations of both.

We also realize that while we exist individually, we are each sharing with a vast majority of components. We are constantly sharing the common existence that is presented to all of us by the day. And while we all strive to get our most from a single day, we all have it equally and that to be selfish in an area of the day is to be ignorant of the abundances that are available to us all. We also realize that in the place of a selfish existence could grow a selfless giving and that to the benefit of all. It becomes obvious that the most hard working individuals of our communities could also share in the beauty of the abundant giving, a lesson we so clearly learn from each day that comes to us. That in the days of war, we are each exposed to the same dangers and yet if we all could, unity would see all our children safe.

The moral of the discussion is simply this; we have each day only once. And though in the morning we experience it for the first time in the morning, we experience it for the last time in the evening. The things that we do today, we can only do for the last time today. Actions released are often hard to call back and the beauty of our intentions should not be a secret for long because while to you it’s just the beginning, to another the end may be very close at hand.

When we set our efforts to a task, when we chose to love one, when we prepare for war and when we practice for sport, what ever we set ourselves to do, we should bare in mind that the end is indeed with us just as is the start. And while we don’t know for how long that may be, we know that we can make it last for ever. Some people have loved us and for that they will last for a lifetime, others have done a work in ways that history and the news will always adore them.
The beauty of each day is simply that we have it and all that it contains, what we do with it is always up to us. Let us realize that the best is required today and for today

To You

I have been told that the best things in life are free and I believe there is some truth in that. But because many people know that, they place a very high demand on those free things. Think of all those things God designed to be given freely, a warm hug, trust, faith, hope, love and those others you have imagined.
The demand we place on those free items on the market in the end places a price to them. We have to realize that just because they are free doesn’t mean that they are not to be fought for or should I say worth a fight.

And while our fight is not for the gain, it is still a fight worth staging. For love we fight with love, for trust we fight with trust, for hope we fight with hope. For all those free things, the commodity is also the weapon of war.

When I think of the friends I have lost, I realize the number of times I gave up on being a friend. When we think of the people that we have ended up loving we realize that the commodity was the weapon for the war fare.

Which brings me to this point; we cannot fight with what we don’t have. Even though we may see what we want across the table. The journey of our lives is a story of additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions all which serve to add to us. When we realize our need to be loved, we also realize our need to love, when we realize our need to trust, we realize our need to be trusted.

The sadness of life is that many of us have learnt to be without and to be robbed that to have scares us. To have people we can trust sometimes scares us, to have people that count on us many times scares us. The other absurdity is that many of us think we shall never truly have, so prefer to live a lie, we prefer that lying husband or good for nothing job simply because we believe we shall never have. We tell ourselves that thing will get better of that we are in the best place and that’s how our live pass us by.

The reality of the truth is that life is abundant; life is always sharing, sharing with those who dare to ask. We are constantly receiving, either from our fears or from life, the abundant life. When we set out to get the best from life we make a good decision. We make a decision to settle for nothing less than the best. We also realize that we have committed ourselves to giving nothing but the best.

To make such a commitment, we have to realize that we shall have to put some fight on. We shall fight for the good things in life not because its convenient and not because we have to, but because the reward touches many. Those free things are a mine not properly exploited and the world is hungry for men and women that have the real deal and still give it freely. Such people will be rewarded by those in need of trust and the others.

Have a good day fellow fighters and keep the quality of the free things in this life good, just good.

What If

What if this was the story of your life?
You were born to the only monarch in another life. Your parents knew that you were to reign next. Rule over everything living and dead, created and made. In fact the whole universe knew and all were glad.

But to be groomed for the job, you had to be sent away. Away to earth and in this time. Your parents sent you with a pair of subject( your earthly father and mother) to pause as your natural parents but really they are not. Then they flooded earth with many more subjects all with the aim of making you a better ruler when your time comes.

Think of it, they are all acting as instructed. The politics, the inventions, the wars where some subjects lose their lives, its all one big screen and you are the only audience. And it doesn’t matter where you started from, poor or rich home, both parents or single parent, crippled or not, it all doesn’t matter because in your kingdom all will be cleared and beautified.

So you go through life ignorant of this single fact. It is kept a secret because your true parents want to give you the opportunity to create the ruler you want to be without dictating it to you. They also want your subjects to have a feel of the real you before you step onto the throne. The only contribution they make is in directing the subjects on what to do to make your experience as real and natural as they can

You go to the bank and the teller attendant is rude to you just because she was instructed. You fall in love with someone and they love you back just because they were instructed, you choose to be corrupt, a prostitute, a priest, a rebel, a president and every choice you make determines the course of life for every one else because their instructions change whenever you make a new choice.

At many points you feel like the whole world is looking to you and indeed they are, at other points you feel no one care and yet they all do, in fact you are the reason they all exist. That is the nature of your destiny, you are that important to the whole world and low moments are not a privilege to enjoy. Constantly you are being watched and determining he course of many people and yet you don’t know.

So finally the time comes and you have to step into your rulership and you realize that a lot has always been in store for you. Many people have been waiting for you and many more have depended on you. All of them all the time. It is your crowning moment but first, a review of your life on the big giant screen, just you and every one else. You go through your life and see how every decision you made affected all of the future, how every friend you made, or enemy you created was part of the team that helped make this day possible.

You pause for a moment and realize that while you did much for the good of many, you could have done a lot more for a lot more. While you set your personal goals to be the best, you trampled on many and while you, you chose to take the back seat, there were many opportunities for you to help and be useful to many still.

With heaviness in your heart you turn your back to the throne. They orchestra stops the music; the entire kingdom is in shock that you have turned round. In you heart you know you are not worthy to rule a people that sacrificed their own lives to help make this day come to life let alone crown you as their king. And as you open your mouth to decline the privilege your natural father stands up, walks closer to you and embraces you. He looks you in the eye and says, ‘child, this day is your day, we are not mad at you. We have only watched that movie to forget all the bad you did. All we remember are your good deeds and gestures. In fact now we all wish we had come with you into time.’

Then you realize that the royalty does not only come with a crown and a respect but with the entire kingdom and the hearts of all your subjects. If you were aware of this about you , how would you respond to people?

Have a lovely day my friends, rulers or subjects.

The Fires.

While watching the movie, Fire Proof, I was fascinated by one particular scene. The fire man while trapped by a fire in a house muttered a prayer to God, ‘Lord get us out of here.’ At that point some of us would have expected this loving God to send the fire man a rope a carry him away but no, not this God. What happens is that the fire man sees a soft spot and begins to cut through the floor with his axe. The long story short, under immense pressure he manages to get both him and the girl out of danger.

That picture made me think about a lot of situations in our lives where we pray and wait for either our death or the rope that God ‘should’ send us. The circumstances of our lives are flooded with opportunities presented by a God who wants us to rely on Him even when it seems that we have put the best of our efforts. He is eager to write the story of our lives but more eager to have us involved.

Each day we are presented with opportunities to create with God, to do and put our very best without compromising on our trust and reliance on this Loving God. When the fire catches we often tell ourselves to stand and know that He is God. What we understand and do is that God wants total inactivity from us and that He is sending an army of Angel bankers or otherwise to our rescue.

What He actually means is that fear not and know that I am God, in all you are going through do not despair. But if you see nothing else to do, nothing else helpful, rest and know that I am working for you, making all nature, time and creation respond to your need and expectation. However if you see something helpful to do, do it in the rest I have given, knowing that you will not perish and that you are moving to your victory.

So see with me that instead of crying about your problems and fires, you can sing that word of God to them and be sure that you are a victor and more than conqueror. Life was meant to be lived and not fought against. This war fare is not for those who are helpless but for those who are helpful. We are never without help. When the fire closes in ,be sure to see God work to make you the hero.

We Are

If there was a time ever in our lives when we need to be very watchful it should be this very time. The world all over is anticipating, nature is expecting and all that is missing is the right woman or man that has realized the happening and followed suit.

When we sit down to talk to the young ones that look up to us, we have to realize that we step in a position of transfer, transferring what we have seen and what we see to them in a way that where we stand today will be lower than where they will have to stand when they start on their own journey.

Realize that parenting does not start when we give birth and that conception is not a result restricted to conjugal acts just like birthing is not a thing of pregnant mothers. We are constantly surrounded by the opportunity to partake in all these creative acts and yet being so consumed by the non-essential visibles of life we shun them.

Today you will be opened to a place of such creation and a lot will pass by you yet you will have to decide. What will you decide? But what will determine that nature of the decision that you will make. The things that we set ourselves to will determine how we will decide. When we set ourselves to hurt, pain, sorrow and all those things we are most likely to miss the opportunity to build and destroy.

Set yourself to something worth it.

The Biulding

The people that we have grown with are the very people that we shall grow with. What I mean is that they are the very people that we shall work with to create growth in the world that we are living in. It’s strange how we are quick to dissociate ourselves from those that seem to be slow or divergent at the moment and yet those very people are going to meet us in the future when we are building.

It is not common to find those people building at that future time. They may be destroying or building on a totally different foundation. This is a matter of national concern. The children recruited in the homosexuality movement are the victims of those individuals that were neglected at the time when they were supposed to be shown how to build.

We are humans, handiworks of the Almighty God and this is what we do. We work on each other, that’s why people like the pastors and other religious leader that have come out to speak against the vice should not stop at that but should go on to speak for the virtues. They should touch all the aspects of life that affect the building of this nation.

We are all part of this; let’s embrace the building together in our own spheres of influence. See you at the site.

Thoughts

Thoughts, they make the most of our inside and yet we pay very little attention to them in general. I have sat next to people that harbored the victim thoughts and that is all they have seen throughout their days. They believe themselves to be hunted and that’s what everything has seemed like to them.

Today is an unusually funny day for me. I am searching on the inside of me to find something that I can draw, but I think I need to search a little deeper. The thoughts that have come to me today are not very ugly thoughts but they are thoughts that are here to test my ability to love. Have you ever tried to think a hurtful thought about someone that you claim to love? Well , have and it has affected everything negatively.

Even when the people around you seem to smile at you so beautifully, you still need to know their thoughts for you. It is those thoughts that will help you understand the why. And once that has nicely set in you will know how far. Not just how far to go with them but also how far they have let you into their lives and then you can know how to deal with them.

This is why there is a need for people to talk. Every conversation is an attempt to search the thoughts of those people that we interact with. Young lovers need a lot of conversation as they search the thoughts of each other. When we talk we often reveal the nature of our hearts to those that we talk to. It is only a deceitful heart that has mastered that art of concealing itself. By nature we open up when we speak and a certain kind of force helps those listening to discern what we exactly mean.

That’s why we are human; conversations are but an interaction of thoughts, thoughts that are indeed our construction and constitution.

So if conversations are that important, ought we not to pay much attention to the thoughts that shape the nature of conversations that we hold? I bet we do. And I believe we should all aspire to align our thoughts with those of the maker of life. That is the highest standard available and to get to that is to have nothing above.

As we search for the thoughts of God, He reveals Himself to us, letting us know exactly how He thinks until a point in life where we don’t have to search but we know and because we know, we are. That is what makes it fun to have conversations with the Creator; it is a creation moment and time.

Watch the people you interact with because bad company corrupts good morals but again, good morals, I have noticed win the bad over when caution is taken. The process can be very heart breaking but we all learn these things.

So, have you talked to anyone today? What did you say and what did they understand?

Judgement.

There are just a few moments in our lives that we experience the judgement of others but there are many moments when we stand at the judgement stand putting others beneath our wrath. People are very judgemental and when you look at closely am making a judgement right now.

I guess I better stop here.

This Is It

This is it. When we think of people we thing of so much. We think of conversations, laughter’s, moments and the many details that your mind should be sending you right now. But who are people or who are people? The lives that we live are but an assembly of the small components of people that we keep collecting. Some times to our development and some to our detriment.

It is then a common occurrence that even though we love to think of ourselves as singular particles we are indeed collections of many particles. Particles that make pieces of many people (if the definition given above is to be followed by any means).

I believe that in the summary of time, the most important people in our lives may appear to be the strangers that are forgotten by us. We may never be able to thank the people that have made us the successes we are simply because at the time they were making us, we were not attentive and they too were not.

When we choose love over hate, we make a choice whose impact spans across that entire universe to no end. When we choose to be love we make way to a force that builds many and raises all.

This is it my friends, people are very important, even the ones we despise, for while we despise them, we get a look at ourselves in a deferent angle. All creation affects itself at the same time of acting and being. That’s why we can never afford the costs that come with negligence, hate, indifference and those other many things that freeze our hearts.

To love is to live(Contrary to what the Obsessions believe). Lets chose to live ,value people. That is simply it.

Feeling Late Again

There are days in my life when I feel that I should have apologized yesterday, that I should have hugged a few hours ago and that the people that I love I have taken for granted for, one day too long.

It is during those small days with my head down to the ground and my heart so heavy that I realize how much on earth I live. It’s funny how we never realize that the beauty we seek is the beauty we hold so close but value at a distance. If I stood and said that I have not cried before I would have lied. But I have only cried when I thought I was loosing the people that I love or that they had got enough of me that I ceased to matter to them.

All I am trying to say is that, the life I live is a life that has been corrected by God many times. Times that I stand to value all the days of my life. What would I do if I did not need the people that I have stood to see myself loose.

That is as much as I can say. I thank my God for all the friends; whose words, rejection and love has helped me realized just how much I need them. I wonder why I never learn completely.

So why don’t we take the hands stretched out to us and hold them tightly as if to let them know we need them. I read from a book once that he that is in love is not afraid of being ashamed. And I believe some times in the bid to show the love we feel for those dear ones we shame ourselves, only that it only seems so to those watching and not to us. The greatest Love of all hung naked on a tree just to show us the way into love and loving. The least that we can do is to emulate Him.

And when it hurts again, you should know that you are being late again. That that is the right time to apologize and hug again. Is it hard? Yes it is but it is also worth it. Love my friends is a person and not just what we do. That person is who leads us in the ways of love. Do you ever feel Him lead you? I bet we all do once in a while. Just heed to His leading and hug them, apologize to them and walk with them.

Have a lovely love time, I am just learning to walk with Him.

One Of The Amazing Towers

Home Sweet Home.It just gets better

The Road ahead is long and winding, but with eyes of faith I find the way.

Far beyond understanding, there is a Hand that Leads.

Its the child on her wedding day, Its the dady that gives her away. Something Beutiful.

Inspired By The Best.

The Amzing Brelyn

Making Lives Better

Worthwhile investments.

Not Even the Sky is the limit

My Retirement will be sweet.

Family is very important to me.

look where am looking.