You can't eat calendars

This has nothing to do with the post, but is a fun article on going to school in another country and the video is priceless.  We watched it 4 or 5 times and the kids were so encouraged!!!

Article on school in Russia 

Article on church impact on poverty 


So, on to the topic.  Last year, we went to Kenya with our teammates for a Global Teams Missionary Care Retreat.  FYI, we serve with the organization Global Teams.

Our African director, Bryson, who is Kenyan,  gathered the North Americans serving in Uganda volunteers for a meeting.  We were chatting about different things and he was encouraging us.  At one point, he commented about what a bad idea it is for a westerner to bring an African a calendar as a gift when you visit a home.  He and his wife, Elizabeth laughed and laughed at how ridiculous that thought is and then he said "you can't eat calendars, bring some food."

Well, I squirmed in my seat and remained silent.  I LOVE giving and receiving calendars!! Our family loves calendars... I was dying!!!!

That turned out to be a missing puzzle piece in living in Uganda.  How do we do friendships?  There is no mall, no movie theatre, no bringing meals when people are sick (you could, but I can barely get a meal on the table for my own family...)  In Uganda, we visit.  We share work.  We talk about gardens and weather.  We are agricultural.  Well, I grew up in suburbia, so these are not skills I have, but we are getting them.

Leslie and I both have commented about how we are always  learning new layers to live and share here.  We have friends and neighbors bring us things from their garden all the time.  When we have been sick or in crisis, people bring us bags of food from their garden or from the market.  So, slowly, we have gotten into that rhythm.  We welcomed our DRC friends coming in for the beginning of term with some brownies--I brought them 3 on a plate...  A couple of days later, Leslie commented that the wife wasn't looking so well.  They are students on scholarship and their sponsors were out of the country and it turns out they had to use up their money at the border.  We were like, "oh, shoot, they need bags of food, not 3 brownies..."  Don't laugh about only 3 brownies--they had peppermint from the U.S. in them and I was not sure if they were going to be too sweet, so I didn't want to bring a whole pan of foreign food..... Anyway, we went to the supermarket and picked up essentials--you have to understand too, that they don't have a garden yet, b/c they had just come into the country and it was the dry season, so that is a challenge, too, until the rains come and the things grow.  We felt so proud and like we are FINALLY catching on. Now, when I visit a friend for a chat or a sick neighbor, I always pick up vegetables.  We grow some things in our gardens, but not like a field of cabbages or irish potatoes or matoke (green bananas), so one week I just prayed and picked up some things at the market and waited to see who they would be for and God showed me--it was a sweet week.

Also, visiting with people is a great honor here.  One friend told us that a home is not a home without visitors.  So, here are some pictures of us with our visitors and the bottom is Julia and I going to tea with our friend Sharon.  It was fun.

Wendy's Parents Visit

Introduction to Lake Bunyonyi

Grandma nail salon

Adopt a Grandma for Lucy

On Safari at Queen Elizabeth

Grandpa and mongeese!

Wendy and Judy on the boat tour

Grandpa and Mallory

Local teens walking with the hippos!!!

Our boat captain stopped these local fishermen and bought some tilapia

meals at our cabin

Mom and Dad with Madame Anne, the principal at Aine Embabazi Primary School

We are from American and happy to be here with you!

Hospital tour

Aaron and Grandma with the nurses

Our friend and nurse, Mary with Aaron and Dave and Judy

Dr. Gilbert Mateeka and Judy, sharing a Lion's Club greeting from Tomball, TX to Kabale

Johnson, Judy, Dave and Medard, saying good-byes

Epilogue on Fear and Faith

** I wrote this in October of last year (2011) right before Micah broke his arm and we had to make an unexpected trip back to the U.S. for surgery.  I do find that ironic... God continues to do a deep work in me!  I was referring to an earlier blog post on fear and faith**

**The only thing I would add to this is how much my trust in God has grown.  see below about the power of choice, BUT I have to say, in an emergency, you have no control moment (like an arm break in a remote part of the world...) that now I know God is completely TRUSTWORTHY.  We can trust Him in ALL circumstances. That is beyond me and my choices and circumstances and it's a TRUTH.**

Reference:  the rest of my life

Well, I think that this will be a life long struggle as those who go before me understand, isn’t there always new context?  However, I do remain encouraged to remember the bad places and also to be thankful for growth.

It often starts with confession and as a Christian, I am so covered in the prayers of others, both near and far.  Bringing to light what is in darkness is a promise of God and I see that He works in our dependence on Him and our friends and family.  So, I confessed my struggle and I know people were praying!

In May, we went to Kenya via protest and riot ridden Kampala.  5 adults and 7 kids traveling in East Africa should bring out fears in anyone.  We attended a retreat put on by Global Teams, our supporting organization.  It was for North Americans serving in Africa, as well as Africans serving in Africa.  It was so encouraging and inspiring to hear our colleagues’ tales of serving cross culturally.  We closed in communion and I went up for prayer from the Bishop for fear.  He prayed for courage among other things.  I started asking for prayer for courage and praying for others for courage.  I noticed a lot of promises in scripture from God helping with courage and fear—I especially love Psalm 46—there is the reality of God in our circumstances and our strength comes from the reality of God, no matter what.

I received prayer in our team times for things that God brought up gently that I didn’t even know had to do with some of the root causes of my fear.  I love how God uses people to pray for us and speak truth into our lives!  Just plain old, small, quiet, simple living room prayer.

The final thought with this struggle, which has been a revelation for many areas of struggle is the power of choice.

I can choose to be afraid or not… The more I practice, the more it becomes a reality.  There is not this blanket of dread or fear when it rains or we have to travel on hard roads.  I don’t like it or prefer it, but I am not in dread.

That is freedom!

  I am exploring this with the fruit of the Holy Spirit—I subconsciously imagined that we just get all this stuff teleported from heaven or something.  I kept praying for patience, gentleness, self control and so on and kind of puzzled why do I struggle with these areas, along with fear?

So, I am taking small steps in practicing choice! I choose to be patient, gentle and self controlled in my weakest moments (any crossroads involving children and a time oriented event…school, meals, bedtime)

Do you know, things are changing and I am so excited—like the Holy Spirit IS my helper.  This is WHY I believe in the resurrected Christ—hope, courage and CHANGE.

an angel

I was walking the kids in the morning to where they get picked up for school by our teammates.

As I came back to our house, there was a man on the path whom I did not recognize.  The path he came from only leads to a few other houses and to the back of campus, so we rarely see strangers on this path.

He was older, distinguished looking, wearing a cap and naval coat and using an interesting walking stick.

We had a great exchange of greetings in Rukiga--the best ever for me and at the end he said "ehhhhh"

That is a common closing---you would just have to hear it and I especially hear it amongst the older men--greeting is a very big deal here and it's almost like a satisfying closing approval without words.  I always wonder how and when that happens for me in my conversations--like when will I learn Rukiga and get in on this?  Frankly, it makes me jealous b/c it is so intimate and endearing and affectionate.

I just had a really warm feeling and that was noteworthy b/c usually I just feel confused or lonely or awkward being more of an outsider.

Then all of a sudden I just had this huge sense that he was a patrolling angel and that God is protecting us more than we can see or know.

I had this overwhelming sense of awe and praise of God--His Presence, His love.


wow--I was so encouraged and thankful and reminded of how much we can't see, but how active God is--24-7, never failing and never sleeping!!!

thank you, Lord.

Fasting in a Developing Country

Uganda celebrates independence in October.  In August, several national church leaders united to call for a national fast for the country.  Each day in one of the national newspapers there has even been prayer topics and different tribes listed to pray for specifically.

So, I was chatting with Johnson who works for us and is an elder in his church.

Johnson, how do you fast in a country where people are trying not to starve?

lots of giggling and laughing from Johnson (he is very gracious with me)

I wonder is he holding back from sucker punching me?? (this is why I constantly feel like a jerk, which I am ok with--I do not know what it is like to go hungry)

Then we chatted about Isaiah 58.  Johnson said if the church is fasting and a person already doesn't have things to eat, in his/her heart, they set aside time to pray.  They take the lunch hour or breakfast hour that they are already going hungry during and they pray.

Especially noteworthy is praying for v. 6 and 7

I am learning a lot here.  Isn't that humbling?

Isaiah 58

True Fasting

 ¹ “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. 
   Raise your voice like a trumpet. 
Declare to my people their rebellion 
   and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. 
² For day after day they seek me out; 
   they seem eager to know my ways, 
as if they were a nation that does what is right 
   and has not forsaken the commands of its God. 
They ask me for just decisions 
   and seem eager for God to come near them. 
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, 
   ‘and you have not seen it? 
Why have we humbled ourselves, 
   and you have not noticed?’

   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?

 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
   like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
   and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
   Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

 ¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
   and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
   and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
   and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD,
   and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
   and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Random Bits of Life

Emma Shae turned 7 and here is the love of our teammates--a birthday van!

Micah making homemade tortillas.

Aaron makes some thin and awesome tortillas!

One Saturday story hour.

Dinner with Dr. Miriam, the surgeon that works with Aaron.

Our team got to share a teaching on the present day task for sharing the good news.

University students.

Mallory turns 5!

Road is getting paved!

Mallory's friend party--Julia, Lucy and Tabea.

Mulan has been a big hit around here and Leslie found fans for all.

Saturday morning fun for some hard working boys.

My first attempt at hair cuts--total hack job, but cute from a distance.

Taking Breaks

The key to the stress of cross cultural living is taking breaks.  We have the privilege of living in a country of great natural beauty, so we have opportunity to see some amazing things.  It is pristine because it is hard to get to--I still don't know how I feel about almost dying to get to these places, BUT it is amazing.  The kids especially loved Lake Mburo, which is a small national park between Kabale and Kampala.  It was gorgeous and we celebrated Aaron's birthday present here.

One kind of scary, but fun thing was that we got stuck in a swamp.  This is a small park, and used to not have lions or leopards, so you can go out by yourself with a map and get around ok.  But, we had just heard someone had recently spotted leopards and lions and then we got stuck in a swamp.  That was interesting.  It was the end of the rainy season and roads were still muddy!  Thankfully, we got spotty phone reception and with loads of prayer and more grace, we could manage to contact the lodge and they came and got us.  Micah was so excited--"I've never been rescued before, I've only read about this!"  Micah turns 10 this year and it doesn't get much better than that!

I loved this cow just hanging out in the back of the truck--reminds me of Texas.

Baboons, the welcoming committee.

Mallory showing her stuffed zebra the relatives.

Gorgeous Woodland Kingfisher.

A lone topi--king of the hill.

The impala harem.

Impala and warthogs.

Zebras are so cool and fun to watch!

The lodge and where we could eat and observe a salt lick through the spyglass.

Our tent.

Way cool shower--it's an eco lodge, so it blended in with the hill!!!

Part of our tent/hut.

The pool!  Small, but picturesque!

This is what makes it worth it--encouraged kids!

The natural salt lick.

Cute, but we had to really guard the tent from these little opportunists.  Velvet monkey.

Boat tour of animals!

African eagle.

We got a little too close, but thankfully, still this was on zoom!  Awesome!!!

Cape Buffalo--these guys look ancient!

Black bellied bustard

Swamp rescue!  

Topi

Moon over Lake Mburo

Looks like a Burchell's starling from the book?

Long crested eagle!

Crested Crane!  National bird

Ankole cattle--they live on the reserve with the Banyankore tribe

Matoke or green bananas is a great industry in Ugandan, even some export!

Home again with blank swamp goo still on the car!  Thank you, Lord for an adventure.