ahhhhh . . .

In the next couple of days we will have an improved internet set up!!!! We are so grateful that we have internet AT ALL out here in the beautiful remote countryside of the Pearl of Africa, but an improved system is VERY WELCOME!!!!

Wanted to post this cute picture of Allison reading to the kids after P.E. class yesterday. Acacia is in the middle facing the camera, Toby is up to her right in the tan shirt and jeans and Kevin is between them with blue shorts and a white shirt. He's getting along very well on his leg!!!!

Proud Parents

We had a school program today in which the speech class presented their speeches, the piano/guitar class performed their favorite selections, our music makers class danced around as squirrels, and all the proud parents clapped, cheered and beamed. Here are a few pictures:

Acacia did better than she has ever done in front of an audience. She walked right up without any hesitation and played her song well without rushing through or getting fearful. This is a real improvement from last year when she got all dressed up in her dance costume, but then ran to the back room crying before they began.

Toby will be competing in a piano exam in June, so he played one of his selections today. For his speech he recited "Little Jack Horner".

My "Music Makers" class performing "Hop Old Squirrel" with the help of Aunt Kathryn adjusting tails as needed (top)and (bottom) all of the squirrels and I enjoying snacks and drinks after the performances.

Aunt Allison, our current missionary teacher, with most of her students. (Kevin is sick today so he didn't feel like being in any pictures or jumping around like a squirrel.)

Caught by the Rain

Late yesterday afternoon as the clouds darkened, we gathered the laundry off the line, shut up the banda (school house) and closed the shutters. Just before the storm hit two of our older boys arrived. One to sell dried pineapple—a business he’s started by buying it from a local farm and selling it to others. If you’ve followed our blog for awhile you might be interested in knowing that this young man is the one we featured as “proud of cabbage”. He is brilliant at most things agricultural and stated he wants to be the best farmer in Uganda. He’s well on his way to dream fulfillment as he began as a student in our agricultural and enterprise internship program this recent February and is doing fairly well.

The other young man who stopped by is the one we featured in a newsletter recently as having passed a major milestone in his life and moving onto upper secondary school. He is currently home for the holiday and wanted to discuss with Geoff some scripture that he found confusing.

As they sat in the living room talking, Geoff noticed that the wind was blowing rain into the dining room. He went out to shut the window and found yet another young man who collects our drinking water huddled down on our porch trying unsuccessfully to stay dry. He invited him in, I made some tea and an impromptu Bible study ensued. It’s times like this when we are so aware of the intricate working of the hand of our Heavenly Father. The questions of the one served to open up an avenue for the other two to glean from the scripture at a time when their intention was to just “do their business and keep on going.” God met them and ministered His truth to their hearts. It was an extremely rewarding time and I love that at any moment, unannounced, unexpected, life giving truths are able to flow out of us to the young people we have come to live with and serve.

Dress Up

My parents sent the kids some clothes for Easter. Of course they arrived after the fact (things usually do, but that's ok because then we can celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter and Valentines days ALL YEAR!!!!) Acacia and her friends, Julia and Anya, became grown up ladies going SHOPPING. (Which, of course, at their ages is always followed by climbing in the trees and swinging on the rope swing!!!!-fortunately the dresses and children survived!)

And today I am playing dress up. I have a head ache and my feet are still hurting quite a bit, so I'm dressing up in a good attitude of praise and thankfulness. There is no wisdom in dwelling on the negative when I have so much to be thankful for and when God is so worthy of Praise!!!!! I have only to remember that just a few weeks ago I COULDN'T get out of bed. So, now that I'm out, what are a few aches and pains???? 1 Cor 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Toby took this picture of us on Easter morning after Kevin and Acacia told us they wanted to pray to God, telling Him they believed in Jesus' sacrifice for us all. They both asked God to be their Lord and their Savior! We then went to a church service where they watched a drama on Jesus' final days before the crucifixion. All three of them have been in celebration of what God has done for them this past week! That certainly is a great reason to PRAISE GOD!!!

1 Tim 1:15-17This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — and I was the worst of them all. But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. Glory and honor to God forever and ever. He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

Geoff is on his way to Kampala to buy more solar equipment. We pray for his peace and safety.

And we pray that all who read this come to know the peace of our creator God who loves each of us perfectly.

Fascinating

We live in a beautiful, quiet, country landscape . . . free of the noise of the city . . . and of the conveniences of appliances. We couldn't resist taking a picture of the kids fixed on the washing machine at Aunt Gillian's apartment in Kampala this past weekend!
Only in Africa . . . The blue truck is being towed . . . nothing out of the ordinary, especially because the prevailing motto for auto mechanics here is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which translates to many breakdowns due to a lack of maintenance. But, in this picture, if you look closely you can see that in the bed of the blue truck is another truck!!!! ( the iron frame sticking up highest is the frame for the truck in the bed) . . .Two for the price of one

The staff ladies just finished a Beth Moore Bible study, "Stepping Up" which is a study of the Psalms of Ascent. I include this picture as a testimony to our GREAT GOD that I was able to be in this group picture. During the time this study was going on, I made it to only 3 of the sessions. After attending the first meeting, I was in bed for 6 weeks with hepatitis, and after that ran its course, a week later we had the motor vehicle accident and I found myself in bed again. PRAISE OUR LIVING, LOVING GOD that you see me in the picture above!!!!!!! (I'm in the second row leaning with my hands on my knees.)

Dr. Geoff

Ok life here in Uganda often finds you doing things you never would imagine yourself doing in ordinary life in the U.S. In addition you find that you gain many titles, and now Geoff has a new one. You can now officially call me Dr… Yes that is right Kevin was getting a bit stir crazy in his cast and it has now been over 3 weeks since the accident so we decided to remove his cast. So adding to our very extensive list of experiences I now offer medical services for a very low cost :-) Cast removal, blood tests, stitch removal and general advice about any illness. Kevin is doing great, we are allowing him to put some light pressure on it, but he is still using the hopper and his wheel chair. As his confidence grows he will soon be walking again. A number of times while I was removing it he said, “Dad are you sure? Shouldn’t we text Dr. Raul?” It seems that my continual assurance of Daddy knows what he is doing wasn’t quite enough for him.

P.S. This is Mary--And I feel that for the sake of some (a.k.a grandparents) I have to add that Geoff did an amazing job. We DID talk to the dr. about when to take off the cast, so we didn't just decide to do it without counsel AND we have received info on the activities Kevin can do at this point. I love the fact that Dr. Geoff is in the house!!!!!!!!

"My Eggs are Scaring Me!"

I just read a friend's blog in which he shared something utterly cute that one of his grandkids said. It made me laugh and I got to thinking that I could probably fill some space with some of the crazy things my kids have said.

My blog title is not attributed to any of our three, but was just to draw you in. . . it was expressed quite a few years ago by the daughter of some Pepperdine friends, Ty and Kindy DeLong. I don't remember the context, but Geoff and i repeat that phrase to each other often when our kids come up with some doozies.

here are some of the doozies . . . I don't have space to share them ALL!!!!!

Two years ago, on the Sunday before Christmas, Geoff preached about the true meaning of Christmas. After presenting the truth of God's gift of Jesus, he commented on some of the other things people focus on instead: a good meal, lots of presents, etc. At that point Acacia, then 4 years old, leaned over to me and whispered in all seriousness, "It's about shoes, right?" This is from our daughter whose first five words included shoes and money! Oh my!

Acacia in her princess dress from her cousins, aunt and uncle!

From Kevin as he was running in the wind, "OOooooooooo, my hair is wiggling!!!"

From Acacia: "Jesus is underground." Mary: "Why do you say that?" Acacia:"Because He holds everything in His hand!"

From Kevin at naptime: "God said, 'Kevins don't need rests."

Last year Kevin and Acacia were sweeping and mopping the porch together. There had been leaky water balloons out there all night and the porch is always dirty in the morning. Geoff asked them how things were going as dirt was turning to mud and water was getting only moved around. Kevin replies, "I'm mostly getting something not done."

Once, when I asked Acacia the age of a young visitor, she got a scrunched searching look on her face and said, "I don't know her number."

After a family devotional on diligence, Toby announced he was going to go to his room to pray ten prayers. Once he'd finished five he said, "I think I'll take a break . . . NO! I'm going to be diligent and finish!" He kept us up-to-date as he prayed, "I'm on my 6th . . . my 7th . . . my 8th . . ." Then he checked on Acacia who was still in her room. "Are you still praying?" he asked, "No, I just prayed one prayer," she replied. "ALL THIS TIME???" Toby was bewildered. "No, I had to organize my bag!" she shot back.

Acacia, totally unprompted, I PROMISE, once said, "MOM! Why do girls always seem to know things and boys don't?"

Kevin is quite the artist. This is a "magna doodle" board in which he created a leopard. pretty cool.

Which reminds me of our Christmas conversation a couple of years ago when we asked the kids who was taking care of the sheep in the hills when the angels appeared. They all answered, "a leopard."

Here's an excerpt from math class at school. I was trying to teach Toby subtraction with big numbers. I presented him with this word problem because we were studying the Titanic. "2 227 people are on board the Titanic. There are enough lifeboats for 1,100. Stack your numbers for a subtraction problem to show how many will not get into the boats." He couldn't quite grasp it so I rephrased it as follows "So, Toby there are 2, 227 people on board, but only enough space in lifeboats for 1,100. WHAT do we need to find?" He says, "More lifeboats!"

Toby's tongue sticks out when he is concentrating!
Kevin, "Who will be my wife?" Acacia:"God has to plan it."

Kevin: "So, are we gonna be dead for the rest of the days?" Geoff: "Well what do you mean? Kevin: "You know like when we go to heaven" Toby:" Well, your body will be dead, but your spirit will be alive." Kevin:"So, I don't get it. Are we lying down or what?"

Quizzing the kids at supper time on the days school topics, "So, what comes after the Stone Age?" Toby: "Middle Age?"

Kevin: "Mom! When I shake my head really fast, my lips are extremely heavy!"

Ahhhh . . . the quieter moments when their brains are reloading!!! (This pic is not from 2003-the camera date was wrong)

One night I was reading a story to Toby when I realized he was intently looking at something. I asked, "What are you looking at?" He replied, "You, cause I think you're beautiful!" wow.

Aren't kids wonderful?? And funny??? And amazing creations???? Thank you GOD!!!