Trials as Joy??? YES!!!!

I have continued to organize and reorganize since we moved 2 months ago. There never seems to be an end to the STUFF. Where does it come from???? Wondering about spontaneous regeneration in this case . . . once it's been thrown away, discarded, redirected it somehow finds its way back to places all on its own and then excels at enhancing the overall cluttered look to a room!!!!! argh. Having said all that and feeling my frustration level rise at the moment, I did come across something very valuable yesterday and am glad to have been reacquainted with it.

This is the testimony I shared with our church family back in July during our annual New Hope Thanksgiving day. I was speaking to our local community church members, so some of this speaks directly to them, but in most of it I hope you will find personal encouragement.

(The above picture is included because when I look at a blog I like to see a picture of some sort. This one is from last week's surprise party for Nancy.)

Many times in the past few months I’ve been ready to die. Not because I was in despair or because I gave up on living, but because I was so aware that God is in control of my life that I was at peace with death if that was His best plan for me. I was ready for whatever God had planned for me and if that was death then I welcomed it. I came to the reality that I am nothing without God. He is in complete control. I am at His mercy and that is a good thing.

In my life, I wasn’t always at this place of peace. In fact at the time I got sick with hepatitis this past February, it had been almost exactly one year before to the day that I prayed the following prayer to God, “God, I’ve read so much and been challenged by what I’ve read this past year, but my walk hasn’t changed much. Please move me, goad me, steer me, whatever to where, what and how I can make necessary changes. Continue to stretch me and give me what I need to please you—faith.”

I believe that since February of this year I have been in the process of God answering this prayer in my life.

When I was so sick with hepatitis that I couldn’t walk the length of my house without having difficulty breathing, when I was so sick I couldn’t even sit up but about 2 hours a day, when I was so sick I had to sleep most of the day and it tired me to talk with visitors, I came to a reliance on God that I hadn’t known before. For the first time I was desperately aware that He is the air I breathe!!! Without him I couldn’t have taken another breath. When it became a challenge even to draw in air to my lungs, I came to a much deeper appreciation of the breath of God—His Holy Spirit who sustained me in that sickness. When I was unable to sit up and read the Word, I came to a love and a hunger for His Word. As soon as I was able to have the energy to read, I devoured the scripture. But, imagine reading about the awesomeness, magnificence and greatness of God and not having the energy to get out of bed and kneel down before your Maker who gave you life and sustains you. That is a moment of painful reality. It made me never want to be in a place ever again where I pass up the opportunity to praise Him! So, I praise God for the suffering I went through because I now know what it is to be unable to physically kneel, physically raise my hands, to have the breath to sing. I now have been moved and goaded by God Himself to take every opportunity to praise Him!!!

But that is not the end of my recent story of finding MORE OF GOD.

I spent about 8 weeks recovering from hepatitis. After recovering, I was well for about one week when we were hit by the charcoal truck and I found myself in bed again. But, this time I was in pain—not just tired and without energy. The issue I came face to face with after the accident was my own impatience with the circumstances of my life. Did I still trust God and His plan? Was I still willing to praise Him and trust Him with a damaged, painful body? I came to a place by the grace of God where I stopped asking for God to remove the physical scars that Kevin and I have because of the crash. I don’t want to be an Israelite who forgets God’s sovereign saving hand and if a scar will remind me of His love and goodness then I want the scar for the rest of my life on this earth.



During the time of sickness with hepatitis and injury from the accident my family and I had to also learn to receive help from those of you in this community. You brought food, cards, smiles, visits, prayers, took care of our kids, taught our kids and supported us in so many other ways. At the end of the bout with hepatitis I was ready to get busy serving other people, but found myself in the position of receiving once again. This was very difficult for me. But I know God’s plan is best. Suffering is the context of our oft quoted scripture from Romans 8:28. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” What God was working in me for His good was not just a reliance on Him and a submission to the circumstances He provided for me, but also coming to know that people are a part of my life because He’s put them there!!

Geoff and I have said many times in the past few months that there is no where else in the world we’d rather be than at Kasana. You as a community have given to us and we have learned to receive.

The last part of my testimony this morning is to God’s sovereignty and faithfulness in the death of my father last month. He had been sick, but the doctors had said he might live another 6 months to a year so we planned for that. Once again, God’s plan is best—not ours or the doctors’. My Dad died very peacefully even though he had a disease which causes difficult death. God gently took Him and He died quietly by my mom’s side. There was no struggle and for that we are all grateful. I trust God’s timing in everything!! God enabled me to go to the U.S. To be with my mom and sisters for 3 weeks! It was sad to not be able to see or talk with my Dad, but it was a peaceful time because we knew God took Dad at the right time in His perfect way.

And thanks again to all of you who prayed for me and took care of my family while I was gone. It is a blessing and an honor and a joy to live in this community. God is GOOD!!

Because of these past few months of suffering I know and love my God more and I know and love you all more! Praise God for answering my prayer of a year ago!!!

I hope reading the above testimony is a blessing and encouragement to you. And now, I need to go teach music class to the kids. You can be sure I'll impress on them that the gift of music is from GOD!!!!!!!!

Another Party!!!!! Surprise!!

We surprised our co-missionary, a lovely and dedicated mother of David Family for more than 12 years with a surprise birthday party. Many of her former students and children from David Family returned for a special birthday lunch and party to honor her 40 years!!! We had to keep it a secret from the current kids in David Family as the young ones especially have been known to "spill the beans" prematurely on surprises. Bless those kids as they prepared all morning for a huge lunch for which they had no idea the reason!!!! The joy was all ours as we all snuck up on her as she sat on Hassan's veranda talking to Aunt Kate. All her kids and grandkids (!) approached singing "Happy Birthday" which brought big eyes filled with tears to Nancy's face. It was a fun and blessed day as you can see in all the pictures below. Having adults return, some with their own kids, was a great blessing as some of them have really struggled over the years, some are still having issues, yet all came together to honor their mother and renew bonds. It was an awesome time!!! Listen to some of the comments they shared, "I can't thank you enough for who you are to me and all you have done. Raising us up hasn't been an easy job, but God's grace has been sufficient. You are a real model, all the value you put in us will always stay with us. All we have turned into as ladies is because of all your effort. Happy Birthday to you our lovely mommy."
"It has been a wonderful time to see you. Thank you very much for each and everything you did for me. I love you and I just want you to know that you played a great role in my life. I love you and will never forget you." "Thank you so much for being a great and wonderful Auntie to me!! What I am today is because of you. What a special Auntie you are!!!" "It has been nice to grow in your arms as a mother"

SURPRISE!!!

Tonight I managed to pull off a surprise party for my friend and co-missionary, Nancy. It's been in the plans for about 3 weeks now and we all kept it a great secret. Nancy was surprised and blessed and I am very pleased that it went well. She is a wonderful person, friend and staff member. I invited all staff women who are 40 years old or more and they each brought a dish to share for dinner and then we all shared words of honor and wisdom with Nancy. It was a very enjoyable time. My words here aren't expressing the joy we all had at being together and blessing our dear sister. Here are a few pictures.

Some of these pictures will go in a book to commemorate Nancy's 40th Birthday celebrations!!! Each woman who attended tonight wrote a message and her picture will be placed near her message for Nancy. I'm so thankful we live at New Hope where we are privileged to live among such wonderful women of God!!!!!

Visual Slices of Life in Uganda

The kids and their friends have been cooking up recipes lately of their own design . . . white ants coated with sugar anyone? They actually ate this!

The proud cooks--Acacia, Anya, Toby, Kevin, Jonica.

Toby was a great help today. I realized while trying to cook supper that I was out of water. (FYI, I'm NOT using the kids recipes. In fact, a think of a recipe as only a guideline, which drives some of my relatives NUTS!) So, he loaded up the wheelbarrow with a jerry can and took off to the water tower. Normally we have someone else haul water for us, but he was late today, so Toby quickly took action. He made two trips for me!

On our side veranda, Cody is being greeted by Bubbly while Geoff heads to his recently organized "store" (storage shed) to put the rope in its proper place. Cody arrived in June and will stay until December. He is assisting Geoff at the Maize mill with marketing among other things.

The kids and the dog enjoying the dirt!!!!! It will be awhile before the grass is all in and that doesn't bother the kids at all!

Dirt-covered princess just prior to the daily cleansing ceremony

Jonica, Stella and Acacia were putting on a show for me one afternoon. The girls' imaginations are so active and involve dancing and theatrics for whoever is around to watch. When I'm the audience, supper is a bit late, but who cares!!!! They are only young once, but hopefully imaginative forever!

Acacia is wearing a dress made at the New Hope Vocational Institute. The cloth is hand woven by our weavers, trained by New Hope and the dress is sewn by our advanced tailoring students--one of which is the teacher for the newly enrolled beginning class!

I guess that is enough for now. Hope you enjoyed seeing some slices of our life.

Driving, Deals, Dirt and Drenching Rain

It’s been a busy week. We were to do some business in Kampala last weekend, but there were riots in town over whether or not a tribal King should be allowed to visit a village area that historically has opposed him. The government stated that he should not go and the unrest ensued. We finally went on Tuesday and, besides seeing burned out road work equipment and the presence of soldiers, it was business as usual, complete with crazy traffic. The next day Geoff drove in again but this time to Entebbe (another 45 min beyond Kampala) to the airport to pick up a new teacher for the missionary kids. Here at New Hope we were busy with school and getting the teachers’ house ready for the new inhabitant. The kids are very excited to have her here. The arriving part of all the coming and going of staff is the fun part for the kids—the sadness comes later when their friends leave to return to native lands.

On Thursday Geoff jumped in the van again to drive to Masindi (looking at a map it is north of us another 3 hours). In an effort to expand the maize mill production, he secured a deal to purchase approximately 100 tons of maize. The lorry returned to New Hope with 4 tons—the first load of many. This purchase will strengthen our ability to provide posho flour to our ministry and at a fair price to our surrounding communities.

Friday and Saturday I was pleased to help get our New Hope founder’s house in order. They have been away in England for a month and return soon. It will be a joy to have them back again.

On Sunday Geoff preached his second consecutive message and then crashed for two hours in the afternoon while I had an awesome Bible study with “my girls”. Some Sundays they are VERY quiet--getting them to answer even a “yes” or “no” question can be impossible. But, this week was enjoyable as deeply thought out questions and concerns came forth from the heart of one of them. “Some people say the devil and God are the same”--- “Some people say they are going to do something they know is wrong because they know God will forgive them. Are they right?”--- “What kind of fruit is Jesus talking about in John 15?” It was a time of probing God’s word for answers—showing them the consistency and validity of scripture while answering their concerns. They went away satisfied, content and I was thankful to God for the blessing of time spent with them and for His truth that they received.

The previous Sunday the girls from David Family sang a beautiful song in the church service. We recorded a part of it and I have attempted to post it on the blog, but can’t seem to get it to upload. I was impressed at their talent and had no idea they were going to present a song. One of our recent short term team leaders had taught it to them and encouraged them to share it with the church. I’m so glad they did---I was a proud mama sitting in the audience with a huge grin on my face!!!

Meanwhile back at the Britton ranch . . . the kids are not as eager as the adults to get grass growing in the yard. Their newest form of entertainment is running and jumping in the dirt, trying to see which one can kick up the most dust. Thankfully we had a solid 5 hours of rain last night, so that activity was curbed today. Made for a muddy dog, though and lots of sweeping out dirt and mud from the house today----THANK THE LORD FOR CEMENT FLOORS!!!!!

dressing up

Poor dog . . . having to live with 3 kids who love to play dress up!!! Here she sports a t-shirt and sunglasses. After this pic was taken they put socks on her front feet!

I love when I see kids enthralled with reading. In music class this week we listened to animal and nature sounds from the seashore as well as music selections highlighting those types of sounds. Afterward I brought out our kids' magazines which carried articles and photos of seashore animals. The kids were immediately absorbed!! In the first picture is Noah, Tiegan and Kynan.

Elisha

Anya and Acacia

Kevin

Family Pic

This was taken for the next New Hope Newsletter, but perhaps is a bit too far away . . . Will try again, but might as well post this on the blog in the meantime.

Lost and Found

Looking out from our kitchen window you can see Emma carrying a VERY LONG sugar cane. Found just beyond their garden of sweet potatoes, it makes a yummy late afternoon, pre-dinner snack . . . hope they brush their teeth afterwards . . .

And speaking of teeth, Acacia lost her first tooth this week. In the picture Toby is talking on the phone to Grandma while the other two impatiently wait for their turn.
We spent a great deal of time Saturday doing yard work. Acacia decided she wanted to have a garden in her room. She gathered 4 different plants and "planted" them in jars and then set them strategically around her room.

This new "kid" that we found at the pound is getting more comfortable with her surroundings everyday.

Even too comfortable sometimes . . . she's been known to disappear here and there, not so good for community living. . . especially when she visits neighborhood chickens, "just to say HELLO!"