Of Banana Slugs and Frogs

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon: Acacia and I worked together on preparing supper. She wanted a special shape for the biscuits she made and when she finished it looked like a banana slug. So, for anyone who went to UCSB (Uncle Nique!!!!!) these are for you!! (Ummm . . . pardon me, but I've been corrected! The slugs are Santa Cruz--who knew?? everybody but me, I guess)

As she finished the biscuits, I started to wash the lettuce. Inside the first layer was this little frog. You just never know what kind of extra protein you might find around here . . .

On Thursday we celebrated Geoff's 42nd birthday!!!! The kids are always so excited to give gifts and they were cracking us up with their antics. Sorry, can't remember now what they were saying at that moment, but I'll share a funny of Kevin's from a previous day . . . one afternoon Geoff and I noticed his palms were almost black from dirt. Geoff said, "Kevin, you need to go wash your hands. What is all that black stuff?" Kevin shot back exasperated, "I DON'T KNOW, that black stuff just keeps tracking me!!!"

On Saturday Gabe, a fellow staff member, called to ask if he could come over and hook up to our amp and play his newly finished handmade guitar. Of course we turned it up LOUD and enjoyed the beauty of the instrument and the rock-n-roll. The kids and Kakande were immediately attracted to the music and came running to add in their part. Toby grabbed a "baseball bat guitar" and Kakande danced and laughed.

An update on the animals: they are quickly becoming good friends, though the dog is still not too keen on the playfulness of the kitty.

A little news: On Saturday I will be taking three of our girls to the Kiwoko hospital for some medical care that we are unable to offer here at Kasana. I don't relish the thought of spending all day sitting around the local hospital, but I AM looking forward to spending the day with the girls!!!

I hope by now you all have heard that President Museveni won the elections here and the process was very peaceful. PRAISE GOD!!!!!

This morning Acacia and I were a little late arriving at the church service. She had spent the night last night at the Anderson's with 3 other girls and they had a wonderful time--even stayed up until almost midnight. Then they were up early and all that made for a very tired Acacia this morning. It was a struggle getting out the door because every little thing for her (read: "interaction with her brothers") was a BIG DEAL and tears followed. I sent the boys ahead to the service and Acacia and I followed.

When we arrived, there were only a few seats left so we sat a fair bit away from the David Family where we usually plant ourselves. We sat next to a family from a nearby village: a sweet lady and her two children. Acacia leaned over about 15 minutes after we sat down and asked if she could sit next to me instead of next to the woman. I asked why and she explained that they were staring at her and she was feeling uncomfortable being the object of stares. She was about to cry again, but I told her to stay put. I reached over and grabbed her hand to console her and tell her all was well--being stared at is a small thing in the big picture of life. Two minutes later I looked down and saw that our benchmates apparently interpreted my hand-holding with Acacia as the thing to do. The mom had grabbed Kevin's hand and one of the little girls had grabbed Acacia's hand. There we all were, holding hands--some of us were enjoying this new activity (the woman and her children) and some of us were EVEN MORE uncomfortable than we were before!!!!! (Acacia and Kevin). I thought: "Isn't that just the way of the Lord, we get stretched a little and when we think we are about to bust, He stretches us a bit more, and though we may be increasingly uncomfortable, we survive and are stronger for it."

May you all be blessed and STRENGTHENED, however that may occur!

Matters of prayer...

I can say I truly understand why the Bible teaches us to pray always and without ceasing. There are so many issues I could write here that are currently captivating my prayer life. But the question is how much faith do we really have in prayer? Some people throw up prayers with little hope of seeing them answered or they pray out of religious habit but don’t really expect to see God move on their behalf. But if we are Bible believers then we have to lay hold of statements made by the early prophets like “…the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Life here in Uganda is often held together by prayer and the courage and strength to go on comes only from times with the Father and promises like that.

Recently I have had to deeply depend on God, not that I normally don’t but honestly you know how easy it is to fall back on our own strength. Continual challenges and opportunities to get discouraged have presented themselves in abundance. I won’t go into detail, but know that if God has been leading you to pray for us then you are in tune with what’s happening. The continual blessing of daily ministry is at times overwhelming and we are definitely looking to God to bring results.

A few notes to join us in petitioning our Father are…

· Elections – Uganda is voting this Friday and in it’s history Uganda has never seen a power change peacefully. We know how the world has seen elections and political change of late.
· The Maize Mill – Management has given us the challenge to increase profits and contribute more to the operating costs of the ministry. At the same time the maize harvest this last season was poor and we are already seeing a shortage in the supply chain around.
· NHVI – The new school year has begun and with the political situation our enrollment has been low. I have the feeling God wants to bring increase but we are yet to see it.

Really that is enough, but additionally I would ask you to keep our Ugandan children in prayer as personally I have seen some succumbing to the power of the orphan heart and keeping God’s healing hand at a distance.

Blessings in prayer until I write again

Becoming Friends

"Crystal" in her new bed

Two new friends sizing each other up . . .

Bubbly contemplates the nature of her new existence . . . having to contend with a pip-squeak!

The new cat and the old dog are gettin it worked out---slowly! The kitty LOVES the dog and doesn't understand the BIG deal the dog makes about HER bed and HER bowl and HER privacy. Go figure. We got some pictures tonight of them getting along. Bubbly was eating some biscuits and the cat was very calmly just sitting on BUBBLY'S bed watching the process. I think the dog did quite well for someone being in her business when she was trying to eat!!

Another Sunday!

I've been intending to post this blog since last Sunday! Either the internet has been unavailable or I have!! It's now Sunday again and I'd like to recap the week with pictures.

Geoff preached, complete with skits (!), from Ephesians ch.1 last Sunday. The message was impacting as it centered around our being redeemed (purchased back from sin by God) and then lavished on by His love and grace. Some of our David family kids helped with the skits (Junju, Dodo, Sharon, Margaret and Kintu and Toby). After the message numerous people responded by coming up to the front to state they were accepting God's redemption. Geoff was also encouraged to receive many texts afterwards sharing how God blessed people through the Word. We also took time last Sunday to dedicate three new babies, the Kibeti's, Vogt's and Otim's. It was a rich time of family celebrating the gifts of God---babies and His grace and provision!!!!!

Geoff with Kintu and Junju, explaining the important points of the skit.

Kiweewa, our oldest son currently in the family, frequently translates when Geoff preaches. Here he is also helping to narrate the skit.

Toby and Dodo played "evil" and "sin" as they captured Junju and held him captive. Kintu "bought back"--"redeemed" Junju and set him free.

Kintu and the girls then lavished gifts upon Junju in an effort to begin to illustrate just how much God gives us in His love and grace.

They ran through the skit on our porch in the morning before church.

Love that preacher man!

Geoff was privileged to hold baby Jonathan Vogt as the elders prayed for each child.

Following the dedications, Geoff took a private moment to offer a special encouragement to Uncle Kokas Otim.

On Monday, the house was full in the afternoon after school!!! The kids were racing cars on the dining room table!! Notice to the lower right is Junju with a sling on his arm!!!!! He came to the door with tears in his eyes, holding his wrist. "Aunt, I fell out of the jackfruit tree" Let me just say that they climb HIGH up to get the fruit, so I have no idea how high he was, but I know that it wasn't a short distance to be sure!!!!! In the midst of the activity I took time to ice it, medicate him, make a sling and explain how an x-ray works--(many adults and children here are afraid of x-rays because they don't know it's just a "picture").

The kids prayed for him and it visibly infused him with peace! It was wonderful to watch!

After supper (during which I had two extra mouths to feed unexpectedly--Junju and Emma, who wanted to accompany everyone to the hospital for the x-ray), Geoff, Toby, Junju and Emma left for Kiwoko and found that the break was only a small greenstick requiring only an ace bandage. Hallelujah!

This bird showed up Tuesday morning and is beautiful!! Wish you could see it better!!!

And last, but not least, we now have a new cat. She showed up in the vicinity of our house on Friday night and by Saturday morning our hearts were melted and soft. Kevin is the proud owner and she's been named, "Crystal" after her pretty crystal blue eyes.

My turn...

OK, let me try this. Mary is our regular blogger, but one of my friends sent me an email this week and said Mary is doing a great job, but what about you? I guess I better post something...

Let me first start by saying the greatest thing I can tell you about today is what God is doing in my own heart. Take a look at Ephesians 1:7-10 and LORD willing you will experience some of the same glory I have been swimming in this week. I am preaching tomorrow from this text and the reality of God's grace is truly awesome. The ESV version translates verse 7&8 "...according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us..." The idea of God lavishing His grace upon me is just taking me back. HE IS SO GOOD!!!

In a lesser note, we have been seeing some great progress in many areas, mainly relational with some of our Ugandan children. But in addition the other works are also progressing. The maize mill that I started and have been overseeing the development is doing well, with the exception of our power issues. The government has been stingy with electricity lately and we actually have not had stable power for over two weeks now. It is hard to run production at a factory without power. But thanks to some diesel milling and ingenious decissions by the mill manager we are pushing forward. Thursday we loaded 5 tons of maize on a truck and drove it about 12 miles to the nearest maize mill and milled it into a flour for distribution to our customers. This really cuts into our profits, but at least it keeps us in business.

The vocational school is off to a slow start but we are seeing new students turn up for this year and are hoping they will continue over the next few weeks. Likewise at the school the lack of power has proven to be a challenge. My staff there is doing a great job with the limitations we put on them. With the beginning of the year we have new students to get to know and hopefully minister God's goodness as we teach them skills for their future.

Ok enough for now, but I will try to do my part in this blog space :-)

A busy week!

With a rare dull moment around here, we headed to Kampala last weekend for a change of pace. We were privileged to stay with an English friend who has been working in East Africa for the past 30 years. She has a large home in Kampala and we enjoyed visiting and eating meals in with her. We swam most of the day on Saturday and truly rested. Sunday we were up a little earlier in order to hit the shops before they got too crazy. Monday was the first day of school country-wide and many children were heading both into and out of the city to their respective schools after the long Christmas holiday. We got in and out of the shops without too much of a crowd, but getting out of Kampala was tough . . . THREE hours of sitting in traffic. With one of the few vehicles on site that has air conditioning, we were COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS!!!

Kevin LOVES playing with his friends, Jesse, Joshua and Sammy. Others often come to join, but those four are often inseparable. They played a little football (soccer) in our compound today before heading off to a larger field.

When Monday came we got into our school studies again. I teach Kevin and Acacia all morning and Toby splits his time between the primary school here at Kasana Children's Centre and our homeschool. I am teaching him Math, Science, History and English. At the primary school he is taking mainly Science, Christian Religious Education and Social Studies. Trying to juggle him being here only part time is a challenge, especially when he comes back and says the time schedule was changed and he missed a lesson!!! Once we get past the first couple of weeks I think most of the bugs will be worked out. On Friday the primary school spent the morning at the Enterprise Farm clearing the remains of last semesters maize harvest. Though we slathered him up with sunscreen, he came home burned, thirsty, hungry and tired!!!! He took a quick shower, ate some lunch and headed off again for the afternoon at school. The only time he's complained about going to the school is when he finds out that he missed a good lunch at home. (We usually have beans and posho for lunch, but some days I surprise everyone with a little something American here at the house.) The picture at left is of Acacia and Stella from this afternoon. They are both at Anya's tonight having a sleepover.

Shortly before Acacia and Stella left for Anya's, Geoff took off to the secondary school site with Toby and Abraham to play some basketball in the 106F heat!!!!!

Geoff spent the morning today at the vocational institute and maize mill, and the afternoon sorting out transportation business (he is currently heading up the New Hope vehicle department) so some exercise in the late afternoon is welcome even if it is HOT!!!!! The vocational school also started a new school year this week and has a new course addition of catering. All previously offered courses continue to go well and new students have been arriving all week.

And now for some pictures of Bubbly!!!! She and Acacia were snuggling in the sunshine a few days ago.

Bubbly LOVES Jackfruit!!!!! It is a large green fruit with yellow, sticky insides. She finds a piece somewhere in the bush everyday and tears into it!



Showing me her sticky side!

About mid-week, Kevin, Acacia and Toby decided to dig a hole in a currently unused portion of the garden. No plans whatsoever for its future, just a need to dig!

First Day of School!!!

Yesterday was the beginning of the new school year here at Kasana Children’s Centre of New Hope Uganda. In an effort to more fully integrate our Western kids into the Ugandan culture and to aid them in making more Ugandan friends, many have joined the primary and secondary schools. As Toby left for the morning assembly, he was so excited!!!!! Earlier Geoff had walked with him to meet the headmaster and to settle on the exact schedule. Toby will be taking Christian Religious Education, Science and Social Studies. He will also be able to be present for some mid-morning breaks and lunches, P.E. and gardening times. It will be a challenge for me to learn to adjust to this new arrangement as he will be in and out of our school schedule, but I’m thankful we have the ability to give him this rich experience!