Life as usual

Life as usual...What does that really mean?  Life in Uganda can really keep a person guessing, what is coming next?  But honestly that is one of the things I love so much about it.  Ordinary life, filled with change, challenges, opportunities really forces you to walk by faith.  This week has been no different.  Mary has been in Kenya caring for Ketty since Friday and we have been appreciating her all the more in her absence.  You really don’t know how much you appreciate someone and what they do until they are not around.  In our 17 years of marriage the number of times Mary has been away from us for an extended amount of time have been few.  This has been a VERY busy season with many different activities falling one on top of another and Mary absence has added a degree of difficulty.  But we praise God that in the midst of all the activity God’s faithfulness has continued to shine.  

This week I have been leading a 3 day seminar on biblical manhood & womanhood with our Investment Year Students.  IY is a fantastic program that New Hope is running, our students that have completed S4 (10th grade) take a year out of their typical education for this program.  IY is year of intensive discipleship, practical life skills training and job experience before they go into their future.  Working with the CSD team, we were able to unveil God’s plan for our young men and young women according to how God has made them.  Understanding biblically who God has made me to be is freeing and so many of our young people are battling cultural expectations, peer pressure and navigating the challenge of determining who they are and where they are going.  

We had 32 young people who range from 16-22 years of age for 3 full days.  Walking through the bible and honestly looking at our manhood/womanhood from God’s point of view.  It was powerful, though not with resistance.  Many of them have fallen into traps that culture, media or non-biblical opinions have brought into their lives.  The cultural view of woman and their value really seemed to bind many of the young men we were teaching.  We feel strongly that much of the orphan crisis is rooted in this message and the lack of understanding of God’s plan.  Please continue to pray for these young people as we strive to raise them up in a biblical world view and His plan for them.  

Oh yeah, I also had my first ct-scan from Uganda as part of my follow up monitoring post cancer.  As far as the radiologist here saw things were normal, we have sent the disks with the scans on them to the Doctor who so faithfully treated us in Long Beach.  But praise God that I continue to remain strong and free to live life and pursue God’s plan for us here in Uganda.

Manual labor...feels good

Picking friends from the airport

Kevin entertaining friends