Yup. It’s morning. Had my COFFEE, made some breakfast, organized the disorder, motivated the offspring (and self) and now in the banda working on the academic part of our schooling lives.  (Living in Uganda is education itself . . . working in ministry is eye-opening to be sure . . . functioning without the so-called conveniences of life hones the process of maturation--spiritual and physical).

Who's really in charge here?

As they work on math, phonics, research papers, reading, history and science, I “work” on being better at keeping this space updated. 

Saturday, August 4th we harvested the David Family maize gardens from about 8 a.m. until 11:30. It was a great harvest and yielded healthy prospects for months of maize supply. Fun.Fun.Fun being in the fields with the kids--listening to their talk, jokes and crazy songs. And Kakande, oh, Kakande who failed to understand why he couldn’t sit in the front seat for the ride back to the family compound---the interior of the car was piled high and threatening to spill out our recently harvested maize if the front door was even opened!  

On Tuesday night we had the privilege of sharing supper with our friends from India. It was the first time I’ve ever cooked goat (NO!, not our sweet “Holy” but store bought) and  I received 1st rate compliments on my attempt! They have spent a month visiting and speaking here at New Hope. The tales of their life and work in India brought great perspective to the lack of persecution we face here as well as the challenges they live day-to-day there.

The Britton and Jiten Families

The Jiten and Britton families (minus Kevin and plus Junior)

Our boys fully broke up and cleared the disintegrated floor in their banda last week and spent the week putting down new cement.  Today they are working on painting the walls.  Though it was hard work, they’ve enjoyed learning something new while working hard to improve their living condition. 

Our second week of a four week school holiday between 2nd and 3rd terms for New Hope is nearing an end.  This weekend the Heart of Worship team will be leaving for a worship retreat at Musana Camps on Lake Victoria, half of the Investment Year group will be participating in the “Father Heart” weekend and the EYO group is preparing to leave for outreach early, early Tuesday morning for the Kapachorwa area (where the Olympic Gold Medalist is from!!!).  They will minister for a week in that area and Geoff is traveling with them. 

The last week of August will culminate the month-long holiday with a mini-envisioning program for the staff in which the major focus will be attention to the truths of God regarding manhood and womanhood.

Well, that’s it for now . . .

A swig of my own medicine . . .

In Toby's science  curriculum we've taken an indepth look at genetics including PGD, stem cell use and cloning. All the ethical questions and debates aside, I've found myself yearning to clone myself lately, WHY????? Because I want to be two places at one time!!! Well, actually THREE. Here at New Hope fully immersed in our lives here; with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew,  new niece and family; and with my cousin, her daughter and family! Being SO FAR AWAY is definitely HARD for me these days!

The two above pictures are of my 25 year old cousin Bailey.  The top photo is with her Daddy when she was a wee toddler and the bottom is a more recent photo with her Mom. Bailey was in a very serious car accident on August 11th. Her spinal vertebra were crushed and the nerves were severed at L1 requiring 14 hours of surgery. Neurosurgeons are not confident that she will have movement or feeling return, though they did concede that had it been one step above there would be NO chance. We'll take the favorable placement at L1 as a great sign!! She is still intubated at this writing, but after many blood transfusions and close observation, she may get to have that removed soon.

At the time of this writing I have been checking, more-than-daily, as this internet will allow, my youngest sister’s blog, my cousin’s FB page and email, craving news on the status and progress of my young niece Bela, and my cousin Bailey. In the past 24 hours there has been nothing new posted. 

I am experiencing what the grandparents frequently suffer--a voracious appetite for updates from the family when there is no delivery of such. Sigh . . .Sometimes this blog space sits idle for days going on weeks going on a month or more. I now taste the medicine I’ve been dishing out to the matriarchs and patriarchs over the past six and a half years of our living in Uganda. Where are the pictures??? Where is the news??? What’s going on??? How are the girls doing???? What are the Drs saying?

Being so far away from the family when these intense seasons settle in on the family is one of the most difficult challenges amidst what we, under normal circumstances, LOVE to do. I find myself walking around with in a constant state of prayer for Bela and Bailey, while I am also mentoring, discipling, teaching, organizing, studying, cooking, cleaning, greeting, etc. And isn’t that what Paul urged us to do? “Pray without ceasing” And I’m doing it and I’m thankful for the absolute privilege. But, I admit to a heavy heart--NOT to worry, but a longing to be with my family while also being here. 

It’s the cloning dilemma all over again. 

I post these pictures for you AND ME to see!

Above and below is baby Bela with her dear Aunt Romaine. Bela was born July 5th and has been hospitalized ever since with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She is currently improving and showing signs of positive progress. But, oh, how I long to hold her like I see everyone else getting to do in these pictures!!

Aunt Romaine is Bela's great aunt and Bailey's grandma so her heart is pulled in so many directions these days.

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What a cutie patootie

Santiago, my nephew and Bela's older brother. What I wouldn't give to take him out to ice cream and the beach right now!!

Bela and her mommy, my sister Laura.

Above and below, baby Bela with her loving Papa. . . kisses and naps!

Nap time

With our sister, Glenda (L), Aunt Glenda and Laura holding Bela

The awesome Grandma, loving on her 12th grand baby!

Embracing Zero Degrees

Lately? A steady stream of the day to day usuals with a healthy dose of the extraordinary thrown in!!!!! Add on a sketchy internet connection and you have the makings for intense silence in this blog space.

Hey, give us a break, we’ve been busy embracing zero degrees. For the unaware in the bunch, the equator -- zero latitude, is where we live at full speed.

Nothing unusual about Kevin reading on the couch, but notice the little antelope in the right of the photo?

Kambo's little duiker we "babysat" for a few days

"HELLO!!!, I'm Brownie!"

Bubbly and brownie, taking a closer look at each other

Crystal and Kambo's antelope  both tried to exit at the same time

Last post before this one was the 4th of July . . . wow. 

On the 7th we celebrated our annual New Hope Thanksgiving. Former staff, children and friends of the ministry joined us for time of praise, worship and testifying to God’s goodness, grace and mercy.  Uganda’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and her daughter, visited and spoke briefly at the event.  It was an honor to host them as Mrs. Museveni counted this her third visit to New Hope and spoke of her great love for our ministry to the fatherless.

Mrs. Museveni enters our Thanksgiving celebrations 

Nabukeera translated VERY WELL for First Lady Janet Museveni at our Thanksgiving service

The First Lady and her daughter, Patience

Our "Echoes of Hope" singing group (including Toby) sang for the occasion

Mrs. Museveni meets Birungi and Michael, two of our David Family kids that were among our original babies  when our baby house ministry began. As a baby, Birungi was held by Mrs. Museveni on a previous visit.

The very next day, Geoff and I left for a few days in Kampala for our anniversary.  We stayed in a lovely little French place.  It was very relaxing and quiet--a vast change from our activity at Kasana children’s center where we live and serve. 

That Saturday we received a call that Nabukeera’s 90+ year old grandmother (“Jajja”) was not doing well. Geoff, Uncle Mulu and Nabukeera (the young girl in David Family who has been a part of our family since 2000 when we began sponsoring her) went out to the village around 8 pm with the intention of taking her to the hospital--to which she adamantly refused!!!! (She even swatted at one of the gentlemen trying to help her into the van!) Geoff made the quick decision to bring her to our house where, for the next 6 days I kept a close eye on her. I daily cleaned and changed bandages to a festering wound, fed her all the nutritious food I could get her to eat, made sure she slept well and gave her antibiotics on schedule and pain medication around the clock.

Jajja and Bubbly on the veranda. Jajja shared a love-hate relationship with the mbwa (Luganda for dog) 

 It was fun, albeit busy, to have Nabukeera and Jajja in the house for the week and, while we were sad to see her go AND she appreciated our help, she was sooooooo ready to go home that she sat with longing on the veranda with her bags packed for 4 hours before leaving time that next Friday!

Jajja and little Kathryn, the daughter of one of the ladies who helps around our house. Jajja was so energized  when she held her, I wish this photo could have captured her joy!

 She is funny, sweet and full of stories.  It was an honor and a joy to have her for that week and we miss seeing her everyday.  Nabukeera is there this week as it is a holiday for school. (In the middle of that week we also hosted the three kids from the Brown family for two nights--lots of fun and laughter!!!!)

Kakulu of our special needs program playing with Holy, the goat

The following week was a heavy one as we lost three babies!  The first loss was the firstborn child of one of our former son’s and his wife.  She died only hours after her birth. Her emotion-filled burial was on Tuesday afternoon. As we were at her memorial we received a call that baby Dissan, a 4-month old recently brought to our baby house, had died of complications of an aggressive cancer. His tear-filled burial was Wednesday. On Friday I had to take one of our daughter’s to the hospital for a tetanus injection and while there we visited one of our staff members who had just miscarried in the night.  Such great loss certainly pales the pressures of daily life!

But, daily life must go on and to that end we worked tirelessly on the next Tuesday at the maize harvest.  That afternoon our guest of two months, Beth Maisano, said many weepy good-byes to the endless stream of children and staff coming to send her back to America with hugs and prayers. 

Beth, learning how to mingle posho from Jesca in the David Family kitchen

 We left around 2 p.m., dropped our three kids at the Brown’s in Kampala for a 4-day visit, and continued on to Entebbe with Beth where we spent the night before her early a.m. flight on Wednesday.  It was after dropping her off that we received the call regarding the death of a very close auntie to Jennifer, whom I mentor, from David Family.  All day Thursday was spent about 3.5 hours away from New Hope at the burial.  I made it back home with about 45 minutes to spare before we attended an evening at the McFarland’s listening to Jiten and Sika share on their ministry in India--to which our Kasana Community church sends monthly support.

Thankfully, this week has been a wee bit quieter (emphasis on “wee”). The kids at New Hope are now on their holiday between the second and third school terms of the year.  We, the Britton family, are NOT on holiday, however.  We are pushing through our school curriculum at an even pace as we must finish no later than the second week of November.  We will be inundated with end-of-year activities after that point and are leaving for a 6-month home assignment (furlough) beginning December 7th. 

My thoughts have been turned toward home much more than usual these past few weeks as my newborn niece (born on July 5th) has been a mystery to the medical staff at the hospital where she has resided since her birth.  Late last week they definitively diagnosed her with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and yesterday she began her chemo treatment.  She will most likely continue her stay for another 8-10 months. Your prayers are appreciated for my youngest sister and her husband, as well as my other family members who live close by them in Long Beach, California.  My sister’s blog gives almost daily information on Bela’s status if you are interested in further details: 

http://www.betoandlaura.blogspot.com/

Toby--life of the animal party

our personal "animal farm"--holy the goat, Bubbly, Brownie,  and our two cats (we've since this photo also added a chicken!) Can life get any MORE fun???
APPARENTLY, YES  . . . 

sometimes life is just too busy to notice the goat standing on the table until it's just too late!!!!

Thanks for “visiting” us at this very unpredictable blog site . . . I  might post again tomorrow or it could be ????????? who knows how long!!!!!!!

Until whenever, we will continue to embrace zero degrees!!! 

Happy 4th of July!!!

 Our INDEPENDENCE  as a Nation runs with fresh emotion for us this year as Kevin and Acacia have been studying the beginnings of America and the Revolutionary War these past few weeks. Toby has just finished delving into the events of the Civil War and has begun the examination of the World Wars. Our upclose look into the passions and strength of purpose of those who gave their lives for our freedom and dignity as a Nation has moved us.  As we celebrate our American heritage, albeit from a foreign land, we think of our fellow Americans scattered throughout the world! "And God has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'" (Acts 17:26-28) We, all being created and divinely planned for, are His. And, having said that, we're proud He planned for us to be American, !!!!! Thank you, God! 

On this 4th of July, our secondary school held their first science fair.  The kids were excited as they planned their experiments and today they demonstrated for the judges.  The experiments were varied and well thought-out. There was one on the constant sloughing off of the outer layer of skin and the regeneration of new cells.  I was struck by the kids' quote at the end of their explanation poster and thought it quite apropos to our lives:

Thank our Lord that He gives us everything we need for life (II Peter 1:3) and Who is reliable and present even when life and struggles rub against us or seemingly grind and scrape at our attempt to preserve our "outer layer."   "He never leaves us or turns His back on us. We may boldly say, The Lord is our helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"(Hebrews 13:5-6)

Geoff and I went together to view the science fair. He listens as  a student explains effects of varying degrees of salinity.

One of our David family boys and his friend took 2nd place with their demonstration on a "village" way to separate oil and water.

Our girls, Annet and Jesca pose in front of their poster on how our taste buds can be tricked when we do not use our sense of sight and smell along with our sense of taste.

And a few days ago we held our own little science experiments on atmospheric pressure. We made a homemade barometer and thermometer.

Out with the Old, In with the New!

Last Sunday we were privileged to baptize a number of our church members in the mid-afternoon down at our pond.  It was quite muddy and there was a slight rain, but many gathered around to watch as young and old stated aloud their faith in the saving power of Jesus. There is a lot of fear surrounding water here as most do not know how to swim. To commit themselves to going down into the water for baptism was an extremely courageous act and speaks of sincere faith. 

Those who are getting baptized gather around for encouragement and instructions before the baptisms begin.

Florence, steady obedience brings a true smile!

Biru, one of our David Family girls, getting baptized!!!

Love this smile and the joy of NEW LIFE!!!

Looking at her family father as he lovingly guides her

PURE JOY!!!

A special baptism moment, baptized by his Dad, his Grandpa and his good friend Uncle George!

The crowd sloshed through mud to see the baptisms

 She confessed her need for Jesus and stated that her faith is firmly placed in Him.

The baptism of one of the older men in the congregation--AWESOME!