MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-26-2014
Greetings (finally) from Uganda! We have been here three weeks, and the internet has been off for roughly half that time. Every time I would sit down to write a prayer letter, the Internet would be in absentia. Every. Time. So frustrating. Anyway, I will take advantage of this brief foray into the 21st century to finally send an update.
Needless to say, we made it to Uganda. Everything went well. There was a bit of a disagreement getting through Heathrow, but we finally persuaded British Air to allow us to bring our most important carry-on pieces on the flight, and thus not expose our most valuable belongings to the tender mercies of Entebbe baggage handling. All luggage made it through to Uganda. Nothing was missing or tampered with, which was a blessing. Our friend Ssuemko was waiting for us at the airport. We got everything loaded up into his truck, and then drug our weary bodies over to Namuli Suites for the night. We left out the next day for Mbarara and, after over 48 hours of traveling, we were home.
It's not hard to disbelieve Evolution when you enter a house left vacant for nine months. You know something? Things get worse, not better, without an external intelligence acting upon a given system to impose order. It's an entropy thing. The dust was so thick, I thought I was at the beach. Some of our friends had come and done some preliminary cleaning in the main house, or it would have been much worse – thank you! We are, after all this time, finally reaching the point where our house is in order and fully functional.
I am in the middle of getting our work permits and so forth renewed. I made a trip to Kampala to submit those, and to pick up some deep-cycle batteries and solar panels. Umeme is load shedding all day Friday through Sunday every weekend. I have decided that our relationship is irreconcilable, and am preparing to get a divorce. 🙂
The people at Sangano Baptist are very excited about the library project. On their own, they began making the couple thousand bricks needed, and purchased the poles necessary to begin raising the structure for the library building. Jeff kicked in the funds for sand, cement, and iron sheets for a roof. Our library is taking shape. It lacks only the books. As of this letter, our container still sits in St. Louis, unshipped. Would you pray about helping us? Many of you contributed books, for which we are very grateful. Now we need to finish the journey and get them to Uganda. If all of you contribute some, together, it will be enough to ship. A library building, however well constructed, is no good to anybody without books to fill it. Please help us finish this worthy project and bring a library to the refugees at Nakivale.
Pray for us as we complete our transition back to the field. I have to get our solar system installed. I have to get our work permits and driving permits renewed. I need to pay our landlady three months' rent next month. Feburary is usually a low month for support. Pray I can get it all done.
Pray for the works. I had to deal with some interpersonal problems out at one of the churches. The people are working through it, but it has affected attendance. Pray they can learn how to get along, and restore their testimony in the community (you folks in America never have these problems, right? 😉 )
It is so great to be home, preaching the Gospel, and working with God's people in Uganda!
God bless you!
Some pictures of the library building:
