MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-16-2011

Hello again! We had a great service on Sunday. We baptized 6 and had 4 more weddings. We have been preaching and teaching about the necessity of Biblical marriage, and the people are really responding well. Jeff and Carla Bassett will be heading home for furlough on June 24, so be praying for them. In the interim, Djuna and I will be holding down the fort with the preaching on Sundays, in addition to the English classes I teach. I will be conducting another baptismal service, probably in September or thereabouts. We are planning a VBS for the various preaching points as well, and a Christmas service in December. On Wednesdays, I will be teaching through Genesis with the men, and Anna will be teaching the ladies. Lots to do! Pray for us.

Great news! A significant amount of funds has been given towards helping us buy a new vehicle. We still need about 1550, but the gifts were a great encouragement. It’s now within range! For those of you who gave, thank you so much! Once the Bassett’s are gone, I will have no way to get out to the refugee camp. The money has been coming in very quickly – God has provided swiftly for this need. If anybody still wants to help with this, you’ll need to mark your check “Vehicle Fund” and send it to BIMI (P.O. Box 9215, Chattanooga, TN 37412 • Tel.: (423) 344-5050). Thank you for praying! God plainly intends to get us into a more reliable, higher quality vehicle before the deadline so we can continue ministering in Nakivale without interruption and without the constant robbery of funds from car repairs.

This Christmas, I would like to give a gift to all the children at the preaching points. Anna is busily sewing up dolls for the girls. For the boys, I thought it would be good to give little cars (Matchbox or Hot Wheels). They’re small, relatively cheap, and easy to ship. I will need all that you care to send. If you would like to mail some cars for the boys here, you can use our mailing address (James Huckabee, P.O. Box 1830, Mbarara, Uganda EAST AFRICA). Mark the item as something VERY vague like “Plastic Goods” or “Metal Goods”. If the good people at the Post Office try to give you grief about this, remind them that it is being shipped to a third world country, where we cannot trust our postal service to not steal our mail, which is why you have to be vague. The best and most economical method I have found for shipping are the US Postal Service’s flat rate Priority Mail International service. Their padded flat rate envelope costs $13.95 with a 4 lb limit. You can basically stuff it full of cars or anything else you like (Kool-Aid packs and seasoning packs are always a welcome treat), and they will ship it to us here. It typically takes about 2 or 3 weeks to reach us in Mbarara. The full price list is here. You can start sending cars now, and the sooner the better because the closer you get to Christmas, the more unreliable the mail service becomes.

Thank you for all your prayers, encouraging notes, and the little gifts we get from time to time (Grape Kool-Aid + Lemonade Kool-Aid = Crazy Delicious).

God bless and keep you!