MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 04-05-2013

Greetings from America! We made it to the States safe and sound. Our luggage also made it safe and sound, with no sign of pilferage, which is a plus. Nobody got sick (also a plus). We’re all finally getting over the jet lag (Uganda is eight hours ahead of Central Time). We spent a day in Chicago resting up and sleeping. You have to stay awake all day no matter how exhausted you are so you can force your body to bed at the right time. Next day we took the train to Saint Louis (so much roomier and more comfortable than the plane), and my folks and brother Joel and sister and brother-in-law and niece met us at the station. Dad brought the van we’ll be using thanks to Baptist Missionary Transportation Ministry (thank you Eric!).

On Easter Sunday, we surprised our church by just walking in the door. It was awesome. It felt very normal, like we’ve never been away. We’re getting settled into the house where we’ll be staying during those brief intervals where we’ll actually be in Saint Louis (we have a lot of churches scheduled). The past few days have been excruciatingly busy just getting ourselves in order for our first meeting in Nevada, MO (Bible Baptist, Pastor Jerry Pyle).

For example, I have no suits. I gave away all my ties and dress shirts to my Bible Institute students, even my shoes. So, both Anna and I had to get to a store to get shoes. We have moved from a climate where you mostly wear sandals, to cold (to us) North America where you need closed shoes. Thankfully, Debbie Guimon let us have some shoes for the boys, and Elizabeth got some shoes from Wally World. I had to have my two suits altered, because I lost 40 pounds after I went to Africa and they now make me look like a cancer patient.

On examination, my seamstress wife determined that they can’t be altered, so now what am I going to wear? I tried finding some slacks to wear with the nice, African dress shirts I brought with me, but it’s just as hard to find pants that fit me here as it is in Africa (I am an above average height guy doomed to live in a world full of shorter people 😉 ). I don’t want to waste money on suits because I don’t really wear them in Africa, and if I ever need suits, I can get excellent TAILORED suits made there for a mere fraction of the cost of an ill-fitting suit off the rack here. Pray I find something I can wear next week when I have time to shop around.

Pray for our travels. We have many places we need to visit. I still need one meeting in Florida for the morning service of May 5, one in Virginia for the evening service of May 26, meetings in New York for the evening service of June 2 and a Wednesday meeting for June 5, a meeting for Wednesday, October 2 in New Mexico or Arizona, and a meeting on Wednesday, October 9 in Arizona or Nevada. If anybody knows of some churches who might like a visit from some awesome missionaries to Uganda, please let me know. If I can fill those time slots, our schedule will be full. Pray I can make contact with the right Pastors. Pray for our support. We went to Africa under supported. God has taken care of our needs. In order to be effective, we need about ten more churches to support us, and possibly some of our supporting churches to raise our support. Pray we’ll get the support we need during this nine month window.

Pray for the churches in Ngarama and Juru who are continuing in our absence, and for the men who are leading them.

Remember Project Libris. We have a van with ample storage in back, so if you have books you want to box up and send with us on our way through to Saint Louis, let me know and I’ll pick those up as we go. We have many books at our church already, and I have heard from two other sources who are sending another 12,000 volumes our way (PTL!). Pray the money we will eventually need for a container and shipping will become available, and also a little extra with which to build a simple library building at Sangano when we return.

I have contact info for the USA while we are here:

James Huckabee
12120 Pelota St
Saint Louis, MO 63138

James (cell) 636-730-0336
Anna (cell) 636-730-0335

God bless you all, and looking forward to seeing many of you soon!