MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-22-2004

Greetings, folks!

We were in Philadelphia Baptist Church in Philadelphia, MO (close to Palmyra, outside Hannibal) for their missions conference this past weekend. We were there, on our way to Uganda, East Africa, and so was Lenelle Smith, on her way to Ivory Coast, West Africa, so it was all African missionaries. It's always good to meet other folks on their way to Africa, who share your burden for the continent. Africa's a big place, and you can't really run out of work to do or places to go and work as a missionary. The need is ever present, and never diminishes. We had an all African dinner on Saturday, featuring food from Ivory Coast. It had a lot of curry in it, which I thought was really tasty, but which apparently lit some folks on fire. We all wore our African garments, and had some good fellowship with the people.

Sunday went well. We all slept like the dead on Sunday afternoon, and then got up to pack. My nimble-fingered, future pick-pocket daughter spirited away my travel alarm clock, which I need to make sure I wake up on time in the morning. My wife set it down for second, and turned
to get something, and <POOF>, it was gone. It turned out later that she'd been "helping pack", and had put it in her suitcase. Overall, it was a great conference, and I'm glad we got to attend, especially this late in the year.

We're getting ready for Christmas now, as, I'm sure, are all of you. We're looking forward to the break. It's been exceptionally busy, which is good, but physically very tiring. God bless all of you during the Christmas season. Looking forward to the many exciting adventures that lay ahead in the year to come. Be praying –> the sun goes down on my secular employment on January 1. We will officially be full-time then. We'll be driving up to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska on January 1 (hitting the ground running) for a Sunday meeting up there in Bible Baptist Church (Don Brush, Anna's uncle, is a deacon there). Then we'll swing north and spend a few days in South Dakota with her grandparents, Burton and Mildred Brush. Grandpa Brush is not doing well. The cancer appears to be winning, so we wanted to go see him while we still can. Pray for his health, and for his family's comfort. The board of Pioneer Bible Institute is meeting near the year's end to transfer leadership to his son, Don Brush, so pray for him as he takes on this huge responsibility. Pray for us as we engage in an insane amount of driving, that we won't have any car trouble, or accidents, and that I'll be able to stay awake.

Merry Christmas, one and all!!