All our adventures as missionaries, past and present.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 3-21-2010

/in /by

Greetings! This is it. Our last email from America (for awhile). Our stuff's packed. Our container is shipped. Tomorrow we will be flying out of Chicago on our way to the field. It's a day long in the making, and we are very grateful to God for making it happen.

Some answers to prayer: God provided both our shipping, and the money we needed to bring with us for setup on the field. Thanks for praying.

That just leaves the $12,000 we will need for a vehicle, and a vehicle to buy, once we get there. At the moment, everyone is healthy, and, as far as I know, everything got done that needed to be done before we left. Keep praying.

Our flight information is as follows:

BRITISH AIRWAYS       22MAR CHICAGO IL     LONDON         610P    645A
BA 294               MONDAY O'HARE INTL    HEATHROW               23MAR
N ECONOMY                   AIRCRAFT:      BOEING 777-200/300

BRITISH AIRWAYS       23MAR LONDON         ENTEBBE        1045A   1010P
BA 63               TUESDAY HEATHROW
N ECONOMY                   AIRCRAFT:      BOEING 767-200/300

This will be my last communication for awhile. Once we get over there, get setup with internet, get a mailing address, and a house, I will update everyone with the pertinant details.

Praise the LORD, and thank you for your prayers!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 03-04-2010

/in /by

Greetings, no longer from the deputation trail! We finished up our final meeting in Roswell, NM last week, and all that remains now are final preparations to leave for Uganda on March 22! We had a great series of meetings in New Mexico, in First Baptist Church of Edgewood, Santa Fe Baptist Church, and Roswell Baptist Church respectively. They were all great missions conferences, and praise the LORD, all three churches are supporting us! We still need a bit more support, so keep praying that God will raise that up shortly before or after our departure.

Three churches have contacted me about supporting us and all I have to do is get them our DVD and prayer cards, and they are going to represent us in their missions conferences, so praise the LORD about that as well!

Here's a list of extremely specific needs you all can pray for:

$9500 for shipping a 20' container from here all the way to Mbarara, Uganda. We have a little better than half, and need the rest next week.

$16,000 for outfit (vaccines – just found out that's going to be $1900, work permits, six month's rent for a house, stuff for the house and any improvements required, and anything else we're likely to need on arrival). We have about half, and need the rest by the time we leave on March 22.

$12,000 to buy a vehicle, and a vehicle to buy, after we get to the field.

These are the deadlines, and the needs. I bring them up because God loves meeting deadlines and answering specific prayers. I'm not particularly worried, because God has never failed us and I know of no reason why He should start.

Good news! We may have a house! Dr. Ron Bragg and Matt Stensaas found one that sounds perfect for our needs. The landlord is wanting $600 a month. Pray he'll come down in price, to $450 a month perhaps. I have not seen the place, so it may turn out to be no good, but honestly, 4 bedrooms and an acre-and-a-half of land with fruit trees sounds pretty good to me (this would give us room to house guests).

There is much to do in the weeks ahead. I marvel that I can finally measure my time remaining in America in weeks. It's so exciting to finally be done with the necessary missionary polishing and preparation phase (deputation) and be moving to the next phase, deployment. God has great plans for Uganda, and I am so grateful to be included in them.

Keep praying folks, and God bless!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-24-2010

/in /by

Greetings! We are all doing well, and are continuing apace in our preparations to leave for Africa on March 22. We are presently busy with the remaining meetings left to us in our deputation. and have just finished meetings in Houghton Lake Baptist Church in Houghton Lake, MI, and Bethel Baptist Church in Simcoe, Ontario.

We took advantage of the opportunity to visit my wife's sister Naomi and husband Gavin Walsh in Toronto for a few days. While there, we took the kids ice skating in downtown Toronto. It was most entertaining. The kids were a bit unsteady at first, but they learned quickly. It was their first time and it was great fun.

Our time in Simcoe went well. It was a great missions conference, and we have enjoyed the hospitality of the church here. Pastor Bohman took us up in a Piper. He did some aerial tricks and tickled the kids half to death. Most amusing! We've enjoyed our time up north greatly and will be driving back to St. Louis on Monday.

We have lots to do in the next few weeks before our trip down to New Mexico. Pray we'll be able to get everything done. Pray also that the remainder of our support will arrive by our departure, and that we will continue to have success in raising money for our outfit and passage.

Replacing Emoji...

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-17-2009

/in /by

Greetings! I'm back from Nebraska. I hopped a quick, two-hour flight out to Denver on Saturday, and flew back on Monday. This way, I saved us both time and money, both of which we are endeavoring to save these days, in lieu of our coming move to Uganda. I had a great meeting in Anchor Baptist Church in Scottsbluff, NE, with Pastor Don Stephens. They were also having their 15th Anniversary, so I got to present our ministry, and I and two other preachers brought messages during the services. They fed us a HUGE meal for lunch, which was awesome (turkey and ham and sweet potatoes…mmmmmm….).

God really blessed in the services. I enjoyed some great fellowship with these men of God, as well as Anna's Uncle Don Brush and family. He has a bunch of nearly identical blonde-headed little girls, which of course made me miss MY blonde-headed little girl even more. Mercy, the next-to-youngest, adopted me as her own. She'd stand there and look at me with those big, blue eyes of hers until I picked her up. Sweet kid.

Our flight information for next March for those of you who are interested is as follows:

British Airways Flight 294, depart Chicago O'Hare on March 22, 2010 at 6:10PM, arrive in Heathrow, London, England, March 23, 2010 at 6:45AM

British Airways Flight 63, depart London, Heathrow on March 23, 2010 at 10:45AM, arrive in Entebbe, Uganda, Africa on March 23, 2010 at 10:10PM

A significant amount of funds has come into BIMI to go in the shipping fund (Praise the LORD!). We will still need some more, and funds for housing in Uganda, and a vehicle, so keep praying.

Replacing Emoji...

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-02-2009

/in /by

Greetings! We are back from Tennessee. We went to Chattanooga to BIMI HQ and got our Departure Interview done. That means we ran through a list of things with the various department heads and made sure everything was in order financially and legally so we can move to the field. I'm glad that's done.

We have bought our plane tickets! Dan Dwire got me a fantastic deal, and we have bought tickets to fly to Uganda on March 22, 2010. I had to go with that date and not earlier in the year because of multiple missions conferences I had already scheduled in New Mexico before the plans were made to leave early next year. Some of those Pastors had moved church schedules around to accommodate us, and I didn't feel right messing up their plans by cancelling the meetings. Also, we need the support. 😀

I heard from Happy Acres Transit, the outfit that will be helping us navigate the ocean of red tape needed to get a 20' metal box full of stuff from St. Louis, MO to Mbarara, Uganda, AFRICA. It is going to cost $9500 to ship, not including customs. Please pray we'll be able to get that raised so we can ship to the field. We need to sell our house between now and then, so pray we'll be able to get that done, in spite of the current fiscal meltdown that our friendly, neighborhood Democrats have created.

We had a great conference in Fairview Baptist Church in Athens, TN (Pastor Jack Scallions). It's a great church. I got to preach Sunday morning, on the radio. Cool! I've never preached on the radio before, and it was a great honor for a man of God like Pastor Scallions to allow me in his pulpit on a Sunday morning like that. I got to speak in their Christian school chapel, which is always a blessing. We stayed out at this lovely little cabin at their Christian camp, way out in the country. It was beautiful, and peaceful, and most restful. We had a great time, and the kids had lots of room to run and play without disturbing anybody.

Now we're home, and I'm working on getting caught up from a week of no internet (the only downside of where we were staying in Athens). Pray that things will continue to come together smoothly as we prepare to go to Africa!