All our adventures as missionaries, past and present.

Jiggety Jig

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We survived the trip home. Basically, you sit in a hot wind tunnel all day, and reach the end feeling wind blasted and sun baked. Both Anna and I were both pretty numb, and a little brain dead when we were done. The kids were real champs. They didn't complain, and played well all the way home. They make me real proud! It is very good to be home. I'm intending to do little or nothing today, other than the requisite errands that have to be run when you come back from a trip. We'll be getting the evaporator in the van replaced tomorrow, and that should do the trick. Then we'll be back in the land of mobile climate control once again. We're all tired, and are looking forward to the light schedule this month. It will be nice to be around our home church for a while. We'll get to attend the Family Workshop, and the kids will be able to go to the Children's Workshop. I'll be preaching for our pastor while he and his family take a much needed vacation. Other than that, we've got the one meeting in Hannibal, MO next Sunday, and that's it. So, I intend to just rest, and enjoy St. Louis in the summer. We're going to do things as a family for this month, and Anna and I will be going on dates as a couple to make up for all the dates we've not had while on the road. Plus, we get to celebrate our anniversary properly for once (the last two years prior it fell right in the middle of Candidate School at BIMI). It's going to be a great month, and we're all looking forward to it!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-28-2006

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Greetings once again! We're in Johnson City, TN at the moment. We just completed our conference in Answer Baptist Church (Pastor Jason Wiley). It was a real blessing. We had great preaching all week from Bro. John Halsey (International Representative, BIMI). The people took great care of us. The meals were delicious, and we had some great fellowship with everyone. On Thursday, they took the men to a suit store and bought us new suits. Wow! I've never had a church do anything like that for me before. Now I can finally retire this one suit I've had for the past three years and have something decent to wear to meetings and to church. They took Anna out to buy some new outfits. She was in need of some things for summer, so that was a big help.

On Friday, we went to Bays Mountain State Park. They had some enclosures with wolves running around in it. The Park Ranger called them over and got them to howl for us, which the kids got a real kick out of. They had a talk for some school groups that were there, and we all sat in and listened to it. The subject was snakes, and afterwards, the guys got to all touch a King Snake (harmless), and I even talked Anna into trying it. On Saturday, we went to the Tipton-Haynes historical site, where they had some activities for the kids involving old time crafts, like spinning wool, and making paper. We explored a cave that was on the property, which they also really enjoyed. Then, in the evening, we had a picnic in a park near the church, and just kind of relaxed and visited with folks. To cap the whole thing, on Sunday they voted to take us on for support! It's just been a really great conference, and a true blessing.

Tomorrow, we'll be driving back to St. Louis. Pray for us as we drive. Our air-conditioning is still needing to be fixed, and it's going to hit 92 tomorrow. We got the compressor replaced, but that revealed a leak in the evaporator. Our mechanic couldn't work us in until May 31, so until then, we have to suffer with the heat. The cost of the repair will be $800, so please pray that the money will be there for that. We'll be home for much of June to get some much needed rest. I'm covering for our Pastor so he and his family can go on vacation, and our wedding anniversary is on June 10 as well, so we decided to take it easy on meetings this month. We have a meeting next week in Hannibal, MO, in Victory Baptist Church with Pastor James Barmore, and then we'll be home for the rest of June. Pray for the meeting, that we'll be able to be a blessing, and that God will work.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Udate 05-22-2006

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Greetings, once again! We're in Des Moines, IA at the moment, preparing to make the drive home to St. Louis, MO (easy drive, only six hours). We just completed the 2006 Missions Conference at Southtown Baptist Church (Pastor Jim Chamberlain). Dr. Les Frazier (SE Asia Director for BIMI), was the main speaker, and he did a great job every night. The sermons were spot on, and really ministered to both of us, and appeared to do the same for everybody else. The turnout was good every night. The international dinner on Saturday was fantastic (those things usually are). I told 'em that they were helping us get ready for the mission field in Uganda, because the Ugandans will come up and tell you you're looking fat, and mean it as a compliment, because it's a sign of good health and prosperity to them.

I went soul-winning with one of the men on Saturday morning. I'd been praying that God would help me bear some fruit, and He answered big-time: I led three Catholic girls to the LORD at the same time! It was incredible. They tried to justify themselves at first, so I took them to the ten commandments, and we talked about how God makes no difference between sins, that they all have the same penalty (death), and that if you sin in one point, you are guilty of the whole law. I could see they were under conviction, so I gave them the good news, that while they were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. They all three wanted to be saved, and prayed to receive Christ as their LORD and Savior right there in the doorway. Be in prayer for Lindsay, Ashley, and Samantha. The church will be visiting them again next week. Pray that their grandparents won't be hostile, and that they'll be able to reach the whole family. I also witnessed to a Methodist lady who was plainly under conviction, but would not believe on the LORD Jesus to be saved. The ladies from the church will be returning to visit her also next week. Pray that she will not harden her heart, but will believe and be saved. It was just a tremendous day of soul-winning and fellowship with the men, and God truly blessed.

Pray for Jim Chamberlain. He's been having some health problems lately, so pray that God will heal his flesh so he can continue to be effective in the ministry. Pray for Les Frazier's new grand-daughter. She is having some problems with her liver that the doctors are still trying to diagnose. At this point it would appear that it's not a genetic disorder (that's good), but some surgery will likely be required. Please pray.

On Wednesday, we'll be driving to Johnson City, TN for a conference in Answer Baptist Church (Pastor Jason Wiley). Pray for the trip that all will go well. Our evaporator needs to be replaced, but we can't get it done until May 31, so until then, we have to endure the heat. Pray for the conference, that God will bless, and that the Church will experience revival and God's moving. Pray that we'll be a blessing and an encouragement.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 5-12-2006

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Hello, everyone! We're home this week for Mother's Day. We rescheduled our Sunday meeting in Liberty, MO to July, which worked out for me, since I was needing to schedule a couple more for that month anyway. In the meantime, I've used the downtime to complete a significant chore: a complete redesign of the website. The old site was starting to show it's age, and I decided that it was high time for a rewrite. I'm glad it's finally over, tho'. You stare at a computer monitor long enough, you get to feeling like you're going blind. Check it out. The same basic information is there, but it's much faster, and better organized. The biggest change is the addition of a personal weblog (blog), for both Anna and I. This way, I can keep the email updates short and to the point. Then, for the stories and what not that wouldn't be appropriate for an email because of the need for brevity, we can post them to the blog, and those interested parties can check in to read them. I have placed all prior correspondence in the blog, so you can read all the back-story of our deputation so far, if you're so inclined. Additionally, Anna can now post her own stuff in a blog separate from my own, so you can get the wife's perspective on things as well. You can find that along the top navigation bar under 'Journal'. General Info has all the usual stuff relative to the ministry. Gallery has all our pictures in it, which I'll be updating soon. The Encyclopedia has all the info on Uganda, Africa News has RSS feeds with Africa news stories, and Contact Us gives you a convenient form for sending us email messages. You folks are my beta testers, so if you run into any errors, try to take a screenshot, or copy down the error, and tell me what you were doing at the time, and I'll see if I can fix it. Word to the wise: Internet Explorer doesn't quite render the site flawlessly, like Firefox. If you haven't made the switch to the Firefox browser yet, I highly recommend you do so!

Next week, we'll be heading up to a missions conference in Des Moines, IA, in Southtown Baptist Church, with Pastor Jim Chamberlain. The week after, we'll be in Answer Baptist Church in Johnson City, TN with Pastor Jason Wiley. Be in prayer for us as we travel. Pray for our safety, and our health. Pray that God will bless in these conferences, and that we will be a blessing.

That's all for now.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-01-2006

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Greetings! We had a great conference in Corinth Baptist Church in Corinth, ME (Pastor Kirk Mellen). Talk about a small world. Turns out, the Mellens are from St. Louis also. Bro. Mellen was Burt Squires' Associate Pastor at Lifegate Baptist Church in Ellisville, MO. Plus, our Pastor was on his ordination counsel. The trip to Maine went well. The week we were there, the weather cleared up, although it was a bit cold still, by our standards anyway. We visited Bar Harbor on Friday (pronounced Bah Hahbah), and got to see the ocean some more. I had some Maine lobster in one of the few little restaurants that was open. It was tasty but, well, it's basically just a really big crawdad (if you don't know what that is, let me know). Anyway, I've had Maine lobster now, so I can say I did it. Frankly, I'd rather have a mess of crawdads….

On Sunday, I had an epiphany. We had been scolding our son, Ethan, for talking "baby talk" all week. You know how kids do sometimes. They think it's cute to talk like a baby, when it's not, so you make them stop. He'd been saying things like "over theyah", instead of "over there", and "heyah" instead of "here" and what not. Well, we were over to a church member's house for lunch, and I was sitting outside chatting with the guys while the meat was cooking, when it suddenly hit me: he's not talking baby-talk; he's imitating all these Mainers! We had a good laugh over that one. Our Ethan, the Maineiac…

The preaching from Bro. Frazier was excellent, as always. The services went very well, and we got to bat cleanup and share our burden for Uganda on Sunday night. It's a great little church in rural Maine, and we enjoyed it tremendously. The church building was built in 1822. They have these neat little pew boxes, and this huge old-fashioned, pipe organ. One of the ladies played it for everybody on Sunday night. You just can't substitute for the real thing.

We're in Clarion, PA at the moment, and I'm getting this update written from the hotel before bed while I can, because there won't be time tomorrow. It'll be another long day of driving on Tuesday, and then we'll finally be in St. Louis and home! It's been a good trip, and we've enjoyed it, but we're all tired, and ready for some rest. Pray for our travels, and for our continued good health. Pray that Corinth Baptist will be able to support us, and that many other of the churches we've been to will do likewise, those who have not already. Pray we'll get some good rest in the next few weeks while we're home, and that we'll be able to get lots of needed tasks done.