MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-04-2011

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Hello again, and welcome to 2011. Sounds kinda weird saying that doesn't it? Seems not that awful long ago we were all buying generators and laying low for the impending destruction of the earth by Y2K. 🙂 Ah well, maybe next year… Our holiday went well. The kids, and Anna, got a welcome break from school. We all got some needed downtime. We had a ham for Christmas (bonus) and jelly donuts (found 'em in Kampala), but not for the same meal 😉 . We played a lot of games and spent time with each other. It went very well. 

On a sadder note, last week, our language tutor Osbert lost his Mom to a very sudden and unexpected death. She was only 44. Thankfully, she is saved and is with the LORD now, but the Bishop that Osbert's father got to speak doesn't know what that means. There were easily 500-600 people at the burial, and he completely missed the opportunity to preach the gospel. The Church of Uganda (Anglican) is utterly useless, except for milking the people for money, and generating bastards. I've been to multiple burials now, and it breaks your heart to see it. No hope. None at all, and the religious leadership are helpless to offer any. I know, being a follower of Christ, the true fate of the deceased, and I sit there and sadly watch the Anglican ministers conducting their pointless rituals, knowing that it is doing no good for either the quick or the dead. The Church of Uganda offers the greatest level of persecution and harassment to Baptists here, much like the Church of England once did long ago in America. Ironically, the Muslims here are generally the most tolerant of other religions. Pray for Uganda. There are so many who still need to hear the gospel.

The ministry is continuing well here in Nakivale Refugee camp. I am going to begin English and Literacy classes at one of the preaching points starting the week after next. Pray for us. I've never done anything like it before, so it will definitely be on-the-job-training. I will likely have to expand the class to encompass one of the other preaching points also, but we are going to begin with one for now. We are getting into some more advanced concepts in our Runyankore language study now. Pray for us as we continue to learn this fairly complex Bantu dialect.  At some point, I intend to conduct a Vacation Bible School down at the camp. There are hundreds of kids there, and I would like to minister to them more intensively than just our weekly Children's Service. Pray for our planning and execution of such a task.

God bless you all in the New Year!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-21-2010

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Greetings! It's nearly Christmas, and my how the year has flown by! The ministry continues well here in Mbarara. I preach every week, and either 

 

 

Preaching at Sangano

Anna or I teach the Children's class at one of the two preaching points (Juru and Ngarama). Now that our vehicle is fixed, we're planning to begin regular English and literacy classes starting in January. Pray for us as we begin this interesting and completely new endeavor. We are, of course, still working on Runyankore. I'm trying to get my first Bantu dialect nailed down before I move on to another, probably Swahili (a great need at Nakivale).

Riding the BodaWe're into the Christmas season now, so the kids are off school, and we're doing family things and what not around here. Last week we went to the capitol to get some shopping done. We try to limit these trips to every other month (it's expensive), but it gives us an opportunity to get some things you either cannot get in Mbarara, or get them cheaper. We usually stock up on things like bacon, saltine crackers, pepperoni and anything else that looks good (found Dr. Pepper this trip!! YEEHAW!)
 
Anna had another medical checkup. Both her and the baby are doing great. We're all looking forward to meeting Brennah in 10 weeks. The kids are beside themselves with excitement. This will be the first time we've had an infant in the house where they are old enough to appreciate and remember it. Keep praying for the impending birth, that all will go smooth, and that we will miss any nonsense around the election time.
 
On Tuesday night, the night before we were to head back to Mbarara, Ethan, John and I came down with the plague. We got the works: high fever, chills, aches, vertigo, dizziness, weakness. I drug out of bed in the morning after little or no sleep for both me and my spouse, and I still had to get us back home. Not cool. We finally got loaded up, and were underway. I managed to keep it together for 3 and a half hours, but finally, it was getting so dangerous for me to drive that I had to let Anna drive. This is not a problem, I mean, she can do it, but she hasn't had a lot of experience yet cause of all the car problems we've had until just lately. This was her trial by fire. I knew if I didn't let her try, I was either going to hit someone head on, or roll the vehicle in the ditch. She did great. It's not easy shifting with your left hand when you've spent half your life using your right, but she managed it and we got back home. I and the others collapsed into bed, and she and the healthy ones got the car unloaded. Always plenty of excitement and high adventure on the mission field, let me tell you. 
 
Keep praying. We've got big plans for 2011, and are looking forward to all God intends to do here in Uganda in the coming year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-07-2010

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Greetings! We’re doing well here in Uganda. We’ve been busy with our work in the refugee camp down in Nakivale, and our ongoing study of the language here. I’m still discipling Mordecai. The children’s ministry in Nakivale is also doing well. So, these things are still progressing as usual. I’m teaching in the Mobile Institute at Independent Baptist Church of Mbarara this week. We’re teaching Bible Study Methods to a class of 41 Ugandans. Teaching grammar for the purpose of Bible Study is tricky because of the radical differences between English grammar and Runyankore grammar. Graduation is on Friday for 4 of the Bible Institute students.

Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey

We had a great Thanksgiving. We invited 2 of the other missionary families in Mbarara (the Bassetts and the Trachts) over for a Thanksgiving feast. The kids, ours and the Trachts’, are posing with the turkey we bought for the occasion. The meal and the fellowship were outstanding. We’re still able to have our familiar American traditions here, albeit with a bit more work (all food is made from scratch here).

The day after Thanksgiving is when we traditionally decorate for Christmas. We have our tree put up now and all our Christmas decorations. It’s really starting to look festive around here, although the Spring-like weather we have year round feels a little odd to be having in December. So, while folks in America are suffering with the cold, we get beautiful sunshine and 70 degrees pretty much every day of the year.

Our vehicle is in Kampala being repaired this week. God supplied the money we needed for the engine overhaul, which is a tremendous blessing. I am aware that the economy is terrible in the States right now, so we are very grateful for the sacrifices our supporting churches are making to keep us here, and help with our needs. Thank you very much for the Christmas gifts we have received at BIMI, and the care packages as well. They were both huge encouragements. We are enjoying the Jolly Ranchers, and are putting the Taco Seasoning and Chili Mixes to good use already.

Pray for the refugee camp. Corruption is business as usual here. Someone associated with the camp has stolen about 3 months worth of food from the refugees, and a large portion of their medical supplies. I saw a little boy, about Gaelin’s age, on Sunday with a third degree burn on his leg from the family cook fire. The people at the clinic hadn’t done anything for it, and it had been like that since Wednesday. He wasn’t crying, because mercifully the nerves were dead in that region, but it’s going to scar badly if the infection doesn’t kill him. We treated him with what medicine we have, but the wound really needs to be debrided. Without anesthetic, however, I don’t see how you could do that to him. Pray for him.

We are travelling to Kampala soon for a few days, and should have our car back by then, which will be a blessing. This will likely be the last checkup before the birth of our sixth child, Brennah LaDynne. Pray that all goes well. Pray that there will be no complications or other issues. Another concern is that the due date is very close to the elections on February 18. Pray that this child, like all the others, will be born a little late so we won’t have to be anywhere near the capitol for the elections. Pray the elections go smoothly, and without violence. Uganda has not had serious issues with this in the past, but it is Africa, so it’s best to lay low around those times just in case.
It is a great privilege to be your missionaries in Uganda, Africa, and we greatly appreciate your continued prayers and support.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-27-2010

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Agandi! (How are you!) We are doing well here in Uganda. Our children’s ministry is doing great. Anna is teaching the verses in Swahili. Do we know Swahili? Not yet, but Djuna (the national pastor) translates, and I sit there as raptly as the kids do, learning Swahili along with my wife. We leave the house at 7AM on Sundays, and drive an hour-and-a-half over the most awful dirt roads you can imagine to the first preaching point, where we have an adult service in which I preach, followed by a children’s service, which Anna handles. Then we drive to Sangano for another service, and then head home. It’s great fun. I am enjoying the simple pleasure of being able to preach expositorily through a book of the Bible (working through Ephesians at the moment), something you cannot do on deputation.

More Mud

A couple weeks ago we had more adventure than normal. The rain here turns the roads into a morass, with predictable results.

As you can see, the one truck got stuck. There’s a team of men on the other side trying to dig it out. The other truck tried to sneak past, and got sucked into the ditch, completely blocking the road. We finally got onto a side path and went around, but we were a bit late for church that morning.

We got a new dog, a female Rottweiller named Samantha. That finishes our complement of guard dogs at three. The six month old puppy, Teal’c, likes her and tries to play with her, but she’s still too small for roughhousing, and I think it wears her out. Our goal is to breed them, and keep ourselves supplied with healthy, big, intelligent dogs suitable for guarding.

 

Samantha

 

Pray for our language study. We are still studying Runyankore, and now that we are going to Nakivale regularly, we will in time need to learn Swahili also. This will greatly expand the number of people we can communicate with to much of East Africa. Even my high school French is turning out to be needed. We are working at it steadily, while also engaging in our ministry, homeschooling kids, and just living life. It keeps us busy, which is always a good thing.

Pray for our car. God supplied the money for tires, which is a blessing, but we also had to get the transmission fixed, and I just found out it is going to need an overhaul – expensive. This is our means of getting to the places where we minister, so we have to keep it running. We can still get around, but it will need to be fixed. I’m praying we’ll be able to get it done in December when we go to the capitol again for Anna’s next checkup. It’s probably not the best car to have, but it was available, and at a price we could afford at the time. My plan is to keep it running this first term, save up to buy a van unless God supplies the money sooner, and then save for another village car (a Toyota next time), while home on furlough. In the meantime though, it has to keep working.

Pray for more support. We came to the field under supported because five years is long enough for anybody to languish in deputation, and had hoped that some churches which had been unable to support us at the time might be able to do so once we reached the field. Sometimes, the attitude is that you “might not be serious”, so churches occasionally wait to see if you’ll actually go to the field before they will take action. I trust we’ve established our commitment to God’s will adequately by now. Anyway, if some more churches could support us now that we’re here, it would be a great help. Pray that God will move some to do just that.
Pray about the pregnancy. We are planning to have the child in Kampala. We have a great doctor, and a new, clean, modern hospital. We found out we’re having a girl: Brennah LaDynne. The kids got to see the ultrasound this time, which was exciting for them. Pray everything will continue to go smoothly, that Mom and baby will stay healthy, and that the birth will happen naturally and without complications.
Pray for the ministries here, for the men I’m discipling, and for souls to be saved.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-14-2010

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Howdy! Thanks for praying for Mom and Dad. They're doing much better, although there is still a lot of healing to do, especially for Mom. Pray she will be able to endure the pain, and make a swift recovery without complications.

I took the opportunity to visit Mordecai's family. I am attempting to build a friendship with them and preach the Gospel to them. We had a great visit. They fed us up with lots of delicious matoke and beans, and we have an open invitation to come back and preach to an even larger gathering. Pray for Mordecai as he continues to grow. He will be getting baptized soon, which is a blessing. I am continuing to disciple him, which is progressing well.

Thanks for praying for our needs. We have the money now for our work permits, and we replaced the tires. I got some much needed repairs done to the car. This is our vehicle for getting to the camp, so it's a necessity to the ministry. It takes a beating every week driving the bumpy road to Nakivale, so we have to maintain it well so we can keep going there.

The whole family went to Kampala earlier this week along with the Bassetts. We visited the Hudson's and the Olachea's. The kids had a great time. We got some Chineses and Mexian food, and ice cream (bonus!), and we got some things that you can't get easily or cheaply in Mbarara. 

Anna's first doctor visit in the capitol went well. We found out we don't have to have all the money for the birth immediately, which buys us some time to save up for it. It's a new, clean, modern hospital with well-trained, professional staff. I'm very pleased with it, and am quite comfortable going there for her to have the baby. By the way, we found out we're having a girl! Elizabeth, at long last, shall have a sister. We're going to name her Brennah LaDynne. Continue praying for Anna and baby as we bring this pregnancy to a successful conclusion in 19 weeks.

I checked on the work permit while in Kampala. I took a bus trip down there over a week ago to begin the process. We have a file number now, which means the paperwork is in the system and being processed. It may create a problem when the kids and Anna's visas expire at the end of the month. I can't start theirs until mine is done, and it can take weeks. Pray it will move through the bureaucratic tangle quickly and without issue. Pray I won't have to pay a bunch of fines. Jeff Bassett is still in Kampala getting his vehicle worked on also, so he is attempting to get student passes for the kids (beginning the process with their papers), and a special pass for Anna. This will cost $100, but he is going to try to see if, since they let us start the process for the kids early, they will do the same for Anna, which will save us $100. Pray it will go well, and that the ladies at immigration will be sympathetic and work with him. Pray I can get this done. It will be great to no longer have the looming threat of deportation hanging over my head.

Pray about the van we'd like to buy. I have mentioned before the Toyota Regius we would like to get for running around town and going to the capitol, leaving the Beast for going to the refugee camps and going out to villages. We are going to need the extra seating capacity for Brennah next year, so keep praying we will be able to get this, or another vehicle like it.

Pray about the new children's ministry we are beginning in Nakivale on Sunday. I am alternating with Jeff Bassett between two of the preaching points, to help get the preaching on Sunday done a bit quicker, and allow us to spend more time with the people. I will be preaching for the adult service, and then Anna and I will be conducting a children's service afterwards. There are many children in the camps, and they weren't being dealt with directly. Now that we are going with the Bassetts, there is enough laborers so that they can do a children's service there while we do one at our preaching point. They were wanting to have a service with the kids also, so it works out well. It's exciting, and I'm looking forward to it greatly. Keep praying for the services. I am taking on more responsibility, which is a good thing, but I'm also conscious of the need to keep after the language study as well.

There is much to do. Pray for us, for the other missionaries here, and for the many ministries ongoing in Mbarara and all over Uganda, as we seek to reach the lost of Uganda with the Gospel.