MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-24-2010

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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.

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MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-17-2009

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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.

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MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-02-2009

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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!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-20-2009

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Greetings! Here's some exciting news: we just found out from missionary Dan Dwire (Soroti, Uganda) that we may not have to spend as much on plane tickets as we thought. The catch is, we have to go to Chicago (that's where the closest British Air gate is located). However, we can get enough bus tickets from Coach USA to cover all of us and our luggage (we're allowed 21 bags). It's actually cheaper than if we were to drive, and everybody will have lots of room and can be comfortable. We can pretty much buy the tickets anytime, so we'll be doing that soon. Pray that all of the money will materialize to accomplish that.

I'm still waiting on a quote on shipping, so I have no further details as yet, but we still need significant funds to accomplish that task. Things are coming together, and that is always encouraging.

We leave on Thursday to head down to Chattanooga to do our Departure Interview with BIMI. That makes sure that all our paperwork and what not is squared away in order to smooth our transition to the field. Pray that we'll be able to get it all done on Friday. On Sunday, we begin a missions conference in Fairview Baptist Church in Athens, TN (Pastor Jack Scallions). Pray that all will go well with this trip.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-09-2009

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Greetings! Our missions conference in our home church last week was a great success. We had some great preaching from Bro. Robert Meyer (SE Asia Director), and got to re-iterate our call to Uganda before our church. Most important, a momentous decision has been reached: we're going to Uganda the first of the year, 2010! We have enough support coming in now that our Pastor and director are willing to allow us to go to Uganda. We have many preparations to make in order to get gone, and the details are a bit sketchy because it's only been a few days since the decision was made, but I will keep you all in the loop as we move forward. At the moment, it looks like we're going to begin our ministry in Mbarara, which is about 45 minutes north of the Rwandan border in the far Southwestern corner of Uganda. We have heard from Bryan Stensaas, the senior missionary there, and we are needed sooner, not later on the field, just as quick as we can get there. As he puts it, the "sky's the limit" in opportunities to minister the Gospel. They have a radio ministry, several village churches, orphanges, refugee camps they visit, and a Bible translation work already in progress. Mbarara is located at a geographic crossroads, and will put is in reach of not only the good people of Uganda, but also Rwanda and the DR of the Congo (Zaire). We are excited about the prospect of working under this great man of God, and gaining the experience necessary to make us the kind of missionaries we need to be in order to serve the LORD well in Uganda.

Here are some specific prayer requests:

We are in need of some further funds to get ourselves to Africa. These figures are subject to change, but my initial estimate of the expenses we are going to incur are as follows:

Cost for a 20' shipping container: $2000
Cost to ship that container to Mbarara: $8500
Cost of plane tickets (for which we have already received some funds): $900 apiece for a one way flight to Entebbe
Outfit costs (we have to replace all of our American appliances, and buy some specilized equipment, like a water purifier, and a whole house battery backup system for example): $10000
Cost for a vehicle on the field: $12,000

It's a lot to raise, so God is going to have to do it. As such, I'm hoping to mobilize as much prayer as possible towards attaining that goal. Pray hard folks! Pray also that I'll be able to get all the logistics of getting a famly of seven moved from America to Uganda worked out in the next three months. There's a mountain of tasks to get done by then and I want to be sure I get it all worked out in a timely and accurate manner.

Pray also for our meeting on Sunday in Victory Baptist Church in Columbia, MO. I have to go there by myself so Anna can be here for a wedding shower at church that she and some of the other ladies have been planning for some time. The week afterwards, we have a meeting down in Athens, TN, and will be taking the opportunity of proximity to Chattanooga to go ahead and get our Departure Checklist with BIMI worked out. These are exciting times!

Thanks again for all your prayers!