MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-01-2006

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Just a quick note so you can be praying. St. Louis was hit with a major winter storm last night. The ice and snow combined has knocked out power to over 500,000 in Missouri and Illinois. The ice is making repair difficult for Ameren UE. With no power, and temperatures expected to be in the teens tonight, it is understandably cause for concern, especially for the elderly. It may be days before we get it back. We're keeping warm ourselves, and thankfully, we have natural gas, so we can cook, and have hot showers, but we can't run the furnace without power. The church has electricity, tho', so services should proceed normally on Sunday.

Pray that the linemen will restore power soon. Pray that they'll be safe (during the power outage in July, two were electrocuted). Pray for the many people without power, that they'll keep warm.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-27-2006

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Hello, folks! I trust everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We went over to my parent's house, and then swung by Anna's folks' house on the way home. The day after Thanksgiving is the day we traditionally get decorated for Christmas. We put on the Christmas music, put up the tree, set out the Nativity and assorted other Christmasy things, and lastly, put the ornaments on the tree. The kids enjoyed it tremendously, as always. The weather was unseasonably warm this year, so I was able to get the Christmas lights put up without losing fingers to frostbite, so that was good. Of course, it was more poignant knowing that this time next year we'll be in language school in Texas, and the year following in Soroti, Uganda, so this is basically our last Christmas in St. Louis. We try not to think too hard about it, but you can't help feeling a scoche sad as you contemplate these things.

Friday night, we were visited by the Grim Reaper – our old nemesis stomach flu. Anna spent the next 48 hours in the valley of the shadow of death, while I got to be Mr. Mom, cleaning up puke, doing laundry and dishes, and trying to keep the healthy kids entertained. We're okay today, and it appears that neither I, James, nor Elizabeth have had it, which is good, but those who did were wiped right out. Anna had the works – fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, aches, vertigo, and weakness. Poor thing.

We got a new family picture today, in lieu of new prayer cards which we'll be getting to press soon. I'm working on getting our Christmas prayer letter ready to go. Other than that, all that remains is to plug a few gaps in next year's schedule, which is pretty well packed now. Pray that I'll be able to get those slots filled. We're looking forward to doing all the cool holiday things, like baking, Christmas shopping, visiting family, and what not. The kids are all in the Christmas play at our church coming up on December 10. Pray that it will go well, and that the participants will be healthy enough to make all the practices and get prepared for the play. Pray that a lot of the mostly Catholic folks from the area will be willing to come to a Baptist church to see a Christmas production, and that we'll see folks saved, baptized, and added to the church. Pray that God will bless the service, and make it an edifying and profitable time for all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy thanksgiving, everyone! We're thankful we're saved, we're thankful God called us to be missionaries, and we're thankful for your faithful prayers this past year.

Have a great holiday!

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you," Philippians 1:3

The Grand Canyon Adventure

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One of our meetings was in Flagstaff, Arizona. We were staying only a few miles south of that city so we were within an hour or two drive of the Grand Canyon. Both James and I had always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon so we made the trip there as a family. It was a beautiful, sunny day, hardly a cloud in the sky. We left later than we’d planned but made good time so it was late morning, early afternoon when we got there. Suddenly, there it was! Dad told me about visiting it when he was a teenager but honestly, unless you’ve seen it yourself you can’t comprehend the magnitude of it. It is truly one of the most beautiful things in God’s creation that we get to enjoy!

When we got there we all put on our jackets, then James went with the four older kids down the trail to see the canyon. We had a backpack carrier for Gaelin and I remained behind to put him in that. When I got up to the trail three of the kids were waiting for me, one of the twins was just coming up over the edge of the canyon! A man already there was helping them. Apparently James had gone down there (there was a ledge a little way away) to get some pictures and they followed him in order to “climb on rocks” – ever their life’s goal since discovering they could! I started crying and sort of panicked on the inside. We observed everything around that area and then got in the car and drove on to the next place. But truthfully, I was having a hard time enjoying it because they were making me so nervous! We finally got to the Grand Canyon Village and we found a gift store so we could buy some postcards to send back to family and stuff. Jamie had to use the bathroom but the gift store didn’t have one. So after we’d picked what we wanted I took the kids outside to wait for James to pay. The store was right along the canyon but there was a rock fence. Not far away was a log that had been cut out like a bench. I pointed it out to the kids and they all ran over and climbed on. By the time I got there they had jumped off and were running to look at something else. All of them except Elizabeth. She got on slower, sat down, put her hands in her pockets because they were cold, saw that the boys were gone, hopped off, and somehow missed, landing partly on the dirt and partly on the raised asphalt walkway which threw her off balance and made her do a face plant right into the walk – just as I got there. Blood was running everywhere, the three boys were running from place to place and I was trying to call them back, comfort Elizabeth, wipe the blood off her face with the only tissue I had with me. Several people walked up and offered to help. One lady offered me a bottle of water to give her a drink. For some reason it annoyed me! (stupid pride!) I smiled as nicely as I could manage and said “Regardless of what it looks like I really do have it under control. Thank you for offering, though.” Dad told me later that he thinks that probably those people walked away thinking “If this is under control, I’d hate to see what out of control is!”

We made our way back to the car but I discovered that I’d locked my keys in the car because James had his and I didn’t want to have to keep up with the kids and my purse. So I shepherded all the kiddos to the store, Elizabeth with blood still all over her face and a swollen lip and Jamie now crying because he had to go so badly. James was done paying so we went back to the car, loaded the kids and began looking for a bathroom. James gave them a lecture about listening to their mother and I tried to get myself back in a better mood – less stressed. We were supposed to be having fun, right!? We finally gave up looking for a bathroom and just started feeding the kids some lunch. The only thing we could find was a port-a-potty. We did eventually find a bathroom, took all the kids and I was able to relax – for a while.

The thing is, the whole canyon thing was making me VERY nervous and the older two boys weren’t using much caution. I could just see one of them laying on the canyon floor broken and bleeding and me at the top unable to do anything for them.

We took a free shuttle ride along the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. We decided not to get off at each stop but to just get out at the ones that seemed like a big deal. The second stop was a long walk out to the observation point. I wasn’t going to take all the kids out there. We were just going to stay at the start of it and let James get the pictures. But everyone protested so I agreed to go out there with them. I was holding Ethan and Elizabeth’s hands and James and John were to hold hands with Ethan and Elizabeth. They were to stay in the middle of the path – which went part way out this peninsula sort of thing with the trail in the middle and about three feet of gravelly rock on either side with a pretty steep drop off and no rail. James and John didn’t obey again and ran off downhill and off the path toward the observation point without me. Visions of them skidding on the gravel and going over the edge overcame me and I lost it. Yes, I know, so spiritual and all. The missionary’s wife who should be trusting God. James came upon us then and calmly took the boys off to the side to explain the horrors of falling over the edge of a cliff. They were far more cautious and subdued after that. Then he talked with me about how this was supposed to be a fun day for all of us but couldn’t be if I didn’t relax and decide to enjoy myself. I took myself off to the side and got myself back under the Holy Spirit’s control. God reminded me that I know lots of people who’ve visited the Grand Canyon but didn’t know a single person who’d gone over the edge. Millions visit every year and don’t have trouble. God reminded me that I was to be meek and quiet – undisturbed and undisturbing and I was being both! So I relaxed and gave the kids to God again and decided to enjoy myself.

The rest of the day was wonderful. We got to the end of the shuttle line just in time for a beautiful sunset and were able to get some gorgeous pictures. It just doesn’t do it justice in the pictures however, so I strongly recommend seeing it for yourself! I’m so glad we got to see it. It was worth all the trip there and home just to see the vastness and beauty of God’s creation. And He put it here for no other reason than our enjoyment and His pleasure. Isn’t God good?!

Someday I want to go back either without the kids or when they are old enough to do this and hike the trail to the bottom. It’s supposed to take three days so that should be interesting but I’ve heard it is quite breathtaking. But that is for another time….. Now I’m just very thankful we’re all home in one piece!

A Light in a Dark World

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We were in a missions conference in Tucson, Arizona a couple weeks ago. The conference went very well. Friday night Elizabeth had an accident that required clean clothes. Normally I keep an extra set for her in the car but the dress that had been in there was too small so I left it out. We only had underwear in the car. So I had to take her to the prophets chamber where we were staying and bathe and change her and get clean clothes. It was about a 20 min. drive there. On the way back we passed a road that I recognized as coming out on the other route we took to church. So I exited the interstate, thinking going that way would cut off a little time spent sitting at traffic lights. It was “San Xavier Mission Road”. I’ve seen Spanish missions before and knew what to expect when I passed it. Sure enough, there was an old adobe building that they are working to renovate along with several other buildings and schools. We rounded the corner and came up over a hill an there, in the dark, was a Catholic graveyard spread before me. Tiny lights flickered from candles lit by living people for their dead relatives, in hopes that those people would get into heaven. It made me cry, not for the people who died in their darkness, though that was part of it, but for the living people continuing to live in that darkness, ever hoping that some deed will win them enough favor with God that they can get into heaven. As Christians we must carry Christ’s true light into this dark and dying world. Everywhere we go on deputation we see another place that is just as great a mission field as Uganda. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest”