Hello Everyone,
It’s hard to believe but we have been in Uganda for
almost a month now. In some ways the time has seemed to have sped by and in
other ways it has seemed to have dragged on. Overall, I would say for Becky and
I this first month has had a huge theme of change and challenges. In a lot of
ways it has been a great month of getting to spend a lot of time together as a
family, of meeting some great people who have really bent over backwards to
bless us and make us feel welcome, and being pushed to Jesus in some old and
new ways. But in other ways it has been a month of large challenges, such as
being homesick, feeling isolated and lots and lots of change. A new and big
challenge for me was having to constantly rely on other people for our basic needs
such as meals and transportation.
In the past few days we seemed to have turned a bit of
a corner. A few days ago Becky made a comment that she could tell she was
getting used to being here because things didn’t seem so weird anymore. It
seems we are more and more living our life here and less and less just getting
by. This combined with the fact that we bought a car yesterday (whoop!) and the
gradual appearance of furniture in our house, has made us feel more “normal.” I
say all this and also recognize that it is in the “not-normal” times that we
tend to lean on Jesus more.
Another thing that has helped things feel more normal,
for me anyway, is that I have started phasing into work. It’s been really good.
One of the highlights of starting work has been I have met twice with a
ministry here in Uganda called Cherish Uganda at their property. We are
currently doing 2 projects for them with more in the works. The 2 projects we
are currently doing for Cherish are: 1) 2 additional family homes and 2) a new
medical clinic. I have attached a picture below of what the clinic currently
looks like. For any of those construction people out there or anyone else who
is curious to see more detailed pictures of the project and different methods
they use, feel free to e-mail me.
For the rest of this post, I will be talking about
Cherish Uganda and the work they do. Since EMI is an organization that supports
the Church and other ministries, I think it would be great to periodically pick
out a ministry that we are working with and talk about them on our updates. To
share what God is doing in East Africa.
Cherish Uganda is a ministry whose mission is to serve
children with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Here is an excerpt from their website:
“Cherish Uganda is a faith-based
response to orphaned and vulnerable children living with HIV. Our approach is
based on ‘The HOPE Principles’ of Healthcare, Love, Prosperity and Education.
Home-based care in loving families is provided at Akaloosa Village as a last
resort for children who need to be rescued; Grass-roots interventions and
trust-based partnerships are transforming communities where high prevalence of
HIV and poverty co-exist; while a growing movement of youth with an anthem of
HOPE is changing the story of HIV/AIDS in Uganda.”
They carry out their mission with home based care, a primary school,
medical services and many other programs. The home based care is a model to
care for orphans with an emphasis on giving the children the family dynamic
that can be missing in the traditional orphanage model. They have “mothers”
living on the campus in a home who are given 6 or so children to raise with the
support of other Cherish staff. The primary school and the medical services are
not only for the children who live on the campus but also the surrounding
community as a place to receive quality education and HIV/AIDS medical services
as needed. For more information on Cherish Uganda please check out their
website at cherishuganda.org. They are a ministry who is really succeeding at
caring for the orphans & least of these in Uganda. Also, their director is
a lady from Cranbrook, BC which was cool to find out.
A few prayer requests for us for this month:
·
For Becky & the kids to get a routine going.
·
That our marriage would be strong and we would
communicate well.
·
For the locals that have come into our lives
(Moses (our guard), Paul (our guard’s 6 year old son), Dorthy (our house help),
Jackson (our Monday guard) and many more).
Thanks everyone for their support & prayers. We
love you guys and please feel free to email us. We would love to hear from you.
The Whisnands
