Hello Family and Friends!
We hope that you all have been enjoying your summers so far and the many
barbeques, camping trips and summer vacations that come with them! As a
Canerican family (half Canadian and half American) we have the privilege of
celebrating both Canada Day on July 1st, and then American
Independence Day on July 4th, which made for a barbeque-rich week!
We had a great time hosting our Canada Day party, eating yummy foods like hot
dogs and potato salad, and I even figured out how to make Nanaimo Bars here (by
substituting ingredients) for our yummy dessert! The highlight of the night,
though, was sending off our red lantern into the night sky.
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| Celebrating the 4th! |
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| Sending off our lantern into the July 1st night sky. |
There is so much to share with you from this past month that it will hard
to make it all cohesive, so please bear with me!
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here 4 months now, and yet our daily
level of familiarity is testament to our time here. In the little ways, I can
see how I am changing: the milk no longer tastes bad (I can actually drink a
glass of it!!!), I don’t think the kids smell funny when they come out of the
bath tub (because the water no longer smells funny), and I don’t get confused
when my house help points to things using only her lips (an amazing thing that
I will never be able to demonstrate!).
I do need to share with you part of the CRAZIEST week that we had here so
far: a week where everything seemed to be happening all at once. We were once
given the advice, “Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of
shape.” This week was a week that tested our ability to bend…
- Sunday, June 8th: As Becky is taping a wedding toast to be mailed for her dear friend’s wedding, our guard Moses informs us that we have small red worms living in our water tank…they are coming out through our pipes…we have been showering and bathing in them and washing our dishes with them…GA-ROSS! And we had company coming for lunch that day....
- Wednesday, June 11th: Nathaniel slams his finger in our iron screen
door/security door resulting in a terribly bruised finger (which reminded me of
my Dad drilling through his own bruised nails to relieve the pressure), a very
upset little boy and a dark night drive through the city (which has little to
no street lamps) to our medical centre. Nathaniel was brave through his x-rays
(which was helped by a little cookie motivation) which confirmed that he had
indeed chipped the tip of his left middle finger which is why it looked so
gruesome. He has nursed his finger this past month, and although we were sure
his nail would fall off, it has stayed on in all its bruised majesty.
Nathaniel's broken finger the day after.
- Thursday, June 12th: Jay takes the
morning off work to go and get our Ugandan Driver’s Permit applications done
with me. En route, we find ourselves accidental parties in a 2 boda
(motorcycles used as taxis) car wreck. The bodas were travelling towards us and
as one was passing the other, they clipped each other causing both of them
crash and slide under our car which was moving towards them on one of the
busiest streets in town. The large crowd that quickly formed pulled the men and
their bikes off of the road, and Jay was about to get out of our car when I
reminded that we had warned numerous times NOT to get out of your car if you
are in an accident because mob justice is a real event here, but to
proceed to the nearest police station to report the accident. We pulled ahead,
and thank the Lord, there was a traffic cop not too far from the accident who
pulled us over and took care of us. It was actually a really beautiful thing:
we went back to the scene of the accident with our police officer and Jay got
out to talk to the other officers and the boda drivers. We were a little
nervous for many reasons, not the least of which is that police officers here
often expect bribe money from foreigners which we weren’t prepared (or willing)
to pay. So as Jay is standing there, he sees the officers and the boda drivers,
one of whom is holding his headlight under his arm, and they are determining which
of the boda drivers is at fault. Then the officer turns to Jay and asks if we
will forgive the boda driver for the damage he caused to our bumper (which was
pretty minor) because he does not have the money to pay for it. Jay was able to
share that we would forgive the boda driver because we, too, had a debt that we
couldn’t pay but we have been forgiven by Jesus.
Jay negotiating our release...:) - In true Ugandan form, we then went on to the driver’s permit office only to be told that we did not have the right papers (which we had been told to get…) and that we would need to come back another day! What a mess! The following week we went back and got it completed….
- Saturday, June 14th: The Lord blessed us: we had the privilege of visiting friends of ours in the neighboring city of Entebbe where we got to sit in their lovely garden with wild orchids trailing overhead, enjoying good food and pleasant company followed by a great swim in a pool close by. Despite all of the challenges we faced in this particular week, we were able to see God’s provision and grace to us in the midst of it all.
On another topic, this past month I (Becky) had the amazing opportunity
to visit 3 of the sites that EMI is involved with on a day trip with our
interns. It was an amazing and incredibly encouraging experience! I feel like I
have been sacrificing so many things living here, and so it was good to be in
the field and seeing WHY God has called us to this life. We got to visit the
MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) airstrip in Kajjansi where EMI will be building
their new office and the African Children’s Choir campus. It was really neat to
see the buildings that were thoughtfully designed and constructed for the Children’s
school and housing! We even got to go into their practice room and see what
they are rehearsing! I got to see a few of the kids, just being themselves and
hanging out, and it was amazing to think how different their current lives are
from their previous lives.
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| Visiting the rehearsal room on campus for the African Children's Choir. |
My favourite part of our day was when we visited a ministry called
Cherish Uganda, which Jay has talked about in previous posts. While I was there
I didn’t get to meet any of the orphans because we were visiting their homes,
and we didn’t want to interrupt their day, but I did get to meet some of the
mommas: the women who have dedicated their lives to loving on and caring for
children who are not their own. It was an incredibly powerful experience that I
cannot begin to describe, but to meet these women was an incredible honour.
Currently, EMI is working on the
construction of more family housing units so that more orphans can be cared for
as well as a community medical clinic that will serve Cherish as well as the
many villages that surround it. EMI is also slated to begin work on their CLC
(Community Learning Centre) sometime in the next year.
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| Jay working on the Cherish site. |
Emotionally, we are doing pretty
well here. I recently was Skyped into my dear dear friend Ashley’s wedding
which was a huge honour, but also a sharp reminder of the MANY precious events
and relationships that we are NOT “home” to experience. I must confess to
having a particularly trying day where I took my calendar and began a
countdown: marking off the number of months that we have left before we go home.
Definitely NOT a healthy approach or a healthy attitude to have: to view my
life with such a closed hand and not be open to what God would have us do. That
day, God gave me the following verse:
I
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.
Galatians
2:20 (NIV)
It was a hard verse to read, but it was a potent reminder
that God didn’t call us to Uganda and the ministry He is doing here so that I
could have the life that I wanted: He called us here so that the work that HE
needs done for HIS Kingdom will be done. It is the work of Christ in me and my
willingness that causes me to follow Him in FAITH, knowing that although I
don’t have many of the things that I want, I can TRUST what God IS
doing because He is GOOD, even in my heartache. And so beautifully, God is
there in my heartache too, comforting me and providing special touches of His
love for me.
So there you are! We are doing well
here: I am in the middle of sewing curtains for our house and trying to get that
HUGE project done before my textbooks arrive later this month and all of my
“extra” time goes into lesson planning!
We love and miss you all very much and we so grateful for
all of your prayers and support!
Quite sincerely,
Becky, Jay, Nathaniel and Bethany
Prayer Requests:
- Jay’s tooth seems to be infected again: we need a healing miracle or else more surgery is likely necessary and we do not want to have to lose the implant that was installed in February.
- Beginning next March, new administration fees are coming from EMI Canada to support us here in the field (this is a very common fee that most ministries have but that Canada is having to adopt because it is sending out more and more people…which is a good thing). This means we will need to raise more support for our second year here.
- Please pray for Becky as she will begin planning for the upcoming school year: this is a new school with a completely new program and there is MUCH work to be done.
- Please pray for Nathaniel and Bethany as we prepare to send them both to preschool in the Fall. Pray that they would adapt quickly and that they would make good friends, in addition to having fun and learning, of course:) Pray for Becky, as she has never been away from the kids for so much time before and may shed a few tears.
- Please pray for the people in our lives. That we would love them and point them to Jesus.
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Our guard Moses and his son Paul.
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A street vendor that Jay has become friends with
named Dan.
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Jay is mentoring an EMI intern this term.
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Becky has a mom’s group that meets at our house
every week. Jesus has already opened doors to new people coming.
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Many more…please ask if interested in specifics.
