Our Ugandan Adventure: 2015

Thursday 29 October 2015

October 2015 Update #2 - Looking ahead

Hello Again,
A few days ago Becky & I posted an update that gave a summary on specific ministries and organizations that we have been working with while we have been in Uganda. I hope you enjoyed learning more of the specifics of our ministry here. We wanted to follow-up that up by looking ahead to the coming months. As we announced in September, we have decided to return back to Canada at the end of our current contract. We have loved our time with EMI and in Uganda and are sad to leave, but are excited to move back as well. We have booked our flights and are scheduled to leave Uganda on February 16, 2016. We will be doing some traveling in Canada & the US once we return to reconnect with family, friends and supporters. We are hopeful that this time will allow us to process through any potential culture shock and over life the past 2 years. Here is a quick summary of our tentative travel plans:

February 16, 2016 – Fly from Uganda to Montreal where we will be spending a week with Becky’s sister and family.

February 23, 2016 – Fly from Montreal to Vancouver where we will be spending 2 weeks staying with Becky’s parents while we try to find a place to stay and re-settle a bit.

March 8, 2016 – Fly from Vancouver to San Antonio, Texas where we will be spending 4 weeks staying with my parents, travelling around Texas to see family, friends and supporters.

April 5, 2015 – Fly from San Antonio to Vancouver.

***Invitation: We are looking forward to spending time with all of you during this time of travel, and so please do e-mail us so we can spend time with as many of you as possible! ***

As you can see it is going to be a busy few months. As a part of this time of processing, reconnecting with people, rest and re-settling, we will be having a lot of expenses. After looking at what we will need to re-settle and what we will be able to sell here, it looks like we are going to need an extra $12,000. Most of this need is due to a large pledge we have not received. Here is a breakdown of some of the items needed:

A vehicle for our family

Some of the cost for plane tickets from Uganda to Canada & Canada to Texas

Winter clothes for the kids

Deposit for a place to rent

Moving costs for our furniture

Miscellaneous re-settlement costs

If anyone can help out with an end of year / Christmas gift that would be great. Thank you all for taking the time to read this. We look forward to seeing some of you in the coming months.

Jay, Becky, Nathaniel & Bethany Whisnand

(jaywhisnand@gmail.com / becky.whisnand@gmail.com)

Support Info

If you want to contribute to our support account, please go to http://emiworld.org/donate.php. There are options for donating from the US or Canada. You can donate by CC or check. Any questions, please email.

Some Pictures

Becky's parent during their visit

Nate wearing a hard hat at Daddy's work

Nathaniel's 5th Birthday party

Picture with Jay's Mom on Safari

Family picture on Safari

Monday 26 October 2015

October 2015 Update #1 - Year in Review

Happy Halloween Friends & Family!

Becky told me a few days ago that she saw a post on Facebook that announced there are 8 weeks until Christmas. What! Crazy. Now all of the sudden I am inspired to pull out our Pentatonix Christmas album or some Charlie Brown. I know in reality that Christmas is still 2 months away but lately it seems that the end of 2015 is racing towards us. Recently Becky’s parents and my mom have both come and gone to visit us here in Uganda. They were great trips filled with lots of laughs and memories made but they went by way too fast. The main project I have been involved with since moving to Uganda has, to use a construction term, been substantially completed and I now have the privilege of working with some other great partners and ministries. But again it went by way too fast. As we hurdle towards the new year, the end of our time here in Uganda seems to speeding up as well. We still have about 3 ½ months left here, which is a long time, but we are starting to have logistical items that are needing attention in preparation and that naturally leads us to looking ahead. So we currently find ourselves desiring to still be ‘all here’ in Uganda and make the most of what God has but in at the same time being pulled back home.

As a part of our looking ahead to the end of our time in Uganda, I wanted to write an update that gave a brief summary on some of what we have been doing here in Uganda and what your prayers and money have been supporting.

Engineering Ministries International (eMi) www.emiusa.org – EMI is the organization that I have been working for while in Uganda. They are a group of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors, Construction Managers & support staff that really want to serve God with all their hearts using their technical & professional skills. They are a group of people who really love what they do and love the people they are serving.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) www.maf.org – MAF is an organization who desires to get the gospel to the isolated places of the world. They use aviation to take people and supplies to countries like South Sudan. I have had the privilege to work closely alongside some MAF employees and they, like EMI, desire to use their technical skills to serve God and the ministries they support. The main project I have been working here has been a new shared office space for MAF & EMI.

MAF/EMI new office building on MAF's existing airfield

Cherish Uganda www.cherishuganda.org – Cherish Uganda is an organization that exists to help children living with HIV in Uganda. They have 56 children currently living on their campus that have HIV. They support these kids and the surrounding community with a primary school and hospital. EMI designed & built a clinic that is the first piece of their hospital they desire to have. I am currently involved on several small projects for Cherish like a generator house and 2 latrine buildings for 2 of their existing homes.

Clinic at Cherish Uganda that EMI designed & built

Universite Chretienne Bilingue Du Congo (UCBC) www.ucbc.org – UCBC is Christian university in Beni, DRC that is a community development initiative to educate and train Christian leaders of tomorrow in the DRC. EMI has been involved with UCBC for a few years in the repurposing of some of their current buildings and the master planning of their future plans. I got to visit UCBC in 2014 and am continuing to work with them periodically on their existing community centre.

UCBC Community Centre that EMI is helping to retrofit

African Children’s Choir (ACC) www.africanchildrenschoir.com – ACC is an organization that supports children all over Africa by giving them support and an education that they could not otherwise afford. ACC supports these kids by doing choir tours in the western world to raise funds for their education. EMI has been a long partner of ACC in Uganda and has designed & built their primary school campus. I will be a part of starting construction for their new Choir Training Centre before we leave in February.

ACC existing campus

Acacia International School www.acacia.co.ug – Acacia is a Christian international school in Kampala. Becky has had the privilege of getting to teach science at their secondary school for the 2 years we have been here. They are a school that really wants to make a difference in the children they educate, particularly providing world class education for missionary families.

Becky's science class doing an experiment

There have been many other people & ministries that we have been involved with while living here but the above are some of the ones we wanted to highlight. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support that have enabled us to live here and be a part of the body of Christ here in Uganda. It’s been awesome. We appreciate you all very much. We will be doing a follow-up update in a few days, so be looking for it!

Please feel free to email us anytime with what’s going on in your lives. We would love to hear. (jaywhisnand@gmail.com / becky.whisnand@gmail.com)

Jay, Becky, Nathaniel & Bethany Whisnand

Support Info

Trip with my Mom to Queen Elizabeth National Park

My Mom took me rafting down the Nile River for my birthday. It was AWESOME!!

Monday 7 September 2015

September 2015 Update

School has started back and so the kids and Becky are going at it full-tilt. Nathaniel is in Preschool 4, and Bethany is in Preschool 3 and they are both loving it once again. They study reading and writing as well as Swahili, dance and music. One of the entertaining things about the kids attending international school here is that they learn childhood songs and games in slightly different versions. Quite hilarious at times.

Things are picking up again for Becky as she is teaching part-time at Acacia International Senior School. She is teaching a course called IGCSE Biology and is also mentoring a Ugandan teacher. The science department at school has swelled from 1 teacher to 4, and so she is also providing leadership to the team.

Becky’s other ministry here the Moms’ Group that she hosts weekly at our house. Imagine living in a foreign country, surrounded by barbed-wire topped compound walls, with no parks, libraries, or even sidewalks to provide an outlet for trapped moms and young kids. The group provides community for moms who bring their kids each week for fun, fellowship and bowls and bowls of popcorn! We also have the privilege of hosting missionary moms and their kids who come into Kampala for respite from serving in other parts of Africa like South Sudan.

Jay has been involved with several projects during our time here, and his most recent, and largest project is just coming to an end. The new Missions Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and Engineering Ministries International (EMI) office building is now occupied! Although there are still lots of things that need to be done, the building is now both functional and beautiful!

Jay has also had more recent opportunities to get to know some of the construction crew over the past month. The site project manager went back to the US at the beginning of August for home assignment, so Jay has been doing both his current job (office project manager) and the site manager role this past month. It's been a crazy busy month but Jay has loved the experience and gotten to know some of site guys better. On August 18th Jay got to lead the monthly chapel with the site guys (over 50 guys!) and it was a great time.

With the new office up and running, nearly all of our teammates here have moved out of our neighbourhood to be closer to the new office, which is nearly 45 minutes away by car. This has been a sad transition for all of us, as we are now significantly farther from friends we saw several times a week.

Around our house, we have been counting down the days until Becky’s parents arrive for a 2 week vacation with us. They get here in a few hours! Becky will be taking 3 days off of work, and Jay will be taking some time as well: this break is LONG overdue, as our last vacation was last Christmas, and it has been nearly 18 months since Becky and the kids saw family.

As for the future, after much prayer and consideration, we feel at peace to return back to Canada at the end of our 2 year contract with EMI. We are sad to leave our friends, our schools, our work, and our ministries, but we are hopeful for what God has planned next for us.

Prayer requests:

· Endurance for Jay as he finishes up the MAF/EMI building

· Rest for us all during Becky’s parents’ visit

· Wisdom for Becky as she teaches and mentors

· Clear guidance as we make decisions and prepare to head back to North America

· Wisdom for Nathaniel and Bethany’s teachers as they support them in their learning

Jay, Becky, Nate & Beth

If you would like to contribute to our support account, please go to http://emiworld.org/donate.php. There are options for donating from the US or Canada. You can donate by CC or check. If you have any questions, please send us an e-mail.

Nate on his first day of school

Beth on the first day

CHEESE!!

Some of Becky's Grade 9 Biology students

Jay & the kids wrestling in our back yard

The kids with our former neighbor Rose. We miss you ROSE!!

Beth with Rose's dog Jumper

Jay taking the kids for a ride in our back yard

Beth loves to hold babies

Popcorn at Mom's group!

Mom's group

Date night at our local "Pork Joint"

Mommy got everyone a special treat for dessert!

Jay with some awesome guys from site!

Some pictures of the new office

Jay leading the monthly site chapel a few weeks ago. We also had some sodas that day!

Willy, one of the site guys, translating the verses into Luganda.

Saturday morning errand

Friday 3 July 2015

June and July---ish

July 2, 2015

Hello Family and Friends,

Well, the moment has finally come: school’s out!!!

The kids and I (Becky) had our last day of classes a few weeks ago and now we’re off! I still have some things to finish up at school like packing up all of the posters and doing a full inventory of the science lab and packing everything up for the summer.

This has been an incredibly strenuous year for Jay and I: my work and service with Acacia International School, while a fabulous ministry, ended up taking up much more of my time than I had anticipated and putting much more strain on our family. By Christmas time, things were really rough, although I don’t think the kids noticed, and so for January, I was busy pulling back in all sorts of areas of areas of our lives so that we could establish some sort of “normal.” HA! My goal these last few months has been finishing well, and I am so pleased to say that we have made it through by God’s grace and strength. The funny thing, of course, is that despite the difficulties of the year, I really loved doing it: getting to teach Science at an international school is one of my dream jobs, and the students and staff have been incredible!

On that note, I’ve just signed on to teach at Acacia School again in the Fall: I’ll only be teaching one class, which will hopefully be a great balance for our family. I’m excited to be able to maintain some of the relationships with students and my coworkers. Another new role I’ll be taking on will be mentoring a Ugandan teacher who will be teaching many of the other courses. When we head back to Canada in the Spring, this teacher will be taking over my class for me.

God’s timing is so good: just as my work at Acacia School is winding up, Jay’s work at the airfield is intensifying. The office project he is managing is set for occupancy in August, and between here and there, the site supervisor is going to America on a much needed furlough so Jay will be wearing two hats and spending much longer hours on the project. By the time my parents come to visit in September, we will be very ready for a break and some sight-seeing!

This past weekend, Jay and I were able to celebrate the wedding of one of EMI’s local employees. Our friend was the first person in his family to get married. The most interesting cultural difference was the respect that was shown to us guests from EMI: we were seated in places of honour along with the groom’s family. It was interesting to see how big a role that EMI has had in his life. That part was really encouraging: we know we do an awesome job at building and designing great buildings here in East Africa, but to be reminded again of the huge impact that we personally have in the lives of men and women here was incredibly encouraging.

Prayer points:

1) We are now 16 months into our 2 year term with EMI and looking forward to being back with family and friends in the Spring. That being said, the number one question we are getting asked now is if we are planning on returning to North America permanently or if we are planning on coming back to Uganda. Please do be praying with us as we seek God’s leading and direction. To speak frankly, we are really happy here and the kids seem to be thriving, despite their desire to be with family, but we’d also like to go home and be with family once again. That being said, we want to be sure that we are attentive to and obedient to where God is leading us. Again, please do pray with us.

2) Please pray for Jay and I in our work. Pray for Jay as he finishes up the MAF/EMI office building: that he would have wisdom and endurance in project’s final 2 months. For me, pray that I will find a good balance between my new position at Acacia School and my family.

3) Please pray for our financial support. Over the last few months our support has started to dip down due to a large pledge that has not come in. We are currently processing through our options and really need God’s guidance. Am reminded of “Seek first His kingdom and all these things will be added unto you.”

4) Please pray for Jay as he travels to The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) mid-July to follow up and consult on a project he visited last fall with an organization called UCBC. Please pray for safety as he travels and for wisdom as he meets with the contractor there to get the work started.

Thank you to all our family, friends & supporters again. We appreciate you all very much.

Please feel free to email us anytime with what’s going on in your lives. We would love to hear. (jaywhisnand@gmail.com / becky.whisnand@gmail.com)

Jay, Becky, Nathaniel & Bethany Whisnand

If you would like to contribute to our support account, please go to http://emiworld.org/donate.php. There are options for donating from the US or Canada. You can donate by CC or check. If you have any questions, please send us an e-mail.

Some current pictures of us: