April 2014 Update

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