As everyone
in North America is celebrating Labor Day, we have entered the second rainy
season of the year here in Uganda. It’s been somewhat cool here the past week
or so, to the point that on Sunday when we got home from church Becky & I
put on hoodies. That is not the norm,
for sure, but it’s given a bit of perspective to live in a place south of the
equator (even if it’s only by a few kilometers) and have the cooler season in
August/September.
Well we have
been here for almost 6 months now and we are doing well. The past few weeks and
the coming weeks have been and are going to be really busy but it is going well
so far. Last week Becky and the kids started school. To recap, Becky is the secondary
science teacher at a small Christian international school here in Kampala. She
is only a few weeks in but loves the school and I think it’s been great for her
to get out of the house, if only for 3 mornings a week. As a part of that, both
Nathaniel & Bethany are in the school’s preschool. Nathaniel for 3
full-days a week and Bethany for 3 mornings a week. It’s been great for
Nathaniel to be around a bunch of other kids his age and get some of that
energy out.
 |
| 1st Day in their new uniforms! |
Also, just a
note, Nathaniel & my birthdays are this month. Whoop!
At EMI, I am
now super busy for a few reasons. First, the project I will be managing for the
next year started at the beginning of August. It’s a new 2-story, 10,000sf
office building we have designed and are building. The building is located next
to an airstrip in the suburbs of Kampala that is operated by MAF (Mission
Aviation Fellowship). This new office building is going to be occupied by MAF
& EMI. EMI has made an arrangement with MAF that we are going to be in this
building together, on different floors, for the foreseeable future. It’s a very
cool partnership that I am excited to have such an up close part in. In the
coming months, I will go into more detail about this project and my
involvement. This project should last at least a year so I will have plenty of opportunity.
The main
topic I wanted to touch on for this update is about a trip I have coming up
starting Friday. As you may or may not have noticed, this month’s update is out
a bit earlier than what we have been doing and there is a reason for that. On
Friday I will be travelling with an EMI team from here and the US to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC. Eight of us will be travelling by car
8 or so hours to this neighboring country for 9 days. We are going to be
working with an organization called the ‘Christian Bilingual University of
Congo’ or in DRC’s native French ‘Université
Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo.’ I am going with a team of architects and
engineers to do an assessment on an existing building and to start designing a
primary school on the campus. You can find out more about UCBC and the
organization that started this university at congoinitiative.org.
They are an inspiring organization that has a huge vision to literally transform
their country. Here is an excerpt from their website:
“Since its initial conception in 2002, the
goal of Congo Initiative has been to provide hope and healing for the
Democratic Republic of Congo through higher education, Christian leadership
development and community transformation. Its core project is the Université
Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC) / Chrisitan Bilingual University of Congo, located in the town of Beni, in North Kivu
province. Launched in 2007, UCBC is an
institution of higher learning that intentionally integrates academics, work
and service-learning, rooted in Christian ethics.”
I have
attached a picture of where DRC is located in Africa and also I have given a
few interesting facts about that country that you probably didn’t know. I know
I didn’t.
- DRC is the 2nd largest country in Africa by land area.
- DRC is the most populous Francophone country in the world.
- DRC is a country with a huge amount of natural resources. Over 50% of DRC’s exports go to China.
- There are 2 different countries in Africa with the Congo in the name. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (referred to as DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (referred to as Congo).
- DRC used to be a Belgian colony.
- DRC used to be called Zaire.
- DRC has a sad and hard past of civil wars, unstable political environment and a culture of corruption.
- Please check out DRC on Wikipedia if you are interested to check out more.
Here are a
few prayer requests for our trip:
- Pray for the trip, that we would accomplish & complete everything the Lord has for us. That our team would work well together and communicate well. That we would slow to speak and quick to help where we can.
- Pray for relationships to be made and for communication (i.e. French, etc.) with the organization to be easy.
- Pray for the health & safety of our team, spiritually & physically.
- Pray for Becky & the kids. Becky will need all the energy & patience she can get. For their safety as well.
 |
| Nate & Beth enjoying some marshmallows beside our backyard campfire. |
Thank you
all so much. We love y’all.
The
Whisnands
