September 2014 Update

Happy September everybody!!

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 2^nd 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