Happy African-versary!

Happy March everybody! I hope everyone is doing well in the different parts of the world that are presently cold and require everyone to bundle up. I keep waiting for our kids to ask why the kids, in the books we read with them, put on a bunch of clothes before they go outside. In the meantime, the Whisnands are enjoying our sunshine and the beginning of the end of the dry season.

African-versary, Birthdays & loving work!

• First, March 13^th will mark the 1 year anniversary since we arrived in Uganda. Wow. Seems like a surreal statement. In some ways, it seems like we just got here and we are still in the Matatu (think of a 15 passenger van for hire) at 1:30 in the morning driving to our place after just flying in. And in other ways, so much has happened in the last year and we have built great relationships. I have recently learned that an expat friend here will not be coming back to Uganda as originally planned. Their family went back to the US for a bit and while home they have felt God leading them in another direction. I’m excited for them that God is leading them to new things and that they are following His leading but I was bummed my friend wouldn’t be coming back. It’s funny living in a place that people come and go so much and even we have only committed for 2 years, but you still get to know people and build relationships because that’s a lot of what life is about: the people around us. It’s not great when people leave or when you leave but I guess that means the relationships meant something if it’s hard. Anyway, we can’t believe we have been here a year and we are looking forward to year #2.

• Second, both Bethany & Becky’s birthdays are this month! Bethany will be 3 on the 25^th and Becky will be………..ummmm……..25 on the 28^th. Feel free to send birthday wishes and cards if you wish. Happy Birthday!! (Just for the record, I’m not turning 25…- Becky)

• Last, the main project I have been working on since being in Uganda is coming along nicely. As a recap, EMI is building a new office building in partnership with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) that will be both organizations’ new home in Uganda for the foreseeable future. For all those construction people out there, we have just topped out the building and are starting our moving along on our masonry. We are trying some new things for EMI East Africa on this project like concrete grinding & polishing, an aluminum window subcontract and a steel truss subcontract to name a few. Anyway, I seem to get busier and busier everyday but we have a great team working together (Shout-out to Steve, John, Richard, Yusuf, Matt, Cossy, Carey and the guys actually doing the work) and I love my work.  I have attached a few pictures below of how the building looks as of last week.

Financial & Support Update

• The past year our support has been spot on. Looking back, EMI did a great job of preparing us to come and helping us make a realistic budget. We have met our budget every month and have everything we need. So this point is a thank you to everyone who helped us this past year. Thank you so much for believing in our family and supporting what we are doing here in Uganda.

• This next year has gotten a bit more complicated. We have made a decision that is going to increase our costs a bit and some unknown/new costs have arisen as well.

• First, as we have talked about before, this year both Nathaniel & Bethany have been going to pre-school 3 days a week. Their tuition was free as Becky was teaching at the same school. Looking forward, Becky is planning to not teach this next year but we also really want Nathaniel & Bethany to stay at this school. It’s been great for them and they love it. But where would we get the money? God knows. In addition to the kids getting free tuition this year, Becky has also been getting a salary. We have saved all this so far. A few weeks ago we inquired about tuition costs for the kids next year and we received a quote for $3,613.60 USD. We then calculated what we will have from Becky’s salary after this school year ends and it worked out to be $3,600! It was a pretty cool situation of God providing and I’m sure we can find the $13.60 somewhere.

• Second, we have been informed by our EMI sending office, EMI Canada in Calgary, that due to the increased amount of Canadian staff that are working in overseas offices, they have hired an additional support staff member to help with all the administrative tasks that come with a support based organization. What that means for us is that, starting this month, we need to raise an additional $200 per month to help support this new office role: this works out to $2, 400 for the rest of our year here.  We need everyone’s help on this. If this is something you would be willing to help with all or part of, please see the support info below.

• Last, as discussed above, EMI East Africa is currently building a new office that we will be moving into this coming August. The location of this new office is about a 40 minute drive away from where we currently live. My current office is a 12 minute walk from where we live and currently Becky uses the car for her work, the kids’ school, groceries and the thousand other things she does every week. Since we want to keep the kids in their current school, we are planning to stay where we live which means I will need to commute. Our solution to this transportation problem is for me to get a motorcycle. We feel it’s a great option as a motorcycle is a widely used mode of transportation here in Kampala and there are lots of new & used options for sale. It doesn’t hurt that it will be awesome as well! I have attached a picture below of a new local style of road bike I probably will get as they are relatively inexpensive, easy to maintain and it would be easy to sell at a later date. When it comes down to cost I am going to need $1,200 to $1,500 to get a bike and some gear (helmet, etc.). If this is something you would be willing to help with all or part of, please see the support info below. I know there are lots of motorcycle guys out there who want to help support adding a member to the group. J

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 me at jaywhisnand@gmail.com.

Thank you so much everyone. Here goes another year!

The Whisnands (P.S. pictures are below.)

A picture of a "Boda" similar to what Jay might be getting for a motorcycle

Here is the project Jay is working on.

Becky's 7/8th Grade class doing a chemistry experiment this past week.

Nathaniel went to site with Jay yesterday and we got to see the planes.

Becky & Jay on a Valentine's Day date.

Bethany & Nathaniel our on way to church (taken this morning).

January 2015

Happy New Year!

We had a thoroughly busy December with school concerts and wrapping up the year, followed by a completely relaxing and re-energizing break. Both Jay and I had a 2 week break from work and we cannot describe how wonderful it was to be able to spend so much time together as a family without big plans or agendas. The other day, when the kids came and woke me up in the morning (as they do each day), I realized that I wasn't tired: I was fully rested and the feeling was pleasantly surprising. I had forgotten what that felt like, and I was grateful for that moment:)

Spending Christmas and New Years away from our families was challenging for us, but we were blessed to be able to Skype with all of our parents on Christmas morning. As you can imagine, the commercialization that marks the Holiday Season in Canada and the US is not so prevalent here. Some of the big malls here definitely decorate and hold contests, but the rest of the city is unaffected. With no TV commercials and daily fliers telling us all of the things we need to "make the Season bright" we found ourselves reflecting on what we wanted Christmas for the Whisnands to look like. And it was beautiful, although our families' presence would always have been preferable:)

Rather than share all of the details with you, we've decided to show you what it was like through pictures. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our break!

Much love always,

The Whisnands

 

The Moms and Tots Group that meets at our house had a Christmas party! The kids are holding up a Christmas craft they made.

 

I made snowflake Christmas cookies this year: which was about all the baking I did:) Please note that there are only 6 cookies on the cookie sheet. This is not because the cookies are so big, but rather, because the ovens are so small! I refer to mine as "My Easy Bake" oven. Needless to say, I only made 1 batch:)

The finished product. I really enjoy piping the icing onto all of the cookies.

A sad moment for us this break was saying good-bye to our friend Paul, who lived with us on our compound (here with his sister Laia who came to visit with their mom). Paul has returned to the village where his mom and 3 sisters live. Because we may be moving in the next few months as the EMI office relocates farther out of town, if Paul continued to stay with us, he would likely have to switch schools part way through the year. Because schooling here is so privatized, schools don't recognize each other's assessments and so Paul would be held back if he changed schools mid-term. To prevent this, he will be going to school in the village. Please continue to pray for his health, as the last time he lived in the village he became very ill. Also, please pray for his dad, Moses, our guard, who misses his son very much.

This is Nathaniel as a shepherd in our church's Nativity production. It was done with a lot of enthusiasm, but definitely felt a little bit like the novel "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

This is our little sheep at our church's Christmas Nativity.

 Bethany and Nathaniel did an AMAZING job in thier preschool's Nativity production. They knew the songs and the actions and were so sweet as an angel and a stable cow. Nathaniel even added a few impromptu lines of his own that were pretty funny, particularly when the wise men brought their gifts and our little cow told them to "give it to me!"

Jay and I attended a Christmas concert with a small orchestra and a choir at a gorgeous church in town. It was a lovely experience.

We used a friend's sewing machine to make stockings! Here Bethany is with our friend Jenny, proudly displaying the beautiful stockings she made for her family.

At the start of our break we went out west to a town called Fort Portal with another family from EMI. We had a great time relaxing, swimming and jumping on the trampoline. Here, Nathaniel and I enjoyed a nature hike on the  property. He did great for his first hike! We'll see what he's ready to tackle when we're in the mountains of BC:)

At our guest farm in Fort Portal, we woke up early in the morning to milk the cows.

Look Mom! I'm milking a cow!

Over the break, Jay through a celebration party for the site workers of the MAF/EMI office project: a BBQ pork lunch for meeting a deadline. The guys had a great time and enjoyed the nice meal, and it was great to be able to reward them for a job well done.

Probably the best Christmas gift that we received this year was this family. They were previously unknown to us, but they were evacuated out of the DRC a few months ago and wanted to be with friends in Kampala over the break, and so ended up staying the empty-over-the-break guest house on our compound. They brought with them their 2 young sons (4 and 7), who in turn, brought their Legos. Needless to say, Bethany and Nathaniel couldn't wait to spend each day with their new friends! We were so blessed by their short visit!

Jay, proudly with his apple pie/tart he made!

With the Christmas tree at the mall. Note, the national representation.

This is our picture with Santa this year (look for him in the upper right of the picture). You will notice that this is Bethany's most happy picture of this variety.

Celebrating Christmas Eve at our friends' house. It was a beautiful evening with a lovely meal, presents and carols by candle light.

The kids on Christmas morning.

How I wanted us to look on Christmas morning...but this was actually taken a week later...after Jay had all the ornaments off the tree...and then we re-decorated it for these pictures...he is a good man!

Grilling yummy sausages for Christmas lunch!

Christmas Eve we took a road trip to the Equator! It was a pretty drive, and the first time the kids and I had crossed! We had a great time playing with local kids and getting tourists to take this picture of us...and the photo-bombing tourist behind us:)

So there you have it: our break! We hope you have enjoyed the visual tour! Here are a few other fun pictures from our December:)

He's calls it his moustache.

Mmmm...yummy crocodile!

We spent 2 full days playing in the kiddie pool Mom and Dad sent us. The kids (and Jay) got a little burned but had SO MUCH FUN!

They wanted to be Mary and Joseph. Note that Joseph has a light sabre behind his back...he he he!

Merry Early Christmas!!

Merry Christmas family & friends!!

I know it’s a bit early to be saying that but here at the Uganda Whisnand house we are in full Christmas mode already. So far we have: bought a Christmas tree and some decorations, put up an advent calendar that some friends sent us (thank you Amber and Jeff), and pulled out all the Christmas music we can find on our iPods. It’s been really nice actually. There nothing quite like hanging out with friends or playing with your kids to some Kenny G or Charlie Brown Christmas music. Here are some pictures of us getting ready for the season.

Jay setting up the tree

Nate & Beth helping with the decorations

Becky & the kids doing the final touches

We haven’t done an update in 2 months and I can honestly say we’ve been too busy to do one. The highlight of the past month has been my (Jay) unexpected trip back to Canada for 2 weeks at the beginning of November. To update everyone on the story, I came home from work on Wednesday, October 22 and Becky was talking to her mom on skype. I walk in the door and Becky says “My mom has some news for you.” I instantly thought that it might be news of my Canadian citizenship application and it was. Since Becky and I got married, it’s always been a goal of ours to try to get everyone in our family on the same passport. This way no matter where we live we don’t have to worry about having a “home” for us to come back too. No visas. Well, last year I finally met the residency time requirements and I submitted my Canadian citizenship application. From my understanding, the process would probably take 2 years and part of that process would be to take a citizenship test. So I thought it would be probably be sometime in 2015 that I would get a letter about my test. Well I got a letter on October 22 that I had to be in Vancouver on November 5 at 8:19am for my test. To say the least I was a little shocked. To sum up the rest of the story, I bought a plane ticket and flew into Vancouver on Halloween night and was there for about 11 days. I passed my test and am supposed to hear soon about the next step. I also got some much needed dental work done which I was soooo pumped about. It needed to get done.

The other part about me being out of the country for 2 weeks was that Becky was doing everything for our two kids by herself for that time. Becky was glad that the kids had school to go to but she was definitely glad to have me back. There’s no experience quite like being a young dad and you come back from a trip where you have been traveling for 30 hours and your wife tells you that she’s sleeping in tomorrow. Please know I am not complaining here. It’s funny.

I also wanted to share a passage that has encouraged me lately. I’ve been reading through Romans and I always get towards the end of the book (after chapter 11) and I love what it says. So much in there. Anyway here is Romans 12:9-21.

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”

Right now this passage really challenges me to let my light shine. In this passage Paul mentions specific things, actions, intentions, etc. and it reminds me of Matthew 5:14-16. The Romans verse kind of fleshes out the Matthew verse.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”

I hope you are encouraged by these verses.

Besides that, here are some recent past & future highlights:

• We had a Thanksgiving/Christmas party with my work this past Saturday. We had turkey and about 60 people including EMI people with their families. It was a lot of fun.
• Nathaniel & Bethany will be in their first Christmas program at church this coming Sunday. Nathaniel is going to be shepherd and Bethany a sheep. Becky did a great job with their costumes.
• One of the funnier things is that both of the kids have developed a Ugandan accent with certain words. They go to school with Ugandan kids and some of their teachers are Ugandan and those who aren’t are from Switzerland or the Netherlands so it’s natural to happen. It’s pretty hilarious to hear Nathaniel tell us he played in the “sand peet” today (instead of the sandpit).
• Becky’s semester of teaching is almost done. She will have a 2.5 week break for Christmas. She is really really looking forward to it. Please pray for Becky & her job. She wants to do it well and at the same time, be the mom she wants to be.
• My work is going well. The MAF/EMI building project that I am managing is doing well and I love the work I do. I have attached a picture below of where we are with the building.
• Also, not really a highlight but just a big prayer request. Please continue to pray for us as we are here. That we would let our light shine. That we would know Jesus more in the good and the hard days.

Nate doing a great job at the kids weekly swimming lessons.

A recent picture of the project Jay is working on showing a retaining wall to the left & a portion of the bldg to the right.

We love y’all and miss everyone.

The Whisnands