"to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faithin me." Acts 26:18

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Breakfast Club

I took some pictures at Breakfast Club yesterday.  

The kids come and line up outside our gate.  Our night guard always helps to keep them orderly and quiet.

Eric and Timothy listen to their memory work and give them a stamp on their hand when they pass.


At 6:30, they file in, wash their hands and get food from our kids...a mandazi (a donut like thing), a boiled egg and a banana.


Then they go get a cup of tea from a mama in our church who comes very early to make the tea.



Then Eric does a Bible story and lesson with them.

The other guy pictured here is our translator.



As they leave, they wash their cups on the way out.

We love our Breakfast Club time.  It reaches a wide variety of kids, many of whom are unchurched.  Please praise God with us for this time and continue to pray for this important  ministry.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

March so far...

March has brought us the end of dry season.  So thankful for the returning rains.  While the dry season brings out beautiful flowering trees, it also includes lots of heat and dust!


 We spent a recent Sunday at the church that meets at KTC. (Actually, come to think of it, I think this was in February, but oh well...)


There were quite a lot of baptisms since their own pastor is not yet ordained.  Thankful for concrete floors...haha!

This is little Talitha being baptized...named after our own little Talitha.

We had a 24 hour visit with this little guy that flew into the other house on our compound...a little Red Cheeked Cordon Bleu.  We all enjoyed watching him so much.

Lots of rest to be found!

And we celebrated Timothy's 17th birthday!  (How is it that I have a 17 year old?  wow!)



As per African birthday tradition, Timothy got a water dumping... several times over!  Once on his actual birthday, then again during our youth night and then again the night we actually celebrated his birthday.  Ahh!!  I caught a couple on video.  :-)



Thankful that March has brought some time to settle back into real life and start school again.

February summed up in one post

Ahhh!!!  I can't believe a whole month passed and I haven't had time to get on here.  Actually, considering everything we've been doing, I'm not surprised!  We were visited by Paige's family, we welcomed Eric's sister and family (our new teammates!) and another visitor, Micah.  It's been a bit crazy, but absolutely wonderful!

February started with an amazing visit from the family of our MA, Paige.  She is one of 10 kids and her entire family came to visit for two weeks.  We had such a blast with them!  Here is a smattering of pictures:





So many little girl giggles to be heard:

We went hiking one day to Chebonet Falls.  Since it was dry season, the falls were barely flowing, but it was fun!

Even Talitha managed to make it down (mostly sliding! ha!) and back up with lots of encouragement, but only a little help!







 On their final day, a few of us went with them to the zoo in Entebbe.  So much fun!

Camel riding:



The adult size people got to go in the pen with the Cheetah and pet him.  So amazing!


Trying to get the Rhinos to stand up.  They didn't.

 In the end, we had a new set of really great friends.  And it was oh so hard to say goodbye.  We were so thankful that God blessed us so much through Paige's family and grateful to God that he made the way for them to come.

Then, after Paige's family left, we had one very busy weekend after which we welcomed our new teammates to the field...who also happen to be Eric's sister and family.  They will be serving at our Karamoja station.  Mark will be doing diaconal work and maintenance.  So, the very next week we were back at the airport picking up "the cousins." (eight cousins plus Uncle, Auntie and their missionary associate)






They were able to spend a week with us in Mbale before driving up to Karamoja.  It was a rough week as some of the kids were sick and they were all trying to recover from jet lag.  Lesson fully learned: sick one-year-olds don't recover from jet lag very easily, but "Gogs" make a lot of things better.


After one week, we said a smaller goodbye and they went on their way to their new home.  We are still enjoying the fact that they are only a couple hours away now...really!  We have family on this side of the world now!  How wonderful is that?  I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers as they re-establish their family in their new home.

And, in the middle of all of that, we also welcomed one other visitor, Micah.  He flew in the same day Paige's family flew out and stayed until the beginning of March.  He was a blast to have around.  He hung in there with all our craziness, let us bunk him in the same room with all the boys and ended up being quite the entertainment for all the kids around. (which was usually about 18 plus friends)  haha!  His "official" task here was to shadow Eric, which he did.  But, he also ministered to our kids and family in an amazing way and I was so thankful to the Lord for that sweet gift.  I snatched the following pictures from my kids.









So do you agree that I was justified in not blogging through the month of February?  Whew... it was busy, but oh so much joy!  So thankful for all we were able to do and all of our visitors!