Thursday, September 28, 2006

We have lots of exciting news! No, we still don’t have Pamela’s suitcase, but other prayers have been answered.

Just minutes ago we received news that our container is in Kampala! This was quite a surprise since we were not sure that it ever left Kenya. We now go through the process of trying to get it released from customs and that we will not be charged any taxes. Everything on our container should be tax exempt, but it can take weeks to negotiate. Please pray for favor and a quick reconciliation.

We finalized the purchase of a vehicle. I am now the owner of a 1996 Toyota Prado, 4-wheel drive, 5-speed, diesel. It is kind of like a 4Runner or a smaller Landcruiser. A Ugandan gentleman that works on vehicles for the Baptist mission, named Fred, greatly aided and guided me through the purchase. I am very grateful for his assistance and mechanical expertise. He has already offered to help me maintain it. I believe that I got a really good price at 24 Million Uganda shillings, which is about 13K in US dollars. I had viewed similar vehicles that were 38 Million Uganda shillings.

While I was purchasing the vehicle, Pamela went to look at a house that she really liked. It had a large yard and many mature trees, which is something that I have been praying for. We are supposed to see another house tomorrow, or possibly Saturday, that we have been waiting a week to see. The agent tells us that it is nicer than the house that Pamela viewed yesterday. It is nice to know that we may be close to finding a home and also have two options.

Christian is enjoying his new school and says that he likes it just as much as his other school. This will make our lives much simpler having all four boys in one school.

We have made significant progress on the work visa. It appears that diplomas, marriage certificate, police report, and resumes have been located and are on the electronic journey to Uganda. Please continue to pray for all of the pieces to arrive here quickly and that it will be processed without difficulty.

God has been good today to let us see progress. We have also learned more about waiting on Him, and so we are thankful too for the delays and trials. He is faithful whether all of these things work out the way that we hope that they will or not. He is to be exalted and praised!

And finally, in the continuing saga of the suitcase…it is supposed to be on a flight that arrives tomorrow morning. Stay tuned….

Blessings,
Kevin

Also, for those of you who are commenting on the blog site. When I attempt to respond to your emails, I always get an error message and it will not allow me to. If you want a response, it is probably best for you to just email us at our yahoo email address. We love getting comments, so feel free to do so. However, it appears that I cannot respond to them unless I create a new email, which can be quite time consuming and we have limited email access time.

Wednesday, September 27th

I had hoped that today would be the day of rejoicing in the return of Pamela’s suitcase, but it was not to be. The bag has been located and for whatever reason, is still in London waiting to be flown to the Entebbe airport. Please pray that they would send it for arrival tomorrow. We are thankful that it has been found, and will be even more thankful when it is returned to Pamela.

We are uncertain as to the location of our container with all of our belongings. We have conflicting accounts as to whether or not it has left Kenya. American reports seem to think that it is on its way here, but updates from here think that it is still in Kenya. God knows it status and we are grateful that we can trust in Him. Please pray that we will not be taxed on the contents. Our personal belongings are supposed to be exempt, but that is not always the case. We also brought items that were donated for ministry including the fitness equipment. We need God’s favor to avoid paying import taxes on the ministry items.

I am pursuing an alternative electrical supply for Uganda that is based on burning of a bio-engineered crop. The home company is based out of Gulf Breeze, Florida and I met one of the principals 2-days before leaving Florida. It seems like a perfect solution and fit for Uganda. I am praying for two things right now: 1) that God would move in the hearts of the company in Florida to desire bringing this solution to Africa; and 2) that I can make the right contacts in Uganda to facilitate bringing it here. The American company is doing very well in Central and South America and may not feel the need to come to Africa. Uganda has an energy crisis that limits everything in the country for both personal as well as economic development. They are currently relying on hydroelectric power, which is also causing a water shortage. The climate and soil type in Uganda are perfect for growing the crop that is used to fuel the plant. This would be an awesome thing for Uganda in terms of electricity, and it could also produce jobs as well as resources for ministry. I would greatly appreciate your prayers in this endeavor and for God’s favor and wisdom. I have already made some contacts in Uganda that are interested in pursuing this further.

We are supposed to receive our vehicle today. I will provide an update tomorrow.

We have all of the boys in the same school now. We discovered on Saturday that Word of Life, where the youngest three attend, will be adding an additional grade each year. We had thought that it would always be limited to grades 5 and below. The school that Christian was attending had a totally different annual schedule than Word of Life, which would have made it very difficult to ever do any family vacations or even local traveling. This is much simpler on a daily and annual basis. Christian has had a great attitude about it. He really liked his other school, which had a much nicer campus and also some older kids and activities to participate in. He made the adjustment in stride and never complained. Though he is doing Grade 5 activities, the school is very aggressive academically and it appears to be similar to what he was doing in Grade 6 at the other school. There are three classmates who are older than him, too, though he looks like a giant amongst the other students who are all Africans.

We are scheduled to view a house on Saturday that we like based on what we have seen of the outside. We need to secure a home soon as we can only stay in this guesthouse as long as no one from the Baptist mission requests it. As it should be, IMB missionaries have priority for the house. Fortunately, no one has asked for it yet.

We are doing all that we can as quickly as we can to apply for our work visas. This is going to be cumbersome and complicated as we need many documents from the US that we don’t have with us.

We have a praise on email. Someone showed me how we can work offline to compose email and then send it all at once. We had not been able to do this from anywhere here and would have to either write emails in Word and then cut and paste or compose all of our emails while on line. We still will be limited to only sending to 20 addresses or less at a time (that will not change), but we can now have emails ready to send whenever the internet is available. I am composing this offline this morning and have been waiting three hours for the internet to work so that I can post this blog.

Pamela and I found a place that serves good hamburgers and ice cream yesterday. It was way too expensive, but a nice treat. This probably will not happen often, but it was a great comfort for a day after having eaten beans and rice many days in a row.

Finally, please pray that we can find the right location to put the fitness center. Everyone seems to be excited about this and I am anxious to get it going when our container arrives.

Tuesday, September 26th

We made some progress today, but also found out some new things that are urgent.

First off, we need to give thanks to the Lord for the initiation of the purchase of a vehicle. We are getting a 1996 Toyota Prado tomorrow and signed the paperwork today. There are some minor items to be repaired on the vehicle and then we will finalize the purchase tomorrow.

Secondly, we are so thankful that God placed us at the IMB Baptist Guest House. The people here have been so friendly and helpful. We would be lost without their help. They found our vehicle and are guiding us through other Ugandan processes. We are especially thankful to the Logistics Coordinator, Frank Arthur and his wife, Sharon. They have befriended us, encouraged us, and greatly guided us.

Speaking of processes, we did not realize until today that we are WAY behind in applying for a work visa. This probably should have been done well before we ever arrived here, but we had been advised that we could do this easier in country. However, many of the things that are needed to apply for the work visa would have been much easier to obtain while in the U.S. For example, we need a copy of our marriage certificate (where is that?), a police report stating that we are not criminals, and other papers of that nature. Pray that we can get this done quickly and efficiently and that we will not have to leave the country and come back in to obtain a new temporary visa. This is a real possibility, which would require us to drive to Kenya.

We may have a praise on Pamela's suitcase. We drove to the airport yesterday in hopes of getting new information. When we arrived, they told us that the suitcase had been found in London and is due to arrive here on Wednesday. We pray that this information is accurate and that it will come in with all of the original contents. It was about an hour's drive, but a very peaceful and pretty one. We saw our first African wildlife -- 5 monkeys near the airport along the side of the road. I also saw a blue-headed lizard that resembles an iguana.

We are hopeful of seeing another house tomorrow, though we are having difficulty confirming the appointment.

Thanks for your prayers and encouraging emails.

Blessings,

Kevin

Spread the word

Because I am using a Mac computer and Safari, I am having trouble connecting to the internet for our email. I can create and respond to emails, but we can only send to a max of 20 addresses at a time. Also, we cannot work offline and then send later. As such, sending emails is very difficult. Therefore, I am using this blogsite as my primary means of communication. Please send the website for our blog to anyone that you think may be interested in keeping up with us. Thanks for your prayers and concerns.

Kevin

Sunday September 24, 2006 (Real Missionaries)

I think we are “real missionaries” now. When we were in training at MTI in Colorado Springs, a few of us joked about the “ real missionaries” in reference to those who are in hard places and daily living is more difficult. Now that we have been without power or water for 24 hours, we have had our first taste of life in the wild. We have no idea why there isn’t power or water or when it might end. There is no generator either right now, which usually is running when the regular electric supply is off. Fortunately, I was able to locate some rainwater and filled buckets to carry to our guesthouse so that I could at least flush toilets. We bathed as best as we could out of buckets before church this morning.

On the logistics side, we still are in the same place. We are trusting God to supply our needs and know that He will in His time. We just hope that His time is soon.

Pamela’s suitcase still is not here and apparently is lost. God knows where it is and we are praying that He will bring it back. We need wisdom in knowing how hard we should work to locate it ourselves, versus how much to be still and trust God to provide it.

We do have money in our Ugandan account, but no checks or bankcards yet. Hopefully tomorrow we will have the means to spend money from our account.

We were very excited about a house that we were supposed to see on Friday, but the owner is in England and decided that she did not want the house shown while she was out of the country. We saw one house, but it was very dirty and unacceptable. This was very discouraging because we thought the house that we were supposed to see would be “the one”. God had been encouraging us for two days to wait on His provision, and we were expectant that this would be it.

I have a good lead on a vehicle and hope that we can finalize the deal on Monday.

We have no idea when we will have our container. It does appear that it has arrived in Mombassa, Kenya, but it is not clear as to whether or not it has departed there yet. We really need it here if we are going to move into a house since all our household goods are on it. Please pray that God will watch over it and bring it here quickly and safely.

We like our boys’ schools, and they do too. The Word of Life School where Collin, Blake, and Addison attend is very rigorous and already demanding much of them. Homework is plentiful, especially for Blake. Christian’s school isn’t as demanding at this point, and he has had zero homework.

Pamela and I ate at an Indian restaurant on Friday that was excellent. There are many, many varieties of ethnic food here, and we hope to sample many of them.

Pamela is very discouraged right now because we are so unsettled. We have been without a home since July 14th, and in many ways since the end of May. It would be so wonderful to have a place to call home and begin to establish ourselves here. Our hearts’ desire is find His will, in His time, by His provision. Until then, we desire to rest in Him and to wait upon Him.

Afternoon update, September 20, 2006

Today has been a good day! God has encouraged us throughout the day without us accomplishing anything on our list of things to do. Beginning last night, God began speaking to wait upon Him. To be still, and know that He is God. To seek His face and not His hand. We have spent the day doing those things by praying and spending time in His Word. We know that He is speaking and showing us that He will provide in His time and in His way. Pamela and I were able to have lunch by ourselves at a local Italian restaurant and had an excellent pizza and even some Diet Coke. We are feeling much better though we still have many logistics to get done. However, we know that it is not us who must do these things, but our Heavenly Father will provide for us. Pamela's suitcase is still missing in action. We still don't have a car, nor a house. God knows that we need these things, and that they are not just wants. Therefore, we wait expectantly upon Him. Thank you for your prayers. We are confident that God is speaking and directing us. We are at peace and feeling very refreshed today.

Oh, and I should give thanks that our money wire transfer was received by the local bank!

Praise the Lord for all things great and small!

September 20, 2006


God is strongly leading us to pray for His provision in all things. We have been laboring hard at finding a house and vehicles, much at the leading of people trying to help us. However, Pamela and I both feel that God wants to provide these things in a way that brings glory to Him and can only be explained as being from His hand. God's pattern in our lives has always been to accomplish things in our lives by bringing them to us, not by us searching them out. Please join us in praying that God will be honored and glorified by His provision that will be obvious to all that He did this. We have many testimonies about how He did this in America, and we desire to "sing a new song" of how he did it in Uganda. This would encourage us and others here as we wait upon Him. Praise to our wonderful loving Father who promises that He withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly. We are waiting on you, Lord, to make yourself known!

September 19, 2006

The good, the bad and the ugly.


The good:

the boys went to their first day of school and all of them enjoyed it, though some more than others. Christian likes his school and has made one friend, Joshua, the only other boy in his class along with 14 girls.

Blake made friends quickly with a Kenyan boy named Matthew, who is the son of the school principal. They hope to spend time together this weekend.

Addison made friends with Matthew's brother, Simon, and loved school.

Collin is adjusting but did fine. He could not remember his friend's name, but he said that he made one.

I am driving successfully here, using Martin's van while he is in America.

We saw some nice houses, but still not sure which one we should take.

I went to the store all by myself and was able to make all of the purchases that I was sent to obtain.

The bad, and sometimes ugly:
Pamela still has no suitcase.

We still have not completed a successful wire transfer, so we have no money.

We have not found a house yet.

We have not purchased vehicles yet, mainly because we have no money.

The road to Christian's school is horrendous and quite an adventure. Gulleys, potholes, livestock, large rocks, many people, etc.

Update # 1 (September 10, 2006)


This one never got posted for some reason.

We are home! After 36 hours of traveling, 2 nights of abbreviated sleep on a plane, and a 12-hr layover in London, we are in Kampala. Our travel went well, and all of our luggage made it here except one suitcase. It is supposed to be here soon, which is important since it has most of Pamela's clothes and cosmetics. We were greeted at the Entebbe airport by the entire Ssempa family and we have spent the day with them and have shared two wonderful meals with them in their home.

We are staying in a guest house at the Baptist Mission Union that will be our home for 3 weeks. It has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a den and a full kitchen. It will serve us well until we locate a home. We will begin searching for a home tomorrow. The weather is beautiful and very comfortable, which is a blessing for the first days since we will not have air conditioning.

Initial tasks will include enrolling all of the boys in school, learning our way around, resting and acclimating, and meeting many people. We have already met several of the members from the church and they are very friendly. Our boys are having a great time playing with the Ssempa children.

We are exhausted after the long travel time, dealing with jet lag, and all of the emotional stress from packing and leaving. However, everyone seems to be doing well and excited to be here. The adapting has already begun and the first day was a good one.

Day Two:
I was not able to get internet access on Wednesday or Thursday, but hopefully will be able to today. We began house hunting yesterday and it was rather discouraging. The houses are very expensive, ranging from $1100/month for a house in very poor condition to $2300/month for a very nice home. We did see one very nice home for $1500/month but it is a little far from where we would like to be. We will also begin searching for a vehicle today and already have an expectation that it will be similar to house hunting. I have seen three SUVs for sale that would be around $3-4K in the US and they are $8-10K here. It is a very strange thing to be in a depressed economy and yet things are very expensive. It is all about supply and demand and the expatriates in Uganda are willing to pay the high prices for a limited supply of nice, safe homes and dependable transportation. Please pray for us as we begin making significant decisions about how to steward God's resources for a home, vehicle, and appliances. God has provided abundantly already as we left America and we know that He will provide here as well.

We have been here a little over 48 hours and none of us are feeling very well physically. We all had a bug before leaving TN, and I expect that the lack of sleep and stress have lowered our ability to fight it off. We adjusted a little better to our sleep last night, but all had difficulty in getting to sleep, which is strange since all of us are very tired.

Blessings,
Kevin for the Ironside Tribe

Miss HIV



We have met some interesting people while in Uganda, none more so that Mart Green. Mart is the owner and founder of the Christian bookstore chain, Mardel (sp?), out of Oklahoma City. He is also the producer of the movie The End of the Spear and the documentary Through Gates of Splendor. He is in Uganda filming his next documentary called Miss HIV. It is a documentary on the HIV AIDS epidemic and they are using a beauty contest in Botswana called Miss HIV as part of the story. They are filming in Kampala for 1 week to document the work of Pastor Ssempa’s ministry as well as the work of the first lady of Uganda in using abstinence as the most effective way of preventing AIDS. We were able to have dinner with Mart Green and were very encouraged by his step of faith of moving into the film industry with no previous background in this media. God has obviously called him to this area of ministry and has given them a very productive time here filming a wedding, funeral, Primetime, Makerere Community Church, and a music video to be included in the film. We have been at many of these events while they were filming, so maybe we might show up in a movie.



The Newsboys

The Newsboys are also here as part of the filming effort and included in the documentary. They are also filming a music video for a new song called Something Beautiful, which is about marriage. They are using students from the church in the video for dancing and acting. Much of the video is being filmed at the student facility for the church that is called the White House. Christian and I were able to meet the Newsboys yesterday during a break in the filming. They are giving a concert tonight at a college about 1 hour away that we hope to attend if we can find transportation.

Only a Drunk Man Drives Straight
This is a saying about the roads of Kampala. Because there are so many potholes (craters is another word that comes to mind), people are swerving constantly to avoid them. Also, the traffic is crazy with bicycles, pedestrians, taxis, motorbikes, and cars all jockeying for position on the roads.

Other random observations:
The trees and plants are beautiful. I don’t know the species names yet, but I am enjoying seeing the many varieties, which have vibrant flowers in red, yellow, purple, and orange.

We are hearing many types of birds but not seeing many. I read yesterday that African Grey Parrots are indigenous to this area and we hope to see them. We have not observed any wildlife here except for lizards.

The people here are very excited about my goal of building a fitness center. There are a few health clubs here, but they limited equipment and are expensive. One young man told me, “he greatly hopes to expand his arms.” The Ugandan vocabulary and sentence structure is much more formal than what we heard in the southeastern US.

Fruit trees are abundant. We have had avocado, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, oranges, and our favorite -- jack fruit.

It is very dusty here, mainly due to the condition of the roads. As such, it is difficult to keep anything clean. It appears that trash pickup is much better than when I was here three years ago, but the dust and mud remain.

Electricity is as intermittent as we were told. It goes off at around 7:00 pm every other day and comes back on at the same time on the alternate days.

The weather is comfortable. The lows have been around 75 degrees and the highs around 85 degrees. Because of the proximity of Lake Victoria, there is usually a nice breeze.

Car shopping has been quite an experience. The cars are packed so tightly that you literally cannot squeeze between cars and are stacked up 8 deep. As such, they try to sell the ones that are easiest to access.

Friday, September 15, 2006
Update

We are still house hunting and not sure what to do. We have seen houses that would work, but they are not really what we are looking for. I don’t believe that we are being too picky. We have seen houses with very nice compounds/yards, but older and not in good condition on the inside. We have seen houses that are in excellent condition, but with no yard. We have seen houses that are everything that we are looking for, but too far away. We did see a house yesterday that might work. It was new, but not quite finished. It appears that the owner ran out of money in the end and needs a renter to pay some upfront funds in order to complete it. About the only thing left to do was some painting, tile on the porch, and pavers on the driveway and patio. The kitchen cabinets still need to be installed. It had a decent sized yard, but a very small parking area for cars. It felt rather squished. The owner has said that if we would pay a year’s rent upfront that we could get the house for $1000/month, which is the least expensive house that we have seen. The bedrooms are small, but the living area is adequate. We are not sure what to do.

Pamela’s luggage still has not arrived and we don’t seem to be making any progress. She has only one pair of sandals, no cosmetics, and limited clothing. We really need her bag to get here. Please pray. The local British Airways reps are no help.

I think that we have found a good source of vehicles but have not made a final decision. We expect to buy two vehicles early next week, and we would appreciate prayer for wisdom.

The boys all start school on Monday. Please pray for them as they make this major adjustment. However, I expect that new friends and structure will be great for them, even though school will be difficult since they have been out of school since late April.

Internet access is not very reliable and trying to stay in contact is going to be a challenge. We are not able to send emails to multiple addresses, though I am not sure why. There appears to be a limit on the maximum number of addresses that can be emailed at one time, but I have no idea what that number is. I have set up a blog site @ http://ironsidetribe.blogspot.com/. They have been rejecting my entries, but I think that I will have that resolved soon. Please check it if you can and that should have the most current information since it is the easiest way for me to quickly post updates.

Some American missionaries had us to their home for dinner last night and it was quite a blessing. They have been here 5.5 years and are a great source of information. The man, Frank Arthur, is in charge of the Baptist Mission Union here and oversees all of the IMB missionaries in Uganda. We had a wonderful meal of spaghetti and meatballs, cold iced tea, and even chocolate pudding for desert. It was very refreshing and encouraging and we had a great time. Frank is a very good magician and the boys were quite entertained by his many tricks/illusions. Interestingly, he said that he has to be careful performing his slight of hand tricks since the Ugandans think that he is a witchdoctor.

Our container was supposed to be here on September 12th, but that did not occur. Our last update was last week and at that time it had not arrived to port yet in Mombasa, Kenya. We are told that it takes 2 weeks to get from port to Kampala if a truck is available. Actually, at this point it is better that our container is not here. However, we will need it before we can move into a house since all of our mattresses are on the container.

Our health is good at this point. We are sleeping pretty well and seem to be totally past the jetlag phase. We have already acclimated to sleeping in the heat, which is usually about 80 degrees at bedtime, though it drops to 75 around midnight and stays there until morning.

Pamela and I will be speaking on Sunday morning at church. We shared for about 5-10 minutes last week, but will have an entire hour this week. They have asked us to share our testimony of how God called us to Uganda.

We just ordered a pizza from Dominos. They are supposed to deliver in 30 minutes, but I doubt that will happen. It will be interesting to see what this will be like. I don’t think that it is the same Dominos as in the US and I have not seen any American restaurants here, though there are several American food products such as cereal, ketchup, and of course, Coca Cola.

Days 3-5 (Friday thru Sunday)

Friday was another busy day of taking care of logistics. I met with several men about vehicles that they have for sale. An example of the cost is that a 1997 Toyota van with 157,000 km, diesel, in average condition is 11,000 US dollars. A mid-90s model Toyota Landcruiser with similar mileage and condition would be around $25,000. We are trusting God to provide and to give us wisdom in making a purchase. I just keep thinking about my 2000 Toyota Tundra that I sold for $9200, which would probably be worth twice that here. We are also in the process of opening a banking account, which is not simple either and a checking account is $20/month. We looked at 4 more houses on Friday, but none of them are suitable. We did see one Saturday morning that was closer to what we need, but the family room was much too small and it had no yard. It was very clean and had a great kitchen. We know that there are houses here that will fit our needs and asking God to lead us to them/it. Friday evening we had a meeting at the Kampala Sheraton (a very nice hotel), where we had several interesting and unplanned introductions. I met the mayor of Kampala, a retired Army Colonel, a preacher from Phoenix who is doing marriage conferences in Uganda, and many other influential people from Uganda.

Saturday was a day of new things. We went to an African wedding and reception. It was very festive and celebratory. The vows and exchanging of rings was very similar to America, but nothing else was. There was much singing, dancing, and shouting, and it was a great introduction to our new culture. The wedding party was dressed exquisitely with matching jewelry and very nice dresses and tuxedos. It was our first opportunity to begin meeting many members of the church and we feel most welcome, especially since they tell us “to feel most welcome to Uganda!”

Sunday was our first day at Makerere Community Church (MCC) and what an incredible day it was! Church started at 10:30 and ended at about 1:15. We then went to a baptismal service at the campus pool where they baptized about 40 students, which did not end until 4:00. As could be expected, the worship was dynamic and expressive. Some of the music was familiar but most was not. However, the Sprit in worship was obvious and captivating. It was truly a time of celebration and declaration of victory. It reminded me of where I had been a week earlier…at the University of Tennessee football game when they beat Cal. The stadium was loud and grew louder as UT increased their lead up to 35-0. I actually wondered during the game why it is so easy to get excited and caught up in the intensity of the celebration of something as temporal as a football game. I thought during that game how great it would be to be as excited about worship. Well, we experienced that intensity of worship today. It was loud, but not due to amplification and instruments. Rather, it was loud due to the heartfelt and expressive singing of 500 college students. They showed tremendous love and appreciation toward us for coming to Uganda. We are able to share briefly and I felt that God was leading me to Psalm 145, and specifically the portion where it states, “one generation shall declare thy mighty works to another”. This generation of college students is changing Uganda already and will continue to do so for this generation and the one to follow as God raises up Godly leaders for East Africa’s future.

I really believe that God was speaking to me in today’s service about how important it is for the church to possess land and buildings of their own. The church service we attended was the second service of two, and it was packed to overflowing with students in the hallways outside and unable to see and barely hear. They are meeting in a lecture hall on the campus and have to set up each week. They are using an older house (the White House) for Bible studies during the week and have the same space problems there. For Friday prayer meeting and Saturday night PrimeTime (with 5,000 students!) they have to set up each time. Set up involves bringing all of the musical equipment, speakers, microphones, overhead projection, and sometimes a generator. All of these things are huge logistical challenges in Uganda, especially given the unpredictable nature of electricity here. They are crowded everywhere they go and have nothing to call their own. It is still a church because God has made the Bride of Christ the church body and doesn’t require a building. However, it is very obvious that the work and energy being spent on difficult logistics when combined with the current limitations is making growth of the church difficult. The entire time we were singing I kept thinking of the verse in Joshua Chapter 1 where it states, “wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you.” God promised His people that He would provide a place for them, that they could call home. I believe that God wants Makerere Community Church to have a place to call home, where they can minister daily to more people and with easier logistics. Guess what text Pastor Ssempa preached from today? Joshua 1:1-9, which contains the promise that I was thinking on. He was not talking about possessing land and did not emphasize that verse (he was preaching about being strong and courageous under the leadership of Joshua). I am requesting that you pray that God will provide the resources for land for MCC. They have identified 4 acres on campus that can be purchased for $300,000. That is actually a good deal here, as land is very hard to find and is usually more than $100,000 per acre near the university. The man who owns it and has offered it at this price is old and near death, and if he dies, it will go to his son who is unlikely to sell it to the church. Please pray that it will stay available until God provides the resources. I clearly saw the need today and already know that it is urgent. They are impacting the campus with the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was demonstrated abundantly today during the baptismal service at the campus swimming pool and in testimonies that we have heard all weekend long.


Monday, Sep 11, 2006 (Day 6)

We saw some nice houses today, but we are also trying not to be discouraged about one that we missed. We were supposed to see a house Saturday morning, but the appt was canceled at the last moment. We went to see the house this morning, and we were so encouraged as approached the gated entrance (all houses here have walls and gates for security). The house was on a nice street, very close to the Ssempas, and had a beautiful view of the lake. However, as soon as we arrived, the person keeping the house informed us that it had been taken the previous day (Sunday). It was exactly what we had hoped for, and we are trying not to think about having missed the Saturday appt. God is in control of this and it is only a small test that we hope to pass successfully. We saw two other nice houses today, but they were a bit more expensive than we hoped to pay and not where we desire to be. We are getting closer to finding a home and trust that God is going to provide exactly what we need. Car shopping today was quite an experience, but that went better as well. I am praying that we will be able to get two vehicles for $20,000 or less that will meet our needs.

We registered the three youngest boys for school today and hope to enroll Christian today as well. I met two boys who are the same grade as Addison and Blake and am encouraged that they will be good friends with our sons. They are from Kenya but have spent time in Florida training since their parents run the school. Though they are African, they have been exposed to American culture and like skateboarding, basketball, Playstation, and are interested in baseball.