Howdy!

I haven’t really provided a person-by-person update so I thought that this might be an appropriate time to do so. From youngest to oldest:

Collin: He is probably doing better than anyone. He says that he likes it here and enjoys going to school. He is so diligent that learning and doing schoolwork is actually fun to him. He has more “stars” at school than any other student, and his teachers really like him. He eats better here than in the US and likes Ugandan food more than anyone else in our family. He still cries a lot, and I guess that he will always be the baby of the family. Many of the Ugandans think that he is a girl because of his hair and delicate features. (They sometimes think that Blake is a girl, too, which doesn’t set well with Blake!). They love to come up and touch Collin’s soft, blonde hair. Collin likes being with his family and having routine, and now that we are starting to get a routine of sorts, he is doing well.

Addison: Addison would probably be happy anywhere on earth, and so he is fine in Uganda. We were having some discipline issues with Addison the first few weeks here, but he is doing much better now. He still has moments when he has bursts of anger and a lack of self control, but the moments are much less frequent. He also likes school and has several friends there. He is very competitive in soccer and apparently pretty good, because it is sometimes Addison vs. the rest of his class. We really need to expose our family to orphan work because they have not really gotten any exposure to ministry beyond the campus work. He asks when we are going to help the orphans.

Blake: Blake doesn’t like Uganda and is quick to let us know. He asks almost everyday if/when we are going back to Niceville. He says that if we ever visit that he will run away on the day that we go to the airport and hide out until we leave. He plans to live with either Ethan Shelton or Zander Huff. He doesn’t have a preference as long as he can be in Niceville with his friends. It looks like he is having fun to me, but he never wanted to leave Niceville and often looks back. I think that he will do better with time, especially if we can do some “African things” like safari, fishing, or finding cool lizards or birds. He is doing well in school, even though he hates it. His reading and writing have improved dramatically in just two months. His teacher pushes him, and he doesn’t like it. She sees that he can do better than he thinks he can. He has a good friend at school that lives next door (Musa) and they play most days. Please pray that he will find joy in being here.

Christian: Christian has good days and bad days. Sometimes he seems to be content and doing well, then other times he is quite homesick. On the homesick days he says that he hates Africa. Much like Blake, I think that he will do better when we get to really see Africa. He had lots of expectations of seeing African wildlife before we left America, and we just don’t really get to see Africa in this city of Kampala. We all hope that God leads us to a different part of Uganda or Africa, though we know this is where we are to be now. Christian relates very well to the Ugandans, especially the men in their twenties. He is doing well in school and likes his teacher. We will try to set him up an aquarium soon and get a parrot. He also needs to see purpose in us being here, so getting more involved in ministry will provide purpose to our drastic change in life circumstances.

Pamela: (I will let her tell you how she is doing rather than me trying to assess.) Well, how am I doing? Let’s just say that I am most thankful that Christ is the stability of my times because it has been so hard for us here. Each day, I have died to the flesh that wants to look back and instead I seek to embrace God’s truth for each day and for this time. As a mother, I carry not only my own emotions of what is going on here but the emotions of our boys who have struggled as well. Although, our feelings are similar, I find that as I seek to encourage them in the truth of God’s calling on our lives I am speaking God’s truth over myself. It is my heart’s desire to be at peace here and begin to minister here in Uganda. On the occasions that we have had opportunity to minister, I have found myself so encouraged in our mission. So, I know that in time as we get settled and begin to minister on a regular basis, we will also begin to feel more at home here.

With the holidays coming, I have often found myself teary as I think of our family and friends gathering without us but once again, I must focus on Christ and what He has called us to. There are so many sacrifices being made in this calling and Christ name being exalted among all the tribes is worth everyone. He is worthy and we will press on in this journey enduring the heartache of being away from you all at this time. We do hope that many of you are beginning to get your passports ready for travel our way this spring or summer. Our boys have been asking often if someone would be coming for Christmas. I know a familiar face from home would cheer all our hearts.

We live next to a compound of a woman and small child. The little boys name is “Davey”. Every time we leave our compound and pass by his, he comes running and waving his little hand. He is about two years old. Last Saturday, I took a gift for Davey and his mother and went for a visit. I took Addison and Collin with me giving them a chance also to find purpose in what God has called us here to do. We sat on the concrete porch, shared our gifts and our hearts for sometime. It was so refreshing to me to have the opportunity to connect with this Ugandan woman. Her neighbor saw me there on the porch and came to visit as well. I look forward to opportunities to share with them in the future.

I would like to say thank you to the many who contributed various gift items for us to distribute here. We have had opportunity to share some already and as I have organized them I have thought of many ways to use them. Thank you for allowing us to bless others through your generosity. In time, I will share testimony and photos of this gift-giving ministry.

Kevin: I am kind of like Christian, with good days and bad days. So far, it seems like we are spending way too much time trying to just live and far too little time in ministry. It doesn’t seem very efficient or meaningful. It is very clear that God needed us to have preparation time before plowing into ministry. We have been humbled and taught to wait upon the Lord while we seek where to minister. It looks like I will be preaching on a regular basis and have ample Bible teaching opportunities with KIU. I am also making more and more business connections and trying to discern where God is leading in that area. Some good news for me…I have lost twenty pounds since we arrived here and at 220 pounds am the lightest that I have been in over a decade. I am more active, eat less, and have had several bouts with stomach ailments to contribute to the reduction.

House status: We have our electrical inverter set up now, so we have lights 24/7. We just got our washing machine hooked up yesterday so we can stop washing by hand. We hope to have our dryer available soon. We cannot use many of our appliances when we are on inverter such as iron, washing machine, or water heaters. However, we can make coffee and use our DVD player. We are close to having all of our boxes unpacked with mostly just books remaining. We cannot do them until we get some bookshelves. We are not sure whether to have them made or to purchase them. The furniture quality is quite variable and you can never be quite sure what you are purchasing. We haven’t found a dog yet, but we are looking. We will likely wait on a black lab puppy that will be available in February but would also like to get another more mature dog for now. Also, it is rainy season and it rains everyday. It is nice because it keeps it cool, but the mud is getting annoying. It is supposed to stop in December and get much warmer.

LIVE UPDATE: We are writing this blog from a swimming pool that we joined, and the boys just found their first chameleons. They are so excited and Blake just announced that this is “the best day yet!” God is good to give such a simple thing that brings much joy! They are having a blast putting the chameleons on different colored clothing and watching them change colors. The Ugandans are terrified that we would let our boys play with something so dangerous since they think all lizards are poisonous.

November 16, 2006

Wow, I cannot believe that we are only 1 week from Thanksgiving! We will be spending Thanksgiving Day at a Baptist prayer retreat in Jinja (the source of the Nile River) and the day after with our new friends from World Gospel Mission (WGM). We are connecting well with the WGM people, and we see many ministry opportunities with them. Their local leader, Jonathan Mayo, has connections with Niceville through the First United Methodist Church and was even there last spring. They are training pastors and helping to start businesses in Kampala, both which are objectives of mine.

Pamela and I were both sick earlier this week, but now both of us are on the mend and feeling better. Our house is getting closed to being unpacked, and we would probably be finished if we had more storage space and closets.

I witnessed a horrible accident today where two men were struck by a motorcycle that was traveling very fast. I feared that one of them was going to die from striking his head on the pavement so hard. It is chaotic when these events occur, which are a common occurrence due to the heavy pedestrian traffic and many, many autos and taxis.

Several people have inquired about a mailing address and we have one now since the WGM is willing to share their PO Box with us:

Ironside Family
World Gospel Mission
PO Box 11788
Kampala, Uganda

If you send anything, it will take about 3 weeks to get here if you use airmail. If you pay for the “expedited service” it costs more money and gets here at the same time as the regular service. So, just use the regular service. If you send it by boat, it may take 6 months or longer or never get here.

It will be at least another month before we can get internet in our home, so our communications with probably be infrequent since we have to go to internet cafes to get email access. It is not a simple process. Don’t let that discourage you from sending them, you just might not get a timely response.

I will be preaching at Kampala International University this weekend at their Saturday night service. There are usually about 400 students in attendance. I would appreciate your prayers and am very excited about this opportunity that will probably continue on a weekly basis for a while.

Friday, November 10, 2006

I haven’t written for over a week because we have been busy moving into our house. It has been a stressful, difficult week, but we are very thankful to finally be in our home. Getting our container released from customs was much more time-consuming, complicated, and expensive than we expected, but it has been delivered and totally unpacked. We did not get final customs release until Monday so we bunked with some new friends over the weekend. They were gracious to house, feed, and encourage us. God was good to provide for us through such sweet people. If TN had not lost to LSU, it would have been a really good weekend.

It was much harder to unload the container in Africa, than to load it in the US, mainly because there was not a forklift to use here. It took two full days and four loads to unpack the container at Maersk and transport it via truck to our home, which is about 6 miles away. It rained intermittently throughout the two days and we were working around mud quite often. Unpacking is going pretty well, but we are have trouble locating some items and don’t know if we forgot to send them, they were taken, or we have lost them in our new home. We cannot find most of our tools, though we did find our toolbox. It only contained screwdrivers. We are missing wrenches, a socket set, a hammer, a plier set, etc. I have wasted too much time searching boxes in hopes of locating the missing items. Pamela is also missing a pearl necklace that I gave her for our anniversary a couple of years ago. She has worn them since we have been here, but we cannot find them anywhere.

We hope to get our electrical inverter installed this weekend so that we can have electricity all the time. Thus far, we have been without power in our new home more often than with it. It has been sort of like camping inside, since we haven’t been able to cook but once, and are living by candlelight.

There have been many things happen this week that I wish that had time to give ample discussion to, but my computer only has a few minutes of battery life remaining. Highlights include: meeting with Patrick and Wilberforce, two Ugandans that I met when here in 2003; learning of a great opportunity to work in training pastors, which was something that I really wanted to do but did not think that I would be able to because I don’t have a seminary degree; having a small child run into the side of my car while I was driving the boys to school (we are not sure if we hit him or he hit us). He stopped crying in about 3-4 minutes and was moving fine and not bleeding. He appeared to be okay, but it was really scary. We keep meeting other missionaries with similar visions for ministry and we are still trying to determine where all we should plug in.

I will provide more details when I have adequate battery life and time to write. The good news is that our work visa is in progress, our container has been released, and we are in our home.

We are going to try to find a guard dog soon, since they are excellent for security. It will probably be a German shepherd mix since that is the most common breed here. We also met a missionary family who raises black labs, and they will have puppies available in February. They boys have wanted to own a dog for many years, and it appears to be a good extra security measure, so we will probably get an adult dog now and then a puppy in a few months.

We haven’t had email or internet access since Saturday and probably have many unreturned emails. Sorry, we love to hear from you. Also, I have sent a bunch of emails to people and have not heard back from many of them. I am fearful that many of our email messages are being screened and never reaching their intended recipients. Maybe you ought to check your junk folder sometimes to see if we are being screened. The difficulty in email communication is quite aggravating since we can never know if our messages got out. However, there are many people that I have written that I am pretty sure would have responded to my message. I am told that African emails servers are known to carry viruses and that American servers often screen them out periodically. Also, if you gave money to us through Heart of the Bride, then I sent you an email about two weeks ago. If you gave us any money and have not received an email from me, please let me know. I am posting this before I have an opportunity to check email, but we will try to catch up soon. We may not have internet access in our home for a few more weeks, so staying in touch will be tough for a while.

We miss you all more than you can imagine. With the holidays approaching, we are all feeling quite homesick.

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Yesterday marked 2-month anniversary, and it seems in many ways to have gone by quickly. It is hard to believe that we are still not in our home, though we see how God has used the time in the guesthouse to guide and direct us. We have accomplished very little by our American standards, but know that God is shaping us and preparing us for ministry.

We have learned a lot and have been surprised by many things, even though I had been here before. We had been warned of culture shock during our training at MTI, but had expected that it would take longer to hit us. We were told that we would have a “honeymoon period” where everything would be exciting and fresh. It has mostly been difficult and frustrating to make the adjustments. Some examples: driving is very difficult, and it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour to get to Makerere University, which is only 6 miles away. Driving is very stressful because of the traffic, taxis, and boda-bodas (scooters), combined with bicycles, people, and many potholes. When someone, especially the taxis, gets impatient, they form a new lane of traffic. So it is not uncommon to see vehicles four abreast on a two-lane road. Efficiency is not a word that you could use frequently here. It takes many hours to get anything done. The other big shock has been the cost of living here. Most items are at least twice as much as in America. For example, gas is over $4/gallon, a box of cereal is over $5, and a can of shaving cream $6. The most expensive things are internet service and cell phones. Internet service (dial-up) is $70/month and cell phones cost about 15 cents/minute to use. Airtime is purchased in $10 increments and people run out all the time, so they ask to use your phone, or they will call you and immediately hang up signifying that you should call them back. (It is free to receive calls.)

I did discover that ESPN Sports Center comes on every Sunday at 1:00 pm local time and I can get college football highlights from Saturday. We found a place to get ice cream cones that cost only about $1.50. I have learned my way around fairly well so that I can drive most places without getting lost. We are enjoying the climate and adjusting quickly to life without air conditioning. It is the rainy season, though, and not as warm as it will be in a couple of months. Our boys’ school is excellent and they are all doing well and seem to like it (well, as much as young boys can like school).

We visited a church at Kampala International University (KIU) on Sunday for the first time and really enjoyed it. There were about 500 students in attendance and they were from several countries including Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia and probably others. We are seeking God as to where we are to focus our many ministry opportunities. We also have an opportunity to work with a local mission in training national pastors. I still believe that a major focus is supposed to be on developing economic opportunities so that the local people can have money to live life. It is such a struggle here for many, and poverty is rampant. I have met others who are also concerned and we are seeking the Lord on how to proceed.

We are still waiting to move into our house. Other than the last 3 weeks we spent in Niceville in June/July while we were packing up our home, we have been living out of suitcases since the end of May and are really ready to be settled into a home.

We supposedly will get our work permit application stamp tomorrow, which will allow us to get our container and move into our home. Tomorrow is also the last day that we can stay in the guesthouse because others with prior reservations are arriving tomorrow. We may be sleeping on the floor for a night or two, unless God works a miracle and we get everything done tomorrow.

We have had so many delays throughout our time here, but see God’s hand in all of it. He has used the delays to protect us, give us relationships with other missionaries, lead us to ministry opportunities, and purify/prepare us for ministry. God has reminded us often to wait upon Him and see Him accomplish His will and purpose. We have had to dig deeper into God’s Word to seek Him and His direction. We have an especially difficult and trying week but cannot share all that has gone on. We just ask that you would pray that we would find God as we seek Him with all of our heart, and that He will make His way clear. We need discernment and wisdom about many things.