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.
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.
posted by Ironside Tribe at 4:08 AM
4 Comments:
Dear Friends:
What a joy it must be to finally have your things back. Our stuff is already on the water...and we too wonder what things will actually arrive on the other side of the ocean. We lift you up regularly, and believe that all needs will be met!
Tennessee 7 - Arkansas 28
4th quarter score
Georgia 37 - Auburn 15
Final
LSU 21 - Alabama 14
Half-time
Hey y'all! So glad to hear that you are in your new home! I'm not biased or anything...but Maggie, Mocha and I think you should hold out for the lab pup in February! :)Love you and miss you!
I know that is WONDERFUL to finally have a place for your things. We were talking the other night and we could not imagine living out of suitcases for almost 4 months. You all have shown us a lot through your faith. Each moment I read your updates I look at life in a different way. Thank You for your testimony and know that WE LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!!
Pamela,
My Dear Sweet Sister. I Love You and Miss You Very Much. I wasn't going to tell you this, but the messages you had left me on my cell phone when you were here in the US, I saved them so that way when I want to hear your voice, I play it back. I miss our talks, laughs and just being together. I AM SO BLESSED TO HAVE A SISTER LIKE YOU and I LOVE YOU !!!!
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