December 11, 2006

I am losing track of what I have already written about, so please forgive me if I repeat old news. We have had our dog for one week now and she is adapting to our family very well. Her name is Paska (pronounced very much like pasta), which means Easter in Swahili since that is when the previous owner obtained her. She is a great guard dog and really enjoys playing with our boys and our boys with her. Her favorite thing to do is chase lights. She chases reflections of our watch dials, flashlights, and laser pointers. She will do it as long as you will play the game. She looks pretty stupid sometimes as she claws at the light and tries to pick it up in her mouth. The boys never seem to tire of teasing her with this chase of futility.

The rainy season seems to be winding down and we have not had rain but once in the last four days. The weather is great right now, and we have been to the pool for three straight days. This is really one of the few activities that we can do for fun without driving for an hour or more. We can be to the pool in about 10 minutes and it is in a beautiful setting by Lake Victoria. It is a nice treat and retreat. The sun is really strong since we are only a few miles from the equator and we have to careful not to burn. Also, since we are on the equator, the sun rises and sets at the same time every day. Sun up at 6:40 am and sundown at 6:40 pm. I will miss having the longer days that I am used to in summer, but it is great to have 12 hours of sunlight during the “winter”.

Our landlady is finally back in Uganda and has been by the house 3-4 times. She is being very friendly and taking care of most of the problems we were having. She is acting as if she will also pay for some electrical problems that we had fixed, which would be a huge blessing. We were not sure what to expect, but she is treating us well and having many minor things corrected.

We had a good weekend of worship. I was able to preach at KIU for the 4th consecutive week and felt that it went well and was received by the students. They start their break this week, though, and will not return to school until early February. So, we will not be ministering to university students for almost 7 weeks. This comes at a good time, though, with Christmas and our boys also being out of school for the same duration. Last night, we were at the International Fellowship, which is comprised mostly of missionaries. Pamela led worship and I preached. We had a very good response and several people said that it was the best service that they had experienced there. I believe that God was honored and we praise Him for the opportunity.

We are very excited about tomorrow as it will be one of first good opportunities to start orphan ministry. We will be going with the Jones family to an orphanage of 60 children from Gulu. Gulu is the area where the “Invisible Children” are from if you have seen the video. They have been orphaned as a result of war activities in the northern portion of Uganda from the Lord’s Resistance Army. The Jones are from Canada, and have four boys that are almost identical in age to our sons. They run the orphanage and we are going to help provide Christmas presents. We believe that we have enough items with us to give each child a gift. We will do an assessment of ages and sizes tomorrow and begin preparation for later. After we go the children’s home, we will be looking at some property that the Jones have already identified for an additional children’s home. It is already partially developed and sounds perfect for a large ministry. It is 12 acres and already has multiple structures and includes a sewing room with machines. I will let you know more after we look at the property, but it sounds very encouraging.

Email communication continues to be a challenge, so bear with us during our slow response times. It is likely that we will not have internet in our home before February, which requires us to always go somewhere to use the internet. You cannot use a laptop in the internet cafes here, so we have to find a place with wireless internet. On many of the wireless systems, I can receive email on my Mac, but I cannot send unless I compose while online. We generally don’t have much time while online, so we are limited in what we can get out. Receiving emails is not a problem. Composing emails while offline is not a problem. We just never know when we will get a chance to get them sent.

Only two weeks to Christmas…it just doesn’t seem possible. I remember how different that my first Christmas in Florida felt with the weather so much warmer than I had been accustomed to in Tennessee. I am not sure how Christmas is going to feel with warm weather and everything different. We are trying to focus on the true meaning of the season and are reading an Advent story each night with the boys. This should be our first Christmas where we are much more focused on others than on ourselves, and I expect that we will experience immense joy. We hope to bring Christ’s hope to many children who have never had Christmas before, and we get started tomorrow.