November 28, 2006

This will be a long blog because it has been 9 days since my last update. First off, a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all! We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend, and we praise God that it was a time of refreshment and encouragement. The holidays could easily be a depressing time as we spend it here without our friends and family from America. We spent Thanksgiving Day in Jinja, which is the source of the Nile River. It is beautiful there. We were with most of the Baptist missionaries in Uganda and their families. We had delicious food and great fellowship. The following day we had Thanksgiving dinner with the people from World Gospel Mission, which is a much smaller group but very fun. The food was excellent there, too. So, we had plenty to eat, including turkey. One turkey here is $75, though.

This has been a good week of ministry as well. I preached again at the church at Kampala International University on Saturday night. I was very encouraged because they seemed excited that I was back for a second straight week. I preached on doing everything for the glory of God. Last week, I spoke on how we need to be right in our relationships in order to be right with God. They are responding well and appreciate Bible-based preaching. Too many preachers here read a text from scripture and then just talk about whatever they want to. Sunday morning I preached in two churches that are more village-like. The first church is called Riverside (even though there is no river in sight) and was started by my Ugandan friend, Patrick. Patrick was my interpreter when I was here in 2003 and we had stayed in touch by email for the past 3.5 years. His church was started on Easter of this year and is doing very well. I received a very warm welcome from them. I went straight from there to Restoration Assembly Church in Kawempe. This is the church that was started during my visit in 2003. I preached there on a daily basis for the first week of the church, which according to the locals makes me the father of the church. It was exciting to see people who were saved almost 4 years ago still being faithful to the church. It is very common here for many people to make professions of faith during crusades, but without any proper follow-up or discipleship to fade away. I recognized many faces and they said that they remembered me, too.

We keep getting closer to being settled in our home. We are currently trying to resolve some pretty significant electrical and plumbing issues. The landlord is trying to save money and is not taking full responsibility for repairing the problems. Please pray that they will act responsibly and fairly. We are also trying to get furniture made. We have very little in the house because we left most of our stuff in Florida. We need three beds, many bookcases, a kitchen table and chairs, three dressers, and an entertainment center. They use beautiful wood, mostly mahogany, but the craftsmanship is not to western standards. We hope that we have found a good carpenter. We are almost totally unpacked and pretty much just lack unpacking our books, which will need to wait on the bookcases. We never found the missing items, so it is likely that they were stolen. We lost almost all of our tools, which can be replaced, but they are much more expensive here. The pearls have never shown up and are likely gone for good. This is just another test of trusting that it all belongs to God and that He can do with these things as He pleases. We are ok with it, now, and just disappointed that the pearls, if stolen, were likely taken by someone we know.

We are supposed to be getting a dog this afternoon. It is half German shepherd and half African mutt. She is around 7 years old and very sweet and playful. She belongs to a British man who is returning to England. She has grown up with small children and interacts very well with our boys. We will probably get a black lab puppy in a couple of months, too, if Pamela allows it.

We arose at 5 am yesterday to call our church home group in Niceville (Bartees, Mathers, Nelsons, Orrs, and Rhodes). It was so good to get to talk to them all and catch up. We found out about a phone service that allows us to call the US for about $8/hr, which is actually less than local calls in Uganda. It is bitter sweet to visit via phone with folks, though, since it makes us more homesick even while being encouraged. I was able to share with them some of the details of how difficult it has been here. If you only read the blogs, it may sound like not finding a home and just going through some minor difficulties discouraged us. Most of our discouragement was coming through ministry relationships that I did not think appropriate to place on the blog. Just know, that we are doing much better and God has both protected us and provided clear direction.

If you are praying for us, please include the following:
• Protection from illness, people, and especially while we drive
• Clear discernment about spiritual warfare and how to combat
• Joy for our boys
• Direction on how to pursue business development
• Discernment on who to trust
• That this would truly become our home
• Joy for us all as we spend Christmas in Africa

Every blog includes a bit of culture shock (also known as whining). This week’s came when I got an oil change. I had to go to the Toyota place to buy an oil filter ($13) and fuel filter ($35). I also needed a spare key made so we had to drive across town to another place for that. My alternator was acting up a bit, and we had to drive to another place to have it checked and repaired. By now, I had already spent 6 hours and still did not have my oil changed. The next day, I got the oil change and had the fuel filter installed. The oil is $5.50 per liter and it takes 8 liters. So, an oil change took a day and a half and around $65 ($5 for labor). Labor is generally cheap here, but supplies are outrageous, especially if you try to get quality materials.

Thank you to the many people who have requested a list of items that could be sent to bless us. We have all of our needs met so this list is strictly a list of wishes for things that might make life a little “sweeter”. The grocery store has many things but is lacking many of our favorite things. So, here is a list:

Macaroni N Cheese (we can get the noodles but no cheese; cheese here is very expensive)
Sugar-free powdered drink mix (Walmart brand is fine: lemonade, iced tea, fruit punch)
Chocolate chips/ peanut butter chips (these are no where to be found)
Muffin/ brownie/cornbread mix
Pickling salt (no pickles here, I must make my own)
Maple (to make syrup – it is almost four dollars a bottle)
Fruit snacks, granola bars, snack items for Sams/Walmart
Flavored coffee creamer in powder form (hazelnut, cinnamon-vanilla)
Raisins and nuts (pecans, almonds)
Cake mixes or other boxed mixes
Tuna or salmon packets
Jell-o/pudding mixes
Candy for the boys of any type


We have been told that regular airmail to Uganda should have packages arriving in less than two weeks. There is sure no guarantee here but the service to our missionary friends has been about two weeks. So, we have been told that it is not necessary to pay for faster service because it would be a waste. Ship to:

The Ironside Family
c/o World Gospel Mission
PO Box 11788
Kampala, Uganda

There is no zip code and that is the whole address. They are out of PO Boxes so we must share with others and the WGM folks have been kind enough to share with us.

I am supposed to be meeting some African kings on Thursday night at a dinner for Christian businessmen. I will provide an update in our next blog.