April 28, 2007

Hello family and friends! It is Pamela writing to you this time. Many have complained that you have not heard from me and I feel your pressure. So, today is my birthday and this is my gift to you. A blog. For those of you who were close to me, you know that I love to give gifts and I really miss not getting to bless each of you on your special days. I hope today that I can bless you with a blog. Now, because I haven’t written in almost eight months, I have a lot to say. So, get a cup of coffee and let’s pretend we are sitting on my couch, as I did with many of you, and talk about the wonders of our life here in Uganda.

First, let me say that I am so thankful for how well Kevin has written on the blog keeping everyone updated on our life events. He is such an excellent communicator. I on the other hand write like I talk – all over the place. You sanguine personalities will follow along just fine. The rest of you might struggle and I am sorry. I am a random writer, but I hope you don’t stress out. There are so many things that I wish to share with you: our home, our food, our daily life, our boys, our friends, our ministry, our adventures, our heartaches, our sights, our smells, our sounds, our hopes, our Lord and Savior and His work in Uganda and in us, of course. I realize Kevin may have already shared some of these thoughts with you so you can skip over or enjoy my viewpoint.

Our House: is very nice and we are most thankful after a two-month search through some very scary places. We have a beautiful compound with a great place for our boys to play as well as the students we work with. We have fruit trees and a great garden that is producing many things. Christian has been enjoying the garden. I get tickled to look out and see him walking around out there looking at everything. Even Addison and Collin have helped plant some carrots. Of course, it cost me a few hundred shillings. Our home is a two-story with the main living down and bedrooms up. The kitchen and bathrooms are clean and functional. The house is really more than we need but it seems it is definitely where we are to be as we have been able to use all of its extra space for guests, a sewing area for teaching, a place to store things shipped for ministry, a room for books to loan out, etc. I have done my best to make our house a home with my interests in home decorating. I have made curtains for our windows and some covered headboards for our guest room so that we didn’t have to buy more beds. As a matter of fact, we just received some furniture that was ordered in November. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad deal and I am paying someone else to finish the work. This new guy does good work and quickly. So, I hope to have everything finished by the end of May.
OH MY, DID YOU READ THAT – THERE IS A GUEST ROOM AT THE IRONSIDES – SO PLEASE MAKE RESERVATIONS NOW- WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE ANY OF YOU.

Our Food: Meals are a bit challenging some times without all of our American conveniences. I was definitely a woman of convenience when it came to meal prep and I can say now that I had no idea what meal prep was until I came here. Oh my, you start by going to the market or the garden, then cleaning the vegetables, then preparing the vegetables to be cooked, then cooking the vegetables, OK now the vegetables are ready for whatever you’re preparing. Lets just say I am making chicken curry with rice. I would buy a whole chicken with skin, bone and sometimes other things inside from the butcher. You boil the chicken, remove the skin, take the meat off the bone and cut up into bite size pieces. There is no canned cream of soup if you are preparing casseroles. There are these packets of dry ingredients mixed with water that makes this type of cream of chicken or mushroom soup but not the same flavor for sure. So, there is another whole step in preparing to put together what I would call a simple casserole. Now, I need some lemon juice to add to the soup. I don’t have those great bottles of lemon juice ready and on hand but I do have lemons. I cut up a few and squeeze the juice until I have enough for the recipe. Now, we are ready to put together and put in oven, which I am thankful to have by the way. All that to say that meals are a bit challenging because they are so time consuming but we are thankful to have the things we have here. Meats, cheese and milk don’t taste as good but oh are we thankful to have them. I must tell all our fellow missionaries living in much harder places with much less that I appreciate you so much and the sacrifices you make where you are spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. I really appreciate what we do have here even though it takes long to prepare our meals. Some other meals that we have for those interested are pizza (homemade sauce, homemade dough and homegrown vegetables), rice and beans, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, spaghetti, stew, of course all the African foods as well. We have a great garden with cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cilantro, carrots, and other things. Some haven’t brought harvest yet but in time they will. We have so many cucumbers and pickles are expensive that I have learned to make pickles. For breakfast sometimes, I make banana/coconut pancakes, which has become everyone’s favorite and occasionally French toast. Syrup is also rather expensive and I have learned to make my own as well. I know all of you that do these sorts of things all the time are not at all impressed but for those who know me well – this has been a challenge and an accomplishment. Please rejoice with me! Cereal is about $6 a box but we do buy it once a week out of convenience on school mornings. The boys eat lunch at school and they would have a lot to say about that – not good. It is African food that they are less than excited about and they get a punishment if they don’t eat it all. Most afternoons, they come home ravenous for snacks because they have eaten little at school. It seems that Thursday is the worst lunch. Blake told me he accidentally trips every Thursday spilling his food. Kevin and I, of course, quietly laughed and then told him not to do that anymore. Oh, the cleaver things these children come up with. Collin has actually turned into our best eater, although, his size wouldn’t show it. Well, that is if Christian isn’t in the race.

Our Daily Life: Laundry- this shall be a never- ending task as long as I live, I think. We are thankful to have both a washer and a dryer. We originally thought we would air- dry our clothes and not have a dryer because of lack of power and the expense. I am thankful to say that we are able to use our dryer and only have to hang dry when the power is out and clothes are wet. Laundry is challenging trying to judge when you will have power and not. There is no consistent schedule with power outages. The boys only have two uniforms for school and they get so dirty here - unbelievably dirty. So, trying to keep a clean uniform can be a challenge but not as challenging as hand washing them at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and hoping that they dried by morning. When we first moved in our home, we did not have a washer or dryer for several weeks. So, I have had a taste of hand washing and drying. Although, it was hard, I really am most thankful for those experiences. They make you more grateful.
Market Shopping- I have been pleasantly surprised with all that the supermarkets offer. When doing my grocery shopping, I generally go to at least two or three supermarkets to gather all the things on my grocery list. As much as I hated shopping for hours at Sam’s and Wal-Mart, I miss the convenience of it as well as all the selections and low prices. Fruits, vegetables, and even meats are affordable but prepackaged things are pricey. I enjoy visiting the various fruit and vegetable markets and sharing with our friends there. Life is so hard here and you can see it on the faces of many people. It is a blessing to love and bless these workers with a smile and simple conversation.

Our Boys: As of today, they have all had birthdays this year and are growing like weeds. Christian is officially taller than me and out weighs me -- that I don’t mind. He is maturing so much and I am seeing God’s work in His life. It is evidenced in his prayers, which are sincere and genuine. He is not fearful of doing new things even taking a boda-boda and going to the supermarket for me. Wow, I couldn’t believe it when he did that. You all would be proud of him.
Blake, although, you wouldn’t know this by his words, is enjoying the adventures of Africa. He has many trees to climb, things to build, fruit to eat, animals to play with and wonderful weather.
Addison was made for Africa. He has picked up the language and accent most. He rarely eats meat and loves mangos and rice.
Collin too seems to be so happy. I was most worried about his transition and asked many of you to pray specifically for him. He has done so well. He loves school, he eats well, he has even become quite the soccer player. He hangs in there with all the big boys.
They just finished their school year and are off for one month. They begin a new term the last week of May.
They want to say thank you to all of you who have sent packages of candy, macaroni & cheese, chocolate chips, pudding, jell-o and kool-aid.

Our Friends: Let me introduce you to Selena and Dowdy. Selena is the house girl to a lady that lives next door. The Madame is a woman pastor who travels around preaching in various countries frequently leaving Selena at home alone. Selena is about 24 and has a two-year-old son named Dowdy. We think that Selena has leprosy but we are uncertain. She has missing fingers and many skin lesions, which are indicators of leprosy. Her son, Dowdy, was born as a result of rape from her previous employer’s son. When she told the boss what had happened, Selena was chased away. Thankfully, she was taken in by Jasmine, her current employer. Although, this lady is a born again woman, she too mistreats Selena as so many people do to their helpers. Selena works full time and receives only 20,000 shillings per month, which amounts to about $10.00. You need to know that full time work is roughly sunrise to sunset. So, no easy job for sure. Selena is born again and pays tithes and offerings to the church from this little money. She often doesn’t even have enough money to buy milk for her son. We pass by their place as we come and go from our compound. As we are passing Dowdy comes running to the edge of the road waving both of his little hands, almost without fail. He is so precious and so is Selena. I am telling you so much about them because this relationship brings me so much JOY. Because of their circumstances, I have had many opportunities to help them by taking food, clothing, and toys for Dowdy, money and just sharing Jesus together. I take our boys over to play. Shortly after we arrive the other 11 nearby children come and play soccer. I sit under a beautiful tree with Selena and anther mother and we just talk. They all enjoy watching my boys be boys and playing with their children. Most people here speak English, but these children know very little. It is good for my boys to have to find ways of communicating with them and they all make do. In this relationship, I have been able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to them in their need. I have been able to minister to them frequently as of late and when I went by recently Selena just blessed me so much with her words of thanks. She recounted the story of Jesus telling the disciples when I was hungry you fed me and when I was thirsty you gave me drink. Then, the disciples asked ”but Jesus where were you?” Selena said to me,” Jesus will tell you, I was at Selena’s house and you helped me”. This was just a sweet reminder of what we are here to do. Our ministry here is so multi-faceted and being the hands and feet of Jesus is what we hope to do. Again, yesterday when I was speaking to Selena and she told me that her prayer for our family is Proverbs 28:27. It says, “ He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.” Her response to this ministry is praise to God for providing for her needs. It is so beautiful for her to acknowledge her God as the provider, not the mzungu next door. I trust you hear this in the spirit it is being shared. This testimony is in no way intended to bring any praise or glory to us, but to God for how He is working in the lives of people here. (I have posted a picture of Selena and Dowdy together as well as the neighbor children.)

Our Ministry:
I have had the privilege of partnering with United Faith Chapel, a university fellowship, and Women’s ministry. It has been my heart’s desire to impart the truth of God’s word to these ladies and to enable them to search out the scriptures for themselves. I have had the opportunity to teach on or be apart of teaching times focusing on media, modesty, purity, physical well being, order and cleanliness of the home and self, being a woman of God – with aspects of a single woman as well as a married woman. Recently, I hosted a ladies conference here at my home with 50 students in attendance. Our topic was the Journey of a Woman looking at whom God has created the woman to be, the single woman and the married woman. All of the teachings have been grounded in the Word of God. It seems so many of these teachings are in contradiction with what many of these women have grown up knowing – here in is the importance of laying the foundation of God’s word. There are so many “born again” however, their belief and understanding of God is made up of what they think, have been taught or experienced. This is leaving many confused as the Word is coming forth because their foundations are being shaken. Their foundation has not been God’s word and some are finding themselves confused and frustrated. This is actually somewhat exciting as they are hanging around long after meetings are finished to further discuss the scriptures and gain understanding. Please pray for these woman to have their eyes opened and hearts receptive to truth. They are eager to know it. Also, pray for those whom might be more resistant because it shakes their foundation or what has been their foundation.
I have been asked to sing at every place we have gone to minister. Whether prepared or not, I have offered some testimony in song. I have to confess that this has been humbling a few times feeling so unprepared, but they are blessed and I trust God is too with my obedience not my perfection. Speaking of singing let me share a story you are going to love. As many of you know, Kevin is a self-proclaimed “non-singer”. Well, the other day he was training some pastors at a three-day seminar for pastoral leadership. When I came to get him, he asked me to sing a song that went with their teaching for the day. Unfortunately, I did not know the tune well, but Kevin did. I asked him to sing it and he did. Even after he sang it, it still wasn’t coming to me to lead. I needed him to sing along to help me with the tune. In the middle of singing, I got so tickled that I was actually singing a duet with my husband that I could hardly sing for a few moments. The laughter I hope came off as great joy over the song and not laughter at my husband. You need to know that he really can sing and did a great job. I know it was probably humbling for him, but really it was beautiful to me and those there for the training. Who knows maybe one day you will hear a number from him. Don’t count on it though.

Our sounds and sights and smells:
Sounds- the things I love about Uganda are the sounds of children laughing, playing, singing and/or running after you hollering “muzungu” and giggling. These are joyous sounds and sights. I wish I could capture the sounds and sights of these precious little ones and allow you just a glimpse. Another joyous sound and sight, is the celebrative worship of the people here found on Sunday mornings all across Uganda from the most elaborate cathedrals to the dirt floor, wooden-benched, tin-roofed meeting places. They really put us to shame with their joyful spirits while living in such desperate situations. These people know that JOY is found in a person not in their circumstances. When I hear of their heart breaking testimonies, I am ashamed that I can become so bothered by trivial matters.
Titles and names are a big deal here. I have been called by many names here in Uganda. Here are a few with their meanings or context. Madame – I am most often called this by just anyone showing respect for a lady. The Luganda form of this word would be Nyyabo. Those who know us well may call me by Momma Christian (usually the first born son) or Momma Blake, Addison or Collin and sometimes-just Momma. I think that one is my favorite, although, Mrs. Kevin would run in close second. We are called the Addison’s as a family sometimes. Of course, we are daily referred to as mzungu or mzungus, which is white one. We hear this mostly from children who squeal and come running for you to touch them. I must tell you that this never gets old from the children. It is so precious to see them come running and you have love and a touch to offer them. Their faces light up so much. I wish you could see them and hear their voices.
Sights- the landscape of this place is breath taking. The flowers are so beautiful and abundant. My favorite sight is the morning sunrise though. The pace of life at which I must run with raising four boys has not changed and in order to get a little moment of quiet, I have been rising early to see the sunrise and be alone with Jesus before the busy day. I wish each of one you could see them. They are absolutely gorgeous. I have tried taking pictures but they are a far cry away from the incredible beauty each one brings. The time alone with Jesus is also a beautiful thing. (I have posted a picture for your enjoyment)
Smells- most of these aren’t pleasant so I will leave this alone.

Our hopes: Adoption- For those of you who have been keeping up with the blog, you are aware that we have been diligently praying about the adoption of another child or children. Many of you already know this has been a stirring in our hearts for quite sometime. I must tell you that even though this has been on my heart, I have found myself scared and anxious at the thought. Some have asked if we have gone to visit any orphanages yet and the answer is NO. I know that my compassionate heart would walk out with several children but that compassionate heart won’t carry me on the hard days with extra children and their hurt. We are waiting to hear God’s voice on this matter. The assurance that we have walked in obedience to His voice and heart are what will sustain us on hard days not our own compassion. This is the very truth that sustained us in our early days here in Uganda. Things were tough but our assurance in Gods call was unwavering. Please continue to pray as we wait upon Him. Adoption in Uganda is not an easy process and we have been encouraged by some to look at other countries in Africa. I want to let everyone know that of course I would love a little girl but I have not entered this adoption process seeking to satisfy a selfish desire. My heart has been open to boys as much as girls. As a matter of fact, I have envisioned adding boys to this tribe more than a little girl. After, praying this month specifically about adoption, little girls seem to be on our hearts most, especially Kevin. When speaking of adoption, that is all you will hear from him – is little girls. So, let it be known that the big man desires a daughter maybe more than me.

Our longings: The things I miss the most are running outdoors, the Destin beaches, hot showers, diet coke and Dove dark chocolate. OK, of course, I miss all of you the most and then those things. I have been running since I was eight and it just rejuvenates me physically and emotionally. There is a place that I can go run on a treadmill, but oh I miss Bluewater Bay Blvd. I have tried running in our village but between the dirt roads that are so rocky and the boda-bodas (motorcycles used for public transportation) and the people starring, it is not refreshing but stressful. As for hot showers, our bathrooms have tubs with shower sprayers but unfortunately, the water pressure is not good and we are left to just take a bath in a few inches of water –most of the time warm although when the power has been out it is cold. So, I miss hot showers with water beating on my back. However, I am thankful even for two or three inches of water (four on a good day) to clean in as walking on dirt roads with open toed shoes leaves your feet nasty most days. As for the diet coke and dark chocolate, I have found some alternatives, but some sacrifices must be made and I can live without them although, some of you probably thought I couldn’t.

Our heartaches: There are so many things that I love about Uganda and then there are certainly many things that I hate. I know that hate is a strong word but when you hear what these things are you will hate them too. Here are just a few headlines from today’s paper. Twelve-year-old girl burned by stepmother. The stepdaughter was made to put on a dress soaked in paraffin and then made to light a candle, burning her severely. Her very own father, the husband to this woman, defended the stepmother and wanted custody of his child probably to actually kill her this time. Another headlines, fourteen-year-old girl and baby boy abandoned and desolate. This young girl was living in Gulu with her family. One day her parents took her to school. While at school, the girl was informed that there had been raids in her village by the LRA- Lord’s Resistance Army (a war going on here in Uganda for the last 20 years). She never imagined that her parents would have been taken or hurt, but when nightfall came and they didn’t return from working in the fields, she knew what had been their fate. At the time, this girl was only eight with three younger siblings. They were taken to a government run IDP camp for internally displaced persons. Sometime later a man came and offered to take her and her siblings to Kampala for a better life. Of course, they went, who wouldn’t have. After a short time, this man began to demand sex from her. This was just a child – how could he. She became pregnant when she didn’t even know what that really meant. She gave birth to a baby boy. Now, she is fourteen with a six-month-old son and three younger siblings. They go for days with no food. She puts the baby on her breast but no milk comes. The children cry when they see people eating and they haven’t eaten in three days. These young girls stories represent many young people walking the streets of Kampala. The violence here is traumatizing and not uncommon to the people here. It is apart of their lives. Just a few weeks ago, there were riots here in the city over some land being given to the Indians. So, Ugandans just began lashing out at people of Indian descent. One man was thrown from a boda-boda and stoned to death- an innocent man. If you are caught stealing here, they’re a variety of torturous actions that could be taken out on you. One is that they put a tire around your head and shoulders and set it on fire. Even a simple traffic accident can lead to mob violence perhaps killing someone, over a dent. Probably the thing I hate the most is seeing young babies, babies who can barely sit up, sat in the median of a busy road to beg. One day, we were driving through town, where the streets are lined with such children. This precious baby probably not even eight months old was sitting up sleeping with its little hand held out and open. A ragged woman walked over and reached into the child’s front pocket and took out some coins someone had given. How can this be?

Our Lord and Savior: God has been working in and through us in amazing ways. Sometimes, I wonder if this mission is more about what God wants to do in us than through us, but praise God He is doing both. There is no greater Joy than walking in obedience to Him, whether taking orphans off the streets, discipling university students, preaching the gospel, singing the gospel or living the gospel. We are so humbled that God would allow this opportunity and privilege in our life to share in His goodness. Since coming, life has not been easy but oh He has been sufficient and personal in every way. We want to bless Him, praise Him and declare His faithfulness to us. He is at work in the lives of people in Uganda. His word is alive and active and transforming lives in this place. Please pray for His continued work in and through us.

I love and miss you all and appreciate so much those who correspond with us. It means so much. THANK YOU!

April 26, 2007


I have not written in a while because I have been very busy and I also feel as though everything will seem dull after the April Fools blog; however, I will provide an update on some recent events.

Everything in this blog is true, so you don’t need to look for any clues or hints.

Collins Birthday
We celebrated Collin’s 6th birthday this past week, and we believe that he had a good time. His birthday fell on Wednesday and we didn’t do much on that day except have a dinner at home of his choice. When we asked him what he wanted, he replied, “I want meat on a bone.” This can be interpreted to mean that he wanted pork ribs, so I grilled some pork ribs for dinner. We are fortunate that we were able to find a place in town that could fill our gas cylinders for our grill. The cylinder valves are very different that the ones from the states and we did not think that we could get our propane tanks filled. But, a couple of weeks ago we visited the main Shell terminal, and they were able to fill our tanks so that we can now use our gas grill. For this we are grateful. Anyway, on Saturday we had Collin’s party and he invited two friends to go with him to DiDi’s World, a local amusement park. We were not sure what to expect of an amusement park in Africa. Amusingly, their advertisements claim that they are Disney World in Uganda. We were quite confident that it would not be Disney in Uganda. We were pleasantly surprised, though, to find a park that had several functioning rides, was quite clean, and pretty fun. The quality of the rides was similar to what you would find at a local fair, and they also had four water slides. All of our boys had a good time. The best part was that the park was almost empty (maybe 50 total customers) and we only paid about $3 per person to get in. When the boys rode bumper cars, they rode for almost an hour straight because no one was waiting in line to get on. We spent the entire day there and did not arrive back home exhausted like we would from an American park. It is only about 5 minutes from our house, so we will probably start doing this more often. It would have been worth the price of admission just to go for the water slides, though the water in the pool at the bottom was green. I hope that they don’t catch any diseases from the dirty water.

Safety
Kampala has had some violence recently, and we are praying that it will not escalate. There is currently lots of controversy over the government giving away forestland to an Indian sugar company. There have been several demonstrations and three people were killed two weeks ago during one of the demonstrations. The demonstrations have all been in the city center and it appears that we are safe as long as we are not downtown when the demonstrations are occurring. It seems that many people are unhappy with the current government and are using this forest issue as an excuse to demonstrate and riot. They have used tear gas on crowds many times since we have lived here. Fortunately, we have not been in the vicinity any time that a riot has broken out.

Monday night was the first time that we have heard gunshots in Uganda. Around 1:30 a.m. we heard a single gunshot somewhere fairly close to our house. I asked a policeman about it this morning, and he said that there were actually two gunshots and that one was farther away and that one was close by. He did not know what happened. We did not feel threatened or terribly frightened, but it was a reminder that this can be a dangerous place. God has protected us thus far, as we have had not any robberies or major sickness. The only thing that we have had stolen were Pamela’s pearls, some tools, and some clothes when we first arrived. We feel like we live in a safe area and that we will be ok. However, we still pray for God’s protection and security from danger and disease.

Helping the Fatherless
Our primary ministry is discipleship of university students, but we still want to help facilitate the starting of a children’s home to care for orphans. We have initiated starting an NGO here, and have begun praying about finding land and the children that God desires for us to help. I don’t want to share too many details here but will provide more information in the near future. Please be praying and know that some important groundwork is being laid and things are beginning to progress very well.

Also, we have set aside the month of April for times of fasting and prayer as we seek God about adoption for our family. We don’t have any direct word from the Lord, but Pamela and I both sense that we are supposed pursue adoption and that it will likely be a girl. God’s Word tells us to commit our ways to Him, and that He will give us the desires of our heart. As we have been praying about this, both of us have had an increasing desire to have a girl and that is what seems to be on our heart. We will not move until we are sure that we have heard from the Lord, but this is where we are for now.

Student Center
Our container from America will be arriving in the next week and we still do not have a place to set up the student center. We are praying about whether we should rent or try to buy land and build a building. I have not found a good place to rent and wondering if we are not supposed to do that. Please pray that God will provide clear direction on His will and that I will not rush out ahead of Him feeling that we have to do something now. Also, pray that God would provide a place to store the gym equipment until we have the center ready to start. In our eight months here, it is very clear that all of the apparent “delays” have actually been God’s hand of protection and direction. We are trusting that this delay will also result in clearly seeing God’s plan.

Work Visas
Huge praise! If we had finalized our work visas when we first arrived, then it would have been $12,000 for just two years of work permits for our family. Just this week, missionary work permits have been reduced greatly, and the cost for our entire family for a two-year permit will be around $800. What a difference! We are so thankful that what appeared to be a delay was once again God’s protection and provision. A family in America had given us $2500 toward our work visas, and we will now coordinate with them to use this money toward ministry instead of taxes and fees.

More Birthdays
Pamela and Christian will celebrate birthdays on the 28th of this month. Pamela is promising to post her own blog on that day and has been writing on it. So, hopefully you will hear from her later this week.

Fuel Shortage
There has been a severe diesel shortage for the last few weeks with no apparent end in sight. Fuel has risen from $4/gallon to over $6/gallon, and if you can find a station with fuel they will often limit you to 2-3 gallons. We are told that it is due to a break in the pipeline that comes here from the coast of Kenya. However, you can never be sure about what the truth is if your only source is the local papers.

Witchdoctors
The reliance on traditional medicine, even among Christians, is quite prevalent and concerning. We had our first real encounter with it this morning. Our helper/guard, Mickey, went yesterday to visit a sick cousin in the hospital. When he arrived, he found that his cousin was seriously ill with his entire upper body extremely swollen and his head almost twice its normal size. He had been in the hospital for 5 days and was getting worse and the “real” doctors at the hospital were telling him that they did not know what to do and that he should go to the village doctors (aka, witchdoctors). Mickey would not agree to this and said for him to stay at the hospital. When Mickey arrived home last night and told us what happened, I told him that I would pay to take his cousin to a better hospital. We left first thing this morning, to take his cousin to the International Hospital, but we found out that an uncle had taken him last night, as soon as Mickey left, to the village that is 8-9 hours away. I am very concerned that by the time that they realize that the village doctors cannot help him, that it may be too late. People continue to believe in traditional medicine and worship, doing sacrifices and rituals, in an attempt to manipulate the spirits. It is such an ingrained part of this culture that it seeps into the church and influences many of their beliefs and practices. It manifests itself primarily in the form of people always looking to God for miracles and riches. They pay money (“sacrifices”) to the pastor who promises that God will answer their prayers to get a new car or a bigger house. Instead, the pastor gets new cars and bigger houses, while the people continue to try to manipulate the spirits, that is now represented by one God instead of many. There is so much junk teaching and prosperity gospel teaching here that it is disgusting. I rarely hear anyone speaking of personal holiness, repentance, or true salvation. Everything is about what God can do for them in a material sense.

Ministry
Ministry is going very well and we continue to get busier and busier. I taught three bible studies, preached once, and did pastoral training in just a 4-day span. This week will be similar, though I will probably only be teaching one bible study.

April Fools Unveiled

I have been trying to get on line for the last three days to post this blog and let everyone know that I was joking. I never intended that people would really believe what I fabricated, but I thought it still best to give a hint that it was a joke. By posting on April 1 and providing a hint, I thought that most everyone would realize that I was playing around. While we covet your prayers, I just hope that there were not prayer times for our made-up family travails. At one point, I laughed to myself thinking about some church group praying for the Ironsides who have bats in their home, worms coming out of their bottoms, and cobras trying to bite them. We tried to think of more crazy things to include, but everything that the boys suggested was too outlandish (lions in our yard, elephants stealing our vegetables). Well, maybe with the gullibility of some, even those would not have been so unbelievable. The idea was that people would be fooled up until the final line of the blog.

So, the question has come from a few as to what was true and what was fiction. Basically, the ideas came from real events, but were greatly embellished to make it more shocking. The lies that are most believable are always those that contain an element of truth, which even Satan, the father of lies, often employs.

I totally made up the story about the monkeys. They had not been to our compound, and we have never seen any that were carrying sticks as weapons. However, two days after posting the April 1st blog, we saw four monkeys right outside our gate. So, maybe it was somehow prophetic, though I would not want any of the other events to come to pass.

The boys did find a dead snake while we are at the pool, but it was totally dead (as opposed to mostly dead) and did not try to bite them. I never saw it, so I don’t know what kind it was. Pamela really did have a group of 50 women at our house for a seminar.

We did go to a village church, but there were not any “native dancers” and the only things that we were served were Coke and Fanta.

We have had several sick boys, but none of them had worms coming out of bodily orifices.

We do actually have to have our house fumigated for bats in the attic, but I have never seen any in our house.

So, it was a lie wrapped inside of some real events. I see pastors here twisting the scriptures in similar ways, and I know that it occurs in the US and the rest of the world, as well. Many years ago I heard Pastor Adrian Rogers give a wonderful example that I have not forgotten. He said that the most dangerous lies are those that are closest to the truth. He gave the example of two watches; one that is 6 hours slow and another that is 30 minutes slow. He then asked which is the most dangerous. He stated that if I look at my watch and see that the time is 6 hours off, then I will most certainly recognize that something is wrong with my watch. However, if I look to my watch and the time is only 30 minutes off, then I probably will not recognize it and could miss an important engagement. Mostly truth mixed with a lie is still a lie. Beware the false teachers and the lies of Satan, who mix the truth with a lie or alter the truth to deceive us.

I think that my next fabrication will involve telling people to send me money so that they can get blessed or something. At least, I should benefit financially from being so convincing. HINT: I am only joking. See how easily this works. When you see the word “hint”, it provides a clue. Yes, I am being a smart aleck (sp?). I did hear that a few thought that the hint was that Pamela was having a birthday in April. That was not the reason for the hint, but her birthday is on the 28th and I know that she would love to get a card in the mail. It only takes about two weeks to get a letter here so you still have time. You can send it to: Ironside Family, World Gospel Mission, PO Box 11788, Kampala, Uganda.

Congratulations to Lisa Knaus who was the first to write me saying that she believed that it was all an April Fools joke. I will not reveal the many people who wrote to me thinking that it was real. Hey, I just had an idea. I could threaten to post their emails unless they send me money, especially the ones asking if I captured the stick-wielding monkeys on video or if we took pictures at church.

From now on, my blogs will contain only true events, until at least next April. Thanks for being such faithful readers. I waited a week to post again so that people would have ample opportunity to read the joke blog before I revealed that it was all in jest.

Also, we are still having emails that you send to us that we never receive. If you do not hear back from us within a few days of sending, you should try sending again. We know of several people who have emailed recently, and we never got their email. It really is aggravating not knowing what makes it through. By the way, we love getting updates on Niceville baseball, both for the little league and the high schoolers.

We hope that you had a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen Savior! We had between 700-800 students in church yesterday morning for Easter service, and there was not an empty seat. We took our projector to campus last night and showed “The Passion of the Christ” and over 600 students came. We gave an invitation at the end and one man came forward to receive Christ. We would like to start showing movies on a regular basis because there was such a good turnout. I think that the next movie we will show will be “Facing the Giants”. Our family has already watched it twice and we loved it. Such a powerful message in an intriguing story line! They don’t know American football at all, but we have showed the movie to Ugandans and Kenyans and they both really enjoyed it, too. We would welcome suggestions on good movies to show, preferably those with a Christian message. Also, the church could really use a projector for not just movies, but also for projecting the words to worship songs during church services. We are using mine some, but I do not believe that I should give it to them because 1) it was a gift from SAIC to me, and 2) it is 110 volt and the power here is 240 volt. So, if God’s Spirit is prompting you to provide a projector, then please let me know and I will coordinate the details. It would be a huge benefit to the ministry and a good kingdom investment.

We miss you all.
Kevin for the Tribe

Revenge of the Monkeys

This has been quite an eventful weekend and I should have known that something was up when monkeys returned to our compound for the first time since Paska killed one almost three months ago. They were staying along our wall and occasionally venturing into the trees, and we were fearful that she was going to have a second victim. However, we were quite surprised when we saw the ingenuity of the monkeys and that they had taken up sticks for protection. There was a group of five monkeys, each with a stick, and they would hit Paska with a stick if she approached. If one monkey was getting fruit from our guava tree, the other monkeys would stand guard. All the monkeys survived and Paska is a frustrated dog. She needs to stick with hunting rabbits, it’s much safer.

We are trying to get everyone healthy for the first time in a while. Christian finally recovered from his sickness, but Addison came after him and spent all day Tuesday vomiting, and was also home from school on Wednesday recovering. On Thursday, he was better and now everyone had endured this bug or virus or whatever it is that is getting us one by one. Now we have a new illness to battle that hopefully will only have one victim. Collin had been complaining of stomach aches and that his bottom itched. He is always whining, and he was still eating and playing normally, so we didn’t give it much thought. Well, he was fussing more than usual, and especially about his bottom itching. Pamela decided that she should inspect him to see if he had a rash or something and upon inspection she found worms. They were actually crawling out of his bottom. We have treated him and it is supposed to be cured in two days, but still very gross! We hope that he has not passed it to anyone else. We will all take the medication just as a precaution.

It has been a very busy weekend of ministry. I met with my men’s discipleship group on Friday night; Pamela had 50 women students to our house on Saturday for an all day seminar; they had a talent night at church Saturday night that lasted until 10:30 pm; and I preached at a church in the village this morning, but we did not get home until after 4:00 in the afternoon. All went well and it was a productive weekend, but we did get a bit of a startle in church. We were in the village and I warned our boys that it would be a long service and a bit different. However, we were not expecting one of the differences. It is quite common to have “presentations” in church. Presentations may be a testimony or a song or even a dance. Sometimes they will last up to an hour of the service. One of the presentations this morning was a tribal dance, but we had no idea that some of the women would be doing the dance while only clothed from the waist down. Our boys were not sure whether to laugh, run, or stare. Pamela and I felt pretty much the same way. Somehow, we made it through and Pamela even sang a song this morning before I preached. Then, we were not aware that we would be staying for lunch afterwards, but if you are offered anything here, it is very rude not to accept. Therefore, we stayed to eat and just hoped that it would all be safe to eat. Well, I am not sure how safe it was because they were serving fried grubs. I thought that Christian was going to throw up just from looking at it. However, Blake (always the brave one) decided that he would try them out and he actually liked them. He said that they tasted like the fried grasshoppers that we had eaten many times. So, we did our best to eat enough to be respectful and appreciative, and now we are all hoping that we don’t get sick again.

Yesterday, while Pamela had the women to our house, I took all of the boys to go swimming, including two or our neighbors. We tried to stay gone most of the day so that we would not disturb the teaching time at our house. The pool that we go to is by Lake Victoria, and sometimes the boys like to explore a little. Since we were at the pool for many hours, they did more exploring than usual. While Blake was out exploring with his friend Musa, they came across a dead snake that had apparently been run over by a car. Africa is known for its many snakes, and especially the large variety of venomous species. Fortunately, most Africans think that all snakes are poisonous and so they kill them all whenever they see them. We have been here for seven months and only seen three snakes, and two of them were dead. Well, this was snake number four and it was dead too, or at least they thought. They were picking up the snake and examining it, when it began to move. I am not sure whether the nerves were still alive and the snake really dead, or if the snake was still alive. Whatever the case, the snake began to move quite a bit and even tried biting them. Some Ugandans were nearby and beat the snake again, so it was dead for sure. They came and got me after the event, and so I went to see the snake. It was a cobra! If they had been bitten they could have been killed. A dead snake is capable of biting if the nerves are still active. In fact a fireman in Florida was killed by a dead diamondback rattler a few weeks before we left America. I have now warned them not to pick up any more dead snakes.

The last event came last night as we were going to bed. There are many pests here including malaria-carrying mosquitoes, cockroaches, snakes, ants, termites, and bats. We have to have our house fumigated at least every three months to keep them away, but the last time we had fumigation done I did not have them do anything for bats. It is already expensive enough to do the fumigation for bugs, and I had not seen many bats the whole time that we have lived here. Plus, I didn’t see what the big deal was anyway if a few bats happened to get into your attic. Now I know that if bats come that it is not just a few and somehow they can show up by the hundreds. Apparently, they get on the move and look for a place to roost. Once they find their new roosting place, they stay there through the daytime and begin to move again once darkness sets in. On Saturday night, already at the end of a long day of ministry, we were settling into sleep and heard a noise in the hallway. I wanted to ignore it because I was already tired (and under the mosquito net) but it kept occurring and getting louder. I finally got out of bed and wandered down toward the boys’ rooms and flipped on the hall light. There were bats in our house by the hundreds! They were trying to scatter from the light, which just made it worse. They are fruit bats, which are harmless, but fairly large by bat standards. I had to quickly turn off the light so that they would settle down and then close off all of the doors. I then opened the hallway window and was able to get them out of it. I hope that they are all gone. I guess that I won’t know for sure until darkness comes again tonight. They make a mess, and they smell horrible. I will definitely get the full fumigation treatment next time.

We really don’t what to know what might come next in our crazy lives. I hope that your lives are more uneventful and that you enjoyed the arrival of April this weekend. (Hint!)

Blessings for the Tribe,
Kevin