Niceville – A Year Later

July 15th was our one-year anniversary of having moved away from Niceville. In some ways, it seems like it was only yesterday and in other ways it seems much longer. We have been keeping up with the Niceville Baseball All Stars via the internet. This would have been a fun year since it would have been Christian’s last year to play Little League and Blake’s age group is so good that they are going to state. Dan Shelton would have been Christian’s All Star coach since Christian was on the Mariners last year. Of course I am assuming that both would have played All Stars again since they had made the team every year. We knew that we would miss sports, and we miss baseball the most. We really enjoyed going to Niceville High School football games, too, and we miss that. For our boys, though, it is baseball that we miss much more than football. It was fun watching our own boys as well as their friends. It was definitely a family affair and we could visit with our friends during practices and games. We are pulling for the Niceville 10-yr olds team as they and Coach Donald go to Fort Myers for the state tournament.

It is funny the things that you miss. One of the things that comes up most are the foods that we miss. For restaurants, it is the simpler ones that we think about -- mostly Cracker Barrel and Beef O’Bradys. Potato chips, ice cream, Diet Coke, and chocolate milk are often craved. You can get some of the food items here, but they are not as good and very expensive. A day at the Destin beaches would be an awesome treat, as would a day out deep-sea fishing.

Earthquakes
We have had several earthquakes lately. One night we were in a restaurant eating dinner with some friends and the table was shaking so vigorously that Pamela thought that I was shaking it with my leg. The boys were at home and were quite alarmed and unsure what to do. We had another mild tremor last night. We have had about 5 tremors in the past month or so. They are coming from the western part of Uganda near the Rift Valley, so we are most likely not in any danger even if we have a severe earthquake.

A Cold Day in July
Have you ever heard or used the expression “it will be a cold day in July before…”? Well, we had the coldest 4th of July that I have ever experienced. It rained the entire day, which is really unusual here, and it never got above 70 degrees. It was the coldest day that we have had in Uganda in 10 months. We are only about 25 miles from the equator and at about 3,000 feet elevation, so I still don’t understand how it could be so chilly. Anyway, we enjoy the cool weather and the better sleeping temperatures. The climate is really pleasant here and would be perfect if buildings were equipped with air conditioning.

Visit from Tony
Tony Gibson just came for a 1-week visit that was terrific. It was good to spend time with him to be encouraged and be reminded of why God called us here. He came last January when we had just started into ministry and his perspective on what had been accomplished in six months was much different (in a good way) than ours. Sometimes we can just be too close to a situation to see all that God is doing. Even in our children, he could see a positive difference in how they respond to us as parents and to each other. They are all doing very well in adjusting to the culture. The boys love getting to visit with Tony, and he and Blake had lots of fun playing foosball together. (By the way, Blake dominated!) He delivered some much-needed items as well as some wants including new IPods. Thanks to Debbie Lowmiller for doing our shopping so that Tony could bring the stuff in his luggage.

People who stay in touch
When we did our missionary training we were told that the people that will support you and stay in touch with you would surprise us. I had heard it from other missionaries before then. They were referring to the fact that people you barely know will get excited about your mission work while people that you have known for many years may rarely contact you. Well, they were correct. It is such an encouragement to have people that we have only briefly known or met that email us and even send us care packages. We have gotten emails from people that we knew many years ago and have not seen since then. We have even had people whom we have never met give financial support. It is interesting to see how God raises up people to encourage you that you would have never expected. It seems that when we are most in need of a pick-me-up that it is the day that a letter, email, or package arrives. We do have three packages that were sent to us that have gone missing in action. They should have been here at least two months ago. Please pray that they will resurface. It would be a miracle along the lines of Pamela’s suitcase coming back after 6 weeks.

Matching Outfits
If you saw the pictures posted with this blog then you probably noticed that all of us boys had on matching shirts. Pamela found the material and had the shirts made. She got upset with me last Sunday because I did not want us all to wear them to church and then for lunch afterwards. I said that we would look like “dorky missionaries”. I am fine with getting my picture made or wearing the shirt when no one else has his on. However, I did draw a line at all of us going out looking that way. I am guessing that most males reading this agree with me, and that the women are siding with Pamela.