End of September Bullet Post Update...

:: William turned 6 last week.  He is always so excited about his birthdays...not because of the gifts, but because of all the special attention.  Super sweet!

:: We had a guest lecturer at KTC for the first class of the semester.  Now Eric is back to teaching.  He has 18 students this class and is teaching on Biblical Hermeneutics.  So thankful for the Lord's blessing in this.  Entering into the school year, we thought that there might only be 4 students.

::Just before the summer, KTC got power in the buildings.  Over the summer, the buildings at KTC were painted.  The campus is looking nice!

::Our little home school is coming along.  It's been a good few weeks.

    >The Banks of the Nile have been planted and flooded a little too much...

   >A grand attempt was made to string up a size-comparison model of the Solar System.

 
 >Katelyn made a chocolate Chinese-coin cake while she was studying the Taiping Rebellion.  (I like to pick projects for her that taste good and we all enjoy.  :)

::  Talitha was super sick again over the weekend.  It was never confirmed, but we suspected and treated for Malaria.  She seems to like to blow crazy high fevers (105.8) when she gets malaria.  It's no fun to have to cool her down with cold water, but we are thankful that the Lord is healing her.  She still isn't 100% today, but seems to be on the mend.  Thank you for continuing to pray for us!

Egyptian Day

Today was Egyptian Day for Miss Christi's students and I think you will agree that we had the two cutest little Egyptians running around...

Evangelism at the Borehole

Christi, our missionary associate, made this video about the work that went on at the borehole behind Knox Theological College this past summer.   We praise the Lord for the work that was done and pray that God will continue it with the planting of a new church.  Eric and 17 men spent 6 hours at KTC this past week in prayer and fasting for this opportunity.  Satan has already begun his work to destroy with great vigor.  God is greater still!  May God be glorified have his word proclaimed in this highly muslim area!  Please join us in prayer for it.

Happy Second Birthday, Talitha!

Yesterday was Talitha's second birthday.  She is a bundle of precious cuteness these days!  She loves crayons, dolls and Chic-Fil-A cows.  Her favorite book is the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia.  And she is the only child I know that insists on having a pillow to lay her head on while I change her diaper.  (Probably a sure sign of readiness to potty train, but she is the youngest of 8. ;) 

We got this t-shirt as a hand-me down when William was two.  William and Benaiah both wore it and the kids found it first thing in the morning yesterday.  (I didn't even know we still had it!  ha, ha!)

And while she still insists that she is "one,"  she loved her birthday cake and unlike her brother, loved all the attention.

I made this video of her yesterday; a grand attempt to record her talking and capture a bit of her personality.  In typical 2 year old fashion, she has a bit of ADD and acts like she doesn't know the answers to my questions.  :)  I hope all the special people in her life who aren't able to watch her grow up in person, enjoy.  :)

Mbale Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Uganda

Today, our current visitor took a picture of our church that meets on our compound here in Mbale.  God has certainly blessed this church this past year.  

And here is a picture of our family plus a couple extra...Daniel, our friend and "almost, not really, but may as well be 9th child" and Christi, our MA.

First Week of School

I think, by God's grace, we can call our first week of school a success!  The kids and I both enjoy being back into a routine.  The greatest challenge this year is that, because of the move and transition time, it has been a year and a half since we have pulled a full work load.  But the kids rose to the occasion this week and did well.  Timothy started a new program called Tree of Life. The curriculum integrates history, literature, logic and writing and teaches note taking, summarizing and other skills that will be important as he heads into high school.  It is significantly more challenging for him, but again, he has done really well this first week.  More importantly he has done it with a really great attitude, and I praise the Lord for that, because I prayed for him all summer that God would prepare him for the challenge.  God is so faithful!

 Timothy is also doing Apologia's General Science, which he loves.  The rest are doing Apologia Astronomy.  Apologia does a great job at using basic supplies in their experiments, but because they may not be easily available here, we decided to get the experiment supply box that they sell.  And now I'm asking myself why didn't I do this earlier?  It's so nice to have everything gathered and ready to go!  I have no more excuses!

Memory work, literature, Shurley English, Spelling Power, Saxon Math and Math-U-See, Story of the World, Institute for Excellence in Writing, and Fix-It are also on their lists.

Katelyn is doing Story of the World IV this year and she made this model of the Crystal Palace.  Over the next couple days it got turned into an entire complex and all of the kids have enjoyed many hours playing with it.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair...

Christi, our MA and friend Jenna (serving with the Weber family) decided to get extensions put in.  Any guesses as to how long it took?

8 hours?  longer...

10 hours? nope, longer...

Try 23 hours...

Three days of  movies, shows, lots of music and lots of chatting.

Jenna has thinner hair, so they put 4 packs of extensions on her.

Christi has thick hair, so they put 10 and a half packs of extensions in!!

...and a streak of pink!  ;)

Mt. Wanale with the Webers

Today we drove up Mt. Wanale with the Webers (our new team mates), our visiting teacher for KTC, and a few other friends.  Eric has been doing very well recovering from his surgery, but I still drove.  As usual, we enjoyed the company of many small children, had a lot of good fellowship and enjoyed the view.

This older brother had a creative way of taking care of his little brother.

He didn't seem to mind the free ride.  :)

Benaiah and Silas were born only a week apart.  Benaiah is quite pleased to have a playmate who loves Legos and Thomas the Tank Engine as much as he does.

Talitha enjoyed her perch, for the most part.  After a while she wanted to get down and run, but she can't quite be trusted around the cliffs.

And this is why we were without power all weekend.  What a mess!  I was impressed how quickly they got it cleaned up, though.  I'm thankful to have my washing machine back!

For Our Good and God's Glory

During the night, late Saturday, Eric woke up with fairly intense pain.  By morning, I began to wonder if it was his appendix, so we took him to the best local hospital in Mbale.  We wanted a scan, but the techs weren't scheduled to arrive until 8:30am, so we went home to rest.  Over the next couple hours, the pain gradually reduced.  Eric still went back to the hospital, only to find that the techs had decided to go to church and they wouldn't be around for a while.  So Eric decided to also go to church (he was able to walk again by this point) and he went back after lunch for the scan.  The appendix was indeed swollen, so we left home and headed to Kampala just after 4pm.  We arrived at the international hospital at 9 and after 4 hours of testing and ER stuff he got admitted and moved to a private room.  Still not being in too much pain, we both slept quite well with only one interruption from the nurses.  This morning the doctor met with us and said that it needed to come out.  While the surgery is kinda a bummer, we are so thankful to have the access to life saving medicine.  Eric is now out of surgery and resting.  He is in some pain, but it's being controlled with meds.

On Friday Eric was discussing with some students about witch doctors who curse people by "throwing bones" into their stomachs.  These "bones" cause great pain and witch doctors claim to be in control of them.  Ugandan Christians fully believe that these things are real.  Eric responded with great seriousness, "I'm not afraid of that.  I don't doubt that satan can do things like that but Jesus Christ is more powerful."  Oh the coincidence in timing...or perhaps very real spiritual warfare.  Great things are happening in the work here: record attendance at Mbale OPCU (over 100!), increased student numbers at KTC, evangelism at the well behind KTC, Sunday worship and Church planting in new areas, etc... and certainly satan would like to frustrate these things, but we know that where satan intends to frustrate, God intends to turn for our good and his glory.  As God does this, He uses the fervent prayers of His people.  So Please continue to pray for us and the work here!  Thank you!