This past Monday night to Tuesday, Eric and I took the pastors and their wives for a one night retreat to focus on marriage and family and ministry issues. We had 12 couples in all, including us. We had a session on marriage and ministry led by Eric, a session for the men led by Eric and for the women led by me and then we finished with a session with a session on family and ministry. We also had a time when the couples could spend time with just the two of them talking and praying.
We praise the Lord so much for how he blessed our time together. Family life, in general, here in Uganda is so weak (even more so than in America). In addition, the pastors and their families are under constant attacks from the evil one. What a blessing it was to be able to get away with them and give some much needed nourishment. This was especially true for the wives. The men tend to get more training when they attend Knox Theological College. Eric often brings marriage and family issues into his lectures. This is wonderful! But it is also hard for the wives to start to be led by their husbands in ways that they have never heard of or been taught. They were so eager to hear God's wonderful design for being godly wives and mothers!
The beautiful Sipi Falls...
Me and My absolutely amazing husband... I love this guy so much!
The group...
I was really thankful for our kids this week too! We left them overnight for the first time without a Mzungu watching them. During the mornings we had our friend here who works for us, during the afternoons they were on their own and at night Carol was here. So, while there was always an adult around, these adults weren't babysitting them; for the most part they were in charge of themselves and on their own. Timothy took a boda into town and picked up pizza for all the kids for supper (and soda and doritos--they were all quite pleased with his choices...haha!). After supper they all cleaned up and the big kids got the littles in bed. During the day on Tuesday, they home schooled themselves with the big kids helping the little kids. We were pretty impressed with their growing maturity, although promises of milkshakes at Endiro might have helped a wee bit towards that end too... haha! This is one of the many ways that our kids participate in ministry. If it weren't for them, the night away wouldn't have been such an amazing success! I'm so thankful for this crew the Lord has blessed us with!
Wow! What an amazing time, and I'm so glad your kids had such fun. They are becoming adults!!! :) I remember the first time we stayed home without a sitter or mom and dad. It was scary and fun at the same time. :)))
ReplyDeleteWhat a blessing! I'm so impressed with the kids - even getting school work done!
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