A few random pictures...

::On Sunday some of our neighbor kids like to join us for church.  Sadly, their parents won't come.  But the kids...10 or so of them....are extremely faithful...it might have something to do with the tea before and the playtime afterwards, but our God is great and will bring his people by the most unusual means at times...who knows but for some it might be tea and toys?  One sibling group that comes, range in age from about 10 to age 1.  The one year old really doesn't care to obey her older siblings though and she and Talitha can make quite a ruckus together as they feed each other leaves and squeeze each other's cheeks.  So last Sunday I took the little one in my lap during church and she promptly...and ever-so-adorably...fell right asleep.

::Today Katelyn and I did some shopping together at our local supermarket.  This supermarket likes to gift their customers who buy a lot.  Today they gave us Mango Popsicles.  Yum!  A great treat for a 90 degree day during dry season.

Bullet Post Update...

:: After more than a year on the market, our house in Salem finally sold.  We praise the Lord that we are free from this burden now.  With our final physical link to Salem now cut, we have hearts full of thanks for all that He did for us and through us in Salem and all that He continues to do for us and through us here in Uganda.  We don't deserve such grace!  

::The OPCU recently had a meeting of presbytery.  Here is a picture I took of all the guys.  Pray for these men...pray that they will lead with wisdom, love and godliness.  Pray that their personal lives will be filled with righteousness and works fitting of those that have been called by the Holy One.  Pray for the pastors, that their preaching will be effective and powerful.  Pray for the elders, that they will lead with wisdom and grace.  Pray for the deacons, that they will have the resources needed to be generous and loving to the poor members of the church (of which there are many!).

::Valentines Day was sweet and made sweeter by all of these ladies and young ladies.  A tea party, made complete with heart shaped sugar cookies and candy hearts sent by loved ones from America, was in order for the girls, and dinner out with good friends topped the day off for Eric and I.

:: A few years ago, the previous missionaries and renters of this house, elevated the floor of the pantry to make it even with the kitchen floor.  They laid planks of wood down and left a 2 foot gap between the new floor and the cement floor.  A splendid idea!  Then the current missionaries and renters (ahem, that'd be us!) went and spilled 4 trays of eggs on the floor and numerous liters of water (thanks to children filling up pitchers of water at the filter and forgetting to turn off the filter...sigh...).  For weeks we have been living with the smell of a dead animal...not knowing for sure if it was the eggs (the eggs stank for a week and then stopped) or something else.  Finally today, we ripped up the floor and discovered all the nasties under the pantry.  Ugh... but glad to be done the smell...glad to have sweet young men on our compound who are willing to clean it up!!

::Talitha is as cute as ever these days.  Both when she is covered in chocolate pudding...

...or nicely cleaned up...

::Finally, this is what has really been keeping us busy!  These two decided to have the shortest engagement ever.  Ever planned a wedding in less than 15 hours??  We did!  And, all thanks to our heavenly Father, it was a simple and beautiful day...and a lovely example to our friends here...westerners don't always have to throw huge bashes to tie the knot in a God-glorifying way.  I'm sure when they return from their honeymoon, she will post the whole story to her blog ( www.ugandamama.blogspot.com )!

A soon-to-be family of three...

I just did engagement photos for this lovely couple.  My friend Lexi has been living here in Mbale for quite a while and is in the process of adopting a little girl.  She met her fiance on Sovereign Grace singles.  It's quite a story and you can read all about it on her blog...www.ugandamama.blogspot.com.  So now the twosome is becoming a threesome...and all to the praise of the glory of God's marvelous grace.

Sunny School Days

It's a great day for doing school outside! (and for taking pictures of the kids without their notice. :)  

And William wrote the whole Alphabet for the first time this morning...complete with dirt smudges and his token upside-down "i."  What a boy! :)  Hats off and a huge thank you to Christi, our new MA!  She's rockin' out with the pre-school work for the littles and weekly piano lessons for the 5 oldest!

It's what's for lunch...

Yes, my husband will attest, sometimes I take pictures of weird things and post them to my blog, but I think that the beans that we eat almost every day (much to my children's sanctification) are beautiful and very much so picture worthy and therefore blog worthy...

...at least before they are cooked...

...afterwards, well, not so much... :)