A Long Week

Whew...what a time we've had lately.  Malaria season has kicked in...with the rains returning the mosquitos are also returning.  William and Benaiah had malaria first, then Katelyn came down with typhoid, then Talitha came down with malaria and some sort of bacterial thing going on, then Benaiah got malaria again, and Rebecca followed that with a tummy bug.  In the middle of all that, I ended up with a blocked kidney (but seemingly not from a stone) that left me in excruciating pain (way worse than childbirth) on Sunday and I spent the day in the hospital getting an Ultrasound and ultimately a CT scan.  On Monday, Talitha spiraled down further and we ended up in the clinic with her for IV antibiotics, antimalarials, and fluid.  Now Eric is playing catch up with the rest of us by coming down with malaria too.  In these seasons, we sure take comfort in God's mercy and compassion and also the prayers of very many saints.  I was listening to Paul Tripp's recent talk at the Gospel Coalition Conference on suffering.  His final point was that suffering happens in community as brothers and sisters in Christ pray for and support one another.  We really felt that last weekend as we walked through some difficult moments, but knew people around the world were praying for us.  

Towards the end of the week, the smiles finally came back out.  Praise God!

And the kids got a turtle as a gift. 

Today, I was able to run in a 5K for CURE hospital.  We have been very thankful for CURE hospital.  They specialize in pediatric brain surgeries...hydrocephalus, spina bifida, and brain tumors.  But they also have helped us out on more than one occasion with stitches, asthma attacks and this past weekend with my CT Scan.  (The radiographer even came back in after-hours from over an hour away to do the scan).  I was so thankful to be able to run today and support a great cause while I was at it.  And running in races here is just an overall great experience...late start times, dance party warm-ups, and dodging bodas and traffic... so much fun! I couldn't convince my family to join me this year, but it was a fun time to catch up with friends.

Updates and Visits

::First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all your prayers after our break-in.  We still praise the Lord that no one was hurt and that we didn't lose any possessions.  The intruder has been in jail this whole time and will appear in court soon.  Eric will need to go to court also.  Please continue to pray that God's will be done.  It appears that this is not his first time in prison.  In the meantime, Eric has a student that is from the same tribe as the intruder and has gone a couple times to meet with him in jail.  He was able to share the gospel with him and pray with him.  It also appears that he was not alone in his plans to break into our house.  His cohort is not locked up at this time however, as the evidence against him is still technically considered "hear-say" and not enough to imprison someone for.    The kids have recovered quite well from all of the trauma.  The first few days were rough, but God carried us through.  To Him be the glory!  It was such an encouragement to know that so many were praying for us!  The Lord has also sustained me, particularly in regards to my adrenal insufficiency which really doesn't like stress (I took lots of extra steroids!) and I praise him for that.  It does seem, however, that the stress and busyness have thrown me into an RA flare and the past couple days have brought lots of joint pain.  I know it will pass soon though!

:: We were blessed this past week with a major distraction from the heaviness of the break-in, by a visit from Eric's mom.  Her timing couldn't have been more perfect as she was not here for the break-in, but was here right after!  We enjoyed introducing her to our friends, our church, the college, and our lives here.  We're eagerly anticipating her and Dad coming back one day soon!

Driving up Mt. Wanale:

Visiting Eric's students at the college: (who's that cute little student right up front?! ;-) )

We also were able to visit some friends in the church.  Mama Evangeline is the oldest member of our church (past 90 years).  She broke her leg a couple months ago and has not been able to recover her mobility.  She's a precious dear sister in the Lord.

Last Nights Break In

Last night God carried us through some scary moments as we had someone break into our house.  It was about 11pm.  Everyone except Eric was sleeping.  If you look at this picture that I took today, Eric was sitting by the window where Jimmy is pictured reading a book.  If you look in front of the doors, you will see a hole in the ceiling.  That hole is the access point to our attic.  The perpetrator climbed onto our roof (we aren't sure if he did this during the day or just before the incident), broke through the clay tiles on the roof, into our attic and started to come through the hole.  Eric saw the door slowly close and thinking a child was perhaps hiding behind the door needing something, he watched, but then through the screen on top of the door he saw two feet start to come down.  

He immediately yelled and our security guard came to help.  The perpetrator went back into the attic.  In the process, I woke up and the Magalas (whom we share our compound with) also woke up.  Pastor Charles sounded an air horn to alert neighbors and we called in more security. (our security company responds more quickly than the police in situations like this)  In all the noise, our big kids woke up, but we also realized that we didn't know where the guy was, if he was alone or if he was armed.  So we also woke up the little kids and ushered them out to the van and locked them in the van, which was parked right by our water tower, which is close to the roof.  About 10 minutes passed of the men trying to look for him.  Suddenly, as Timothy (age 18) was starting to climb on top of the roof, the perpetrator came up onto the roof and Timothy chased him.  The kids in the car saw Timothy running after him and then he jumped from the roof to the water tower and down.  He started to run.  We all yelled.  Then Matthew (our 15 years old) rushed him from behind, grabbed him around the waist and threw him to the ground.  (His courage and strength amazed us all and I'm so proud of the man is becoming!  If it wasn't for his courage and quick thinking we probably would have lost the guy. When we asked him about it later, he said, "I just did what I have always seen them do in the movies." hahaha!)  Our security guard was about 20 feet away.  He came and jumped on him.  Then Eric was the next to the scene and jumped as well.  The three of them, after a short struggle, subdued him.  

We still didn't know at that point if he was the only one.  So while we were waiting for the police, we began to search the compound and stay on alert.  Then the police came and took him away.  

The kids were understandably upset and afraid to go back in the house and try to sleep, so I took them to the hotel while Eric and Timothy stayed in the house to make sure everything stayed calm.

The police hypothesized that his goal was to get into our house and unlock the doors for his friends to come in.  These guys almost never move alone, but we're quite certain his friends didn't actually make it into the house.  Once the alarm had been sounded they probably took off.  These bad guys need to realize that between us and the Magalas and all our children, we have a small army on this compound!  haha!

Please continue to pray for our safety, that none of these guys or their friends try to get revenge on us, and for the hearts of our kids that they will be full of peace.  While it was super important to get them out of the house and away from possible danger, it meant that they didn't blissfully sleep through the trauma (the little ones surely would have!) and instead they were alert to the fear and unknown of the situation for quite a while before the guy was arrested. 

Loading up on the police truck

Rehashing the nights events, encouraging small hearts, and answering many questions over a yummy breakfast at our local hotel.  Turning their eyes once again to the goodness of God to keep us safe, framing a practical theology of God's love, power, and sovereignty and our ever-guarding warrior angels that God sends to take care of us.

Visiting Swaib's Village

Today we had great fun visiting Swaib's village.  If you are new to our blog, Swaib is the young man that has been living with us for just over a year.  About a year and a half ago, he was in a severe accident that left him burned from the knees down.  Our church first met him in the hospital where his life was on the line due to severe infection, malnourishment, collapsed lungs and no oxygen or medicine available.  His burns and skin graft sites have just recently healed.  He now has one more surgery to go in order to correct his toes that healed incorrectly so that he can once again wear shoes.  That surgery will be February 8 in Kampala.  Please be in prayer for him for that. He's come so far though!  Last year, we went up to visit youth camp for a day and we were so happy because he was able to walk from the building to a nearby rock...he was so weak from his injuries, collapsed lungs, and tuberculosis, that the 50-yard walk was a huge accomplishment!  This year he attended youth camp with all the rest of the students in our church and kept up just fine!  God's healing hand has been so gracious!

In Ugandan culture, visitors are given food and drinks in the living room, but the hosts do not stay with them while they eat.  It's only after eating that fellowship takes place.

But we still have lots of neighbor kids peeking in the house to see the visiting Mzungu...haha!

Swaib with his mom, uncle and auntie.

Talitha found a puppy that was bounding through the compound.  All the neighbors were laughing when she chased it down and picked it up.

Lots of neighbors to visit...

They gave us a hen to take home. So kind! Talitha held it in her lap on the way back.  (An hour drive on dirt roads!)

Birding

Last year when we were studying Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day book, we started a wall of pictures of all the birds seen on our compound.  That list has grown quite large over the past year.  It now includes over 30 species of birds.

The binoculars have found a permanent resting spot on the table during school time. 

Lately, our kitty has been a major distraction by climbing the trees to play with the birds.  haha!  So far the birds seem fairly content to ignore her since she can't really pounce in a prickly tree.

Here is our list of birds.  I've included links to their Wikipedia pages.
Barn Owl
Pearl Spotted Owlet (this little one makes the cutest call...it took us so long to identify it because we hardly ever saw it during the day, but we would laugh every time we heard it just after sunset or before sunrise.  Finally, we got enough of a glimpse of it to figure out who it was we were hearing)
Speckled Pigeon
White Browed Robin-Chat
Eastern Grey Plantain Eater
Pied Crow
Yellow Billed Kite
Piapiac
Ruppell's Long Tailed Starling
Ring-Necked Dove
Red Eyed Dove
Red Cheeked Cordon Bleu
Blue Headed Coucal
White Browed Coucal
Marabu Stork (we were pretty excited to be able to add this one to our list when it finally landed in our yard.  We see them in the area, but we had pretty strict rules that it had to found on our compound...haha! They are affectionately called "the ugly birds" by our kids, and they are absolutely huge in size...usually around 3-4 feet tall)
African Grey Woodpecker
Hadada Ibis (these birds come across elegant and beautiful...until they fly...then they are noisy, brash, honking things that one really doesn't care to hear from early in the morning)
Common Bulbul
Scarlet Chested Sunbird
Marico Sunbird (the sunbirds are so pretty to watch and they often distract us from school)
Muscovy Duck
Common Chicken (we couldn't forget our pet birds!)
Speckled Mouse Bird
Baglefecht Weaver
Bronze Mannikin
African Thrush
Black and White Casqued Hornbill (noisy but fascinating pairs come through our compound most afternoons)
Ross's Turaco (probably one of our favorite birds! Stunningly beautiful!)
Red Chested Cuckoo
Brown Parrot (These parrots hung out on our power pole and nearby tree for a season.  They were super fun to watch and we enjoyed their daily antics)
Woodland Kingfisher
African Palm Swift
African White Eye

We are so blessed to live in a place with such a wide variety of creatures sharing our little plot of earth.

Family Vacation and New Years Celebration

We just got back from a wonderful, restful week in Kampala.  We got lots of time to visit with the VEs and lots of time to rest. 

We also made Oliebollen together...a dutch New Years tradition.

Played a little ninja...

 Made bracelets...

Played Capture the Flag and watched the big kids forget that their little cousins/siblings were playing and one little forgotten cousin played Benedict Arnold and told the other little forgotten cousin where the flag was and the other little cousin snagged it in victory.  haha...can't forget the power of those littles!

Roasted hot dogs...

and helped with kitchen duties...

We arrived back home around noon on New Year's Eve.  To bring in the New Year, Eric and the big kids went to church for an overnight...an all-night service with singing, dancing, prayer, testimonies, 4 sermons and ending with a movie at 6 am. 

The littles and I rang in the new year in a more cozy way.  We listened to a Narnia story while coloring and then they slept around the Christmas tree.  Although I went to bed early (staying up is for the birds! haha!), I did end up outside at midnight trying to calm our frightened dogs who don't care for the fireworks so much.  Last year, one of our dogs got scared and ran away and we didn't find her for a couple of days.  This year, the security guard and I tied them up and sat with them while they cried and shook.  Poor doggies! 

December Photo Project: Day 25

Merry Christmas to all!

Our Christmas day was non-stop action from sunrise to well after sunset.  That's why I haven't gotten this post up until Boxing Day.

Christmas morning I decided to take advantage of very little traffic on the road and I went for a 13-mile bike ride.  I was surely rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over Mt. Wanale.

Then we opened gifts.  We don't usually do gifts on Christmas day, but this year we couldn't find another time to do it.  It's always so sweet to see how much these kids love each other and how thoughtful they are.

The most hilarious find was that Katelyn found William a Tim Hortons Canada mug in our little supermarket in Mbale. 

Mid morning we went to church for our Christmas Day service.  So much fun to be with everyone on such a joy-filled day!

Then we came home, ate a quick lunch and packed our things for a week in Kampala.  We stopped in Jinja at Java House for a nice Christmas meal together.  Eric's sister and her family are staying in Kampala for the next month as they are expecting their 9th child any day now.  So we are spending the week down there and filling up on cousin time and family time. 

The drive across Uganda on Christmas day was so lovely.  Not only was there waaaay less traffic (huge bonus!), but it was so fun to see everyone walking to friends houses in their brand new Christmas clothes and sitting around eating their Christmas meals.  That is the Christmas tradition here...if they can, they will get a new set of nice clothes and they will have a big meal with their families.  (It's often the one day of the year that they will get meat) 

The Lord provided a great place for us to stay and we are looking forward to this week. 

Hopefully lots of time like this! :-)