The Church at Kakoli

Yesterday we worshiped in Kakoli village.  The church in Kakoli has suffered a lot in recent years.  God sovereignly allowed them to pass through many trials due to wicked leaders and in it all, they lost the building that they were worshipping in but have grown in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.  We praise the Lord for all that he has done!

The drive out to Kakoli is beautiful!  All along the way, there were people gathering white ants...manna from heaven...as the dry season ends.  These white ants are a great source of protein while the people wait for crops to grow.

We were so sad to see how horrible the crops look right now.  The corn that has managed to grow in the drought is already tasselling out when it's only a few feet high and even the cassava (which is saved for hunger season because it can withstand almost anything) was so dry and beginning to die.  It is so sad.  Most people in the village are down to one meal a day.  The Daddies, Mommies, and children are sleeping hungry. They are using more calories than they are able to consume.  It's not starvation point yet, but hunger for sure. It makes me hug my own children a little tighter at night and breathe prayers of thankfulness that I don't have to hear my little ones cry for food as they are falling asleep or watch their hair turn orange with the lack of nutrients.  We praise the Lord that the rain seems to be beginning again, but for many people, it's too late.  Some will be able to re-plant.  Some won't have enough seed left.

Yet here on the side of a mud hut of a church member is written in large letters, "God is able to supply your needs." A visual reminder of truth!

Because they no longer have a building, we worshiped under the mango tree.  It was a lovely morning.  Only minorly interrupted by a cock and a hen giving a, ahem, "science class" behind the pulpit and Talitha jumping off the mat and running to inform me...with many giggles...that the chickens were wrestling...

Talitha kept her hands busy during the 3-hour service by braiding her brother's shoelaces.

Here is some of the singing.

Afterward, we were invited over to the home of one of the church members for lunch.  We have many memories from this home...some sweet (like the marriage introduction of their daughter) and some very grievous (like the burial of her husband and then son).  This is also the home of Peace.  Some of you may recall that she is Katelyn's friend, whom Katelyn was raising money for so that she could attend nursing/midwifery school.  She is finishing her second (of five) semesters now.  She's such a sweetie.  She told us of how she had no idea after her brother died how she would manage to pay for school that semester but that she fasted and prayed and then how the Lord provided through Katelyn's efforts!  She praised the Lord over and over.  She kept saying, "I don't understand how after all that we have passed through, I am just so happy.  Happier than I've ever been!"  Such a beautiful example of a godly woman! 

Talitha, who has been looking forward to eating in the village again, finally got her wish.  Village food does have a unique and super yummy flavor to it.

I had also posted this on facebook and here is the back story plus a little update.  Our little friend Sharon, who is from the church in Kakoli has a major heart defect.  In fact, we found out this past week that she was born with her aorta on the completely wrong side of her heart.  She also has a hole in her heart.  And actually, it's that hole that has enabled her to live as long as she has.  This past week, a clinical officer in our church here in Mbale took her to the Heart Institute in Kampala to get it checked.  Originally they said to come back in a month to do a heart catheterization, but then we got word that she was to have it on Friday.  We found out later that there were three scholarships available for this procedure and all the slots were filled.  But Thursday night, one of the three became too sick for it, so they put her in.  She will return to the Heart Institute in a few weeks to see if the doctors have made a plan for treatment.  There is already talk, however, of her needing to go to India for the surgery, which of course is a very huge deal.  Would you consider praying with us that God will make a way for her to have surgery?  We don't know how all of this will work out, but we can pray to our heavenly father and trust him to do it.  Her life is precious in the sight of the Lord.  It is worth every effort to save it.

This is her and her mom standing outside of their home.  They made it back to Mbale from Kampala late Saturday night, so they rode with us out to Kakoli.  Poor girl, she was so tired and still very sore from her procedures, but such a sweetie!

Ministry Update

We are excited to be back into the ministry here.  And we have been thrilled to see how life and ministry carried on without us while we were gone...in fact, it grew and matured while we were gone.  What joy!  God's kingdom never depends on us and our work.  It truly is he who builds his church and it is his grace that brings us to be a part of it.

Our first Sunday back, Dr. Charles Jackson baptized 22 people! And several others made profession of faith!  

This little girl...her name is Alice.  On our last Sunday in Mbale before furlough, she came to church severely malnourished.  She was worse than many horrific pictures that you see on the internet.  Our hearts broke as we knew that we would not be able to be a part of her healing and we began to pray for her.  Our teammates took her under their wing and nourished her body, tutored her, got her into school and fed her spiritually.  Then our first Sunday back...who is this healthy looking girl being baptized?  It's hard to believe it's Alice!  But here she is!  God is good!

This is our friend Claire.  Having worked more closely with her, it is a blessing to see her making her faith public as well.

Here is a picture of our first time back for Sunday Night Circle time.  When we left, we were averaging just under 100.  While we were gone, Paul and Robina Magala were sweet to continue for us and they had around the same amount.  Our first Sunday back, however, the group size suddenly jumped to 180!!  We were very surprised!  (The second Sunday was 175)  It felt a bit big and chaotic the first Sunday, but the second Sunday we were more well prepared and it went better.  We are thankful that the Magalas are still willing to help us with this ministry that we love so much!

We had brought back with us 125 little flashlights for our young friends from WalMart.  Thankfully, one of our Uganda friends knew a place in town where we could buy something similar to top up for our extra numbers! haha!

Eric and I had two new ideas that we really wanted to start on our compound when we got back.  The first is a breakfast club.  This idea came about after listening (on some of our many long car drives!) to an audio book on the life of George Meuller.  He had started a breakfast club for the orphans of his city.  In Uganda, breakfast is a hard meal to come by.  It's the first to be dropped during times of hunger and many children won't ever get more than a cup of tea in the morning.  Then they are expected to go learn at school on an empty stomach.  We thought, wouldn't it be neat if once a week we opened our compound for breakfast and a short Bible study to elementary aged children.  We've done it twice now and it has quickly become my favorite ministry.  (Partly because I'm a morning person? maybe.  ha!)  The mornings are so refreshing here, the kids come fresh and calm (ha! If you've ever been around a large group of Ugandan kids, you know that by lunch time they are anything but calm!).  We somehow, by God's grace, landed on a great system of organizing everything and each of our kids has a little job to do.  The kids say a memory verse to get into the gate, they pick their food and tea, then they sit and eat and Eric does a devotional.  Then, they are released one row at a time to wash their cup and go to school.  We serve them a mandazi (a fried piece of dough...much like a donut), an egg, a banana and a cup of tea.

The second program we really wanted to do was a youth night for the high school aged kids.  We wanted it to be a more intense time of Bible study and especially prayer with them.  We also serve them supper and play a few games.  We have limited this program to kids that are involved in our church and who attend school...there are about 35 of them.  They are a great group of kids.  They have been so respectful and have really enjoyed our times together.

Eric has begun teaching at KTC this week.  He is teaching a course called Survey of the Bible.  I'm sure he would appreciate your many prayers!

11 Baptisms!

 Today in church we had 11 baptisms!  And four of them changed their names from Muslim names to Christian names.What a reason for celebration!

Our friend, Corline

We have had a difficult week and weekend.  Our friend and worker at KTC, Corline, just passed away this past Friday.  He has struggled the past little while with illnesses and over the last two weeks began to really deteriorate.  After not receiving adequate medical attention in Mbale, we were able to move him to one of the best hospitals in Uganda in Kampala.  But despite our best efforts, the Lord chose to take him home.

He was 26 years old.  He left behind his wife, age 20 (pictured in the middle), his 8 month old son, his mother (also a widow), his brother and two sisters.  He was the sole bread winner of the entire family.  

The body being moved from the family's living room outside for the funeral.

Eric preached the funeral message.

The grave side...

Pastor Charles giving the final prayer...

One part of Ugandan culture that we love is that the family and friends actually bury the body.  They plant the seed that will one day be raised to glory.  (I Corinthians 15: 42-44)  They do this while singing hymns of hope in Christ.  It really is a beautiful and precious moment.

 I know the family would appreciate your prayers as they figure out how to move on and live despite their daily challenges that have just been extraordinarily compounded.  Thank you so much for lifting these dear sisters and brother before the throne of grace.  They need grace.  They need love.  May God be glorified to give them both in the coming days.

Butaga OPCU

A few Sundays ago, we worshiped at the village church, Butaga Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Uganda.  

This church is a struggling small church in the hills of Mt. Wanale.

A very small, but very precious group of believers.

One family wanted their son baptized.  It was a blessing to see the father taking initiative during the baptism and wanting to hold his baby for it. (Often, baptism is seen as a "mother's thing" and the fathers won't come to the front apart from being asked)

After the service, one of the young ladies of the church, Doreen, age 14, gave a bit of her testimony.  She comes from a Muslim family, but she herself is a Christian.  Because of her faith, her family has not supported her very much.  At the end of the video, she tells how the Muslim leaders have even told her that if her parents die, she shouldn't help to bury them.  She is a spiritual orphan, but has found a family in Christ.  We praise the Lord for her faith and joy in spite of her difficult life.

Bullet Post Update

The month of May flew by with a vengeance.  We took some weeks off of school and lest we grow too lazy on our break, life threw some crazy busy times at us to keep us relying on the Lord and looking to him for strength.  Here are some of the highlights.

:: We had, what we hope, will be the first of many training sessions for the pastors and wives.  The pastors are going through very practical material such as "how to run a session meeting."  The wives are getting encouragement to keep pressing on in their roles as pastors wives.  (The role of pastor's wife is even more difficult here than in the states since the husband will put in many hours of labor for the church with no pay.  Often times the family struggles for food and school fees and yet the husband presses on working for free for the church.  It is easy for Satan to use that opportunity to discourage the wives, as you can well imagine)  

For the ladies, I taught one session and Mama Rachel and her mama (Mama Maria) taught the other session.  It was a real blessing to all of us.

::  Our other big event of the month was that Timothy flew by himself back to America to work for his uncle for the summer.  It's hard to believe that this kid is 15 years old and old enough to even consider such an opportunity!  We are praying that we will get Denise's visa in order to be able to join him in August.  This whole "leaving the nest" thing is killing my mommy heart, but we are so much at peace with where he is staying (With his Uncle, Aunt and 7...soon to be 8...cousins) that we can't help but be very happy for him!  It was quite brutal on my little ones though.  They just don't get the whole idea of "America."  It seems so far away to them...truly a place people go to and don't come back.  ("Does America have playgrounds?"  "Is Timothy going to die there?"  "Will we ever see him again?")  Little Talitha has cried herself to sleep more than once, but she seems to be settling down now.  We were so thankful for how Emirates airline took care of him.  We didn't pay for any additional escorts for him, but as soon as they found out that he was flying alone, they walked him through everything...from leaving here, to a special lobby during his layover, to his next plane, and all the way through customs and out to his waiting grandparents.  We were so thankful for that!

::Today there was a Fun Run in town.  Anna (our current visitor) and I decided to go for it.  It was announced as a 7 km race, but in reality it ended up being 5.5 km.  And it only started an hour and a half late this time.  :-)  

They had people going around taking pictures and then when we finished, it turned out that they had printed them and were selling them for 30 cents.  Here's our "snap."

::With the start of June, also came the start of our new school year.  We are trying to get 6 weeks done before we hopefully head to America.  After our crazy month, I'm thankful for a bit of settling into a schedule.

:: We don't have much to update concerning Denise's adoption.  We are still waiting for a very important document called an I600a (from the American side of things).  We are also still waiting for the judges written ruling.(From the Ugandan side of things).  We need both of these documents before we can ask for a visa appointment at the embassy.  Please continue to pray with us that these things will come together in time. Even once we get the appointment, it could take a bit of time as we have heard that the embassy has started doing their own investigations on each case.  We really want to go on furlough in August.  Having Timothy there waiting for us puts even more pressure on that August date.  Please continue to pray for our hearts: we don't want to make an idol of getting on a plane in August.  We know with certainty that God's timing will be perfect regardless of when it is.  At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold the date on an open hand.  We want to plan.  A family our size can't just show up with no plans in place.  We also want to know when we will see Timothy again.  This is especially true for the littles who tend to struggle a bit more.  Pray also for Denise's heart...whether or not she gets into America (although we presume she will, we won't know for sure until it happens) is a HUGE deal for her life...it's a fairly large weight for a 13 year old to carry.  We appreciate prayers for this!

Thank you friends!  Hopefully June won't be as quiet as May was in bloggy land.