Banda Celebration Update

Karis graduates from Kindergarten

"When I grow up I want to be a nurse." But 2 nights later she was crying before bed, that she made a mistake and she might not want to be a nurse. She's shown a characteristic quite strongly lately of indecisiveness, being afraid she made the wrong choice etc. She wants the choice to be the right one, the picture to be just right, the bed to be made perfectly, the animals arranged just right. Nurse, or maybe something else. We'll all have to stay tuned a decade or more to find out!

Karis and one of her best friends from Italy beside her.

Random catching up pictures...

Sophia's preschool class and the 2's and 3's class at the Wildlife Education Center (a.k.a. zoo)














Sophia was most excited to ride on the donkey! The kids could all hardly wait to finish the tour so they could have their turn on the donkey, and then: alas! It started raining. So we doubled the kids up, and they rode in the sprinkles!!





















Just a picture of me, by the kid on my lap. His very first self portrait. When he saw in the view finder, he did smile then.

















And, Kaye & Stephen and little Silas at our team celebration for them!

my girls are growing

My big girls...in dresses sent by their Grandma!













Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see...

This is Sophia's class (combined with the 3 yr olds) leading school Chapel. Sophia is in the pink dress at the top right of this picture.



The people got money back from the tax collector, and Sophia was one happy little girl to get all that 'money'!


































Zakayo muwooza (Zaccheus the short man)
Zakayo muwooza
Ali ku muti (he went up in the tree)
ali ku muti
Jesu amuyita (Jesus said to him)
Jesu amuyita
ka mangu (come down)

Watermelon juice & Zebra stripes

*In the U.S. zebra stripes = black and white paint on the pavement to indicate where pedestrians should walk to cross the road.
*In East Africa zebra stripes = 4-legged mammals with black and white stripes usually seen in groups, and sometimes crossing the road you were driving along through Kenya until you suddenly realized they were indeed coming ACROSS the road.

*In the U.S. sugar cane field = an exotic sounding plant, what does it look like?
*In East Africa sugar cane field = a great landing place for the tire that just flew off of your car, creating a long scar down the road as the axle drug on the pavement.

*For a normal person, a tire flying off your car while driving = catastrophe
*For T.I.A, a tire flying off your car while driving = being delayed a day so that I could spend the day with a dear friend in labor, and be one of the first to see the baby.

*In the U.S. raspberry swirl cookies = a package of cookies to eat.
*In East Africa raspberry swirl cookies = enough incentive to convince the border officers to let you proceed through the border without a heavy 'fine' because you are a day late in returning to Uganda.

*To an adult, a drain pipe = a nice way for water to drain down the hill.
*To some adventurous and inventive kids, a drain pipe = a great place to lay on each end and talk to each other from far away.

*To most, watermelon juice = the stuff that drains all over your counter when you cut up a watermelon.
*To a sick missionary who threw up all night, watermelon juice = rehydration extraordinaire in a bottle!

Family

Questions on steroids

it used to be:

-What are you doing when you’re driving?

-How do you color so good, Mommy?

-What makes bubbles in the pot of water?

now it is:

-Mommy, why do your fingernails still grow when you have stopped growing?

-How does our voice go to Papaw in the phone all the way to America?

-I know God put it there, but HOW did the baby get in Aunt Kaye's tummy? HOW?

April--Easter, Gingerbread, World Book Day

The big event this week was WORLD BOOK DAY. Our school here celebrated the event by asking kids to dress up as book characters. Anthony finished reading The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe to Karis as they are now in to Prince Caspian. Karis wanted to be the White Witch, Jadis. It’s hard to see from this picture her face make up and glitter. Sophia has a book full of princess stories and said she wanted to be a princess. Oddly enough, even though I live in a 3^rd world country in Africa, I found these perfect dresses at a great little shop that has 2^nd hand dress up clothes. And the big news was: Karis won 3^rd place in the entire school (age 2 to 12^th grade) for her likeness to the character. The principal was dressed with a lampshade on her head and was great to have the same book prodding her idea!

Look closely to see three little blond girls peeking out. My girls had a British brother and sister over for a sleep over during our 2 week holiday.

This hammock is from Brazil (thanks Sunny!), and has swung our family in Texas, New Jersey, Arkansas, and Uganda

Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Jason sent the girls a Gingerbread House Kit for Christmas. The package took it’s normal time for Africa (TIA) and came after Christmas, then we were off to Kenya for 5 weeks. So, we began the Gingerbread Extravaganza experiment while on a 2 week Easter Holiday from school.

As you can see the girls had a great time. It stayed together A LOT better than my home made attempt last year. It tasted pretty good too!

The night before Easter Sunday, we completed part of a fun Easter unit full of crafts and stories. Tonight was a recipe for Resurrection cookies.

The girls had to beat the pecans into pieces, like Jesus was beaten. (Thanks PawPaw for your pecan trees in Pampa!)

Notice Karis in her chef hat, and these kitchen gadgets are all her very own from Grandma Deborah and PaPaw

The recipe also included eggs symbolizing life, smelling and using a bit of vinegar: what Jesus was given to drink, salt like Jesus’ tears that fell down his face, and sugar because it would have a sweet ending

Then, we had to put the white lumps of cookies (like the cave tomb) in the warmed oven, seal it closed, and had to wait all night until morning. We only had to wait 1 night to see what was inside.

The idea was to have a hollow cookie, like the tomb.

Our Resurrection cookies were very meaningful and also fun for the whole family to make. Daddy read the verses as we did each step of the recipe.
They did not turn out as I hoped, maybe it was my gas oven that doesn’t stay warm for long or the cool rainy night? Maybe we’ll try it again next year.

Road trips for the men and the ladies!

Here before you are the men of the Kampala Urban Team. They all took a road trip down to the southwestern tip of Uganda. They even were able to walk into Rwanda. The Congo border was closed due to security issues. So in the background you see a mountain in Rwanda, and on the right the volcanoes in The Congo.

From left: Jake, Will (Hands On Semester M’s) Andrew, Stephen, Anthony.

There were several more pictures of one of them being sick as they drove through the mountains...literally pictures of him 'being sick'. I'll chose to not upload those...

Several of us ladies went to the far west of Uganda near the Kenya border to the Sipi Falls in Kapchorwa. We had a pleasant 2 days enjoying the fresh air, easy hikes, beauty of creation, and TALKING






This is Sarah, one of our Hands On girls from Ouachita Univ. You can’t tell it, but we’ve climbed out on some rocks through some water fall spray which is falling just to our right (your left).



Look closely can you can see us in the far right corner.










And when we got to the top, Sarah had the brilliant idea to go to the side of the main falls, and climb over the edge for a picture. Great idea, Sarah! Great picture! Ah, Sarah? How am I gonna get back UP??

And Jana, recent graduate from SFA in Tx. Our little photographer!

Sarah just HAD to jump out on this boulder. She was full of ‘fun’ ideas this day

Here I am with Kaye and little growing Silas overlooking the plains in Uganda.

And I just could not believe these three little boys probably 2,3 and 4 yrs old. Here they were clambering out to the best lookout spot on the edge of the cliff…sitting contently as they gazed out. And then, all getting up again to keep walking with the white ladies taking lots of pictures who were so interesting. These 3 little babies…

Isn’t this a unique bathroom shower? Certainly the feel of being in true nature on a stone shower floor! No cold water for these girly girls though!

This week at Kawuku

Yesterday (Wednesday) the group at Kawuku wanted to pose for a group picture.




Jana reviewed the Disciple's Cross with the ladies. Teach and reteach. Because next comes the expectation that these women can teach it themselves. We then reviewed it all together, and I led them in practicing the verses in effort to put His word in our hearts. It had been a while since some of these ladies had the feeling of being in 'school'! We talked a lot about how our life looks--how we behave--how others around us see us. Because if we don't walk the talk, there is no point in talking the talk.
And these 3 little girls were running around giggling as they chased the smallest one into the safety of Jake.
Over and over this little one would run around giggling into this safety net.
As I talked about nurturing each others as believers, it was easy to point out the ways we nurture children (as Jana was also holding another sleeping little one snuggled up). Nurturing is for the children, but it is also as we encourage each other in this walk. We are encouraged not to beat each other down with criticism, gossip, judgment. We are to build each other up in love, to correct and rebuke when needed--in love.

More birthday celebrations

This year Karis did not have a huge birthday event. Rather, she had several events celebrating her life over a week.
The first was the night of our Texas Independence Day celebration (pictured in a blog below). And this is of the REAL birthday day as she called it. We took cupcakes to school for her to share with her friends. Homemade cupcakes and with Duncan Hines frosting out of a tub that we found while in Nairobi. Can't get much better than that!!


Her class was sitting patiently for Karis to blow out her candles! I wish you could hear them singing in the 2nd language of Uga-lish. (Ugandan English).














Misti's brother and sister-in-law sent these ice cream sandwich molds. Never mind they didn't make it for Christmas. They were wonderful to add to any day, and it happened to be the week of Karis's birthday. So we added that to the list of her celebrations! =)
I honestly would likely pass this kit by if I lived in the States. But it was so much fun, and SOOO good! Here are our cookies that we cut out and then pushed the molds into to make the faces while the cookies were still warm.


Sophia wanted to also show you the picture she was working on (in between bites of warm cookie off the cookie sheet!)
















Uncle Troy & Aunt Jen: Great find! These were a huge hit and the girls can't wait to make them again!

















And. last but not least:
Here is the Jungle Cake Karis had requested. Because we have no ACC (artificial climate control: ie air conditioning) the Duncan Hines prized frosting on this triple layer butter cake ran down the sides, along with lots of the decorations.
But, no one seemed to mind.
This day was also Jana's REAL birthday day. We were excited to share in celebration of her life and her being here in Uganda.

Explorers...African style

Well, here are our two little Adventurers. Explorers. Times like these I sometimes sing, "Karis, Karis, Karis the Explorer!" and for fun, we also try "Sophia, Sophia, Sophia the Explorer!" and get tongue tied and end up laughing. (for those of you who don't know the significance of the song, you just need two toddler girls around your house for a while and then you'd know it immediately.)


Right before Karis turned 6, we took the girls to the Rain Forest Lodge. You see, kids are free under 6 years.
Our wake up call consisted of a tray of coffee, a warm pot of milk, and a glass of juice delivered to our porch.

What could be a better idea for a wake up call?? Right when you know your kids wake up...you're away from home and the comforts of your own fridge...you need time to get ready for breakfast... and voila: delivered just they way you like it.

And, it provided occupation while we waited on the Red Tail monkeys to make it through the trees to OUR cabin's view.

Then, it was all hushed excitement as we each tried to spot the rustling through the leaves, the monkey calls, the flying primates from branch to branch and tree to tree.

Too bad they were so camouflaged in the dense leaves...but, maybe there are some picts from the other camera I need to download...






So, here are the Explorers, in nightgowns, bare feet, and socks, running through the paths as the monkeys swung by overhead!

Kawuku, revised

Well, the pictures in a post below of the tiny papyrus mat structure are no longer current. That place is now the site of a new small home being built.
Interesting side-note: the new home being built is right on top of the path through the area. So, this new small plot that was bought to build a small home will now cut off the road/path through the area. Genius planning, I tell you.

But, this past Wednesday we met in an area between strips of one-room homes. It's interesting as you can see brick homes, and this round grass roof home (of the oldest woman in the gathering...the round style is typical in a village and would be more what she is probably used to.)

Can you feel the beat of the drums and the praise as we clapped and sang? Can you feel the joy as these women praise together?

I introduced the Disciple's Cross, from the MasterLife book one. It is important concepts for these people to understand. You can also see pictured on the left: Jake, one of our Hands On guys, and on the right: Stephen who is here for 2 years with his wife.
On this day, the pastor Dickens asked Stephen to teach the men with about 1 minute's notice. Typical here. So he led the small group of about 4-5 men while the women and children stayed in this area.

New 'Cluster'

Within our organization, our REGION been known as CESA: Central, Eastern, Southern Africa.
Within a sub-division of CESA, Uganda has been part of the "C" SECTION in the Central area of Africa.
Our Great Lakes CLUSTER has included the three countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

Confused yet?

Our organization will soon make the official change to the new demarcation of Equatorial Africa.
Here is a map of our new CLUSTER's countries.
So, our "cluster" is going from 3 countries, to 13 countries.

We highly respect our cluster's leader and are fortunate to be moving forward with him in leadership. He has gone from supervising Ug, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and TZ and will be supervising all the countries shown here on the map. It is a big undertaking! Please remember him as he seeks to know new places, new national people groups, and new people working among this vast Cluster.

Here in Uganda, we will also be getting an Associate that will be our immediate supervisor of a smaller grouping of countries and areas. That position is yet to be announced... but please do remember all the people seeking direction as they look to move into these new roles. Changing from having a people group of national African people, to ministering to a people group of missionaries is quite a change in focus. But is is very needed as our organization seeks to structure itself so that we have proper, good and necessary accountability.