It’s been a while since I last posted, and it seems like one day blends into a week and a week into a month in the blink of an eye!
The last several weeks were characterized by kidney stones (I, Dave, had 2 of them within as many days a few weeks ago), colds, amazing teaching and growing at the Institute, the kids starting school, doing devotions with our family group (Samuel Family), car shopping and buying, getting to know different people by sharing meals, birthday parties, soccer games, slumber parties, women’s bible studies, staff meetings, staff fellowships, meetings with our mentors, small group meetings, Luganda lessons, and several trips to Kampala…to name a few things!
We are definitely enjoying life here at Kasana, but we admit we did not think we would be this busy! The kids are really adjusting well and have made many new friends. In this kind of community, you are rarely alone, which can be good and bad! It has been such a blessing to see the kids loving it here. They have started to talk about missing family and their cats back in the US w/o being asked about it, but typically they are too busy playing to be homesick. While they have adjusted very well overall, there have also been some very challenging new behaviors with Emileigh and Micah in particular that have required extra patience, wisdom, and lots of prayer. In fact, when our mentors recently asked us what has been most challenging over the last few weeks, Andrea and I both said w/o hesitation having the patience and wisdom to deal with these behavioral issues in a way that would honor God and the kids. We want to parent our children in such a way that they see the glory and love of our heavenly Father revealed through us even when we need to discipline. It’s about relationship and growing heart connections, not intimidation and control. But some days, it is easier said than done. We’re grateful to have the prayer and support of many other families here who are raising children of similar ages as well. This is probably one of our biggest prayer requests at this point!
It has been such a joy to be a part of the Institute of Childcare and Family each day. God has been teaching us so much through this training that focuses on a journey of relationship and transformation as we tackle so many significant issues relating to the Christian life and ministering to fatherless children. We have done countless bible studies focusing on the significance of the glory of God, worldview, the doctrine of adoption and moving from slavery to sonship, the orphan heart, how to study and exegete Scripture and so much more. It has been amazing to see God’s heart for the family and the fatherless in Scripture. Much of the first several weeks were focused on dealing with our own heart issues and relationship with the Father. One of the common sayings around here is, “You can’t give something you don’t have.” With this principal in mind, we are addressing our own relationships with God realizing that it is only through the power, presence, and leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can enter the lives of the many broken and hurting fatherless children we interact with here at Kasana. Of course, that principal applies to all relationships! It has been amazing to see God doing so much healing in all of the lives of the Institute students. Both the Ugandans and foreigners in the training have experienced some extremely difficult circumstances in life and God is doing a mighty work in all of our lives as he reveals his glory to us all. On many occasions I have wanted to blog about a specific truth God has been confronting us with, but so far the posts have been more of general updates. Hopefully that will change soon!
We are glad to say that we have purchased a vehicle…though we don’t have it yet as the registration process takes some time. It is a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser which is probably the most common 4×4 vehicle in Uganda. All of the vehicles in Uganda are imported used from Japan or South Africa unless they are brand new. It is very much to your advantage to get a vehicle that has come straight from Japan which has not been used in Uganda yet! We are very glad that we were able to get one of these! It is an older vehicle but is in very good shape with low mileage and it’s obvious it was cared for and maintained very well by whoever owned it in Japan. Hopefully it will be a good reliable vehicle as we will do a lot of traveling back and forth from the camp to Kasana and the roads down to the camp are very rough! Once we get it, I’ll post some pictures.
Speaking of the camp, we are very excited to finally get down there for a visit this coming weekend! While we are there we will pick out the location of the building site where our house will eventually be constructed. At this point, construction is not likely to begin until around June and will probably take around 6 months to complete. We still need a little over half of the funds needed to build the house, but we will actually begin buying construction materials within the next few weeks as it takes time to secure everything that is needed. Andrea and the kids are very excited to finally see the property that will soon become home! We’ll try to post some pictures on the blog after our visit.
That was a long update, but hopefully it fills you in on a little of what’s been going on with us. The next post will probably get a little more specific about just what we have been learning culturally and spiritually. Life here so different in some ways, but so similar in others.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. We are so grateful for your being a part of our lives!
Rebekah Robinson said...
1We are praying for your family and ministry. We will be praying more specfically for your children!!
You said, “We have done countless bible studies focusing on the significance of the glory of God, worldview, the doctrine of adoption and moving from slavery to sonship, the orphan heart, how to study and exegete Scripture and so much more. It has been amazing to see God’s heart for the family and the fatherless in Scripture. Much of the first several weeks were focused on dealing with our own heart issues and relationship with the Father.”
PRAISE THE LORD!!! Our hearts are with you in this ministry!
Greg and Rebekah
02/22/10 11:32 AM | Comment Link