-
Blogs are great if…
So blogs are great if…you update them. As I signed on to post this, I saw that the last time I posted was exactly one month ago today! Pathetic! Shameful! Lame! We beg you to forgive us! So much has happened since then and it would be impossible to summarize it adequately, so lemme give you a few highlights:
- We completed the New Hope Institute of Childcare and Family on May 21st! It was an amazing 5 month training program that drew us closer and deeper into the heart of God and confronted us with truth that we pray will lead to change in our daily lives unto the glory of God…particularly in our marriage and parenting. Our fellow students became dear friends and we were sad to see the bazungus (whites) go back to the US, but are glad that we can continue relationship building with our fellow Ugandan classmates.
- Dave started his role as the Executive Director of Musana Camps immediately following graduation and very much enjoying this new role which is challenging and stretching him in new areas of leadership…particularly fundraising and community relations. God is blessing at the camp in serious ways and it is truly exciting to be part of this new ministry.
- We have set a tentative date for moving to the camp property…August 1st! Our departure date from Kasana to head to Musana has changed several times, but this is now the plan. Initially, we thought we’d go to the camp immediately following the Institute, but then we had decided to wait until our house was completed. However, after some recent developments and reassessing needs at the camp, it has been decided that we should go sooner than later. So we will move into a small 2 room building that has been housing or co-staff, Syd & Andrea Sparks and their baby Malachi, which was originally designed to be a duplex dormitory style cabin. With no plumbing or electricity and detached latrine and shower stalls, it will truly feel like camp! We will live here until our house is built and ready to be lived in. You would not believe the view…
- A house design has been finalized, a building site has been selected, and we hope to begin construction within the next month! Hopefully, the house will be completed by the end of the year. If you’d like to come help with that…
- We’ve begun new efforts to try to raise the remaining funds needed for the construction of our house. Right now we have about half of the funds needed to build the house, furnish it, and install a fully self-sustaining solar system as electricity is not available. The original cost estimates proved to be low and it will be quite a bit more expensive than we had planned on (imagine that!), even though we’ve used a smaller design and taken steps to cut costs by several thousand dollars! God knows our needs and we are totally trusting in him to provide the funds needed for the house. If you would like to help us out in that way, please let us know or make a donation! Visit our downloads page and open the document entitled “Bouffard brochure support card” for information on how to give towards this project. We welcome one time gifts and monthly support pledges!
- At the camp, most of the squatters have been paid off and we’re waiting for the last few who’ve been “dragging their feet” to finally move off of our property. We will begin construction on some much needed basic facilities like more latrines, shower stalls, and hopefully a camp kitchen within the next week or 2!
- Several family groups from Kasana have come down for retreats at the camp! Some of you reading this may have been a part of making that a reality by participating in the Black Rock Summer Camp missions offering project from summer 2009, where over $3,000 was raised to help pay for the transportation costs of getting the family groups to the camp! It is SO awesome to finally see our sons and daughters from Kasana coming to the camp property and enjoying themselves and growing in their relationship with Christ and each other through our programs. That’s what we’re here for!
- Andrea has begun homeschooling the girls now that Institute is over and their teacher, Cristen Wall, has gone back to the US. We’re using a lot of the “Sonlight” homeschool curriculum mixed with some other stuff, which is great because our girls love to read!
- Both Emileigh and Katelyn recently started riding their bikes and now we have to tie them to the house or we’d never see them as they are always off playing with friends! Micah is not a baby anymore and is quite an independent little guy who loves it here. His friendliness is adorable and he remembers people’s names at 3 years old as well as his parents do. Our family group, Samuel Family, loves laughing and playing with him and he is always willing to entertain! He is “all boy” and is quite content to play in the dirt, play with sticks, and ride his toy boda boda (motorcycle) all over the compound. Of course, his sisters do keep him in touch with his feminine side as he painted his toenails last week…as well as his sister’s bedsheets in the process. It was a very pretty sparkly purple. =)
- Our friend, Wes Foley, is here till August and is living and volunteering down at the camp property. Dave has worked with him for several years as he was on summer staff at Black Rock Retreat since 2006. It’s been great to have some time with a friend from the US here and his parents are coming here to visit tomorrow as well! That has been really cool, even though he’s at the camp and we don’t see him everyday. He seems to be enjoying his time here and we’re hoping to get him involved with more interacting with kids as much as possible.
- New Hope Uganda has launched a brand new website and it’s awesome! Please check it out thoroughly, and don’t forget to check out the Musana Camps pages! www.newhopeuganda.org
There’s so much more I could write about, but those are some of the main highlights. We need to post some new photo albums to our site, but I’ve included a few pictures to hold you over. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading! More to come…
