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My my, time flies…
As that Enya song goes, “My my, time flies…”
It is hard to believe that Rachael will be 2 months old in about a week and a half! She’s growing so fast, not to mention the other kids. So much has happened since she was born and I find it hard to really take the time to just reflect and process. When I do get the opportunity to blog (rare as it is) I enjoy that necessary pause.
Rachael says hi...and pptttthhhhbbbtttt!!!
Here’s a bit of an update on life:
After spending almost a month at the Kasana Children’s Center to deliver Rachael, we came back to camp with my in-laws and their stay was truly like a dream. It went by so fast it’s almost like it didn’t happen! It was great to see them and great for them to see our family, but way too short. Still we’re grateful for that chance to be together with family for the first time since last October when my dad and sister came out (yes, this is Dave writing). We are so blessed by their love, support, and generosity. I hope my kids and grandkids can say the same of me down the road.
Once they left, we had 2 young ladies come to join us at the camp. One is Hailey Thompson, and she’s actually with us till mid-July. The other was a young lady from the UK named Lydia who had spent a few months teaching at Kasana and spent the month of May with us at camp. They have been such a blessing just filling and serving wherever needed from helping prepare and serve food to retreat guests, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning dishes, latrines, shower, children…you name it. They’ve helped homeschool and even do some computer work for us. These short term staff can really give us a shot in the arm. We just pray for God’s leading in how to love them and help them embrace all that God has for them in their experience.
Even today, Cristen Wall is coming out from Colorado to join us for a year. She had taught/homeschooled our kids while we were in the Institute, then went back to the US. She’s coming to the camp to be an Administrative Assistant and help out wherever. Our kids adore her and I am so grateful to have someone to finally take over the bulk of the daily accounting responsibilities for the camp!
Kanyike Medie, our 1 full time NHU staff person here at the camp has returned to us as well after being at the Institute at Kasana for the past 5 months. It’s awesome to see how God used that time to deepen his spiritual maturity as he did in us. He comes back to a slightly new position as I am making him an Operations Manager. He’ll still focusing on managing and developing our income generating Enterprise businesses, but will also oversee the community relations and help me with staff management. We now have close to 20 workers here at camp (we call them “wage-earners” as they are not full time NHU staff), and I am so grateful to have Medie back to help us manage the staff and daily issues. I will never be Ugandan and Medie is very capable of managing operations, w/o my poor Luganda speaking to get in the way!
As our staff continues to grow, so do the unique challenges of managing many people cross-culturally. I am so jealous of my many friends who went to college and earned a degree in cross-cultural ministry! But through the challenges of managing our staff and this large property, we have many many opportunities to reflect and reveal the glory of God and live the Gospel. I have enjoyed getting to know some of our staff more personally and we are now preparing to start a bi-weekly meeting with them all, in which we will begin a basic Bible study and share about Christ with them. Many of them are “Christians” but that is a very loose term and it is likely that most of them do not really know Christ and mix their local animistic religion with their Christianity. Please pray for continued relationship building that goes beyond daily routines and responsibilities with our staff. We want them to see that their life has a purpose in God that few truly embrace and understand, though God’s arms are wide open seeking to restore all unto himself.
We are so excited and grateful for a brand new Meeting/Dining Hall Pavilion and cistern that we are buiding thanks to some memorial gifts and donations towards our Matching Fund project from Camp Forest Springs in WI, and Camp Barakel in MI. Now when it rains either water or strong sunshine, our campers and guests have somewhere to go for shelter. The cistern will be connected to the runoff from the roof of the Meeting Hall, as well as to a pump in our nearby stream so that we will significantly boost our water supply and hopefully never run out again! Water is life, and we praise the source of Living Water for providing it!
Yes, we’re now in our new house and LOVING it! God continues to bless us with the funds to keep working on finishing the house and also provided the funds for a basic solar system and some much needed furniture. Funny as it sounds, I get so excited to be able to plug in my Mac ANY TIME I WANT to charge it! Amazing! I have really enjoyed learning about solar power and we are excited to expand our system to include a solar freezer, possibly hot water, and maybe even add a wind turbine some day as funds are available. A friend from one of our supporting churches (Andrea’s home church) has generously donated some significant funds to purchase furniture and just 2 days ago, I brought home a custom made dining room table and chairs along with 2 wardrobes (we don’t have closets), a computer desk, and resin table for the veranda. You have no idea how awesome it is to have a nice big table that doesn’t feel like it is going to collapse when one of the kids is coloring and erasing doing school at one end while I’m trying to do my work at the other! PTL! We praise God for his ongoing provision and though we still have a ways to go to finish the house and get some more furniture, we are counting our blessings as we look back at how far we’ve come and what he has provided. Our co-worker, Nathan Jackson, is doing most all of the finish work from plumbing to electric/solar to building our cabinets and countertops to grading the yard outside. We are so grateful not just for their friendship and place on the team, but Nathan truly is a “Jack of all trades”, and MASTER of all as well! We look forward to getting the rest of our furniture, finishing cabinets and counters, installing the loft, expanding solar, landscaping, painting, installing a proper ceiling, building our banda (workshop/garage and guest room), and much more. THANK YOU to all of you who continue to support us and are making all of this possible! We appreciate you more than you know!
While there is so much more I could write about and share with you, let me wrap up this post with a small glimpse into what God has been teaching us lately. Really, it’s nothing new and is more about going deeper in some bigger picture themes that God has been teaching us for some time. At the end of the day, I continue to come back to the truth that this Christian life, being a follower of Jesus has everything to do with choices. Everyday, I have to choose wether to deny myself, pick up my cross and follow Jesus, or just carry really big heavy pieces of wood on my back using my own strength…if you follow. It doesn’t just happen. I have to choose it, and God allows me to make choices…regardless of your doctrinal position of election, pre-destination, and the sovereignty of God! =) It’s about Practicing His Presence every moment of every day and living in the Spirit, which cannot happen when I am looking at life through the lens of self and my fallen worldview. Jesus is interested in RESTORING all unto Himself for His glory. Everything that is broken, and weak, and fallen, and apart from His will. That’s what we’re alive for, never mind what we’re in Uganda for. This is not just pie in the sky religion, it permeates daily life. All of it. It affects my beliefs, which affect my choices and behavior. It affects how I treat my wife and kids, how I spend my time, how I love my neighbor, the entertainment I choose to enjoy…everything. If it’s all about me and the pursuit of my own personal happiness and done out of my own strength and wisdom, it all falls apart quickly and unfortunately, I’ve gone down that road too many times, even recently. However, if it is all about God first, about being a part of His plan to RESTORE everything unto Himself, if it’s about loving God and loving people, if it’s about living my life UNTO HIS GLORY, then everything changes. I’m reminded constantly that it is dangerous to live the Christian life from the view that it’s all about eternity. We are to set our minds on things above and what is eternal, that is, what will last. What will last is loving God and loving people and bringing Him glory NOW! I can’t think, “It will all get better someday. Maybe the rapture will happen today and we’ll be out of here.” That would be missing the point. Regardless of what my flesh thinks of the challenges and stresses I face everyday (both internal and external), God wants to restore all of creation through you and me NOW…not someday. That’s why I’m here. It’s why you’re here. We choose whether to walk that path or not everyday, minute by minute in the small details and the big challenging things as well. It’s interesting. Every day I see grinding poverty and sickness and a fallen world around me. Children are orphaned from abandonment or sickness (much of which is the result of poor, selfish choices in dealing sexual temptation…HIV), women are beaten needlessly, men lie, cheat, and steal to make money that is often squandered on food, sex, alcohol, or possessions, women close off their hearts and refuse to let anyone in to their painful existence. Those are the glaring big picture problems. But what path am I walking? Maybe I’m not sleeping around and beating my wife and drinking too much. But I have my own temptations and weaknesses that I often give in to. Sometimes it’s working too hard. Sometimes it’s neglecting to spend time with my kids when I’m tired. Sometimes it’s coveting some new toy or piece of technology. Sometimes it’s getting frustrated with someone and not dealing with the conflict properly and letting it fester and remain unresolved. Sometimes it’s a lack of desire to answer the door when someone knocks cause I know they just want something from me and I don’t want to give it. Sometimes it’s being impatient with my wife and having to be “right” and defend myself when I feel she’s wronged me. Sometimes it’s wasting time on the computer…even allowing myself to lose control of what my eyes look at in the lust of the flesh. That’s the truth. My poor choices and weakness and temptations are often far more subtle than the “big ticket sins,” which I am convinced is even more dangerous. Half truths are more dangerous than flat out obvious lies. What about you? What path are you on? What choices are you making every day? The big ones and the small ones? Are you on the path of restoration or of personal gain and doing whatever it takes to appease your flesh? Is your fallen culture and worldview and their influence advising your decisions, or is the Holy Spirit, Scripture, other loving Christ-followers?
There have many days that I want to throw in the towel and just “go home.” But go home to what? The same old flesh, the same old issues, just in a different place, which is more comfortable. That’s even more dangerous. Those thoughts are a cop-out. It shows weakness. Running away from the life God has called me to is the choice of a woos. A pansy. You get the point. That’s not choosing the path of restoration and living UNTO God’s glory.
So thanks for reading all of this…if you have. We’d love for you to write and share about what’s going on in your life too. Relationship from a distance is tough, but not impossible.
Recent impromptu family shot
In summary…
May we all choose the path of restoration unto God’s glory…not our own. May we choose to practice His presence in our lives and live by the Spirit each moment NOW…not someday. And may you experience the joy being in relationship with the Father.
