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| Daryl saying goodbye to our youngest |
April was our last month in the U.S. It was of course the busiest of all; packing up our home to move it to Uganda via shipping container, buying additional furnishings for our home and the guest house in Mbale, relocating our sons from Fredericksburg, VA to Abilene, TX, attending Laurie's sister's funeral and finally saying goodbye
to family and friends before we boarded the plane for the flight from Washington, DC to Entebbe, Uganda. What a roller-coaster of emotions!
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| Tail of Uganda Airways plane blocking the word 'ENTEBBE' written in stone on hillside |
Once we landed in Uganda, we began the work of transforming a place which was once used as a school house for missionary kids (with its vibrant primary colored rooms) into a restful home/guest house. After the container arrived in July we had our energy back-up system installed. It has been great to be able to work around the constant power interruptions and to feel energy friendly at the same time! We also moved out some borrowed furnishings to make room for our own.
This really made us begin to feel more settled. Renovations are still ongoing for us to be able to host guests from out of town, but we hope to be ready to engage this part of our ministry by sometime in February.
Daryl works alongside the leadership team of Mbale Church of Christ. He has completed his first semester of teaching Bible and Greek at LivingStone International University.
Laurie is working with the children's Bible class at Mbale Church of Christ using material created sixteen years ago with the Nairobi Mission Team ladies when we lived there. She had to convert everything into a digital format from hard copies, but the material is now easy to use and will bless the Bible class for years. We are both serving as mentors to LivingStone International University students.
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| Students L to R: Caroline, Rehema "Rhemy" and Sarah |
Even though it has been an emotional year of letting go and starting over, God has been with us every step of the way, affirming that He has us exactly where He wants us. We appreciate all of our African and American teammates. We have a real sense of calling to the work we are doing.
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| Bosco |
It's also affirming when we see new people coming to the Lord. Recently there were three people who came for baptism while there was a water shortage. So they chose to be baptized in the nearby stream instead of waiting for the water to come back on.
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| Florence |
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| Miriam |
What a joy it was to watch the changes and growth of the multicultural group of people that make up the Mbale Church of Christ this past year. The two ladies that were baptized were from the SEW ministry that teaches women sewing skills. It's the most effective outreach we have to Muslims in our area.
We look forward to what the Lord has in store for us for the new year
and we are glad that you are there to walk with us from afar.
May God bless you in the year 2015!!
Prayer Requests:
1) For Mbale Church of Christ as we focus on genuine discipleship of all believers in 2015. We believe the Lord will produce the fruit he desires from us as we learn to walk with him.
2) For us during the holiday season as we spend it apart from loved ones.
3) For continued good health and safety. We never want to take this for granted.
4) For Florence, Miriam and Bosco--new members of God's family!
