Tuesday 25 February 2014

Sunday and Monday

Yesterday we went off to Church as normal.  We go a bit earlier these days as Joshua and Zara are helping on host team.  They welcome people in at the door and hand out the offering envelopes.  They really enjoy it and Joshua is keen that we are never late :)  Below is a visual of them both with their friends.  Apologies for the quality of the photos...still need to get new camera.  Thank goodness I have one on my phone.


 
 Joshua and Andrew with the offering envelopes.




Zara and Katrina welcoming people into church with their smiley faces
 
 
 
Unfortunately, we learned that whilst we were at church we had an attempted break-in to our house.  Thankfully the three men didn't get in and Chewy, our dog, scared them off.  We are in the midst of putting in new security measures round the house but our landlady has not picked the fastest workers.  For now we will need to have a guard on the compound while we are out.  Thankful that they didn't poison Chewy and she was able to give them the fright of their lives.   Please pray for our protection but we are also thankful they didn't break in while we were at home.
 
 
On a more positive note we had a treat after a trip to the Dentist...an ice-cream from KFC. Joshua and Zara are on half term so we enjoyed the delights of a Western franchise arriving in Kampala.  It feels quite surreal walking in there but I think we will get used to the occasional visit.
 
 

Oreo ice cream....It was a highlight for sure.
 

 
Then we just made it home before a wind storm came through and threw up all the dust into the air.....We couldn't see much beyond our house clearly and had to shut all the doors and windows...we were hoping for rain but only got a few spots.
 
 


Tuesday 11 February 2014

A long awaited update


December and January were rollercoaster months for us in the life of our family.  However, things are looking brighter in February and so we are glad about that.  This morning, as I was preparing for Bible study next week (we are beginning a new study on Women of the Bible) looking at the life of Hagar I was reminded that God is El Roi, the God who sees.  Sometimes in our lives we just need to know that God sees us and understands where we are at.  We serve a God who is not stand offish but intimately involved.  We see that clearly in Genesis 16 and 21when Hagar is in the wilderness.  That same God that saw Hagar is the same God that sees you and us.  Hallelujah!


Family Update

Simon has had some issues with his back again.  Thankfully the pain has subsided but we continue to pray for healing for him and that he will have no further problems. 

 He has not had much time for the woodshop in recent weeks but he was able to tinker a bit on Saturday which was good therapy for him.  You never know what he is going to produce next out of a piece of wood. J

Joshua had a chest infection last week but thankfully we had a Doctor staying with us to help out with some training and so she was able to inform us as to which medication to get.  A trip to the doctor can be a whole morning event.  It sure saved us a lot of time.  He is doing much better and more like his usual self.

Joshua loves to swim, play football, have fun with friends and read.  He is in team A for swimming where he gets to compete in the school’s swimming galas.  The part he doesn’t like is sitting waiting on his race to come around J  Joshua can always be found reading if there is any downtime.  A book seems like an extension of his body at times.  He comes out with the most amazing facts on animals and people.  The good part is he educates us along the way J

Zara just loves life to the full and has a lot of joy.  She got an award at school for swimming and like her brother she is a fish in the water.  She loves playing with friends and making up games to play.  Just yesterday our guest room was like a hideout.  Not sure exactly all the rules of the game but it sounded like fun. 

Work Update

Since Simon returned from his Mum’s funeral he has been busy with flying.  Just last week he flew to South Sudan near the Darfur area.  He was flying back a family who had been taking some time out in Kampala.  The flight was too long to do there and back in a day so he did an overnight in Northern Uganda before heading back home.

A new plane has been added to our fleet of aircraft.  There was a ceremony yesterday to celebrate this and pray God’s blessing over it.  Our planes are busy flying each week to Congo, South Sudan and Northern Uganda.  We are blessed by the safety God has given over the years and know that prayer works.  Hope to have photos to show you soon.

Continue to pray for Simon as he juggles his role as Pilot and Safety Manager.  The days can be busy and full but thankful there is always some slack time somewhere in the week….well most of the time J

I (Pam) have been busy this past month.  For the past two weeks we have had guests in our home.  We had some fun times with them and enjoyed sharing stories together.

Last week the guests who were staying with us were from MMCT (www.mmct.org) and Tumaini Counselling Centre. I was able to be a part of the training to upgrade 4 people to Peer Responders.  This was an honour and privilege.  We spend two afternoons in preparation for it.  The training went well on Wednesday and we now have four new people as Peer Responders who are now qualified to de-brief people who have gone through difficult times or situations.  We now have 6 qualifed Peer Responders with MMCT in Uganda (including myself) and one trained who lives in South Sudan.  Pray for wisdom for each of us as we meet with different people with different challenges.

I am also continuing to teach the Bible, which I love, to three different groups. I have teammates who help me in this which is a blessing.  We are continuing with two groups in 1,2,3 John and will start a new series with the third group next week on Women of the Bible.  Tomorrow we will celebrate the weeks we have spent in 1 Corinthians with a brunch and sharing time.  Pray that we will be encouraged by each other.
Hope this gives you a snapshot of some of the things we have been up to in the last few weeks.  It sure has been full. We are thankful to all of you who uphold us in prayer on a regular basis.