Prayer and Planning Leadership Retreat

On the first Thursday and Friday of November our leadership team at Good Shepherd's Fold went to a place called "Prayer Mountain" for a time of prayer and strategic planning. The leadership team is comprised of missionaries and Ugandan managers who serve together here at GSF. The two days together were good and we had time to discuss and pray over many of our core values and how we are doing at implementing these. We also had some time for prayer and thinking about goals for our particular area of ministry.

As David and I were discussing our thoughts and goals regarding our life and ministry here we found that we both were feeling like adding anything more to our to do lists would be overwhelming right now. We are both a bit maxed out. Between both of us working full time as teachers having 5 or 6 seperate class preps each, both of us leading a cord group of 7 or 8 pre-teen to teenage kids here at GSF, David serving as an elder and sometimes preaching, me overseeing children's church on Sundays, David employing and supervising students for landscaping jobs on their school holidays, my work with the village Bible study and Buwundo Beads business, assisting with preparing for visiting teams, caring for the needs of our four children, trying to love our missionary team well, trying to make time for nurturing our marriage, and just dealing with the general stress of life overseas, we both are fairly certain that God is not calling us to add more to our to do list. Don't misunderstand; we are thankful for each of these opportunities to serve! We love the people we work with and are blessed to spend time with them! But we also see that we have not left much margin in our lives. As Richard Swenson describes in his book, Margin, our lives are a bit like a page with words covering the whole thing, edge to edge. Just looking at the page is overwhelming!

As we prayed through and discussed these things, we considered where we might step back a bit. One of the things that has regularly come to our minds is that we could really use another teacher! We did add one teacher to our school this year, but we also added 14 new students, and some of our older students were needing us to add classes that we had not been teaching. All of this led to me going back to being at school full time and both of us needing to devote more time to class preparation. We are praying that God will provide another teacher to lighten our load either by taking some of our classes for us or assisting in some way. Over the years we have been here, and even in the year leading up to our move here, we have pursued several leads about possible teachers to join the work we are doing here. I cannot tell you how many times I have been hopeful that someone would join us, but in the end it has not worked out. We trust that God has had his reasons in each of these situations, but please pray with us that God will provide someone to lighten our load soon!

As we discussed these things, I realized that our goals are things that only God can bring about. Here are three of our goals that we have been praying about which completely depend on God's provision, although there are of course things we need to do as we ask Him to provide.
1- We are asking God to provide another teacher.
2- We are asking God to provide the finances we need to build additional classrooms since the space we are currently using is needed for housing for the toddlers at GSF.
3- We are asking God to provide a way for us to take a day off periodically. We would love to have some substitute teachers who we can ask to cover our classes every once in a while so that we can take a day away for prayer, rest, or even just to get to offices in Kampala that are only open on weekdays.

We trust that if these goals are in line with the direction God has for us, that He will provide. We ask that you also pray with us toward these goals. If God is leading you to be a part of the answer to any of these prayers, please contact me! If the Lord is leading you to contribute to our classroom building here is a link. Just select "Donate to the GSF International School."

God has already begun answering these prayers! This past week a team of women came to visit GSF and encourage the missionaries serving here. One of the women who is a teacher offered to cover my classes on Friday morning for me to have a day off. It was beautiful to see this answer to prayer just one week after we had prayed for this! Of course this thoughtful visitor has gone back home, so we are still praying for an ongoing solution. We also received notification from Global Outreach that we have already received two donations toward the new school building! We are so thankful that God is beginning to provide for this need! And lastly, I have the name of a teacher who might be interested in serving with us. While these prayers and goals have not been completely answered, we are thankful that God seems to be at work in each of these areas that we are asking for His provision. Thank you for praying with us as we seek to follow where God leads us, trusting Him to provide everything we need! 

Buwundo Beads and Crafts

Back in June, I wrote about the jewelry business that I began in order to help provide income for the women in our village. For a long time it wasn't really a business, since I hadn't actually sold anything. I knew that I wouldn't be able to continue buying these items if I couldn't recoup at least some of the expense. In order to be able to sell the items, we came up with a name, "Buwundo Beads and Crafts" and a friend developed a label for us.

During my brief week and a half in Florida, I was very encouraged about how many people were interested in the necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and purses that we brought with us. I displayed the items at a church and a school that I attended over 25 years ago. (Wow, I'm getting old!) In both of these places I listed a suggested donation, and I was so encouraged by how many people wanted to support this ministry and also get some of the beautiful handmade items created by my friends and neighbors in Buwundo village. 

Here is a photo of some of our amazing artisans who work to create beautiful handmade crafts. I am thankful for the blessing of being able to continue our Bible studies together and to work together in this business venture. Several weeks ago I heard the women all celebrating and I found out that one of the women had saved enough to buy a mattress for her family in addition to sending her children to school. Another woman bought me into her hut to show me a blanket that she was able to buy with some of her savings. Another woman was able to buy a goat for her family to raise. I mention these things to let you know how much your support matters in the lives of theses women. When you choose to purchase an item from Buwundo Beads and Crafts, your support helps send children to school and provide for the basic needs of the families in our village. I pray that our Bible studies together are also caring for their spiritual needs.

 

As I returned from the US, I wanted to encourage the women with what God was doing and how people really loved their work. I wanted them to experience a little taste of the encouragement I received while selling these items on their behalf. David and I decided that we would have a small celebration for our Buwundo Beads team and give some small gifts to each member. The students received notebooks and pens, pencils, soap and sweeties. The women received a basin (which is used for washing everything) with some basic supplies and sweeties. The women were so excited!

 

After receiving these gifts, we were able to walk together to visit an elderly woman in our village who has been very ill recently. We all prayed together for her and sang songs of praise and worship together with her. It was a beautiful time of worship so I didn't take out my camera. Instead I just took mental pictures of all these women surrounding our sister in Christ, encouraging her by worshiping together. A friend took this one photo and I ask you to pray with us for this amazing woman who loves Jesus, but is physically struggling right now. Also pray with us that our Bible study group and our church would be the hands and feet of Jesus to this woman in her time of need.

 

Thank you for your prayers and the ways you support our ministry here! If you are looking for Christmas gifts that are inexpensive, but have a big impact around the world, let me know. I have family and friends in Florida and Georgia who have many necklaces and bracelets available. I have not yet set up a way to purchase items online. Please let me know if you are interested in being a stateside distributor for this ministry. These women are extremely grateful for the opportunity to work in order to provide for the educational and physical needs of their families through this business venture. Please pray with me for God to continue to provide a market for their faithful work. And in this season leading up to Thanksgiving, I want to remember to thank God for all that He has provided! He is continuously doing abundantly more than we could ask or imagine! To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus! (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Thankful for this Sunday!

Today, there are so many things for which I am thankful! I was able to start the day participating in a very encouraging worship service at Advent Lutheran Church where my brother works and my parents worship. My favorite song from the morning was new to me, but the words were "I'm no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God." I think I need to sing those words every day. It was refreshing to my soul! While we were there, I was able to thank the congregation for their support and give a brief ministry update. In between the services, I had a display table out with the necklaces and other things my friends in Buwundo village have made. Many people made donations and took home a piece of jewelry which will help them remember to pray for our ministry there. The congregation is such a welcoming group of people and I really enjoyed our time there! 

After church I was able to enjoy a lunch with my parents and catching up with my brother, niece and nephew. It was so good to be together with my family! Not long after that we drove to my younger brother's coffee shop to see him and his bride-to-be. It is an great little coffee shop called Brew Urban Cafe in Ft. Lauderdale. In between them serving customers, I was able to give them the wedding gifts that the women in My Bible studies sent for them. I wanted to have the time to explain each gift, how they were made and who they were from. Since the wedding day would not afford that time, I gave them the gifts there at the coffee shop. 

It made me so happy to see that my brother and sister-in-law-to-be treasured these special handmade gifts and the generous heart behind them as much as I do. I am so blessed to have such a loving family!

After visiting with both my brothers, we got to visit with both of my grandparents. My mom's mom has had some recent health troubles, but when we went to visit her she seemed so happy and was even up and walking around. Seeing your great-grandkids can definitely bring a smile. Zeke was sacked out due to jet lag, so I just kept carrying him to and from the car as we went around visiting. He has had the most difficulty adjusting to local time. 

Our next stop was visiting my Dad's dad. He was so happy that we were able to have a little time together. He said, "When you're over 90, you don't know how many more times you get to see people." Actually that is true everyday. None of us is promised tomorrow, so I hope to love people well today. 

After all of that driving around and visiting we were all pretty worn out, but I was so thankful for the day. God has graciously blessed me with an amazing family and a special opportunity to be together with them for a little over a week. It is my prayer that I can encourage and love my family well in our short time together. It is also my prayer that Zeke will sleep through the night tonight! 

A brief trip

As I write I am sitting in a car in the airport parking lot with two of my children. It just occurred to me that I should ask everyone to pray for our family over these next two weeks. I am traveling to Florida for my brother's wedding. The two children traveling with me will get yo be in the wedding. David and two of our boys will remain in Uganda as school continues. I praise God that we were able to find a substitute to cover my classes for a week and a half. Thanks for your prayers for our travels, transitions, and time apart! 

Weak

Lately, I have been feeling pretty weak. Last week I was very ill with high fevers and other malaria-like symptoms. I felt terrible! The blood work didn't indicate any particular illness so we treated for both malaria and a bacterial infection. (It is possible to have a false negative with the malaria test.) I haven't had any fevers for several days now, but I am still feeling very weak and tired.

This morning I was taking some time to read and pray and this passage from 2 Corinthians 12 came to mind.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions,in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I have been seeing my weaknesses keenly. They don't make me feel strong. I regularly struggle with the fear that someone will be unhappy with me or that I won't do a good job. Now that I am back to teaching full time, I don't have nearly as much time for the many other aspects of ministry.

I know that some of my friends in the village wish I would come visit more. 

I wish that I had more time to spend with the GSF girls who are in my cord group. I know that every child who lives at an orphanage has experienced trauma, and I wish I could spend more individual time caring for them. 

I know that I have some students who need extra time and attention to help them understand math well, and when they don't get a concept, I often feel like a failure. 

I volunteered to organize meals and buy food for visiting teams, and I forgot about this until the last minute with a team that was here last week. It made for a crazy day trying to scramble and get the needed supplies. 

I dumped our trash in a private dumpster in Jinja and got scolded by a security guard and a police officer and paid a "fee" that felt like a bribe. Missionary fail. 

Yesterday, I realized that I still haven't gotten together all the receipts from our team that visited back in July and don't know when I am going to be able to organize all of that. 

I didn't plan ahead well enough with our finances, so I ran out of money to pay the students who have been making necklaces to earn school fees. Thankfully, the schools allow students to begin the school year before fees are paid, so they can still start back to school. 

An elderly neighbor is sick and I have been too weak to go visit him. 

I just ate a cookie for breakfast. 

I haven't written a blog post, a letter, an email or thank you notes for our support team recently. 

The list goes on. I can't keep up with all of these things, and I surely can't make everyone happy with me all the time. So here I am lacking energy, feeling physically weak and emotionally weak, trying to believe that "when I am weak, then I am strong." It certainly doesn't feel that way! But I go back to verse 9 and read that God says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So I guess it really isn't so much about me feeling strong, but seeing that God's grace is sufficient and His power is revealed even when I don't have the strength to do any of these things. So I guess I need to stop the self-flagellation and start fixing my eyes on Jesus. Why is it that I either want to beat myself up over my weakness or I want a pity party to excuse it? Either way, I am just fixing my eyes on myself. Pray for me that instead I will lift my eyes, and fix my gaze on the One who looks at me and says...

....It is finished. (Jn.19)

....I have loved you with an everlasting love. (Jer.31)

...nothing will separate you from my love. (Rom.8)

...come to me and I will give you rest. (Matt.11)

...even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don't have to fear because I am with you. (Ps.23)

...I rejoice over you. (Zeph.3)

...I am your advocate. (1Jn2)

...I have given you my righteousness (2Cor.5, Phil.3)

...my grace is sufficient. (2Cor.12)

Today, I pray that I will stop looking at myself with my weaknesses and failures, and fix my eyes on Him believing what He says! 

Lab sciences in rural Uganda

Teaching lab sciences to high school students has certain challenges when you live in rural Uganda. You cannot just order supplies from Carolina Biological Supply and have them delivered. Since David is teaching Anatomy & Physiology and Biology this year, he knew that he would need to do some dissections to provide the students with the full experience of these lab sciences. He also has a few students who are interested in pursuing a career in health care and wanted to equip them well for their future studies. One solution that came to David's mind was to use local animals for dissections. Our friend, neighbor and pastor raises pigs, so David bought a piglet and paid him to properly prepare it for dissection. 

David was able to help his Anatomy & Physiology students find and identify all the major organs and body systems. He then had his 4 A & P students teach the 4 Biology students what they had learned. They did a great job explaining! 

Since I am teaching Health to all of these students, I was thankful they they all were able to see the body systems that we are also currently learning about in Health class too. 

I'm so thankful for the learning opportunities we are able to provide these missionary kids. Math class doesn't usually provide as many interesting hands-on opportunities, but I am thoroughly enjoying the chance to help our students stretch their minds and develop their problem solving skills as they study mathematics. It is a blessing to see the ways our students are learning and growing! Please continue to pray for this group of missionary kids. They are amazing kids who will be equipped to serve in a variety of places and roles. We look forward to seeing the kingdom God that God will do through them in the years to come! 

Fun with science!

On Friday my Algebra 2 class was learning about inverse and joint variations. Most of the examples were from Physics so I declared it "fun with Physics on Friday morning!" But I don't have any interesting photos of us working together to solve equations. In the previous couple of weeks though, I was able to get some photos of our students having fun with science. 

We recently had the opportunity to see a partial solar eclipse. One blessing of having a roof with some holes above the science room is that it provides a great place to view a solar eclipse! Here is a photo of how we could view the eclipse on the table. 

David called the other classes into his room so we could all view this partial eclipse. He then showed the students a computer animation of an eclipse and explained how it occurs.

One of our students had eclipse glasses from the last time we viewed an eclipse, and he brought them to school for the students to all take turns using. Here is Miss Vicky helping Bobby view the eclipse.

The elementary students have been talking about predators and prey recently. They did an activity where they got the be M&M predators. Here are the 5th grade girl M&M predators. They look ready to eat their prey.

After sorting the candies, they put them into a camouflage habitat with many pieces of colored construction paper. 

When it was time for the hunt things got a little crazy...

Our high school Biology class has recently had opportunities to use the microscope to view various types of cells. Not quite as exciting as hunting for M&Ms but it is a fascinating learning opportunity.

We are grateful that our small school can provide fun learning opportunities for our students. They are a great group of kids and we are blessed to be working with them! It is our prayer that as they learn more about the world, they will be able to better appreciate and worship the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.  

Studying math and science always remind me of this hymn that I love: 

"This is my Father's world, 

and to my listening ears 
all nature sings, and round me rings 
the music of the spheres.  
This is my Father's world:  
I rest me in the thought 
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; 

his hand the wonders wrought." (Lyrics by Maltbie D. Babcock)