First week field trip!!!

I know that it is a bit unusual to plan a field trip for the first week of school, but we did. Since many of our students were new to the school, we wanted to plan an activity to help build relationships and unity and have some fun too! On the other side of Jinja there is a YWAM base with a low ropes course. One of our teachers, Cody Fox, has experience leading challenge courses and doing team building activities. In the photo below he is on the right giving the students some instructions.

Cody planned some great ways to encourage the students to work together in order to make it through the course. We were divided into 2 groups. The first challenge was working together to agree on a name. There were some interesting compromises.

Above is Group A: "The Infinitely Mighty Popcorn Warriors"

And here is Group B: "The Ponycorn Eagles"

The stated goal was to work together to get the younger students, a heavy backpack, and an adult who was functioning as a robot following only one step instructions through the entire course. It was great to see the older students helping the younger ones! Here is Emma doing a split in order to help Zeke reach the next tire. 

I also loved how the students had to work together to catch one another and get their team across the rope swing. 

They enjoyed problem solving together and helping each other as they completed all the obstacles. Sometimes our group had to wait a bit. Here I am, the "robot" for the Infinitely Mighty Popcorn Warriors, waiting for further instructions. 

In the end, after completing the course, we got to ride a long zip line! Zeke was pretty nervous, but in the end he decided to ride with Mama. He had so much fun! 

We wrapped up our first Friday of school with lunch in town along with all of our students. I am blessed to get to work with such a great group of kids! Ezra is definitely posing for the camera. 

As soon as lunch was over, the adventure continued as our family drove straight from Jinja to the east and then to the north for an introduction, but that is a story for another day....

Back to school!

Today was a great start to our new school year! This year I have a separate math classroom and more than half of our students are new. It really felt like a first day at a new school! I didn't sleep much last night as I was very excited! When everyone arrived we took a school photo. 

One student was absent because she was sick and another was shy about being in the photo, but you can see how our school has grown! Here is a school photo from just last year.

We can't fit everyone in the same location of our traditional first day photo anymore, so we had to shift to the other side of our school building. 

It was fun getting to know our new students a little bit today! I'm thankful that we are still able to have small classes and time to build relationships with each student. This year I feel like I have the best of both worlds, I get to teach just one class at a time most of the day, but my classes are still small enough to be personal. 

I always enjoy starting the school year by talking with my students about why we study mathematics. My students today had some great thoughts that they wrote. Some of the returning students have heard my thoughts on this topic before, but it was great to see them explaining why it is important rather than me trying to convince them!

Here are some of the things they wrote:

I am excited about the year ahead with this group of students! I am also excited about working with the rest of the teachers in our school! David is a wonderful teacher who helps students study and enjoy science and the humanities. Cody Fox is a great Language Arts teacher who helps our students love literature and grow as writers. Miss Vicky is probably one of the sweetest women I have ever known. She was so great managing many groups of students and making them all feel loved. Here she is with teaching science to most of our elementary students. 

We are so thankful for the way God is growing our school! We love our work teaching missionary kids here in Uganda! We are praying that God will use our school to help each of these students better know Him and be more equipped for the kingdom work He has for each of them! We are also thanking God for all of you who are praying for us and supporting our work here! 

An answer to prayer!!!

Since we have been teaching in Uganda, we have been looking for teachers to work with us. We have had several exciting possibilities, but each time, for one reason or another, it has fallen through, often at the last minute. Recently we had another similar experience.

After we had to take our dear friends back to the airport and said good-bye, we  got an email that another potential teacher was not going to be joining us. When we received this message, David and I were both very discouraged. We are both juggling many classes along with other ministry opportunities. As our students are getting older, we are needing to offer more higher level classes. This year David will be teaching high school Human Anatomy and Physiology and Biology, middle school Physical Science along with Omnibus 2 and 5 (a literature, theology, history course). I will be teaching 5th - 7th grade math, Pre-algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Health and Physical Education and supervising/grading Pre-Calculus and Calculus. Without a separate elementary teacher, we would both be taking on even more classes! We were feeling very overwhelmed!

Thankfully I had received an email that week from one of the parents of some of our new students about a Ugandan woman named Miss Vicky who has been teaching missionary kids in Jinja for many years.  I was intrigued, but since I thought we had someone joining us, I decided to wait until our visitors left to get in touch with her. When we heard the news about the other teacher not coming, we contacted Miss Vicky the next morning. She was very kind and easy to communicate with one the phone. I had recently spoken with several people who highly recommended her and she was available and willing to come interview. As we met with her, the main thing she mentioned is that she is most comfortable teaching younger students. I was thrilled since that is exactly our need! As soon as the interview was over the teachers all agreed that we need to invite her to work with us. Miss Vicky is truly an answer to prayer! Here is a photo of our four full-time teachers!

There were details to work through as we realized we would now need to be paying a salary. That week another family from Jinja asked if they could come visit and see if their two boys might be able to attend our school. Since our primary ministry is teaching the children of missionaries here at Good Shepherd's Fold, we raised the support to cover those expenses. We met with the missionary families here and agreed that is we were to accept students from other ministries, we would need to charge tuition to cover expenses. We realized that these two new students would help us cover the cost of hiring a teacher and would also help with the ratio of boys to girls. Before this new family, we were going to have only 2 boys and 12 girls in our 6th-12th grade. Elijah was thrilled to have another boy his age joining us!

This past week we have been preparing for the start of school, organizing new classroom space, planning a schedule, organizing curriculum, and working on lesson plans. It is exciting to see our school grow. Our first day of school is Wednesday and we have 27 students enrolled in Pre-K through 12th grade. As more than half of our students are new, we are praying that God will bring a spirit of unity and love among our students. This year will be a transition for all of them. Most missionary kids have experienced a great deal of transition in their lives already, and we want our school to be a place where our students know they are safe and loved while they learn and grow. Please pray for us all as we work toward creating this culture in our school. We are thankful for many of you praying for us and our students. Please keep us in your prayers this week in particular! And thank God with us for sending Miss Vicky as an answer to our prayers!

Follow up to Elijah's village visit - Generosity

Elijah wrote a great blogpost about our day visiting an elderly woman who was very close to the end of her life on earth. Here is a photo from the day we visited.

A detail that Elijah did not include is that the caregivers for this very sick woman were two of her grandchildren who were about 8 and 15 years old. These girls were staying home from school to care for their grandmother. After the grandmother passed away, many members of our Bible study group went for the burial. Our family was out of town, so I was not able to attend. 

The following weekend, the 2 granddaughters came to our Bible study. They told the women that they hadn't been in school because they were caring for their grandmother, but now they didn't have the money for school fees and the supplies they would need to bring. I asked the women what they thought these girls needed. They all replied, "They need to go to school." We prayed for the girls. Then I asked the women, "What should we do? Who can help them?" They each began to offer what they thought they could contribute. Some asked if they could sell me an extra bead necklace this week in order to use the money for school fees for these girls. After the woman had all given what they could, we added up the contributions. It covered their expenses! I was so encouraged to see that the bead making skills these women have developed not only made it possible for them to care for their own children, but also to provide for the needs of others in the community. I was also very happy to see this small group of women serve together as the body of Christ. 

As I think about the little that these women have, I am blessed and overwhelmed by their generosity! Some of them were saving money to buy a mattress to sleep on at night. But they still gave to provide for these two girls! While I may have some things I am able to teach these women from years of studying the Bible, they teach me much more through the way they sacrificialy care for people in need. I am blessed to learn from them! 

Our family is growing!!!

Sorry, that title may have been a little deceiving... Our immediate family is not growing, but our missionary family is!!! When you live together, work together, worship together, teach each others kids, and celebrate all holidays and birthdays together, I think it is safe to call each other family! 

We recently had an experience that even more solidified this bond. On Sunday morning while we were picking up some of the GSF kids to take them to church, I got a phone call that was so exciting! Katie Fox, my amazing friend who coordinates the programs for children with special needs here at GSF was in labor. I asked David if I could go see what I could do to help and he could take the kids to church. He graciously agreed and offered to do whatever they wanted for us to do to help. After talking with Katie and Cody and finding out that the nurse friend who was going to go to the hospital was unavailable at the time, I offered to go help in any way I could. They agreed to let me come along, and I was thrilled to get to encourage my friend and sister as she walked through the challenges of bringing a baby into this world. In the end she had to have a c-section, and since I have had plenty of experience with that, I was glad to be there to encourage and support her. Only her husband was able to go into the "theater" as they call the operating room here.

Another couple from our team, Daniel and Corinne Iya were driving through Kampala on Sunday and came to the hospital and even stayed overnight nearby to help out with errands and mostly waited for hours in the waiting room. It makes you feel so loved when people go out of their way just to be available and nearby. Of course they were also excited to see the baby, but the moral support it provided Katie and Cody was wonderful! The next day Mark and Amy Gwartney and their kids came to the hospital on their way back from dropping off visitors at the airport in Entebbe. Claudia was often inquiring via text message about baby and mama. Our team had a group text message to keep everyone updated. It was great that for various reasons so many of us were in Kampala to be able to welcome this precious baby into our missionary family. It was another time that really bonded us together. 

I needed to drive back to GSF on Monday with Mark and Amy because we were hosting a family that was visiting GSF and interviewing for the Director of Outreach position. (Also, David was parenting on his own for over 24 hours and he wanted some assistance.) I napped on the way back to GSF since I hadn't slept much the night before. The baby came around 3am and then of course who wants to sleep when they can see the baby!?! There were also things to do to help Katie and Cody settle into their recovery room. Anyway, not much sleep...

When I arrived home, I had a little time to greet my family and then get ready for our dinner together. This family has been living in another part of Uganda, but for a variety of reasons, they were looking to move. As I talked with them about their children, I realized that they have some children similar ages as some of mine. As soon as the children got together, they immediately hit it off. Esther and the 11 year old girl were giggling together and created a language together on their first day meeting.

Ezra and their 9 years old son had a blast playing together. Ezra said, "We can both wrestle as hard as we want and no one has to let up and no one cries!" In Ezra's mind there is probably not any better complement. The boys weren't still long enough to get a photo. :) The family has 6 children and each of them seemed to connect with some of the missionary kids here. We invited everyone up to our house for a marshmallow roast so they could all get to know one another. It was a wonderful time!

During the interview the next day I got to spend some time with the children. The girls worked together to make cookies and everyone had a great time playing. The boys even had a healthy, good, quick reconciliation after minor conflict in a soccer game. Conflict is inevitable when you spend so much time with someone, so it was great to see that the boys could work through that easily and move on. As I was watching the children interact, I was praying that it would work out for this family to join our team here. God answered this with a yes!!! The family is planning to move to GSF in early August and their children will start school with us in mid August! Our little MK school is now growing from 13 to 25! We have a family who is sending 7 of their daughters from Jinja to join us for school, and now 5 of the children from this family will be able to do school with us. (The 4 year old will only do an hour or two of pre-school along with Alex, Claudia's youngest, if her parents want her to start school.)

This expansion of our school brings us to the last part of our missionary family growing! We have been praying for a long time that God would send another teacher to work with us. As we have seen the growing need for our school, we have prayed and discussed with others and felt the Lord directing us to open our doors wider. When we began realizing that we were going to be doubling the size of our school, I had a few moments of panic. But very soon, God graciously provided an amazing young woman named Misti who has visited GSF before, and now wants to join us teaching this school year! We have gone through the application process and officially invited her to join us, but she still needs to raise support and do some training with the Global Outreach home office. Please pray with us for Misti's support to come in quickly so that she can join us as soon as possible!

It is amazing that all of this is coming together at once! It seems like God is just lavishing his blessings right now! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement in the times of waiting as well as the times of celebrating!

Celebrating The Fourth of July

On the Fourth of July our missionary team and a few visitors had a great celebration together! One challenge of raising kids overseas is that there are many aspects of your home culture that your kids might never be exposed to or learn. The majority of missionary kids on our team here have spent more years overseas than in the United States. Celebrating American holidays provides both an opportunity for our children to learn traditions and to have a small taste of American culture for us all.

As we gathered together to celebrate, everyone brought foods that reminded them of celebrating the Fourth of July. Esther even baked and decorated a special American flag cake. 

David cooked some delicious hamburgers! 

And many other fabulous foods were brought including tortilla chips and cheese dip, barbecue chicken sandwiches and other patriotic looking desserts. 

Once we had all gathered, we went to the field behind our house for a fun game of kickball! There was a lot of instruction related to the rules of the game, but it didn't keep us from having a great time.

Our neighbors in Buwundo village enjoyed watching this American game from over the hedge. Thankfully, I got to be on my husband's team because he was (and is) amazing! You can guess which team won...

After our fun game, we went inside for dinner. I realized that we had forgotten to sing the National Anthem before our game, so we sang it before dinner instead. Then the kids roasted hot dogs over the fire and ran around like crazy outside. The adults had a nice quieter time sitting around our dinner table and visiting.

After dinner we all went outside to light our version of fireworks. These are advertised and sold as birthday candles here in Uganda. They work great as sparklers! 

And to top off the evening, Claudia brought out one of her Chinese lanterns to light and send off. There was great celebration when it successfully cleared the solar panels and floated up into the night sky! 

We had a fun night celebrating together! I'm very thankful that my missionary team here feels like family! And our missionary family is growing!!!! More details in a post to come....

Summer craziness

In America, summer holidays are often full of camp schedules, Vacation Bible School, family trips and other things. Parents who are at home with kids are remembering that a break from school is anything but a break for the parents. Life often gets hectic and when there are long periods of unscheduled time, we find that there are many behavioral and heart issues to address with our children. 

For the most part we do not have busy schedules here in Uganda, but life has certainly been full! As a teacher, there have been many things that I put off until the school year was over. (Mostly paperwork) This first week after the end of the school year has been full of trying to meet deadlines and take care of things like that. The summer is also busier with many teams visiting GSF. Since our teams coordinator has recently returned the U.S. for a time of rest, each member of our team here is picking up some aspects of her job. It is great to have visitors who come to encourage, help and support our work here, but it also adds a bit to the schedule.

In addition to all of this we have been wanting to do some follow up with people who were diagnosed with cataracts by our friend who is an optometrist when he was visiting. This week we were able to take two of those people to a local hospital to find out if they would qualify for a free surgery. One of the patients does not yet have severe enough cataracts that they would do the procedure, but the other was scheduled for surgery the next day. That meant that we needed to scramble to find someone to go to the hospital with her. No one in her family was available on short notice. Here nurses and doctors care for your medical needs at the hospital, but you always have to go with someone to care for any other needs and help with paperwork, communication, payment, etc. We were thankful that Esther Hannah who usually helps with our children was willing to go along and care for this Jajja. Esther is very gentle and patient which are great characteristics for a setting like this. They spent the majority of the day waiting, but finally the procedure was completed. Then they were told that they needed to come back the next day for a follow-up visit. Here we are as David was helping her back to her house at the end of a long day. 

That evening Zeke came down with a fever and cough, so we decided that David would stay home with the boys, and Esther would come with me as I would drive Esther Hannah and Jajja into town the next day. I also had a few errands related to the paperwork that needed to be finished. It was good to have a date with my girl.

This time their appointment went very quickly, but we decided that we would also take this opportunity to take Jajja for a medical check-up. It sounded as if she was laboring to breathe and she had a bad cough. She also had many body aches and some swelling in her ankles. At the clinic they diagnosed her with pneumonia and we were able to help her get treatment. As I returned home, I was able to finish organizing all of our paperwork and send the necessary emails by the deadline!

Saturday proved to be another full day. Elijah has written a blog post about coming with me and my Bible study group to visit a sick, elderly woman in a "nearby" village. Here is a link to that post if you have not yet read it.

Today is Sunday. This morning, we received a message that Jessica, a girl who lives at GSF, might have broken her foot and needs to be brought into town for an x-ray and to see the doctor. Since the Gwartney family spent yesterday taking another child, Precious, who had a broken leg into town yesterday, we volunteered to take Jessica today. Here is a photo of sweet little Precious. Please pray for her!

So here we are in Jinja waiting... Jessica has already gotten the x-ray and has been waiting several hours now to see the doctor. Our family has been able listen to a sermon and some worship songs in the van, and now we are sitting at a cafe in Jinja waiting for her to be seen.

While life is always busy, I had some strange thought that things would slow down once the school year was over. I know it has only been one week, but that expectation has certainly not come to fruition. As we are busy with things other than our usual routines, I am asking God to give me energy and strength for each day. I'm remembering that in my weakness He is strong. And I am keenly aware that the brokenness in this world around me far exceeds my ability to handle it. But our God is is gracious and compassionate. This morning I read, "In your goodness, O God, you provide for the needy." (Psalm 68:10) and "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation." (Psalm 68:5) As our lives are often "interrupted" with the needs of the fatherless and widows, I am thankful that our God has given us the privilege to be a small part of his care for them.