Random Pics from October (Part 2)

Here I am back again with some more pics from October...

Here are our dogs, Heidi and Justice, lounging in the shade. They are super sweet pups.

Having fun, playing pretend outside. Gideon was also involved but was too embarrassed to be photographed :-).

Last weekend, we had a team retreat in Karamoja, which is about a four hour drive north of us. The other half of our team lives and works there. We enjoyed a beautiful (but rather bumpy ride) up.

The big boys even enjoyed a brief ride on the roof...

Until we had to cross through some nasty potholes, at which point they (thankfully) got down.

Part 3 coming soon!

Random Pics from October (Part 1)

I just downloaded a bunch of pics from our camera, and I should probably try to organize them into separate blog posts, but this is more my speed right now! So here's some random pics from this month, with explanations, if necessary...

One Sunday per month, the Mbale church shares a meal together after morning worship. Normally, the dishes get washed at the home of the other missionary family (the Tuiningas), but this month, they didn't have water, so the dishes came to our house.

And were washed by these sweet girls, who even washed my dishes for me after they had washed all the ones from church :-).

This is our turkey that we are supposed to eat for Thanksgiving. Here's hoping we are actually able to "do the deed" when the time comes. We were told we had to buy him early to avoid holiday prices! A little different from the Butterball I purchased last year at Food Lion!

Here he is showing off :-)

Here's our pet bunny, Oreo, in a little "home" Josiah made for her.

A pic from our last visit to a village church. The lady next to me is wearing a gomesi, a traditional Ugandan dress. It is designed to make the wearer look fat, because fat is beautiful :-).

After the service, we were invited to the Pastor's house for lunch. As you can see, we drew an audience.

Here is the delicious meal they served us...all cooked on a fire.

Well, I still have a lot more pics to go, but I'm told that blog posts shouldn't get too long or people won't read them, so I'll save the rest for later this week!

Thoughts on Homesickness and Mount Wanale Hike

Last week I was really struggling with homesickness. I knew that the Lord had called us here, but I found myself missing family, friends, fall, and basically everything familiar :-). I asked for prayer - that the Lord would use those feelings of homesickness to draw me closer to Him, and He has been faithful.

At the Mbale church, Pastor Charles Magala has begun preaching through the book of 1 Peter, so I thought I'd spend some time reading and studying it. The apostle Peter addresses the letter to "refugees of the Dispersion". One of the commentaries I was reading pointed out that many of Peter's intended audience were probably living in their hometown, yet he addresses them as refugees. Why? Because as Christians, we are all refugees, strangers, pilgrims.

In the words of a song I enjoyed as a child...

"This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I just don't feel at home in this world anymore"

And it hit me - this homesickness is really a blessing. In a spiritual sense, we are all away from home. I just have the gift of really feeling it right now. So whenever I feel that ache for home deep in the pit of my stomach, I have been trying to remember to give thanks. What I'm really aching for can't be found here on earth :-).

And on a lighter note, yesterday, we hiked up Mt. Wanale with a group of about 20 friends. It was Ugandan Independence Day, so school was closed and many people had the day off. Mt. Wanale is one of the foothills of Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano that sits on the border between Uganda and Kenya. We enjoy a beautiful view of Mt. Wanale from our yard and we drove to the top once, but the boys have been itching to hike to the top. Sadly, Mark had to work at the hospital so he couldn't join us, but here are some pics of the rest of us having fun/feeling terrified :-). (Thanks to Dianna Tuininga for many of these pics!)

The kids like to play in the water at the top

View from the top...complete with random dog

Someone in our group bought a jack fruit from the locals who even cut it up for us.

Jack fruit tastes like super sweet Juicy fruit gum and the texture resembles gum too - chewy, but not juicy. I don't particularly care for it, but some others I know do...

Here's our group at the top, minus Dianna, who graciously took the pic :-).


One of the seminary students from Knox Theological College joined us. I found his shirt to be rather appropriate

This was the scariest part of the hike for me...a "stick" ladder.

It is always rather humbling to see the Ugandan women calmly carrying huge loads on their heads, when you are struggling just to walk!

Well, needless to say, we made it home safely! Today I'm sore in places I didn't know I had, but thankful for a sweet time enjoying the Lord's beautiful creation.