Some news...

You may have noticed that the blog has been rather quiet lately. And you may have wondered - are the Webers just busy or are things not going well? I'm hoping this post will answer those questions.

 Mark has resigned from his position in Uganda as a missionary deacon, and we are moving back to the US. After a difficult year in Africa, it has become clear that the job is not a good fit for Mark's skill set. The job struggles have taken a major toll on our marriage and our family, and we do not feel it would be wise to continue along that path.

Our family is currently staying with Mark's sister, Amy, and her family, who live north of Philadelphia. Mark will be returning to Uganda on 8/13 to wrap things up there. We would have loved to return together as a family to say goodbye, but ultimately the cost of flights for a family of 6 ruled it out. Mark is hoping to be finished packing and tying up loose ends in one month. In the meantime, the kids and I will continue to stay here with Amy. At this point, we are not certain of our next steps once Mark has wrapped up his work in Uganda, but we will keep you posted :).

This was a difficult and sad decision to make in many ways. We will miss many dear friends we have made in Mbale, and while it has been a difficult year, it has also been a very rich time of living outside our own culture. That said, we have a real peace that this is what is best for our family at this point.

Thanks to all those in Uganda who made us feel so loved and welcomed - the Tuiningas, the Johnsons, the Robinsons, the Eids, the Palmers, the Sandys, the Valentines, the Allens, the Magalas, Ezekiel, Sammy, all the Kenyan guys, Teddy, the folks at Mbale OPCU, Milton and family, all the folks in the OPCU, the students and staff of Overcomers School, the staff of Cure Hospital, and even though they'll probably never see this - Messalamu and family, Mama Jane, and Mama Beth and her dear boys. And I can't forget the folks in Karamoja - the Wrights, the Knoxes, the Tricaricos, the Okkens, the Verdicks, Jesse, Bryce, Erika, Taryn, plus all the other great MAs serving up there. Thanks to the MAs who loved and served our family so amazingly - Jenna van Eyk, Christi Zekveld, and Hailey and Morgan Adams. We love you all and are so thankful for you.

Thank you all so much for your prayers. I know many of you have prayed regularly for our family, and we are so thankful. We would really appreciate your continued prayers as Mark returns to Uganda on 8/13. Pray that he would be able to wrap things up well there, that God would keep us in His care as we are apart from one another, and that Mark would be able to find a job upon returning to the US in mid-September.

Thought I'd share some photos from my phone of what we were up to our last few months in Uganda. I probably have some better ones on the computer, but since the computer is in Africa and I'm in America, this will have to suffice for now.

We enjoyed lots of fun football aka soccer games with the kids from church. Amazing view isn't it?

Reading a book with friends.

First Medical Outreach

Today Mark held his first medical outreach in Mazimasa, a village outside of Mbale. He has been spending a lot of time these past several months thinking about the best way to do such an outreach. Those of you who know Mark know that he is a thinker. He wanted to be sure that he supports the medical infrastructure that is already in place here in Uganda. The system here isn't perfect, but he didn't want to undermine it by providing treatment outside of the system.

So, what he ended up doing was partnering with a government health center 3. A health center 3 consists of a medical clinic with a maternity ward.

Here is a picture of the health center we visited today:

About a month ago Mark visited this health center to ask how he could assist them. The staff there indicated that they would love for him to give a talk about a health topic of his choice on a day that they would be conducting pediatric vaccinations and distributing de-worming medicine.

This is Sylvia, the midwife at the clinic:

So, Mark prepared a talk about worms. Yes, it's gross, and I learned things I didn't really want to know, (Did you know a single worm can lay 200,000 eggs in your body in a single day?), but it is so crucial here where indoor plumbing is a rarity, and where a bad case of worms can keep a child from gaining any weight.

His friend Milton translated, as many of the people in the villages speak very limited English.

When Mark was done with his talk, Pastor Herbert, the pastor of the local church there in Mazimasa, shared about Jesus with those gathered at the clinic. I think it is a great arrangement, because then if people have questions or want follow up, they can talk to the pastor that is right there in their village.

After Pastor Herbert spoke, Mark distributed de-wormer to everyone gathered there.

Many of the church members came over to the clinic to greet us and their neighbors that attended the outreach.

Here are the boys hanging out with some friends from the church.

Here is Harriet, Milton's wife and a dear friend, holding baby Eric (who was terrified of us white people by the way).

Thank you for praying for us. Please continue to pray for wisdom as to how to serve here well. We want to make sure we are coming alongside and encouraging all the good things that are happening here, rather than coming in like an elephant and imposing our own agenda. Pray for Mark, who really misses full time medicine, and is still trying to figure out his role/place here.

House Tour (Interior)

As promised, I'm back with some pictures from the inside of our house. Our home probably isn't going to appear in any decorating magazines anytime soon, but hopefully, it will give you a better sense of our life here.

If you were to enter through the doors straight ahead, (I hadn't unlocked it yet in this pic), you would enter into our living room.

Next to the living room is the dining room. Aesthetically, it drives me a little crazy that this is the only place to keep the refrigerator, but I'm working on letting that go :-).

From the dining room you have two choices. You could go into the kitchen.

Once again, you might notice that our appliances are in funny places. See the washing machine in the front left corner?

And from the dining room, you could also head down the hallway to the bedrooms.

Can you spy Mark in this pic? Also take note of the "cat house" Silas built for our cat, Mina.

One interesting feature of houses here are separate rooms for toilets, sinks, and showers. Different houses have different combinations. Our house has a toilet in one room and a sink and shower in the other. Here's the sink and shower. I thought I'd spare you a toilet shot.

School room

Boys room

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

There is also a guest bedroom, but I didn't take any photos of it, since it is currently Haley and Morgan's home. Also, note to moms - I cleaned up for most of these pics, or in the case of the boys room, I made them clean it up.

Random Pet News

******************* Warning- some gory medical pictures included ***********************

So last month we introduced you to Samantha, the monkey that was given to us as a gift. Well..... Samantha climbed up the chimney of her cage and got out. We all saw her in the top of the chimney and tried to lure her down with bananas but it did not work. Now she is free! There have been some sightings over the past two weeks. Maybe it is not all that bad as we have heard some really scary monkey attack stories from friends!

Now on to our cat Mina. So Mina is a girl and was frequently going into heat. We (or should I say me, Mark) did not want any more pets around so we decided to get her fixed. A friendly vet came to visit from Kampala and was able to spay her at our house, on the kitchen table. It was a fun experience for some to have a front row view of the surgery. 

Two days after the surgery she pulled out her stitches and the wound came open. We tried pinning her down to resuture it but either the needle was super dull or her skin is made of Kevlar. Needless to say it did not go too well. The following day we resorted to superglue and that seemed to do the trick. 

And finally Jack our puppy. About three weeks ago he ran under our tire as we were pulling in. We thought it was only some minor scratches as things seemed painful but relatively straight. A few days later things looked a bit worse. We were not sure if his rear hip was out of joint. We called the local vet who came over and anesthetized him. He found that his femur was broken and he casted it. All seemed well. Later that evening Christine got me as Jack was unresponsive with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. His heart rate was high and his gums were grey. We put an IV in and gave him a fluid bolus (employing PALS on the dog) and he perked right up. Unfortunately his IV fell out and we could not find another site as he was quite dehydrated and shocky. 

Hailey then suggested that we try to give him some fluids in the scruff of his neck. This is called hyperdermoclysis (now veering off of PALS protocol). Hailey had done it in the past with some of her other dogs. We gave him a good bit of fluid this way but it was not quite fast enough to resuscitate him. I tried putting a catheter in his femoral vein but it also was not working. 

We pulled the kids together and brought Jack inside. After about 3 hours of work it seemed we were not getting anywhere. We said our goodbyes and prayed together. Sitting there I thought.... well there is one more thing (back to PALS now). I had some large 16 gauge needles and I was able to put one into his good femur as an intraosseous line (thanks to some quick Google assistance). Once we started pushing fluid into it he perked up and yelped. We watcher him for a bit and put some more IV fluid in before taking the line out for the night. Hailey then kindly stayed with him through the night helping him actually drink some milk! 

The next morning we were all shocked he was alive. His bad leg swelled up a lot so we had to remove the cast before his foot exploded. After that we were making splints for him for the following 3 weeks. 

Now some of you may be thinking.... why is this missionary telling us all about his pets? Why is he not talking about what he is doing with the church?

And some of the psychoanalysts in the group may be saying.... Ahhh he is talking about his pets. What are the feelings that are behind all of this. This is fascinating. Let's delve into this a bit further..... 

I think these situations with the pets can give a glimmer of what life can be like here. Life is fragile. You have something good one day and the next day it is gone. You are struggling as you work outside your culture with  limited or different resources. Things sometimes just do not go as planned and when the plan fails it seems the consequences are bigger. 

There are many times that our social life is like that here. Some of these events are similar to the relationships and struggles that we work through in the church and in the community. The difficult thing is it is hard to write about those issues either for the sake of protection of privacy or for the fact that I frankly have no idea what is going on!

Hopefully this post was both enlightening and beneficial as it will give you ways to pray for us, our pets and those we work with. 

p.s. Thanks Jacques, Brenda, Antoine, Genevieve and Madeleine Tibean for the fun letter! We all enjoyed it. And thanks to all the others for the letters and packages. They are a big encouragement. And not this was not a subtle hint. 

A House Tour (Exterior)

I’d love to be able to have you all over to our house for a meal or a cup of coffee, but since I can’t, I thought a photographic tour of our house would be the next best thing. Today I’ll start with the exterior of the house.

After entering our gate, this would be your view down our driveway. (Yes, there is almost always a dog or two or three there to greet you.)

If you were standing in this spot and looked to the left, you would see Mark’s container workshop. Handyman that he is, he recently welded some climbing holds on the side for our boys to enjoy.

And on the other side of the container, the Tuininga and Weber kids have enjoyed constructing some forts.

Straight across the driveway from the container we have the trampoline set up. It sits under a huge mango tree which is filled with tons of ripe mangoes right now. Here is Silas sharing some with friends.

Mark also built a great chicken coop in this part of the yard.

Here are its current inhabitants.

Now we come to the house.

Here’s the empty swimming pool. The landlady wants to get rid of it, but Mark would like to try to get it operational. We’ll see what happens J.

If you entered through those green gates, you’d come into the courtyard which generally looks something like this…

Keeping it real here people.

One of the best parts of this house is our view of Mount Wanale. (Quiz: can you guess the fruit hanging on that tree?)

We also really enjoy the big flat field at the front of the house. Great for soccer and for tiring out four boys J.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this tour, and have a little better sense of where we call home. Pics of the interior coming soon!

Overcomers School and a New Pet

Dusting off the blog today for a post about some happenings in the Weber family :-).

1. The Overcomers School: A few months ago I was chatting with a friend about our adjustment to life here in Uganda. While Mark is out in the community working and building relationships, I was noting how, in many ways, what I do here on a day to day basis is very similar to what I would do in America on a day to day basis, just with a few added twists and turns. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good in that it has provided some needed structure and security for us, especially for the kids. But, I have discovered that it can also be bad, in that, when I'm having a hard day, I have found myself wanting to retreat to America, with its orderliness and convenience and familiarity and loved ones...you get the idea. I haven't had much that has emotionally tied me to this place, and made me want to be here.

This friend (another homeschooling mama) was encouraging me to pray about something that I could get involved in here in the community. Not necessarily something that would take loads of time and take me away from my family all day, but something small that would tie me to this place and the people here in a deeper way.

I'm so thankful to share that the Lord has provided such a thing: the Overcomers School.

The Overcomers School was started by an amazing Ugandan single mom, Miriam, who works at Cure Children's Hospital here in Mbale. Cure provides surgery for children with hydrocephalus, spina bifida, and other neurological issues. As the children who had had surgery at Cure grew up, Miriam became aware of a problem. Even though these children were bright students, schools here in Uganda would not admit them because they have incontinence and bowel issues. These lovely children were sitting at home with no opportunity for an education. Although she felt totally unqualified, she obeyed the Lord's call, and began a school in her home for these kids. The school rapidly outgrew her home, and now occupies an entire house. It is a boarding school, so the children live here during the term, receiving the care they need along with an education. There are currently 12 enrolled students. Many more want to come, but there isn't any space to take more.

One problem the school faces is a lack of funds. Many of these children come from large families where money is very tight. In light of their disabilities, these children are frequently the last in their family to have school fees paid. So far this term, only three students have paid their tuition, but Miriam will not turn them away. At times, she is forced to use her own money in order to pay the teachers.

Miriam has graciously allowed me to come and teach at the school Monday mornings. My boys and I also go along to physical therapy with the students on Thursday afternoons. It has been such an encouragement to me, and I look forward to going every week. These kids have every reason to be depressed and discouraged, yet they radiate joy and love. Hearing them sing, "My God is Able" makes me happy for a whole week, and really puts my attitude in proper perspective.

Here are some pics from the school. More to come, I'm sure.

2. Our new pet monkey, Samantha: I think that on some level, ever since moving to Uganda, our kids have dreamed of having a pet monkey. I never thought it would actually happen, but on Sunday, a friend showed up at our house with a monkey that she had brought from her village to give to us. The boys named her Samantha. She is still a little shy with us, so we are currently keeping her in the chicken coop. We are working to get her more comfortable with us, (and get her some shots), maybe then we can have her roam more freely. She is a vervet monkey.

Somehow, a preschool teacher found out we had a monkey and brought her class to our house for a field trip!

Update on Mark's car accident

First, some background info - a few weeks ago Mark was hit from behind while waiting to make a right hand turn (like a left hand turn in America). Thankfully, he was not hurt, nor was anyone else involved in the accident. Mark is pretty sure he had his turn signal on, but witnesses to the accident disagree about whether or not it was on. Some say it was. Others say no. Mark's vehicle did not suffer too much damage, but the other car involved was pretty badly damaged. For those of you not on Facebook, here's a pic of Mark's truck:

And here's the other guy's vehicle:

The guy driving the other vehicle was insistent that the accident was not his fault, and that Mark should pay for all damages. This seemed ridiculous to us. How can it be your fault when you are hit from behind? The case was put in the hands of a police lawyer, to determine which party was at fault. In the meantime, Mark has had to report to the police station every 3 days to post bail. (Didn't know I was married to a criminal :). We were advised by several Ugandan friends to be prepared to pay for all damages. The vehicle was a government car, and we were told it was unlikely that the police would judge in our favor against a government employee. One friend told me, "You will not find justice in Uganda. You will have to wait for God to give justice."

Well, it turns out, our Ugandan friends were right. On Friday, the police found Mark fully at fault in the accident, charged him with reckless driving, and ordered us to pay for all repairs. While I was trying to prepare myself for this, I gotta say it was pretty hard to swallow. In my better moments, here are some lessons I am trying to take away from this experience:

1. No one was hurt. Vehicles are all repairable, and we have the money to repair them. This is relatively small potatoes. Thank you Lord.

2. Many of our brothers and sisters around the world face much more serious injustices everyday. I now have a little bit more empathy for them.

3. Jesus, who I claim to be a follower of, faced the ultimate injustice on my behalf. Why do I think I should never have to face any trials?

4. This has been a real cultural lesson. As Westerners, we place such a high value on truth and justice. The boys and I read a great quote in a novel the other day that sums it up quite nicely, "He knew that these English folk worshiped Truth as a god, and preferred always to hear the bitterest truths, no matter how hard for themselves, than the most golden lies." True statement. I like truth!!!!

Here in Uganda, relationships are valued more than truth. After hearing of the decision on Friday, a friend who has lived here 16 years remarked, "Ugandans care more about making everyone happy, than about truth." This decision is perceived as being the one which will make the most people happy, I guess.

In summary, thanks for praying for us! Pray that we would love well, and would not allow ourselves to grow bitter.