We thank God for safe travels after having happened upon a bad accident where a tanker truck swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and spilled it's contents on the road. The petrol caught fire as a local tried to save the driver and both were killed in the falmes. So we had to make a detour into the backroads, travelling through Mabira Forest and nearby Sugar Cane plantations. On the way home we passed through Mukono Town not knowing that there had been amajor riot there and riot police and army had been brought in to calm the situation. Thankfully we passed thru the town as the army and Police were "cleaning up" their operation. We drove thru the town following an armoured vehicle so we felt somewhat safe yet uneasy seeing all the destruction and presence of so many army and police. We were thankful to God to be home safe. Please pray for our continued safety.

Arrived in Uganda

We're here! Thanks for all of your prayers -- we made it safely with most of our luggage. We had a realatively good trip -- the boys were quite good getting good chunks of sleep on the plane rides. Kenny had his birthday on two different flights. We were travelling for pretty much 24 hrs. We left on Monday evening from Vanvouver and then arrived 24hrs later in Uganda at about 10am on Wednesday morning.

We had quite a task tracking down our 20+ pieces of luggage at the Entebbe airport. Jane and the kids gaurded our heap of bags and totes while I grabbed them off the belt. Then they gaurded the luggage again while I shuttled it all through customs cart by cart to our friends and family who were waiting for us on the other side of customs. The security gaurds got to know me well after my many trips back and forth.

We then piled our stuff into a Bushfire pickup and then ourselves into a Bushfire van. We got to experience Kampalas rush hour in the heat of the day -- not a pleasant first experience for the boys. They were all so HOT.

We arrived that afternoon at hour house in Jinja at the Hopeland YWAM base. The house is very nice. It is usually occupied by a couple from Vancouver, the Gates but they are currently away til April. We would love to stay in the house for a while but will have to see what happens when the Gates return. The house has four rooms and is very spacoius compared to the trailer we lived in in Canada and the house at jane's dad's.

WE have been trying to buy things fro the house but that has been a bit tricky to get someone to care for the kids while Jane and I shop. Our nephew Steven has been here a few days so that has helped a lot.

Jinja is a very beautiful town with the Nile running just to the west of it and Lake Victoria just to it's south. The roads right now are in major disrepair but are being worked on. The major highway to Kenya runs throught the town. It is a being rebuilt in a major way so we hope in a few months we will be driving on one of the nicest roads in Uganda. As for now it is one of the worst.

Please keep praying for us to settle in. We really see a LOT of oppostition to our coming. It is much different here in Africa where one can really sense the spiritual oppostiion to God's work. We have had a number of itmes lost or stolen or not working as they should be. We are believing that God's grace will be greater than all the troubles we face.

We will start in slowly with the work with some orientation likely in the coming week. Both Sam Kitalya (Bushfire) and Sam Kisolo (Orphans Know More), the directors, have been away in the OK and Kenya, respectively. Sam Kitalya arrived yesterday so we hope to see him soon.

Zeezee, Albert, Kenny

Zeezee (Isaiah)

Go Trevor

OK, time for something random and off topic.

I've been really happy lately with the Canucks recent thrust to the top of their division, especially since Tevor Lynden has been scoring a few times and hopefully silencing some of his doubters . I'm a Trevor Lynden fan from a long ways back. He's been playing since I was in my mid teens -- my favourite number has been 16 for a long time (Jane's room number at her hostel was 16). I don'ty know Trevor a lot but he seems to always exude class and humility. Plus he's just a hard working guy. You can always tell when he's out on the ice (even if you can't see his number) by the lumbering, thrusting way he skates and the way he holds his elbows back a bit.

If the Canucks can put in consistant efforts along with their great goaltending from Luongo they can get well into the play-offs this year.

Our 5th Anniversary

On the 12th we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary (that's our Wooden anniverery by the way for all you carpenters). We went out for dinner at Adrian's at the Airport here at the Langley Airport. We were celebrating a few days early as it was a good day for our friend, Lori Pilkey to take care of the kids (thanks to Ashton and Charity too). It was a great meal - I had Greek food and Jane had Chicken Cordon Bleu. We then went to ABC Counrty Restuarant and had desert. Jane went for the nice pumpkin pie and I had the BIG Mount Baker chocolate/icecream cake. It was great to have some time to ourselves and talk about the coming changes in our lives.

All the while the weather was doing it's latest crazy thing (if you haven't heard we have had very stormy weather here since the beginning of November). It was blowing hard this afternoon (up to 100km in some parts) and then we got blowing hail and snow in the evening. Lots of power outages and people who still don't know the procedure for going through a traffic light that is out ( it seems that most everyone in Vancouver should have perfected that by now over this winter of constant power outages).

The boys had a great time at the Pilkeys and we were so thankful for the help. Jane got to see their new place which looks so great with their dark-stained hardwood floors and high cielings. It's all on on one floor so they can easily care for Justin and he can easily move around and find his mom or siblings around the house.

Count down...

Well friends we are getting close to our departure date. We are officailly released to leave now by Equip so thanks to you all who have supported us and given generously towards the work we will be doing. We will really value your prayers and continued support over the next days and weeks to come as we settle back into Uganda.

We will be living at Hopeland which is the YWAM base here in Jinja, Uganda. It will be very hot and humid when we arrive. We hope we'll all adjust well to the many changes quickly.

We have spent the last week packing up our 15 pieces of luggage (each about 70lbs) plus our 5 carry-on pieces. We're trying to sort out what to pack, what to send to mom and dad's for storage, what should go to VV, what we could maybe sell, and what should be trashed. We are now pretty much packed and need to mainly work on getting rid of the rest of the stuff in the houseand then cleaning the house. Lots to do but it seems we are on schedule.

We'll be leaving on the 15th at 8.30. Please pray that all will go well and we'll have a good flight and a good connection in London. We leave London at around 9pm (UK time) on Tuesday and arrive 8.30 am (Uganda time) in Entebbe. Kenny will be celebrating his Birthday in Heathrow - we'll see what we can do for an airport party.

By the way we'll be on Yahoo messanger so you can talk to us/see us (we have a built-in web cam) if you track us down on our usual yahoo address (sperling_equip@yahoo.ca)