| Well friends it has been some time since we sent you all an update about how life is going here back at home in Uganda. We have been very busy thus the long gap between proper updates. I have had two seminars lately that have kept me busy but have been very fruitful and exciting. We ran two identical Farming God's Way (FGW)Seminars in two consecutive weeks at the begining of February. I am now planning and preparing for a slightly more extensive seminar in Mbarara in mid March. These initial FGW seminars are aimed at what we call FGW champions who are basically church leaders and people involved in Agriculture with an NGO or are community leaders in Agriculture. These Chamions are our real representatives who will take the message of the Kingdom and how it affects every area of life -- including farming, to their organisations,churches and communites. So far in the three breif seminars we have trained about 90 people from well over 30 0rganisations and Churches. FGW training material provides a spiritual base for why we do the technical part and emphasises good management which can only really be a bi-product of a life transformed by God Himself. In addition to the training coming up in Mbarara Chris is hoping to carry on from there to Rwanda and Burundi and possibly Eastern Congo. The plan is to run at least one seminar in each location. We have friends in Rwanda and Burundi who will host me. Please pray for direction and guidance as we consider going to these countries. It wil be lots of traveling and about two weeks apprat from the family. Aside from work we have had some health struggles -- the boys have been mostly healthy since returning to Uganda in October until recently almost all of them had malaria at the same time. Jane has struggled quite a bit with morning sickness and also had a severe sinus infection which finally seems to be clearing up after seeing speciallist in Kampala. We have also been sorting out our work visas which has been quite a headache as we have three classes of visas in our family and they all come due at varying times with varying processes. In addition to this Uganda is now asking that foreigners need to have a security letter from the RCMP. This,as we found out after quite a bit of research, is also another big long process including getting fingerprinted here in Uganda and mailing them off to Ottawa and waiting up to four months for a result. Also, the visas are now all in US dollars and are more pricey than they used to be (almost double in most cases). Recently we had the pleasure of having future Equip Missionary Cindy Benda at our home for about a week. Cindy had come out to scout the land as she prepares to join the Equip team here in Jinja. We will now have the Boones, Cindy and ourselves working here in Jinja. Cindy is a retired nurse from the US Army and was a sergeant at the end of her career. She grew up in Eastern Congo so she remembers visiting Western Uganda and even Kampala as a child. She will be working mostly in community health and most likely serving alongside the Boones and ourselves in programs focused on prevention and education. The boys are doing well with Andrew and Tugume having just started their school year at the nearby school and Kenny and Albert working their schoolwork at home; they are studying the Canadian Curriculum and are attached to the Abbotsford School District Distance Learning program. Ezra loves running around and is learning to talk now very quickly - a very cute and fun stage! In closing, we have the following prayer requests. 1. please continue to pray that God will guide and bless us as we seek to deciple men and women through our ministry to farmers 2. Pray that God will make us a light and an example to our community where we live ( Wanyange.) 3. Pray that God will give us good health and strength as a family so we are able to continue to serve effectively. 4. Pray for safety as we travel on both short and long distances. Uganda's roads are notoriously bad -- as well as the driving habits of the people using the road leave much to be desired. 5. Pray for continued provision for both our ministry and personal salary. Our new year has gotten off to a very slow start financially. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment