Ahhhh…..Nothing like Family to Lift our Spirits!

What a week it has been! The sense of God at work which we felt during our Jinja trip on Tuesday and Wednesday has almost been swallowed up with the myriad of details, questions, problems, and our lack of technical ability as we press on toward publishing the first module on Truth. (Earlier today, Ruth was proofreading Lesson 4 with its truth “God will always help me”…good reminder!!) God knew just what we needed…

Ruth enjoying a Skype call with her family

Tonight was Ruth’s regular schedule to Skype her father. Although she’s very grateful for the technology that allows her to see and hear her Dad, it is often a one-sided conversation due to Dad’s waning ability to communicate. BUT…what a surprise Ruth had just a few hours ago when she was greeted by not one but three sisters, a brother-in-law and grandnephew, all from Maine! The tensions and frustrations of the day melted as I joined Ruth in connecting  with home and family! We saw the farm kittens, heard stories of piling wood in the shed for winter, the magnificent autumn leaves, and several garden stories…only the carrots and beets and a few late beans holding out against the frost. We learned that a nephew and his wife are expecting their first child making one sister a grandmother for the first time! We almost drooled to hear of “Whoopie Pies” a sister brought down for Dad (she’s the Whoopie Pie queen of the world!!). And how can I not mention the joke that Ruth’s grandnephew told us…What is a sleeping bull?…a bulldozer of course!! All too soon it was time to say good-bye and for Ruth to throw her usual kiss to Dad…which is often returned! Actually the internet closed down our conversation right after the “kiss”…but as I write this, our hearts are full of thanks to our God. He knows there is nothing quite like family to lift weary spirits…and He certainly did that for us tonight!

God Works in Teachers’ Lives Too

Saturday we filled in for a Guidance and Counseling teacher at a near-by Secondary School and taught two Values lessons on Forgiveness in 1 hour and 20 minutes. We have new appreciation for the more than 130 students this counseling teacher handles three or more times each week. When we finished, Sir Nicholas, the School Deputy, came to greet us. As we chatted with him, he expressed his appreciation for what we were teaching and went on to say “Our teachers also need these values. Is it possible for you to arrange for a time to teach these values to us too?” Since we still aren’t overly knowledgeable about how schools work here in Uganda, we requested him to speak with Susan when she returns to the school this week. So, who knows where this will lead?

Also today as we interacted with volunteer test teacher Joan at Scripture Union, she shared how well her first two lessons on Forgiveness had gone in her Upper Primary class. The only “difficulty” had been the obvious reluctance, almost opposition, from the classroom teacher. However after the teacher listened to the second lesson, her face changed to a smile. She approached Joan at the close of her lesson and offered more time to continue the good lesson…and expressed a desire that these lessons be taught to all the classes in the school.

We praise God for these encouragements and pray that God may give us wisdom and more labourers to minister in the schools and that teachers may be touched and reached for the Saviour.

Taking Less For Granted

We have new appreciation for electricity since last working on this Blog update. The next morning, Wednesday, we were surprised when the electric went out, despite it being a gorgeous calm day. (We are having another outage as I write this!)  Outages are not uncommon, they occur several times a week, but until this last week, our inverter battery system kicks in and allow us enjoy lights, refrigerator, and enough electrical sockets to keep phones and computers charged up until the power is restored. But, this lasted longer than the inverter could handle and so we reverted to candles, flashlights, and dealing with thawed food as best we could. As in the Philippines, the electric company could only tell us they were replacing a transformer that had malfunctioned and we would have electricity as soon as it was fixed…asking “when” or “how soon” are irrelevant questions! Praise God, Saturday morning just as we were working on getting a borrowed generator fired up, the electricity returned. More than once, we lifted our voices in praise to God that this did not happen a couple of weeks ago when we were “working around the clock” to get the newest modules ready for test teaching!

Later that same day we were introduced to another “first.” An email arrived from the US Embassy stating that a serious terrorist threat had been discovered and asking us to remain home. We proceeded to prepare for having company for lunch after church hoping that all would be well…but Sunday morning brought another embassy warning as well as a phone call from our acting WorldVenture director, both suggesting that we stay home. So…God gave us a good house church after which we invited a family on our compound over to help us eat the extra food and we enjoyed their company instead. We’re grateful for the media reports of 25 terrorist suspects to date being arrested here in Kampala before their violent and evil plans were accomplished.

It’s been a good week to remember the truth of Proverbs 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”