U-Turn in Michigan

More or less according to plans, Ruth and I left Sussex, NB on July 12, and headed toward Michigan for the SEND meetings and several other stops/visits. Somewhat at the last minute, we decided to swing by Ruth’s home in New Hampshire and also visit her dear friend who had recently been placed on hospice due to cancer. Her peace and contentment…plus continued commitment to pray for us, deeply ministered to us. Within a week, we learned that she had peacefully entered Heaven’s gate to be with the Savior whom she served so faithfully. 

While Ruth and I were enjoying SEND’s Operation Reconnect for returning missionaries on Home Service, I got a shocking email from my brother that my youngest sister had had a heart attack, was in hospital but in stable condition.  Just 24 hours later the call came that my sister was with the Lord.  Ruth and I cancelled our schedules in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois and set out the next morning for a 3-day drive back to New Brunswick to be with family.  We arrived in time for the visitation hours and the funeral yesterday.  The internment fittingly ended with the song “When We All Get to Heaven.”

Even though we are still in shock, we see God’s mercy…the outpouring of kindness and love from relatives, friends, and from our mission SEND has been overwhelming.  We are so thankful that we were in North America and not in Africa.  My sister left this world on July 18, exactly one month after our arrival in Canada.  We thank God she knew the Savior and suffered very little.  Her battle with diabetes and other struggles are finished.  She has now been reunited with her earthly and Heavenly Father.  We continue to pray for her two young adult sons and for God to use the sudden death to bring all of us closer to Him. These weeks have been a vivid reminder of our own mortality and the urgency to use each day to serve our Savior.

O Canada!

It seemed fitting that I (along with Ruth) was the first missionary to have the opportunity to present a report in the new church building of Hammond Valley Community Church, Kings County.  Years ago, during my teen years, it was this very church under a different name and location where I trusted Christ as Saviour!  As we presented this past Sunday, July 1 which is also Canada Day, we recalled that exactly 5 years ago we were bidding farewell to family at the Halifax International airport, departing for Uganda.  God met us in Africa and provided for ministry in His amazing ways.  A taxi driver, named Fred, was sent by WorldVenture, (our mission in Uganda), to pick us up from the Entebbe airport that evening of July 3, 2013, and drove us to a beautiful compound in Mutungo, Kampala. (As it turned out, about a year later, Fred became our ministry driver.) He helped us unload our luggage into a fully furnished and outfitted 3 bedroom bungalow—our neighbor had even made the beds and had food in the refrigerator—the place we called home for the next nearly five years.  WorldVenture helped us get orientated, including driving on the left side of the road, and within a couple of weeks had a car for us. 

Our first Sunday, we met Beth who became our closest Ugandan friend and colleague. Early on we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Scripture Union Uganda.  Beth, the previous National Director of Scripture Union Uganda, now serving as a Scripture Union Ugandan missionary to South Sudan and Ethiopia, introduced us to people who could serve as consultants on our “Start-Up Committee.”  Beth also taught the first VEC (Values Education Class) in Africa in a nearby Primary School and became a frequent guest in our home.  She now has taken the leadership of the program which is part and parcel of Scripture Union Uganda.

As I watched nearby Canada Day fireworks last Sunday evening, I admitted that Canada still feels strange in many ways.  But we can rejoice that our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:20). Little by little, just as Uganda became “home” to us, we’ll begin to feel at home here too. The fireworks also remind us of the heavenly celebrations which have already taken place and will continue to take place as children and youth join God’s family through Biblical Values being taught in Philippine and East African schools.  God’s love for the world and His work as the Lord of the Harvest continues on in the nations of the world with July 1, 2013 and 2018, being a little part of what He is doing.  Praise Him!