Life Is A Daring Adventure

Indeed! Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed a quiet cup of herbal tea with our friend, Lorrie, (fellow missionary from the Philippines who’s been here doing ministry for the past four months and was spending the last two nights with us before returning to the Philippines). We were quite struck by the saying attached to that tea bag—a quote from Helen Keller:

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”.

Little did we know what an adventure-filled week awaited us!

·         Less than 2 hours later, after our friend Beth had also arrived to spend the night with us, we suddenly lost our electricity…even though everyone around us still had lights! Usually when we lose the power our wonderful battery back-up system kicks in and gives us enough power to run lights and the refrigerator—but not this time! After getting candles to our two guests, we both worked past midnight searching for adapters, lights, and running power cords from a neighbor to get two lights working, one for our night guard.

·         Friday, Laura piled the car full of Scripture Union (SU) volunteer vocalists and headed to the back rutted and narrow paths of Kampala to find a “friend of a friend” recording studio in a modest home.  For the next hours we sang and hammered our 2 of the four 1-minute Truth Songs all done in four-part harmony. Then the student volunteers needed to be dropped off in the rain at Makerere University.

·         Friday, the electrician came and pushed a reset button which gave us lights…with the warning that our back-up batteries were nearing the end of their life.

·         Friday, Beth left, the sheets were changed, and another friend of Lorrie arrived for debriefing and farewells and to spend the night here. Just as darkness was falling, we lost our power again. Pushing the magic reset button only gave us relief for about 20 minutes…obviously the batteries were dead. Out came all the stuff to provide lights to guests, guard, and us—at least a bit faster this time!

·         Saturday morning, our helper’s 9-year-old energetic son came since he didn’t have school and two neighbor children came to give him a piano lesson. Ernie emerged under pressure from our guests and gave a few minutes of comic relief.

·         The electrician returned and figured out a way to connect us directly to the incoming electricity (without going through the batteries) restoring our power again.

·         The kids left, Lorrie and her guest left, and we quickly prepared a green salad and left to join the Brand family (one of our compound neighbors) farewell at another missionary home getting home just as darkness fell…but so grateful that we still had lights!

·         We arrived to find our colleague Beth back again and prepared to spend the night with us…at least we had lights this time!  

·         Sunday was enjoyed as a worship day along with sharing and prayer with Beth. 

·         Monday found Laura at the studio once again with the college volunteers finishing the final two one-minute songs. It was a scramble to get everyone in who needed a ride in the pouring rain as we cautiously made our way through the mud and narrow passage ways back to SU.

·         Tuesday (today), we found out that our artist’s laptop is broken and thus he cannot help with final revisions to the artwork. Both of us headed to Nasser Road (Print and School Supply Center of Kampala) to get help with pagination and the digital master of the Teacher’s Manual. Laura braved a public motorcycle (boda boda) and purchased blank CDs from a supplier.

We are now home still working on final details of Truth printing. But we have lights and a great God who has seen us through a full week. We thank Him for His Presence and grace through each daring adventure as life unfolds.