The long awaited "first" post!!!

Well, I am finally doing it!! And many of you are saying  HALLELUJAH it about time!

Now where to start?

My hope is through this blog to share our journey and what God is doing with and for us!

Our journey began several months ago; here is a "snap shot of it":

 On May 30, after almost 20 years serving at Covenant Church Charles preached his last sermon and gave his last benediction. The sermon was from 2 Corinthians 3:3  There was a lot of weeping and wailing going on (mostly Charles and Connie).

     

                                                         On June 13 our container came and these 

                                                                 wonderful friends loaded her up!                                                   

                                               "Where in the world are we going 

                                                         to put all these boxes?"

                             

                                         

        Here is Eve telling them where to put those boxes!

                                                 

                                                             Got'er done! Thank You COPC!

              A week in SanDiego, 

A southern crawfish boil on the beach!!

4 weeks of training with Missionary Training International MTI in beautiful Colorado Springs, 

                                         

                                    While at training we were blessed with a few visitors:

                                                        

    Our dear friends the Shaws

  just happened to be traveling        

   through Co! Gotta love FB!

                                       

                            

     My sister Mary.

   And a short holiday in the UK.

                                                         Our good buddy John Knox in

                                                   St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.

     The Covenanters Prison

Where Charles ll imprisoned the

        Scottish  Covenanters

We were in Edinburgh during

     The Fringe; which is a

        mile long carnival;

          Noah had a blast

                                             Noah was able to play his pipes on "The Mile"

                                                  He made 9 pounds playing 3 songs!

   The Battle of Bannockburn Monument

           

              and  Stirling Castle

Glenco Pass

                                          Playing his pipes in the Highlands PRICELESS!!

                                                          Our last night in London

 We arrived in Entebbe Uganda August 7, the next day we drove to our new home in Mbale.

*   Our fist major event was taking Noah to his boarding school in Kenya. 

                It is a wonderful Christian boarding school whose teachers and staff are all missionaries. 

   He is living in a dorm 

with about 20 other freshmen 

     and has 3 roommates.

 His is loving it and we, well, we are adjusting to an empty nest. This is the first time in our marriage where we have not had children around. We do fell like honeymooners sometimes!

*  Next event was Charles started teaching at Knox Theological College, KTC. He has a class of 24 students which has grown from 10 students 2 years ago. Pray that the students at KTC would be serious and diligent students of the word and that they would be blessed by Charles instruction.   

1 Timothy 4:15,16
“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all  may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and a your hearers.” 

*    Our Container came with our American mattress!!! That is a big Hallelujah!  We are unpacking and getting settled.

As you can see if it was not for Bob Wright's directing our gate would have been taken out! instead it just cracked the wall in several places! 

Upon opening nothing flew out do to Tony Beyer's Tetris skills.

Wabaly Saboo

*   We are have started a vegetable garden and Charles planted 20 pineapple plants! We also have a couple of avocado, mango and papaya trees. 3 coffee plants and a few fruit trees that have edible fruit but no one knows the name. Not to mention all of the tropical plants that I used to buy and struggle to keep alive in my house. Yes, we do live in the garden of Eden.

                                               

*   We have been worshiping at New Life OPCU which meets in the compound of our teammates the Tuningas. A good portion of the congregation are children from a section of Mbale that is considered a slum.  They come from extreme poverty, many from single parent homes. It is such a joy to here them singing out in worship. This little guy is Tony and he was baptized a few weeks before we arrived. He is such a great kid, please pray for his protection he has a very hard home life.

                                      Credits for photo go to our teammate Dianna Tuininga

*   Our home has been vacant for over a year and we have been reclaiming it from the wild; well our gardeners have. They have have found and killed 5 snakes so far 4 of which were Green Mambas!! Please pray for protection for our gardeners they are pastors with families.

                                                                               Here is Charles "HELPING" Tony

*   Also pray for wisdom for us, there are so many needs here it is overwhelming.

* Over all, we are very content here in Mbale where the Lord has called us. He affirms over and over again this is where we are to serve Him. That is so very comforting and does fill us with contentment.
He is so good! What a privilege it is to serve Him and the people of Uganda.