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Showing posts from December, 2012

I'll be home for Christmas (part five)

My sister in law and her husband are traveling "home" today from Colorado to New Hampshire. Our teammates' daughter and her husband are traveling to Uganda today from the USA to be "home" with the rest of the family - all together for Christmas. Our friends here are traveling to their villages to be home for the holiday week.  For a Ugandan, home is where the family is.  Our baby is named "Otim," meaning "born away from home" because he was born away from our family home (the USA). And our dear adopted grandma in the USA has just traveled home - for the last time - to her eternal home.  She is celebrating Christmas with the origin of life this year.  She is home, where Christ is celebrated every day. Is that the home you're longing for this Christmas? Are you teaching your children to long to be home with Christ? Is that a higher priority in your family than wrapping the gifts and baking gingerbread? I fail at that daily and rel

I'll be home for Christmas (part four)

I'm trying to make peppermint patties tonight.  Something I never would have even considered doing in the USA.  Something that was outside the realm of reality this time last year.  This time last year in Gulu, there was VERY limited electricity, no cheese, and I couldn't figure out how to bake with the local sugar. Our Christmas feast last year was... creative... a lot of hard work... and NOT like "home!" But what a luxury - that I can have someone send me peppermint extract and chocolate chips, I can buy powdered sugar... We spent the day at our friend's village, visiting with her, her family of orphans that she has taken in, and two of the Home of Love children with special medical needs.  We ate a feast and delighted in hearing her testimony of God's grace and provision in her life.  Her home is full of love, mercy, and joy.  Her home is bursting at the seams with clean, happy, Christ-loving children and teenagers who delight in having her as their mot

I'll be home for Christmas (part three)

He ran away from home.  Walked MILES.  Showed up at the gate after walking to a friend's village to check on her. Imagine being placed with your "family" that you have never known.  This is your family.  Know and love them.  Trust them to care for you.  See you later! Obviously, this is not a recipe for success.  It's not an ideal way to raise a child. But we aren't equipped as a team to do any better right now.  Our goal is to unite all of our children with a family, a home.  Most can go to their relatives. So, one of our most important learning goals this year is to learn how to assess a family situation, how to prepare a child and the family for placement, how to follow-up, how to determine if the child is safe and thriving in their new situation... and the list goes on. Pray for us as we learn - pray for our Ugandan staff (especially Bosco and Ruth, our social workers) and our missionaries as we learn together, struggle through the hard issues togeth

I'll be home for Christmas (part two)

The government requires all eligible orphans to be sent to relatives over Christmas holiday.  Seems a bit strange at first.  If the child lives in an orphanage instead of with relatives and yet has relatives who are able to care for the child for a month out of the year... then why does the child live in an orphanage? But that is very much the reality of the orphan situation in Uganda. Families were torn apart by the war in the North (where we live).  Children living on the streets of Gulu to escape capture by the rebels.  Parents killed.  Aunts and Uncles displaced.  There was a definite need for children's homes. But now, the region is stable.  And children need to grow up in families, not in institutions.  Some families are ready to step up and care for yet another orphan, some aren't.  Nearly every family in the region already cares for orphans.  Some widowed parents remarried and the new spouse is less than interested in taking on step-children.  Some children are th

I'll be home for Christmas (part one)

I have a strand of gaudy colorful blinking Christmas lights this year.  And electricity to run them some nights.  Last year, I couldn't even figure out how to find paper to cut our snowflakes in the dark. I have five children this year - last year I had three. Josh is director over all the ACTION ministries in Gulu this year - last year we were trying to figure out how to buy tomatoes and drive on the left side of the road.  I failed at five different attempts to make fudge.  I couldn't find cheese or vanilla in Gulu. So much changes in a year. Especially this year. I've hit the wall - mix of culture shock (shock is hardly the word), extreme stress, repeated threats against our team and ministries, five young (needy) children, and ... you name it! And it's Christmas-time. Normally, I would have been the first to decorate my home for Christmas.  This year, we have been so busy to the max, that my tiny partially decorated Christmas tree is propped in the cor

Oops...

We haven't made too many cultural blunders that we know of yet - mostly because we're very slow to act and we ask our Acholi friends EVERYTHING. But, here's an oops! We were invited to a wedding over the weekend.  At the end of MONTHS of barely sleeping, running around like crazy, and dealing with unimaginable situations... we were so tired, somewhat sick physically, the children "done" (if you know what I mean)... so, after asking multiple people for advice, we attended the ceremony but not the reception.  We enjoyed a somewhat restful and rare afternoon home as a family. Sunday, our dear friend and pastor, walked with us out of church afterwards and informed Josh that he stood in on Josh's behalf at the wedding reception.  Apparently, as the bride's (former) employer, Josh was to make a speech.  Peter agreed that we should have been informed and not "ambushed" (he was one who told us that we did not need to attend the reception if the chi

Jack of all trades

I sit here, during rest time, with a needle between my teeth, quickly sewing a little Christmas gift for one of my children - thankful that I learned to sew as a teenager.  It made me think of the many skills required of me on the mission field. Sewing up the holes in the mosquito nets... Baking from scratch... with foreign ingredients... in a gas oven without temperature markings... Driving the ministry van - a 15-passenger stick-shift full of children not wearing seat-belts... Managing our finances - for our family and for ministries... Keeping track of donors, prayer partners, and interested people... Creating publications... Repairing toilets, chairs, wheelchairs, buckets... (the list goes on) ... and I'm grateful that my parents intentionally taught us life-skills.  I can sit back and observe.  I can hammer a nail straight.  I can sew.  I can cook.  I can drive a stick-shift.  I can use a computer.  I can carry a tune.  I can speak in public.  I can play with c

Family in ministry

This week is a busy week, yet one that we look forward to all year.  Our goal at Home of Love, is to "relocate" children to live with their relatives.  Most of our children are with us because of the war - separated from family either because of deaths or because of physical separation. Our orphans all have identified family who may eventually qualify to become their guardians.  We continue supporting them long-term and we have the opportunity to be in their lives long-term. So this week finds us, as a family, at Home of Love for long, hot, busy days.  These are days where I hardly hold Micah.  He's whisked away by his adoring fan club the second he's done nursing.  Noah wanders the grounds barefoot, drinking from the borehole, covered head to toe with dirt, mud, and food.  Ana and Moses romp with their friends.  Gracie is wheeled around, never alone, often giggling hysterically and screaming in joy. It's exhausting - the chaos of wrangling 65 children and