Uganda week 1

Above: Our last hawaiian sunset...

Day 82– Sep 19, 2005, Monday: One team off

We started off the week with a “sending off” ceremony during our Monday morning worship. Each team was brought forward and prayed for in all of the classes. Our class (DTS) had 9 teams, and there were other classes that were sending people off to outreach as well. It was fun to see all the people and hear where they are going…exciting.

Darleen Cunningham then spoke to our class for about 45 minutes for our final send off. She is a really talented speaker. She has so much life experience! She spoke a little about fear and standing firm in what God has done for us in the past. Often God does things a little different than we expect. She had so much wisdom that all came from experience. It was really a pleasure to listen to. She said that when times get tough we need to write ourselves a ‘grace ticket’ and trust that God will get us through. I’m not giving her justice by paraphrasing it, but she was great.

The rest of the day was mostly packing and cleaning. Our kids played a ton with the Sunnex kids because they left today with their Israel team. It was really weird watching the first team leave. The whole class went out and waved them off and prayed with them. Then they just drove off. They actually looped around the driveway twice while honking…a fun tradition.

Once they left it really sunk in that we would be leaving soon. We decided to go out to dinner with the Bells and Drew offered to watch the kids while we did. We had a great night out. We went to a place called Huggos which is right on the water. We sat in beach chairs in the sand and ate pizza. We’re sort of working up to having to say goodbye to them.

Day 83– Sep 20, 2005, Tuesday:

Ruth did some serious packing today. I mostly played with the kids in the pool. I called lots of family and said some goodbyes. Tomorrow is it.

We had to have all of our stuff packed by 2:00 today because some of it is being stored on base while we go. I think we’ve got it all packed right. We’ll find out!

Tonite we went to Hula Bean with the Bells, the Richards and others. I had a coffee float, which is icecream covered in a shot of espresso. Hmmmmm.

Day 84– Sep 21, 2005, Wednesday: The never ending day…

Today started at 4:30 am because that is when one of the teams was leaving. I don’t like getting up this early. Then a team left at 6:30, another at 8:15 and another at 9:00. Now the campus really feels empty.

We ordered pizza between the Richards, Bells and us. We called it “the last supper”. I suppose some might think that sacrilegious, but it’s not about religion anyways, it’s a relationship right? So we ate the pizza and dragged our bags down to the pickup. It was tough saying goodbye. Dave and Donna (the Bells) were a tough one. I’m sure we’ll see them again though. The biggest bummer is that they are going on a longer outreach, so we won’t get to see them at the end. They’ll actually be gone for 5 months.

So we scraped through all of our goodbyes and jumped in the van. It was weird. Exciting, but weird. When we got to the airport we had our first little snafu. Somehow the entire Richards family got taken off of our 2^nd leg of the journey and their was no room left on the plane. We thought to ourselves “well, I guess we pray” so we did. We were there a full two hours early and it took about 2 hours and 10 minutes to get the Richards family booked on the flight. But they made it! It was a little nerve racking seeing how it was THE very first step.

Day 85– Sep 22, 2005, Thursday: Seattle and Minneapolis

Somewhere in our flight it turned Thursday. It was a typical redeye flight. The kids, fortunately were great. They slept quite a bit and were just awesome. In Seattle, the Richards had to get their bags and then recheck them in and get seats on this leg of the flight. They were dreading it, but it went really smooth. I’m chalking it up to prayer because last night there were no seats left on the flight and this morning there were enough for their family of 5.

The rest of the flying went smooth as well. We had a few hours to gear up for our 2^nd redeye, leg number 3 to Amsterdam.

Below: Saying good bye to great friends was tough

Day 86– Sep 23, 2005, Friday:Amsterdam

The flight was pretty good. It turns out that two redeyes in a row almost equal a night of sleep. Again, the kids were awesome. They slept some, watched a movie, played, drew…did it all again.

Arriving in Amsterdam was fun. We had to get all of our bags and take a train and a bus to the YWAM base here. We are only staying here one night, but it is a Godsend. The base is really nice and we slept from about 11am to 2pm. Then we cruised around town and got some great sandwiches with Gouda cheese.hmmmm. For dinner we had Crokets (I don’t know how to spell this one). They are little dutch meat pies. Hmmm.

We cruised around the red light district a bit. It doesn’t seem too crazy in the daytime. It seems you can buy pot at just about any ol’ coffee shop though.

For me, it’s just fun to be in Holland. There are so many things here that trigger memories for me, accents, faces, buildings, words. I’ve only been here once before, but I guess it’s engrained in me a bit. But now the jetlag is catching me, so I’m off to bed.

Below: the team mid-travels in the Amsterdam central train station

Day 87– Sep 24, 2005, Saturday: Planes, trains, and automobiles

Ruth here: Today was a travel day. We started out on a bus in Amsterdam at 7am that dropped us off at the train station, which then took us to the airport. I sat with the kids next to a guy in his 20’s that is living in Amsterdam. He spoke English great and we talked about how many languages he knows. I mentioned how surprised I had been to hear so much English spoken in Holland. Supposedly, they are required to learn English and German in school. It made me want to learn another language.

The Amsterdam airport is huge! It totally overwhelmed me to walk through there and keep 2 kids in my sight. When we checked in we found out that my tickets were messed up. I ended up at a ticket counter for about an hour while they tried to figure it out. I have to say I have never heard so many people get my last name correct! By the time I got my ticket and made it to the gate they were boarding our luxurious 777. This has to be the nicest plane I have ever been on! The best food too! (Dave was happy) The best part was that we each had our own TV screen and head phones and a wide selection of movies, tv, and games. At one point we all had our head phones on all watching different movies. This plane took 7 1/2 hours to get to Nairobi, Kenya. What a contrast the Nairobi airport was from Amsterdam! Before we boarded our flight in Nairobi to Entebbe Jonny had his bag searched. The guy was examining each lego and car and train like they were suspicious. It was all I could do to not laugh! (He even examined a pull-up diaper) This flight was short (50 minutes) and not as glamorous as the 777. When we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda we discovered 2 of our bags were missing. Praise God we had toiletries with us in our carryon! We met some guys, Fred and Tom, from the YWAM base who picked us up in a bus/taxi. They took us to a local hotel to spend the night. It was almost 1 am Uganda time by the time we got to sleep. I wanted to cry I was so tired!

Above: we had to get at least one Windmill picture in from Amsterdam

Above: Our bus that took us to the hotel and to our new home in Jinja

Day 88– Sep 25, 2005, Sunday: First Impression

We arrived in Entebbe, Uganda lastnight at about 11pm and got to our hotel by 1am. We are so messed up sleepwise, I cannot figure out when to sleep. Jonny was just plain wired last night when we got to bed. We encouraged him to sleep with a little benadryl.

This morning we woke to a nice breakfast of papayas, bananas and toast with jam. It really hit the spot. Then we jumped in our bus and headed back to the airport. We had to go back because 3 of our bags were forgotten (by KLM) in Amsterdam. They came in on the next flight. We were very happy when they actually did come because two of them were Ruth and my bags.

We then drove for about 4 hours to Jinja, Uganda. The drive was awesome. The things that most stick out in my mind are the smells. Diesel cars and smoke. It was really nice driving for a few hours through the country just to get a feel for it. We went through Kampala, the big city here. It was very crowded with cars, people and bikes. We drove through a lot of country areas with dilapidated houses and little shacks all around. Every now and again there was a ‘normal’ looking house. There are people walking everywhere. Also on bikes. These people can put more on a single bicycle than I could store in a car. I saw one guy with 5 gallon water jugs and he probably had about 30 of them hanging off of his bike. At one point we stopped at a make shift farmers market. I just stayed in the bus and they came to my window offering me things. I bought some baked bananas, 4 for 1000 shillings (about 60 cents). I’m sure that I overpaid, but the funny thing is that I thought I was only buying one and then he gave me 4. They tasted awesome. I passed them around the bus and everyone loved them. I’m hoping all the food is this good. (as you probably have realized I like food). Jonny kept seeing little goats on the side of the road and he insisted that they were baby cows. That boy is stubborn.

I just looked at the time on my computer and realized that our time change from Kona was exactly 12 hours. Maybe that is why our schedules are so off.

Back to the trip to Jinja. We made it over the Nile, which was just awesome. It really sunk in that this is Africa when I saw the Nile. It really didn’t look much different than any other river, It’s just soo Africa. There is red dirt everywhere here. It is kind of like on the island of Oahu, dark red. In Jinja we stopped down town and had lunch at a Indian restaurant. The food was very good. The kids had some pizza that was too spicy for them. Then afterwards we walked outside and lots of streetkids came around asking for money. Jonny immediately started playing with them and talking to them (they all spoke only Swahili). They were laughing at him and mimicking his words. He was loving it. Then Ruth gave them our kids pizza and they all just loved it. They were the cutest kids. Seeing them kind of hit me mentally. They just walked up to us in town, for some reason I thought we would have to search them out a little more. There is so much need here it’s just crazy. But the people just smile so big and are so accepting and fun.

Now we are at the base. I am sitting on the porch watching a bunch of kids play soccer. I’m hoping to join them soon. It’s just surreal to actually be here.

Ruths First Impression:

Wow! I can’t believe we are in Africa. I can’t say it is anything like I pictured it. The land is beautiful, green and lush and the ground is dark red (quit a contrast). The people are beautiful – so friendly and hospitable (especially here at the YWAM base). On the bus ride to the YWAM base Jessika said to me, “Mommy, I think the African people are the best people!” I asked her why and she replied, “Because they are the most beautiful and the strongest”. Needless to say she is having no problems making friends here.

To be honest, culture shock hit me hard core in the first 24 hours here. I wanted to take the next flight home to my cozy, clean, and convenient world. There are so many things we take for granted in our Western culture. Like hot showers, paved roads, trash cans, variety of food and drink, ice cubes, freshly brewed coffee, clean drinking water, pasteurized milk, washing machines, refrigerators, and electricity!

Our first night on the base was crazy. We came in and our rooms weren’t ready so we went to another building temporarily. By the time we went to our room it was nearly dark and time for dinner so we just dropped off our bags and ran. While in the dinner line the electricity went out and stayed out the rest of the evening. I have no idea what I ate! After dinner we made our way in the pitch dark to our “home” (makes for awesome star gazing and fire fly chasing). It was interesting, to say the least, getting the kids ready for bed in the dark (with one candle and two flashlights). Mind you I hadn’t unpacked anything and didn’t even know the layout of the room. I had several times when I thought “and what am I doing here?” Today has been an easier day. Life is very interesting here and just so different. I keep reminding myself “this is just for two months, enjoy it all to the fullest”. Today the kids played with chickens, roosters, dogs, and even some cows were grazing outside our door. One ran by our window and startled me so much I screamed! I did a “load” of laundry in the sink and (my mom would be proud) hung them on the line to dry! Please keep us in your prayers for safety and health. It will be a true miracle if the kids don’t get sick – they are filthy constantly! Jessika has been having some allergy problems (runny nose and sneezing). Pray also that we will get past the culture shock and barriers and be able to serve God fully and to do all He has intended. Pray that we will step over the threshold of fear into the wild unknown of God’s glorious power and grace! We love and miss you all – hugs & kisses!

Above: this is a sample of what town looks like...
Below: crossing the Nile...WOW, the NILE!!
Below: Jonny made friends with some street kids
Below: jess and jonny with our neighbor Esta

Day 89– Sep 26, 2005, Monday: Taxi to town

Today was mostly a time of getting adjusted to Uganda, from a time and culture perspective. We had a time of worship with the whole base this morning. It was really cool. There were about 30 of us total. We had two guys beating a drum and lots of awesome clappers and some good singing too. It was a nice culture jump into the way that they worship God here.

We then made it back to our room(s). (yes, the kids have a room of their own.) We unpacked and made it home. I’m sure most of you realize that Ruth did a majority of the making it home. We just hung out for a while and caught up. We also met our neighbors, they are David and Catherine (that’s the 3rd neighbor named David we’ve had). They are Ugandan and very nice. We have met a ton of people in the last day, I can’t remember most of the names.

Then we had an orientation meeting and tour of the base. We found out that there is Internet access here on base for the outrageous fee of 10,000 shillings per month (that’s less than $6). They have a wireless CDMA connection through a cell phone that gives a little faster than 56k modem speed connection. It’s not super fast, but much better than what I expected. They also have some really cool programs here on base, the coolest is what they call VTS (vocational training school). They take kids that have no chance, either from loss of parents, or the war, or just poverty. And they bring them here to teach them how to make a living. Most of them are so desperate that they cannot even make a decision of what they would like to be taught. They say “just anything”. So they start out teaching them 3 things, like gardening, carpentry and brick laying. Then as they progress, they start leaning towards a preference and that becomes their specialty. The program lasts a year, and they basically heal people physically, spiritually, and financially through it. It costs $230 US dollars for one person to take the class for one year.

We then took a taxi to town to buy some necessities. This is quite an adventure. The taxis are almost all small versions of a van that seat about 16 people. They would probably fit about 8 people if they were in the US. They run on diesel and just fly. It seems getting anywhere is a race for these drivers. They are willing to pave a new road if it means they can pass a truck. Right side, left side it doesn’t matter. It takes about ½ hour to taxi into town. When we got there, it was very 3^rd world, and very dirty. Lots of red dirt everywhere. Again, it’s more like Mexico than anything I’ve known, but the poverty seems worse.

Above: lots of red dirt...this is our feet after a day of sandals and dirt :)

Above: our new home with Jonny modeling in the front...

Day 90– Sep 27, 2005, Tuesday: We’re starting

For breakfast we had pourage. It was very similar to cream of wheat. It looked like it would be horrible and pasty, but it was sweet and tasty. After breakfast we came back to the room and discovered a small spider invasion. By small I mean that the spiders were themselves small. The invasion was large (to us at least). The kids bed must have had some spider eggs hatch or something. Ugggh. There were little baby spiders all over the bed. Luckily it didn’t happen at night. We went through most of a can of spider spray and ended up late to our prayer meeting with the team.

We had a great prayer time in the prayer garden. We were mostly asking God what he wanted us to do while here. The kids were playing with sticks and legos and chasing each other around while we prayed. Then we went to lunch. Somehow I arrived a little late, and I got the bottom of the barrel. It was potatoes and beans with some local pasty stuff (I forgot the name). It was really good, so I was happy I got to eat. I also had to eat with only a knife because the silver ware ran out. Then the clean water jug broke so we couldn’t get clean water. It really made me realize (at a simple level) what these people live like when they can’t get water, food, and utensils. It’s a whole different way of thinking when you can’t get water for your family. Of course the water jug was fixed later, and we do have a filter in our room, so it was no big deal, it just made me have a little taste of what it is like for so many people.

After lunch Ruth did some laundry and hung it up out next to the goats. She just can’t help but laugh when she walks around hanging stuff up with these little goats around her. Then later we had a meeting and found out that we have been asked to help with the kids here on base for the week. Half of us (Ruth, Meagan, Meagan, Laura, Jess and Jonny) are going to help the preschool age kids with craft time for an hour or two a day. The other half of us are going to do worship and devotions with the 10-15 year olds for 1 hour a day and then 3 hours on Friday. It should be fun. Most of the older kids are from devastating backgrounds (orphans, refugee camps etc…) and don’t know anything about Christ, so it will be good to help them. Pray for wisdom in dealing with them and loving them. Then, this Sunday we are in charge of the church service, so that should be interesting. We’re not sure who’s speaking yet. I have a feeling we’ll be stretched a little bit, but it will be good.

Diepersloots are in Africa!!

Hello All!

We made it here to Jinja, Uganda after leaving Wednesday night and arriving on Sunday at about 3pm.  It was a  looooonnng journey.  But we are here now and loving it.  We have been here just about 24 hours now.  I have been typing for the website, but I don't have time to update the blog right now.  I just wanted to let you all know that we are here safe and sound.

 

first impressions...

    the smells...smoke and diesel

    the people....so friendly with huge smiles (and they play soccer often which is a big plus)

    the land...beautiful...green...a little cooler than kona and not as humid.

    the food...great...cooked bananas are really good.  lots of carbs in the diet.

 

Well, I will update the website soon and give you more details.  Keep praying for us as we catch up on sleep and get settled in.  We switched time zones by exactly 12 hours, so we are pretty messed up on sleep. jonny keeps waking up in the middle of the night ready to go play.

 

love you all tons.

thanks for the prayers.

 

love, dave, ruth, jess, jon

practice email

I'm emailing this to the website to make sure it works, just in case connections are bad in Africa....

Day 81– Sep 18, 2005, Sunday: Church, Nap, Pack

Saying Goodbye.....

Joash and Mary gave us a ride to church today, what a treat to not have to wait for the school bus. I’m seriously considering having a car of my own some day. On the way back we stopped for gas at Costco because it is the only place with gas under $4 a gallon.

So we bought a whole pizza for the price of 2 ½ gallons (I can’t help it, I’m just this way).

Then we got home and slept, I didn’t, I typed and updated the website, but the kids have been sleeping for over 2 hours. I guess they are still beat from the swimming yesterday. I want them to wake up now so I can go swim. It’s HOT! I can hear other kids in the pool from my room playing “Marco Polo” (that should take some of you down memory lane).

Ruth is currently at Molly’s house asking questions about different bases they have visited and what their lives have been like living here with kids. Molly is the wife of Jeremy West, this weeks speaker. They are currently planning to move to the YWAM Montana base… talk about a temperature change!

We are all gearing up to say our farewells this week. It’s exciting and sad altogether. I can’t wait to see what God does with this group of people in the next few months and even the next few years. It’s going to be fun to watch.

Dave and I decided that we are running out of coffee times so we are having them in the heat of the day as well.

Day 80– Sep 17, 2005, Saturday: Pack & Pool

Playing in the pool all day makes Jonny a tired boy!

The packing and cleaning has begun. I must say that I am getting the better end of the deal. Ruth is doing about 99% of both while my job is to take the kids to the pool. I am the envy of the neighborhood as a result. On the other hand, Ruth is actually able to get some cleaning and packing done without the two rugrats hindering.

Jonny and I started off the day with a trip to Walmart in the school van. We needed a pill cutter as the kids have to have a quarter of a pill each week for Malaria. After that we boogied back home to jump in the pool. I’m proud to say that we were in the pool nearly half of the day today. We actually went 3 separate times because the meals and naps kept interrupting our swimming.

Tonite we had dinner with our team and then went and practiced a few dramas/skits that we are planning to do on outreach if we have the chance. Then…you guessed it, went to the pool with the team. Jonny loves to dive in the deep end for his toy shark. He can’t quite do it by himself so it’s my full time job to dive with him. We’ll sleep hard tonite!

Here is Jess diving through the tube. She's a champ!

Day 79– Sep 16, 2005, Friday: Love Feast

Above is a picture of all of our leaders (staff) for our class. What an awesome group of people.
below, daddy and boy...

Above: our Uganda/Zimbabwe team. You'll see more pictures of these guys!
below: the Sunnex family, they leave for Israel on monday.

The kids had their last day of school today from 8am to 11am. They have learned so much in the last 3 months it has been awesome. We’ve had comments from others about how much they have changed.

While they were in class we had a meeting from 9 to 11 with our team. We found out the plan for next week so we know when our bags need to be packed. We leave campus at 6:30pm on Wednesday. Whew! Crazy. Then we had a great time of talking about our fears and expectations for Africa. One of the more common fears (mine too) was that we would get all the way to Africa and just miss it. Miss how God wants us to lead us; who he wants us to touch; let fear get in our way. So we talked about it and prayed for boldness and obedience. We also brought up how we need to really be unified as a team and not afraid. For instance: I am fairly new to the idea of hearing God’s voice when we pray. I’ve prayed all of my life, but never actually listened much (sad, I know). But I’ve had several times in prayer when I really felt God gave me a picture, or a verse, or a word and I’ve held it back from the team. While explaining this to the team I used an example of how last time we met I had a picture of a steep, pyramid like roof with a cross on top. I can still picture it. I felt foolish telling

Below is Jessika and Jonny with thier buddy Jessica.
farther below: the Bells, off to Sudan come thursday.

This is the Mowing team . Joash, Junichi, Tobias (Toby), me, Rodney.

Day 78– Sep 15, 2005, Thursday: How God has changed us

The pictures for today are as follows:

first is the altar we made as a class to signify an encounter with the living God.

2nd is a shot of what the Ohana court looks like for our all campus gatherings..lots of people.

3rdshows a girl that graduated today. They do offer degrees here. I think the goal is to suffocate her with leis and silly string.

4th is coffee at the end of the day. hanging with the friends.

Today was the last day of meeting. We went around and told how God has changed each of us. It was a great time of hearing what God has done in so many lives here. There were so many that I thought “yep, me too”. For me, the top two things that come to mind are:

1:Foundation: the bible…God gave us his word, and I haven’t even read it through once, let alone studied it. I’ve got some work to do :). It’s such an amazing story from front to back about God’s love for us and how he longs for us to be Holy so we can be with Him.

2: Intimacy with God is such a huge need in my life. How can I know God’s will for my life if I don’t know him? How can I know him if I don’t spend time with him?

After the sharing time we had some worship to God and we made an altar like in the Old Testament to signify an encounter with God. It was really cool. We each took a piece of lava rock and painted it and stacked them all together. Some people painted a picture, some a word or phrase. Here is a picture.

After lunch I went to get my last shot. I’ve had enough of immunizations for now (5 total, plus malaria pills). I guess the good news is that most of them I won’t need again. Then I came back and it was raining so we skipped mowing. Jessie and Jonny begged us to jump in the pool, so off we went. We are going to miss the pool a lot.

Just before our big meeting tonite we called home and talked with our bible study…it was great to hear their voices. WE MISS YOU GUYS. It’s so great to know that you are all at home keeping us in your prayers. Please keep praying, especially as we go to Africa!

Once we put the kids in bed we hung out and had coffee for an hour and a half. What an awesome time with our friends here. It’s going to be tough to leave next Wednesday and watch some of the others leave before then. (Every team leaves at different times, ranging from Monday to Friday next week.) It’s a very strange time here because we are all very excited to go out, but we are sad to leave each other and this great time of learning and growing together.

Day 77– Sep 14, 2005, Wednesday: Kids Graduate!

Here is a proud family with two graduation certificates from the littluns.

Then below that is the play that thier class did. Jessika played the part of Moses mom, Jonny was pharoah, the girls in the middle are Tierza and Kaitlyn who played the egyptian princess and Moses' sister. Thier other classmate Aaron didn't make it into this photo

Then farther down is thier teacher, Miss Mary, dancing for all of us.

Farther down yet is the older class doing some of thier play. This is Joel and Megan being silly.

Then at the very bottom is Matt, Amy and Dave being an undersized rock band.

Hmmm we started the day with more quality cereal sent to us. It’s so refreshing having some different flavors for breakfast. Then we went to worship with the kids for our official last kid/parent worship. It was a good time. We sang songs that the kids love. They have learned a lot of them with motions. I think there favorite is “who is the king of the jungle” another fun one is “jumping up and down” .

Then we had our last lecture with Jeremy…our last lecture of this class! I can’t believe it’s ending already. He talked about the cost of discipleship. Sometimes we might not fit in with what the world likes.

Kids graduation was fun. We saw plays and videos. The little ones shared all of their 10 memory verses, which I am afraid to say is more verses than I have memorized in the Bible (how about you?) ouch! I’ll have to work on that one. They did awesome. They do the sign language along with the verses and it really makes it fun and easy for them to learn. Jessie and Jonny both got a little diploma. After all was done we celebrated with cake and drinks.

Day 76– Sep 13, 2005, Tuesday: Burn your ships!

On the left is Jess with our surprize visitor early this morning. We have 'house cats', one for each building. This is probably her favorite way to wake up.

Then here is Jonny sticking his tongue out as he colors. It's really fun to watch how he guides the pencil with his tongue

Jeremy gave a cool analogy this morning of a disciple’s life compared to Cortez when he conquered the Aztecs. In 1518 Cortez left with 700 men, 15 horses and 10 cannons. They arrived in Mexico and on that day Cortez burned all of their ships. Why? So they couldn’t chicken out and turn back. So they had to fight. They were going up against an army of thousands and it was hopeless. His men would have turned back had they had the chance, but the didn’t. The challenge for me was “what is holding me back? What is my ship that I’m leaving tied up in the harbor so I can bale out if it gets tough?” Ouch, this guy needs to lay off a little! Then he said “just because you burn your ship doesn’t mean God doesn’t want you to sail again.” We are a very privileged nation, and we get in trouble when we start to see our privileges as rights. As a disciple of Christ we are called to give up our rights and let him call the shots.

Then in the afternoon we drove up to Hanakua and got shots for yellow fever and typhoid. It pretty much took care of the rest of the day. We quick stopped by McDonalds on the way home. My arm hurts.

Day 75– Sep 12, 2005, Monday: Water for Life

This is the last week of class and our speaker is Jeremy West. He is a long term YWAMer who has led several classes and is soon moving with his wife and two kids to the Montana base. His message this week is about the costs of discipleship. What it costs us to follow Christ as a disciple. He asked “are you an admirer or a follower?”. He challenged us to pursue holiness, to get off the fence of mediocrity. It was a great challenge.

Later I went to an optional about ‘Water for Life’. It’s a group within YWAM who are bringing water to those that don’t have it. Let’s just say that a LOT of the world does not have an adequate water supply. There are a lot of people who hike 4 miles every day to carry water back. At 8 pounds a gallon it gets pretty heavy. It’s such hard work to get the water that they don’t waste it on washing their bodies and end up with awful skin diseases and more. And then there is the cleanliness of the water that they do have. Often it has different bacteria in it and dirt and makes them quite sick. This group is traveling around the world digging wells, installing filters (sand), teaching about cleanliness. They show people how to catch and store the rain. They have invented these basins that hold 100’s of gallons of water that they can make out of chicken wire for less than $50. They make sand filters to get rid of the bacteria. They have a little cup with a tiny hole in it so people can wash their hands with less than an ounce of water. It’s really cool how they investigate what makes people sick and then they come up with cost effective solutions for them. It was also good to hear about the water in Uganda and Zimbabwe so we know what to look for.

Above is another beautiful sunset...I'm already starting to miss them :)

practice email

I'm trying out the email function of the website just in case internet connections are tough in Africa.  I can't send pictures through it, but text is supposed to come through. 

Day 74– Sep 11, 2005, Sunday: Church and Nap

The kids got some hairs cut by Donna yesterday and they look so cute I had to add some more photos.

We made it back to Church this week. It was a really good service. I was quite tired after tossing and turning for a few hours after the two shots of African tea last night. After church we stopped by a few stores to get a transformer for African voltage and then came home. Now the kids are just starting to doze off as I type. We’ve already promised them to hit the pool once again when they wake up. Then tonite we have a lot of reading to do and homework. We have to have the book of Leviticus read for bible study this week. I also have to finish our latest book called “The Heavenly Man”. It’s an unreal book about a Chinese Christian that gets beat nearly to death more times than you can imagine. There are awesome miracles throughout his life. It makes you realize how lucky we really are here in the US and how we often take it for granted.

We also ordered some Tshirts for our team, they’ll be here the day before we leave, and they say “Uganda Zimbabwe 2005” on the front and look like this on the back.

Well, 10 days to go. Pray that God truly has His hand on us as we prepare to leave.

Day 73– Sep 10, 2005, Saturday: African Tea

We woke up and were excited for a Saturday breakfast. To our dismay, it was pancakes. We don’t mind the pancakes, they are great, but these were like Frisbees. Seriously, they would making a crack sound when you bit them, kinda like a Ritz cracker. They actually didn’t taste bad, it was more funny than anything.

After breaky Ruth took off to Walmart to load up on some last minute Africa stuff. Mosquito repellent, mosquito nets, batteries…stuff like that. The kids and I chose to hit the pool. It was awesome. Out of nowhere Jessika decided to try to dive. She didn’t just stand at the edge and sort of fall forward. She started from about 15 feet away, ran as fast as she could and launched herself headfirst toward the water. It was great. She is the talk of the town. Jonny has started wanting to swim without his floatie. He does really well. He freaks me out because he stays under the water about 20 seconds longer than you would expect. He tried a backwards dive today a few times (basically a belly flop on his back) luckily he was wearing a rash shirt so it didn’t sting too bad. I got a bit of a sunburn, but we had fun. Then we all came home, ate and slept. We need days like this after packing everything into the weeks.

We had corn dogs for dinner, a big win with me and the kids. After that, Ruth and some ladies headed for the kitchen to make some breads and cookies. I can’t wait til she gets back so I can sample. Of course, the kids and I went to the pool again. Jessika tried out her new dive another 30 or 40 times. We played ball tag with a bunch of folks in the pool. Our version of ball tag is basically throwing the ball as hard as you can at someone else. It’s a pretty soft ball, but it gets interesting.

At about 10pm we went to an African Tea that our friend Timothy invited us to. Apparently the youngest African makes tea and the rest dance the night away. They planned on being out until about 1am. We just stopped by for about an hour. The tea was a real strong sweet, minty shot, kind of like espresso. It took timothy about 10 minutes of pouring and mixing and piling in sugar to make it. Ruth got into the dancing a little bit, but I’m saving my moves for Uganda.

Here is Timothy brewing

Here's Ruth jammin'

Day 72– Sep 9, 2005, Friday: Outback

Today we officially announced that we are sending a team to New Orleans (or somewhere in Mississippi) to help with the Katrina mess. From left to Right they are: Prakash, Steph, Matt (with the mic), Jessica (completely hidden behind Matt), Junichi, Mary, Emily, Milke. Lots of people expressed interest and it came down to a team of 9 people to take there outreach there for the next 2 months. That is one of the things I really love about YWAM. That if they feel they get God telling them to do something, they just do it. Some of the people going had to sacrifice paid for plane tickets, or going to somewhere exotic like Uganda or Cambodia. We lost one team member, Emily. I am excited for her though. We’ll miss her.

After the last meeting with Neil we had a team meeting. It was fun because we had another guy come and share with us about his trip to Uganda a few years ago. He had pictures of the base we will be at and lots of info that was very relevant for us. It got me all excited to get there (which is only 12 days!!!) We will be staying at a YWAM base in a place called Jinja. It is at the head of the Nile. He scared us with all of the possible diseases and then told us not to worry too much about it. I love it. This guy has been doing missions for the last 20 years. He has been to more than 70 different countries. His passions are setting up healthy water for people and teaching them about health care. He’s done some cool stuff. I forget his name though.

At night we had a special treat. We went to Outback steakhouse because one of Neil’s friends back home wanted to share with the married couples here, so he gave us each $60 for dinner. We had a great time eating some awesome food. I had steak and shrimp. Hmmmmmmm I can still taste it. Then we went walking through town with the Bells. We saw the police chase some guy (presumable on crack (a drug that is a big problem here locally)). The guy jumped in the water and just sat out on a lava rock in the ocean for several hours. He was taunting the police and making a fool of himself. Apparently the police can’t go into the water (they really wanted to). I just felt sorry for the guy. Making a total fool of himself. We prayed for him. As we left (we weren’t there for several hours by the way, we just heard from others, we were there for about 5 minutes) we passed some fellow friends that were just out singing praise songs on the street, so we talked and sang with them for a while. It was a little uncomfortable, but fun. Then we got to our goal of icecream with a shot of espresso poured over it. This is good.

We ended the night by sneaking up on the highschool/jr high sleepover and scaring them. We snuck around back and made scratching sounds and tapped on the window while they were watching movies. Some of them got freaked a little. Good times.

Here we are at outback :)

Day 71– Sep 8, 2005, Thursday: Ruth’s turn

Holy Cow! We only have 13 days until we are on a plane to Africa! But today is Ruth’s day to type…

Ruth: Hi everyone! Finally I can tear this computer out of Dave’s hands and write some of our story. Actually, I just had one of those amazing mom moments tonight and felt the need to share with all you moms & dads & grandparents out there. Hope you are touched and inspired to spend some time just talking with the little ones in your world. They are amazing and so often overlooked in the busyness of our days, but God has huge blessings in these tiny treasures.

Tonight after our evening meeting I took the kids home for bed and Jonny surprised me with some big emotions (usually it is Jessika). Jonny is home sick for the first time. It was so cute but so sad. He just cried and kept repeating: “I want to go home. Home is far, far away. I don’t want to be in Hawaii anymore.” I talked to him about our exciting ”adventure” to Africa but that didn’t seem to help. So I resorted to some good old fashioned prayer and he calmed and fell asleep. Aren’t children so beautiful when they sleep?

After that I went to tuck Jessika in and we had an amazing conversation – for an HOUR! It was so good I just lost track of time. Jonny’s homesick cries got us talking about home and all the special people we miss (you know who you are) and all that is going to happen before we get home. Jessika is very interested in going to Africa. She must have asked me 20 questions like, “What are the people like?”, “Why are they poor?”, “What will we eat?”, etc. She was also asking about the children affected by the Tsunami and Hurricane. She is very interested in the little children who are poor and don’t have parents. As we were talking her eyes got really big and she said with excitement, “I know what we can do! You and daddy can be the mommy and daddy and Jonny and I can be the brother and sister to all the children who don’t have families. We can play with them and take care of them and tell them about Jesus!” I started to cry and her lip started to quiver and we hugged. I am so proud of her and her heart for the lost. She has such a big and sympathetic heart for the helpless (even the tiny little bugs & geckos all around our home). God has special plans for her, I just know it!

I also wanted to add that I am truly at peace about our trip. Many have been asking if I am scared or worried. To be honest, I have been and I have really questioned “God, do I trust you enough to do this? To take my kids into Africa?”. God has been slowly stripping away all of my fears as I learn more of His character and love for me and I can honestly answer “yes” to those questions. I know He will watch over us and supply all of our needs because he always has. At the same time I still covet all the prayers lifted up on behalf of our safety and protection. Please keep praying for us as we go. Please pray that culture shock will be minimal and that fear will not paralyze us from getting out into the community and doing all that God has planned for us. I am getting choked up as I reflect on how faithful God has been by giving us such supportive and encouraging family and friends like all of you (and even the new friends found along the way). For those of you at home that are struggling with decisions or needs or problems, I pray that the God of peace will give you His “peace that passes all understanding”. God is good and we give HIM the glory, Amen!

Day 70– Sep 7, 2005, Wednesday: Nature Devotions

On the left we are learning sign language as a class from Mary.

This morning we had worship with the kids and parents together. We had a cool time of Nature Devotions. The kids went and found anything that God made and then we (the parents) talked to them about what it represents to us. Jonny found a pair of plants. Ruth told him how the plant started out as a seed and grew and grew and could someday have fruit ….like our lives as Christians. To me, I thought it would some day grow into a tree and it made me think of Zaccheus and how he had to climb the tree to see Jesus. It made me think how we have to strive for Jesus. We can’t just sit back and let life happen, we have a part to play. Everyone else shared their thing and it was really cool how we each picked out a different idea of God through nature.

We then had a time again with Neil. He spoke about Righteousness (being right with God). He talked about how Americans typically try to attain righteousness: through belief, good works, being a good person, or through religion. All of these fail. He spoke of Galation 2:19-20 and how we obtain righteousness through Affection (Christ’s love) and through Substitution (Christ took my sin in place of me). It was a great talk and I do it injustice by just blurting down the main points.

Then Neil blessed all of us parents by giving each couple a $60 gift certificate to Outback steakhouse across the street. Actually he said a friend of his from home wanted to do it for us. This is how he is though, he talks the talk, but he also walks it. I can’t wait to have a nice steak and a nice date.

Tonite Ruth went to an optional with Neil speaking about relationships. Usually we both can’t go to the nighttime stuff because the kids go to bed, so I went last night, she goes tonite. Apparently it was a good talk. Neil has a habbit of saying great one liners and also picking out people in the audience and in this case embarrassing them. Tonite one of the staff guys, Matt, was his guinea pig and got very embarrassed when asked some pointed questions about girls. Wish I could have been there.

Below is the pile of Donuts that Neil brought in. I hadn't had a donut in a while....They were awesome!

Day 69– Sep 6, 2005, Tuesday: Piling up Yesterdays

Before our speaker came to lecture we had a time of sharing what God has done in the last week in our lives. I mentioned how last Friday we had a time of praying for spiritual gifts and healing. Terry’s girlfriend happened to be here last week. She showed up as a surprise to him. She was there on Friday and Terry and Sara ended up praying for her. She had 4 large cysts in her breast and was scheduled for surgery this next week. (notice I say had) Terry and Sara prayed for her healing for a long time on Friday. They actually stayed after the meeting and I walked in and saw them crying as they were praying for her. Today they told how God healed her. WOW! Carry Anne also came up because she has had cyatica due to degenerating discs in her back for the last 3 years. She was prayed for and this weekend was the first weekend in 3 years that she hasn’t had pain. Dave had an ear infection all last week and was really hurting. He had people pray for healing and he said he felt the pain move from one ear to the other and then the next day it was gone. I’ve never grown up with healings or even much of spiritual gifts, so this is all pretty new for me. I know that God is all powerful. I know that He can heal. I am just amazed to see it! How cool is God?

Then we had Neil McClendon http://www.obedshouse.com/ come speak (his picture is above). Wow, does this guy say it like it is. One of the quotes of his that I really liked was “Manners are no excuse for disobedience” meaning that we need to stop being polite and be willing to speak God’s truth, even if it hurts. Another similar one was “It’s better to bruise a friend now then watch them bleed later”. Don’t hold back if someone you know isn’t obeying God’s Word. It might hurt to tell them about it, but if they don’t know it could get much worse.

We then had a team meeting in which we ordered our shirts for our team, listened to Rita (our Leader) give her testimony, and we prayed for direction. Our team is really striving to know what God wants us to do when we get to Uganda. We are praying for clear direction from God.

At night I went to an optional with Jeremy West as the speaker. It was about leadership and thinking forward. He had a cool quote “we are running out of tomorrows and piling up yesterdays”

Below is a picture of where we have worship with the kids.