Summing up the last few weeks

Eli preaching in a refugee camp church

The month of March has been really full. Not only has God set a lot before us, but due to the hot season, it's taken a lot of perseverance to push through, knowing each and every detail is part of what God is calling us to in this season. We can't believe we've only been in Adjumani for 3 months - we are already so at home and getting to be involved in so many things.

The boys tried to play with kids after church

Eli meeting with church leaders

For Eli, the month of March has meant a lot of meetings, sitting with church leaders from different denominations and explaining what the theological education by extension program entails to try and mobilize as many lay leaders and pastors as possible to commit to further training. Almost 2 weeks ago, the program started off in 2 different locations with other camps hopefully beginning soon. It is a lot of work for one person but it is what he loves and is passionate about. We are so thankful and honored to get to be a part of this here in Northern Uganda.

Our silly but wonderful boys

These boys keep us on our toes. My (Bethany's) primary job every day is homeschooling this 5th and 7th grader while also keeping my eyes on our almost 1 year old. They work hard in the mornings to complete school by 2 pm so they can play with their friends. You can find them up in a mango tree, rat hunting, swimming in our water cistern/pool or playing soccer. In this particular photo above, they dressed up in mechanic suits thinking those outfits would somehow protect them from the red ants on the mango tree as they climbed.

We are thankful for fun family evenings

Mama's helper

Joshua is trying to show you how big this rooster's crest is!

Joshua is proud of his chickens. We have about 16 and the hens have started laying eggs. Joshua triumphantly brings them in every day and is always eager to show me how much bigger they're getting.

Speaking of getting bigger every day - our youngest sure is growing up fast! He will be one year old in just a few weeks and we can't believe it's almost been a full year that he's added so much joy to our family. Carson goes by "John" or "Johnny" in our community which is his middle name. For some reason they can't say Carson. He is beloved and his favorite time of the day is when we go out after his afternoon nap to visit our neighbors. He loves to watch the cows come home in the evenings and growls instead of moos back at them.

Bethany with neighbor friends in our front yard

While Eli is busy running from refugee camp to refugee camp and organizing different theological education groups, my ministry is on the home front. After school is done for the day I have loved getting to know our neighbors and trying to learn the tribal language here called Madi. The most encouraging fruit I've seen of these relationships was a few weeks ago when my friend Scovia (pictured on the left in the above photo) chose to follow Jesus. Now begins the discipleship process of helping her get plugged into a church, reading her Bible, learning how to talk to God, etc.

Evan turned 13 this month!

Games at Evan's party

Handing out birthday cake

Teammates came to visit

Another highlight this month was hosting our teammates/team leaders here in Adjumani. They'd never been here before so they came as a family and stayed for a few days. They were such an encouragement as they entered into life with us and brought thoughtful gifts like fruits and veggies from the capital city.

Guess who else came to visit? Grandparents!!!

My parents who live on the opposite side of Uganda, traveled for 2 days to come see how we live and see our new home. They were rock stars in the heat. Mom went around with me meeting all our neighbors and Dad tagged along with Eli on his busiest day of the week.

Feeding Carson

After an evening stroll

From East to West

 This week we had a cool opportunity to drive as a family from the Eastern side of the refugee camps in northern Uganda to the Western side. Our destination was a big town called Arua which serves as a hub for missionaries and other organizations who work with refugees. Our main purpose for traveling to Arua was for a meeting with a group called Borderlands. Borderlands is a co-op made up of different mission groups who are ministering to refugees, people who live along the border. We joined this co-op when we first arrived in Uganda 6 months ago, knowing we needed this support and source of networking.

Another great perk of this trip was getting to see our good friends, the Kruse family. The boys played hard all day and had a sleepover. They slept in hammocks, even through the rain (with tarps over them) and cooked breakfast over a fire in the morning. Our hearts were greatly encouraged after spending time together.

On the way, we have to cross the Nile River by ferry and on our way home we had to wait an hour for the next ferry. We ended up sitting and visiting with a group of Sudanese ladies who were surprised to find that we spoke Arabic.

The Nile has so many special memories for us.

It was a quick 2 day trip but such a neat adventure for us as a family. Our 4 hour drive both ways took us through many remote areas but many refugee camps as well. We couldn't help but pray for more workers. 

Observations from the Refugee Camps

Observations from the Camps

I have spent the last 5 months exploring and visiting many towns and refugee camps in our corner of Northern Uganda. As I'm nearing kicking off a new Theological Education by Extension program here, I've been pausing to reflect on what I've seen and learned during these months of gathering information.

11.  Nothing’s wasted in God’s economy

The fact that I speak Arabic vastly changes what I can do in the camps. This is encouraging because it shows how our years in South Sudan prepared us for this next step. There is an opportunity to teach and disciple in Arabic.

22.  I’m surprised at how untrained pastors and church leaders are. 

      They haven’t had an opportunity to go to school and they’re doing the best they can. They do have an eagerness to be trained.

33. A lot of people are ministering and trying to teach the Bible out of a pure love for their community and for Christ but they’re not equipped. They’re willing to stand up and lead even though they have no training.

For example, my friend, Mawa – no training and yet he and a group of Ugandan friends go into the refugee camps and have Bible studies and it’s all on their own dime. Out of love for the Sudanese and a love for God.
Wherever I go, pastors are saying that the government wants anyone who stands up in the pulpit to have some kind of Bible training. So the need and desire for training exists.

4

  4. Everybody has some pretty significant trauma that’s happened in their life. 

      Ex. A good friend spent 2 years as a child soldier in the Lord's Resistance Army. Many have lost  family members from the war. Everyone has lost their entire household and community.

  5. There is a wide open door for the gospel.

A few weeks ago I met a refugee from Sudan who is a Muslim background believer. He has the desire to reach out to Muslims around him because of the freedom here in Uganda. He’s the leader of his community and has a great platform for impacting others. He just doesn’t know how to. He wants to grow in his faith and learn how to share his faith.

      We could speak Arabic together but I didn’t know his mother tongue. However, I’ve run into an organization called Gospel Recordings who have recorded a basic telling from Creation to Christ in many different tribal languages. So I looked up the 5Fish app and within a minute downloaded the Creation to Christ story in his language. When he heard it for the first time, a huge smile burst across his face and he stood up and started dancing around, he was so excited! He then ran over to his wife who isn’t a believer and put the phone to her ear so she could hear it too.

Here is another opportunity: discipling Muslim background believers in order to evangelize the unreached.

6    Where does this leave me?

This month I’m traveling around to different Ugandan towns and refugee camps, speaking to the counties and sharing what the TEE program is about and what it has to offer, and passing out applications for students and teachers. I will then need to hire a few teachers and do a training for them. All in time to hopefully kick off the new TEE program on March 9! Thankfully God has provided partners in this ministry. My right hand man, Anthony, is South Sudanese and a trained teacher with a heart for fellow refugees.

TEE is just one of many discipleship and training ministries that is needed in our area. And that is where we’re at. Realizing these fields are so very ripe for harvest and I’m just me. There are so many opportunities for the gospel here: Discipleship in Arabic, Bible studies with believers, TEE, formal training for Pastors.  It is all needs to be done but we need more long-term people to invest their lives and faith here.

Do you know anyone that would get excited about these types of ministries? Share our blog post. And pray for others to join us.

The different camps I'm traveling to (particularly the ones in the east.)

Finding our New Normal

My spot on our kitchen step where I spend my mornings "charging up" with Jesus before my day starts

Our home school set up

They're getting lots of practice with their sling shots

Carson is so easy going and just hangs out or joins in during our school mornings. Here he is sneaking some cuddles while Joshua reads his literature.

Project: Chicken House has commenced

Joshua loved raising chickens of his own while we were living in Doro a few years ago and so he's asked if he can have chickens again. We told him once he builds a shelter for them we'll buy him a few. As you can see, their friends all pitched in too.

These are some of their new friends: Fred, Gabriel and Emmanuel

The more hanging out we do with our neighbors, the more comfortable Carson is becoming in others' arms. This young lady, Pasklyn has been coming the last few afternoons to hold and play with Carson while I cook or do anything I need to do. So sweet of her!

Our little water cistern has been the perfect refreshment during this dry hot season

I have begun my "Hospitality" ministry and enjoy serving cold water or coffee to new friends or pastors who come to meet with Eli.

Carson's making friends too.

Blurry but shows the action of a recent rat hunt!

 One of the dry season activities for boys here is rat hunting. The grass is now tall and dry and the rats hide in it - until a group of about 6 boys with their sling shots and sticks come hunting them!

Spending the heat of the day with neighbors

 Since it's so hot in the afternoon hours, most work stops. It is the perfect time to sit and visit with my neighbor friends. So far I'm able to communicate well in English or Arabic but I'm trying to learn the local tribal language which is called Maadi.

Eli's new normal is heading out to the refugee camps a couple times a week. Right now he's in the phase of continuing to gather information from the churches that are present. He's asking what is happening as far as training and discipleship and how can he partner with the local churches to train and equip believers. He's done a great job networking and meeting with many pastors. Instead of jumping right in and starting up a program, he is taking his time to first find out what would be most beneficial.

This is a photo Eli took on a recent visit to South Sudan in December

Eli will also continue traveling up to South Sudan every now and then to encourage and check on the Theological Training programs that are ongoing in the area where we used to be.

Needless to say our days are full.
Bethany with homeschooling, keeping track of the circus of village boys in our compound every afternoon, tracking down my crawling 9 month old and getting out to visit with and love on my neighbors every chance I get.
Eli with meeting daily with local pastors, learning what is going on in Adjumani ministry wise and what the greatest needs are. Traveling out to the different camps, meeting leaders and pastors in the camps and offering partnership. And then after those full hot days, coming home to love on his wife and boys and continue persevering through his PhD classes!

We would so appreciate your continued prayers. We are beginning to feel more keenly our need for teammates. There is so much to do! We are also realizing that we need to set aside time to rest and boundaries we might need to put in place in order to keep our family healthy. Please pray for wisdom and love in all these decisions.

Evan's Essay

Evan’s Classification Essay:                                                                                                                     January 17, 2019

               Though we’ve only been in Adjumani for 1 month, we have found plenty of activities to keep us busy. First of all, we have found things to do inside the compound. For example, we can swim because we have this awesome pool made out of a cement cistern that the builders of our house used to make cement when they were building our house. It is maybe 20 feet around and 4 feet deep. We have a special pump to filter the pool and a chlorine floater. Another thing we like to do is fix our bikes. We have cheap bikes we bought from somebody and they’re always breaking. So that gives us something to do. We also have a cool water tower made of cement we can play on. It has a little storage room on the bottom of it where we can stores our tools and even our bikes.

               Secondly, we have stuff to do outside the compound. We can ride our bikes around the village. Isaac, Josh and I have made a special bike trail that goes through the wilderness. It is around 2 km long and it is half uphill, half downhill. There are some really challenging parts to ride, like deep sand and steep hills. But it is a fun place to ride. We also like to explore around where we live. We really don’t have a lot of places to eat here but another fun thing to do in Adjumani is to go out to eat. There are two places that have good food. We usually just order pork and chips because that is really yummy and usually the only thing on the menu. But one place called Zawadi Hotel has a new chef and a new menu so now we can get burgers, fish, and more.

               Lastly, we have things to do with our friends. One of our favorite things to do is hunt rats. There are a couple of places swarming with mice. So we take sticks, sling shots, and big stones and we dig up the rat homes and kill the rats. The most rats we have ever killed at once is nine. Another thing we like to do is swim with our friends and we like to have epic water fights. The last thing we like to do is play soccer. There is a nearby school that has a soccer field and every evening at five we gather some kids to play. We’ve only lived here a month but we agree that Adjumani is a place where you just can’t get bored.

Beautifully In Over My Head

Our new neighborhood

It’s kind of surreal that I’m typing this new blog post from our new home in Adjumani. Today is day 12 that we’ve been here and we were just remarking as a family how much it already feels like home.  Ever since we’ve moved here, it’s felt like a really big deal. I think the reason is because when we last evacuated from South Sudan and knew in our hearts that for now that door was closed to us for ministry as a family, our future has been a big question mark. We spent most of our home assignment in the States praying, seeking advice, and dreaming together about all the possibilities. It was such a big decision and we felt that heaviness so many days and nights. We started out this year, 2018, with a month of very intentional prayer and fasting about our future. In May, Eli came to Northern Uganda and did a 10 day survey trip. By September we had moved to a temporary home in Gulu, Uganda and it took 3 months before we knew for sure where God was leading us and had found a house and purchased everything we needed to outfit that house.

And now here we are. 

Only a few days after moving in, I was hit with a flood of emotions. I tried to think of why I was feeling swamped by so many feelings and then I realized it was because we were finally here. Not only that but God gave us confirmations and encouragement since the very hour we landed in our new neighborhood. One of our neighbors who we call Muzee Michael (Muzee because he is an old man) came over to help us unload all our stuff and then before leaving he gathered us under the mango trees in our yard and opened up his Bible to two passages. He read from Gen 12 and Joshua 1. The first passage was about when God called Abraham to go far away to a land He was calling him to, saying He would bless him when he went. The 2^nd passage was about being strong and courageous. Don’t be discouraged for the Lord is with you and will not abandon you. Muzee Michael encouraged us to be strong and courageous no matter what difficulties come our way and then prayed for us as we settled in our new home. We’ve also had multiple visitors and pastors visit and when they pray for us, a phrase keeps popping up: “God has brought you here.” Those things have been such a comfort to us as we struggle through the challenges of getting settled in a new place, meeting new people, joining a new church, figuring out where to buy food and necessities, learning new ways to cook, adjusting to the heat, and trying to begin learning a difficult language.

Washing clothes with my little helper

As thrilled as I am to be here and as much as I am sure that we are exactly where God wants us to be, it hasn’t been easy. As the mom, I have my work cut out for me. Keeping a house clean in dry, dusty season because I have a crawling baby, trying to cook nutritious, tasty meals with what I can get here, washing clothes by hand, finding creative ways to cool Carson off, getting out to meet neighbors, and doing lots of hosting is a lot of work. It takes time to get in the groove. I keep trying to remind myself to cut myself some slack. I don’t have to be perfect at everything. And since we’ll be here for a while, we’ll have time to learn and do it all.

Yesterday I had had kind of a rough morning and was feeling so tired. As I was cooking lunch a song came on by Hillsong and a line kept running through my head – “beautifully in over my head”. The song talks about how it is a beautiful thing when we are "in over our head" because it’s then that we reach out for Jesus and He draws near to us. So yes, I’ll admit it. I’m definitely in over my head. But it’s a beautiful place to be and I’m trying to embrace it. I want to embrace what God wants to teach me but I’m also confident that there’s no where I’d rather be. 

Playing Uno with new friends

My simple spot on the back steps where I like to start my days with Jesus and coffee

Contentment & Fulfillment in the midst of mothering

I have been chewing on something for a while and want to share this because I know I'm not the only mother who struggles to feel like what I'm doing is worthwhile. That sounds harsh. When I stop and think about it I KNOW that teaching and raising up my boys, supporting my husband in his work and ministry, and taking care of everyone by washing their dirty clothes, cooking nutritious meals and snuggling whenever possible IS 100% meaningful, valuable and important. But on the day to day, especially when I've been doing it day after day, somehow LIES, yes lies, creep into my brain and heart making me feel like I'm missing something. Like I could be doing more - making more of an impact.

Those lies have been messing with me the past couple of weeks. You see, after an extended home assignment in the States (in which I felt no guilt at all for resting and not working), we have returned to the mission field but this time to a new country. We landed in Uganda to a wonderful town called Gulu and we've been loving it here but since it's not our final destination, I haven't been able to totally settle. I've made a few friends but haven't put the whole effort I would if we were going to live here permanently. We've joined a church, but I could be so much more involved if I didn't have that nagging thought that "we're not going to be here much longer."

We were supposed to move to our "final destination", our new home, in a place called Adjumani, last week. But just a few days before we were planning to move, we got a phone call that our house wouldn't be ready yet and then a 10 day trip to South Sudan for Eli came up and suddenly, we were delaying our move another 2 1/2 weeks. I kept telling myself it wasn't a big deal. So we have 2 1/2 more weeks in Gulu, great. And yet...with a lot of our stuff already packed, Isaac home on break, and taking our Christmas break from home schooling, I have felt like I'm just floating.

I'm in a holding pattern. Waiting. Again.
And yet, it's really not a bad thing. Since we're just kind of chilling until Eli gets back from South Sudan I can do things like take a mat out to the yard and sit with Carson while we watch the big boys play with the dogs. We can head to the pool for the afternoon. We schedule play dates. And yet in the midst of those sweet things - I feel guilt. I feel like I'm not doing anything.

Chilling after a bike ride

But how can I say that? How can I say I'm not doing anything?!!! I have four precious boys that I'm loving, training, and raising to be Jesus followers, kind young men. And especially with a 7 month old baby who is going through the separation anxiety phase, it is my constant job, all day long. Changing diapers, playing peek-a-boo, splitting up fights, reading Advent passages - all of it is soooo important. And I truly wouldn't trade it to be out working a "real" job or running around every day so I can be involved in ministry outside of the home. Think of all I'd miss!

And when we decided to adopt, I very intentionally chose to continue (and start over really) this mothering ministry IN THE HOME. I don't want to miss Carson's first attempt at crawling or his first words. I want to be the one to put him down for his naps and go to him when he wakes up.

SO WHY IS CONTENTMENT SUCH A STRUGGLE?

Just look at this sweetness!

My mother in law helped me answer that question yesterday. Why is it so hard to be content when what we're doing is quite possibly one of the most meaningful and important things we could do with our time and energy? It's Satan. He knows how meaningful it is. He knows we're raising world changers. Our work as mothers, Ladies, is a threat. And so Satan will throw whatever darts he can at us as we're pouring out our hears for our families. He tells us the exact opposite of what is true. And the worst part is that we believe it. We start thinking it. And before we know it, we're totally stuck in his trap, feeling hopeless and insignificant, like we've missed something.

I was feeling all those things just yesterday afternoon but the Lord, in His great love, coaxed my mother in law to call to check in on me. Getting a phone call from my mother in law is always very special because she lives in Malawi right now and it's a miracle that we get a good connection. I shared how I was feeling and she spoke TRUTH over me through the phone lines stretched from one part of the African continent to the other. She encouraged me to REJECT those lies and then affirmed how truly meaningful and precious my "work" is.

My way of rejecting those lies is to share this with you all who read this. Please join me in rejecting the lies that Satan tries to get us to believe. And let us not grow weary in doing good, but let's KEEP IT UP and all the more, because we know just how significant it is. We ARE making a difference in the world.

Joshua reading his Christmas story

This Advent season the boys and I are doing a special Christmas activity every day that is written on a slip of paper in our Advent calendar. Yesterday we wrote our own Christmas books and illustrated them and then read them to each other. It was so much fun to spend 45 minutes coloring and writing and then of course we giggled and applauded each reading (the drawings were really hilarious since none of us are exactly artists.)

As I was kneading my dough yesterday afternoon and still processing my phone conversation with my mother in law, I told myself out loud that even that simple task was an important way I'm loving my family. I know I'm going to have to keep preaching truth to myself this week...and next week...but I can't stop. Because this is a battle and I don't want anyone to steal my joy of soaking in every day with my 4 precious boys.