Getting to Soroti, Uganda

So since I can't get pictures up here or on Facebook I will try and write what we experience without pictures.
We dropped our kids off at Steve and Linda Snyders on Monday night. The kids were so excited and the Snyders made it so easy for us. Troy was very sick, he had a fever of 104 for two days before we left and he kept it until Friday morning. It was so sad to have him sick, but these are some of the things I wrote in my journal.

The last two days I've had opportunity to sit and hold him and love him. On Sunday he was sitting on my lap and we were looking at eachother and smiling. (He was very sick) He said, "You know what my favorite part about being sick is?" I said, "What honey?" He said, "I get to spend time with you." It was so precious! He hugged me and I love that kid.
As I thought about this and why this was happening, I was thinking. This is how we need to be with Jesus. We are sick and sinful people, but the best part of that is sitting in Jesus arms and letting him care for us and love us.


We kind of dropped the kids stuff off through out the day and then we went for dinner with the Snyders at the fundraiser for the Youth Group. I could tell already then that the kids were going to be fine. Ashley sat between her two new big brothers, Aaron and Jordan. They were just so excited. Troy stayed home with Steve and when we returned, we said our goodbyes and it went well. Ashley came and gave me a big hug and after she did Troy started to realize that we were leaving and he came from the floor and gave me a tight hug. He nestled his head in my neck and he let me know he would be OK. I gave Drew some tickle torture, which he loves. It was just great.
I know people were praying for us, because I had a peace that I don't understand. God had made me completely calm. I had no anxiety and I was so thankful. Our God is so huge and he had given me a peace that passes all understanding.

The next day we headed to Chicago to my cousins so she could drop us at the airport. We arrived at the O'Hare Airport at 12:30 and quickly relized that our flight had been delayed and we were going to miss our flight in Detroit so we got on standby for a flight that left at 2:00. We got on that flight and we made our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. When we got on this flight we were told that the flight was delayed and that we would be having a longer flight due to the ash. We were two hours late for our flight to Entebbe. They then put us on a flight to Londan to Niarobi and then to Entebbe. We flew two nights straight and the time change was in there too. We arrived in Entebbe at 9am on Thursday morning. Through all of this God still gave me a peace that I didn't understand.
When we arrived in Entebbe, we arrived without 4 pieces of luggage. Thankfully, the piece that we needed did arrive. When we arrived in Entebbe, the Sliedrechts were waiting for us. We were extremely tired. We started driving in Kampala and it was really overwhelming. So many people and traffic is the craziest thing. Roads are full of cars, bikes, cows, motorcycles and people.
As we drove out of Kampala you could see things slowly change over the next 6 hours. There were less cars, but still people everywhere and animals everywhere. Little kids were just walking around on the sides of these busy roads. People were sitting around all over. I realize now that they are just sitting where it is cool. They don't sit in their houses, they sit under shade trees.
The land changed too. It was beautiful. We passed through a rain forest. We stopped in the town of Jin Jah. Here we ate at a little restarant named Ozzie's. I had a chicken and avocado Chapati. and a fresh fruit smoothie. It was all very good.
We then finished our drive to Soroti and the land changed again to less lush and more flat, but still beautiful in its own way. Again, here there were even less cars, but still lots of people.
When we arrived at Tim and Angies, the team mates had supper waiting for us. We recieved a warm welcome.
This is how our week began and through it all I had a peace that I could not explain! I just knew that people were praying for me and I was going to accept it.

Sorry this took so long!!

We are home from Uganda and are anxious to return! We felt that God confirmed our call to Uganda almost right away. Thank-you for praying for us, God answered your prayers and gave us clear direction! Now we just have to take one step at a time and pray that God works out all the details!

I will be blogging about our days, but we have been nonstop since we have been home and it is continuing thru this week so I am hoping to post more words next week, but I at least wanted to put a few pictures up! OK so I have tried 4 times to get pictures to come up and it is not working so you will have to wait longer!! Sorry!

Almost time to come home

We have had a great week! Time has flown by and we leave Soroti tommorrow already! We will head to Sipi falls and Sissyi Falls. This will be a time with just the team. We will be hiking in the area and seeing God's beauty here in Uganda.
I am anxious to write all that we have experienced. I am planning on writing about all our days here when we return. I have been writing in my journal everyday, but I just don't want to take the time here to write. We have been so busy here, Tim keeps us going all the time. We are preparing for supper tonight and right now Tim is outside with people that have stopped by to visit. They constantly have people visiting them and time goes so fast here or so slow depending on the way you look at it.
We are getting excited to see all our friends and to share with you all that we have seen and smelled and heard. We want to tell you about all the fabulous people we have met and how God is working in Soroti!
We will be home on Tuesday the 25th and are anticipating seeing you.

We are here

We are in Soroti! I will not write much, but we wanted everyone to know that we are here and settling in! So many stories to share when we return. I really wanted to update you though on some specific prayer requests.

On Sunday we will be heading to an displaced people camp. We have been warned that this will be a hard day. So much poverty and we will not have food here. This also is the day 3 years ago that Steve's brother Jim was diagnosed with cancer. So many memories and we remember Deb especially on this day, as it is also their anniversary. Please pray that we can deal with all the emotions as they come and that we can give it over to God.

We also ask for prayers that we can be a blessing on these people. There are so many needs and help us to love them and share with them the love of Jesus. It is hard to know exactly what to say sometimes. We pray that God will give us the words to speak!

We are looking forward to telliing you many stories, but know that we feel your prayers and we ask that you continue to pray fervantly! God bless you all!!

Last post before we leave!

Tommorrow we leave for Uganda. We will be driving to Chicago and flying out of O'Hare airport at 4:30. We have an hour in Detroit and then we fly to Amsterdam where we have an hour and 15 minutes. From there we fly to Entebbe, Uganda. We should arrive in Entebbe by 7:30 Ugandan time, which is 12:30 Eastern time. Please pray for safe and timely travel.

I am so thankful for your prayers. I am feeling very relaxed and I have no anxiety pains. Please keep praying for this specifically! I am in awe of how God is hearing and answering your prayers.

We just dropped our kids off at the Snyder's. It was actually an all day pr0ject. The kids wanted to ride their bikes from there this morning so I took them early this morning. Then we brought all there things they wanted and needed along. Linda also took Troy in the afternoon so we could get some things done that needed to yet be done. Please pray for Troy. He is very sick and is having the hardest time with all of it. We took him to the Dr. today and he has Hand, foot and Mouth disease. He has been running a high fever and is in a lot of pain. Please pray for quick healing in his little body so he can enjoy his stay at the Snyder's.

Although it is sad that Troy is sick, I really think God has used this to mold me and Steve. We were able to sit and hold him and cuddle with him. Yesterday, when he was sitting in my lap he was looking deeply into my eyes and smiling. He said to me though his huge tonsils. "Mommy, you know what my favorite part of being sick is? I said, What? He said Just being able to sit and spend some time with you!" It was so precious. God has used this to remind me that this is what God wants from us. To sit and spend some time with him! He wants us to gaze lovingly at him and enjoy him! Please pray that as we are on this journey that we can stop and just sit and gaze at our Father. We are in awe of how he has planned all the details and now we are ready to walk the path he has placed before us!

I know I keep writing this, but I am so thankful for all of you who have supported us through prayer, words of encouragement and financially! God has truly blessed us with wonderful friends, family and church family!! We love you all and are truly excited to share this journey with you.

I do not know how much I will be able to write when we are in Uganda, but I will try to write some. We really want to spend our time praying and seeking God's will for our lives. Please keep praying though and we will be excited to share when we return!

Do not be anxious about anything but with Prayer and petition presents your requests to God!!

Less than 2 weeks!!

We leave in less than 2 weeks! We are getting prepared. We have started packing. We have met with the Snyder's a few times and the kids are getting excited to know what life will be like in their home. They already love them so pray for this transition for them.
We also covet your prayers for air travel. Steve and I have not flown very much and we aren't worried, but we do pray that our flights are timely and that our luggage gets all the way with us. We have only about an hour layover in both places that we stop.

We are very excited that our first night we will be staying with my brother's bosses son who lives in Kampala, Uganda. Tim and Angie have connected with him and they actually will be staying with him before their trip to Turkey for and Iteams convention. It is so great to see how God works in all the details.

We are praying for this war torn people. We pray that we will be able to learn from them and also learn what God has for us to do!

This isn't till the end of our trip, but I also want people to be in prayer for my mom. She will be picking us up from the airport and this is a little out of her comfort zone. Pray that God will ease some of her anxiety about it. I am so thankful that she is willing to pick us up, and I want it to be fun for her and not too stressful.

God has been so good to us. We pray that we are fit vessels for his service! Please join us in these prayers.

Getting Ready!!

We leave three weeks from today! I am trying to say no to everything, which is so hard for me. I need to prepare physically, mentally and spiritually. We have been doing alot of our reading and we are almost done.
On Sunday, we had Josh and Mandy Shaarda over for dinner. Josh and Mandy are on the same team as Tim and Angie in Soroti. It was great to get to know them and we are sad they won't be in Uganda at the same time as us. Their one year old son was very ill and they had to return to the states for further dr. appointments Check out their blog at www.shaarda.blogspot.com . Luka, their son, has had miraculous healing and he is doing so well. So fun to see this little boy and his family that we had been praying for.
They were telling us some of the things they do on the mission field and it made us so excited. Steve is anxious to get there and see if some of the ideas that have been brought to him are possiblilities of work that he can do. Please continue to pray for clear direction.
Our kids are getting more and more excited to stay with the Snyder's. We have been trying to get them together a few more times. They keep asking, if they can just stay over night one night now. I keep saying, You will be there soon enough!! I am so thankful for God's blessing in this area. I just hope my kids want to come home after being with them.
We still are thinking that this could really happen. We are anxious to go and say that we are for sure moving there. It is so scary though and you go through all these emotions of : Is this my will or God's will? We just have to keep reminding ourselves of how he has lead us and guided us along this journey. It is just so great that so far our will is in tune with God's will. Will it stay this way? It is hard to express what we are feeling, but their are just so many emotions. I read my Bible and passages jump out at me that I feel I could share with the people we will be in contact with. I just pray that I am not so nervous that I freeze up and can't remember them.
The Bible is just so full of everything we need for life. If we just take the time to read it. I love to read God's word and see what he has to say about the things of life. Pray that we take the time to enjoy and reflect on God's word.
Thank-you for being in prayer for us! Thank-you to all of you that have supported us financially! We couldn't do this without either.