Easter Update

He is Risen. He is Risen indeed.

Easter is one of the more celebrated holidays in Uganda. It is a time for family to come together to share a meal and afternoon together. Most boarding schools close for the Thursday through Monday surrounding Easter to allow students opportunity to go home and be with families…in fact Friday and Monday are national public holidays.

We celebrated Easter in true style, surrounded by friends and our Ugandan family. All DOORS children, staff and families were invited, as well as others in our community, (and over 70 people came!) to celebrate Easter lunch at Yahaya’s Plot where we live and had the pleasure of helping to host. The children played games, had an Easter egg hunt, and even colored eggs…while many of the women cooked our meal of rice, matooke (boiled green banana), fried cassava, chapatti, meat and greens (the greens and cassava were picked straight from the Yahaya’s Plot gardens). After the meal, pupils of DOORS Mission School put on a drama enacting the death and resurrection of Jesus (one of our boys played the role of Jesus) that was organized by the DOORS Home auntie and friends. It was truly a fun-filled day that even the surprise afternoon rain-showers could not ruin…they just pushed us inside for a half hour as we waited for them to pass and serve food.

Cooking…many DOORS female staff came early to help with all the cooking

Coloring Easter eggs for all the kids.

Easter egg hunt. Fabric “eggs” containing small candies or coins were hid throughout the acre plot for all the kids to find…and even some adults who participated.

Games were organized that involved team building activities, as well as some good competition.

OUR FAMILY

Through all of the changes already in the beginning of this year, our family continues to unite more and more so together. We believe Joshua has helped in that. The older boys enjoy playing with him. One will play his guitar and Joshua will kick and try to “sing” along with him, while the other enjoys playing ‘peek-a-boo’ and talking with him. It brings us joy to see the boys care for each other, and to see Joshua’s face light up when the boys get home from school each day.

We had been praying for one of our older boys to have a deeper desire to learn and be more motivated in school. He is quite far behind remaining in a 2^nd grade level despite his teen age. These past weeks was an answer to this prayer as we find him more and more so desiring to practice his reading with us and even reading out loud to Joshua at times (when he doesn’t think we can see or hear him).

Matt & Joshua on Easter with our neighbor’s daughter. They are the best of friends and spend time together almost every day.

The boys hanging out

Joshua is starting to laugh more and more

MATT & EMI

Last year EMI completed a lengthy process of review and refining our vision, mission and core values. The beginning of this year our office in Uganda is focusing on digger deeper into two of our three core values; discipleship and diversity. As an office we have divided into small groups to work through a discipleship study. It has been good to get to know my group better, especially as 5 of the 7 have joined EMI in the past year. We have also begun thinking deeper about how our diversity can be used as a strength and how to grow in our understanding and appreciation for our differences. It is exciting to see the direction our office is headed, though there are challenges and adjustments in the implementation of these discussions.

Work at EMI is continuing to move forward. We are starting to hit our groove as many of our new staff are adjusting. This term of projects is coming to a close. Our interns depart on May 12th and there is still work to be done to complete the current projects. 

Construction continues at UCBC. It is exciting to see the building coming together, though we continue to have challenges producing good quality concrete.

Construction continues at UCBC in Beni, DRC

ASHLEY & DOORS

Leadership at DOORS has changed dramatically since last month and has fully been transitioned to Ugandan hands. This is a huge praise as this move was an original long-term vision for the ministry when it was founded 5 years ago. Overall the transition has gone well as new vision is cast (and systems). Ashley has been involved in helping facilitate the transition, and is slowly continuing to take steps back from her leadership position in DOORS in order to more fully focus on her roles with Yahaya’s Plot and Volunteers.

Beginning stages of cooking and set up on Easter at Yahaya’s Plot. (Joshua slept through most of that time).

DOORS’ new Director getting into the games at Easter.

PRAISES

-An enjoyable Easter weekend. It was great to remember the hope we have in Jesus and to celebrate with our community.
-Through all of the changes this past year we feel like we are doing good as a family and as a couple.
-Looking at the changes that are ahead of us we are excited about the potential.

PRAYER REQUESTS
-The transitions at DOORS to a new director brings changes. Pray for unity as staff through the changes.
-EMI projects are wrapping up this term, Matt is feeling a bit stressed about finishing on time.
-There are changes ahead in our community as some of our close friends are leaving. We will need to expand our community. We have had a great community that has made Uganda home for us. We desire to continue to do our part in making our community life-giving.
-The transition to being a mom can be challenging at times.