What's been happening

The end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 have found us quite busy. We had a great Christmas in Uganda (quieter than normal), a much needed family vacation to Entebbe, a smooth transition to our new home, and proud drop off of our foster son at boarding high school. Read below for more on these, as well as other things we have been up to since our last update.

Joshua blowing out candles during our new Advent family tradition activity.

Family picture just after the Christmas Day service.

We continue to make exciting plans for our home assignment to take place the second half of this year: end of June through mid-December. We look forward to connecting with friends and family in North America for extended periods of time, and also checking in at 2 EMI offices (EMI Canada in Calgary, and EMI Global in Colorado Springs). We would love to connect with as many people as possible in Canada and America. Send us a message if you will be available for a meal or hang out, or expect to hear from us in the coming weeks and months as we solidify our plans more and more.

Our home assignment is a requirement from EMI for longer term, international staff to rest, reconnect, re-tool and re-energize so they don't burn out and leave early. The past few years in Uganda have been busy for us. With the additional stress of living in another culture we are feeling a bit drained and in need of some rest. It has been almost 5 years since either of us we have been in North America for more than a few weeks. Though we have made periodic short trips back, extended time will allow us to reconnect with our friends, family and supporters. It is also a time for us to connect with new supporters. As our role and jobs have changes over the years our home assignment is an opportunity for professional development and training to equip us better to serve here. We are also hoping to spend time seeking God for vision for our life in Uganda so we can return with renewed focus and passion.

FAMILY

In our last update we mentioned that our oldest foster son was preparing to sit for a major national exam that would determine if he would be able to continue his education into secondary school, and what quality of secondary he could qualify for if so…we are so happy and proud to announce that his incredible dedication and hard work paid off. He sat through the 2 day exam and passed higher than anyone expected him to and higher than he had in any of his practice exams. After getting his results in January, he was on a high. It was beautiful to watch him see his hard work pay off and how it has and will encourage him to continue to work hard towards his dreams. He spent his 3 month school break working at a welding shop and selling mangos where he was able to earn enough money to buy his much desired smartphone, playing soccer when he was able to, hanging out with his many friends from all walks of life, and teaching himself how to play the keyboard. He successfully moved into his new dorm at his boarding secondary school (high school). We look forward to visiting him there in the middle of the term on the official “Visitation Day.” His next school holiday in May will be spent with us here at our new home.

Our oldest (dressed in white with the sunglasses), with his graduating Primary 7 class, on their way to go and celebrate in Kampala. Every one of them scored well and passed their exam qualifying for secondary school. Two of the graduates are still awaiting sponsors for secondary school through Doors Ministries.

Moving our oldest into his boarding secondary school just outside of Kampala. He is dressed in blue, and his friend in green came to help him get settled. Joshua also helped carry some of his supplies down to his new dorm room. Boarding school for high school is common in Uganda.

We have officially moved. The first Saturday of January was our moving day. We were thankful for the friends that came to help us move from Doors and EMI. Our compound mates, Monica and her family, moved with us as there is a separate space at our new place for them to stay in. We appreciate being able to continue sharing a compound and living space with them despite the challenges that naturally come with living in such close proximity together. Our house is much larger than our previous place, but we have settled well and enjoy getting to know our new area of town. We are now walking distance to 5 other EMI families, as well as plenty of little shops and vegetable stands, and the park Ashley takes the children to once a week.

Our new house which is walking distance to 5 EMI families. A major goal in our move was to be closer to EMI community to be able to invest more there.

Loading up the moving truck and making the move across town in early January.

Joshua and Abby enjoying the sand pit Matt made for them at our new house

Abby enjoying an orange with our neighbors who made the move with us.

Joshua continues to adore his baby sister who has stopped acting like such a little baby. Abigail is now crawling with speed and sitting with confidence. She has enjoyed every solid food offered to her…and even some that haven’t been offered to her. She continues to grow well and hit milestones. Joshua has continued adding to his vocabulary and is talking constantly. He has especially enjoyed our new space as there is lots of room to run around in. He celebrated his second birthday at the end of November just before our move. He enjoyed having all of our compound mates around him and eating outside.

Joshua enjoying his picnic dinner and birthday cake with some of the Doors Home boys.

Abby follows Joshua almost anywhere…even out the front door at times.

We spent one week in December on a family vacation in Entebbe. It was a much needed break from our everyday life in Kampala just before the new year and new changes. We went to the Botanical Gardens one day, the Zoo, a swimming pool, and a small reptile village tourist attraction. It was so much fun watching Joshua’s joy especially at the Zoo when he realized that we were seeing real animals. He literally squealed with delight when he saw the first animal (an ostrich).

Joshua loved the Zoo on our Entebbe family vacation. He literally ran from animal exhibit to animal exhibit. The chimps and birds were his favorites.

EMI

EMI continues to be full of activity. A new term of projects and interns began at the end of January. Another structural engineer and his family arrived at the beginning of January. We have been their staff link helping to get them settled into the country. Matt is focused on sharing knowledge and orienting the structural engineers to design in Uganda before we leave for our home assignment. Matt's workload has moved to more project and people management as much of the design work is being taken on by these engineers and our intern.

Matt is involved with several projects this term: a primary school for Cherish Uganda, some homes for The GEM Foundation, and construction of a pediatrics ward for Kibuye Hope Hospital in Burundi. 

Matt is excited about where things are headed at EMI Uganda. The long term vision for our office is to see the Ugandan design and construction industry transformed through individuals committed to honoring God, developing others, and serving their community. There is a lot that needs to happen for this change to take place and it is much bigger than what EMI can achieve. In pursuit of this Matt has joined a morning prayer meeting with some Ugandan Christian engineers to ask God to intervene in our industry. We look forward to seeing how God will answer these prayers.

DOORS MINISTRIES

Doors continues to move forward and receive unexpected blessings. We were recently rewarded a grant which has provided food for Doors Primary School for this entire school year! While we continue to look for sponsors for each child at the primary school, this grant takes a lot of pressure off of recruiting sponsors, and allows us to keep our doors open in Namuwongo. We even had families lining up trying to enroll their children at the beginning of this school year…unfortunately some had to be turned away as we reached our capacity very quickly. The school has earned itself a great reputation for being a strong Christian school that performs well academically and produces students of character and stature.

Dressed in traditional Ugandan attire (apart from Abby) for the Wedding Introduction Ceremony of the Director of Doors Ministries.

 PRAISES:

• Our smooth move to the new house and smooth recent transitions, especially our oldest moving into his boarding school.
• Our foster son’s great exam results!
• Abby and Joshua’s continue to be generally healthy and hit their milestones.
• Abby’s US citizenship and passport has been approved! We are waiting on the Canadian side currently, but we officially have at least one of her passports meaning we can travel in June as planned.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• For our foster son who is at boarding school for the first time in his life. That he would adjust well, cope up well with his studies and the curriculum, and find a solid group of friends.
• For our former foster son, who was resettled and has continued to make poor decisions, that he would come to a personal relationship with God through these circumstances.  
• For strength and endurance to reach our upcoming home assignment, and for the details and plans of that home assignment to come together.