Welcome Joanna Sanyu!

 

We are thrilled to introduce Joanna Sanyu Lammers. She was born 12 June at International Hospital Kampala. She was small (5lbs5ounces) but overall has been a peaceful and joyful baby that is highly adored by her older siblings.

These past few months have brought several changes for our family. Matt has been able to receive more support at EMI with new additions to the leadership team and staff returning from home assignments and other travels. Our foster son was able to finally complete a full term of school (first time in 2 years!) and is getting ready for the end of the school year next week. During his first school holiday in April, we all decided that the best way forward for him would be to change schools again and move him to a day school (opposed to a boarding school where he has been for high school thus far), allowing him to live at home full time. And of course, we had a baby! Joanna Sanyu was born on the 12^th of June at the same hospital where both Joshua and Abby were born. We have experienced God’s grace in amazing ways over the past few months. Read more below:

The birth of Joanna (we find ourselves calling her JoJo) brought visits from Grandparents. We had a great trip with Matt’s parents to our favorite family camping spot outside of Kampala hiking to waterfalls and enjoying Lake Victoria, and an amazing safari with Ashley’s Mom at Lake Mburo National Park boating among hippos and driving past giraffes.

 

EMI UPDATE

EMI's mission statement is“to develop people, design structures, and construct facilities which serve communities and the Church."  There has been lots going on at EMI Uganda the past few months. While lots of design and construction is on going, we wanted to highlight some what is happening on the people side of things. 

The discipleship program at our construction site have been fruitful and we have seen some of the workers getting baptized and giving their lives to Jesus.

12 men and women from the construction crew at The Gem Foundation were baptized.

4 men from the construction crew at Fields of Life site in Onialeku gave their live to Jesus. Each was given a Bible to commemorate the event.

There have been a lot over people movements over the past few months. We have had 19 visitors from 7 different offices. It has been an encouragement to hear all that God is doing at EMI around the world. We have had several staff movements as well with 4 people joining our team, including our first electrical engineer (we have been praying for an electrical engineer for several years. A Uganda graduate engineer joined our team in August and we have a retiring America engineer coming in January) and 6 people leaving. It is a challenge welcome and say good bye to so many people. We expanded our office leadership team and welcomed two new members. They have added some new energy and insights.

Our expanded leadership team had a team building day out by the lake. Matt is encouraged and hopeful about where the office is heading right now.

The kids loved visiting Daddy at work when we came to say our final goodbye over lunch to the two interns Ashley and Matt had been mentoring for the first term of the year. They left in May to return to the States.

In this season at work we are focusing on creating and reinforcing the organizational culture we desire. Here is a photo of a team building activity at EMI's recent Culture Care Day highlighting the challenges of working cross-culturally

 

FAMILY UPDATE

Our family mission statement is walking with Jesus as faithful disciples and inviting others to join. Ashley has restarted Luganda lessons to equip her to develop closer relationships with our neighbors.

 

We had a few branches fall down from a large tree on the property where we rent due to some massive rain and wind (and believe it or not, even hail!) storms during our rainy season August and September. Matt and the kids decided it was a perfect branch to make a playground. They added a broken soccer goal net and some hammock straps which has inspired hours and hours of fun! (Since this picture was taken, a lot more branches have been added for climbing and adventures).

As mentioned above, we’ve had two major changes take place in our family rhythms since our last update. Both good, both requiring adjustments, both going smoothly so far.

 

Joshua loves holding Joanna Sanyu, and Abby is very possessive of her real life “baby doll” whenever friends are visiting or we are out visiting with others. Overall they are adjusting well and have been incredibly patient with new daily rhythms. Thankfully they generally play very well together. Joanna means “full of grace/favor” and Sanyu is the Luganda word/name for joy

A baby definitely changes dynamics. Matt enjoyed a 2 week paternity leave (maybe Ashley enjoyed it more…). We felt incredibly supported by friends nearby who watched the older kids while we were at the hospital, have invited them for playdates since, and many who have dropped off meals in our days and weeks postpartum. We had wonderful trips with Grandparents in July and August introducing them to their newest granddaughter, and doing a few nearby adventures together.

In September, Ashley resumed homeschool with Joshua and Abby. Its gone surprisingly (to Ashley) smooth and has been less stressful doing it alongside caring for a baby than Ashley anticipated. Joshua is in Kindergarten learning the basics of reading and finds it so rewarding when he reads a simple book or story, or is able to spot words he knows around the house. Abby is at a pre-K level and starting to learn her letters and her sounds…though her favorite part of homeschool is honestly playing with JoJo while Ashley works with Joshua.

Our second big family dynamic change is having our oldest foster son home full time and enrolled in a day school for high school opposed to a boarding school where he has been thus far for high school. Covid school closures affected so many students in Uganda, our student included. So many are far behind the learning curve of where they should be and many are struggling to keep pace with the teachers’ teaching as they teach as if every student hasn’t missed months and terms of schooling. Due to these factors, and a few others, we prayerfully made the decision with our son and a few close friends and mentor figures in his life to change his school and enroll him in a nearby day school in May. 

 

Our oldest came home from his first full term of school in nearly two years from his boarding school. Ashley and the kids had the joy of picking him up in April and surprised him by bringing two of his friends along.

Though he leaves for school at 6:30 am and doesn’t come home until 6/6:30pm Monday through Saturday, we are enjoying the extra time we get with him, and especially having him home for dinner most nights where he is quick to share about his day and experiences. Having him in day school is also allowing us to hire tutors to work one on one with him to help him catch up to the material being taught in class as he prepares for a huge national exam that he will take at the end of next year (November 2023) to graduate high school. Though it adds a little more juggling of schedules and a lot more cooking of food, we are thankful for this change and the timing of it. He has shared that this is his favorite schooling situation thus far of the 3 high schools he has bounced between these past couple of years. He is getting ready to sat for his end of year exams a little earlier than the originally published school schedule. Unfortunately, the presence of ebola in Uganda is closing schools early yet again. He will have a 3 month school holiday starting next week. 

 

Ashley has continued enjoying organizing and leading activities for a kids’ Nature Club that meets every Friday morning. It has been a great opportunity for moms and kids to connect once a week to build community and walk alongside each other in this cross-cultural life we live in Uganda. Here she is about 7 months pregnant explaining a “bug hunt” activity to the crew, and more recently the kids doing soil experiments

PRAISES

• Safe delivery and healthy baby
• More support for Matt at work
• Able to find a day school for our oldest quickly and seems to be a good fit so far
• Feeling supported and loved by our community here after baby’s arrival
• Grandparent visits
• Healthy weekly rhythms for Ashley and the kids that allow for homeschooling, neighborhood engagement, and time with friends

 

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Continued adjusting for all of us to an ever changing baby in the house
• EMI is working to adjust the organizational culture and we have a few vacant positions we are hoping to fill by the beginning of next year
  
• End of year exams for old oldest and how to spend his holiday
• Ashley to improve her Luganda proficiency