NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNINGS

The beginning of the year has come and gone, and 2 ½ months have passed without a Lammers update. We are happy to say that though life has been busy with joys and challenges, we are encouraged and excited about the full life we have been given and are living, and about what is yet to come.

Every year our church here in Uganda has a theme that they focus on for the entire year. Last year the theme was “Steps of Faith” (from the book of Joshua), a very fitting and appropriate theme for us as we took several steps of faith from beginning married life together in Uganda, taking on new responsibilities at work, fostering two boys, and having a baby. This year the theme is “Restoration and Renewal.” We truly believe this will be a year of both of those for us, though we don’t yet know what that will look like. We pray that God would renew our understanding of His vision for us here in Uganda within our family, our community, and in our workplaces.

OUR FAMILY

Joshua Magezi Lammers was dedicated  at our church, Ggaba Community Church on 15 January 2017. It was a pleasure to have Matt’s parents there with us for the dedication.

One of our older boys has a thriving garden. He has a passion for farming and desires to be a farmer when he grows up. Currently he is growing tomato, onions, red peppers, maize, popcorn, a pineapple, cucumbers, and many beautiful flowers including sunflowers from the northern region of Uganda.

Our other older boy has officially joined the worship team at DOORS and loves attending the weekly practice on Wednesday evenings, and helping to lead the weekly Worship Night on Saturdays with his guitar or drum. This is him performing at his school’s end of year program last December.

MATT & EMI

Matt has been working on a particular project in the Congo for the past 3 years. Last month he was able to lead a project team at EMI to this project, UCBC. He is quite passionate about the project because of the vision held by the leadership of UCBC, to educate Christian leaders in Congo with the goal of changing Congo. You can check out this video for more https://congoinitiative.org/2016/video-eastern-congo-initiative-highlights-ucbc/

EMI is continuing to come along side UCBC and help them develop their campus. Currently we have been working on the community centre, which is the centerpiece of the campus. The building was not designed by EMI and was partially constructed when we got involved. Due to issues with the design and construction parts of the building had to be demolished. We are in the rebuilding phase. Because of the scale of the building we have been designing and reconstructing in phases. We traveled to site to begin the design of the next phase. ­

UCBC Community Centre - reconstruction phase

ASHLEY & DOORS

Yahaya’s Plot is the ministry arm that Ashley has been responsible for since its addition to DOORS 2 years ago. (It is also where we currently live). Part of the vision of the plot is to be a farm that provides nutritious fruits and vegetables to the ministry arms of DOORS to directly meet the health needs of the children and women served from the schools and homes, to street outreach and the women’s ministries. Mango season is always a huge hit as the 5 mango trees on the acre plot of land produce thousands of them which get distributed over the course of a month and a half. The recent drought has made farming other fruits and vegetables hard, however rainy season came very early this year allowing us to plant greens (such as spinach and dodo) over most of the farmable parts of the land. Every week, both DOORS schools, all of the children’s homes, and even the artisans of aDOORned have been able to have greens as a part of their diets.  

Our very good and dear friend, neighbor on Yahaya’s Plot, and Yahaya’s Plot Farm Manager carrying Joshua in the local way—tied to the back.

THANK YOU FOR WALKING WITH US ON OUR JOURNEY.

Praises:

               -Joshua continues to grow and be healthy. He can now intentionally grab things, smile, laugh, and roll over.

               -We have been praying for a desire for learning over one of our older boys. In the last month, he has shown a new love for reading and can typically be found practicing his reading out loud to one of us in one of the children’s books brought by Jja Jjas (grandparents)

               -Wonderful visit with Ashley’s mom and Matt’s parents over the holidays.

               -Matt’s project trip to the Congo.

Prayers:

               -DOORS Ministries is undergoing major leadership changes. Please pray for peace over the ministry in the midst of changes, and direction for Ashley as she discerns her role in all of these.

               -We are working on getting Joshua’s paperwork and citizenships worked out. This can be a confusing and time consuming process. Please pray for us as we navigate this.

               -For us as we seek what vision God would have for us, for our family, and for our workplaces in the year(s) to come. We desire to work towards the goals and vision God gives us with purpose and dedication.

               -For us as we parent our older boys as well as a 3 month old baby and prioritize our marriage through it all. We are thankful to have such strong community around us that are willing to watch all of our boys to give us some time together.  

               -For our older boys to continue to be united in our family, and feel the freedom in our home to be who God has created them each to be.

               -Our community is quickly changing this year. Many of our friends are leaving or have left Uganda. This is hard as our strong community has allowed us to thrive here and made it feel like home, however this is also a wonderful opportunity for us to expand our community and see the new things God is doing. Please pray for us as we seek out and build new community.

What a year it's been

The year has almost ended. We don’t know what happened to December, but it feels like we missed it. The arrival of Joshua Magezi Lammers (Magezi means wisdom in Luganda) has significantly changed our life and routine. 

 

 (We had thoughts of taking a family picture of the 5 of us on Christmas but it didn't happen. For now you will have to enjoy some pictures of Joshua)

In the midst of all the adjustments we quietly celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. Last year as we were preparing to return to Uganda after getting married we thought it would be good to take some time to settle into life together in Uganda. We weren’t planning to do any travelling. But at the same time we didn’t want to settle into a life of comfort and miss what God was going to do. As a result, it has been an interesting year.

We have gone from being engaged to married to a family of 4 to a family of 5. We were invited to a number of weddings this year, a few in Uganda, one in Tanzania, and one in the US. We travelled to the US twice and Tanzania once. Our intention of a quiet year has been anything but quiet

The birth of Joshua has shown us again what a wonderful community we have, both in Uganda and abroad. As we were sitting in the hospital the day Joshua was born, we were feeling overwhelmed. We had this newborn baby and weren't sure what to do with him. As we were praying about what to do, God reminded us that we can't do it ourselves as much as we want to. We need God to give us strength and wisdom. We need community to support and encourage us. Our community has been a great support, from providing meals to bringing gifts to encouraging words to watching our other two boys it has helped us to get through the first month. 

Life has been challenging the past month. We have been very tired, especially Ashley. Taking care of a baby is a very new experience, unlike anything we have done before. It has been a huge change of life for Ashley, looking after Joshua has consumed most of her time. Our life is much less flexible, Joshua dictates our schedule. We feel pulled in many different directions and it doesn't feel like we have enough time for everything. It is hard to get time together as a couple. It is a challenge to give attention to 3 very different boys. 

But there is also joy in this season of life. There is joy seeing Joshua smile. He is growing quickly. He has been a wonderful baby, who hardly cries. There is joy in seeing the other 2 boys being more helpful. Last night as I was going to bed and Ashley was bathing, I asked one of the boys if he wanted me to take Joshua into the room with me or if he wanted to watch him. He said he would watch him. Ashley came out to him carrying Joshua and walking him around the house showing him different things and then outside to show him the stars. There is joy in our life. 

God has been giving us the strength to get through each day. He has been faithful to provide and has used our community to provide for us.  We have hardly bought anything for Joshua as we have been given so much. God has been teaching us to lean on him to get through as we can't do it ourselves. So even though this year has been different than we planned, a lot less comfortable than we would have made it, it has been good. Our God is sovereign and as our loving Father he knows what is best for us. 

Thank you for loving and supporting us. We cannot go through life alone.

Matt & Ashley

Praises:

-birth of Joshua Magezi. He is healthy and growing. 

-God has been working in our lives this year.

-We like each other more than we did this time last year.

Prayers:
-wisdom for each day as we parent 3 different boys.
-patience
-for our marriage to continue to grow and strengthen throughout all the changes
-the boys have gone to visit their families for a week. It is not always easy for them to be there. We will miss them while they are away.
-that Joshua would grow to know God
-We have had a number of significant life events this year (3 kids) that has changed our budget. While we are financially okay right now, our support amount is no longer sustainable. Please prayerfully consider whether to join our support team or to increase your current giving. God is our provider and he is faithful.

Growth

This has been a month of growth for us…and we’re not just talking about Ashley’s continually growing baby bump. Two weeks ago, after returning from a short and wonderful trip to the US for Ashley’s sister’s wedding and visiting family, our family size doubled with two boys joining our family.

Both boys were residents of the DOORS Home for the past two and a half years. One, 14 years old, was formerly living on the streets of Kampala before coming home to DOORS, and the other,16 years old, was a pupil at DOORS Primary School who ran into a hard family situation leaving him homeless. Since entering the DOORS Home, both have had some reconciliation with their biological families. So, how did they end up in our home as part of our family?

About two years ago, when Ashley returned back to Uganda, she felt strongly that one day these two boys would live with her…she just didn’t know what that meant or would look like as she was no longer living at the DOORS Home as she had been previously. When Matt returned to Uganda the following January and our relationship was on the cusp of beginning, one evening Ashley shared with Matt passively her feelings that these two boys would stay with her one day to sort of test the waters of their potential relationship. That morning as Matt had been praying, he had had a similar thought: that one day these exact two boys would live with him. Well, that night we began dating…

These boys moving in and becoming a part of our family has been something we have been thinking and praying about for the past year and a half together. The timing definitely does not seem ideal as we are still in our first year of marriage and also expecting a baby in less than two months, but again God has made it clear that September was the time for our family to start growing. God’s wisdom is certainly not the world’s wisdom, and for that we are thankful.

While the boys are fully a part of our family, we feel it very important and necessary for them to continue to build relationships with their biological families. Because of their age and family situations, we have no intentions of formally adopting these boys; Ugandan law also prevents this. We are at peace with maintaining a fostering status with the boys as we raise them up to be the Ugandan men God created them to be. They will continue to visit their biological families during portions of the three school holidays each year to continue the reconciliation processes with their families.

While we love these boys and are so excited that they are finally a part of our family, the transition has not been easy for us. We have found challenges with changes in our routine, changes in our household and schedules, changes in the amount of time we get together just the two of us to catch up on our days and invest in our marriage. While we know this is the path God is leading us down, we are asking for your prayers as we navigate what it means to be parents to two Ugandan teenagers from hard backgrounds, and how to prepare to be parents at the same time to a newborn baby in a month and a half, while maintaining and strengthening our marriage. It is our desire that as our family grows, we would grow closer to God and to each other.

Please also pray for the boys as we know that while they were excited about moving in with us, the transition has not been easy for them either. Their walk to school is significantly longer (and now includes a massive hill home), they are no longer surrounded by their friends of the DOORS Home causing some boredom for them and also some bullying from the other boys in the home, they are working out how to be at home here and be themselves with us, and also they are learning how to get along and befriend one another as previously in the DOORS Home they weren’t the closest of friends.

It is our deepest desire that in our home they would have the freedom to be who God created them each to be. Would you pray for us that God would reveal what that looks like for them?

Some pictures of the boys’ first weekends with us:

Gardening

Playing frisbee with Matt

Playing tennis against the gate

PS…The baby continues to be healthy and develop normally, due date is estimated November 22-25^th. Matt continues to stay busy busy at eMi (more on that later with a subsequent newsletter), and Ashley is beginning to take some steps back from DOORS in preparations for a new lifestyle with a baby in tow.

***We have been asked to remove the names of the boys on social media sites as per DOORS' Child Protection Policy***