Category: Uncategorized

Saturday was Uganda Martyrs’ Day and celebrations are held June 3 every year at the Uganda Martyrs’ Shrine in Namugongo, Kampala. This day is a public holiday, which brings millions of people from near and far to make pilgrimage to this Holy Land. Over the past couple weeks we noticed groups of people walking along side the road carrying belongings and water, we saw many as we traveled to and from Kampala last weekend. People young and old come all the way from other countries in Africa – Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and more. They walk miles and miles, for days and weeks, to honor those who sacrificed and shed their blood in the name of Jesus Christ. Celebrations begin on May 25 in many places, especially in towns where some of the martyrs were from with the final celebration and mass on June 3 at the Uganda Martyrs’ Shrine. We’ve seen the grounds where the monument and museum are and would like to go there one day.

There were forty-five converts to Christianity that were murdered between 1885-1887, among them the first missionaries to Uganda. There is an interesting story about the martyrs and the king who had them killed here: http://www.buganda.com/martyrs.htm

I am thankful this country’s leaders are open to Christianity and that those who follow Christ are not put to death, but we still pray for all the people here that come from muslim families that come to follow Christ and denounce the faith their culture and family live by. The ones that are thrown out of homes and villages just because they accept Christ as their Savior. They sacrifice all they have always known for their faith. We are praying for our neighbor who has come in private a few times to talk to Christian about God, Jesus and the Bible, he doesn’t come to Bible study and we believe it may be because his family are devout muslims. It is a hard thing to go against everything your family and friends believe in so please pray for this man and for Christian to have the wisdom and words to say to him to help him understand the love Christ has for him. For all of us.

My current favorites! One has no ears, one is missing most of two legs and the third is just a big boy!

This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

It’s “Animals Gone Wild ” week here! Ted’s chill in his pool eating mango! He’s out growing his mayo lid pool so we’ve decided to start a go fund-me page to raise money for a really big pool!

Leo’s favorite person is the one who really doesn’t like cats. He is determined to watch YouTube and whatever game Christian is playing.

There has been a chicken and her four babies (they aren’t little anymore) that gets inside our property. Christian has chunked them over the fence because at night they are roosting on the columns he is putting the table on. We don’t want them doing their business on our table! That hasn’t worked – they come back. Someone came and said the owners can’t keep them out of our property and wants us to buy them. We said no. Yesterday one of our dogs ate a chicken. Haven’t heard anything about that….yet.

The rabbits have had some excitement this week. We have been experimenting with ways to keep hay in their cages without them using the bathroom all over it. There has been too much wasted hay and it took us too long to find it in the first place! Our hay has been planted but has a ways to go before harvesting. So, we discovered cutting a hole in a two liter soda bottle and stuffing with hay seems to work very well. We put a bottle in two cages, first hanging it but they had a hard time with it because it would spin. Then hooked it to the floor of the cage and that seemed to work well. I have been saving coke bottles for almost two years – I’ve given many away but have been thinking they would come in handy for some project for Sunday School. I cut three inch holes in almost forty coke bottles and then the guys stuffed them with hay. The rabbits are going crazy over them, tossing them up and rolling them around, but this morning there was hardly any soiled hay in the cages! Does double duty – saves hay and beats boredom! Now I have to find about one hundred forty more bottles!

(Forgive the quality of the video – we are having a lot of problems with our internet so I made it lower quality)

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

On Friday before Donny left we went out to dinner and on the way home (actually turning onto the road leading to the village) we were hit by an 18-wheeler. The road that travels past our village is a highway that goes from Kampala to Kenya and is very dangerous because the trucks go very very fast on our stretch. Since moving here there have been three people killed at our intersection. Christian is always very careful when stopping to turn onto our road. If there is traffic behind us he will pull to the shoulder and wait for them to pass. This truck was way up the hill behind us but apparently was doing at least 80 MPH or over. He never hit the brakes and it took him a good bit before he got pulled over to the shoulder. He was so far we could barely make out his tail lights.

We were so stunned, didn’t know what had happened but Christian pulled onto our road and stopped. In a matter of seconds there were at least fifty people that came out of nowhere surrounding our car. In minutes the crowd had to be over one hundred. Ms Betty doesn’t live far from the road so she was there and determined to pull me out of the car! Christian says she was hyperventilating. I kept our doors locked while Chris and Donny were outside. None of us were hurt, pretty shook up.  The truck driver sat on the side of the road for a good bit but we suspect someone told him he had hit mazungus so he ran.

When we got home I was trying to close the gates and people were flooding in. I have to say here, I think all the crowds affected me more than the accident at the time. I get anxiety when there are many people. I definitely have a problem with people touching me and everyone else was panicked and trying to grab me and hug me. Everyone but us was freaking out! So when all the people flooded in the gates I ran to hide! Christian saw all the people and found me to get me inside. He knows me and knew the crowd would freak me out. This is the way of the culture here in our village – everyone wanted to tell us sorry for what happened. (I’m sure some just wanted to know what was going on!) Later we were told that someone went to the center where at that time of night many people are eating, socializing and started telling people we were killed. So I assume that’s why there was so much panic. We were also told that when they see a car smashed like that most of the time someone is killed. I didn’t see the door until all the crowds had dispersed and I cried knowing how close we had come to one of us not making it out alive. If Christian had turned just a hair more he definitely wouldn’t have made it. We just got the car back from the police and seeing the damage in the daylight really brings it home how God had His hands on us.

It was an opportunity to tell of God’s protection, how He sheltered us from that truck. We are all healthy, the car not so much! But a car can be replaced.  There have been people still coming to tell us sorry and to see for themselves we are alive.

We are alive, and very very thankful. Life can change in an instant so make the most of yours and know where you are going when you leave this life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Saturday night we sent Donny back to the States. We were sad to see him go but happy to know he will be back – with new friends – in August. We had such a great time visiting with him and Christian had a good helper on constructing the birthing boxes for the rabbits and got a good start on our outdoor table. He was so encouraging to us just by listening and offering his wisdom and advice. It is comforting to hear from someone that has experience in the field, and to find that we aren’t the only ones that struggle from time to time! We are looking forward to him coming back and the others that are coming with him.

Thank you Donny for all you do and just for who you are! We love you.

While we were away we had thirty-two babies born! Five of our eight we bred a month ago had litters, big litters! Seven or nine babies in each. We are thrilled at the success of our first official breeding! We have ten possible pregnancies that will be due at the end of this week. Babies R Us!

We have had some new additions the past couple months and are feeling like Noah! We have too many twos – two bulls, two dogs, two female goats, two male goats, one female goat with child, two cats and two hundred rabbits! And then there is Ted the Turtle. (Had to give him two T’s to go along with our two theme we have going on!) Next on our list is ONE camel but I’m not holding my breath. We do see them around though.

The goats started because Raelee and I think baby goats are so cute but then they grow up so we came up with a plan. One female and one male to have babies and we will give the babies to widows when they are weaned from their mamas. That way we can enjoy watching the little babies and help someone! So we prayed about the money to purchase one and God sent a man wanting to trade grass for a goat. We got a little male, Papaya. Then someone needed help with their kids school fees and asked if we would buy her goat for $40. We did and got a female. The school across the street was so appreciative of the extra room and some desks that Mandate built for them that they gave us a female goat. Then a lady who needed money to help her sick mother with treatments came and asked if we would buy a baby goat for about $15. So, now we have two females and two males and we are thinking that is more than enough goats. The little goat house is now full with the extra goat and baby that have been boarding here. And Papaya has been bullied by all the females so we now have him and the new male who is about the same age together in the bull barn!

The cats came along because of the rat population around here. They are Macy and Leopold. They are great rat catchers so we rotate keeping them in the house and in the barn. They are slowly getting used to the dogs.

Ted the turtle has been here about a month. He is a Leopard Tortoise indigenous to Africa. He is tiny, but we have seen at least one other on our property and it is pretty big. They can grow to weigh about eighty pounds so Ted has a ways to go! I went to check on him one night about 2 am and noticed he was not in his basket. The cats were in the house that night so I started searching all over for Ted. We don’t have a lot of things to look under but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Frantic (I know, it’s just a turtle), I woke Christian up…”Ted is missing”. He got up – he has been married to me enough years to know he would have to help or not go back to sleep! We finally found Ted under a chair, he was up against the leg of the chair and is so tiny I missed him the first time I looked. We now make sure his basket is locked up at night!

I think we are up to thirty-six baby rabbits with many on the way, praying that eight or nine will be having babies this weekend! Lala is hopefully going to be a mama this weekend also so that is exciting! I already have my eye on a cute bunny that looks kinda like a bulldog to bring inside. One mama had her first litter and we’ve read that inexperience can cause them to clean their newborns too aggressively. Apparently she was a little too aggressive, she has one baby with no ears and one baby that has two legs missing. They both are healthy otherwise and get around fine!

One thing I am thankful for the most is all the help we have in caring for all these animals!

We have had our special friend with us since late Wednesday night (actually he’s become family to us!). Donny Lee is visiting us from the States and we have been so blessed to have him to talk to, vent to and encourage us! He helped Christian build birthing boxes for our mama rabbits, we are hoping all nine that we bred a month ago will give birth. If they do we will have a lot more babies. As of today we have thirty-six babies from two months down to one day!

This morning we had Sunday School and Donny put on a magic show and lesson. The kids love it but we also had some of the adults come and they always love it as much as the little kids! We will probably have hundreds show up next Sunday thinking he will be here again but sadly he won’t. He will leave Saturday so we are going to enjoy every minute we have with him. I have a list of things for him to help Christian accomplish while he is here!

Bunny’s are growing so fast! The one’s we got in January have gone from fitting in our hand to having to hold in our arms! Some weighed less than a half-pound and are now close to six pounds – huge growth in a matter of a few months. We are now praying that twelve (or at least most of them) are pregnant and we will have more babies in about a month. Those will be ready to sell in about five months. The fifteen babies have successfully been weaned from their mothers and they will not be sold. They are so cute!

A few pictures from this week…

I realized I hadn’t posted about Easter Sunday when I was getting ready  to post about yesterday Sunday School! So here they are together!

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” Mark 9:37

Easter Sunday we were prepared for three hundred or more kids but I think there ended up being around two hundred, which was great – more manageable! There were twenty-two that gave their lives to Christ which was very encouraging! Some were our regular kids but there were some that don’t come regularly and we are praying they will come back. There were two from Easter that came back yesterday. We gave out bracelets and the kids were so excited!

Nursery worker Raelee!

She realized she may have too many!

Everyone had to pull together!

Very thankful the girls were on easter break!

After Sunday School Daddy hid eggs for Raelee to find. After she found them she told him that he wasn’t a very good “hider”! Ha, I told her she better watch out next year! It was a good day!

Yesterday we had about twice as many under five children, so many to handle! We also had more older children than usual. We had a scary moment when a little one that was sick stopped breathing because he was choked from mucus, he was like a limp doll and had fever. Christian got him breathing again and we had to force the parents to get him and take him home. They didn’t want to take him to the Dr. but this morning his father told us they had to take him in the night and he is currently in the hospital. I knew if Dr. Nelson saw him they would immediately put him in. I wanted to take him straight to the hospital but the parents acted like they really didn’t care so that really tied our hands, doing what we could by giving them the medical card and transport money. We have learned that we can’t change everyone, can’t save everyone and realize that in many situations we could hurt more than help if we took control and did what we felt was right. We prayed last night that God would watch over the boy, we would have been devastated if he had died. Everyone thought we had over-reacted and that it was “just the flu” and “lots of kids do that” but I don’t think they realize the danger of taking sickness here too lightly. Plus what would have happened if he had died here, I can’t imagine but I’m sure we would be held responsible in some way. Our prayers are for him and all the other children here that are sick, that don’t get the medical care they need until it is at a critical point or in many cases too late.

After the scare we got to start classes. I am very excited that our teenage helper wants to do the flannel board stories with the small children while Derrick and I teach the older kids. It is a relief for me, to know that I can have a break at times and I don’t have to run around getting everyone organized! She will have to have me helping her for a little while as she learns to change out the scenes in the stories – I started her off with a pretty simple one.  I am thankful she wanted to do this and I think it will be very good for her. She has three older sisters, two are in college and are very outgoing, one in her last year of high school. A younger sister and brother who are always bragged about because they are the smartest. So she is kind of in the middle and this year the only one not away for school. I pray this gives her something of her own and will help her gain self-esteem and also a love and understanding of God’s love for her.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 3:14-15