I began this journal
before Grace died and other things came into our lives we had to deal with, so
now a week later I am able to sit down and write again. Enjoy reading about my parents visit, our
super safari experience, and seeing pictures of the memories we made!
Wow, what a full few
weeks we have had. I feel like I put
most things on hold and am now playing catch up. My Dad, Mom, great Aunt Sue, and her friend
Kathy came to visit us. My Dad has not
been here since our first year – over five years ago. So much has changed since then. My Dad was SO excited to come and we were
excited to show him our home, life, and ministries here. My Mom was here a couple times without Dad
the last time being when she picked up Lydia Kenya
I am unable to fill you
in on all we experienced together but I will try to summarize it the best I
can. I have to admit I had mixed
emotions having visitors. We were just
getting settled into life and ministry back here after five months away. I did not want to travel again and upset
Emalai again. I did not want to have to
put school on hold. I was still tired
and didn’t think I had it in me to entertain guests. But I was also looking forward to showing Dad
and Mom our home and friends in Obulle, having the grandparents be with their
grandkids, and having Sue and Kathy teach the girls to sew. I just kept reminding myself to enjoy it all
because it doesn’t happen often. And I
did enjoy it…almost all of it.
We traveled to Jinja
where Josh went on to the airport to pick up our guests and while Sliedrechts,
the kids, and I stayed in Jinja. The
road to Jinja was so bad we had four kids sick in the first hour. No fun.
Emalai also screamed that night to let us know she doesn’t like
traveling and Luka and her both ended up sick.
Besides all that, we did have a fun weekend on beautiful Lake
Victoria/Nile River. And when the
grandparents and guests arrived we were so thankful to be together. It is so special to have them here.
After our weekend in
Jinja we headed to Soroti where we stayed put for two weeks. The first week Aunt Sue and Kathy stayed in
our home while Grandpa and Grandma stayed with Sliedrechts then the second week
we switched (gotta share when everyone wants time with G&G). I was thankful we had guests while G & G
were at Sliedrechts because the kids were still happy to have visitors instead
of sad not having their grandparents stay with them. Aunt Sue won the girls with telling them
stories about Great-Great Grandma and Luka soon became her best friend when she
played Legos and ball with him. She is a
wonderful grandma! Our days were full. We showed them around town – actually I was
in town more than I have been in a long time.
There were lots of grocery runs, market experiences, second hand
clothing market to see, even craft shopping.
We canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, and passion jam. The ladies taught the girls how to sew three
afternoons a week. They learned to make
a bag and skirt – pretty good for never have used a sewing machine before. It got my creative juices flowing! Sue and Kathy also did GEMS (Christian girls
club) with the girls on our team who were able.
They really enjoyed their special time and us moms appreciated it
too. They enjoyed going to Amecet and
seeing where some of their grandkids come from.
They held the babies and played with the kids which tugged at their
heart strings.
And of course we showed
them our ministry here. They went with
Josh when he taught in Obulle, met some of our teammates and saw their
ministries, and visited the orchards of two blind people. Their two highlights were going to church
with us and just visiting our friends in Obulle. I loved that too. I am excited about what God is doing in His
people. The beauty of knowing we are all
praising the same Lord was powerful for our visitors. To feel God’s presence and see Him on their
faces touched them. To see and know the
people we work with and love meant a lot to them.
Even the simple things
stood out. For Grandpa and Grandma to
see their grandkids so at home here was special. To realize they belong here and are
comfortable. To understand what it is
life on a normal day here. Even to
better get all our struggles and our joys.
Being here to help us make each meal from scratch, see our kids play
with their Ugandan friends, experience the driving here, see the beauty of the
land and people, and also the great suffering, interact with their grandkids
doing home school… Just being apart of
our lives was special.
What else did we do? We celebrated Grandma’s 61st
birthday since she would have her birthday just after leaving. Grandpa, Sue, Kathy, Josh and the girls
climbed Soroti Rock and enjoyed an awesome view together. Unfortunately, quite a few of us also
experienced sickness. All apart of it I
guess. We had an Indian meal and saw the
Hindu temple with our friends from India
We had so much fun
sharing our lives with them the time quickly came to an end. Good thing we saved something fun for
last. We went on safari. Dad and Mom haven’t gone on a real safari – I
don’t count our Nigerian experience as a real safari. So needless to say they were very
impressed! There are so many animals at Murchison Falls
We woke up early and saw
all the normal animals, but we wanted to see a lion today. Dad and the girls stood up to look out of our
sunroof while we drove. After a couple
hours we spotted two trucks by a large bush.
One was a vet response unit truck and one was full of park rangers. I told Josh I wanted to wait and see what
they were doing. They were looking into
the bush. Josh tried to walk by them
once but they told him not to but gestured to wait. I was intrigued. Something was in that bush and we were going
to see what was happening. Then one man
began to throw large rocks into the bush.
We began to think we were going to see our lion after all. Sure enough next thing we know the truck full
of rangers go into the bush with their guns and hull out a male lion!
They put the lion on a
trap and the vet started working on him.
We didn’t know what they were doing or if he was dead or alive. Later we saw someone go around the bush and
come back with a tranquilizer dart so we know the lion was alive. They had also covered the face of the
lion. We watched for about 20 minutes
then the vet came over and talked to us.
He told us the lion had gotten into poacher’s traps and had a snare
around its neck. Two years ago this lion
got its foot in a trap and they removed the leg. He is now a three legged lion but he can hunt
and everything. Then he asked if we
wanted to see the lion. What?! Seriously?!
If you had told me I would be getting out of my van to see a lion today
I would have laughed in your face, but here we were going to see a lion. Oh my word!
Our van full and
Sliedrechts van full all got out and stood with the rangers and vet looking at
the lion. My girls were nervous so they
looked then headed back to the van.
Can’t blame them it was so weird looking at a lion in the wild lying
there breathing. My heart was pounding. The lion’s face was still covered but we took
pictures of his big paws and massive body.
Then just as Tim was taking a picture and touched him he lifted his
head!!! The ranger yelled for us to go
the van and we booked it out of there!
What a funny scene. Ok not at the
moment. I had Luka by the hand and I
didn’t look back to help anyone. Once we
were in the van I did laugh to think about the lion lifting his head and all
the white people running. The rangers
told us all to go but the vet was calm.
He came and talked with us again.
He knew the lion would not just spring up and attack. We watched as the lion lifted his head again,
laid down again, got up, fell over, got up, fell over, and then went into the
bush again. I could not believe what we
just saw and experienced. Who gets to do
that?! It was so National
Geographic! What a once in a life time
thrill.
It was a great safari and
time with my parents, Aunt Sue and Kathy, but all good things come to an
end. We stuffed our van with 6 adults, 4
children and lots of luggage drove over 6 hours and waited over an hour for
construction to get to Kampala Uganda
And now here we are,
settling back into life and routine at least as much as we can in the mist of mourning
Grace’s death and other stuff happening.
We are back into the swing of school and ministry. We are thankful to be home as a family. Our next guests are right around the corner
though. You can be praying for Jimmy,
Autumn, and Zipporah three teens from Lake City CRC. They will be serving with us for six weeks
starting the end of May. We look forward
to having them. Thanks for all your
prayers!
(The lion video should be posted tomorrow - sorry couldn't get it on today)
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