Thursday, February 25, 2016

Differences Between Here and There

By Sara:

After two years of living in Uganda and traveling all over East Africa, then coming back to the US for a few months, we have noticed some big differences between here and there.  I hesitate to call it "culture shock" but we can certainly tell that life is different.  Here are some of my reflections:

First of all, driving.  You have read Anthony's road rage post.  So the first time that we drove again in the US, we were blown away by how wide the roads are, how little traffic (especially big trucks) there is, how many different ways there are to get where you're going, and how overall easy it is to drive!  There aren't hundreds of motorcycles and people and animals and crazy taxis racing around you, the roads are clearly marked, and you can drive really fast on the expressway (the fastest we drove in East Africa was about 60mph).  And in Uganda, even if you are obeying the law, the police sometimes will pull you over and tell you something is wrong with your vehicle so you will give them a bribe.  You don't have to be afraid of that here.


Secondly, there are some pretty crazy people running for president here.  Of course there are some crazy people running for president in African countries as well.  But even if a crazy person becomes president of the US, we will at least know that our vote was meaningful and people truly had a choice to elect that person or not.

Thirdly, we arrived in Michigan on a Saturday afternoon and went to church the next day.  (As a side note, the service seemed to fly by since we're used to 2.5 hour (or more) long services.)  But by the end of the week, on Friday, I realized that I had not seen a single child since church that first Sunday.  Granted, it is winter and kids are in school so during the day there wouldn't be many people out in general.  But in Uganda, there are lots of children everywhere, even during the school day.  So that was pretty different.


Next, although it is really nice to have a large refrigerator and freezer with reliable power to keep your food cold, you have to drive to the store to get food to put into it.  And the food looks pretty expensive to my eyes.  I miss being able to go into my garden every day of the year to pick vegetables for us to eat.  As well as collecting fresh eggs from my chickens every day.  And riding my bike to the store or market to buy any food I couldn't raise myself.  Not to mention avocados for 10 cents and large sacks of mangoes for less than a dollar!

Related to that, there is no compost pile in the back yard of the places that we stay so we have to either throw food and vegetable scraps away or put them down the disposal in the sink.  It makes it a lot sadder to eat vegetables when there are no rabbits to eat the ends of the carrots or goats to eat the banana peels or compost pile that will turn egg shells into fertilizer.


But on the other hand, you can recycle a whole lot of things and there is trash pick-up.  And even if Americans make way too much waste, at least it gets put into a sanitary landfill rather than thrown into wetlands or into a pile that flows out into the streets when it rains a lot.

We do have a lot of stuff though.  That is actually something that stresses me out.  I know that the four seasons do require more variety in clothing and shoes and so forth to be able to survive both the cold and the heat.  But even for me and Anthony, when we saw all the things that we personally own which have been stored in boxes in my parents' basement, it kind of freaked me out and I probably got rid of about half of the clothes in there within the first few days of our arrival. 

When we have gone shopping, I have been surprised to see the prices of many things in the stores.  Although most things seem expensive though, gas has suddenly become very cheap - we were paying about $4 per gallon in Uganda and Kenya.  It is amazing to spend less than $100 when we fill up on gas.  Though it is also weird to have to pump our own gas after getting used to having someone else do it for us as in East Africa!

Speaking of shopping, we walked around a mall just to see what was there and we have discovered that technology and much more has left us behind.  We found some really strange things in the stores: sand that doesn't get all over everything, personal robots (what?), a device for 3-D drawing, this fitbit thing (I'm still not completely sure what that does), to name a few.  I'm starting to become convinced that robots may actually take over the world, probably starting in North America, which is a good reason to go back to Africa, haha.

Winter is also quite cold in Michigan in February.  However, I personally am enjoying the change of weather where I am able to wear long sleeves and jeans inside the house.  The snow is beautiful and I love Michigan.  Living in so many different places helps me to recognize how each place has its own beauty.  There are beautiful sunsets and sunrises in eastern Minnesota, the Black Hills in South Dakota, seemingly endless open spaces (and lots of goats) in Texas, colorful trees in Michigan in autumn, spectacular clouds every evening in Soroti...I could go on and on.  It is just good to appreciate the goodness of whatever place you are at the moment instead of wishing to be somewhere else.


Thursday, February 18, 2016

Article and Video about the TLT Graduation!

Well done video made by World Renew staff and partners (original link here if you can't view below)


And a written article that was in the CRC news about the TLT graduation but also about Timothy Leadership Training in general, and about the work of TLT in Uganda - Link here.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Prayer Letter, Support Profile, Prayer Card

We have a new prayer letter you can view here - February 2016 Prayer Letter.

We also have digital versions of our new support profile for going to Kenya that you can view or download to print - here.  Our fundraising information is included in this document.

We also have a digital version of our new prayer card for going to Kenya that you can view and download to print - here.  You can print it out and put it on your fridge to remember to pray for us.

We will have paper copies of the profile and prayer card that you will be able to get from us when you see us visiting and presenting at churches, but some of you may perhaps find it easier just to print them yourself.  Just in case, they are available at those links for you.

Thank you so much for praying for us and supporting us!

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Church Visits in the US

In case you want to see us at church in the US, here is our church visiting and presenting schedule:

February
February 21st - Family of Faith Church, Monee, IL
            Church service at 9:30am
            Anthony is preaching and we will give a presentation as part of the service

February 28th - Austinville Christian Reformed Church, Austinville, IA
           Church service at 9:30am
           Anthony is preaching
           There will be a potluck at 11:30 and then we will give a presentation from 1-2pm

March
March 6th - Midland Evangelical Free Church, Midland, MI
              We are presenting in Faithbuilders adult Sunday School Class at 9:15am

March 9th - Women's Community Bible Study, Midland, MI
              Sara will be sharing in the opener at 9:15am

March 13th - Midland Evangelical Free Church, Midland, MI
             Church services are at 9am and 10:45am
             We will be very briefly speaking during the offertory
 
April
April 3rd - River Terrace Christian Reformed Church, Lansing, MI
            Church services are at 9am and 11:15am
            We are presenting in Adult Sunday School at 10:15am

April 10th - Calvin Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, MI
           Church service is at 10am
           Anthony is preaching, after that, we are presenting in Adult Sunday School

April 16th (Saturday) - When Helping Hurts seminar
           At Midland Evangelical Free Church, Midland, MI
           9am - 3pm, lunch provided - cost is $10
           You can sign up here.
           We will be sharing principles, stories, and facilitating discussion

April 17th - Midland Reformed Church, Midland, MI
           Church service is at 10am
          Anthony is preaching and we are giving a presentation

April 24th - River Terrace Christian Reformed Church, Lansing, MI
          Church services are at 9am and 11:15am.  Anthony is preaching.

April 27th - Stephenville Christian Reformed Church, Stephenville, TX
          Sara is giving a presentation.

April 30th - World Hunger Relief, Waco, TX
          During Farm Day, at 10:30am in the Nic House, Sara is giving a presentation

May 
May 1st - Brookfield Christian Reformed Church, Brookfield, WI
           Church service is at 9:30am.  Anthony is giving a talk about
           "When Helping Hurts" in Adult Ed. at 10:50am

May 12th - Brooten Community Church, Brooten, MN
           6pm-8pm potluck and presentation

May 15th - Emden Christian Reformed Church, Renville, MN
           Church service is at 10am
           Anthony is preaching
           After the service is a potluck and our presentation

           Raymond Christian Reformed Church, Raymond, MN
           Church service is at 5:30pm
           Anthony is preaching and we are giving a presentation

May 22nd - Alamosa Christian Reformed Church, Alamosa, CO
          Church service is at 10:15am
          Anthony is preaching and we are giving a presentation

June
June 5th - Midland Evangelical Free Church, Midland, MI
         We are sharing in high school Sunday School from 9-10:15am

June 26th First Baptist Church, St. Johns, MI
          Evening service at 6:00pm
          Anthony is preaching and we are giving a presentation

More Interesting Random Pictures

By Sara:

Over the last couple months in Uganda, I managed to squeeze in time with my friends to help them build ovens at a total of four of their houses!  I am confident that they can do it without me, so if anyone else wants to build one, they have these skillful ladies as a resource to teach them.




Another person came over to our house to learn how to bake cakes earlier this year and then went home and baked us a gingerbread cake for Christmas (one of the recipes I shared with her)!  It makes me so happy to see someone enjoying what I taught them.


Finally, I took a picture of a sign on the way from Soroti to Kampala.  I just thought that "Die Forever Insecticide" was a pretty funny name to a company.  Even better is that in the list of insects that they kill, it includes "Aunts".  Unfortunately, you can't really pick it out in the picture.