Random Pictures and Events

Here is a video of Sara cutting the grass. We don't always do it, usually we pay others to do it because of the time involved.

I took this video mainly for my parents who grew up in Japan.  But you all may enjoy it.  Our vehicle speaks to us in Japanese every time we turn it on.  It said Merry Christmas to us once (on Christmas) in Japanese too.

Wildlife around the house:

I brought home a chameleon during one of my jogs, so it wouldn't get killed by people (who kill them because they think they are poisonous).  But a day later, I think it ended up fighting with another chameleon in our yard.  Two chameleons suddenly fell like 20-30 feet from a tree in our yard.  They were fighting each other fiercely once they landed back on the ground.  We separated them to different areas of the yard.  My brother made me laugh really hard when he said - "You thought you were helping the new one, but you ended up threatening the local economy by doing so: #whenhelpingchameleonshurts"

Just imagine if this slug was crawling across your leg.  Nasty

We went to our friend Edward's wedding in Uganda. So here are some wedding photos and photos of us with World Renew friends.

Our friend David looked really awesome in his traditional African attire:

Some beautiful photos of our neighbors working in the tea fields here (photos taken by Tammy Stevens who visited us a while back from Michigan)

Recently, the secretary here at Berea College, Pharis, invited us to come to a youth rally at his church.  He invited me to speak on the subject of integrity.  It went really well.  I spoke with about 70 youth for an hour and a half about integrity, corruption, pornography, etc.  A youth here is someone in between about 16 years old and 35 years old.  You generally remain a youth in other people's eyes until you get married.  Most of the youth at this rally were 18 to 25.

At one point I asked how many had cheated on an exam before.  I didn't expect anyone to be honest and raise their hands.  But at least 2/3 of the people raised their hands.  I was pretty blown away by this.  I appreciated their honesty, but it makes it hard to trust when you know so many people cheat in this culture.  When I asked how many look at pornography on their phones, no one raised a hand.  That one appears to be one that is harder to be open about.  It continues to be interesting to me how different cultures hate some sins worse than others.  In the US we really really hate corruption and cheating.  Here, those things are commonplace.  Maybe one of the sins they hate most here is selfishness, people who don't care for their families and communities or who don't provide help in times of need.

It was a great event, with some really wonderful and beautiful singing, except that, like all youth everywhere, it seemed like they had the sound system turned up to 10,000 decibels!  There was also a moving time of youth proclaiming peace through song as they prepare for the upcoming election and they are all hoping there won't be violence this time.  I also really appreciated that there were several other non-Anglican church youth groups there.  We heard at least 10 different choirs.

Our friend Pharis is on the left in the picture below, one of the youth himself:

Last, I was invited to introduce Timothy Leadership Training in Kapchorwa, Uganda to a group of missionaries and teachers of church leaders from Uganda, Kenya, and the DRC, and a few other countries. They are with the Trinity Center for World Mission and were interested in the very interactive type of teaching methodology that TLT offers. I was only there for a day, and although the travel was really tiring, it was nice to be back in Uganda and to meet all of these great people.