Guest Post: Mike Ladenburger

By: Mike Ladenburger (Sara's dad)

Visiting someone you dearly love is always a great blessing. Visiting someone you only get to see once or twice every few years is even more precious. The greatest joy of visiting Sara and Anthony in Uganda came from seeing how they live, meeting their friends, and seeing how God has prepared them for this life and is using them in working to advance the kingdom of Christ. Here are a few specific activities that will hopefully help you understand a little more about how they live.

Living close to the equator means that dawn to dusk is about 13 hours year round. Sara and Anthony started their day at around 5:30 AM. Since the sun came up just before 7:00 AM, and the temperature exceeded 90 F almost every day, Sara and I would go jogging every morning at 6:40 AM. Our runs took us down red dirt roads, and we would encounter many motorcycles and bicycles, and people out walking to work or school. It was enjoyable and insightful to see the day come alive as people were out starting their normal lives in Soroti.

One activity that Anthony and Sara set up for us was meeting with church leaders. Nancy and Sara met with women involved in women’s and care ministry, and Anthony and I met with Pastors and Elders to discuss church leadership, issues and challenges. It was a great time of fellowship where we learned from one another, and Anthony and I had the opportunity to encourage and pray for the Ugandan church leaders.

Anthony is an ordained Pastor and this means he is always called by his title “Reverend” with the PAG church leaders that he works along side in Uganda. It was clear through our time with the church leaders that Anthony is a respected and loved brother in Christ. He is a humble and gifted leader who is willing to learn from others, but he is also confident in sharing and teaching, as God has prepared him to do. We also had the opportunity to hear Anthony preach at a local church where over 700 people attended the first service. Nancy, Sara and I left after the 3-hour service, and Anthony preached at the second service as well. His sermon was on the story of Esther, and by a show of hands, very few people at church that day had read this book of the Bible.

Agriculture and owning livestock are a part of life for most people in Uganda, and Sara and Anthony are no exception. Since they just moved back to Uganda from Kenya last December, and since the rainy season does not begin until April, their garden is not yet growing, and the only animals in their yard besides their 2 dogs are ducks. I expect that in a few months there will be all kinds of produce growing in their yard, and that the ducks will have rabbits and goats joining them in the yard.

Sara is also using their yard as place to demonstrate some of the tools and techniques she teaches to others. We were able to help her complete the building of a clay oven and a clay rocket stove. Sara has shared her stories of these 2 devices in previous posts.

We were also able to help build a shelter to protect her baby ducklings from the unseasonable heavy rains that we experienced even though our visit was during the end of the dry season.