What a wonderful day to turn 5!

We celebrated Noah's 5th birthday today, and it was a blast.











Right from the start he was all grins...




here with big brother Aidan

and opening presents with 'help' from Keziah and Aidan

...and the day just kept getting better and better. The overcast sky transformed to sunshine and blue skies, perfect for pool party.







We enjoyed lots of swimming...




friends from the YWAM base and from the neighborhood































...and playing games.






































Noah loved his whale cake...























...and being tossed up in the air 5 times, once for each year.


















Daddy ended with a prayer of thanksgiving for our precious son.
















We thank God for this wonderful little boy.

We love you, Noah!

WFW - Am I fishing?

We had a campfire at a YWAM staff retreat recently, and someone took this photo of me 'writing' in the dark sky with a burning stick. I wasn't trying to draw a fish...it just came out that way. I've been trying to figure out how Photoshop works, and came across all these fun effects, so what you're looking at is a normal photo with the 'plastic wrap' effect.

A good reminder to me that Jesus wants us to attract people to Him, even as we follow Him.
Let's fish!

To see more Word-filled Wednesday photos and Scripture, check out The 160 Acre Woods!

A lion or a lamb? A robe or a towel?

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know:
the only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who have sought and found
how to serve."
Albert Schweitzer

I'm not very good at serving. I want to be, but I tend to have my own agendas, my own timetable, and being task-oriented, I like to get things done...my things. I'm quite happy to help other people, but it's better if it fits in with my plans for the day or the week.

And yet, as followers of Christ, we're supposed to serve others. And as a leader, I'm supposed to be servant-hearted. But to be honest, it's much easier said than done. I'm still trying to figure out how it all works practically.




I've been reading another Darrell W. Johnson book called "Discipleship on the Edge: an expository journey through the book of Revelation." It's fantastic...I highly recommend it. In simple yet profound words, Mr. Johnson unpacks to me what has always been a difficult book to understand, and extracts the beauty of this revelation that John was so honored to receive.




In the discussion of Revelation chapters 4 and 5, Mr. Johnson points out that when John is looking at the throne, he sees One sitting on it holding a scroll which is sealed. An angel asks who is worthy to open the scroll, but there was no one found worthy.








Devastated, John begins to weep, and then one of the elders surrounding the throne tells John to stop weeping, for the Lion has overcome. And he is able to open the scroll.














Yet when John looks back at the throne to see the Lion, what he sees is actually a Lamb, as if slain. Not a powerful victor, but a little slain lamb.



But the lamb has 7 horns and 7 eyes. Horns are the symbol of strength; 7 is the number of completeness. The little Lamb is completely strong.



Eyes are the symbol of wisdom. The little Lamb is completely wise.



The message?

The power that overcomes is the 'weakness' of sacrificial love.

The wisdom that overcomes is the 'foolishness' of sacrificial love.

The Lion gets to the throne by being a Lamb.

Jump with me to another book I'm reading called "Cross-cultural Servanthood" (Duane Elmer). He's talking about the Last Supper and the humility Jesus showed when he washed His disciples' feet. The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest among them, and Jesus showed them it was Him by kneeling before them.



Mr. Elmer contrasts the significance of 'The Robe' or 'The Towel', and reminds us that Jesus, who is worthy to wear the Royal Robe as Lord of Lords, took the towel to highlight His self-chosen role of servant.




The message?

In the world, greatess is judged by the power a person exercises over others.

In the Kingdom of God, greatness is judged by service to people.

As children of the King, we follow Kingdom values.

The Lion gets to the throne by being a Lamb.

We follow Christ by serving others.

What does that look like practically in my daily world? Not sure yet...I'm only on Chapter 3. But I'll post my insights as I get deeper into the book, and highly welcome any feedback from you on the subject.

Servanthood. Sacrificial love. Lofty goals not possible to achieve without His Spirit working in us.

Thank you, Father, that you are with me, and that with you all things are possible.

A life sentence...

John has waited 16 years for this...I've waited 12. Not that we were really waiting. We were just living our lives one day at a time and following God the best we could.

John and I met here in Uganda. We even got married here, in Soroti. And 2 of our 3 children were born here in the capital city, Kampala.

Over the years, Uganda has become our home.

So when we received the text message saying, "You have been given a life sentence," at first I thought it was one of those clever Easter texts talking about Jesus' death and resurrection. But then it went on to say that we needed to send in our 1 million Ugandan shillings...which ruled out Jesus because He paid the price freely.

With dawning clarity, I realized we'd been granted Permanent Residency.

Whoo hoo!!! Yippee!! Skip to my lou!!

Once the truth sunk in, John and I were ecstatic! After all these years, we are privileged to become permanent residents of Uganda. That means no more visas or work permits! Yay!!!

It really is an honour to be accepted as residents of this beautiful country. We have made many close friendships with the Ugandan people, and residents of neighboring countries. It is a joy to live here in the "Pearl of Africa."

We would like to say 'Thank you' to the people of Uganda who have loved us, lived with us, and accepted us. May God bless you so much!










John met me in Kampala and we headed over to the Immigration office to sign our certificates

Standing outside the Immigration offices

We had to put our thumbprints on the certificates

And then celebrated with a lovely dinner at the Thai restaurant

Let the drums roll please.....

Yay!!!!

Noah's Arm

Is it just us, or do other families experience the fall-out when one or both parents go away for awhile? It seems like everytime one of us goes away, everything starts to go wrong for the parent left behind.

When I went to Jinja for the CRIT consultation a couple of weeks ago, John had to deal with all 3 kids getting sick, the tap on the kitchen sink breaking and gushing water everywhere, the deadline for an important financial report when all the people doing the accounts were sick, Kezi stepping on charcoal and burning her foot (for the 3rd time), and so on.

Just a few days ago, John and I left for a YWAM staff retreat, and hadn't been gone 24 hours when we got a call that Noah had fallen out of a tree and hurt his arm. They were rushing him to the hospital for x-rays.



Poor Munduru, our fabulous house helper who is brilliant with the kids and was staying with them at the time, was beside herself with worry. She called a good friend, Pam, who helped sort everything out. Thankfully he just had a sprain, but Munduru was so concerned that she got up 3 times that night to check on him.

I've come to expect these kinds of challenges when we travel, but I also have peace knowing that God is in control, and has proved faithful in caring for our family time and time again. He is true to His Word...He never leaves us or forsakes us. Praise His holy name.

Noah's flood

I don't know what woke me up.

Could have been the surprisingly loud bang and rattle of the jumbula seeds, discarded by the fruit bats after they'd gorged on the bitter purple flesh, and chucked onto our echoey tin roof.

Could have been our dogs barking at the neighborhood dogs and working themselves up into one of those long, drawn-out, frenzied orchestral yowlings that make one wish they had a BB gun under the bed.

Or maybe it was the roar and splash of water gushing from the kids' bathroom sink tap and overflowing down the wall, out the bathroom door, across to the kids' room, down to our room, flowing under the bed and into the closet, soaking my book bag with my Bible and daily planner, seeping into my backpack with my new camera inside. (Good thing we don't have carpet!)

Yes, that must have been what woke me up. And if I wasn't fully awakened by the noise, I was definitely snapped alert when I crawled out from under our mosquito net and put my feet down into an inch of water. Not a pleasant experience at two in the morning.

But such are the realities of life when you live in a place where the water is off and on, and when it's off, and your 4 year old tries to brush his teeth and turns the tap but nothing comes out, well...he's not clued in enough to think, "I better turn the tap off in case water comes in the middle of the night and floods the house."

So we give him grace, and we thank God for whatever it was that woke me up in time to turn off the tap before the creeping flood got any closer to the extension cord and power strip that was plugged in and lying on the floor just inches away from the water's edge.

Instead of trying to clean it up then and there, I just went back to sleep. And in the morning, that same 4 year old, ironically named Noah, commented upon seeing the situation, "We should build an ark inside the house for the next time it floods."

Good idea, kiddo! Or maybe just turn off the tap...

John mops while I take photos for my blog... :)

WFW - Beautiful feet

As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10:15

My good friend, Pam (a missionary like me), and I recently had a few days together of R&R in the capital city, and we pampered ourselves with a lovely pedicure. Then I was blessed recently at the CRIT consultation (see following post) with Adobe Photoshop...something I've been longing for for almost a year now.

So I took all three blessings (my friend, our pedicures, and Photoshop) and with a lot of help from design-master Aaron, we created today's Word-filled Wednesday photo.

Hope it blesses you all and gives you a smile!
Happy WFW!
To read more WFW posts, check out host Amydeane's site at the 160 Acre Woods.