Time for a few pictures to fill you in on what's been happening around here! Our family has experienced a lot of change in the last few months, and it's finally starting to take a toll on our health. Five of us have had malaria in the past few weeks, including me (for the first time!). Despite all the changes, we have enjoyed our visitors, our move, and our quick trip to the game park :) Enjoy the pictures!

Tree climbing is the new favorite past time around here. Thankfully our new home has lots of them!

Andrew Magel and Kenneth spent a loooong time slaughtering a goat to roast in celebration of our returning team members, Andrew and Kerri Meador. Check out their blog for more pictures of Kacheri. www.joyofmine.blogspot.com

Working on Kerri and Andrew's hut in the rain.

Is he not just the cutest thing?? Acuka is now 16 months and such a fun baby. He took two steps yesterday, but shows no inclination to repeat it :

Story time with Andrew. Selah took a shine to him and was always following him around :)

One of our little girl goats, Barli.

On the way to Kidepo, the local game park.

Gorgeous!

Look closely! I think there were six lions that came out of the tall grass, lay down on the road and posed, and then disappeared again.

Church under the tree. Church planting is going well and continues to be a joy for Kenneth.

Building time! We recently hosted a team from The Gathering Place church in Pineville, LA. We really appreciated their hard work, generosity, and joyful spirits.

With so many white people in one place our yard was constantly surrounded by onlookers calling our names.

Andrew and Kerri working hard :)

Our version of cliff jumping!

That's it for now, folks! Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we labor here in Karamoja. Lately we have really felt beaten down, so pray that we will have strength to endure and persevere. As always, your emails, phone calls, and letters are cherished.

I know what you're thinking...where the heck have we been? Sorry for the long hiatus. It has been a busy time of moving, traveling, working, and of course, playing. We are slowly getting our house(s) and property in order, and our little flock of goats (and one pregnant sheep) seems to grow almost daily. We've planted our garden, built two huts and a bathing shelter, put up clothes lines, dug a trash burning pit and a compost pit, put a new door on the latrine, and of course, hung the hammock (and by "we" I, of course, mean our gardener, Wari. He is quite the handyman!). Our summer soccer player went back home to his sweetie, my sister and her funny husband have returned to join us in Karamoja, and we are currently enjoying a team of five construction workers from the Gathering Place church in Pineville, LA, who are building our pastor training/literacy center come rain, come shine.

Life is full, conversation rich, and spiritual warfare, definitely present.

During the last few weeks it has become apparent that we are indeed where we are supposed to be. We are seeking God daily, spending time in prayer and worship (adoration some call it, others, eucharisto), trying to take in large amounts of scripture daily, and asking God constantly to open the heavens and pour out his spirit on us, this people, and this land. We are seeking Him and finding He is readily available to all who ask. As my dad used to say, He waits to be wanted.

But along with this has come extremely high malaria fevers, my baby girl on an IV, projectile vomiting at 6:30am, new computers that die for no reason, a lost contact that was found the next day no worse for being swept up and left to be tossed out with the other dirt, and a host of other things that tend to leave you feeling dejected, demoralized, and just plain tired.

When God is at work the enemy does not rest.

Thankfully my God is a force to be reckoned with.

During this time of seeming constant attack, I have felt the presence of God filling our house. He has seemed to be just an arm's length away, and if I could just stretch out a bit more I could touch the hem of His garment. No amazing changes have been wrought through this struggle of ours, no lives changed, no huge battles fought, yet I feel we have won something. My joy remains, my spirit is not crushed, and I can say with firm conviction that my God is good, and His purposes will not be thwarted.

"For you, O God, have tested us, you have tried us as silver is tried, You brought us into the net, you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads, we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."
Psalm 66:10-12