African Valentine’s Day

This week was Valentine’s Day. Somehow it just wasn’t quite like in Jackson, Mississippi where we have celebrated the last several years. Fortunately we did not have to worry about long lines at our favorite date spot or picking out “just the right” card. One of our guards, Christopher is a master gardener and so Wednesday morning he was scurrying around to assembly two tremendous African bouquets from the plants around our house. The price sure beat paying for less-than-fancy roses (absolutely free) but Christopher’s smile and personal touch was what made the moment.
Joanna decided to make a special Valentine’s Day supper and by now we are learning, anything “special” always involves some sort of story. She made parmesan chicken but one needs to understand, neither the cheese nor the chicken originated in Arua. We mentioned that last week, Jon and Lisa Mayo came to visit on Friday to check on us and then left on Saturday. They had carefully and sacrificially assembled a cooler of chicken and cheese which we were much anticipating. While Mayos arrived safely at Arua airfield, the cooler never did. Major bummer but part of living the dream. The great thing though was that our friends and colleagues, John and Erica Rinehimer flew in on the same plane Mayos were to leave on. They came up to look at a possible house (thank you for praying, they have one!) and wonder of wonders, the cooler was on their plane. It had gotten packed on the wrong plane the previous day and ended up in Moyo, Uganda! Amazingly, it was all still frozen and needless to say, the chicken was very much savored on Wednesday night.
Tuesday and Thursday nights were neighbor evenings. On Tuesday, we got invited over to supper by Simon and Gladys who stay just diagonal from us. They could not have been more gracious and they sent us home with packed leftovers! We went to bed praising Jesus for real Ugandan neighbors! Hallelujah! Praise God Forever! Then Thursday night, another family on the other side came to “greet” us. Their names are Tom and Gertrude and we were thrilled to learn he is one of the financial planners for the Arua District (a great relational contact for this region). They also were very gracious bringing pineapple, sesame seed candy, popcorn, and bananas. Jesus is helping us so thank you for praying. Please continue to pray we know how to follow up with them and share Jesus both through our lives and conversations.
On one more note of introduction, we also wanted you all to know our milk man. His name is Charles and six days a week he brings a liter and half of milk to our gate; straight from his cow to our kitchen. Joanna has mastered the rather tricky art of home-pasteurization and while it is not exactly Kroger, it works great for cereal, tea, and homemade yogurt. Pray we know how to best share Jesus with Charles and his family.
Finally, one of the silly joys of African living is the means of transportation, specifically how much one Ugandan can get on one bicycle. Simon, our other guard picked up several “lawn chairs” for us and conveniently carted them home on a bike.

Thank you again for your prayers. Jesus is sustaining us and we praise Him for His contacts this week. Hallelujah! Praise God Forever!