The Rambos have Reached!!!

The Rambo family has made it to Arua at last!

We are so excited!!!

Billy went to Kampala for meetings and drove up with them on Friday!

We spent Saturday morning with other missionary friends who graciously helped us unpack our container of furniture and move it into their new home.

The kids are enjoying getting to know one another. Here the girls are

holding sweet Benjamin (8 months).

Elsie Jayne and Timothy enjoy playing together!

Keep praying for Scott, Meg, Timothy and Benjamin as they transition and get settled in. They are in Nebbi today for worship with Billy and Timothy is here with us! 
Tomorrow we will go into town to check out the market and do some shopping.

We have been enjoying meals together as we work on getting their kitchen set up.
We're inviting over other friends for them to meet through the process and last night David and Medlin came. Medlin is 8 months pregnant. I was shocked to realize we are about the same size!!! I am only in my fourth month. I guess you do get bigger quicker with twins!

The new missionary cousins wanted to get in on our photo shoot too...Notice Elsie Jayne and Lucy standing so that you can compare their tummy sizes! :)

Loving, Learning, and Living

LOVING

Some men buy their wives boquets of roses, others opt for a box of chocolates or write a poem.

My husband is romantic and he is thoughtful...so it was no great shock, but a LOVELY surprise, when after one week of no running water in the house, he showed up in the back yard with a WATER TRUCK!

I'll take water over flowers and candy any day!

There was a lot of help needed to get the water from that big truck up into our water tank...so that it would actually run into the house pipes.

Lucy manning the lines...

Elsie Jayne helping daddy oversee the operation!

LEARNING

After the disappointment of not getting to go into Sudan , to Tonj and lead the Storying seminar Billy had been planning, Jesus surprised us with a special love gift. Three Sudanese pastors Billy has been meeting with for months now, asked if it would be possible for him to lead a training right here in Arua
with their congregations.

Ten representatives came from each of three congregations in town.  The thirty leaders learned the tools of storying and grew together in community too. Billy had them seperate daily into small groups that represent their schools as well, so our prayer is that the groups will continue to meet and learn new stories from Scriptures even as students return to schools this week beginning the year's second term.

LIVING

THE GIFT OF WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You prayed and Jesus responded...I have hesitated to write...I don't want you to stop praying, but the rains seem to have begun! We have had rain daily now for about 8 days! The water has come back on from town and we are ellated. People are collecting water in pots outside their front doors rather than standing in line at the bore hole for hours. DO pray Jesus continues to open the heavens to us, but we THANK YOU for praying and we PRAISE Him for His kindness...WE HAVE RAIN!!!!!!

LIVING

Our littlest lady has made two years!!!!

Lucy Mae celebrated her birthday on May 20th! 

She had SUCH a happy day.

When we asked her what she wanted for her special celebration she said, "CAKE!"

And her sister thought icing would be a nice touch...so they got both! :)  What a fun thing it is to be 2!!!

Her other request when we pushed her (I was looking for a meal idea, others hoping for gift ideas), she said "JACK!"

This is Jack...our friend and neighbor whose family is in Arua with the International Mission Board.

Our birthday girl was more than delighted to have both of her birthday dreams come true!!!

Happy Birthday Lucy Mae!

We have so much more loving, learning and living to do...pray with us that Jesus might love through us, that we might learn more of Him and His holy ways each day and that we might moment by moment live in His Spirit.

Where's the Water?

 We are excitedly getting ready for babies at our house!

Joanna is now in her second trimester and growing!

We are just thankful she is feeling stronger and able to eat.

A friend of ours, Jesca, recently had a baby boy, so we loved going to hold him and be with such a young life...we have LOTS to look forward to!

Dawama James passed through Arua again last week...this time on his way to Kampala and University!

Will you pray with us for this young Sudanese boy?...University is a big deal for anyone, but we really feel burdened for our young friend entering the big city on his own really for the first time. Please pray for Christian friends and a support network that He might continue to GROW in Christ!

We have a bit of a water crisis!
There has been NO RAIN this rainy season...usually if it is late, it will begin around Easter...
Still there has been nothing really worth collecting.
Would you pray for real rain!?
Our town water supply has ended, we understand, due to the limitation...even the river is dry.
So, now we carry it and have our cans lined up outside the back door for bathing, washing dishes, flushing toilets, ect.  At this moment the girls think it's great fun...pray that attitude continues!



Part of our drinking water supply in the pantry!

A hand washing station by the back door!

Pray for more and more opportunities to share the Living Water with our friends and neighbors.
Pray for Billy as he prepares for TWO Storying trainings with church leaders here in Arua next week.
Pray for Water and Rain!
Pray for Peace in Uganda!
Pray Jesus might make Himself known in and through and in spite of us!

Tonj Training Team

(Richard, Jon, Emmy, Bramuel)

Hallelujah! Praise God Forever! We have a lot to praise Him for but we need your prayers.

We have been planning a Bible story training in Tonj, Sudan in partnership with In Word and Deed Ministries for some months. And it officially started today and runs through next Monday (May 9). Sabet and Suzy Kuj are the couple who started In Word and Deed Ministries and their passion is for Jesus and that He might bring Kingdom transformation to the Dinka people in the Tonj region. We love them and have been anticipating serving alongside them - specifically doing a Bible storying training for a group of pastors they work with and other key leaders.

Originally the whole family was going as Kujs have three wonderful children but then when we found out Joanna was pregnant, we did not feel like a Sudan trip was wise. So Billy was going to go along with a small team of facilitators. But since finding out Joanna actually is carrying twins and her energy level has been dramatically lower, not to mention she has been quite sick, we decided Billy needed to be at home not only for her sake but to help out with Elsie Jayne and Lucy.

While the training could have been canceled, Jesus worked in a really cool way to bring along Bramuel Muysa who was the original veteran facilitator who trained Billy in storying. He represents Africa for the organization God's Story and he is a phenomenal story teller. He offered to take over the training which was a major answer to prayer.

We got word today that Kujs' oldest daugther, Hannah, has a very high and unexplained fever. Would you please intercede for her healing? 

Please pray:

1.) For Hannah's immediate recovery

2.) For Bramuel and the rest of the facilitation team

3.) Language and Translation: that Jesus would speak in each session

4.) For health for the Kuj family, the training team, and the pastors in attendence

Below is an encouraging email report which we just got this evening. Thank you so much for partnering with us for God's Kingdom to come to South Sudan.

Greetings to you. Day 1 went very very well. We are blessed to be here and the opportunity is one we're grateful for. Thanks for setting it up. Suzy and Sebet are both attending and blessed. The translation is not a problem. As you know when interpreting for STS you need to be able to interpret not just words but concepts, Sebet interpreted for me today and has been doing an awesome job.

Please pray for the participants to "step out of the boat" and try out new things. They were really blessed and expressed joy. Their applications were so personal to real issues so they're quite receptive and open.

Bramuel.