Accents and Animals

One of the dear gifts Jesus has given us in Scotland is precious neighbours and friends that have loved us and our girls so selflessly! 

Our neighbours Tom and Joan have loved having snuggles from the girls from time to time and have served their share of juice and biscuits in return! Tom has started stopping by periodically on his morning walks to read to the girls in a "proper Scottish accent" which he thinks must be lacking in their education! We are grateful for the sweet friendships Jesus is providing!

The animals in Scotland are a bit different than those in Arua! Every time we see a new creature we are enamoured by how HUGE it is! Plenty of green grass and clean waters will do wonders for all of God's creatures! Anyway, we are enjoying the wee lambs the spring is bringing even if some get a bit lost from time to time!

Have you read any good books lately?

A happy Scottish hair cut a few weeks back!

Yesterday I found myself under the careful clipping scissors of a young twenties Scottish lass. We chatted about Friday mornings' solar eclipse and quiet quickly got on the fact that there must be a "higher power" if the sun and moon even are under Someone's great control.

Praying for the right way forward in our chat we soon wound up on good books we had read and I was able to tell her about a thriller so thrilling I end up rereading it over and over. She was excited that I happened to have my copy in my bag and was even willing to leave it with her! Will you please pray with me for my new friend to love not just the bestseller she now has on her bedside table, but that she might fall in love with the Author and Main Character as well!

Thank you for caring for the ones we care for whether we get to tell the stories orally or just pass out the book in print! We are honored to get to live this life...because you all carry us to Jesus so faithfully!

O give thanks to LORD for He is good

The longer we live here the more we realise some incredible people have walked the way He is leading us. It often seems super isolating to be honest to come from a world so far away to another world that is so unique and yet still not our own. To be constantly the visitors isn't super comforting, but it is how He has led us and we know He is trustworthy.

Reading Psalm 107 this morning has been a helpful perspective:

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, who he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

And gathered them out of the hands, from the east, and the west, from the north and the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble AND HE DELIVERED THEM out of their distress!

And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

Will you pray with us that we might PRAISE Him for WHO HE IS and HIS VERY GOODNESS?! Even when we can't see it or see how or even where He is leading!? This is a good city and we are in an amazing home here...but our heart still aches for the places and the people He has called so to live among in Africa. Will you pray we have God's perspective for this season and gain all He might use and multiply back there in His time.

Please pray for the "right" supervisor for Billy's PhD studies as that is not yet set in place and pray for a clarity of thought on his topic and studies.

Thank you for praying for these littles ladies! They are pictured here with David Livingston! A hero of ours that lived for times in both of our worlds!

We have been reading in our homeschooling studies about him as well as Mary Slessor. Part of her growing up years were spent just minutes from where we are now and as we read about her culture shock entering Africa but then her learning to love the people and the place God called her to, we get it! We know the contrasts and we know the pull...yet we too, know His presence!!!

We are trusting Him and THANK YOU today again for trusting Him with us!

He is GOOD and His love endures forever!

We loved the education we got last month as daddy studied
church architectures and
we got to visit some incredible spots around the country!
We still pray for our friends under their mango trees too!
The body of Christ is INCREDIBLE and beautiful!!!

A little different than our friends in the game park.
Honestly a bit complicated to explain how this
"real" elephant got put in this museum...
but we are slowly learning the ways of this land!

Susannah, Sheep, Swahili and Structures

One of the greatest gifts of being on this continent has been being nearer to family!

While in Uganda, Jesus provided "family" and we are so eternally grateful for that network of relationships that has shaped and continues to make us more like Him. This past month though we got to see our cousin/neice Susannah. We were just with her over Christmas and in the Lord's kindness we got to connect again! She is studying at a Bible school in the north of England, so we drove down for a visit one Sunday. Not only was her school beautiful and amazing, she and her friends encouraged our hearts and reminded us again why we are doing what we are doing these days. Jesus is leading and He has good plans and purposes!

Our beautiful Susannah!

The fabulous wooly sheep and precious lambs just in her "backyard!"

Another student at the school we got to chat with in Swahili for a while!
It was so good to use that language again and get to encourage a young Kenyan man
who also hadn't gotten to speak the language of his heart for a while.

Please pray with us for Susannah as she leads a team of her colleagues on an outreach this week. Pray for creativity and grace and PEACE as they walk in Jesus with one another. Pray they are a light to the community where Jesus has led them and pray for this precious Jesus girl to sense His nearness moment by moment as she trusts Him to lead and love through her and in spite of her. THANK YOU for carrying the people and places that are on our heart with us.

My final S is structures...because my beloved has a paper due this week on sacred space and this particular church structure in particular! He is writing on how the space wherein we worship effects our experience and therefore our relationship with Jesus.

Thank you for continuing to pray as we work hard on this MLitt and move forward trusting Jesus with PhD studies this fall. 

He Who has called is faithful and He will do it!