The Greatest Gift!

This Christmas, God gave John & I possibly the greatest gift that He has ever given us for Christmas (besides the birth of His Son, of course)! He opened the door for us to be able to visit an orphanage on Christmas Day and share his love with 58 precious children! The name of the orphanage is “Uganda Jesus Village.” These children are displaced children from Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, who have suffered the horrible actions of the “Lord’s Resistance Army,” a terrorist group led by Joseph Coney. You may know them as “The Invisible Children,” which they have been called as many of their parents have been killed by this group and they were left and forgotten… Until this ministry came and took them in.

Some new friends of ours, the Ironside family, brought enough gifts from the States with them to share with many people over their time here in Uganda. And they were kind enough to let us share in the joy of giving! They got a list of each child’s name at the orphanage and their children made Christmas cards for each of the children, and we helped make a ton of sugar cookies! So on Christmas, we gave each of the children a gift picked specially for them by the head of the orphanage with their name on the package, and a cookie!

It was such an amazing blessing to just be able to love on these children and let them know someone cares. As they opened their presents of books, shirts, shoes, socks, jewelry, etc, their eyes just lit up! And the most precious (and surprising) thing about the day was their unselfishness and generosity among each other. We noticed right away that they would just approach each other and take each other’s gifts and just examine them… Our 1st reaction was, “Oh no, they are stealing each other’s presents!” But it wasn’t long before we realized that what the children were doing was celebrating for each other and sharing in the other’s joy! They would just admire it for a minute and then give it right back! There was no sign of jealousy at all! They were so patient as we called them one by one, and they even waited to open their gift until every child had one!

What an amazing reminder that everything that we have comes from the Lord, and it is all His anyways! And what a privilege, honor, and blessing it was for John & I to be God’s hands and feet and just show these children they are loved, cared for, and not forgotten! We hope to go back to this orphanage during our time here and visit these children again! Please pray for them as Jesus lays them on your heart!

Christmas the Uganda Way

I must admit that it is a little difficult to prepare our minds for Christmas in 80-degree weather and little sign of Christmas decorations around (although we do have a small tree!) However, I can tell this Christmas will be special, because we are much more focused on the true meaning of Christmas and celebrating the birth of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ! We were even able to see “The Nativity” in the movie theatre here to prepare our hearts for Christmas.
Ugandans don’t celebrate Christmas like we do in America, which actually is not all bad. There are no houses decorated with lights, families really don’t worry about getting each other tons of gifts but they do love to be with their family. Most Uganda’s will celebrate Christmas by having a huge meal together that can last even for a couple days.




Here are some fun pictures for you to get an idea of what Christmas in Uganda looks like, including the Christmas traiffice.

Our 1st Trip to Arua!!!

We finally got to see the place we are moving to in just a two months! It is definitely a change from Kampala. Far from being westernized, much slower pace of life, bikes instead of cars… pretty much what you would think of when you think, “Africa.” We even got to see a few elephants and baboons on the way, and we crossed the Nile River to get there! (can you find the elephant to the left of the tree? Click picture to enlarge:)

The Vision:
On the way to & from Arua, we had a total of 16 hours in the car with our teammates, Billy & Joanna Coppedge, and our field director, Jon Mayo, so we were able to have a lot of good discussion and clarification on what our time in Arua is going to look like. Our field director’s main expectation from us for the 1st year in Arua is that we build relationships with people and begin discipling a few people in hopes that they will be the foundation for the pastor training ministry. Africa is a lot different from America, in that it takes a lot of time to build trust and gain someone’s respect. Therefore, we cannot just move into a town and start recruiting pastors.
Jon Mayo’s vision is that we befriend and disciple 8 to 10 key men who can one day be leaders of churches that will come from our pastor training program and reach into Sudan and Congo. This same model has worked in the southern part of Uganda where they churches grew from just 2 and four years later are still growing at 135 and counting. That’s some good old Kingdom mathematics!!!

One of the key places we are hoping to target for recruiting is the Nile University in Arua. This is a great opportunity for our to meet potential pastors who have some formal education, which most Ugandans lack. While visiting Arua we were able to meet with the Provost (pictured to the upper left) of Nile University. He was very hopeful we could work together to help the university student’s branch out in their formal education and was excited to have some potential American professors. There is the possibility for campus ministry, work teams, being able to openly teach Bible and theology and Christian Ethics. Who knows how the Lord will use this new friend. We are excited about the potential ministry opportunities and trusting the Father to lead as we walk in the Spirit. Also please pray we find a house in Arua.

(Billy, Joanna, Jon Mayo, John & Erica in Arua)

Making Progress in Swahili…

We are learning Swahili slowly but surely, so thank you for your prayers! We did have to get a new teacher though. Unfortunately, we were some of Betty’s first students, and once she started teaching us, she didn’t feel qualified for the task. But now we have a new teacher, Suliman, who has 22 years of experience teaching Swahili! We are so excited to have him! He goes at a much faster pace, so please continue to pray!

Fun Facts from Swahili Class:
• We teach our teachers… how to greet people in the States! If they go to Mississippi, they need to say “YA’LL;” if they go to Kentucky, they need to say “YOU ALL;” and if they go to New Jersey, they need to say “YOU GUYS.” ☺
We actually had our Ugandan teacher saying “YA’LL!”
• My name… Every Ugandan looks at me funny when I tell them my name, so I asked our teacher and found out that it is because Erica is a BOY’S NAME… not only Uganda, but in all of Africa! This is because they do not end names in consonants, so they had to make Eric into Erica for men!
• Why Ugandans think all Americans are rich…. We also found out from Betty that most Ugandans believe that as soon as an American turns 18 or graduates from college, their parents give them a fully furnished house and car AND the government gives us enough money to live off of! She couldn’t believe it when we told her this was not true! No wonder everyone wants to come to America!

Swahili and a Guard

We are into our third week in Uganda and are beginning to settle into life in Uganda. The roads are a bit rough and the traffice here make driving in Philiadelphia during rush hour look like a relaxing walk at the Jersey Shore. Here are some pictures to give you a better idea of what Uganda looks like and we will be adding more on a weekly basis.




We also have been attending a local church here in Kampala. As you can see from the picture it is pretty crowded. The service is a mixture of Swahili songs and American praise and worship music, but they music sounds best when they are singing in their native tongue. The people here have such a passion for God Word and the church service usually lasts around 2-3 hours.







Thanks for praying for our Swahili learning. Here is a picture of our teacher, Betty. She is a great blessing from the Lord and she to has a burden to see the people of Uganda trained in God's Word. We are learning a ton of vocabulary, which Erica seems to be getting as soon as she reads it, where I on the other hand seems to be more of a "deep processor" (aka slowly learning the language).



I want to end this post with a prayer request for our guard, Patrick. Patrick has not accepted Jesus into his heart and life. He has a family of six and has some knowledge about God, but has yet to make a decision for the Lord. Erica and I are praying for his salvation and that we would be a part of it. He has such a wonderful heart and servant attitude. We talk often and he even lets me practice my Swahili. I'm praying through these conversation Jesus will touch his heart. Please pray for continued conversation with Patrick as we continue talk with him about who Jesus is and love Patrick into the family of God.