Thanksgiving & Worship

This past week has been for us, as it has been for many, a week full of Thanksgiving and worship! On Tuesday, we headed off to the big city, Kampala, to spend Thanksgiving with all of the other missionaries and our friends in Kampala. Since we are the ONLY Americans in Arua right now, we thought it may be good to spend that special holiday (when you’re missing your family most!), with some other American friends! There were 30 of us in one house to thank God for all He has done for us this past year. It was really great to see everyone and get to have some quality time with the others there. (I am pictured with my good friend, Pamela Ironside to the left. She reminds me of a perfect balance of my mom, my sister, & my best friend~ God has truly blessed me with her friendship!)

While we were in Kampala, John was able to do some more ministry with the universitystudents at Kampala Int’l University (KIU). On Saturday, Sam Trenwith, our rock star friend from New Zealand, came down from Arua to help John lead a worship seminar, teaching the worship team at KIU the fundamentals of worship…for example, the true meaning of worship, that it’s not just a song- it’s a lifestyle, and that it isn’t a show or about bringing attention to yourself- but it is about praising God and focusing all of our attention on him. They also taught a lot of basic skills dealing with the sound system and how to properly play instruments. John & Sam are both so gifted in this area, and they really enjoyed teaching these young leaders.

That night, the students were able to put into practice what they had learned all day… John, Sam, and all the students participated in leading worship together at KIU for their Saturday night church service. It really was a precious thing to see, just how these young people look up to John & Sam so much, and to see the impact that they had on them in just one day of teaching. Although it still may not have been perfect…. Or anything like the worship we experience at Southeast J, you could definitely see, and hear, a difference!

The rest of our weekend was spent enjoying Kampala and our friends there. We celebrated our field director, Jon Mayo’s birthday on Sunday with all of the WGM missionaries at a new restaurant that makes us feel like we’re in America! It’s a lot like Chili’s or Friday’s, but after being here for a year, it feels like Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse! Jon is pictured to the right with his wife, Lisa, & son, Ethan~ his older son,
Jordan, was off playing with the other kids!)

AND… we sold 2 puppies last week to a pastor in Kampala! Thank you for your prayers! And you may find this amusing… we flew to Kampala, and the airline let us take our two puppies on the plane with us! There’s no cargo space really, since the plane is so small, so one sat in each of our laps! It was so cute, and so funny! And it was a first for our small airline here in Arua! We have already had calls on 5 of the others, so it looks like we may be left with just one to sell after this week! Praise the Lord!

And... if you are by any chance reading this blog today (Tues, Nov 27) or any time tonight…. Please pray for our colleague, Jeannie Banter. She is teaching 45 teachers tomorrow on sex education, including abstinence! The mayor and many other government representatives will attend the seminar! We are so excited about this privilege she has been given, but she is a little nervous as you can imagine. It is a huge task for a 24 year old woman! So if you could please pray for her, we would greatly appreciate it! We’ll let you know how it goes! Thank you for your prayers and for just caring enough to read this blog! We are so grateful for you!

And last but not least, Dec. 1 will be the last day of preliminary training with the pastors in Nebbi, and then they will have completed the AGC Membership Manual, which qualifies them
to enroll in our official pastor training program. Please pray for them as they take their exam over this material on Dec 8~ they are so nervous! It really is precious to see how important this training is to them. Then in January, we will begin the actual pastor training program with them. (Pictured to the right is us with the Nebbi pastors on Saturday, Nov 24. John, Jeannie, and myself all taught, and they asked really good questions and had great insight as usual. Praise Jesus for these special men! They really are so amazing!)

1 Down 1 to Go!!!... 1 Year in Uganda!!!

We can hardly believe it, but it was ONE YEAR AGO TODAY (Nov. 11th) that we boarded the plane and LEFT FOR UGANDA! Jesus has met us with extraordinary amounts of grace to handle all the transitioning of a new country, culture, language, house, job and life. There have been struggles and difficulties of course, but we are thankful for how God has given us His strength and discernment to fix our eyes on Him.

AND.... Billy & Joanna gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl on November 3rd!!!!!!!!!!! Elsie Jayne Coppege!!!!!! They are still in the States and are not sure of when they will return to Uganda. Please keep them in your prayers as they are going through this huge time of transition in their life. Also, many of you have been praying for Billy's dad. He is steadily recovering from his heart attack, but still suffering from memory loss. The doctors are hopeful, but the entire Coppedge family still need our prayers.

And... Jeannie Banter has returned to Uganda!!! She is in Kampala right now & arrives in Arua tomorrow (Nov 12), and we can't wait to see her! Thank you for your prayers for her and her health. The doctors say she is healthy enough to be here for one month. She will be leaving in mid-December, which was her original date to return home. Please continue to pray for her health and that the short time she has here would be fruitful!

Also, in case you were wondering... our puppies are getting very big! They are really cute, but a lot of work! They are almost 8 weeks old, so we are needing to find good homes for them. Please pray this happens soon!

Finally, we just wanted to point out that we posted 2 blog entries today... It has been so long since we've blogged; we just had too much information for one entry! Sorry! We hope this isn't too much to read at once! Thank you for caring enough to read about our lives and keep us lifted up in prayer! We appreciate you so much!

Our upcoming schedule:

Nov. 11 - Jeannie Banter returns to Arua!
Nov. 16 & 17 - Pastor Training
Nov. 24 - John & Sam teaching on worship @ Kampala Int'lUniversity
Dec. 1 - Pastor Training
Dec. 8- Pastor Assessment Exam given.

Trip to Kenya

We are SO sorry that it's been so long since we've posted a blog entry... We had a field retreat in Jinja, Uganda (the source of the Nile River, about 1 hour from Kampala) and also traveled to Kenya to visit some other WGM fields and missionaries there. We had a great field retreat led by our field pastors, Rick and Janie Burkhalter. It was very refreshing to be able to spend time with our other Uganda missionaries, and it renewed us spiritually and physically.

While in Kenya, our first stop was Nairobi, where our Regional Director of Africa, Terry & Karen Duncan live. Terry & our field director, Jon Mayo, just completed a survey trip to Juba, Sudan. They were able to meet with one of the pastors we have been training, John Onek, and they were very excited to see the potential for WGM & AGC in Southern Sudan. It was great to talk to Terry about their trip, and we feel optimistic that God is opening doors for us to begin to plant churches there! We also had the opportunity to talk with their son, Brent, and another WGM missionary, Joy Phillips, who both work with Samaritan's Purse. We were able to discuss future possibilities of partnering in ministry and working together in Sudan. It was really exciting to dream about the future and where God is leading us and WGM. Brent also took us to the Giraffe Center in Nairobi, which is basically a field where they keep a few giraffes, and you can come into CLOSE contact with and feed the world's tallest animal, the giraffe! It was pretty cool!

We then traveled to see Staci Wells and the Africa Gospel Church Baby Center (a WGM project in Nakuru, Kenya). This is a ministry for babies who have been left abandoned by their parents on the side of the street, at the gate of the Baby Center or somewhere else where, by God's grace, they were found. It was a truly a special time with Staci and these adorable babies. It was so hard to not take one of these precious angels home with us. And Erica nearly decided to serve her last year of service in Kenya and commute to Uganda! Just kidding!

Next we traveled to visit the world famous Tenwek Hospital region of Kenya. Dr. Ernie Steury (retired WGM missionary) was one of the founding doctors, and for years, he was the only doctor in Bomet, Kenya. Tenwek is an amazing place. It was started in the 1950's, and today it is a beacon of health and hope to a whole community surrounding Tenwek. (To learn more check out: Stories from Tenwek, a recently published book in memory of Dr. Steury) The purpose of this hospital is stated on their sign, "We treat. Jesus heals". Our friend Dr. Carol Spears is one of the doctors who has dedicated herself to this motto. She is a practicing surgeon at Tenwek and also trains and disciples Kenyans to become surgeons. We had a great time catching up with Carol as well as with the Roberts, Vanderhoofs & Bemms (fellow WGM missionaries).


From Tenwek we were off to visit the work in Masai land, near the border of Tanzania. Our dear friends Jon and Vera Steury live and work with the Masai people. The Masai are famous for their wearing red clothes & tons of beads, jumping sky high when they dance, being fierce hunters and a living in a culture who are happy to live in mud huts. This WGM project in Masai is called the "Olderkesi Development Project." It includes an Africa Gospel Church, a pastor training center, a welding facility, a farm that yields many crops that they provide for the Masai people, a well, production of bio-sand filters so that the Masai can have clean drinking water, a carpenter, and much more! And it's all in the middle of nowhere! It is amazing! We were blessed to see the ministry Jon & Vera have out with the Masai people and also had a great time of catch up. Plus, they have a pet Thompson Gazelle, that Erica got to feed with a bottle! So cute, and so cool!

Finally, we made it back to Nairobi to end our trip in Kenya, where we got to spend some more quality time with the Duncans, which was so special to us. AND we got to visit the "Animal Orphanage" in Nairobi where they bring in abandoned animals and care for them. We got to actually get in a huge fenced in area with THREE CHEETAHS, and we actually got to pet a cheetah! It was so amazing!

Over all, our time in Kenya was quite fast, but it was so beneficial to see what our fellow missionaries are doing in Kenya and try to coordinate ways to work together in the future as we begin to plant churches in Sudan, Congo, Northern Uganda and beyond.