MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY & FRIENDS!!!

Sorry we haven't blogged in a LONG time... We've just been busy settling into our new home, interviewing for new jobs, going to our doctor's visit for the baby, and traveling~ visiting with friends & family in Kentucky, friends in Mississippi, & now family & friends in New Jersey! We just got here to New Jersey last weekend (Dec 20th) and we'll be here until Jan 12th. Then we'll be back in Louisville, KY for good... finally settling into our new life in America hopefully and getting ready for Baby Boy Rinehimer to arrive some time around March 10th! We thank God that both Erica & baby are healthy & her pregnancy is going great!

Also, many of you have been asking us... "What is next??" Well, we have both had interviews for jobs... John is in the interview process for an amazing opportunity with our church in Louisville in the missions department & Erica has interviewed for a position with a hospital in Louisville. John flies back to KY on Jan 5th for his second interview, so please be in prayer for him extra that day!!! And please just pray for clarity for both of our job opportunities & that God would lead us to what HE has for us.

We love you all & hope each one of you & your families have a blessed Christmas today & a Happy New Year! Below are some pictures of our time with friends in Jackson, MS...

Visiting with our good friends, Bill & Amanda Blair (& their new baby Sam, born in July!)Our precious friends, Mike & Janie Jarvis, Jeff & Patty Christie, and Laurie Holloway threw us OUR 1ST BABY SHOWER in Jackson!!! (Thank "ya'll" SO MUCH!)
Mike Jarvis also took John, Bill Ury & Ron Smith quail hunting, which was another 1st for John! :-)
AND... In KY, we got to have dinner with our friends, Matt Pittman & Joanna Ury, who came to Uganda with a team while we were there! (They get married next Saturday, Jan 3rd!!!~ Congratulations, Matt & Joanna!)

We're Home in AMERICA!!!

We are SO sorry that we have not updated our blog in so long! Please forgive us! Things have been just crazy busy as we finally ARRIVED HOME IN AMERICA this past Saturday, Nov. 8th!!! It was definitely sad to leave all of our friends in Uganda, but at the same time, it has been such a blessing to be reunited with our family & friends after being apart for these past 2 years! Since we flew into the Louisville, KY airport, where Erica is from, all of her family & friends were waiting at security to welcome us with tons of balloons & hugs! It was such a sweet reunion! We are really looking forward to that same precious time with John's family & friends when we get to New Jersey!!! And we had a ton of time with our family & friends over the weekend...

But this past week we have been reminded of how hectic life in America is! We have been trying to get cell phones, buy a car, open a bank account, apply for jobs, find clothes that fit my growing tummy, and we move into our house today!!! You can probably imagaine why we haven't had time to update our blog! But God is giving us strength and energy to get it all done!

And this weekend we speak in/ teach a Sunday School class of about 150 people at Southeast Christian Church, and then we head to Marion, IN where our WGM headquarters are for debriefing & to speak in chapel there on Monday & Tuesday! Please pray that Jesus continues to give us extra strength & energy to do all we need to do! And just so you know, Baby Rinehimer is doing great~ he's been kicking a TON lately & LOVING all of the yummy food in America! Thank you so much for your prayers for all 3 of us!

SAYING GOODBYE TO ARUA :-( ~ our friends, Joel, Alice, Alfred, Joyce & EdmondLEAVING OUR DRIVEWAY & FRIENDS FOR THE LAST TIME :-(
JOHN PREACHING ONE LAST TIME AT KAMPALA INT'L UNIVERSITY








OUR LAST NIGHT WITH BILLY, JO & ELSIE JAYNE COPPEDGE (along with the rest of our WGM missionary family in Kampala!)OUR FIRST NIGHT IN AMERICA WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS!ERICA'S MOM MADE US A WELCOME HOME DESSERT WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG :-)FINALLY HOME IN AMERICA WITH ERICA'S DAD, SISTER & BROTHER :-)OUR SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS~

Nov 8th- Arrived Home in America!
Nov 16th- Speak at ETS Sunday School Class at Southeast Christian in Louisville, KY
Nov 17th & 18th- Debriefing & Speak in Chapel at WGM HQ's in Marion, IN
Nov 30th- Speak to Christ UMC Youth in Jackson, MS
Dec 7th- Speak to Christ UMC Sunday School Classes in Jackson, MS
Dec 21st- Speak at Central UMC in Linwood, NJ
Dec 28th- Speak at Brick UMC, NJ
Jan 4th- Speak at Sicklerville UMC, NJ
Jan 6th- Speak at Leeds Point Community Church, NJ
Jan 8th- Speak at Emmaus UMC in Smithville, NJ
Jan 11th- Speak at Sharptown UMC, NJ
Jan 25th Speaking at WGM Asbury student center, Wilmore KY
Jan 28th- JOHN's 30th BIRTHDAY!!!

We're Having a BOY!!!

For those of you who have been asking us or wondering... we got an ultrasound yesterday & found out that WE ARE HAVING A BABY BOY!!! We are SO excited! It is so fun to know what we're having and to be able to call our baby "him" or "he" instead of "it!" Below is a picture from our ultrasound~ I still can't believe we can get 4D ultrasounds in Uganda... amazing!

And watching this little baby grow inside of me continues to me amaze me & remind me of how awesome God is! I am only 20 weeks (4 1/2 months) along, and our baby already looks like a full term baby! God is so awesome! He is a healthy baby boy from as far as we can tell from this ultrasound, so we are so thankful to God! And I still haven't ever felt sick or tired at all~ what a blessing!

Our Last Training & One More Party

This weekend was our final training in Nebbi... :-(We truly will miss our pastors a great deal. We really have grown to love them and care for them, and they will always hold a special place in our hearts.

It's hard to believe that it was our last day in Nebbi with these pastors we have grown so fond of. And I will even miss all of the same little children (pictured below with Joanna) who come and fill the windows & doorway at every pastor training, just to stare at the "mzungu's" (the white people)! They are so precious!

And we have to give props to baby Elsie Jayne Coppedge! She was such a trooper! As you can imagine, it's very hard for a 12 month old to miss her nap & be surrounded by new people in a new place ALL DAY, but she did great and eventually fell asleep in her mama's arms. I came outside of the church & saw Joanna holding Elsie Jayne as she was fast asleep with all the kids crowded around & it was precious to me, so I thought you'd like this picture! Thank you, Joanna & Elsie Jayne, for being such troopers & coming to our last day of training!

And we owe a huge "Thank You" to Billy & Joanna for the going away party they threw for us yesterday at their home! They invited all of our friends in Arua to their home & we all had a chance to say goodbye to each other. It was really sweet & special to have everyone together and just look around at their faces & think of the real friendships we have formed over these past two years, in a foreign land, where I thought it would be so hard to make real "friends..."

It still seems so surreal to us that we are leaving this country and this phase of our life. And if anyone knows us well (especially me~ Erica), you know that I LOVE America & I LOVE our family & friends there... But I can honestly say that I have also grown to love our friends & our home here. And although there are days that are difficult here, there is a big part of both of us that will miss Arua & our friends here!

PS~ Another BIG THANK YOU to Billy & Joanna for letting us use their computer these past couple weeks, since our hard dive crashed!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Billy & Jo! WE LOVE YOU!

God is a Way Maker

Everything about Sudan is hard. It is hard to get there because the roads are so bad & flying every time is not in the budget. To drive 200 miles will take you a literal week. As you can imagine, the roads are made of mud & enormous pot holes and having Billy's 4X4 Land Rover Defender (pictured above) is an absolute blessing when traveling in such conditions. Thank God we only had to drive for about 5 hours north from Arua to a little town called Yei where we were attending a networking conference & hosting a pastor training. (Just in case you were wondering, the Darfur region you hear about in the news is still a 2 week drive from where we were in Sudan!)

Last week was also a little hard personally for several reasons ... our dog died, our computer died, we received some discouraging news in an e-mail & all of this while I was in Southern Sudan apart from Erica. Although this has all the makings of a #1 country music hit, it also had the potential for making us easily forget all that God has done & hindering us from finishing well here in Uganda & Sudan.,, While thinking about my own problems I was also at the networking conference (pictured above)being confronted with all the major issues Sudan is facing: land mines all over their country preventing farming & road development, post war trauma, poor education, corruption of the government, poor distribution of billions of dollars a year in domestic & foriegn aid, not to mention drought & flooding & the razor thin peace agreement between the North & Southern part of the country.

The conference actually went very well & proved to be an excellent time of networking for our WGM team of 6 (pictured right: Reuben, Joy, Karen, Terry, Billy & John) representing various aspects of ministry & development. There were more 130 people from across the globe representing 60 organizations, churches & institutions. It was really a vision of what the Kingdom of God is to look like. There were many good ideas exchanged, several good sermons & great times of relationship building. It looks like WGM has a promising future ahead of them in Sudan, so that is exciting!

As I reflected about these issues & our uncertain future I will be honest & say that I was a little frustrated, sad & a bit overwhelmed as each day last week seemed to bring difficult news that was hard to hear. Now, none of these issues by themselves were really that horrible, but the combination of them was challenging to trust Jesus with.

As I was thinking about all of this Jesus reminded me ... I AM the Way Maker. God has a history of making a way where there seems to be no way. Even more than God simply making a way and telling us to get out of His way, He says, "I want to teach you My ways & guide you so you can know Me & we can fellowship together." Psalm 25:4 & 5 says, "Show me Your ways O Lord; teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth & teach me, for You are God my Savior, & my hope is in You all day long." Other verses began to flood my mind & I soon realized there is a place for problems, whether a computer crashing, an uncertain future or a nation that needs healing ... God says, "I AM the Way Maker."

As we then began the training of the Sudanese pastors (pictured right) later that same week, I had a renewed sense of God's presence in both the troubles of Sudan & also the personal issues we are facing. God continues to teach me that when difficutlies arise, these are opportunites to either go deeper in my walk with Jesus or I can view them as negative circumstances that will poison my relationship with God & others.

It was sad to have my final pastor training in Sudan & our days here in Africa are rapidly coming to a close. But inspite of all the issues in the world I still trust in the fact that the Lord is a Way Maker!