Rested & Ready to Go Again!!!

Hi there friends and family!! You might be wondering why we have not posted in a while. The reason is Jesus provided us with a wonderful vacation to Cape Town, South Africa. For those of you who do not know, after living in a cross-cultural environment continuously for 6 months or more you desperately need to take a break in order to continue to be effective in your ministry. We had heard Cape Town was so beautiful and modern, so we figured "when will we ever be this close to South Africa again in our lives?" This was a wonderful opportunity for us to get rested up and recharged before we head into a very full summer of mission teams coming from May to September, as well as continue the regular ministry of training pastors in Nebbi, Uganda and Yei, Southern Sudan.

South Africa is a very advanced country compared to many other countries in Africa. It was almost like being in America at some points. They have paved roads, traffic lights, beautiful shopping malls, full size supermarkets, water you can drink from the tap without getting sick, awesome restaurants, great seafood, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and you can even get KFC & McDonalds! (I realize these may sound like normal things to you, but after living in Uganda for a year and a half, these were real luxuries to us!)

Cape Town is actually considered 1 of the top 10 most beautiful cities in the world. We were able to drive all over the peninsula and see the Cape of Good Hope, African penguins, Table Mountain, an awesome aquarium, and we even went to the most southern tip of the continent of Africa, where the Atlantic & Indian Ocean meet! And we stayed in a wonderful bed & breakfast that was perfect for our budget too.

On Easter Sunday we went to a local South African church and had a wonderful time of worship. At the end of the service I went up to thank the guest preacher (from England) for his message. As I was thanking him, he invited Erica and I to have some coffee with him. He and his friends then asked us about our work in Uganda and wanted to hear all about it over lunch. After lunch they invited us to dinner. It really seemed like this whole day was a God-incidence just the way we all connected and how warm and kind they were to us. So at the end the night our new friend Glynn (the pastor from England) insisted that we should stay a few extra days with his friends there in Cape Town for free. He said that we really needed to rest and seek God's face before we headed back up to Uganda to continue the ministry. So the next day he called and arranged it so we had a place to stay for free.

We ended up making great friends with these guys and really felt blessed by our new South African friends. They were so eager to show us around Cape Town and get a real experience. They took us to a Cricket match, threw us a real BBQ (called a Braai) while watching Rugby (a real man's game as they say), and took us to where the locals go to the beach. Our new friends, (Andre, Leanne, & Maggie~ pictured above) really demonstrated and showed us the love of Christ and made us feel like we fit in. Once again Jesus was so gracious to us and gave us such a wonderful vacation full of rest, fun, unforgettable memories and new friends.
And to be honest with you, there is a part of us that feels guilty for going on vacation, when we're supposed to be missionaries, living in Uganda... But we can truly say we needed this break from our life in Arua. And now we really feel refreshed & ready to get back to work here in Uganda! We are so thankful to the Lord for providing for us in such an extraordinary way!