Maize Harvesting

My hands are sore. In the past week, we've maize harvested twice. It isn't so easy to maize harvest by hand, it takes a long time to do. We started on Wednesday, maize harvesting down at Enterprise farm. There was four HUGE fields and we got the third one. Not for ourselves of course, the Institute came and helped along with most of the secondary students and the team that had arrived the day before. This is how you harvest;

1: Attack the maize stock

2: Locate the maize pod (is that what you call it? I don't know.)

3: Rip open the pod thingymajigger and twist the maize cob to get the shucks off

4: Toss the cob to the nearest bag (try to make it in)

5: Kick or whack down the stock to signal others you have defeated it

6: Target the next stock

After doing this aggressive work for a while, your hands start to hurt, all of this is by hand. We started at 8:45 and ended at eleven something, thankfully, and went back home. I was so groggy for the rest of the day I was so tired. Then, in addition, we did more harvesting just this morning for three hours. My thumbs are now rubbed raw and my hand where I was twisting the shucks are raw. Ah, the wonders of work! :P

I think this is Spider Season... We've had some few adventures with spiders. It started with a spider falling out of my towel. Yeah, it fell on to my shoulder then onto my foot and then into the tub. Thankfully, I didn't scream, but I wasn't brave enough to kill it with my bare hands. I had to get my mom to come and smash it. It's body was about a centimeter in diameter (what's all this about meters?) Yeesh, spiders. Then we had one in our hall, the body being about a half an inch in diameter. I shall say it again, Yeesh. Spiders.

Last bit of news. Worship night went on Saturday night, and there was no one to play the piano. So guess who played?

ME!!!!!!

Oh yeah, it was fun.

Thanks for all the prayers! Mormor- this is for you- Keep on praying. Nothing's happened yet, but something's bound to turn up soon!

~Kara

P.S. The pics are of me playing the piano on one of the past Sundays (a while ago) and Micah on his birthday with our grown-up kitty Meggie!

Birthday!

The days, as usual, have been usual. Even going to Kampala almost twice a month is getting commonly usual. We have, actually, already gone twice this month, and we're still going twice again!

Nothing exciting has happened except that the Browns (a family that we know) have come back to Uganda from the UK. We have had much fun. We've done school on the week days and gone to our family group on Tuesdays. Tomorrow my Dad will go to Kampala to meet with someone from Musana Camp (previous blogs).

One of the boys in Ebenezer ran away on Tuesday. He used to live on the streets in Kampala, and came to Ebenezer before we had connected with the family. He ran away once before we came to Uganda, then came back right after we got connected with Ebenezer. Now he's run away again and needs prayer. Please pray as we don't know where he is.

This weekend I am going to have two birthday parties in a row. This Saturday we are having our family group over for my birthday and watch a movie. We will also have Toby Britton and Joel Brown over for a sleep over and then the next morning, Sunday, we, my family, Joel, and Toby, will go to Kampala. We'll go to a place with a pool and swim and then come back to Kasana in the evening. Beside these things, nothing is really happening much.

Thank you all for your prayers, and keep praying. Especially for the boy in Ebenezer. Thank you all for your support, we are doing very good!

Micah.

Yet Another Lesson

You have heard about many trips to Kampala but what goes on in one's head is another story.

I have regularly been asking God to help me be attentive to His Spirit working in me and to be attentive to His promptings throughout a day.

A few weeks ago we were in Kampala, in purpose for only a few hours. As I came to the car while there, I saw our trip would take longer. I had a flat tire. Geoff, another American here at New Hope, and I quickly changed it and headed off to the tire shop. Verdict: No damage to tire. Small hole in the hub/rim. Three hours later we left the tire shop.

However, while we were there I was asking God what the purpose was for our time there. Instead of an answer, I just kept noticing things that seemed to really stand out.

The first was a gal who shuffled her way through the shop, periodically sweeping up a small piece of garbage. I looked at her face as she shuffled by and she looked emotionally numb; lost but not even looking for a path. My heart broke for her.

The second was the guy who was helping me. He wasn't the original guy but suddenly came on the scene and seemed to take over. It appeared he knew what he was doing and took it seriously. Unfortunately, as soon as another Western person drove into the shop, he immediately jumped up and began to help her until he had gotten her far enough along that she was very grateful for his help. Eventually, after getting a tip with all of his colleagues looking on with a bit of frustration on their faces, he came back to work on my rim. I was incredulous.

The third I noticed was the manager who clearly worked hard to make everyone who was a customer happy while he seemed to be rather sharp in his interaction with his employees. I felt compassion for the workers who seemed to be beaten down by the intermittent and commanding and almost capricious communication from him.

The fourth were the two Muslim gals behind the counter who were often turning around to look at their reflection in the window into the shop, constantly adjusting their head covering just as they might their hair. My heart explored how I question my own value based on appearances. I was sad for them.

As we drove away, I asked in my heart, "What was that delay for? What should I learn from that? How do I communicate with You, Lord, during times like that?"

It seemed He answered by showing me each of those people in the tire shop He had revealed to me. By lifting them up in prayer, when He showed me or even as a drove away, I would be listening to His Spirit. Praise God that He redeems and answers prayer.

I long to be there constantly. I love exploring this type of stuff with my good brother in Christ, Geoff shown in the picture.

Only by God's grace, Tim

Another trip to Kampala.

Another trip to Kampala. Another fun and nice time. The same set up, just the opposite and a different hotel. Wednesday the Britton parents left for Kampala to stay two nights there and their kids stayed at our house for Wednesday and Thursday. We had fun then, yes, but then we got to have more fun in Kampala.

My family (including me) and the Britton kids left somewhat early on Friday morning. When we got to Kampala we went to the lodge (this hotel was called a lodge) that we were staying at. The Britton parents met us there. Almost right away we got in the pool. After about 15 minutes we had lunch, and then got back in. When we got out we took showers and then went exploring. We found fruit that looked and tasted like Blackberries, but might not of been. Then we had Dinner and then watched Cars 2 (way better than the first one (has car spies in it)), which the Brittons had just gotten.

The next morning we had breakfast and then went shopping. Our families ( us (Petersons) and the Brittons) separated then because we had different places to go. Then we went to a tire place and sat almost 3 hours while they tried to get the tire on. Then we went to another place and got some stuff, then went to another place and got some stuff, and then had lunch there. After lunch we headed home, and luckily, we got back before 7:00.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, but keep praying just in case. There is nothing happening at the moment, but there might be soon. We are also all looking forward to the Kansas team coming down. We are all well and are pretty content!

Fun with Basketball.

The past few days have been regular, as usual. The only thing that happened (good and bad, I'll tell you why in a second) was that we went to Kampala. We left at about 7:30 with our cats and got to Kampala at around 9.

When got there we went straight to the vet to get our cats shots. We had to wait a while, but we finally got them shots and it went smoothly. Then we picked up one of our family group girls, Zam, and took her out to lunch. We got to the restaurant and parked in the outside, right by the road parking lot with a guard sitting not 30 feet from us. We went inside the restaurant and had a good lunch.

After lunch my dad went out to check on the cats and found that someone had broken into our car and stolen two bags. One was ours while the other was Zam's. After that, we dropped Zam off at home and then my dad dropped us off at a store and went on a boda-boda to drop something off somewhere. While he was going, another boda went past them with bags on the back and accidentally hit the boda's mirror. The handle bars turned and my dad and the boda driver that was driving him skidded across the street. Luckily they fell towards the curb and my dad didn't get hurt except for a skinned knee and elbow. We all finally got back safely home after a while.

The days have been fun. My dad and I play basketball almost every day now. We have fun, and I've been getting better at it. Thank you all for all your prayers, but please keep praying. We are having fun and I hope some of you will be able to come!

Rough Day and a lesson

It began as a great day. The sun coming up. Enjoying some coffee and my family on the road to Kampala to take our cats in for vaccinations and meet one of the daughters in our family group for lunch. Traffic flowed well.

When we looked for the place where we would meet we got onto a road rarely traveled by larger cars but everything was fine. Kim said we were lost but I still had a general idea where we were and sure enough drove out right where we were supposed to be. Hmm, pride?! Still a good day. We found our Ebenezer family (the family group we are associated with) daughter and joyfully headed to the restaurant.

As we got out of the car, I didn't like where we were parking but there were no closer parking spots in the shade. We were leaving our kittens in the car with water, a litter box, food, shade and windows just down an inch. Taboo in the States. Tough to avoid when we drive for 2 hours to town where we do all our major business.

As I was locking the car, I looked in the car one last time and a small prompt went through my mind: "two bags are in plain sight". My response? "It's okay, there is a security guard here." Of course when I passed him, he was sitting down facing away from the cars, two vans that were right next to him and our car not 30 ft. away.

After a nice time of talking and eating with our Ebenezer family daughter, I went out to the car just to check on the cats. The car was unlocked and the lock had been jammed in but the door was shut. The two bags were missing but the two cats were there.

We agonized over that and tried taking some action but it all fell flat. We took our Ebenezer daughter home after trying to replace some of her lost items, and we grieved with her. One of the stolen bags was hers.

I dropped the family off at a shopping center and got on a boda-boda (a motorcycle taxi) to cross town and drop off an item. I was wondering how safe this guy would drive but he seemed to be doing okay. In a tight spot, however, a guy with two 35kg bags on the back of his motorcycle cut us off and the bag caught our mirror flipping the handlebars to the side. We skidded across the pavement toward the curb while I watched it approaching quickly. Some heated words of Luganda ensued peppered with many "sorry, sorry, sorry"'s from both boda drivers and many other witnesses around.

With a whole in my pant leg and the skin worn off my arm, we continued on getting lost on the way. I finally reached my destination and Judith, the lady to whom I was bringing the item, helped scrub my arm to get at least some of the dirt and gravel out.

When I got back to pick up my family and we all were headed out of town in our car, I said to Kim, "How can a person find joy in a day like this?" The response came, not from Kim, but I believe the Spirit of God, "Why can't you find joy in a day like this? Only two bad things happened to you all day. You had a wonderful time with your family including your Ebenezer family daughter, the cats didn't get stolen or escape, you didn't die, your car worked and wasn't stolen. You ate good food. You had a safe trip in the car. You had a good talk with your wife. Why can't you find joy in a day like this?"

I really and genuinely praised God after that.