Uganda Bound!!!!!!

We are Uganda bound! Got the unofficial word from AIM today. We'll be heading to Mbarara, Uganda in July of next year. We will post more details as we get them. We are so excited and can't tell you how much we appreciate all the prayers during this waiting period. AIM still needs to firm up all the details and get final approval from the International Office, but for now, we've been given the green light to move forward in our support raising, planning, and all the misc things that need to get done within the next twelve months.

Please keep praying for us as we prepare and for the hearts of those in Mbarara, Uganda that we will be ministering to and those we will be ministering alongside. Love you all - we know we couldn't be doing this without each of you coming alongside us.

P.S. - Didn't mean to surprise any of you with this news. For those that are scratching their heads.....yes, we are still going to Tanzania with AIM as part of their TIMO program. However, due to unforseeable delays, the team was pushed back until late 2010 or early 2011. This will be a completely different assignment than the island work we will do in Tanzania, but one that we feel God has led us to. We are eager to get started!!!

Praying and Praying and Praying and.....

Weird title huh? Just thought I'd share a quick tidbit I picked up from another AIMers blog a few weeks ago. She is wrapping up her time in the Lopit hills in South Sudan, serving alongside one of our dear friends we met during Candidate Week a few years back. In fact as I write this, her team is probably on a plane heading to Nairobi and leaving behind the people they have lived among as part of AIM's TIMO program. How appropriate I thought, that God would bring this back to my mind today. They have lived among this people group for the past two years and I can only imagine as they fly out of this remote wilderness that they are praying for those they left behind that don't yet know the Creator of the Universe.

Anyhow.....she shared this quote by George Mueller, stating that she was both "intimidated and encouraged." I have to say that I shared those sentiments after reading it.

"I am now, in 1864, waiting upon God for certain blessings, for which I have daily besought Him for 19 years and 6 months, without one day's intermission. Still the full answer is not yet given concerning the conversion of certain individuals. In the meantime, I have received many thousands of answers to prayer. I have also prayed daily, without intermission, for the conversion of other individuals about ten years, for others six or seven years, for others four, three, and two years, for others about eighteen months; and still the answer is not yet granted, concerning these persons [whom I have prayed for nineteen-and-a-half years]. Yet, I am daily continuing in prayer and expecting the answer....Be encouraged, dear Christian reader, with fresh earnestness to give yourself to prayer, if you can only be sure that you ask for things which are for the glory of God."

Muddin'

Now let me first introduce this glorious river that runs from Colorado through New Mexico, the panhandle of Texas, and most of Oklahoma...this is the Canadian River. It apparently is a large supporter of the Arkansas River which is a large supporter of the Mississippi River. All of this is from Wikopedia and is just to show how even little things can make a big difference. Before discovering all of this (which I am not sure is all that important to most of you), I would have thought that the river died out around the bend - it was that unimpressive in size. But what it lacked in size, it made up in fun!


I don't know what color the water started out as, but in this stretch of the river it was all red clay.

The kids had wanted to play with a slip-n-slide earlier that day, and were quite thrilled to see that God provided them with one when parents did not.

I was a bit worried about Dade because he didn't want to wear his swimsuit for fear that the white would never be white again. I thought that maybe he would not want to get in the muddy water - what was I thinking?

Even my dad got into the games, at one point I took several pictures in a row of him walking across a large slippery area. I thought that it might be good to have pictures to say how he broke his tail bone.

You would think that swimming and sliding would be enough of a blast - but no! Tiffany and Dara decided to explore the cosmetic benefits of mud. Afterall don't people pay big bucks for a mud bath?!

I'm telling you - things got way out of hand when Joel would slither out of the water into the mud and roll around as if he were going to be used as a paint roller.

Thankfully, I was in charge of the pictures and we value the camera too much. Otherwise this wonderful beast of a man would have carried me kicking and screaming into that nasty river. He reminds me from someone in Braveheart.


Overall it was a blast, and we would definitely do it all again. (Again I would gladly be in charge of the camera?)

July 4th

This most recent holiday found us with my (Jill's) parents at Boys Ranch. We were there two nights and have tons to show for it. We rode horses, jumped on hay bales, saw beautiful fireworks, played in water and mud, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The pictures of the mud will require their own post - you'll see...

We also went to see my sister, Robin, and her new home. Afterwards we all lunched at McDonalds. With Dara and Dade gently supporting/coaxing/dragging (you can pick a word) her along my niece, Allyson, made it up to the top of the McDonald playground slide and down!



My camera battery died just before the fire works started so the only pictures I have are some family shots before the show started. Hopefully, you were able to see your own.


The next day we went on a hike to see where the Indian women used to grind their corn. It was kind of neat. To be honest, I was a bit preoccupied looking for snakes...it felt as if they were waiting for one of us to step on them. Thankfully, we never actually saw one. :)



There were several holes like this on this flat rock that we climbed up to. Apparently they would use another rock to grind the corn. I thought it was a very strange place to do such a job, but when I saw the view - it seemed obvious. The task of grinding corn probably took a long time and the women could act as look outs while they were working. Don't know if it's true, but it sounds good.


I did find another way that our God is so wonderful, besides protecting us from all the snakes, there were these beautiful little flowers growing among the rocks. There hasn't been rain out there for quite some time, no one sees up there, and yet God thought it best to let these tiny little flowers decorate an otherwise barren hill side. Isn't He great!

A Hard Head

Just another funny story I thought many of you might enjoy. Besides, I don't want Jill to be the only one who ever gets to laugh at my expense.

A few weeks ago, we were at Home Depot and decided to pick up a swing to hang from our HUGE pecan tree out back. We picked up the swing, some additonal rope and a few other supplies. Needless to say, Dade wouldn't quit asking when I was going to put it up. So, after a few days of delaying, I went to my dad's house, borrowed his extension ladder and got started.

The swing went up relatively easy. It took a little rigging, but I finally got it hung in a way that didn't make me scared to let the kids use it. I even sat on it and jumped around a little making sure it wasn't going to slip out of the fastners I used. I was satisfied with a job well done and started picking up all my supplies. Here's where the title comes into play....

My dad's ladder has those real convienent hooks that lock the ladder in place. When taking it down, you use the pulley and disengage the hooks and it comes down relatively easy. So here I am.....standing UNDER the ladder.....and beginning to lower it. A normal thinking person would realize very quickly that eventually the ladder is going to fall below the branch it is resting on and thus, using the laws of gravity, will fall to the ground. However, my mind doesn't function that way....so as the ladder drops below the branch, I am happily lowering it with the pulley not quite yet grasping that the only thing between the ladder and the ground is my head.

The next thing I remember is yelling for Jill as stars clouded my vision. I won't bore you with the "holding my head in pain" part, but I haven't shaved my head since then because it was too sore and I was afraid of what a razor might do to the scabs that started forming. My head hurt for hours, reminding me that sooner or later, I have to start thinking like the age I truly am.

Until the next accident.........