September 2020

Coronavirus has descended upon Uganda, albiet in a slower rate than in other parts of the world. The USA has lost hundreds of thousands of people, while Uganda has been in lockdown. Now the lockdown has mostly been lifted. Hospitals are no longer treating people for free, and Corona tests cost $35 each, which is totally beyond what most people can afford. With hospitals turning positive cases away,... sending them back to their villages, there is no way that this pandemic can be kept silent. We pray for strong immunity for our friends, and wisdom to avoid meeting with potential carriers and outside people. May God pour His Grace upon us.

 

July 2020

Who is hit the hardest by the COVID-19 lockdown? Pastors are totally without an income, as no churches are meeting here, and no one gives "on-line". They are all suffering without enough food for their families. Because we see the lockdown may go on for a long time, we know they will need a sustainable way to survive. we started with giving them food, but have now switched to seeds to plant. Pastors are great farmers, planting spiritual seeds, and tending spiritual gardens, as well as physical gardens. We were able to help several pastors in Napak district, as well as every pastor in Moroto town. These all totalled about 47 pastors! We praise God that our people in America have come through so well to help us help them. God is with us!

 

March 2020

We are in Lockdown.  Waffle is locked in Ngenge, doing construction with some young men. Vehicles are not allowed to travel from district to district. I've now joined the Moroto District Corona Task Force. We are in charge of keeping the security on the Kenyan border, to prevent Coronavirus from crossing the international border. We have doctors and nurses stationed at checkpoints, with military and police to help with enforcement. Churches in the USA have helped us to purchase soap, hand washing stations, and food for those who got hit hard by the shutdown.

 

 

January 2019

Kidney stone pain is getting too much for Waffle, but he is pushing though with a couple Construction Short term mission teams that are here with us now. The urologist that has been doing his surgeries went on an extended Christmas vacation and won't be back for a few weeks... 

I, Val, had an excellent time with a great friend, Martha Wagner, helping with a women's conference in central Uganda. She and a friend from the US,    , put on a very insightful conference for women leaders from the region. I was able to facilitate some of the sessions, and really enjoyed the ladies and time with Martha.

1st construction project is in Ngenge, where we hope to one day have a Discipleship/Leadership Training center. At this time, all we can affort to build is a hut and a latrine!! The guys from NW Hills and Suburban Christian churches are great, and we are enjoying their company, camping together with them in the bush!  

2nd construction project is in Nabwal, working on a church and a pastor's house. They started it last year, but rains kept them from finishing, so they are working on it again.

3rd construction projec is with Sunset Presbyterian Chruch, from Beaverton. They are finalizing the Nurse's quarters for the Nakayot Peace Village Health Center. They are very good painters, and have really blessed us with nice conversations and spiritual discussions. 

Praise for the month: Construction teams and CLIDE worked together very well with the communities and were able to accomplish almost all of what they had hoped to do. The new clinic in the Nakayot Peace Village can now open and begin treating patients, as soon as we can get a nurse there. 

 

December 2018

CLIDE did a great job with the Timothy Retreat this year. NW Hills Community Church from Corvallis brought some excellent facilitators to love on the kids, and Waffle had some exciting games and activities for them. Most of the sponsored kids are growing up now, with over 50 in college and university! That's one of the nice things I like about our sponsorship program, is that we are able to take the kids through higher education, so that they can get a significant job when they are finished, which will bring their family out of poverty. So nice to see kids that I met as they came off the street from begging, in 2007, now finishing up their college years!

Waffle's Birthday is in December!! We had 3 parties for him!

 

Each Christmas, we go up to Kapchorwa to my (Val's) Uganda family home, the home of DK and Jessica Kissa. I met this family when I first came to Uganda, and their daughter Mary was my language teacher. Through the years of being together, we bonded and we feel like family together. One of Mary's brothers, Ali, is building a Bed and Breakfast in Sipi, Kapchorwa. A few years ago, he ran out of money to finish it, and we came in to help him with a loan. Now, it looks like we have become half owners of this budding establishment, so we are helping to put the doors on now, and beginning to bring furniture and other items, so that it can open for business sometime in 2019. We enjoyed the crashing sounds and cascading sight of Sipi waterfalls while there. 

Could not remove Waffle's kidney stones yet, as the doctor's assistant had cut off a sheath that was needed for the equipment, so it cannot be used now... They have ordered another one which should be here.... soon??

Praise for the Month: The vehicle arrived, I was able to meet it at the customs office and got some people to help me get it though the importation process. Amazingly, the customs tax people reduced the taxes that we were going to have to pay, so that we saved thousands of dollars! God is looking after us!

 

November 2018

Peace Celebration this month! 10 years of Nakayot joint resettlement. We were honoured to have some of the original "Grey Hairs" come to be with us for this celebration, to participate in praising God for His grace. Great to see how He has kept the peace alive and inspired us all to trust more deeply in His purposes.

Marriage Conference this month! Rolling Hills Community Church and Good Shepherd Community Church joined together with us to put on a Marriage Conference for Pastors and their wives. We learned how to "Leave, Cleave and Become One." Some transformational topics came up and we pray that the Lord will drive the points deeply into our hearts and help us all to honour Him more in our marriage relationships and love and respect each other more.

The new truck is on a ship, crossing the Indian Ocean!! Praying that no pirates meet up with it as it passes by Somalia!

Our friend, Dorie, got sick while she was here in Uganda and Rwanda. She had to be admitted to the hospital in Rwanda, where she got even weaker. She called me to let me know what was going on, as she had to cancel her flight home to the US. Within a few days, we realized that she was not recovering well, so I, Val, went to Rwanda to help transport her back to the states. We got wheel chair access and great treatment on the way. i got to spend Thanksgiving with some of my family members as well, so that was a special treat. My sister Deirdre and her husband Charlie had most of their kids around, so we had some great conversations and fun together. 

Waffle's kidney stones have not yet passed, another unsuccessful surgery... Lots of pain with a stent in now to keep the ureter from being blocked by the stone. 

Praise for the Month: Dorie is successfully in America!! It would have been impossible for her to arrange flights, make transfers, carry her bags and get to her flights on time... God had a good plan to allow me to escort her and help her along the way! PTL.

 

October 2018

Since we had to postpone the Celebrate Recovery workshop, I, Val, decided it may be good to go and visit my Mom in the US. She has been significantly deteriorating, so I wanted to have some time with her to let her know how much I appreciate her and admire her sacrifices for my life. It was a great time with family and lots of smiles and stories and some tears as well. God is good. 

On the way to the US, I stopped off in Dubai (UAE), to check out a used 4x4 pick-up there. It's a great vehicle, Toyota Land Cruiser 2014, double cabin pick-up. It's really strong with a 4.5l diesel engine (diesel is preferred since it's not as explosive, given the variables of travel out here in Uganda!). I decided to go ahead and buy it, and have it shipped to Uganda. Driving was a possibility, but passing through Yemen nor the Suez Canal seemed to be the best choices at this time! I got a good price on it and it looks like one that we can use for a long time.

While in Dubai for 30 hours, I thought, why don't I see some of the sights!? So I rented a vehicle to get around town and spent the night and the next day on adventures! I had a nice walk on the beaches of the Persian Gulf, saw one of the tallest buildings in the world, then went to a very fun water park, and swam with some sharks and rays! The biggest one was about 6 feet long. I really liked feeding the rays.

We had an excellent time with Sunset Presbyterian Church doing Chronological Bible Story crafting, now completing the entire set of 42 stories! We are so glad to have these in our hands now, and are busy translting them into Karamojong and Ateso so that our discipleship leaders can use them in the villages. We hope to have a training on them next year after they get translated.

Sunset also helped us with a Leather crafting workshop for some members from Lomoruchubae Peace Village. This is a perfect opportunity for them to have a good income generating project that can help them come out of poverty in this community. 

Waffle is having a painful kidney stone that is trying to pass. He had 2 unsuccessful surgeries this month, so we hope it can pass on its own now.

Praise for the Month:  We have a vehicle! We have aVehicle! We have a VEHICLE!! God has done an amazing job inspiring so many people to help through donations and prayers to make this happen. Thank you to everyone who responded to God's prompting and our requests. You all are wonderful!!

 

September 2018

This month began with "Honey Week" in Kampala. Val attended a Bee Symposium and training on bee keeping. We purchased some equipment and bees, and we are now in the Bee-Keeping profession!  We hope to do training in the villages near the mountains, where bee-keeping can be a very good livelihood. We are trying to discourage people from cutting firewood and making charcoal for income, so we hope this can be an alternative for some families.  

We were hoping to do a Celebrate Recovery workshop this month, but one of our facilitators, Cory, got in a boating accident and ended up in the hospital on dialysis for almost a week. He is recovering now, but we will need to postpone the workshop till next year. 

Trying to find a vehicle to purchase. I'd like a slightly used Land Cruiser Double cabin, but there has been a recent "Environmental Tax" that has been applied to all used vehicles (it was only for older ones earlier), so the costs have gone up $15,000! I'm not sure what to do yet, but will be praying for wisdom. Finding a used vehicle can also be challenging: Ordering from Japan, they don't have the right engine size.  Ordering from Dubai, they don't have Right Hand Drive. Ordering from South Africa, you have to pay S. African taxes as well as Uganda taxes!  Still searching!

 

August 2018

Thanks for praying for us this month. 

This was a great month for being in the Peace Villages. We had a wonderful meeting with the Nabwal community and were very encouraged and excited to be back in the villages there. They requested us to build some structures on the CLIDE land in Kapadokook, so we went ahead and put up a metal framed hut, which is "relatively fireprooof" in case of field fires that may come from crop residue burning in the area. The construction was facilitated by Waffle's trailer which could carry all the supplies and the new CLIDE cement mixer. It worked out great, although we ran out of cement before we were finished. We had a team of 10 helping with the construction and another 10 pounding big rocks into small rocks for the gravel/aggregate for the cement. The community was very happy for the work and they did an excellent job with us all. Waffle and I got a little sunburnt and exhausted from the tent camping and heavy work, but it was definitely worth it!

After the construction, Waffle was sick for more than 2 weeks with an upper respiratory infection that went from allergies to sinus infection, to bronchitis. We finally put him on a Z-pack that we found at an obscure pharmacy in Soroti, and he is doing better now.

July 2018

Great month for ducklings! Lots of new babies and several mother ducks sitting on their eggs!  Looking forward to getting them on Waffle's aquaponics pond, maybe next month. He's been busy pulling the 10,000 liter aquaponics tank out of the ground, as it was leaking and letting our water out.  The paint is also coming off, since the painters painted over the detergent that was used to clean the tank, so the paint didn't stick well... We removed the fish and put them in the smaller tank to keep them safe until the big tank can get fixed up properly.

Val's been busy with Celebrate Recovery prep this month, meeting with our potential leaders, or "Champions" and getting them set for the training next month. We are so excited to have a chance to speak in to the lives of people that are addicted to alcohol. this is one of the major things that keeps people from following Jesus here. Praying for God to lead our hearts as we open up to this new ministry.

Waffle had some great visits with our sponsored kids in their schools this month. We have set up Bible Clubs in several schools and he went to share spiritual lessons with them, and to encourage them in Chronological Bible Storying. He also went for an energetic fellowship in one of the schools. He had an amazing time, with over 100 kids turning to Christ and becoming born again!!

June 2018

Our annual planning meeting was this month, to prepare for the upcoming fiscal year. All of the CLIDE staff had done a great job at putting their ideas on paper and strategizing for the best approaches to bring hope and growth to the people in our communities. We praise God for the true servant leadership of Dr. Moses and continue to be impressed with the financail accountability and management processes that he has set up. 

We had a very good time hosting the One Challenge (OC) rep at the CLIDE office in Soroti this month. He brought us such encouragement and joy! OC is a very empowering organisation and totally understands how to work with indigenous ministries. They are willing to train members to increase their capacity and help us all to grow in our spiritual lives as well as in our ministries. Great to have such people by our sides! CLIDE is officially under One Challenge and recieves much of their funding through their office.

 

May 2018

How can we encourage our sponsored kids to be responsible, and to discourage dependency and laxity? Well, work study has been a great boost for our kids, helping them with leadership skills as well as practical knowledge for life.  During their school breaks, we call them to come work with us on various projects, training them with the necessary skills. This month, Waffle has been working with them on construction, painting, welding and aquaponics. Val works with them on tree planting, cultivating, harvesting and winnowing crops, as well as woodlot maintenance. They love learning new things, and have flourished in Waffle's training environment. He really knows how encourage, equip and at times rebuke them in ways that help them to grow in self-esteem and responsibility.  Praise God for His work in Waffle during his Boy Scout years and Rock Climbing years!

 

April 2018

I'm (Val) still in the states after a time with Otims last month. I stayed around to do some work on our Fossil house, have some time with family, as well as to have some time with God.  I always like to have a spiritual retreat before I head back out to Africa each new term. Prayer and Fasting is my emphasis during this time, as it really helps me to center my heart on the Lord and to experience a deeper communion with Him. 

Our Fossil house siding is peeling off, exposing the boards underneith. Looks like we will have a project of putting on siding next furlough! (2020) 

A wonderful friend provided a perfect home in Oceanside for a time with my sister, Deirdre and her son, Isaak. We shared beautiful sunsets, breaching whales, frollicking sea lions, and sandy beach walks together. So glad to have a sister to share life's ups and downs and pray together and pursue God together. 

Another wonderful friend provided a sweet home on a lake for my prayer and fasting time. Without time with God before plunging into the challenges of Africa, I find that i crash right away, and don't have the spiritual stamina to endure ministry roadblocks, delays, marathons and battles that we encounter out there. I also find I get sick more when I'm not as tuned into what God is doing... Interesting connections between the spiritual and the physical.

My good friend Lorelle also visited me at the lakeside retreat. Great to reconnect with her and have time to share our hearts as well. 

Flight to Uganda through Qatar!  First time to Qatar, but flights were very inexpensive. They are in need of US currency, since other MidEast countries are coming against them these days. Had a chance to visit the desert sand dunes and go on a camel ride!  Since I had the unexpected, ungraceful drop off my horse in Eastern Oregon, and the ensuing surgeries and months of physical therapy, i hadn't ventured onto the back of any riding animal! It was good to "get back on" and not let fears keep me down! Fortunately, he was mild mannered, although he liked to spit rumen fluid at the customers, so he had to have his nose and mouth covered with a knitted "nose mitten"!

 

March 2018

Otims go to America! Wow, what an awesome month with the Otims! We visited churches, spoke in Sunday Schools, went to lots of potlucks and had great prayer times with everybody! We really appreciate how everyone has bonded to them and taken them under their wings! God has blessed us with a great fellowship and comradery, that is rare in cross-cultural relationships. We praise God for bringing our hearts to understanding and for the great humility and love that we have seen during our visits in homes and churches. God is sooo good! 

We are also happy to see that several churches have agreed to support the CLIDE team, as represented by Dr. Moses and Christine Otim, in their monthly Missions offerings. Praise God for His guidance in helping to get the CLIDE team on a stronger, more sustainable foundation! God is great!

February 2018

Praising God for the great efforts of our Construction teams!  Despite intense heat, and downpours of rain, the teams pressed on through it all, to help work on the Pastors' home and Church in Nabwal, one of our peace villages. Staying in tents, that soon prooved to be no longer water proof, was one of the challenges they faced together. The communities really enjoyed having them around, however, and the fellowship and joint projects were great for spiritual converstations and growth on all sides.

Waffle also got quite sick, and the team really came behind him to help and encourage him.

Dr. Liz Hoffman and her daughter Julia helped with vet work on pets as well as working with livestock in the peace communities. They are real troopers!!

Val and Otims traveled to the USA this month to meet with churches and friends for fund raising and networking. Lots of enjoyable opportunites to share what God is doing through CLIDE and to allow everybody to get to know the Otims better.

 

January 2018

So glad to have our buddy, Joel Schmidt here, from Portland. He really helped us on our trip to Uganda, and is now a major part of Waffle's planning for the construction teams coming shortly. Great to have a deputy for Waffle to mentor and guide and be by his side! God answers prayers!

Our Construction team from Sunset Presbyterian came to help us with the Nurse's quarters and the Medical Center in Nakayot, one of our peace villages. They were such an encouragement and joy to be around. They even helped Val when her hand could not work to comb her hair or put in her hair tie. 

 

 

 

May 2017

Arrival in the US! After a few days of jet-lag recovery with our friends Mike and Gail, Waffle and I got our RV from the Walker home (after a yummy BBQ) and rolled out on the highway for our furlough time here with you all! We love the RV, as it helps us be flexible and available, plus, sleeping in various parking lots and on the curbs of our friends' home adds to the adventure! NW Hills parking lot is our favorite, with a great view of the forest, and daily creatures strolling by: squirrels, deer (including a 3 legged buck), humming birds with a flock of wild turkeys gobbling (toms and jakes) and yelping (all)!

It's been so wonderful to see friends and reconnect. I've missed you all and Africa can feel very lonely at times. Sadly, we've left behind our team members to deal with many challenging situations: Dozens of children that can't go to school because of a lack of school fees, onset of malaria season, and a looming famine. With the short rains coming just as we left Uganda, the communities have a potential hope for a harvest in 3 months (but what can they eat in the meantime?). Children are looking so skinny, and our friends are more hecticly searching for income to make up for their lack of harvested food from last year.There are reports that 20 have died so far. That's tough to pull up our roots and fly away to the US without a few tears and tugs on our hearts. Please pray for our friends and help as you can.

Had some great visits with my (Val's) family! Neice, Rebecca (daughter of sister Michele), wed in Virginia, and saw my Mom in Medford, together with fun sisters Deirdre, Holly, Veronica and our brother Jerry and his wife Laura. We are all checking our geneology and found out surprisingly that we have some significant Viking blood!  It looks like those Viking raiders came down from 800 AD - 1000 AD and raided and traded in Ireland with our ancestors!  

 

April 2017

Landy is fixed!!! Waffle is so wonderful! He spent a couple weeks struggling with various mechanics, travelling up and down on public transport, then finally loading it on a vehile carrier (which ended up not having significant brakes, and would not shift gears properly) and carrying it to Kampala. The owners of the carrier got tired on the 13 hour trip, so Waffle took over the driving for them, and discovered the brakelessness! A couple thousand dolllars later, and we had the Landy back up and running. So glad to have it, but perhaps we need to think of getting a more reliable 2nd vehicle... We're beginning to check out the options available...

HEY!! We are coming to the states soon! Be sure to call and book us to visit you!  We love to see your family, your kids, and your pets!  Let's share our stories and our hearts together. We will reach US soil on 28th April, but will be in Virginia for the weekend, since Val's neice is getting married there. Val will get into Oregon on Monday, May 1st, and Waffle will arrive on Wednesday.  See you soon!

Two more youngsters were added to the fold this month, a newborn Bohor Reedbuck calf and a young duiker that got caught in a leg trap. It's a difficult season here, as we wait for rains to plant food for the year. Last year's harvest was poor, so the people are more desparate for food, so unfortunately, the environment suffers. They kill more wildlife, they cut down more trees to sell for firewood and for making charcoal for sale. As they kill the adult animals, they bring the young to us, to raise and release. It is a challenging thing to know what to do, but we can't let these young ones die. I will need to amputate the leg of the duiker that got caught in the trap.

March 2017

Great month with the team in the villages! The discipleship groups are doing great!  We took our Archdeacon Sam to visit them and he was so impressed with the way that non-literate villagers can tell the Bible stories, and lead each other in discussion of the Bible!!! We love to see God at work, and praise Him that His Word will never go out and come back void. :) May His Spirit rest on their hearts and give them comfort, wisdom and joy!

The Land Rover was broken alot this month, but we have a very good mechanic working on it. Hope to see it strong and back on the road soon!

The dry season is extreme this month. the rains have delayed and people are worried about their crops this year. Praying for rain to bring grass for the livestock, and milk for people to drink.

We have a new addition to our family!  A baby bush duiker. Her name is Melissa. Her mother was killed by warriors, and they brought her to us, out of mercy. She is a sweet little one, and drinks milk and formula from a bowl. She loves to folllow us around and butt our calves with her head to get us to give her more milk!  She has become friends with the dogs, so we are staying well together here in Kangole.

 

February 2017

Yaayyy! Dr. Mary McDonald came to visit! with her son, Jack IV! Val and Mary went up to Gulu where Mary has some great relationships with the Anglican Church. They did some training for the church in Spiritual Integration into development initiatives, as well as training in Goat Health and Husbandry, for 40 recipients (mostly widows and orphans) of goat revolving loans. What a joy to see how the Lord is working through Mary and to see the communities respond to her heart for the Lord. Over a dozen people committed their lives to Christ through her messages, including one church development leader!  God is good!

Val, Waffle, Mary and Jack IV then went over to Murchison Falls National Park for some more adventures! Elephants tromping down the road next to our Landy, zebras watching us carefully, lions parading across the plain, hippos chuckling in the evening (and one even tried to get into Mary's tent!). It was a great time together, with lots of fun memories!  The Nile Delta cruise was Val's favorite, since she finally got to see the awesome Shoebill Stork!! In her 25 years here in Uganda, she has never seen one until this month! The winds were too rough for them to do the Valentines' Day Balloon ride over the park. Maybe next time, Mary and Jack!

The Landy broke down at the end of this month. Looks like it will be some significant repairs: Fuel Injection, Turbo, Brakes, Suspension... We love our Landy, so we'll get it back going soon, hopefully!

Our hedgehog babies are growing up and getting quite a bit spikier! The male, whom we call Pokeman, is very freindly and affectionate. He loves to crawl on our warm hands and tries to nuzzle against us. His father is rejecting him now, and trying to chase him away from the family dwelling (an overturned half of a dog crate). We supplement his attempts at nursing on his mom with extra milk formula. He's growing well and bright and perky! (and Pokey!)

January 2017

Wonderful visitors this month!!! Dr. Liz Hoffman came and helped Val by doing surgery on dozens of dogs and cats, and vaccinating them as well. She is a very skilled surgeon and enjoys the cross cultural interactions with the Karamojong. We did some climbing on Mt. Napak and treated animals with one of our CAHWs (Community Animal Health Workers), Micky Michael.

Liz's husband, Andy Hoffman, brought a team of his buddies from Suburban Christian Church, in Corvallis, Oregon. These rugged men spend 2 weeks camping in the bush of the Peace Villages, working on construction. They designed and started the building the Nakayot Primary School Kitchen and Storeroom. These guys were amazing together, and really had a great way of befriending the villagers. Each of them shared some of their life story in the various churches around, and had a chance to pray for the people. We loved being a part of their ministry!

We have some very friendly hedgehogs that someone brought to us!  The local people like to eat these spikey little creatures (Recipe: coat in mud, put directly in the coals, remove after 29 minutes, peel off dried mud with attached spines, Enjoy!), but we think they are very cute, so how could we eat them!? So we end up collecting various ones and they become our pets. We have a mom and 2 babies now, as well as a young female and an adult male.

December 2016

Wonderful Timothy Retreat time with visitors from NW Hills Community Church in Corvallis, Oregon.   CLIDE sponsors over 130 children in school, through the gifts of many friends in the US. 

We are approaching a challenging time, as it looks like we are leaving Christian Veterinary Mission after 21 years together. Things just couldn't work out and we were all tired of trying to force a partnership where there was conflict in many directions. Wish it could have worked out, but we know that the Lord is using us, and has great purposes for us in whichever place He puts us.

Our ducklings continue to grow, and we have two more clutches on the ground!  That makes over 40 duckies!  We have started giving them away and cooking them for friends and neighbors!

November 2016

Waffle will be going to the US for his annual check-up for his Thyroid Cancer this month. He may have a chance to see a few of you during his short visit.  Look for him in Corvallis and Portland!

Some things are going rough right now. CVM is not content with our work and ministry. We are also struggling to decide if we want to continue with them, as we have many things about the organisation that are not working out for us. We will meet with them this month.

October 2016

Wonderful Leadership Training workshop with Jonathan Martin from Good Shepherd Church!  About 40 pastors came together from several denominations to share their experiences and talk about servant leadership. Great time to see God work on His shepherds. They had great fellowship and stepped forward in greater confidence towards the next challenges in their ministries.

Waffle had a great VBS (Vacatoin Bible School) with the MAF pilot's children in Jinga this month! He loves to challenge children and get them excited about the Lord and about sharing the Light that is within them. He was able to facilitate the various topics together with his good friend, Cory Woodsum, whom he has known for a couple decades!

Mike and Gail Hildenbrand are coming to visit us also this month. They are like our heart pastors, meeting us where we are and walking side by side with us. We sure love them!

September 2016

Time for kids to go back to school! We have some excellent students in the Non-Timothy program who are sponsored by our friends in the US. We have them come for work-study with us during their holiday times, in order to earn some spending money for school: to buy books, pens, a backpack, mattress, etc. We had a great time with them doing tree planting and they really boosted Waffle's aquaponics project, by digging a big pool in the ground!  I was hoping for a jacuzzi, but he's not sure the fish would enjoy it as much as I would!

Stephen Aleper, our Discipelship Coordinator, had a great time this month with Waffle, recording songs to match our Chronologial Discipleship training materials. They chose choir members from Kangole, taught them the songs, then set up a recording studio!  The recording came out great, so we are now planning to copy them onto small MP3 players so that the Discipleship leaders can have them for their classes!  Great fun!

Our duck project is growing! We started with one duck, 4 years ago, (a gift from a happy shepherd, after I did a umbilical hernia surgery on his heifer) and she remained only one duck for quite awhile. She was staying at the local watering hole, but her ducklings kept getting eaten by wild animals and raptors.  A year later, the same shepherd came with another effected heifer (from the same mother) and I did that umbilical hernia surgery as well, and recieved Duck 2, a male. They produced again at the watering hole, but when we saw the young ones disapearing, we snatched up the last remaining pair, and brought them to our home, where Waffle had constructed a labyrinth of bird and mammel cages. We have a wonderful clutch of ducklings now, splashing around in their buried wheelbarrow pond! I love to watch them play and waddle around!

Val had a great time of spiritual reflection with our interns, before they headed back to the US. It was so interesting to see how God was working in their lives, and to see how their time in the villages of Uganda has impacted them. We know that the Lord has continued, significant purposes for both of them, and that this will be a stepping stone for their future. May their lights continue to shine and ignite others!

 

July 2016

Community Animal Health Worker training!! We brough together our 12 CAHWs this month for their second training. They were able to remember almost all that we taught them the first training, and we added new diseases, obstectrical manipulations, as well as poultry medicine to their knowledge base. We had additional interns come in and help us, including Jenny Yee, Matt, and

Jenny and Victoria stayed around longer and helped set up a piggery project, help with drip irrigation, train villagers in goat health and husbandry and distribute about 40 goats to widows and orphans. They also did some work with dogs and cats, including Rabies vaccinations. They sure are hard workers!

 

June 2016

CLIDE Annual planning time. Each team member develops the plan for their department, in line with our 5 year strategic plan. They set up the activities and budget them, according to our projected incomes. It's great to see the leadership that they demonstrate in this process, and the great ideas that are generated when we all come together to share and integrate our ministries together. It looks like it's going to be a great year!

Two interns began their internships with us this month: Victoria Warner and Jaimie Lyn. We really have enjoyed getting to know them and seeing the great potential that they have to serve and love on people. the communities have enjoyed them, and they are even learning some Karamojong and Teso language skills!

Our doves are doing well. One laughing dove and one mourning dove! I guess we need all the emotions! Waffle also is accumulating leopard tortoises, so we have a stack of them that enjoy being ontop of each other! They eat cabbage and other vegies.

Sad story: We had some baby guinea fowl that we hatched under our chickens, but unfortunately, they met a difficult ending... We put them into our Aviary, where we keep the doves and a couple of hedgehogs, but we didn't realize that hedgehogs are extremely carnivorous! Despite being fed plenty of small dried fish (omena) every day, they have an appetite for baby birds. they snuck up on them at night and ate them all!! We were quite traumatized at first, as we imagined their fright at having little hedgehogs grabbing them... We will be more careful next time. So sorry, little guinea fowl chicks!

 

February 2016

 

 

January 2016

Great visit with family and friends. We sure do miss you all when we are in Uganda. Thanks for being such encouragers to us, and for loving us well! 

 

December 2015

I'll be home for Christmas! Yay!!  Looking forward to seeing everyone and getting a break for a bit. Hey, Mom! I'm on my way soon! 

 

 

November 2015

What a busy month! 

We had an amazing ECHO Peace Conference in Arua, with many international Peace Builders with a great variety of peace building techniques and strategies. It was exciting to learn of their victories and challenges and share our stories as well. Tribal warfare has caused horrendous damages to cultures and communities. As Christians, we are called to share the Gospel of Reconciliation with them, and to bring them to peace with themselves, with their neighbors and with God. It was an inspiring time.

Our Team Retreat at Mtu Munyoni with the CLIDE members was wonderful!! We were refreshed and energized! Waffle did some very amusing games with us, and we had some opportunities to dive deeper into God's word, and apply it to our lives and our team. It was alot of fun, and we loved to see Judith bounding on the trampoline!

Road trip!!! We went up to Wamba to do a Camel distribution and camel health training in Samburu, Kenya. The church there is so vibrant and energized! They share freely with one another and look after each other's needs. They take time to pray for each other and assist each other when problems come up. Why is our N. American church not willing or able to look after their poor, to nurse those who are sick, or to visit those who are in prison? We have instigated a revolving camel and goat loan program with them, such that they can care for the poor in their communities by providing them a young female camel or doe goat, which, when it grows and reproduces, will provide a young female to another person in their community. It's a great way for the church to show love to their communities and to build up the body of believers!

 October 2015

Friends from Sunset Presbyterian Church, from Beaverton, Oregon, were gracious enough to come and train our team and our discipleship leaders in Chronological Bible Storying! What a treat to see the Bible come to life in their stories and to see the community members work hard at memorizing and sharing the stories with one another.  We have completed the first 8 of 42 stories that we plan to have, stretching from Creation to the Resurrection. 

 

September 2015

Waffle learned about Aquaponics! We have a new opportunity to improve nutrition and income for families in NE Uganda, through Aquaponics: which is a combination of intensive fish farming and hydroponic vegetable farming.

 

August 2015

Val spoke at the Rockview Baptist church, in Soroti during their Women's Conference. She enjoys encouraging other women to step out in faith, trusting the Lord with each step and each obstacle that they find on their way. It was great to see so many women with a fire burning for the Lord!

 

 

July 2015

Great times with our Ethno-vet interns this month!  We have 3 interns from Uganda's main university, Makerere, with us for a few months. They are helping with our herbal medicine research and development programmes. We plan on investigating medicine for treating fleas and mites on chickens, malaria in people. They will help collect medicinal plants up on Mt. Moroto and Mt. Napak, and bind them in pressed plant binders, for educational use in the villages. We also had a fun time at the Karamoja Cultural Day in Moroto!

 

June 2015

Off to the Beach in Kenya! We enjoyed a break from Uganda, to visit with other CVM missionaries from all around Africa!  it was great to visit with and learn from several other missionaries who are also going through many of the same challenges that we face in Uganda. We also learned some good health and safety techniques to use in case of terrorism or other insecurity in our region.

 

 

April 2015

Back in Uganda, and so happy to be home again!  Transitions are always hard, and we have some new tasks for this year, but we are excited to see God's hand at work around us.  We are looking forward to doing some team building exercises this year, as well as an organisational assessment. Our main village ministries will be in discipleship and construction, as well as Waffle doing some pastoral visits and training.

Our home in Kangole is fine, except that a few of the chickens and quite a few of the chicks did not surviving the extreme heat of the dry season and the unquenchable appetite of the kites, hawks and owls that soar above our home.

We had a wonderful time with Tom White and friends in Gulu! He facilitated an excellent workshop and prayer summit, aimed at building on the peace work in the region. We look forward to seeing how God uses Tom's investment in the lives of the Gulu church leaders.

The CLIDE team is also doing well, with strong plans for this coming fiscal year. We will be doing our annual planning shortly and are anticipating God's leading and blessing as we walk in His way.

 

February 2015

Waffle and Dr. Val are currently in the states.  We came here initially to spend time with Waffle's mom, who was quite sick.  Val also had a PeaceMaker conference that she was speaking in.  That was September.  

October 2014 we spent in sunny California doing various trainings and counseling times including Link Care, Relational Wisdom, LIFO and SYIS (Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills).  They were all very insightful and we really enjoyed the various trainings so much.  

November took us back to California, as we thought that Waffle's mom may not make it until Christmas.  Amazingly, God helped to identify the problems that she was having!  Waffle's sister Leigh took her to another hospital and she was diagnosed with autoimmune dermatomyositis, which is an immune reaction against her own skin and muscles, leading to general body weakness, skin deteriortion and loss of strength and muscle tone. After beginning her treatment, she went to a very good rehab facility where she began to eat, walk and move again!  Praise God for His mercy on her life.  We also had some good conversations about God with her which were very encouraging.

December we had time in Oregon, then back to California for Christmas with Waffle's sister and family.  It was great to have some time with them and to see how God is working in their lives as well.  

The year 2015 opened up with us driving back to Oregon in our little, red Jeep.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary together and had a nice trip to the rainy Oregon coast in our little RV. We love to spend time together and enjoyed a relaxing time in the rain with a walk on the beach.  We also had some nice times with our borderdoodle, Papatika.  We sure missed her in Africa, as she wasn't able to get on the plane with us and had to stay here in the states.