Handfuls of Blessings

What a wonderful month we have had -- busy, yet full of riches. We returned last night from a fun-filled week at Keith's parents.  So many people at their church apologized to him for not properly greeting him before the service because they didn't recognize him.  He doesn't fully understand the transformation that others see and keeps asking, "Do I really look so different?" December 2009 December 2010 On the 20th, I had a Ladies Christmas Party and enjoyed having the ladies in our home for fun and food.  The next night we got together with another missionary family for a small Christmas celebration.  Then after church on Wednesday we went to an English couple's house for caroling and more food.  For Thursday soulwinning I took the ladies to the hospital for caroling.  Saturday we had an 8:00 Christmas service with a full church, and then we traveled to Mbarara.  We had challenged our people throughout the month with the thought that "Everyon...

Pastor Josue Satunero - missionary to Uganda from the Philippines What a great week we have had!  We have been stirred by the powerful preaching of Missionary Josue Satunero and encouraged by the fruit of our missions giving.  Each night, we brought in members from one of our village churches and baptized any new converts.  The members sang songs, and the leader for each church gave a report.  By the end of the week we had seen 32 baptized and 1 saved.  Our mission commitment for 2011 is about $2,200.  Our God is great!  Today after our morning service we ate lunch at the church and then met back in our auditorium to pray for each missionary that we support.  What a great ending to a superb conference. Mbira church singing during the conference. In daily life, the grasshopper season is drawing to an end and yet the weather is still very cool - ok, temperatures in the 70s are cool to us.  When we hear about the snow the States is get...

Our official count down for departure began on Wednesday at the 100 day mark.  Never before have we looked forward to furlough like we have this term.  Usually we are dragging our feet and refusing to look at a calendar, but both Keith and I have felt the need for a break.  But as we prepare to leave, I look around and am reminded of all of the blessings I am going to miss.  So, I have decided to make note of one thing each day and will try to include them in my posts. Mom & Dad, Alisha, Keila and Matt The Lord blessed us with a great family Thanksgiving get-together.  Thanksgiving day was beautiful with a bright sun and warm weather.  Keith's family met us at the private swimming pool of our friends, where we enjoyed a spaghetti lunch between the splashes of water.  Our actual Thanksgiving meal was on Friday.  We didn't fix turkey, but the two chickens I found were big enough to be considered turkeys.  And the ham was so delicious...

Whoever came up with the idea that candlelight meals are romantic did NOT spend any time in Africa.  I can remember during our last furlough when someone offered to watch our children so that Keith could take me out for a nice candlelight meal.  I replied with an adamant, "NO, not candlelight!"  They were shocked.  My idea of a nice meal?  A bright chandelier hanging over the table illuminating my food (so I can see what I'm eating) and my family (so I can see who I am talking to).  Thursday morning Keith was reading our family devotions after breakfast and suddenly stopped in exasperation.  The candle wax had dripped onto the book.  And, yes, we buy dripless candles - - at least that is what the box says!  However, our children get a thrill out of the unusual wax art that is made from the melting wax. My children have developed a panic look on their faces when they see me with a box in hand.  "Mom, what are we going to read after you ...

Shirts were a gift from another missionary  Taking family photos at our house is always a major event, hence, it happens only about once a year.  Here are some recent attempts: While most people never see the equator in their lifetime, we have passed over it hundreds of times. Savannah steals the show Doesn't Keith look so slim! At least Savannah looks comfortable! Sunday during our morning service we had a big thunderstorm.  Our auditorium has a tin roof, so the noise of the rain was deafening.  The song leader had to walk up to me and shout the page number so I would know what to play on the keyboard.  He would shout the number to the congregation, the first row would shout it behind them to the next row and on back.  Since they couldn't hear the keyboard all that well, they were just singing their heart out - using their own tune and timing.  It is a good thing the Bible says to "Make a joyful NOISE unto the Lord!" ...

Do you ever wonder what happens to a missionary's house while he is in the States?  Our previous furloughs we took things off of the walls, draped sheets over the furniture, and locked the doors.  Some missionaries move out of their houses, and others store everything in containers.  This time things will be different for us.  A fellow missionary will be returning from their furlough in January and will be staying in our house during our absence.  This will keep our house occupied, as well as give them time to find a house of their own.  So the cleaning, sorting and packing has begun. My book-loving kids are begging, "Please don't pack these books, yet.  What will we have to read?"  Washing the living room walls   For several weeks in a row, our ladies soulwinning team has seen someone saved each week.  Tonight my partner and I were making visits and were able to lead a Jaja (elderly lady) to the Lord.  Please pray for the me...

We have given Skyler an additional name - Shiloh's Angel.  At 1:30 this morning, Skyler woke Keith and I up again with the words, "Shiloh's sick."  (Even writing about it sends my heart racing.)  The symptoms were the same as our last scare with the addition of headache and blindness.  In garbled speech, Shiloh kept asking if we could take the mask off so he could see.  Shiloh & Rufus - His Diabetes Bear Let me give you a peek into our hospital experience.  We arrived at the hospital to find the emergency room door locked, and no one around.  I went in a different entrance and began knocking on doors.  A nurse woke up, and I told her that I wanted an I.V. of Ringer Lactate for Shiloh..  I asked her to call either one of two physicians whose names I had given her.  After 40 minutes of waiting, a totally different doctor came.  This doctor and nurse stood by watching as Shiloh vomited and offered no assistance.  I asked ...

Where would we be without computers?  Well...I found out as I was nearly a week without mine.  My greatest fear when it first gave me the totally black screen was that everything was lost.  Praise the Lord - my documents were retrievable but all emails were wiped out.  Which means...all of my email addresses, too.  But that is such a small amount of loss compared to the possibility of everything being gone.  So...if you have corresponded with us in the past year, you might want to send us an email letting us know your email address. This week we have been getting plenty of rain which gives us nice, cool weather perfect for African Chai or Hot Cocoa.  We have a spice here called Tea Masala that makes the chai soooooo good.  I am already stocking up on it to take back with us on furlough, since I am so addicted to it.  Drinking chai is my stress reliever (yes, I drink a lot of it), my comforting drink (especially when having a culture day), a...

Savannah has finally reached the age everyone thinks she is - three years old!  She is tall, talks a mile a minute, and has a storehouse of "wisdom" from five older siblings, so for several months people have thought she was older than two.  She was blessed to have her Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Alisha be here for her special day. Savannah loves her sister and tries to imitate anything she says or does.  She likes to use Stanley as her horse and take rides around the house.  She looks to Shane as her protector to save her from the dogs (and to carry her around).  Skyler thinks up new ways to get her to scream, and Shiloh is her quiet buddy who she depends on to help her.  Siblings look on as she opens her presents How thankful we are for our six blessings and the joy they bring to our home.  We pray that each one of them lives fully for Christ as His servant.

Grandpa Stensaas (61) and Stanley (13) I'm two days late posting Stanley's birthday pictures, but some unexpected events came up.  Stanley was blessed with two cakes again this year.  He shares a birthday with his Grandpa, so when Mom & Dad stayed with us last week, I fixed a chocolate cake for the birthday boys to enjoy together.  Shane getting dunked by Keith On Wednesday, we took the kids swimming.  Some Danish friends allow us to use their private pool, which we especially enjoy doing for birthdays.  Stanley wanted to float his penguin in the pool.  I wasn't willing to risk it. I'm not sure what inspired his request, but Stanley asked for a penguin cake. Savannah drying off and getting warmed up Also on Wednesday, my husband reached his goal of losing 70 pounds!  Congratulations!  For seven months, he has worked diligently.  He has a great amount of self-discipline, and I admire his perseverance. Skyler throwing ...

"Mom, when can we pick up more people?"  I was a little baffled.  It was Sunday morning, and we had just picked up four of our neighbors for church, making our 8 passenger van tight with 14 people now in it.  Everyone was quietly laughing at Skyler's seemingly outrageous question. Skyler exhibiting hospitality to a tailess lizard "What do you mean?  Didn't we just pick up some people?"  I asked him in a puzzled tone. "Not here, from the airport!  When can daddy get more people?"  Our kids love company!  This is the 270th day of the year, and we have had visitors in our home 114 of those days.  (This excludes the lady living in our guest quarters who teaches at our orphan school.)  God has richly blessed us with many visitors during this term, and our children think it strange when we don't have guests. May they always keep the mind of Christ in being "lovers of hospitality."

"Ok, Shiloh, you have a spelling test today.  Let me get your book."  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Shiloh was headed out the door with a piece of sidewalk chalk.  Running away from his lesson?  Not at all.  Shiloh loves to take his tests on the driveway.  And because it is so fun, the others are scrambling out of their seats wanting to take his test, too.  After eleven years of homeschooling, I have learned a lot myself.  One thing is to let the students have fun while learning.  Why writing spelling words with chalk is more fun than a pencil, I'm not sure, but I sure have a better day when my children are eager in their work. Shiloh enjoying his outside spelling test Another lesson I have learned is to use the curriculum that the kids love.  This year we used The Story of the World for history for Stanley and Shiloh.  The book is so interesting that the other kids were finding excuses to be in the living room to...

One of the blessings of missionaries is seeing new churches started.  What is really exciting is to see the nationals answer the call of God to step out in faith and begin churches on their own.  Brother JJ Kalanzi and his family has done this 30 minutes from our Masaka church in the village of Mbira.  This is an area where many of our orphans have come from, and the church was begun as a result of several of the orphan guardians getting saved.  The Kalanzi family is doing a great work for God, and the devil is not happy. Two weeks ago, Brother JJ brought 15 new Christians to our Wednesday evening service to be baptized.  Praise the Lord!  On his return back to Masaka from taking them home, four men threw a log in front of his vehicle, forcing him to stop.  They pulled him from his Prado and began searching it for cash and cell phones.  Brother JJ fought the one man guarding him and then ran into the bush.  He waited in the dark for about ...

Mismatched - But Both Sandals When Shane was little (and much shorter), I can remember him arriving at church and immediately taking off his shoes and socks every week.  He could tolerate wearing them the short distance from home to church, but then off they came.  Mismatched - But Both Closed-Toed Savannah is the opposite; she loves wearing shoes - but unmatched ones!  When we get home from church, off goes one shoe and on goes another - of a different style.  Unmatched - But Both Crocs  Because she is always wearing unmatched shoes, it becomes quite the challenge to find a match when we do leave the house, even for other family members since she likes to wear our shoes, too. Unmatched - Totally! How beautiful are the feet of my darling daughter.  May she always find a way to brighten our day.

One of the things that missionaries find themselves doing a couple of times a year is filling out questionnaires from supporting churches.  These range in length from one page to four or more pages with varying questions.  Last week I was filling one out that asked for the clothes sizes of our family.  That one always throws me for a loop.  By the time two or more boys have worn the shoes, the size has completely worn off.  Or if I have purchased the shoes here, I never remember what the conversion is (my son wears a size 39?).  I was checking the label of a pair of trousers, and it said 52.  Hmmm...what size is that?  I couldn't find a single American size in one of the boys' stack of trousers.  (Trousers are worn on the outside.  The term "pants" is used for the undergarment.)  So how do I get clothes with such strange sizes? My shopping for clothes involves several hours of searching and digging.  In our area, we have two ...

An incident occurred yesterday that I am not free to mention here but would like to ask you to pray about. In the wee hours of the morning when sleep failed me, the Lord gave me the following lesson that I taught in my Ladies' Sunday School class this morning. This is an abbreviated version. Luke 1:49 “For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.” How could Mary say this? She had just received word that she was expecting a child although she was unwed. Because of this condition, she could have been stoned (Leviticus 20:10). No doubt, many of her friends shunned her. Perhaps mothers even prohibited their children from speaking to her. Why would God bring such “humiliation” on someone who was in His favor? God had a gift of honor hidden beneath the wrapping paper of scorn and embarrassment. Honor that would last for centuries. Mary looked upon this as a “great thing.” Great things come in different forms: * To the street child, a meal ...

It is very rare that we are away from our home for more than a couple of days at a time, so when we returned to Masaka yesterday from an 8-day absence - - oh...Home Sweet Home!  It had been about seven years since we last visited the ministries in Soroti, so there were many changes that we saw during our visit.  We were blessed by the hospitality of the Pittmans and enjoyed the fellowship of all of the missionaries there.  Cool Princesses - Savannah & Micayla Pittman It is amazing how different one town can be from another, although they are in the same country.  Because Soroti is flat, bicycles (or boda-bodas) are the main public transportation.  Here in Masaka, motorcycles (or piki-pikis) are used because of our hilly terrain.  We saw just as many women as men riding bicycles up there, while down here it is socially unacceptable for women to pedal a bicycle, although they do ride "side-saddle" when being transported.  Most of the people in t...

Yellow because I'm Keith's Yellow Rose of Texas.  Red because he loves me so much. How special I feel.  This year my birthday celebration lasted for over a week.  Nearly every day, I was presented with a gift.  When Keith returned from Kampala on the 13th, he brought me two large bouquets of roses for my birthday.  (We can't get fresh flowers here in Masaka, so he was sure to plan ahead.)  On the 15th, Brother Ron Reece, who is visiting us on a survey trip, blessed our family with many gifts, including a birthday gift from him and his wife.  Shae-Lynn and Shane gave me their presents on Wednesday, the 18th.  Gathering at Mom & Dad's house in Mbarara. Keith's family always has prank gifts for him. Keith gave me one of his presents on the 19th, and then while we were in Mbarara, we celebrated all of the August birthdays on the 20th at Mom & Dad's. Savannah enjoyed helping me unwrap. Shae-Lynn was determined that I have our...