MISSIONS CONFERENCE

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 getting, we shiver and think, "We are going to freeze to death on furlough!"  As Keith told our people this morning, "I have learned two things in losing weight.  One is that these benches are really hard.  Two is that I am cold!"  On both of these accounts Keith used to make light of our misery.  He says he is truly sympathetic now.  He has worn his jacket more in the last two months than I think he has the whole time we have been in Uganda. 

It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is just two weeks away.  Since we had electricity all day, I started some Christmas baking of cookies and pumpkin bread.  All of the presents that are ready have been wrapped, and our kids are counting down the days until we go to Grandma's house and see her big tree (oh, and her and Grandpa, too!).  We are so blessed to have relatives on the field with us!

Blessing Countdown:
#97: Cellphone Plan - No company here charges for incoming calls.  All of the Stensaas families and several other missionaries all use the same company, so there are no charges for calling each other.  Needless to say, our phone bill is very small.
#96: My Ladies Sunday School - So much is still new to them that they soak in as much as is taught.
#95: Fellow Missionaries - The Lord has given us great people to work with.
#94: Simpleness of Shopping - Don't get me wrong, I look forward to having many choices, but having one or two brands to choose from makes shopping trips go quicker.
#93: Our Bed - Custom designed to be 6 inches longer than a normal bed, our feet do not hang off the edge.
#92: Washer & Dryer - Traveling on furlough, wash times are unpredictable.  I have been blessed to have a washer and dryer our whole time in Uganda.
#91: Book Supply - Mostly acquired from other missionaries, we have several shelves of books to enjoy.
#89: Our Church Get-togethers - It is so good to see the church family work together in making our church functions run well.

(Missionary Ladies: my sister-in-law and I have a blog geared toward missionary ladies. You can check it out here.