Walking in His Power

Resty, the little girl who lives right outside our gate, and greets us each day with this gorgeous smile

Family

Where have the last couple of months gone? It's a blur, really. Our family has been adjusting to life with two year olds. I can honestly say we are not yet adjusted. When your kids reach beyond the preschool years, the need to know where your child is and what they are doing at about every second has disappeared. There is a sense of freedom if I can say. You forget all the difficult times had during the 2's stage and are left with pictures of a cute family with smiling babies. It will pass and we will try to embrace it and maybe even love it. As for now, I am not capturing via camera the 12 times a day that I clean up water from Noah's obsession with our drinking water dispenser which I realize has happened when I hear the cry; Josie or himself have slipped on the wet tile. Favorite hairbrush in the toilet, and of course it wasn't flushed:) If its quiet....you better run. We've got a climber and unfortuately his balance skills are not up to his climbing skills. If you don't catch him, he will fall. It has been so great having our sister and brother in law here who have a two year old at home that they are missing dearly...their words of 'it's normal' are so reassuring. I have also read Jenn Hatmakers blog The Truth About Adoption a few times to remind myself that it is indeed 'for a season.' And in case you are wondering we are right in the middle of phase 2 as she describes it!  These beautiful photos below are what we will remember in the years to come!  

Family photo by the Nile River at Murchison River Lodge

Stephanie Blauwkamp...we will forever be grateful for this stroller! 

Noah and his cutie patootie smile 

One of her many faces! 

We are so thankful for Luke and Chanley Vaughn who began teaching the Luckey's two daughters but chose to stay when the Luckey family needed to go back to the US for medical purposes. They offered to help us with homeschooling our children. The Lord knew we wouldn't survive as we had just taken in Noah and Josephine. The kids began the year behind, so they have been doing two days of classes in one in order to finish by June 20. The power and internet have been unpredictable here in Kaliro. There was a week and a half stretch that we needed to drive into Jinja (one hour and 15 minutes from Kaliro) each day in order for the kids to access their online school curriculum. They have been troopers!! We can't wait to celebrate in 20 days when they finish! Please pray for them as they work hard these next few weeks. 

Icademy Global (homeschool) at The Keep in Jinja, Uganda! 

Afayo

In a similar way that the pictures above of our family show only a small piece of our lives here each day, the pictures we share of our Ugandan friends also show such a fraction of their reality. Ugandan people are beautiful. Radiant smiles. 

But when you love like Jesus, you don't stay at the surface. They invite you in. You hear stories of abuse and neglect that the smiles hide. A fourteen year old girl giving birth as a result of incest, a grandmother attempting to stop the drowning of a new born baby, at the hospital after a failed attempt to abort, corruption you can not wrap your mind around, a single mother of 7 doing her best to keep her children fed and in school yet doesn't know where she will live come November, a young man addicted to pornography that is way to easy to access in this country, mothers who die in childbirth and then infants who are struggling to survive off cows milk; given by grandmothers who struggle to care for these newborns. Its not always pretty. It can be rather messy. There are days we try to tackle what comes our way in our own strength. We have found it to be pointless. We end up with nothing left to give. So we walk, in His power and point them to His love and grace.  

Meet Elizabeth below. Her mother died immediately after childbirth leaving her grandmother to care for her. She was not thriving with the cows milk she was currently receiving, so we were able to supply her with baby formula and encouragement to continue caring for this little one! The cost of formula for 7 days, is more than most families would make in a weeks time. 

This is Rachel. She is the newest member of Afayo! She is working as a social worker in the village. Rachel has been working with Chris to make sure the most vulnerable children in the village have access to the school we are working with. They have been busy setting up an assessment program that will give an overall picture of the community we are working with. Contact us if you would like to give to this scholarship program that assists the most vulnerable children with an education. 

To God be the glory! Our Farming God's Way demonstration garden, next to our home, in Kaliro, attracted a church group that wanted to be taught about this type of farming! Chris, Patrick, Frances, and Simon were able to spend a Saturday teaching them the basic principles of FGW. 

Frisbee Golf in the village!  During the time Luke was here, he worked with local welders to design, build, and put in a full disc golf course in the village! Below, they are getting ready for the first disc golf tournament:) 

Oh, there is so much more to write.......we are getting ready to welcome visitors in a few weeks! We are all so excited about it! We are also preparing to host a group from our home church in the US in August. We will be putting in a playground at the school in the village! The Sunday School children raised funds over the school year for this! 

There have also been some big changes. As most of you know, our team leaders, the Luckey's left for the States to seek medical treatment for their daughter. As of now, they are not planning to come back in July as planned. We shed tears over this one. We have been quite lonely here in Kaliro and it is difficult living. We often lack electricity, internet, water, church, and English speaking friends. This has led us to pray about moving to another area where we would have more community and less struggles with our children's online school. Our kids have struggled with feeling more alone too, as most of the children around us do not speak English. So...the doors have opened for us to make this move and we are all excited about it. We won't be that much farther from the village and we were already running to Iganga or Jinja 3 days a week for food, banking, airtime, gas, medical, and other things we could not find in Kaliro. We make the move in a week. My sister and brother in law are staying in Jinja for the next few weeks as they finish up their adoptions, so we are hoping to spend a little more time with them! 

Lastly, we are looking for a sponsor for our friend Betty. She is friends with Esther who we have been helping for the past year and a half and friends of ours are sponsoring her through college. Betty is a very bright girl who desires to continue her education. She is a total orphan. Without a sponsor, her chances of continuing her education would be difficult. She would be starting college this fall. It is about 2,000 US dollars per year for a student to attend college here in Uganda. She would probably be attending for 3 years. She is currently helping us in our home. Our kids love her. Let us know if you feel the Lord prompting you to help her! Our email is fisher family@live.com

A huge thank you to all of our friends and family who continue to stand with us in prayer and financially as we be Jesus Hands and Feet to the people here in Uganda. Chris just had the opportunity to share Christ and His Grace with 3 muslims in their 20's. This reminded me of our friends and family praying back home. We cherish and need your prayers as we have days we feel we can't go on or we don't have the words.........these are the days when things like this happen and we Know someone is praying because from somewhere, the words come, and we continue......walking in His power. 

Love to all our family and friends! 

Chris and Michelle