Rain Festival

Each fall at the onset of the long rainy season, Heritage celebrates with Rain Festival. The students, families and some faculty dress up in funny costumes, there are booths and games set up, food and music and some fun contests all fill the evening. With a version of the "dunk tank" you can see Lino (grade 9) and Nick and Christina (youth workers plus HIS teachers) participateed in that wet activity. Some of the grade 8 girls got stuck in the "jail", Bec and Samra posed nicely for a shot, and Austin dressed as a grandma, winning a costume contest (and looking pretty funny since he is a 6th grade BOY!!!).

Rick & Janie with Peter

Pastor Rick and his wife Janie are our field pastors, who visit us twice a year from Missouri. This year, they stayed in the small apartment behind my house, so I got to see them a little more than usual. Some days they were able to take time with my day guard, Peter, and get some Ateso/Teso lessons (both terms are used for the language).
Peter comes from Eastern Uganda and his wife and 8 children are still there. He works for WGM and sends support back to the family, visiting them 3-4 times a year only. FYI, that is a typical set-up for a family in Uganda, for the father to work elsewhere and send money back to the rest of the family. Peter is a committed Christian and a kind man. I'm thankful to have him as my watchman.

Coppedges plus one

This is the current Coppedge family, with Joanna, Billy & Elsie Jayne. They work with WGM in Arua and were in town this past week. We LOVE them! They are expecting to add another baby by April, and I think that if the baby is born on my birthday (April 3rd), then I get to name him/her. Isn't that fair?

More Missions Trip Prep class activities

So in order to demonstrate a type of lesson the teens will need to do on their missions trip in February, on Friday we played "Sculptionary" with Playdough, letting teams and individuals shape certain objects. We also had the Bible lesson about being all part of one body, introduced by another game of "pin the body part on the blue guy". It was all in fun but the teens got some practical VBS ideas out of it.

Nick's Birthday

Oct. 17, Nick's 24th birthday, found us celebrating at the local (yummy) Italian restaurant with the whole Kampala side of WGM Uganda! Pictured in the top photo are Haley, Jean, Christina and Nick. The next photo is of Christina, Emilee (in stripes), Ashley (in yellow), Abby (in pink) & Nick.

Break the Dress Code and you wear... THE MUMU~ !!

Ever get tired of seeing the boxers or more on a teen? Shanthi, our Principal at HIS, had her mom help with the solution. They made a very scary dress (one size fits most, but short or elementary aged kids will trip and fall in the thing). So far, nobody has had to wear it, since they're all so frightened of being within 10 feet of it! However, Shanille and Meki helped model it for me, so now even you get to see it!

Grade 8 in World History Class

It is a rare thing to have the kids all quiet and working at the same time. So I thought I'd better document it. This year's grade 8 is a fun, creative, kind, and just plain neat class. I'm blessed to know them, even if they do make a lot of noise!

Retreat Group Photo

Heritage Retreat, Sept. 2008

H.I.S retreat was really a great time this year, Praise the Lord! With 37 kids and 5 adults, you can see by the photos we had a terrific time. Our speaker was Paul Crowe, who spoke about being “Out of Control” (and letting Jesus be in control of our lives; not us). The sessions, worship and singing, prayer, devotionals, food, slip n slide, pool, sun and fun times were great! Nick Strong led our games, complete with water balloon launches, relays, laughter, silliness, and just all-out a good time. Thanks for your prayers. God IS clearly working in our teens and in the school. Keep praying!

Playin' with a parachute

So a friend of Jean's sent her a parachute to use with her first graders. Well, maybe it is meant for grade 1, but HEY, we can all have fun with it! So last night before our ladies' prayer meeting began, (pictured left to right) Jean, Rachel, Donna, Haley, Angela, Christina and I practiced our skills.
On my Facebook page, Jean & Christina posted a few other photos of the "play time" with the parachute. I guess you're never too old to play!

Ireland team

From Aug. 29 till Sept. 12, our Kampala team is blessed to have a workteam from Ireland here. Although I'm not heading up the team and it's ministries, I do get to participate with them by hosting them for some meals. The team is loving and the humilty of Christ is evident in each person. I'm really glad we've had time to get to know each person and to see how much they've ministered in our local churches, as well as to us as missionaries.

Spiritual Emphasis Week @ HIS

Last week Heritage had it's spiritual emphasis week. In previous years, the school had combined it's school spirit week with the week of special chapels. But the silly costumes everyone wore for the spirit week were a tremendous distraction from the week's daily chapels. So this year we separated the two weeks, and moved the spiritual emphasis week to the first semester. Keeley Wickham was our secondary speaker, Paulina Koster was our elementary speaker, and we even had special chapels for the littlest children in the pre-kinder and kindergarten classes.
All of the chapels went VERY well, and it was evident Jesus was working. Praise the Lord for all HE did in the hearts of the students, faculty and visitors!
Pictured above are 1- Keeley sharing in the secondary chapel, 2- Paulina sharing in the elementary chapel, and 3- Keeley asked the teens to lay down on some mats she had placed around. We secondary teachers then walked around and prayed for each student. I wasn't sure this would work very well, but it ended up to be a blessed prayer and worship time!

Missions trip preparation

Pictured above: a class demonstration about perseverance and encouragement

I am sharing a class this semester with Nick Strong, where we are preparing our grades 9-12 for a missions trip in February. Each week we have a brief lesson and hands-on demonstration, and then we work in groups preparing for the missions trip. Applying the Bible studies and ideas we are learning, we are praying this class will be an eye-opener to the teens for how to minister to people around them, whether they are on a special trip or if they are simply living their every-day lives. Pray that the teens pick up the burden to win souls for Jesus, and pray for the few in the class who don't yet know Jesus as Savior. We DO see the Lord working in the lives of these precious youth. Pray they allow Him to do all HE wants to do! Thanks!

Pyramid of girls

So what do you do when there is a pause in activities at a HIS youth event before the next thing begins? Apparently, shout "get into a pyramid" and it works! These girls never seemed to move so fast and it was quite an entertaining "commercial break" between activities.

Jean and Christina

Meet Christina (in above photo reading) & Jean (in photo above with kids). They are 2 of our HIS teachers, who also are WGM VIA and have become good friends to me. They are doing a bang-up job in the first grade (Jean, with 21 students) and fifth grade (Christina, with 5 students) classrooms. Both are musical and they contribute in ministries with great ability and enthusiasm! Both are helping in various roles with the HIS youth. Pray for them as they minister and as they live in the Ugandan culture. They've adjusted very well and I'm so pleased they're here. Their students would agree- they LOVE their teachers! :)

New School Year at Heritage Int'l

A new school year began Aug. 11th, and we have the most students ever in the school. Although many of the students are behaving well and are open to hearing the Gospel, there are a few who definitely need Christ. But I believe Jesus has great plans for ALL these teens, whether they now know Christ yet as Savior or not. Will you continue to pray with me that we will see clear evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work this year?
Due to teacher needs, I am now the grades 7-12 Social studies teacher again. We have a new principal but no administrator, so keep that in prayer.
Beyond teaching, I also lead the HIS youth ministries, but I now have help. Two VIA, Nick and Christina, have stepped in to assist leading, and it is such a help and encouragement! Praise the Lord!

Prayer needs:

Pray for the field as we work to pay for and build the new field house. With land and construction prices skyrocketing, it has been a BIG stretch to build the new place. But in the long run, due to high rents, we really will save thousands each month!
Pray for the AGC and the Kayunga district in central Uganda. Our pastor’s trainer, Gabriel, lost his baby after a brief illness, and Gabriel’s father, Rev. Emmanuel Moga, also died suddenly from illness that week. Rev. Moga was our district overseer and a strong spiritual leader in the region. Pray for the Moga family during this double-loss. We all agree that it seems Satan is actively working to discourage and derail the work of the Lord in Kayunga, as the area consistently suffers personnel, financial and spiritual battles. We believe if we fervently, faithfully pray, the foothold we have there will grow. After all, Christ has already won the battle– Satan has already lost! God IS in control! Praise His Name!

Emily & Heather & VIA ministries

Emily (painting in my classroom) and Heather (ministering with some kids at a local children's home) are just 2 of the VIA we had here over the summer. In total for Uganda, we had 9 VIA from various parts of the USA.
We often have a few VIA running around in Uganda, performing various ministries and contributing in numerous ways. As the VIA Coordinator, I am responsible to oversee their pre-field preparations, as well as orientation, housing, and regular ministry schedules. These past few months, our VIA have ministered in many areas, including, men’s Bible studies, Missionary Kids (MKs) ministries, painting classrooms, tutoring, sanding carved-upon desks, cleaning, teaching, doing inventories, running VBS programs, helping on our field retreat, office work, sharing in women’s meetings, and running 3 weeks of sports camps for basketball, soccer and baseball. In each activity, these dear folks strive to make Christ known through sharing His love and offer of salvation.
Many of my summer days were spent helping and working with the VIA or just hanging out with them.

The DNA house

The eastern tribe of this area of Uganda likes to decorate the outside walls of their homes with paint, wording, and a variety of designs. The top photo is a typical one which we passed as we trekked up the mountain. But the second one here was my favorite, while visiting. The lady had painted, "God knows the best. Deoxyribonucleic". I'm not sure what she meant, but it was pretty impressive to see DNA spelled out -correctly- on the house wall.

Mt. Elgon Lady

While on the Field retreat, we took a drive up into Mt. Elgon on the Kenya/Uganda border. All across Africa, people often carry their items on top of their heads, just like this lady.