The story of the thieves!

“Do not store up treasures here on earth … where thieves break in and steal”

Well, I guess it was bound to happen to us at some point and it did… we had thieves. I was coming home from a day of work and badminton, and I had stayed a little longer than planned talking with someone. As I got home, all I was thinking about was how I should get my roast going if we want it to be tender (the domestic problems that plague the mind of a wife ☺ ). As I unlocked the front door I noticed that I could see the back window of our guest bedroom was open. Now, we had a lady come and clean today so I thought maybe she had left it open to air out or that maybe Davis left it open to do some work so I called him while he was at volleyball practice and asked if he left the window open… he said no. Then as I started to look, I realized that some things weren’t right in the guest room, they looked a little more disheveled than usual. I then looked in our living room, the door was closed and the TV was there so I thought we were maybe ok. Then I opened our bedroom door… and nope! Everything was thrown everywhere. Everything was pulled out of our closet and our bed was messed up. They had been on the hunt, that’s for sure. I even had a present that was wrapped and they unwrapped it and even tore the present to see if we were hiding anything of value there. I called Davis in a panic telling him we had thieves and asked him to come home right away. I was too freaked out to do any more investigation so I just waited outside for him to come.

When he came he took a look and we discovered the main things they took were our iPod and iPad. And then as we cleaned everything up, I also realized they took my lamp that clamps on to our bed and some of my favorite clothes! We realized that they had been there when I came home because they left in a hurry and really didn’t take much. The general consensus from us, our neighbor and friends who came by was that they were organizing to pack everything up and it seems they thought it was Wednesday because that’s when we’re gone late, that’s why they were taking our time. They ate banana bread and our bread rolls, drank a couple of sodas, and even took my yoghurt and a bite out of my precious velveeta cheese (needless to say that’s in the trash now)! As they were running away, I had heard something in the banana trees by our house but I thought it was just some kids who were playing like they sometimes do, but then come to realize it was the thieves. They even took our milk and spilled some along the way as they were leaving.

One thing we learned too, is that for thieves one of their MOs is to steal everything and torch the house afterwards so people think they lost everything to a fire instead of it getting stolen. We found that our thieves had brought a whole package of matchboxes and it seems that was their intent as well. I just truly praise God more than I can say that I came home when I did, otherwise we would be missing a whole heck of a lot more things than just a couple of electronics and clothes. The good news is we still have our passports, computer, camera, and money… my husband is a genius in how careful he is about what he does with valuable things!

Last night, I was definitely freaking out, feeling unsafe and just violated basically. But we had someone stay the night to be an extra set of eyes and ears in case the thieves came back and I know a lot of prayers have been going on around the world for us to have peace. Right now, I’m just angry! I can’t believe people would do something like that just to get a little money! It seems like they are from around here and so Davis is currently working on trying get some tracking dogs so these guys won’t do this again to us or to anyone else.

Of course, this morning in my quiet time I was in Psalm 139, what a perfect Psalm for this situation… God is here with us and knows all that’s going on, we’re in the best hands we could be in. Then as I was reading in Luke, of course it was the passage about loving your enemies… so I guess I’ll be a good little girl and listen to what Jesus tells me and pray for these guys… pray that they would feel the conviction of their sin and come to repentance, although my flesh wants them to have the tar beaten out of them and to spend at least 10 years in one of Uganda’s fine correctional facilities.

Anyways, there's the story for ya. Thank you everyone for the prayers. Continued prayers for protection would be much appreciated. And I just have to say we have some awesome friends who sent texts/called/and e-mailed and even some who came and are coming to try and help make our home more secure! I guess the conclusion of the matter is... OUR GOD IS SO SO GOOD!

Getting out of neutral

In ministry leadership... a lot of times it's easy to get stuck. You do the same thing day in and day out. It's clock work, people can basically bet on what the program's going to look like. Although I've just started back with the youth group, I've come to realization that we need to shake things up a bit. Yes, my students are amazing... yes, they know their Bibles better than many adults... yes, they're growing in being servants... but I know they have more in them. There's one thing I want that God has placed a burden in my heart for these students... and that's for them to be PASSIONATE.

I want them to crave God's Word, I want them to eat it up and meditate upon it and have it living in and through them. I want them to live boldly in the sea of luke warm carnal Christians who claim to know Christ but in their hearts they are far from them. I want them to shine brightly among their friends who are Muslims and Hindu and show them Jesus. I want them to esteem others, even their enemies, above themselves. Basically... I want them to be disciples... and not disciples of Kelli or Calvary Chapel Jinja... but true disciples of Christ. Where no matter where they go they are able to know the truth and share it with others and stand firm on their own.

My vision for youth ministry is to disciple the 17 million youth in Uganda... but really what needs to happen is my students to go and make disciples and then those disciples to make more disciples... Our youth group consists of 30ish students a week... Jesus rocked the world with 12 disciples. I'm praying our 30 students will take Uganda by storm and truly show them Jesus!

Some of the ways we're planning on achieving this goal are:

- Implementing sort of mini-ministries to get them involved in serving (i.e. greeters, pre-service game organizers, set up crew, invite team, etc...)
- Challenging them to outline a chapter of the Bible a day (main theme, people, events, how to apply it)
- Taking an outreach offering to give then ownership of how we get out into the community
- Question time once a month
- More small group times
- Student-led devotional before service

Please keep us in prayer, that we persevere with this goal. That we stand firm against what the enemy will try to throw at us to de-rail this desire, and that those of us leading would set the example and practice what we preach.

"Watch your life and doctrine closely..."

Those were Paul's wise words to Timothy, the young pastor who maybe felt a little bit overwhelmed by the task ahead of him.

Today we began a class for the youth group students to teach them how to effectively share God's truth with those around them. I've been hearing more and more from them that their friends recognize they know their Bible and are asking to teach them... my students just aren't confident enough to teach. So based off of that knowledge as well as recognizing just how many awful teachers there are out there that people are flocking to, God opened the doors for us to begin this class. It's basically a hybrid of Principles of Preaching and Inductive Bible Study. Throughout the next two weeks, the students will be tearing apart passages and then explaining them and how to apply it to the lives of those who listen.

Today's introduction included going through Matthew 23 and Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisee's hypocrisy and how they don't practice what they preach. The challenge was to be sure not to fall into that trap and to recognize what James says that teachers will be judged more harshly. The students seemed to enjoy the different activities today and I'm really just figuring things out as we go, but I'm excited to see what these students will do with having a little more ammunition in their arsenal to "go into all the world and make DISCIPLES".

Teenagers, and lines, and tug of war… OH MY!

This past week Davis, Rogers, and I took 28 students to Entebbe for a youth conference. We left bright and early on Tuesday morning as we loaded up on a coaster (mini bus). It took us just around 3 ½ hours to get there and of course we kept “muzungu time” and most of the other students didn’t get there until after the officially allocated registration time, but we were there and ready to see what God was going to do.

Calvary Entebbe had a team in from the States as well as some interns and their church staff to help run things. It was amazing seeing how many people were around for registration, handing out t-shirts (yeah, they got t-shirts!) and showing the students to where they would stay. It’s amazing seeing a huge group of people helping put on such a huge event. But it really amazed me thinking about just how awesome the staff is that we have in Jinja! When we put on events of that magnitude God shows us that HE can “win the victory with many or with few”. Sometimes He requires an army as vast as the number of sands on the seashore, other times He has you use the bare minimum in order to see it’s not by might or by (man) power, but by His Spirit that things can get accomplished.

The afternoon was taken up by their first round of team games. Each student was given a certain color shirt (yellow, blow, green, or red) and that was his or her team for the conference. (GENIUS!) Every afternoon during the conference they did their rotation in the sports. They rotated between basketball, volleyball, soccer, or random games (i.e. kickball and capture the flag). The conference was concluded by one big ol’e tug of war tournament. The students were exhausted afterwards to say the least but I think they had a blast getting to try out their skills in the different sports. I sat on the sidelines and took pictures… I figured me + rain + sports = dangerous and I wasn’t really ready to be in another cast while trying to lead them ☺



The first full day the students had a morning dedicated to a group that focused on getting kids to make the right choices. They taught mainly about purity and STDs. The other mornings were taken up by different sessions of speakers. One guy was a prisons pastor, another used to be a NY police officer with a gnarly testimony, and another was a camp counselor, all of them from New York. The students seemed to enjoy their teachings on how we are to examine the old ways and walk in them (Jeremiah 6:16).

For me, the conference’s highlight wasn’t necessarily the teachings, but it was my students. In a sea of 250 youth, my students (I felt) shined like the stars. They were servants, humble, played well with others, and blew people away with both their maturity and their Bible knowledge. I was so proud of them! God has done such an amazing job in their lives, equipping them with everything they need for life and godliness. They are pure, self controlled, kind, and definitely producing the fruit of the Spirit. Even though some things maybe didn’t go exactly well, they had discernment and wisdom to know what to do and what wasn’t right. They all blessed me so much getting to spend time with each one of them, and they just made me love them even more through this event.

Back to the grindstone

Any run of the mill guidance counselor when asked, “what should I do for a living?” would most likely give the sage advice of, “Find whatever you would love to do, even if for free, and then find a way to get paid for it…”.

As I’m coming out of my two month break from normal work as I adjusted to married life, I can’t help but yet again scream from the rooftops, “I LOVE MY JOB!!!!” Most people would rejoice at two months off from work… I was finding every possible way to go back early. I ached to be back with my students. I would see them and they would ask when I was coming back and to tell them May 1st seemed just way too far away. Needless to say I may or may not have gotten back a little before that date. The Bible study at Jinja SS and the youth group are just two of my favorite things. I’m so blessed to get to serve these students! You ask anyone who knows them, they would tell you they are AWESOME kids. And it’s true. I’ve seen God work in such cool ways as He grabs a hold of them and they follow Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth…” He has in many ways placed a protective bubble around them helping them to be “as innocent as doves” even in this ever worsening world.

This next week they go on school holiday for the next month. On the agenda this month will be some of what we did last holiday with having classes throughout the week for them to learn more about their Bibles in more intense ways to make them true disciples with the end result of what Jesus says in John 13:17, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”. (emphasis mine).

We will also be taking a group of students to Entebbe for a large youth conference hosted by the Calvary Chapel there. The students are psyched out of their minds at the prospect of getting out of Jinja for a few days and meeting new friends… I am battling the heart palpitations of trying to make sure that they are well supervised and that they don’t bump into “bad company”. Needless to say that’s a prayer request.

We continue to pray that the students will grow in the grace and knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that they would be different from the youth around them (even “Christian” youth). That they would be true doers of the Word. Please just pray for us over this next month as we try to pour into the students in an incredibly concentrated way.

The Amazing Race Honeymoon Edition: Part 2

Well… we made it to our hotel. It was a beautiful little resort where everything was pretty average except for the staff. We ended up having the exact amount of money needed to pay for everything. Again, thank you to all who gave to help our honeymoon be extra awesome!

The first full day there, it rained. But really after all that travel, it wasn’t so bad to get to just hang out. The hotel staff arranged for a tour of some coral caves for a decent price and so we took them up on it. It was so cool seeing what God does even deep under the ground. God’s beauty just absolutely amazes me on a almost a daily basis and this one brought a big WOW! I won’t lie though, I had some super fun and exciting bouts with claustrophobia the deeper we climbed into those caves. At one point, I looked back to where we came from the entrance and it was pitch black…gulp! But then I remembered that there is nowhere I can flee from His presence and that helped. That afternoon we were able to partake of the beach. The hotel didn’t have their own beach because of the tide at the actual hotel location, although it is oceanfront. But we were able to take a shuttle 5 minutes away to their private beach and that was really cool… except that I found out how awesome it is to get stung by a jellyfish. That wasn’t so fun. But it was great seeing Davis as he just took it all in and enjoyed the ocean waves. I’m not a big water person anyway, so I was very ok in the observation area ☺



Day two, we decided to go to Stone Town… it’s the old original capital town of Zanzibar. It has awesome history and was the highlight of our trip. We made it there early afternoon and walked around basically checking out the history and the art. We went to the old palace for the sultan and it was just so cool actually being in a palace… I’ll admit I’m pretty sure that was a first for me. And I won’t lie, all I could think about when I heard the word “sultan” was “ALADDIN!” We Finished off the day with watching the absolutely amazing sunset from the balcony of a restaurant at the top of a hotel. It was so cool!



Day three, we partook of the glories of the honeymoon package. Part of that package was that we were able to take a little boat to a private beach across the bay. The day was perfect and the trip took about two hours but it was amazing to take in the sights of people wading through the water to fish and also collect a certain type of grass to sell. We also were able to see some AMAZING starfish. I had never really seen starfish in the wild so that was way too cool… we also saw lots and lots of jellyfish. That was cool to see, but definitely took away any of my desire to ever really get in the water. The beach was not really swimmable so we just enjoyed a rather large twin bed hammock and then the best food we had on the trip.



Day four consisted of just some chill couple time. We went to the beach but it was way too hot so we went back had some lunch and just hung out. That evening we had the rest of our perks of being a honeymoon couple with me getting a massage (it was fabulous!) and then getting to use the Jacuzzi and that night we had a seafood dinner (although I must say it was not all it was cracked up to be, and I was a bit disappointed but still…)

Day five was the day we left. We had breakfast and boarded the daladala and headed into town to load up on the ferry. The bad part was the daladala gave us the wrong instructions on where we should be let off so we ended up having to walk a couple of miles with all of our stuff trying to get to the ferry port just as it was about to rain. We get to the port, and this time our ferry was probably older than we were so needless to say I promptly took the motion sickness medicine. We then got to Dar es Salaam and tried to find our guest house we booked since the bus wouldn’t leave until the morning. This was yet another part of our amazing race. On the website it looked close to the bus terminal… nope! It ended up costing over double what we had anticipated just to get to the guesthouse. To make things even more fun, I had put the money in my front pocket to pay for our night’s stay but when I went to pay, it was gone. I assume it fell out when I tried to take my phone out… and we didn’t have any more money on hand. But at least the guesthouse was totally accommodating and even brought us to the ATM in the wee hours of the morning to get the money for our stay and to take us to the bus park.

Our trip home, we decided to take the way through Kenya (it was just one 24 hour ride instead of a 24 hour ride, staying the night somewhere and then another 12 hour ride). The elections in Kenya had finished and everything seemed to be pretty peaceful. The trip home was gloriously uneventful and we got back home on Sunday afternoon.

It really was a trip of a lifetime where I got a crash course in submission recognizing that I really don’t know all the right answers and how I need to yield to my husband’s better judgment. It was a great trip and I praise God for His awesome provision for it and learning that my husband is even more amazing than I thought.

Amazing Race Honeymoon Edition Part 1: The Journey

I’ve reached the conclusion that every newlywed couple should embark upon a honeymoon like ours… it can be summed up in one word: ADVENTURE.

But before I get into the details (don’t worry… not too much detail ☺ )… I just have to take this time to thank everyone who contributed to our honeymoon registry. Without it, we would have been having our honeymoon at our little house because we so didn’t have the money to pull of the dream honeymoon that God provided through everyone’s support.

Ok, so back to our “amazing race”… it began here in Jinja at the Kampala Coach office – great customer service by the way, and they have seats that recline and head rests that actually give your head some support… although their buses may or may not be older than I am. We decided to go to Zanzibar via Kigaali, Rwanda and then through Tanzania for two reason: 1) both Davis and I had already been to Kenya and wanted to see some place new and 2) the Kenyan elections were just finishing and last time there were major riots so we thought we’d spare ourselves that “adventure” until maybe the way back. Ok so there we go… the journey there…. Like I said, it began in Jinja on Thursday afternoon, they then had us board a taxi (they paid) and had us head to Kampala because they didn’t have any buses passing through Jinja because of before mentioned Kenyan elections. So here starts the tally for the number of hours it took us to get there – 2 hours to Kampala – We get to Kampala and take bodas to the bus loading area for Kampala coach. Word of he wise – use the restroom before you get to the bus station, don’t ask me how I know, but I’m just sayin… Finally at 9pm (we left Jinja at 4) we board our bus.

We traveled for 12 hours and reached Kigali at 9 the next morning. We then were informed the next bus for Dar Es Salaam doesn’t leave until 5:30 the next morning so the very nice guy from the bus company suggested a guest house close to the bus park we could stay at and gave us some pointers about getting around Kigali. We checked into our “hotel” and we’re still not quite sure if they’ve had any other customers… ever. But it had a bed and running water (in the evening after they fixed it) so we couldn’t complain. We then decided to check out Kigali and see if what we’ve heard about it was true… we were (ok more like I was) like such a little villager, in shock at the modern way they do things. Even the bodas all have to wear helmets and only take one passenger who also has to wear a helmet (in case you’re not familiar, that’s NOT the case here in Uganda). It’s also VERY clean. There are police everywhere so everyone behaves most of the time too. All in all, it was a nice little city.

Bright and early the next morning we wake up and head to the bus park. We get on our bus that’s in even worse condition than our Kampala coach… and this time our trip will be 24+ hrs. As we begin, the bus starts zipping around the Rwandan mountains and I seriously felt like I was on a roller coaster, it was at that point I praised God for Bev and her giving me motion sickness medicine. As we passed through Rwanda, it was absolutely beautiful and full of mountains. At the Rwanda/Tanzania border, they had an awesome river and waterfall. It was amazing the change between Rwanda and Tanzania how it was almost as soon as you passed the border. In the midst of our 24 hour amusement park ride, I had a little bit of a claustrophobia/panic attack as NOTHING was familiar and I had no control of anything… at all… Davis being the very fabulous husband that he is, agreed that I should try reading my Bible to get me through that little “episode”. Then, it was just so clear, God whispered to me that Davis was a tangible expression of His heart of wanting to protect/care for/comfort/provide for me and I needed to trust Him and also Davis. It was quite a cool lesson for a new wife to learn.

In Tanzania, you’re not allowed to drive between the hours of midnight and 4am and so the bus pulled over at a little roadside town at 12:30 and we all were able to get out, find food (at 12:30) and figure out how to get a little sleep. We got out and there was this little disco that was rather hopping and outside there were a couple of food stands. One of which was an old man making eggs with French fries in them… talk about the perfect midnight snack. It’s one of my favorite memories of our travels, thinking about sitting there with the music, sipping tea, and eating that fabulous Tanzanian fast food. We then brushed our teeth like good little children and got a little sleep and 4am we were off again.

Finally by 10am the next morning we pulled into Dar. We took a taxi as Davis practiced his Swahilli and we headed to the ferry port. We paid $5 extra for the “first class” tickets as I was warned the ferry trip could be a little gnarly. We boarded our ferry and it was nice and new and sat in our cushy first class, air-condtioned seats. I took my handy dandy motion sickness medicine and we were off again. In the midst of my semi-conciousness (partly because of the medicine and part because of the trip), they had Madagascar 2 playing and so needless to say, I managed ok and my adventurous husband spent most of his time checking out the view from up top.

By 2pm Sunday we landed in Zanzibar. We (Davis) got us a Taxi and we drove another hour and reached the hotel. Ok so now class… let’s do some math… We left Jinja at 4pm Thursday… we reached our hotel at 3pm on Sunday… that’s right folks… 71ish hours to get there. But it was very cool even in the midst of motion sickness and freak outs, we were able to see some awesome East African countryside. I also learned I could totally and completely trust Davis’ wisdom as he was right pretty much 100% of the time as we encountered various situations and I was w…. well never mind ☺ Needless to say I learned a lot. And that’s just our journey there. It was an awesome adventure for us and definitely not something we will ever forget.