Tex-Mex in Uganda?!

Christy and I and a couple other ladies went out for lunch during our one morning of free time at our meeting last week to this Tex-Mex restaurant. I couldn't believe it...mexican food in Uganda?! I was very surprised...not bad for having to make everything from scratch. I think someone from Texas owns it...not really for sure. Anyways, the chicken fajitas were very nice. Best meal we'd had in a while!

Hawaiian Luau

This past week I was in Jinja, Uganda at our annual meeting for everyone serving with our organization in Uganda. It was a lot of sitting and listening to lectures (except for the night I got pushed in the pool with my clothes on...thanks Ryan and Emily!). But it was nice to get away for a while and see other friends serving around the country. The theme of the meeting was Hawaiian and one night we got dressed up and had a 'luau'. Here's our Mbarara/Banyankore team at the luau in front of the Nile River....sometimes it's crazy when I stop and think about it; we were staying on the Nile!

At our 'luau' everybody had a lot of fun. Anna Wilks found her dancin' partner, Silas (also 3 years old). Aren't they cute!! :) And Sarah Wilks beat Ryan (journeyman in Southern Sudan) in the hula hoop contest. Ryan definitely gave her a run for her money! He wouldn't tell us where he learned to hula hoop so well, maybe it was the grass skirt or all those hula hoops in Sudan. **Correction: first Ryan beat out all the adults to take on Sarah, the winner of the kids. Ryan technically won, but being the nice guy that he is let Sarah 'win' and get the prize. (Is that better Ryan? :) )

Answered Prayers...

Well thanks for your prayers concerning power outages and rain. The power is still off every other day for 24 hours at a time. So we have power about 3 or 4 days a week. But I do have a generator now. Our misson decided to provide them for those that didn't already own them (a.ka. the singles) but petrol is still our expense of course. My generator is not truly a 'Honda', but after some work it looks like it will at least work enough to run my fridge and a few lights for a few hours. Definitely a blessing! And as you can see in this picture I am wearing a rain jacket! That's right, the week after I sent out an update asking people to pray for rain...God brought rain! Looks like rainy season has come early as we are having rain several times a week. I like rainy season as well cause it usually cools things off. But it's still hard to sleep without a fan at night :(

Oh yeah I am storing my generator in the small house on my compound that has a 'pit latrine' in it (a.k.a outhouse for all you Americans) :) Right where my foot is in this picture is the 'hole', so I have to kind of be careful especially at night! I don't actually use this pit latrine...it is for workers or my night guard to use (well they don't anymore). By the way, I took this picture with my self-timer so that's why it's kind of weird.

It never ceases to amaze how much these kids can carry on their heads! They're much stronger than me. These guys posed for me while out in a village a couple weeks ago. I often see little 2 year olds with sticks on their heads...I keep trying to get a picture of them. They're so cute!

Banyankore Team

Here is a recent picture of our team here in Mbarara. (L to R) Spencer, new journey guy here to work with University Students; Dr. Pepper and his wife Sally working with our University church and hospital/AIDS ministry; Emily (Wilks' oldest daughter); Me :) Scarlett and Anna, Jared, Barry and Sarah (in front) Wilks, the Wilks are here doing church planting in town and among surrounding villages. Please pray for our team as we try to share the hope we have in Christ through various ministries with the Banyankore people of Southwestern Uganda.

Where should I live next?

As most of you know I will be returning to the States in about 7 months. Hard to believe...I'm excited, but sad, and nervous all at the same time. Mostly because I don't know what exactly I am supposed to do next!! I found this survery from a friend's blog at www.findyourspot.com No, I'm not so desperate as to look to the internet for advice, but I thought it would be interesting to see where it said I should live. After a series of questions I was given these top 20 cities as good 'matches' for me....

Knoxville, TN (sure never thought about living here)
Nashville, TN (a great city I would like to one day live)
Lousiville, KY (interesting cause I am seriously considering Southern Seminary after this)
Oklahoma City (never had a desire to live in OK, sorry)
Lexington, KY
Augusta, GA
Bowling Green, KY
Johnson City/Kingsport, TN
Tulsa, OK
Memphis, TN
Jacksonville, FL
Fort Worth, TX (I like DFW area)
Chattanooga, TN
Clarksville, TN
El Paso, TX
Houston, TX
Enid, OK
Dulluth, MN (where did this come from?)
Dallas, TX
San Antonio, TX

So there's a reoccurring theme of cities in KY and TN and some TX. (Funny cause those are the three states I have lived in). Where do you guys think I should live? Oh yeah, and I could use your prayers on future direction as well :)

Subway is Everywhere!

Ok not really, but I went to subway.com and searched the restaurant locator to find out that there are Subways in South Africa and Egypt (I should have known) as well as Tanzania and Zambia....in case you all were wondering. Plus I didn't want to give false info on my blog so I had to correct myself!