Friends

We are so thankful that Obie always has his buddy Zion to play with. The other day we decided to bring out the shaving cream again so that Zion could join us in this fun time. There was so much cuteness we did not know what to do. Below the boys are doing one of their favorite activities, "the belly bump." This is a skill that was first encouraged by one of the parents but both know how to do it well and will now initiate on their own.  

Zion is such a nice friend that Obie gets to play with basically every day. Erin and I are trying to figure out how to get them to share, or just learn that we need to have two of the same thing all the time. 

Living in a different culture means that some of the things we do are different than the culture around us. So two, nearly naked, pale boys attracts a good amount of attention form the kids that live in our compound and outside the gate. Obie is the youngest of these neighborhood kids but gets to run around with them and hopefully soon share his ball with them, a mom can hope right?  

Wednesday Night Update

One of the main things we are developing is the Wednesday Night Service at UCF.  And by we, I mean me (Kyle), Trey, Ben and Patrick (pastors at UCF).  

For this summer series, we have a guy named Rogers (pictured below) teaching apologetics to our congregation. Trey met him through a connection with AIM and brought him to come help people understand what they believe and why they believe.  We were already planning on something similar, but when he met Rogers, we thought, "Hey, here is a Ugandan guy that's already doing it, and far better than we could, so let's bring him in." Its been a fantastic time of teaching our people how to think critically about the teachings they hear around Kampala. Many distortions of our gospel exist here and it can be very tricky to determine the difference between true and false teachers.  Many are led astray.  Most recently, a teaching called the "Grace Gospel" (a religious group teaching that since God is gracious, we can sin all we want) swept through Makerere's campus, leading even some of our own members away from the truth. It is becoming increasingly important to develop a culture of discernment among our church members.

We are really starting to gain some good momentum with this midweek service.  Our focus right now is the training of more small group leaders. With more people coming, we need more groups! Pray for this recruitment and training as we make more disciples of the truth!

Long Overdue

In the last two months I have failed to keep you updated. I haven't given up blogging; I intend to get back into sharing with you what is happening in our lives. Thanks for your patience. 

Two weeks ago we moved. Our current house is about a 50 yard walk from our old house. We are no longer living with the Allens (they stayed in the other house,) so we have become neighbors instead of housemates. When we first moved to Uganda, we were able to share one house because there were only four of us, since our number has grown to seven we decided it was time to separate. We are  thankful that the Lord provided this house for us so that we can be neighbors and still enjoy sharing much of life with our dear friends. 

Three weeks ago Kyle's cousin, Kristin, her husband, Mark, and their daughter, Laney, stayed with us. It was so wonderful to visit with them and have them in our home. I failed to take any pictures of their time with us and I am so sorry about that. But we enjoyed having family here!

So, between hosting and moving and the busyness of ministry I have gotten out of the habit of blogging. Despite that, we are alive and well here in Kampala, and we are enjoying this life that the Lord has given us. Much of the "day-to-day" is the same as it always has been: Kyle staying busy at church and with leadership roles there, Obadiah and I enjoying being home most days and entertaining some visitors, or going down to church for some discipleship meetings. 

After today we are all officially unpacked. We enjoyed the afternoon out in the sun and I forced myself to bring the camera in order to show you how adorable our little boy is. 

Obadiah loves making messes so we decided to give him full reign of a bunch of shaving cream. In typical Obie fashion, he started out a bit apprehensive...

but it did not take long for him to dive right in!

Thing quickly escalated and this boy really enjoyed himself! Especially when daddy would throw some cream at him. 

Obie has started to say Zion (more like "I -on"), and we can easily walk down to their house. At this time Zion was taking a nap but maybe next time we can get both boys all messy together. 

Cleaning up was just as fun as getting messy. 

I just couldn't help it, that butt is too cute. 

Obie has an entire set of play tools, that are definitely his favorite toys. He is extremely partial to the hammer, does that sound like anyone you know?

Randomness

1. It has been over a month since my last post.

2. A story for you:
A few weeks ago I was out to lunch with three women form from our church.  We were towards the end of our meal when one of them says to the other:
"You better finish the food on your plate, because there are starving children in Somalia."
 The third woman speaks up quickly: "It is Karamoja, there are starving children in Karamoja."
I couldn't help but laugh, my friends asked me why I was laughing and I told them that in America, people will say: "Finish your food because there are starving people in Africa."
They all thought this was funny, "Africa is so large! You should be more specific."
(There are 47 countries on this LARGE content of Africa, 53 if you count all the island nations.)

3. If you are missing some pictures of our cute boy there are some recent ones here and here.

4. North America is currently experiencing its summer season, but over here in Uganda it is "short-term missionary season." This article presents some interesting things to think about if you have ever been on a short term team or have supported someone or think you might want to join a short term team. 

Party

So this is the third and last post about Obadiah's first birthday. Sorry if you feel it is overkill but the first year of life is something really worth celebrating. The Lord has brought us this far and we need to remember that so we are celebrating this little boy. 

After church on Sunday we had a few friends over for lunch and a small party for Obadiah. There were free "horsey rides" compliments of Uncle Dennis. 

There were oreo cupcakes that were very delicious, if I do say so myself. 

Of course we had to give this cute boy a cupcake and watch him eat it. At first he was cautious about what was in front of him... 

Then he got more bold...

It was fun to watch him and I think he enjoyed the cake. 

We are so thankful for our friends in Uganda and are so glad that Obadiah gets to be loved on by them. It was a great time to celebrate our son's life!

Twelve months

It seems that if our baby keeps growing at the rate he is now, he will be a man tomorrow. One minute he wants to be held and carried around, the next minute he is walking across the room babbling to himself and carrying a hammer from his play tool set. We are rejoicing in the gift of this boy's life and at the same time we are in shock over how quickly we have gone through this year.  

It is clear that Obadiah loves people, he freely gives kisses to mommy and daddy without being prompted. 

This is the look of a little boy who adores his father, who cries when he leaves the house in the morning and squeals when he comes home. This is the face that makes me want to cry hard, happy tears to know that this little boy already wants to be just like his daddy. 

Each day Obadiah is gaining more confidence in his walking, taking new risks and exploring longer distances. 

He loves to laugh and smile, and he usually does both very easily. 

This boy seems to understand more and more words each week. He can get frustrated when he isn't able to communicate what he wants. Singing songs and reading books continue to be some of his favorite things. Being outside is what he prefers. He is fun loving but can be quite cautious. He is not afraid to let you know how he is feeling about something. 

This last year has been hard; learning how much more patience I need in my life has not been fun or easy. This last year has been one of the greatest years of our lives. The grace that Yahweh has lavished on us has been made apparent again and again. The smiles and belly laughs and kisses and snuggles have brought a joy to our hearts that we did know about before Obadiah. We continue to praise Yahweh, for every good gift comes from him. 

Obadiah Turns One!

In honor of Obadiah making one trip around the sun, my talented husband made a video of some of the highlights of this last year. We did leave out the low lights; poop explosions, dark circles under the eyes from lack of sleep, and a lot of crying did not make the cut- but these things are hard to forget. This was a wonderful year filled with joy and learning how much more we need Yahweh. We are so thankful for our precious boy.