"Safari yetu"--for now, at least, this is what I'll call this blog experiment. As folks who have lived a while in East Africa will know, this Kiswhahili phrase means "our journey."
Right now, safari yetu is a literal journey in that we are on a five-month furlough in the United States. This is a long way from "home" in Mbale, Uganda! And we're doing a lot of moving around the country, having visited family and friends in Virginia (in May) and now in Texas. I spent several days at the end of June in Louisville, Kentucky for the North American Christian Convention. Then three of my boys and I made a camping expedition with my dad, my brother, and his son to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons national parks in July. As I write this, I'm sitting in the home of John and Sherrinda Ketchersid on the north side of Fort Worth (check out John's blog at connectingwithgod.blogspot.com). And tomorrow we plan to drive back to Lubbock on the South Plains of the Texas panhandle, where we have established our base of operations during this furlough safari.
Last night we had the pleasure of meeting with members of the Richland Hills Church of Christ missions ministry--made some new acquaintances and renewed some old ones, including Sam and Nancy Shewmaker, and Jim and Laura Reppart. At RHCC we also enjoyed seeing our former coworkers David and Brenda Vick and their kids again, together with Dan and Beverly Bell.
"Safari yetu"--"our journey" in Kiswahili, the major East African trade language--is a journal of the life and ministry of the Shelburne family in Mbale, Uganda, where we served with the Mbale Mission Team, and now in Abilene, Texas, where we continue to work for the development of Messiah Theological Institute and LivingStone International University in Uganda.
