safari yetu

2011 Year-end Family News

2012-01-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

November & January Trips, Family News

Ian enjoyed some productive time in Kenya and Uganda in November (2011). He attended an ag seminar at Twiga Demonstration Farm in western Kenya, the site of his dissertation research, discussed plans for upcoming data collection there, and taught church leaders about teamwork. It was a pleasure too to be back in Mbale, Uganda, to re-connect with coworkers there, teach a 3-day class at Messiah Theological Institute, attend the annual graduation ceremony there, and participate in several university-planning meetings.
January 11 (2012) Ian will make another trip to Uganda and Kenya, Lord willing. He plans to be in Mbale for the opening of LivingStone International University January 16. After his time in Uganda he will be in Kenya again for intensive field research and some partnership-building work with one or more universities there.
Danetta finds many ministry opportunities in her daily teaching and tutoring at Woodson school, and she is blessed with quality coworkers there. She is now over halfway through her master's degree program - excelling in that - and continues to serve the rest of us in the family in a million ways.
The kids have stayed busy this year with school and church activities.

Josiah was busy with school until he graduated - since then he's "in-between" and pondering what he'll do next.
Leila (3rd year at Harding U) currently calls her major "psycholinguistics" - probably goes well with her fascination with languages and propensity for intriguing word choices.
Nathanael (11th grade) has played on a couple of soccer teams and has recently started working at an after-school job.
Jonathan (9th grade) spends a good bit of time with band (clarinet); he will be in the high-school honor band starting in January.
Luke (8th grade) enjoys choir and tennis, and recently became student council president at his middle school.
Emily (3rd grade) stays busy with a wide variety of things, as long as they involve being with friends.
Asher (pre-K) is finishing his first semester of being in school 5 days a week. As the last of the kids to be dropped off at school in the mornings, he's developed a habit of praying for his siblings and classmates (and whatever else comes to mind) in the car.

Kenya & Uganda Visit

2011-11-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

Ian leaves for Kenya and Uganda tomorrow for a two-week research, teaching and consulting visit. Prayers are appreciated for the trip, and especially also for Danetta and the kids as they have a continued full schedule of school, work & church activities while Ian is away. East Africa is currently 9 hours ahead of CST in the U.S. Here's the trip itinerary:

7 Nov (Mon) - Depart from Abilene
8 Nov (Tues) - Arrive Nairobi, Kenya (9:30 pm local time)
9 Nov (Wed) - To Eldoret, Kenya; visit Moi University campus
10 Nov (Thurs) - To Twiga rural community for research & observe
agricultural workshop; teach seminar on teamwork & stewardship for
church leaders
13 Nov (Sun) - Worship with church at Twiga; return to Eldoret town to
visit & prepare to travel to Uganda
14 Nov (Mon) - Travel across border to Mbale, Uganda; visit coworkers
& prepare to teach
17-19 Nov (Thurs-Sat) - Teach Bible course for MTI students;
participate in graduation ceremony; more meetings for university
planning
20 Nov (Sun) - Worship with Mbale town church; travel to Entebbe for
midnight flight to London
21 Nov (Mon) - Return to Abilene

Last two issues of "Watch & Pray"

2010-05-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the last two installments of our "Watch & Pray" update. I overlooked posting the previous one on the blog, so here is that one and the one I've sent out today.

23 April 2010

We have two situations for which we ask you to join us in prayer right now.

1) We need wisdom for deciding whether to try to keep renting the house in Mbale in which we have lived the past few years, or let it go. We have been hoping that our new coworkers, Darin and Stephanie Northam and their children, would be able to use the house from late May when they arrive in Uganda. There's a new landlord as of the past several months, however, and he has been very difficult to deal with so far. We are praying that he will either change his attitude so that it will be feasible for the Northams to use the house for at least a year or so until we return to Uganda; or that the Lord will direct us to another housing solution with a landlord who appreciates good renters. This decision has major implications for what we will do during the three weeks that we visit Mbale this summer (it would be nice not to have to spend the whole time making arrangements to move to another house!).

2) We need to apply for new passports for several of us, including Emily. Somehow our copy of her adoption order has gone missing, and we need that for her passport application. As we look for the lost document here in Abilene, we have also been working on getting an official copy of the adoption order from the high court archive in Mbale. As is often the case when one needs a paper from that bureaucratic maze, it's taking a long time. After about three weeks of process, we're still waiting for a file that was finally located, but had to be sent to Kampala, then retrieved and brought back to Mbale. It's supposed to be there Friday and maybe to be available for someone to send to us Monday. Time is getting short to be able to complete the normal passport-application process, so we are praying earnestly that we either find the missing paper here or get the certified copy from Uganda in the next few days.

Please pray that in the midst of everything else that is going on we receive grace to rest and trust in the Lord, not to stress out with anxiety or frustration over these things. God is good, and he is in control.

Watch and pray!

--------------------------------------------

14 May 2010

It's good to have a report of answered prayer for you. We received a certified copy of Emily's adoption order a few days ago and were able to submit it along with her passport application. We have deposited a rent payment on the house in Mbale for the period until the end of August, and there has been no further negative remark from the landlord. We feel considerable relief regarding both of these issues, and do thank God for his help and you for your prayers!

Let us mention three other matters for your help in prayer:

1. Leila leaves for Uganda Sunday, 16 May, for a three-week visit. She will be traveling with our coworker Phillip Shero. Please pray for safety and help on their trip, and for blessings on Leila's visit in Mbale.

2. Our new coworkers Darin & Stephanie Northam and their kids move from Texas to Mbale later this month. We pray for them with thanksgiving for God's provison of spiritual and financial support, and for more grace every day (James 4:6) as they make this major life and ministry transition.

3. We are praying for the Lord's help and wisdom as the five of children who are in public schools finish our their semester and we prepare for a trip to Uganda June 27 - July 19. Ian is also planning to take three more graduate courses during the summer as he continues work on his degree at Texas Tech University.

Watch and pray!

Ian, Danetta, Leila, Josiah, Nathanael, Jonathan, Luke, Emily, and Asher
____________________________________________________
Ian & Danetta Shelburne

http://safariyetu.blogspot.com
http://livingstone.ac.ug

Tel. 325 267 0605

"Watch & pray" is an occasional prayer update from the Shelburne family, sent by Northwest Church of Christ to serve with the Mbale Mission Team in Mbale, Uganda.

Donations may be sent to this address:
Northwest Church of Christ
Uganda Mission
1509 Ben Richey Dr
Abilene, TX 79602-7971

Please let us know if you would prefer not to receive these updates, or if you would like us to add to our list the email address of someone else who would like to receive them.

It's a key!

2010-03-15T06:04:00.001-07:00

IMG_0018
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

Asher's imagination keeps him entertained with whatever's at hand. The last few days he's been picking up squatty little sticks and wood chips and handing them out to any takers as "keys." Here he's showing off one that he found at the zoo Saturday.

Family Picture: At the Zoo

2010-03-14T20:56:00.001-07:00

IMG_0004
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

During Leila's time home for Harding's spring break, we visited the Abilene zoo. One of our agenda items was to get a family picture or two along the way, so here's one of 'em.

18 January 2010 -- A Look Back & Ahead

2010-01-18T10:03:00.001-08:00

Hello from Abilene, Texas!

The past year has been one of major changes for our family. We have been in the United States since the middle of 2009 on an extended furlough / sabbatical time. Currently we expect to remain in Abilene at least until Josiah graduates from high school in June 2011. Having not spent more than five months on this side of the Atlantic in 13 years, this has been quite an adjustment for us!

Our daughter Leila is half-way through her first year of studies at Harding University Searcy, Arkansas. She has been doing extremely well academically and is pleased with having made or continued quite a number of rewarding friendships. Josiah and Nathanael attend Abilene High School, where they have adjusted to a different and much more populous academic environment. Their studies are going well, and Nathanael has been active in the football program. Jonathan and Luke are at Craig Middle School, where Luke especially likes the library and is in the choir, while Jonathan is involved in band and tennis. Emily goes to Taylor Elementary School and exercises her particular talent for making lots of friends, both at school and in the neighborhood where we live. Asher stays busy at home "helping" Danetta with laundry and many other household tasks, and he is quite accomplished at entertaining himself with toys, books, and a variety of imaginary friends to play with and bad guys/monsters to fight.

Danetta has her hands full maintaining our busy household and keeping up with a host of school events. She usually works as a substitute teacher one day a week at one of the children's schools, and also participates in a weekly Bible study and a mothers' prayer group, along with various activities in our home church (Northwest).

Ian is part of the Northwest church preaching/teaching ministry, speaking one Sunday a month and leading a Bible study Wednesday evenings. He is also taking courses for a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University, and hopes to have most of the necessary classes apart from his major research project completed before returning to Uganda.

The extra time that we have in the United States has meant more time to strengthen our relationship with our sending church in Abilene, and also more opportunities to be with our families than we have had in a long time. At the same time, we greatly miss the close association that we are used to having with coworkers in Uganda, whose friendship we treasure deeply. Living between two worlds is not easy! But we are greatly blessed by people on two continents who love, support, and encourage us with extraordinary generosity.

We hope in late June/early July this year to spend a short time in Uganda to visit our mission team and other friends there, and to make some necessary arrangements in connection with our being in the U.S. longer than we had originally expected.

We pray that 2010 will be for all of you a season of blessing, and that each of us will find opportunities to share with others the good that we receive.

Grace and peace,

Ian, Danetta, Leila, Josiah, Nathanael, Jonathan, Luke, Emily and Asher

Of airsoft & honors

2009-10-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

At 6:40 p.m. Sunday, as we were about to get into the van on our way to talk with students at African Mission Fellowship about missionary family life, Asher poked an airsoft pellet up his left nostril. We tried a variety of means to extract it, including attempting to provoke a sneeze with pepper and even inserting a drinking straw and sucking (we really didn't want to go to the ER). When all else failed, we proceeded to Hendrick Hospital's ER, where a doctor extracted the unwelcome projectile at around 1:15 the next morning (using a nifty catheter within a catheter with an inflatable tip). Asher, after this barrage of mostly unsuccessful (and all un-fun) attempts at BB-removal, now avers that he will not again put

One of those

Up his nose.

Wednesday morning Danetta, Asher and I went up to Craig Middle School at 7:30, along with Luke and Jonathan, to attend a ceremony honoring outstanding students selected by the teachers during the first six weeks of the semester. Jonathan was one of the honorees, pictured as a group below, holding the plaques awarded in token of this distinction.

And here's a freebie -- I couldn't resist taking a picture of the rays of the not-yet-risen sun shooting up over the eastern horizon as we reached the school campus that morning.

Many a Monarch

2009-10-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

What Jesus said about the lilies of the field, that Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like one of them, is appropriate also of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). There is currently a multitude of this handsome orange-and-black species variously at rest on or floating amongst the leaves and branches of the pecan trees around our house. They are on passage to Mexico, where they will wait out the cold northern winter. I took the following pictures on shrubs under the pecan trees in our back yard here in Abilene.

Prayer Update -- Abilene, Texas

2009-09-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

I sent the following prayer update by email to many of the folks who regularly pray for us and the mission in Uganda.

__________________

Dear friends who pray,

I'll begin with a brief update on where and what we are doing at the moment, since it's been quite a while since we've communicated with all of you by this means. At the end of May we began an extended furlough in the United States. God willing, we will return to our home and work in Uganda around the middle of next year. We have settled in Abilene, Texas, which will be
"home" for the next several months.

Our daughter Leila has begun her studies at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, having received scholarship funds that cover her tuition and room/board. So far she has enjoyed her experience there, finding her courses challenging in a positive way and making good friends in the university and church community. We look forward to seeing her from time to time during this period that we are within driving distance of Searcy.

The five middle children are in the Abilene public-school system, on three different campuses. They have had many adjustments to make to the large-school environment, but all seem to be handling it well. They are finding things not all that difficult academically, and are enjoying extra-curricular activities in sports and music (Josiah and Luke doing karate; Nathanael in football; Jonathan taking clarinet lessons, tennis and gymnastics; Luke in choir; and Emily having fun every day with friends from the neighborhood, school and church). We feel that there are definite benefits that our children will receive from the experience of a school year in the school system here. Asher plays at home most of the time, but is ever-active and keeps mom and dad hopping.

One of our intentions in spending more time in the U.S. than usual on a furlough is to spend a significant season with the people of our overseeing church here in Abilene. We have been away from them for thirteen years, punctuated by only brief visits on past furloughs. Ian preaches once a month at Northwest church, teaches an ESL writing class at Abilene Christian University, and helps from time to time with aspects of the work in Uganda that need attention from the U.S. side of things. He is also taking the opportunity to begin work on a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University, most of which can be done on-line, whether in Texas or in Uganda. Danetta stays occupied with keeping the household running and helping the children with school-related things. She plans to participate in one or more prayer and Bible-study groups in the community.

Another priority for our time in Abilene is that it be a kind of sabbatical, during which we can rest in significant ways from the tiredness that accumulates over long periods of cross-cultural ministry. Although we do find ourselves with plenty to do, in this culture that has almost forgotten how to rest or to live in simplicity, we want to be intentional about enacting both of these in this season of our lives.

I'll not bullet-point specific requests for your prayers this time, but trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you in how to intercede as you reflect on our news.

Watch and pray!

Ian, Danetta, Leila, Josiah, Nathanael, Jonathan, Luke, Emily, and Asher
__________________________________________________
Ian & Danetta Shelburne

http://safariyetu.blogspot.com
http://mbalemissionteam.org
http://livingstone.ac.ug

Tel. 325 267 0605

"Watch & pray" is an occasional prayer update from the Shelburne family,
sent by Northwest Church of Christ to serve with the Mbale Mission Team in
Mbale, Uganda.

Donations may be sent to this address:
Northwest Church of Christ
Uganda Mission
1509 Ben Richey Dr
Abilene, TX 79602-7971

Rainforest Lodge, Mabira

2009-05-08T02:12:00.001-07:00

In March we were blessed with the unexpected opportunity to spend a night at the Rainforest Lodge in Mabira Forest between Jinja and Kampala. We recommend it.

When you arrive at reception, you can tell immediately that the lodge has been built IN the rain forest -- not a single tree or plant was removed unnecessarily.

From this side of the main restaurant building, the steps take you up to the second/upper level.

Our cabin -- you can tell it's built on a slope, so is entirely supported by pilings and you look out from your bedroom into the mid-storey of the rain forest all around.

You can have tea/coffee or meals on the upper level of the main building, if you like, with a view out into the middle and upper levels of the forest.

Marmite and French brown mustard -- civilized cuisine!

The Haircut

2009-01-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

A few days before Christmas last month, Asher got a haircut. Actually he likes having them, and whenever one of the other kids is "under the shears," Asher starts begging for his own turn. From the pictures below, though, you could be excused for doubting whether he enjoys EVERY moment in the chair!

Bushara Island in Lake Bunyonyi

2009-01-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

(Below) Pelican Landing on Bushara Island in Lake Bunyonyi -- that's where you disembark from the 20-foot outboard motor boat after a 10- or 15-minute trip from the dock on the mainland. We spent five delightful days on the island in early January as part of Leila's senior trip before she starts work on a degree from Harding University in August.

(Below) Part of our daily routine was paddling a dugout canoe around the island -- hard work, but a lot of fun and gorgeous views of the lake- and island-scapes.

(Below) Boubou Tent, where half the family domiciled while on the island (Leila had her own tent-apartment on the verandah.)

(Below) Games during the day on the verandah of Swallows Restaurant

(Below) Supper at Swallows Restaurant...evenings were pleasantly cool, even though this time of year it's hot and dry in most of the rest of Uganda. Bunyonyi is a lake nestled at quite high altitude among the mountains of southwestern Uganda.

(Below) Jonathan demonstrating a bit of daring on the rope swing out over the chilly lake water, while Leila watches from below

(Below) Luke and Jonathan on the anchored raft off of Jacana Dock

Emily: Almost Official!

2008-11-11T02:04:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that we have been foster-parents for Emily Elisabeth for about five years now. According to Uganda family law, an adoption can be finalized only after a period of three years of foster care has been fulfilled. So for the past two years we have been working on paperwork and trying to get a court date for the adoption petition to be heard and ruled on. Last week our lawyer called to say that we had a place on the court docket Tuesday, 11 November -- today! Copied below are the two prayer updates that I sent around to family and friends yesterday and again today.

(yesterday, 10 November)

Dear friends who pray,

Great news! Mr. Wegoye, the attorney handling Emily's adoption petition, has told us that we have a court date for the magistrate to rule on our petition -- tomorrow (Tuesday), 9:00 a.m. local time. We are meeting with Mr. Wegoye to go through the paperwork with him again this afternoon and take care of any last-minute details. We'll plan to take the whole family to the high court in the morning for the ruling. So pray with us that all will proceed as we hope and that Emily will "officially" be part of our family before lunch time tomorrow. It's been a long wait since she joined us five years ago.

(today, 11 November)

Thank you all for praying for Emily's hearing in the high court today! The presentation of the petition went well, I believe, with no objections raised as all the supporting documentation was heard. We did spend a couple of hours in the courtroom "on pins and needles" because the district social welfare officer (whose responsibility is to make the primary recommendation for approval of the petition to adopt) did not show up at first. She had been served notice to attend the hearing, but had a conflict with some high-level district meeting that also required her presence. After several phone conversations with her over those two hours or so, it looked unlikely that she would be able to come. Finally she called back and said she had been released from her meeting temporarily and could join us. Our lawyer was already part of the way through presenting the petition when she walked in,and was able to deliver personally her recommendation that the magistrate rule in favor of our petition.

The magistrate announced after hearing the petition that he would give his ruling tomorrow morning (Wednesday). So it's back to the court house tomorrow morning at 9:00, and we have every reason to believe that he will grant the adoption order. Still, as we give thanks for the obvious ways that the Lord helped us today, let's continue to put this in the hands of God, who is uniquely able to influence the heart of the magistrate to decide for Emily's and our family's good.

------------------------------

I hope that tomorrow I'll be able to report that all of this has been concluded successfully. Stay tuned!

MMT Shelburnes

2008-10-22T02:46:00.001-07:00

Shelburne Family -- sm
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

...And our family (September 2008).

Mbale Mission Team

2008-10-22T02:42:00.001-07:00

Team 4 - sm
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

Here we are, as of September 2008 -- long-ranger families and single volunteers (the "power rangers").

MMT "Long Rangers"

2008-10-22T02:06:00.001-07:00

long rangers (sm)
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

Originally a typo for "lone rangers" (which we do NOT want to be), the tag "long rangers" has turned into a descriptor for the three families who are the long-term members of the Mbale Mission Team (each with ten or more years' tenure here). From left to right, we are: Ian & Danetta Shelburne, Shawn & Linda Tyler, Laura & Phillip Shero. This picture was made in August 2008.

A pair of Ians

2008-09-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hannah Bean from Denbigh church in Virginia took this picture while several of us were visiting the children's home in Kitale, Kenya back in July. Her caption: "big Ian and baby Ian. Baby Ian was named after big Ian." Big Ian (that's me) is part of the mission team in Mbale, Uganda that helps with administration of the children's home. It's quite common in this part of Africa for babies to be named in honor of someone who is respected by the family or care-givers. At the children's home there are also a little Shawn and a little Linda, besides others, most likely, named for various ones of our missionary colleagues.

Our daughter Emily stopped by the computer a few minutes ago and saw this picture. Her immediate observation was, "You're holding a black baby and that guy's holding a white baby!"

Asher napping

2008-09-17T02:50:00.001-07:00

Asher asleep Sept 08
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Asher usually takes his nap in his bed, but this time round he evidently started snoozing while in the living room, probably while watching something on TV with a sibling or two.

Lake Mburo National Park

2008-09-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Nathanael and I sandwiched an overnight visit to Lake Mburo National Park between an orthodontist appointment in Kampala and a national fellowship meeting in Mbarara. It was our first time in the park and we saw scads of nifty animals and birds. Here are a few pictures:

Buffalo...up close!

Burchell's zebra

Topi (hartebeest family)

Impala male (females lack horns) -- you typically find a group of a male with several females and young, or a group of males that haven't managed to gather their own individual harems.

Warthog, mama and young

One of the neat things about Lake Mburo is that the absence of elephants and lions makes it reasonably safe to go looking for animals on foot, as long as you have an armed game scout along to guide and protect if necessary (those buffalo behind us probably wouldn't attack unless provoked, but it was comforting to have the scout and his AK-47 along with us in case of any problem -- and to take this picture).

Luke's 10th

2008-06-06T07:40:00.001-07:00

Luke with cake
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Luke turned 10 last month, on our wedding anniversary as usual. It was a Sunday, so we had his festivities the next day when quite an assemblage turned up at our house for a treasure hunt, gift opening, and lotsa cake! Here's the space shuttle, before we ate it, with Luke affixing candles and neighbor John Knox Proctor looking on in anticipation of pleasurable consumption.

Mzee Wamukotta & Joseph Mulako

2008-03-21T11:41:00.001-07:00

Mzee Wamukotta & Joseph Mulako
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Dishon Wamukotta, on the left, is about 78 years old -- one of the oldest in our network of church leaders here in eastern Uganda. Dishon has gone through the basic-certificate program in Bible and ministry training with us in Messiah Theological Institute. Here he is with outline in hand as he participates in a discipleship group that meets monthly in Bubulo. Never too old to learn some more!

Joseph Mulako, on the right, is an evangelist who works across Manafwa and Mbale districts to facilitate communication, evangelism, church-planting, and a variety of other ministries among the churches in the area. He is outstanding as a man who practices what he preaches.

Asher the bookworm

2008-02-22T06:16:00.001-08:00

Asher Feb 2008 with book
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Leila recently posted this pic of Asher on her Xanga blog -- called him a bookworm, already at less than two years old!

Guest post by Shawn - Bulago & Kaderuna

2008-02-14T04:48:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I drove almost 100 miles south to visit a new church called Bulago just 400 yards from the shores of Lake Victoria southwest of Busia, Uganda. While there we baptized 22 people.

Olupot James in the maroon shirt did the baptizing.

More than 40 of us walked to the lake to witness the new births.

There is a growing evangelistic effort south of Busia. We praise God for the growth in that direction. One report came to us that a new church has been established on Sugulu Island an hour's boat ride from Bulago. It sounds like we will have some island visits coming up later this year.

------------------------------------------

We started this year's discipleship classes. We have scheduled five days a month to teach five different small groups of leaders in five different districts. However, the church leaders come from more than one district. The Tororo group has leaders from four districts attending. This year we are focusing on the work of a preacher. We will cover salvation, weddings, funerals, church organization, baby dedications, finances, as well as other relevant issues for these leaders.

We provide materials for additional study and for future reference when needed. We also give them free pens and pocket diaries to help them organize future meetings and mark MTI course dates. Such advanced communication ensures better participation in mission programs.

Ian has gone with me these first few meetings and took part in our third meeting to teach the last half of the session. These pictures are from our Kaderuna meeting in Pallisa district. William Mbulakyalo, our Bachelor's degree candidate, is standing to the left of Ian and translating into Lugwere.

We have asked that each group be about 15 church leaders. The first three had 17-19 each. This means we should be seeing more than 80 church leaders each month in this discipleship program.

Shawn Tyler

New Vision's picture of the week

2008-01-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

From Uganda's New Vision Newspaper, Friday, 11th January, 2008

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

A woman carries a baby and a man on a bicycle in Buwaale, Idudi Iganga District. The man is rolling his bicycle along.

-----------------------------------------------

Ian here -- This is a classic picture (just ignore the other cyclist in the background pointed in the opposite direction). A generation or two ago it was a rarity to see a woman riding a bicycle at all in the parts of east, central and southern Africa where I've spent a number of years. It's more common these days, with the increase in ownership of bicycles generally and some loosening of the restrictions on what is considered appropriate for women to do in African culture (used to be, for example, that women were not allowed to eat chicken, according to the dietary taboos of many tribes, but that has largely gone by the wayside).

Here we have a woman not only riding a bicycle, but carrying a baby on her back while doing so, and besides that giving a ride to a man with a guiding hand on his own bicycle (perhaps needing repair) coasting along beside them. A worthy "picture of the week"!

Emily's 5th birthday - 17 Dec 2007

2007-12-20T00:10:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Emily's 5th birthday with a number of her friends earlier this week (17 Dec 2007). Here are some of the pictures from the day:

For more pictures taken the same day, look here.

Jonathan reading to Asher

2007-12-03T23:47:00.001-08:00

Jonathan reading to Asher
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Danetta captured this "keeper" image of Jonathan reading to Asher on the living room couch, the day we celebrated Jonathan's 11th birthday (Dec 3, the day before his actual birthday to make the party logistics work).

For a dozen or so other pictures we took during the birthday festivities, go to our family photos site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43927105@N00/

Sunday night pancakes, Dec 2 2007

2007-12-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Got some cute shots of Asher in Danetta's rocking chair:

Several who came for pancakes played cards on the living room floor for a while (clockwise, Leila, Joy, Emily, Jennifer, Sandra - mostly behind Jennifer, and Vince). You can see Asher cavorting on the rocking chair in the background.

Jennifer with Sandra, one of Emily's best friends (daughter of our Kenyan coworkers James and Noeli)

The pancakes table (clockwise, Danetta, Kimberly, Heidi, Becca). We had variety in toppings tonight: besides traditional maple syrup, there were strawberries and home-made gooseberry syrup. (The maple syrup's home-made too, except for the mapleine flavoring.) This evening we had a bunch of fresh gooseberries, so Danetta used some of them to make a delightfully tart alternative syrup.

Asher and the lids #3

2007-11-18T12:27:00.001-08:00

IMG_0004
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Asher and the lids #2

2007-11-18T12:25:00.001-08:00

IMG_0005
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Asher and the lids

2007-11-18T12:23:00.001-08:00

IMG_0008
Originally uploaded by aliyense

We have pictures of Luke, taken about 8 years ago, surrounded by stacks of baskets or pots and pans. Asher, just like Luke before him, loves to pull things out of cupboards and "re-organize" them!

Asher grins

2007-11-18T12:17:00.001-08:00

IMG_0017
Originally uploaded by aliyense

Jonathan and Luke spent a while this afternoon taking pictures of their little brother.

Sunday hapnin's

2007-11-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning most of the family stayed in town while I went with Vince and Joy Vigil, Jennifer Ashlock and some Ugandan friends to visit Kapuwai church in Pallisa district. It's a fairly young church, and we had a lot of children there, as you can see:

In the evening it was pancakes as usual at our house, with assorted ways and means of hanging out. Vince and most of the boys gave the game cube a work-out:

Joy, Jennifer and Lydia got a card game going:

Kimberly and Emily were another card-playing duet:

And Leila, Becca, Ian and Heidi treated several songs in various ways:

Emily asked Danetta to take a picture of her in her over-sized T-shirt (one she decorated at the All-Africa Missionary Conference in Malindi, Kenya back in July):

Asher at the door

2007-09-22T03:57:00.000-07:00

Asher, 13 months old

Asher's favorite station these days is on the steps just outside our front door. Here he is in typical pose in a picture taken this morning. For some variations on the theme, check out the other four images posted at:

http://flickr.com/photos/43927105@N00/

or

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22376&l=cea5c&id=551421211

When it all floats away

2007-09-20T07:02:00.001-07:00

It's raining in eastern Uganda. A lot. No prospect of slowing down. Yesterday BBC's website reported, "WFP has launched an $60m appeal for food aid to Uganda alone, where it estimates 1.7 m people will go hungry. North-eastern Uganda has lost most of its crops to flooding, after the heaviest rains in three decades." Sunday I was at the Bukedea district HQ where I saw the WFP lorries preparing to offload sacks of food for displaced people and many others who have lost all their food supply for the next six months--most of it rotted under standing water, just before it would have been ready for harvest. I estimate that there were at least a thousand people waiting for aid on Sunday where I was, and it may have been closer to 2,000. There's no safe drinking water and little or no dry firewood to boil what is contaminated. The malaria-carrying mosquito population is about to increase exponentially. This same scenario is repeated in many sub-counties and parishes in a number of eastern and northeastern parts of Uganda.

I talked on Sunday with a friend who is a district-level chairman in Bukedea and is helping to supervise relief measures in that area. He promised to send me copies of official counts of people affected by loss of houses, crops, animals and other properties.

Meanwhile the rain continues apace, extremely heavy here in Mbale yesterday and today again.

This is already a serious situation, and there's potential for it to get a LOT more so and to have devastating impact for months to come as people deal with fallout like persistent flood-related diseases and stark lack of food until the next chance to harvest some time next year.

Will you pray for these hurting people? Will you consider doing something to help? If so, drop me a note as a comment on this blog or email me at aliyense@yahoo.com -- (Ian Shelburne, Mbale Mission Team)

Back to Ogur & blessings of the rain

2007-09-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of Sundays ago Leila, along with teachers Becca and Kimberly, joined me on a visit to Ogur Akano, in Lira district. I had been there once before, when we distributed food and other needed supplies to people who were displaced by rebel attacks in the area. That was about four years ago, and since then those people have spent most of the time in a camp for displaced people. It was good to see them back home again! They greeted us when we arrived with cheers and waving branches covered with leaves and flowers. Leila blogged her impressions of the day, complete with an array of images, here:

http://www.xanga.com/malaika_09/612389358/a-sunday-in-lira.html

(Just copy and paste that URL into your browser window and it should take you to Leila's article and pictures)

It's been RAINY in Mbale for many weeks now. This has kept the weather cool and the air clear of the dust and haze that rapidly accumulates when the rain stays away. And, the Great Artist does amazing sky- and mountain-scapes all around us. It can be quite a show:

Rainbow over Wanale mountain

Late afternoon sunlight splashed on clouds over Wanale after the rain

Birthday 43 - Just to be Different

2007-08-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

In the face of an alarming trend among the long-term male members of our mission team to cease having birthdays when they reach 28 or 29 years of age, I made it a point to turn 43 last month -- quite publicly. My children made the occasion festive by presenting me with some of life's finer things, such as Dr. Pepper (recently though expensively and sporadically available from certain Mbale retailers) and Bourneville dark chocolate:

Best of all, of course, was the love of family together -- how do you assign a value to a hug from Emily?

Another of the signal blessings of the day was the presence of some of our favorite people--the Reeves family--in Uganda for their first time ever.

Here's Jerry...

...and Kristine

...and oldest son Jordan, speaking computerese with our Leila

I think we had enough fun to give serious thought to having another birthday around the same time next year, whether or not my beleaguered colleagues are able to escape the temporal anomalies that are inhibiting their progress along the time line.

Milange, Mozambique

2007-08-15T03:40:00.000-07:00

From 6 to 9 August I visited and taught in Milange, Mozambique, just a ten-minute bicycle-taxi ride from the Malawi-Mozambique border post at Muloza. For three of those days we met with men and women from churches in Milange and the neighboring districts. The group numbered 137 the first day, and by the end of the time there there were around 300 present.

I enjoyed the hospitality of Amos Jekete Suwande and his wife, who serve as Malawian missionaries in Mozambique. They took excellent care of me, and we had hours of pleasant visiting time with each other and with a number of Mozambican leaders who were attending the seminar sessions. I taught on principles for waging spiritual warfare, looking at Biblical texts from Genesis through Joshua, and from the books of Ephesians and James, primarily.

A view of the outside of the house where Jekete and his wife live, and where I stayed while in Milange

They divided the living room of the house with a sheet - we did our eating and visiting together on the near side and I slept on the other side.

Some of the students outside the church building where the seminar took place - notice all the bicycles under the mango tree beside the building.

Inside the church building during a break in the teaching

Saturday out and about

2007-06-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Emily asked me several times today about taking a bird walk together. So, about midway through the afternoon we outfitted ourselves with binoculars and made a short round of our immediate neighborhood. There's a naturally swampy valley just down the slope from our house, where at various points little springs feed a tiny stream that runs down the middle of the valley. It's an excellent habitat for a variety of birds, and there's a plethora of flowering vegetation types, both wild and cultivated. We walked a short distance on two sides of this little wetland, and slightly more than half-way round met Jonathan and Luke coming to meet us from the direction of the house.

Here the three kids are half sitting next to a small spring, with cassava plants in the background, as they look across the way at some of the birds we spotted.

Not far from there we came across this black and white butterfly on a lantana bush (no idea what kind of butterfly it is).

A pleasant way to spend part of a Saturday afternoon together in Mbale.

Sunday in Soroti, Monday at Sisiyi

2007-06-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

Emily, Luke, Jonathan, Nathanael and I visited the Soroti town church Sunday. Had about 30 people in attendance for the morning service, and afterward took a van-load of people 17 km down the road to a bridge across the western tip of Lake Bisina for some baptisms. Eight people were baptized, while the rest of us witnessed the event and sang songs as each person went into and came back out of the water.

Today, Monday, I took the kids back out to Sisiyi Falls, where we hung out with the Sheros last Monday. Enjoyed a lunch of samosas, chapatis, and mandazis (local fast foods), clambered around on the rocks for a while, then went on what Christopher Robin might have called an "expotition" some distance into the drier and wilder bush-and-savannah country to the east. Saw a lot of nice birds and beautiful countryside.

Monday at Sisiyi

2007-06-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Monday the three younger boys, Emily and I joined the Shero family on an expedition to one of our favorite get-away-and-play spots: Sisiyi Falls on the first terrace of Mount Elgon. It's a wonderland of waterfall, rocky stream (complete with frogs and crabs), trees of all shapes and sizes, and house-sized rocks to climb. Here are some pictures of our day there:

22 years

2007-05-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Danetta and I (and Asher) just got back from a delightful weekend at Mto Moyoni, a retreat center on the west bank of the legendary White Nile. Our time there was in celebration of the 22 years that we've been married and in anticipation of the rest of our odyssey together. A few pictures to give you an impression of a place that's worth returning to --

One of the serendipities of the weekend for me was stumbling across what is just about my favorite African flower blooming out on the peninsula that reaches into the Nile from Mto Moyoni's riverside park. Here it is, variously called flame lily or gloriosa lily, the national flower of more than one African nation:

A riot of bougainvillea

2007-02-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? This picture was taken about 15 feet from our front door, right in our front yard. It's mostly a mix of three different colors of bougainvillea, with just an occasional scarlet hint from the flowers of an anonymous wild vine that intermingles delightfully with the bougainvillea and kei-apple hedge behind.

And here's a view of Wanale mountain with a rain shower partly obscuring the northeastern end. I took this shot standing right outside our front gate.

Boys

2007-02-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

Our boys do fairly well keeping a positive attitude toward school (thanks in no small part, I'm sure, to the excellence of the teachers we have!)...but what they really live for is playing. Playing before, after, and even (when they can get away with it) during, school. They have typical boyish proclivities in their choice of how and with what to play. Other boys. Sticks. Knives and machetes. Tools. Fire. Rocks. Dirt. You get the picture.

For several weeks our boys are celebrating having an extra friend to hang out with -- Jeremy Varno, whose dad (and family) are here in Mbale to oversee some construction work for MTI and GNPI (Good News Productions International). Nathanael and Jeremy are nearly inseparable, making the most of every opportunity to do stuff together.

Jonathan puffing on a fire the boys tried to get going outside our gate...

....Nathanael in red and Jeremy in blue

Asher, Emily & other "kids"

2007-01-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

As you can see, Asher has started sitting up. We still stash a few cushions around him, but he's developing enough stability not to topple all that often any more. He tends to go over on his tummy more than any other direction, when he's trying to grab something that's just out of reach in front of him. Crawling is still in his future, though, so he ends up being a bit frustrated once he's no longer sitting and able to do as much with his hands.

Asher with Emily--a seriously cute combination (and I'm not even a grandparent!). We've been fostering Emily for three and a half years. Right now we're waiting for a court date to present our petition to the magistrate to formalize Emily's adoption into our family.

Last week we hosted students for three courses at Messiah Theological Institute. During one of our lunch breaks a couple of half-grown goats wandered into the classroom.

One of them, before being shooed out, hopped up on a bench and started to sample a student's folder. They do say a goat will eat just about anything!

Getting around

2007-01-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

There are several options for getting around in Uganda. The most common, by reason of economics, is what is sometimes called in Africa "route 11" -- one's own two feet. For the more prosperous (or less thrifty), however, other choices abound.

Most basic is the simple boda-boda (bicycle taxi), easily identified by a bright-colored cushion on the carrier rack mounted over the rear wheel (if you've ever ridden cushionless on this metal carrier on a rough road, this is greatly appreciated). Men ride astraddle, with each foot resting on a short piece of iron rebar welded to on each side of the rear axle. Women, typically, ride side-saddle (there's not much choice with a skirt on!). You can get a boda-boda ride from our neighborhood into town for the equivalent of $0.20 in U.S. currency.

The next step up is the motorcycle taxi (still referred to as a boda-boda, perhaps with the addition of the Swahili word pikipiki -- "motorcycle"). When considering climbing on the back of a pikipiki in Uganda, it is wise to note that there is considerably more risk of bodily harm if you are dodging through traffic in the capital, for example, than if you are meandering along a village path.

For those who prefer to be inside a vehicle and don't mind close--very close--companionship with fellow earthlings, there's the standard Toyota Hiace taxi, usually white with the government-mandated blue hatch pattern running horizontally around the body. Most of these are rated for 14 passengers, but, especially on rural routes, passengers configure themselves creatively to accommodate numbers up into the 20s. These taxis are locally called kamunyes, named for the yellow-billed kite, a scavenging bird that swoops down to pick up bits of food from the ground. The mechanical kamunye does the same with people--stopping frequently to pick people up from the side of the road. Kamunyes carry all manner of things besides humanity, including bunches of bananas, furniture, bicycles, mattresses, poultry and goats.

View of the "Old Taxi Park" in Kampala, where you can get rides to points east of the capital

Somewhat more comfortable, and statistically safer, are the big 50-passenger buses. At least one gets a seat to oneself, and most of the non-human cargo tends to ride in the cargo bay under, or on the roof rack over, the bus.

In areas where taxis are scarce, it is often possible to wave down a truck and climb on top of whatever else it's carrying and get from point A to point B, for a nominal fee. This can be more or less hazardous, of course, according to the nature of the existing cargo...one should think twice before perching atop the metal framework over the bed of a truck carrying a load of long-horned Ankole cows! I've often seen this done, and wondered how many puncture wounds have been sustained when a rider's balance failed on a rough road.

Beyond these means of transportation, some of us are blessed to have sufficient resources either to hire a vehicle as needed or even to purchase one for work-related and private purposes. In Uganda this is an expensive luxury, by the time one pays high fuel, maintenance, and tax rates.

As one goes about getting around in East Africa, there are encounters with quite a variety of traffic-types and road-side scenery. In Kampala, traffic gridlock is a frequent annoyance.

In the rural areas, one is more likely to get slowed down by a herd of cows in the road way.

A common sight all across the country are miniature fruit and vegetable markets along the sides of the road.

The dark side of transportation in East Africa is that these roads can be among the most dangerous in the world. Many roads are chronically full of potholes or too narrow for the traffic they have to carry. Compounding the risks are drivers of marginal or impaired competence, whether because of poor training, lack of experience, or inebriation. Poorly maintained vehicles frequently suffer tire blow-outs, brake-failure, or suspension/steering problems.

Our missionary community in Uganda is right now grieving the death, just a few days ago, of Adam Langford, a colleague from the Jinja mission team, who died in a vehicle accident. This kind of thing reminds us that travel on these roads does mean taking one's life in one's hands...or maybe better, putting one's life in God's hands. We appreciate those who keep us in prayer as we drive, or ride, on the roads of Africa.

Sunday at Kabuna

2007-01-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

This morning I drove out to Kabuna, about 45 minutes of travel time from Mbale town. There is a young church fellowship at Kabuna that invited me in December last year to visit them today. The people there have put up a basic shelter of rough-cut poles covered with papyrus-reed mats (that's the same papyrus that the Egyptians began using to make paper thousands of years ago--Kabuna is not far from an enormous papyrus swamp). The whole structure is not more than 25 feet long by 15 feet wide.

On the way to Kabuna I picked up George Gabiri and Yolam Waswikirye, leaders from two other churches in the same district, who came along to help me find the place and to offer some additional encouragement to this group of believers. We visit a lot of churches that are "off the beaten track"--but there aren't many that require so much twisting and turning on rudimentary village roads as this one. The route was not especially rough or dangerous, just extraordinarily windy and punctuated with junctions of miscellaneous trails every few hundred yards. I was impressed that George remembered the way perfectly and kept us from getting hopelessly lost.

Worship began shortly after we arrived and greeted those who were already there. Typically for churches in this area, there were four languages in frequent use during the service--Lugwere, Luganda, Kiswahili, and English, especially in the singing. One of the songs we sang today, in Luganda, goes something like this: "The name of Jesus brings us together, the name of Jesus is good/precious!" The worship leader interspersed the verses with the names of various tribes that Jesus brings together, such as Bagwere and Iteso, Bagisu and Baganda, etc. I preached from 1 Kings 13, the story of the man of God from Judah who spoke against the idol altar of Jeroboam and who, for his own disobedience, was killed by a lion that same day. While we were together two people, a widow and a young man, came forward to say that they wanted to give their lives to the Lord. We rejoiced to be able to pray for them and to entrust them to the local leaders who will teach them the basics of following Jesus, baptize them and walk alongside them as they start a new life.

There were around 20 adults and 20 children present. One, the widow I already mentioned, lost her husband only recently and has eight children to care for. There was a man there who has served more than ten years in the army, and has seen action in Uganda, Congo, and Sudan. He is from northern Uganda, but has relocated his family to Kabuna village to give them a place to live that is safe from the insecurity that has plagued the north for many years. His wife is originally from Kabuna, so she has the support of relatives when her husband is away with the military. We also had a young man who has finished his training to be an accountant, but cannot find a job. Sitting next to him was a teacher from a local school. And just in front of the two of them was an older woman who for many years practiced traditional medicine as a herbalist/witchdoctor, until she found the Lord.

I'm thankful that I could meet these brothers and sisters today, to try to encourage them in their faith, and certainly to be blessed myself by being with them.

Some of the folks at Kabuna church, relaxing after the main worship time as they wait for lunch (rice, millet bread, beans, chicken & soup)

A view through the open side of the shelter under which we worshipped--a mix of African traditional and Western elements that is typical in rural Uganda these days, with the garden area, banana tree and grass-thatched hut adjacent to a brick, cement and metal-roofed house

The blessing of neighbors

2007-01-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

Leila with neighborhood friends Aby and Lydia

One of our Christmas family traditions is to carry plates of assorted cookies and candies around to friends in the Mbale community. Danetta spends a couple of days doing the cooking, baking and arranging, then some of us pile into a car and make the rounds to deliver the goods. As we were on our route a few days ago, it occurred to me that measuring wealth in terms of neighbors, we are rich indeed.

Our first stop was at Jeroen's farm, from where our regular supply of milk, cheese and yoghurt comes. Jeroen came to Uganda from the Netherlands years ago as a Roman Catholic lay volunteer, helping with agricultural projects in Kaberamaido, a couple of hours' drive north of Mbale. Along the way he married Petua, a delightful Ugandan lady, and together they eventually bought a farm on the edge of Mbale town where they run a dairy. You're always welcome at their house.

Next we stopped by the house where our boys' friend and schoolmate, Noah, lives with his family. They are from Germany. Here in Uganda Noah's dad works with patients in rehabilitative therapy at Kumi hospital.

Just down the road is a compound with two houses where we left plates for the Charles Howard and Dave Okken households. Charles serves as administrator for the children's orthopedic hospital in Mbale. Dave divides his time between Mbale and Nakalei, a two-hour drive into a real wilderness area, where he does preaching and discipling ministry among the nomadic Karimojong people. We are blessed to have them in our community.

Next we stopped by Robbie's place. He was not home, being busy with an operation to provide food for Christmas to a thousand or so widows in a slum area on the western edge of Mbale. Robbie hails from the UK, and he stays busy with a wide variety of community development projects in the name of Christ.

We drove on to the Eids' house, shaded by giant African mahogany trees. Yusef and Nada were among our first friends in Mbale, having been here since 1986. They are Palestinians, who came to Uganda from Lebanon. They operate a film-developing studio in town. Among the most hospitable people we have ever met, they frequently have us and other friends in the community over for supper (an unfailingly superb Lebanese menu) or to watch a movie together.

Then it was time to drop in on the Proctors, Orthodox Presbyterian missionaries who also happen to be our nearest neighbors (we share a back-yard fence, over which our two sets of kids routinely clamber back and forth over ladders propped on each side). These are quality people, the kind you want to have around you for the worst as well as the best of times.

On the other side of the neighborhood we visited the home of Parimal and Rani. They are Indian by nationality, but Parimal has spent all his life, more or less, in East Africa. A businessman, he also runs a car-repair shop and has done a lot of work on our vehicles over the years. Rani is a splendid cook. We've learned a lot more from her than we ever knew before about Indian cuisine!

Our next port of call was about four miles south of town on the Tororo road, where the Gibsons live. Their first set of children grown and on their own, they have adopted two other children, one of them a Ugandan orphan. Howard, originally from the Isle of Man, helps people here to make improvements in their agricultural methods. He is master of a wide variety of innovations in appropriate technology.

The Duffields, whose house we visited last on our route, left their first careers in Australia a few years ago and moved to Uganda. They have managed an orphan-sponsorship program and have helped develop a primary school and clinic during their time here. Besides that, they have adopted two lovely Ugandan girls who are good friends of our little Emily.

I almost forgot to mention Patrick and Helen--we didn't deliver to them, since one or two of their family had been over to visit and carried theirs home with them. Patrick, born here in Uganda, trained and practiced medicine in the UK and the US before bringing his family back to Uganda to build a hospital in his home village and start an array of other development projects. Their several children are close friends of our crew and spend a lot of time at each other's houses.

Neighbors like these--in addition to the most wonderful set of coworkers I can imagine--add extraordinary blessings to our lives as we enter a new year.

Lydia, Aby and Nathan with our Nathanael

Tying the knot in Namiyembe

2006-12-15T02:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago--on a Saturday, which is "the" day for weddings in Uganda--I headed for Namiyembe to officiate at a wedding ceremony. To "join the couple" is how they say it here. "Namiyembe" means "place of mangos," and one can see many a dark green mango-tree crown among the lighter greens of other trees and bushes and the greyish brown thatched roofs of local huts.

I've learned by experience that whoever drives a motor vehicle to a wedding ceremony, at least in rural areas of Uganda, also gets to dog-leg over to wherever the bride is being dolled up for the occasion, wait from one to three hours while she and her retinue ready themselves, load them all up (or as many as can be crammed in) and proceed (much more slowly than on the first part of the dog-leg) on to the wedding venue. Happily for me, this trip was atypical in that the bride and her crew were actually ready when we reached the place. After I recovered from the disorientation of not having a two-hour wait, I managed to get back into the pickup and drive on. We paused only briefly along the way for someone to pluck a couple of sprays of deep fuchsia bougainvillea flowers and poke them for decoration into crannies on each front corner of the truck.

There were already over a hundred people at the church building on the edge of Namiyembe trading center when we arrived. They had rigged a tarp for extra shade along the side of the building for the people who couldn't fit inside. It took me about 90 seconds to get from the pickup to my seat inside the building. The bride and her company accomplished the same feat in about 45 minutes.

Eventually she and the matron of honor were seated to my left, between me and the audience, and opposite the groom and his best man on my right, also between me and the crowd attending. There followed a couple of hours of introductions, choirs presenting songs, reports from relatives on the backgrounds of the bride and groom, and a sermon on marriage.

My part on this occasion -- supervising the vows, ring exchange and signing of the marriage certificate -- came on the heels of the sermon. The master of ceremonies urged me to do some more preaching before the vows. So I did, but kept it to just a few minutes since the afternoon was waning quickly. For the vows, I stated each phrase in English. Then a translator repeated the words in Lugwere, so that the couple could say them after him in turn. The end of each set of vows triggered applause, cheers, and loud ululations, as did the presentation of the signed certificate and introduction of the couple as Mr. and Mrs. James Wakula. Decorum does differ in definition from one culture to another!

It was getting on towards 5 p.m. as the ceremony itself concluded, and the reception and meal were still ahead. In order not to drive home in the dark, we asked to be excused to leave as the celebration continued. Our hosts were understanding of our situation, but insisted that we eat something, at least, before going. They ushered us over to a small room in a nearby shop and served up a fine repast of rice and chicken with sauce.

We did make it home just before dark, but I could do little justice to supper after having feasted so shortly before it in the Place of Mangos.

James the groom (near side) and his best man

Here comes the bride!

Robina, the bride, with her matron of honor and bridesmaid

Mainly for Asher's grandparents

2006-11-29T02:05:00.000-08:00

We just returned from three enjoyable days of retreat with our whole mission team. Kingfisher Safaris Resort was the place, situated on a bay in Lake Victoria just next to the point at which it gives birth to the fabled White Nile. Sunday after our worship time together, Phillip Shero and I with several of our boys (and Emily) piled into a boat and took a tour through the neck of the Nile and a mile or so downriver. Saw quite a variety of birds and animals, including a four-foot water monitor lizard that one could be forgiven for mistaking for a small crocodile.

Danetta took these pictures while we were at the retreat. I share them mainly for what they show of Asher rather than for the bits of me that got included. One of Asher's grandmothers told me at Thanksgiving that current pictures of him were way overdue!

Smile, dad!

That's better...now, let's see what I can grab--

...that shirt makes a good handle!

Some things are precious beyond our ability to value, like this little boy's smile.

Thanksgiving Day at our house

2006-11-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving morning...while others in the family are still abed, Jonathan and Luke find their way into the living room for a bit of reading before the crowd we're expecting arrives.
Danetta talks with family in the U.S. over the Internet, while she enjoys a cup of tea before heading into the kitchen to make dinner rolls.
Meanwhile, Asher amuses himself on the living room floor (this doesn't usually last very long, but works for a while before he decides he'd rather be entertained by a real live big person).Emily busies herself gluing together strips of construction paper for Thanksgiving meal placemats.By mid-morning friends and coworkers start to show up for the day's festivities. Nathanael , along with neighborhood friends Lydia, Aby, and Nathan, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (recorded from a few years back).No leisure in the kitchen this morning! Danetta mixes up dough for dinner rolls, assisted by Jonathan, who's always ready to dive in on cooking/baking projects.That's a lot of rolls! Eric, standing at left, works with Peace Corps. He and his wife Ranji joined us for the day.The dessert table, still in its pristine glory. That didn't last! We did have a few pieces of pie left at the end of the day for folks to take home, but most of the eight or ten pie pans we started with, not to mention the other desserts, were reduced to little more than crumbs.There were enough people and food that we served the meal buffet-style. After filling plates, everyone found a place at any of several tables set up around the living room or on the front porch.Leila, Aby and Lydia made it through the line early.
We eventually had a fairly full living room, with almost all of our mission team present for the feasting, together with a number of American friends from the community here.

Sunday night at the pancakes

2006-11-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

One of our long-time weekly family traditions is having pancakes on Sunday evenings. Over the past few years it's developed into an open-house to which coworkers and other friends from the community come to hang out, eat pancakes, visit, converse, sing, strum, drink lots of coffee, etc. I took these pictures last night after several of the crew had already left:

Danetta, Emily and Laura Beth

Nathanael, Josiah, and Nathan giving the new couch a work-out

Stephan and Heidi trying a tune

Resting from the rigors of pancake consumption

Our house: 360

2006-11-13T00:10:00.000-08:00

Back in March we moved from the house we had occupied for eight years or so to another one in the neighborhood that is a better fit for our large-ish family. With seven kids, going from three bedrooms to seven has given everyone a little more space! We did the "bare necessities" of the move before leaving for furlough in the U.S. Now that we're back, we've been working on all the remaining loose ends to get things as we want them to be in the house. So even as I write this, we have painting going on in hallways and dining room.

Several asked us while we were in the States what the "new" house looks like. Here are some images of the outside, and I'll upload some from the inside in a later post. The perspective moves 360 degrees around the house, starting from inside the front gate at the lower left corner of the compound and moving to the lower right, then up the slope and around the back to end at the front door and verandah area:

(view from front gate)

(looking right from front gate)

(from lower right corner)

(from upper right corner)

(from upper left corner, looking back to upper right corner)

(from upper left corner again, but looking toward front door/verandah)

(verandah view from front door; Emily at top of steps down to lower level)

(looking left of verandah from front door to balcony on top of garage / storage room)

(front gate from balcony)

(Wanale mountain, looking east from balcony)

Extra fat and sugar!

2006-10-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back in Mbale. Some things have changed in the five months that we were away in the U.S. -- there's a new supermarket in town, for one thing. But most things are their familiar selves, including all the signs of this particular time of year.

We don't have the same seasons as you who live in temperate climes. Here on the equator the presence or absence of rain is the only real difference-maker in how hot or cool it feels. But there are rhythms to the coming and going of rain, the flowering of trees, farmers planting and harvesting, and the migrations of birds that remind us of the march of time. Right now here in Uganda almost every day you can hear the liquid fluting calls of Eurasian bee-eaters as they pass overhead in flocks on their passage southward. And for the next several months we'll have the same basic species of barn/European swallow wintering here that you have during the summer months up north.

The other day I was checking out the new supermarket in town and pulled a loaf of bread off the shelf. It was one of those "you know you're in Africa" moments -- emblazoned on the bread bag was the advertising slogan designed to entice the discerning buyer: "Enriched with extra fat and sugar." We're not in Texas any more!

We picked up a couple of fans in anticipation of warmer weather on the way as the rains wane in November and December. It didn't take Luke and Emily long to put the boxes to good use:

Expecting changes

2006-09-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

It's something I've noticed with all our seven children, particularly in their early months: changes in their appearance and awareness, subtle but noticeable on an almost daily basis. With delight we have observed Asher learning to focus visually on his surroundings, to track nearby movements. He can put on quite a smiling display in his sleep, and we think we can tell that he's on the edge of grinning even when awake, as he begins to figure out the basics of interacting with someone else face to face.

Of course, that's what infants are supposed to do. But what about us who are older, who have already "grown up"? I think it's fair to say that the longer we live, the less we want to change. And as we become comfortably fond of the status quo, we tend to lose any real expectation of change.

God calls us to continual change. How else can we interpret Peter's final words in his second letter: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ"? And Paul evidently believed that being changed to be more like Jesus is one of God's truly glorious works on our behalf (2 Cor 3:17-18).

Maybe this is part of what Jesus meant when he said we must change and become like little children even to enter God's kingdom. I need to be a lot more like my infant son Asher, specifically in regard to being willing to alter my thinking and my behavior under the instruction of Jesus. I want to expect good changes in myself and to be delighted when they come, just as I take daily pleasure in noticing this process in my son.

Daniel Asher Shelburne, 20 August 2006

2006-08-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

Daniel Asher Shelburne arrived Sunday morning, 20 August, at 8:22. His personal dimensions are 7 lb (3.2 kg) in weight and 21 inches (53.3 cm) in length. He was a week or so longer in making his debut than we had expected, but his performance this first day has been stellar. Here are a few images from day one:

Natalie Tyler joins the rest of our crew gathered to see Asher for the first time.

A handful of rice...or a can of soda

2006-08-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

I don't enjoy fund-raising, and suspect that it may not be one of my native talents or spiritual gifts, either one. This is a liability of sorts in my line of work, since the money for our livelihood and work all come from contributions by churches and individual supporters. But, especially during furloughs, we and most of our missionary colleagues have to get around to asking for money.

Which brings me to some thoughts provoked by the activities for several years of some practically minded believers in Burma. Like Paul's friends in Macedonia, these Burmese disciples do not excuse themselves from sending and supporting missionaries. They could plead that theirs is a third-world, developing nation. And that they have an average income a fraction of most wages in the West. Instead, they have used faith, love and imagination to collect the funds needed to send missionaries abroad.

It's simple, but effective: While preparing each meal, a handful of rice is set aside from the main family portion, to be saved and then sold each month to support mission work. Multiply this by ten, twenty or fifty families in a church and you have a hefty monthly contribution for missions. Multiply this by any number of churches teaming together and you have the kind of generosity that Paul would praise again today.

A handful of rice at a time. Almost too little to notice.

What would that kind of imaginative generosity look like in North America or Europe?

If I drink an average of one can of soda a day, I could replace it with water at almost no cost and save the cost of the soda toward missions. At about $0.50 per soda, that would accrue to around $15.00 each month. Multiply that by even fifty disciples teaming together and doing the same thing, and there's $750.00 a month.

OK, for some of us doing without that soda would feel like a sacrifice. In that case, consider it a multi-level experience in spiritual discipline. Commit to it as a fast--abstaining from something you would otherwise enjoy--as a way of focusing your attention on God, growing in self-control, and, at the same time, supporting mission work. Every cold soda that comes to mind can trigger you to say a quick prayer for a particular mission project.

This is just one of many ways we can creatively give more and grow spiritually at the same time. Some people routinely empty their loose coin change into a container and periodically give its contents to missions. The point is that we in wealthier countries can learn something from our Burmese brothers and sisters.

We realized recently after talking with our sending church that to cover the budget for our work we need another $1,500 in monthly contributions. It's conventional wisdom that monthly contributions are the hardest kind to come by. But you know, a mere hundred who committed to skipping one soda a day and giving what they save could together raise $1,500 a month. Which would be decidedly...unconventional.

"Safari Yetu"

2006-07-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

"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.