Kenya & Uganda Visit

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"

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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!

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

Shelburne Family -- sm
Originally uploaded by ian.shelburne

...And our family (September 2008).

Mbale Mission Team

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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.