Update on Frank

We are so thankful for all of your prayers for Frank. It has been an exhausting process for us with several ups and downs.
Much of the weekend was spent working out what will be next for Frank. We visited a childrens' home in Kampala on Saturday. It was run by an amazing guy named Patrick, who is doing incredible work for the Lord. Grant had the opportunity to show him James 1:27, and we could not believe that he had never heard it before!!!
Sunday we met with Diana, a member of Calvary Chapel Entebbe. Diana is the leader of the Island medical ministry and is helping us work everything out for Frank.  We went carefully over the letter we had received from the officials on the island authorizing us to take Frank. After it was thoroughly translated into English for us, we realized it would probably only be enough to authorize for Frank to be put in a transit home for children, verses being adopted or placed in a more permanent orphanage.  Diana knew of a transit home near Entebbe which is run b a close friend of hers who is a trained social worker. God worked everything out for us to be able to go and visit the home that afternoon. Susan is the name of the social worker who runs the home. We were very impressed with her work, and the facility. We feel like it will be a good safe place for Frank to stay while something else is worked out.
Grant got up before the sun on Monday morning and went out to the Calvary Chapel farm. He had been looking forward to getting to go and even to spend the night with the guys in the farm house. We were unsure if he was going to be able to, with the unexpected responsibility of Frank. But God again worked everything out.
On monday Katie went with Diana and Frank and Nigel to the Entebbe Police station to get the needed document so that Frank could be placed in Susan's transit home.  The officer we met with confirmed what we already knew. That the official letter we received from the island, would only be allow him to stay for no more than 90 days. However, he did give us hope in that in the 90 days if Diana and the medical team can give proof of a genuine attempt to find the mother, then he will consider issuing another letter requesting Frank be put in a more permanent childrens' home. Diana told us that they are already making plans in July to return to both the island which Frank was abandoned to as well as another island where they have heard rumors that his mother is on, to search for her.
It is now Tuesday and we plan to take Frank back to Susans' home around 4 pm today.  Please pray for us as this goes on. It will be a difficult parting for all of us, but especially Frank. As our time with him has gone by it has become very clear to us that this hand off is really something that needs to happen soon for Frank's sake. As his attachment to our Family seems to grow stronger everyday.

Frank

Dear family and friends,

It is 4 am in Uganda right now, and we have been woken up from much needed sleep; sensing the Holy Spirit prompting us to get out this urgent prayer request. This is our story:

The Characters:

Frank, Jesus, Calvary Chapel Entebbe, Katie and Grant

The Plot:

Generally it is the practice of Calvary Chapel Entebbe to send out a medical team once a week to the islands. This week we elected Katie to go, and we told you a bit about her experiences in the past blog. However, there was a short-term mission trip team of American high school/college students who funded multiple trips this week, so Katie went on Wednesday as well. The American/Ugandan medical teams and Katie traveled to the farthest island, more than 2 hours away by boat. While there, the team put on a kids’ camp, with games and songs for the children. There was a small boy in attendance who upon crawling into one of the American’s laps during the music, was found to have a very high temperature. An older child was quickly instructed to take the younger boy to the clinic. And all was thought to be taken care of. However, maybe 10 minutes later the feverish boy was found again wandering around the kids’ camp. When questioned the older child explained that the young boy has no parents and no one to take him to the clinic. At this point Katie, who had been bouncing back and forth between helping with the clinic and the kids’ camp, agreed to take the boy to the clinic to see what could be done for him. 

While waiting in line at the clinic Katie learned from the mothers in the village that the boys name was Frank. No one knows how old he is but most guess he is about 4. They explained that about 2-3 months ago his mother abandoned him to the island. He had a few relatives there, but they beat and abused him so that he would stay away from them. And so for 3 months Frank had been going from door to door begging for food and shelter. Just last week his high fever had gotten so bad that he passed out and they left him for dead, but God had a bigger plan for Frank’s life. Katie carried him through the clinic where he saw the nurse, and was prescribed some Tylenol for his 103 temperature, some water and some antibiotics. The nurse told her that he should take the Tylenol now, and the antibiotics once daily for five days. It was at this point that Katie lost it emotionally, Who is going to give him this medicine? Who will care for him? He has no one.  She took Frank to the corner of the bar being used for the clinic, and just wept as Frank slept soundly on her shoulder.  Once she gained some composure she simply asked if there was anything that could be done.  The leader of the Ugandan medical team told her that with an official letter from the city counsel, they could arrange for Frank to come back on the boat, but there was no one able to house him.  Katie didn’t hesitate to offer our home, our money, and her own care. God showed his incredible favor in this as any official letters in Africa are generally difficult to get your hands on.  Most officials want a bribe and have little concern for orphans.  Within one hour the proper official was found, knew the entire story about the boy, and gladly issued a letter authorizing Calvary Chapel to take Frank.

The Climax:

And so since Wednesday we have become a family of 4. We have since taken Frank to the doctor, and gotten a full physical with blood work.  They told us that he had several strands of malaria, which were very advanced in stage; and he is lucky to be alive. Because his case was so severe he was given and injection of steroids to empower the antiviral medicine which Frank is taking now. We were relieved to hear he is negative for HIV.

The Resolution (PRAYER REQUEST):

As you may know we plan to leave Entebbe on July 1^st. This gives us very little time to find Frank a good place to live. We feel a bit desperate for God’s help. Such a great responsibility is weighing heavily on our hearts, and our physical bodies are exhausted.  Yet we are blessed and honored to have this opportunity to put our faith into action. Each morning we can sense a strong spiritual battle as the enemy tries to bring discouragement and hopelessness. We are in desperate need of prayer, and that is why we are up now getting this out to you all. Please, please pray for this situation. Pray that God would continue to reveal his plan for Frank to us.  Pray for continued favor in the legal issues involved in this process.  Pray 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 over our family as we face trouble emotionally and spiritually. And give praise that Frank is alive, and laughing and playing daily with Nigel!!

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1:27

Is it Safe?

The islands continue to be a bitter-sweet experience for both of us. These pictures give only a small glimpse but the needs are real.  Pray for Katie as she goes out to the Zinga tomorrow. It is the farthest of the islands that Calvary Chapel ministers to and it takes 2.5 hours to get there by boat so pray for good weather! :-)

Once again we feel that pictures speak so much better than words and these pictures speak volumes.

Calvary Chapel has continued to be an abundant fountain of love & joy for our family.  Nigel aka "the mzungu baby" has continued to be the star and is the nursery favorite.  As quoted from Jane, his nursery teacher, "He just does whatever he wants...but he does not slap the babies or anything." Well...thats good to hear.  He continues to walk with greater confidence and is routinely caught strolling around our little apartment with prohibited items: glassware, cameras, headphones, live millepedes, toilet paper rolls, or the best yet--his diaper.

On the home front Katie is doing an excellent job keeping up with everything.  Even after Grant accidently threw away half our cloth diapers last week she is still in high spirits. (In his own defense they were in a black trash bag by the front door & smelt...well, like a bag of dirty diapers.)  Katie is becoming a real master at balancing sideways on the bodda bodda (public motorcycle taxis) with Nigel on her lap or while being squished between me and our driver. Everytime Nigel is in the backpack he literally stops traffic all over town, especially if there is a backpack-bodda bodda combo.  The Ugandans find it so funny to see him in a backpack and even funnier that Grant carries the backpack.

Grant was able to go to the farm for the second time today and he completed another good work day with 4 popped blisters to prove it!  The farm guys: Robin and James continue to encourage him along with Deus the assistant pastor.  Today's program was to make a land bridge through the marsh.  It is a month long project but they made amazing progress with the help of one of the only John Deere Gators on the continent of Africa, haha. The Africans all love it! Thank God for that donation!

Today Grant was asked if it was safe to have his 14 month old son and 17 week pregnant wife in Uganda.  His response was only a well rehearsed statement about faith that Katie & Nigel are in God's hands and He is able to protect them so there is nothing to fear but God.  There was nothing wrong with that response but the more we thought about the question the more we began to wonder, when in scripture exactly did Jesus call us to be safe?

when Nigel's cranky the updates are short...

We will start off by apologizing for our lack in blog updates. If we have learned anything from this it is to update the blog while you have the chance. Because We're fairly certain we had the opportunity but put it off to do later. And of course later was to be over the weekend when we found ourselves without internet for 3 and a half days. We're hoping you can pardon our lazyness, as well as our unreliable African internet.
We are still shocked and surprised, then smile with joy every time we see our baby walking all around without help. He is so talented. We have been working hard to get a video up of him so that you all can see.
The secret is out that there is a free computer repair man visiting Calvary Chapel Entebbe. Many people from church have been keeping Grant busy with their technology needs. Bringing their sick computers to him to take a look at and at times heal. He is of course happy to serve, especially in this way, and never turns anyone down. Though to Katie's great horror, she has found that even as far away from home as Uganda she can not escape the reality of combatting a desktop being broken down in several parts and eternally spread out on her kitchen table.
When not working on computers, which is actually most of the time. Grant spent much of last week going on home visits with Julius, an associate pastor at the church. They visited with mostly widows and single mothers, getting to see their hurts and needs and then pray for them. It was a humbling experience to say the least.
Yesterday, Grant was once again gracious enough to stay home and let Katie spend the day on the medical outreach to one of the islands on Lake Victoria. The team of people was able to medicate and hydrate about 40-50 sick children. And 30 adults. Being seperated from the mainland leads the island people to suffer extreme poverty. After visiting the islands we always come home to each other with stories of very heart breaking scenes.
Needless to say it has been a challenging week for us on many personal spiritual levels. We've stayed up late so many nights talking about what our response ought to be to being brought so near to such great need. We keep these verses ever on our mind and we want to give them to you as well.

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
If someone has enough money to live well, and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion- how can God's love be in that person?
Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so that we will be confident when we stand before God.
I John 3:17-19

More later,
Grant and Katie

35 Bunches of Matoke

Well yesterday I (Grant) had an amazing afternoon at the Calvary Chapel farm. As you can see in these pictures we harvested 35 bunches of matoke, a Calvary Chapel farm month record! Praise God!  Each bunch goes for about 5000-8000 Uganda Shillings which is equivalent to about $2.50 - 4.00 but here in Uganda 8000 shillings can get you a 8 hour bus ride anywhere in the country and $20USD can get you a bus ride to any country neighboring Uganda.  Anyway, I had a great time out on Lake Victoria and have sun burns to show for it.  The farm can be accessed by a 15min boat ride or a 1 hour boda boda (motorcycle) ride. Currently at the farm they are focusing mainly on tree crops (bananas, matoke, lemons) and beans.  They have a few chickens and plan this year to try pigs for the second year. As much as much I enjoy working on computers it is always nice to go out and get your hands dirty once in a while.  Yesterday I got to do both and it was freakin' awesome!  In the first picture you can see the Calvary Farm crew Robin (center) and James aka The Matoke Master (right).  Also I had quite a lot of fun poking fun at the Ugandans as none of them could swim very well and wore their life jackets religiously. haha We appreciate all your prayers and will continue to keep you posted. You can be praying today as I go out to the islands on a medical outreach.  -G

2 Bowls and a Jar

Those are the things that Nigel has broken from our little kitchen in just the past week.One of the bowls he pulled off the shelf left him with a decent 1.5-2 inch cut on his leg. We think he's going to live. In fact, we're uncertain if he even knows he was injured. And last but certainly not least we give a special shout out to Zac Miller for at the last minute at the OKC airport equipping us with the first aid kit from his car. The Lord knew we would need it yesterday.  Grant was even on his way to the pharmacy to buy supplies, when we remembered we had it.






















 We are still sad to be a part from all of our friends at CLD. One of Grant's last days working was spent with Ronny at the farm.

They worked hard clearing an area of dense brush along the fence. As the picture shows, they got A LOT done! Altogether they had a great day together with lots of laughs and good memories. We have been so challenged by the young men like Ronny, who are working with CLD in their home country to bring hope and healing to people.  It commissions us to to the same in our own home town.
It was really fun for all 3 of us to get to visit the Kids House together. Disappointingly there were only about 2 or 3 kids there, as the van was late that day to pick them up. After waiting as long as we could we had to get back because it was getting dark, and Nigel was getting hungry. We still played hard with the few kids that were there. And they loved picking Nigel up and carrying him all around. It's a funny sight really, when a 3 or 4 year old child, who weighs only slightly more than Nigel swings him up on their hip and carries him around.

Our week has been pretty busy.  
We spent most of the weekend settling in, buying a few supplies, and getting familiar with town. June 2nd-6th there was a crusade in town which was put on by all the local churches working together. It was exciting to get to be a part of it, and see God move.

On Monday we were treated by our host missionaries to a day at the beach on Lake Victoria. The weather was just right and the views were spectacular. And well, this picture pretty much sums up how Nigel felt about the Lake. We gave it several attempts, and even tried the nearby pool where there were no waves; he really wanted nothing to do with the sand and the water, but played happily in the grass.

On a happy Nigel note. We are proud to announce two important advancements in our little guys life. The first, as of yesterday we have seen serious improvement in the area of walking. He is really getting the hang of it it seems, and is choosing to walk more and more often. The second is a very recent (though slight) interest in trading his bottle in for a sippy cup. Yeah, we're pretty excited too!!!

Life has been really nice so far in Entebbe. At times we feel a little too spoiled, but know that this is where God has brought us for this time.  We are currently staying at the SIL Uganda guest house. We live in a cute little apartment, with one bedroom, a full bathroom, a small kitchen, and a family room, which we use as Nigel's bedroom, and a dining room. Katie has been busy cooking all of our meals here,(we were very blessed at the hands of a cook while with CLD) as well as being kept very busy by Nigel. Grant is quickly  learning all the work that Calvary Chapel is doing here, and how he can help with it. Yesterday he spent most of the day fixing some computers, a project not yet done. And today he is visiting the Calvary Chapel farm, to check out that ministry.  Everything is going well, and everyone is staying healthy.  We thank you for your prayers, there are times we look at each other and just know someone must be praying.
More later,
Grant, Katie and Nigel

Week 2 - Kampala

It is hard to believe that our time with Come Lets Dance (CLD) is already nearing its end. Friday morning we will move to Entebbe, where we will spend the next month working with Calvary Chapel Entebbe. We had a neat opportunity to visit the church last Sunday and meet some of the people we will be working with, and have lunch with the pastor and his family. If our visit taught us anything, it is that our work and daily life will all become very different once we make the move to Entebbe, but we can feel God preparing our hearts even now, and we are excited to find out what He has planned for us there. 

We continue to become more and more framiliar with the public transit system around Kampala.  Trying to remember the difference between Nansana, Nakalabya, Wakiso, Namasera, Wandegea, the New Taxi Park verses the Old Taxi Park can be quite confusing.  Through it all everyone seems to be adjusting well to getting around.

Our one year old companion still does not walk. He seems so interested in it, but then just second guesses his abilities every time and reaches for the floor as a safer, more certain option.  Interestingly enough to his parents, who have never found fear or caution to be his strong suit. The visit to Calvary Chapel on Sunday was perhaps the highlight of Nigel's summer in Uganda thus far, as he got to attend the nursery class. We were strongly warned before hand, that he may not be comfortable in the nursery, as it was described to us as being a bit chaotic, full of babies, and just one large room. But upon dropping him off, we laughed at the similarities between the Ugandan nursery and that of our home Calvary Chapel. Nigel spent the two hour church service doing exactly what he has been wanting to do for two weeks now. Which is to crawl freely on a floor filled with toys to choose from, and there were snacks!!!

Saturday, Grant was kind enough to stay home and tackle Nigel and cloth diapers, allowing Katie to help out at a medical outreach in the Katanga slum. It was a great day for her, aside from a moderate sunburn, a highlight of her trip for sure. They were able to offer help and relief to over 200 people in need.

For the past two days, Grant continues to work really hard on the project for the new school: spraying for flees and making trips to the Ministry of Education in downtown Kampala and out to the small local town council office. It is a long, difficult process of forms and application, but he seems to be working out the kinks and is in good spirits about it.