Dear family and friends, I hope this finds you and your families well, and enjoying your summer. I am well, busy as I hope to be married in less than 4 weeks, so time is flying by with last minute preparations as well as the finances. Here everyone pledges to help pay for each other’s weddings, but it’s whenever they get the money…it’s NOT fun…but it’s culture so you have no choice but to go along with that part. It definitely has been a faith tester for us, but we know that through Christ He strengthens us to deal with these things, and we know that He is Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, and He owns cattle on a thousand hills, so the finances to cover our wedding is peanuts to Him. Either way…at the end of the day we will be married and that’s the most important part. Please pray with us through these last few weeks that the funds would come in, and that we would continue to grow more and more into Christ-likeness. He has proven to both of us so many times that He cares for our every need, we know that He will indeed care for us now also.
Ministry has slowed down a little on my side, as I have taken time off work to pack up my house (for the umpteenth time!!), finish up wedding stuff, and just have time to prepare. I will be moving to Trophimus’ house when we marry, so I will transition to a smaller home, but the rent is cheaper enabling us to save some money as we really hope to buy land to build in the next few years. Inflation has become SO bad, and with the Shilling dropping in value b/c the USD has skyrocketed, it’s really hurting here, everything is becoming so expensive, and we want to buy our own land, build a home and be good to go.
We also hope to start up another NGO (non-government organization)-basically a mission post of some sort. We would love to set up a guesthouse in the village (Tororo) where Trophi grew up, so that is a plan also in the next few years, but also doing something here in Kampala where our home will be. So please also be praying for us as we think about where God is leading us in that; I would love to see a Drop-in-center for our street kids built, and so we are praying to see where God is leading with that. That would mean, buying land, building a center, and organizing schedules from different Street Kids Organizations to enable them to use the center free of charge so the boys always have a place to go. Every day they can come for a program of some sort, and be fed. So please also be praying as we search out God’s plan for us in it all.
As Trophi is a musician as well as a Sound Engineer, he is busy with not only helping me with the wedding planning and such, but also getting in as much studio time he can (the studio is in our house), working to help cover the costs of all that is upcoming. Since Uganda has an extremely large electricity bill pending payment, we all are going through ‘load-shedding’, meaning we all get power-outs of about 12-24hr periods, several times a week. With the random power outs, it’s more difficult for Trophimus to do recording in the studio as well; you can’t very well record someone if there is no power! Let’s just say one of our next priorities after getting married is buying a generator!!
We hope to travel to Canada sometime in the next year, however we originally thought to travel just after Christmas, but are re-thinking the winter travel now- I’m not a fan of cold weather, and so we’ll see where God leads in that also.
So basically our lives now are busy with the final touches of wedding planning, me packing up my house, and yes…that pretty much keeps one super busy. Moving around town searching for wedding material for decorations can be a full-time job on its own. Being we don’t have vehicle, we use public transport, meaning you get transported from the main road of your home to town to a drop off point, from there you use a footsubishi to move around, unless you’ve got some good dime to use a boda boda (motorcycle) to quickly move you around; even that doesn’t guarantee you’ll finish quickly, no one is in a hurry in Uganda. What’s the hurry anyway? Such is live in crazy Kampala, and we love it all the same!
By the way, you all are MOST welcome to join us for our special day…sorry, no flight itineraries are attached!! Either way, we will certainly send you photos and you are part of our day whether here or there! Friends of mine from Canada, also serving here in Uganda are my ‘Representatives for Family & Friends’. If you so wish feel free to email them if there is something you would like to have them pass along at our wedding. They are Luc & Malaina Levesque, from Edmonton, Alberta, currently serving with Mission Aviation Fellowship as an Aircraft Mechanic. Luc, Malaina & their 4 children are very dear friends of mine, and we Canadians here in Uganda are far and few between, so any Canadian you meet, there is a special friendship formed immediately!!
As I might have mentioned in other newsletters, often people will ask where you are from, giving you two options, America or UK…well, we are from neither, so it’s better yet! We’ll leave them with jaw-drop… we are from Canada? Where in Canada are you from, Toronto or Vancouver? They know their geography well; I’m always impressed when I tell them!! So as you can imagine, us running into another Canadian doesn’t happen very often!
Well, that’s pretty much our update for the month. We’ll not be doing a newsletter for July or August, as we are so busy with wedding prep and the wedding itself to take place on 20th August, so we kindly ask you to please join us as we pray for the following things. Check out our blog at lenatouganda.blogspot.com, for more updates (though sometimes I forget to update!)
Prayers:
· To keep our eyes on God, knowing & trusting that He will provide what is needed
· Good health
· Not to be too stressed by the cultural differences, (many that they are!) but to be calm & patient.
· For all the final wedding details to come together smoothly and for the remaining finances.
· For all the transitions we will be going through, 2 cultures coming together to form 1 culture.
· For my family in Canada; unable to join us for our special day…hopefully by Skype though!
Praises:
· Good health
· A nice visit to the village to visit Trophi’s family, my new family!
· How all the wedding plans have come together so smoothly so far.
· For all that God has done in our lives, bringing us together, and doing a miraculous work, with the Gift of Salvation through God’s free saving Grace.
Heartfelt thanks for all your love, prayers, and various means of support, it’s touched our lives so much and we are most grateful for your love. The phone calls, emails, letter mail, facebook messages, it all is such joy to receive! A few people have asked about wedding gifts and how they can get them to us; so we have talked to my parents, and as we hope to travel to Canada at some point, mom mentioned that it’s possible for people if they so desire to bring/send them to mom’s house, as postage costs for other than letter mail are extremely expensive- and it doesn’t guarantee arrival! We are currently saving up for refrigerator and some small household appliances. (I just received a letter from Alberta, that first went down through Nicaragua, South America, before coming to Uganda, East Africa!- too bad I can’t read the postage date leaving Alberta!). Thanks again, please also let us know how we can be praying for you and your families also; we care about you, and love to hear what is happening on your side of the world.
Love and blessings,
Lena & Trophimus
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