Thanksgiving In Uganda

Thomas the turkey before he became part of our thanksgiving feast. This is authentic pilgrim style! The only thing we were missing were the Indians. (We have the slaughter video, but I thought I would spare you the disgust)


Here we are feasting with the Higgins, the Iversons, Sarah Nashif (from Portland) and Josh Shelton (from Bend) in Lira. We had a wonderful time. Thanks Carol for your amazing cooking! It was a much needed time of fellowship, rest and cinnamon rolls. mmmmm.....

Brent and I taking a picture in the new vocational building at Otino Waa.

And this little guy I found just today hanging around outside our house in Kampala. I call him Lizzy the lizard. We find new and amazing creatures all the time and we don't even have to go to the zoo or on safari to find them!

The Jesus Bar

Jesus loved sinners, and He still does. In fact, He loved them so much, He came to earth as a baby, and lived among sinners for 33 years. During His three year ministry He spent time with tax collectors, prostitutes, and individuals and groups the Bible simply labels "sinners." Religious leaders, the general populace, and even His own disciples (though sinners themselves) were shocked at Jesus' freedom of movement among these people whose transgression was forefront in the minds of others.

Here in Africa, Christians have drawn pretty clear lines drawn around the issue of alcohol consumption, though the discussion is more blurry among believers in the West. Do you think Jesus would go so far as to own and operate His own bar/restaurant? Why/why not? It seems as though these Kenyans have picked up on the loving, accepting, and forgiving nature of Jesus and named their establishment after Him. Is this sign an oxymoron, profaning the precious name of Jesus, an outreach of His love to sin-benighted, straying children, or no different than the "Jesus Coffee House"?

"I Don't Know What's Happening Here"....

That's what our midwife said to us while we were waiting to see her for our routine appointment yesterday, as she wheeled a visibly distressed woman to the room next to us at the hospital. It was obvious by the screams of agony from the lady that "what was happening" was that she was having a baby. As this woman stood up in the hallway to walk into the labor room she began giving birth and barely make it to the bed when 20 seconds later we heard the cries of a newborn baby. We'd heard these kind of stories before, but never actually witnessed something quite like it....until yesterday.

This experience made us realize that not all women have to suffer through labor like we thought and that really; life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get! (Praying we get a similar "chocolate" as this woman!)

...And that was our ordinary visit to the hosptial turned crazy! If you have other tremendous birthing stories you'd like to share, we'd love to get your comments. Until next time....

The 7 Month Milestone and A Name For Baby

This week marks 7 months, going on 8.....getting closer to D-Day!

We're not sure how far along Brent is, but he's no match for Virginia's belly!

And here's the cute couple before they find out what parenting is really all about.....the after picture might look a bit more frantic. :)

We'd also like to announce that we've officially decided on a name for our son:

Josiah Levi Earwicker

The Weirdest Bug You've Ever Seen

We had to dedicate a segment of our blog to, "the bug collector". He's been roaming around outside our house ever since we arrived here in Uganda and we've found him quite disgusting and fascinating all at the same time. At first we thought it was a weird looking spider, but when we got a closer look we noticed it was some kind of beetle that collects dead bugs on it's back. We've really kind of grown fond of our little house mate since he does have good cleaning habits! If anyone thinks they can top "the bug collector" in terms of weirdness, we'd be happy to hear about it. That's all for now, here at the Earwicker hut.