Wow! What a whirlwind! Now that we are getting reacclimated to being home I (Bill) can process our recent trip back to Denver. The acclimation back was rougher this time. I attribute it to the fact that we didn’t fly out of Denver in the morning but at midnight when we were already exhausted. The past 2 times I flew here, it was in the morning after sleeping.

On our 13 hour slingshot flight across the Atlantic to Ethiopia, we sat next to 2 delightful (I mean that) infants who spent most of the time very active and crying a lot so rest was not on the menu. We admired the mom who was flying alone for how she travelled with those bundles of energy always on the move.

At least that flight leg was 5 hours shorter than coming over since we didn’t stop in Dublin Ireland to change the crew and refuel.

That 18 hour flight over was brutal since I had just caught a cold a few days before. That to say, I am grateful we are here for a year before flying back to visit just because of the flights back and forth. I acclimated better than Debra; she is finally sleeping normally. Hopefully she will be back on track from the jump to time warp and back.

Our animals were happy to see us and probably thought we abandoned them. They are none the worse for wear.

We were happy to see so many in Colorado & had the opportunity to share what we are up to over here with a.k.a. HOPE and other areas of ministry we are involved in. My only regret is that I took very few pictures so I didn’t capture all the relationships we cherish so much. We got to see our church family, some family members and experience 2 weddings.

The 3 weeks was packed. we almost needed to come back just to relax some!

Coming back was a wonderful thing. We were welcomed with open arms by our new church family in Ft Portal, our aka KIDS and other friends. I did enjoy the American foods when we were back & need to shed some weight from it. I did notice that burgers, shakes, biscuits & gravy & cheesecake  doughnuts bog me way down. Since we have gotten used to lots of fruits and veggies in our diets over here and the food is treated with far less things, we are healthier. Now I just have to reacclimate to the healthier stuff again. Debra & our friend Enos are hard at it in the garden planted and harvesting.

We are eating kale salads, eating sautéed veggies and fresh pea soup. I and becoming a character in Veggie Tales: Bill The Sprout!

We realize after being away that we truly know Uganda is our home. It is still shocking to us when we wake up and realize we gave everything up to be here. All the power outages, water running out, bad internet, dust, dirt and the difficulties in communication and difficult relationships are no match for the blessings we have here in this alien land we now call home.

As we told those back in Denver, we are the ones who are blessed!

We have been called to be here and get the privilege to serve in so many ways. Trading the 50-60 hour work week with the great paycheck and benefits for this was the greatest thing I could ever want. We are surrounded by hard working people, many who are desperate and who have no hope.

Many who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Our harvest field is fertile and vast. We are surrounded by poverty and hardship and we love being able to shed light on those around us in whatever way we can. Now that we are back, we can roll up our sleeves and get busy with so many things going on. Debra continues to lead the aka Mamas in Bible study & also look into starting one with the women of the church. I am preaching a great deal at the church and will begin going out into the village church plants to teach and help train leaders. One of those opportunities is with a refugee camp that has a great deal of people from the Congo and Rwanda. The work of aka is ongoing and getting deeper into vision.

If you would like to financially help, please go to the a.k.a. HOPE website to contribute! We still need a lot of monthly partners.

The Lord knew our mission would not be a single element. His canvas is broad and in coming articles we will update you on those ministry opportunities.

Thanks for all those who read these articles, lift us up in prayer (always needed) and support us financially. We fundraise separately from the ministry for our living expenses. We are still short of our fundraising goal for monthly partners so if you are interested in helping us please go to this link to sign up! We would be honored to have you partner with us as we Journey in Uganda!