It's only been one week since we last posted, which is very exciting for us. We'd like to catch everyone up on what we've been doing on the practical, everyday life side of things, while trying not to bore you to death.
Firstly, we're still doing many chores everyday, but it's not as bad as back in the day.
Kerri is really focusing on helping Shalom Uganda get NGO (Non Governmental Organization) status. This is a long process with quite a bit of paperwork but she's plugging away at it and Lord willing we'll file in late January to early February. At the same time Kerri has started to help develop all the different documents and forms that will help Shalom run smoother and better in the future. She is also helping with the Mercy Ministry run by Shalom Uganda, which involves delivering food and supplies to vulnerable people in Kotido District.
Andrew is helping support the Child Sponsorship Program, which right now means preparing for the new school year (the Ugandan school year starts in late January).
It seems to be obvious that Kerri works much harder than Andrew, but that's not a surprise to anyone.
I (Andrew) am going to give up this third person thing now to share a little of what God's been teaching us this past week. As a little background I'll tell you that this year has been much harder than we expected. While we've felt God calling us to work among the poor for a long time, we've learned that doesn't mean we're automatically Mother Theresa and St. Francis' spiritual offspring. This week Jesus' prayer in John 17 really jumped out at me. It wasn't anything in particular, just the overall spirit and focus of Jesus' words: unity. That his people be united. That his current and future disciples would live in unity with each other and with God. I feel like we've learned just how important that is, particularly unity with God. This ties in with something Kerri was sharing with me from Deuteronomy 8:3, the famous "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Just before that part of the verse it talks about how God humbled the Israelites in the desert, making them hungry and then feeding them with manna. Increasingly leading up to this week, we've felt like the Israelites. Like we've been humbled and made to hunger for words from God. I feel like we've learned at least a part of just how important unity with our God is, a part of why Jesus thought it important enough to focus on in his prayer in John.
So now we're praying that God would sustain us with words from his very mouth. Everything else has slowly and sometimes painfully been shaken away to the point that we just really want his voice to be present in our lives.
I hope I expressed all of this in an easy to understand fashion. We're still praying and working through these lessons, so like our lives this blog is a picture of a work in progress.
Alright, well time for me to eat.
-Andrew (and soon to be edited by Kerri)
