This Advent Season

By Lauren

The morning view from our home

The Glorious Month of December is here!

It is the season that we reflect on as we celebrate the long-awaited birth of and life-changing communion with our Savior. 

The birth of Jesus Christ is a complete symbol of love and sacrifice. In the life of God’s Son, Jesus, we have life and we are able to experience the joy of having a wonderful counselor, an everlasting hope, a steadfast truth, a good shepherd, and a faithful father. What an unbelievable revelation to try to comprehend.

As Eric and I celebrate this season and await the complete celebration of our Savior’s birth, we are also eagerly and gratefully awaiting the birth of our firstborn, who is due on Christmas day.

We have been keeping very busy since being in the US and some of that has been to prepare for the baby’s arrival. It has been a gift to see many friends, supporters, and have had such special time with family and our community around the area.

Night work on the farm

Here is what we have been up to:

-       Celebrated both of my parents birthdays with them and had an early thanksgiving time with them as well

-       Traveled to Philadelphia to visit with family (including getting special time with our new little niece)

-       Spent time in State College and with the beautiful community from Eric’s church during his college years at Penn State

-       Traveled to Washington DC for a wonderful visit with my church community there and other friends

-       Experienced Penn State’s last game of the season in person!

-       Spent quality time with friends and family

-       Have been able to host friends and family in our home

-       Enjoyed snowy mornings :) 

-       We had a FULL Thanksgiving Day with Eric’s parents and siblings- conversing, eating, playing games and truly enjoying the togetherness of family. It was my first Thanksgiving in the US in 7 years; it was indeed a memorable one!

-       Eric has been working on the farm and hunting

-       I have been working on curriculum and organizing life and things for baby Ranck

We witnessed the last win of the season! Penn State vs. Rutgers

 

Post-Thanksgiving/ Preparing for Christmas Cookie making time!

We would like to invite you all to see us and meet our baby in January. Please click on the link below and RSVP accordingly.

https://www.punchbowl.com/parties/404d79c286777696f630

Joy to the World, the Lord has come! We pray that your time of reflection and celebration with family and community around you brings you to a place of adoration for our Savior!

Blessings and Love, 

Lauren and Eric

Happy November!

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. He has  remembered His love and His faithfulness;all the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.  

Let the rivers clap their hands,
    let the mountains sing together for joy;
 let them sing before the Lord - Psalm 98

Mifflin, PA sunset

Lancaster, PA sunrise

We rejoice with gratitude as we are back in the US for a while to prepare to start a new season of life! 

We are captivated by the beauty of all of the colors, chill, and beautiful landscape that is painted during the fall season in this area.

We had to leave our favorite pups at home.

We are living in a whole new season these days, literally and figuratively, as we prepare for another new season, parenthood!! Coming in less than two months!

Eric and I left Uganda two weeks ago with the main purpose to prepare for the arrival of our baby. We landed in the US and have been keeping busy!

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Before leaving Uganda, the month of October was a very full month for us. We both did some traveling, separately, visited with friends who were in town, had a healthy report on our pregnancy, set up the baby’s room, and closed down our home and garden. A few special things that we participated in, in Uganda were:

These are my "Rwanda parents" and mentors. I love them dearly and love that I got to visit with them when they were in east Africa in early October.

We got to speak to a group of university students in Gulu about what it means to be a man of integrity and a woman of virtue and to live life in the truth of who God calls us to be. This group of students is special- they are connected to my students from South Sudan who are now in university and also connected to the current work I am doing with curriculum writing.

Our sharing time

We attended the graduation at the university in Mbale (Eastern Uganda) where I worked for 3 years. It was an honor and joy to witness the students I taught in my education class and some of my former students from South Sudan complete a monumental step in their journey. I am also excited to share that out of the top ten performing students from this graduating class, three are my former students from South Sudan who Eric, my family and I have supported throughout their university career. There were also three students among the top ten who were from the education class that I taught!

Kakiye (left) and Juma (right) are my students from South Sudan and two of the top-performing students!

Kakiye was the #1 performing student in her graduating class! So so proud of her hard work!

A few students from the education class being recognized 

Students from South Sudan, graduating with a Business Administration degree! 

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Since being back in the US, we have been welcomed with a lot of love!

We are so grateful for a home to rent and settle for the next few months. We now live just a few miles from Eric’s parents and some of the siblings, therefore we are treasuring family meals and spending time together so easily!

We got some time with my parents, met with our midwife/birthing center, attended Eric’s cousin’s wedding where we got to catch up with a lot of family. We took a road trip to New Haven with one of Eric’s brothers to visit another brother. Then, Eric and I then went to Boston to visit one of my dear friends and her family.

At Martha and Jordan's wedding!

Morning walk around the Lancaster countryside

  

The beauty of autumn in New Haven, CT

This last week, we moved into our home and are so grateful to be settled once again. Eric has been hunting a lot and I have been out with him a few times.

Hunting time! This is a new thing for me.

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to share about our work and life in Uganda at Eric’s childhood church, Lauver’s Mennonite Church. It was so wonderful to see dear friends there. We had the opportunity to thank them for their great support and kind generosity towards us as we are in Uganda. Thank you Lauvers community and friends!

Eric sharing about his agricultural work in Uganda

For the month of November until mid-December, we will be working, (Lauren- on curriculum writing, Eric- on the farm and PR work with World Renew) as well as traveling to visit churches, friends, and family.  I know we will try to spend time with or at least try to catch up with each of you!  If you are in the Central PA area, you are always welcome to our home.

Then we are eager to welcome our baby towards the end of December and celebrate the beauty of Christmas with our families.

Thank you for your prayers and love!

Love, Lauren and Eric

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Gratitude:

•        A wonderful home to settle in in PA
•        The opportunity to see so many family and friends in the coming months
•        A smooth transition from Uganda to PA

Prayers:

•        Safety for our home back in Gulu, we were not able to find a subletter, yet we have several       people around to help watch and take care of things and the dogs
•         Continued protection and wisdom for the pregnancy
•         Godly and healthy perspectives and responses as we interact with people as we continue work in Gulu

    To wrap up, here are some scenes from Uganda:

Spotted: on a major highway in the capital city

This boda is making his morning rounds to drop off goods, you almost can not see the motorcycle or driver!

  

Team Meeting and Life Updates

By Eric 

Team Meeting

Earlier this month, I traveled to Malindi, Kenya for the annual World Renew (WR) East Africa Ministry Team meeting that lasted 3 days. WR has teams in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, with about 8-10 staff members in each country. The meeting is a time for staff to connect with others in the region, receive updates from the WR US office, and to hear the latest policies and work that WR, as a larger organization, is in the process of taking on. As a staff of WR, I was a participant in the meeting.

East Africa Team Meeting at Malindi, Kenya

This group from the community participated in a "work for food" project funded by WR. The people dug a water catchment/shallow well to serve as a water source for the community (see picture below) and were reimbursed for their work with food by WR.

This is the water catchment/shallow well. In the center, there is a shallow well 14 feet deep.

This is one of the community gardens we visited as a group of WR staff

The 3rd day of the meeting involved us visiting four different WR projects happening near Malindi, Kenya. We visited a village savings and loan association (VSLA). WR helps facilitate many VSLA's around the world. VSLA's serve as a sounding board for many other community development projects.

This group demonstrated for us what a "typical" day at the savings and loan association works

My favorite part of the meeting was the day we visited these projects. Two of the projects were farmer field schools, where a group of farmers from a community has a plot of 2-5 acres. The farmers practice new agriculture techniques together as a group; this garden is a showcase for other farmers in the community. I also met up with an old friend! Bishop George is a leader of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church denomination who I worked with when I was in Uganda during 2015. I hadn't seen him since that time. We had hours of inspiring conversation about development and farming during our drive from project to project.

Bishop George and myself

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A Scare

This past week we had a scare with our little baby "bubs". On Wednesday, Lauren was in Kampala for her routine 2-week checkup. The doctors thought they saw a problem and wanted to perform a minor surgical procedure, which they scheduled for 11:00 am Friday. This was a surprise and it was very alarming to us. The procedure the doctors wanted to do is not recommended in the US after 24 weeks of pregnancy (Lauren was at 25 weeks), as there is a risk of the procedure causing pre-term labor. I took the bus down to Kampala on Thursday so that I could be with Lauren for Friday. We asked some of you and friends here to pray for us. One friend from Gulu recommended getting a second opinion from a doctor they knew. When we called this doctor, the doctor said she did NOT recommend this procedure and said if things were as bad as the other doctors thought, that Lauren should fly back to the US immediately. She did give us another place we could go to get another ultrasound by someone she recommended. It was Thursday night, we had an ultrasound scheduled with this other technician at 7:00 am Friday morning, just hours before the surgery. We really did not know what to do! We prayed and went to sleep. Friday morning, we went to the second ultrasound technician. When she did a scan, she did not see anything abnormal. She told us what the others thought was a "gap" was actually just fluid. She spent a lot of time doing the scan and pointed out that things were very normal. This technician has a lot of experience, so we believed her and trusted that God was answering prayers. We called off the operation. Next week, we will go for another checkup with yet another recommended doctor to confirm that things are still continuing as normal.

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Life Updates

We plan to come back to the US on October 22nd for Lauren to give birth on Christmas Day (that's the due date). We are excited about having a break, spending the holidays with family and friends, and hopefully seeing some of you! And of course, meeting our bubs! :)

My parents have arranged a little house for us to rent while we are home for 3 months! We are so grateful to them for their work in doing that and are excited to be living about 1 mile from my parents, while also taking trips periodically to Lauren's parents 2.5 hours away in MD.

Lauren is feeling great and gets to feel "bubs" kick and move several times a day. I guess that is the advantage of being the mom. :) One funny fact, every time an ultrasound technician scans the baby, they say "this baby is active"! I guess we will have an active bubs on our hands next year!

Bubs is laughing!

Now bubs is thinking!

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Can I help?

Many times, we are bombarded with requests for money. There are many needs and challenges here, some due to real needs and problems, others due to lack of character and hard work. Sometimes, we become "hard" and forget to really respond in a Christ-like manner. However, I was encouraged this past week when Ceasar and I were out raking grass for the garden. A lady walked up to us with a baby on her back. She asked Ceasar if she could help us gather the grass in exchange for money. She needed money to take her sick baby to the hospital. Many times, people just ask for money, rather than offering to help work. I was so happy to have her help us for 45 minutes and then gave her the $1.75 it took to get to the hospital. I was so encouraged that she didn't just ask for money, but asked how she could help.

Lady who helped us rake grass

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Random Photos

Our dogs like cucumbers, oddly enough!

Vitz has all these funny positions that she likes to sleep in.

Our garden/drive from couple weeks ago; the weather is beautiful this time of year!

Broccoli and our first watermelon from the garden, it is so delicious!

Join us in praying for:

1. Health for the pregnancy
2. Finding a subletter to rent our house here in Gulu while we are gone
3. The many needs here in Gulu and grace to respond

Praise God for:

1. Safety for our baby this past week
2. Beautiful weather
3. A house to stay at while we are in the US over Christmas