We've Reached!!

Tomorrow (Monday) evening we will have been in Uganda for 3 full weeks! Overall, our flights were uneventful, which is a good thing! Aubrey Anne and Genevieve both did well traveling, which was an answer to prayer. We then began the adjustment to Ugandan time (Uganda is 7 hours ahead of the EST in the US). This caused for some rather sleepless nights, but we made it!

We were able to have a whole row (4 seats) to ourselves both flights.

On the way to the airport, Genevieve enjoyed the last drops of Lauren's tea.

After resting at a guesthouse near the airport for two nights, we made the 7 hour trip to our house in Gulu. It was so good to be finished traveling! When we arrived to our house in Gulu, the guys taking care of our house were waiting for us! Our house was in good shape, considering we were gone for 15 months, with no one living in it. This was definitely an answer to prayer! In Africa, there are many insects (termites, ants, other wood eating insects, etc.) that can destroy wood, cloth, and furniture.

Aubrey Anne loves exploring the market!

My sister Susanna also came with us and stayed for almost 2 weeks to help us on the flight and with adjusting in Uganda. We enjoyed having her stay with us so very much! She was a big help with the girls as they adjusted to our new home. Thank-you everyone for praying for our trip! 

We have two praises: 

First, we are nearing 100% of our support raising goal! We would like to thank all of you who prayed specifically for this need and also were so generous in your support, we greatly appreciate it!

Some of you may have heard that our youngest daughter, Genevieve, was sick 10 days ago. We are grateful the she recovered; thank-you all for praying for her. 

Please continue to pray for our family as we continue our adjustment and find good rhythms as a family here in Uganda after being away for 15 months.

Also pray for our work here, that the Lord would use us here and provide opportunities to advance His Kingdom during this time.

Back to Uganda!

 Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this update finds you all well and enjoying the cooler weather (if you live in PA that is).

We are heading back to Uganda!! Very soon, actually. There were a few details that we were waiting to fall into place before we picked our departure date and only purchased our tickets less than 3 weeks ago. We depart this Sunday, Oct 3rd, at 5:25 pm out of Dulles. We are so grateful that my sister Susanna is coming with us for about 2 weeks to help with the trip to Uganda and then as we settle in over there; she will be a big help!

We feel both excited and ready to be back in Uganda and also sad to leave family and friends, our house, and all the comforts and conveniences of life that the US has to offer. We are excited, however, to return to our life in Uganda and the people we know there.

The past 6 weeks we've stayed busy loving our girls, working, support raising, living life and some vacation time. We enjoyed a trip to Florida with Lauren's parents. Grandparent time has been so special with the girls this summer.

We would like to thank you all for your support this past 15 months (we came back to the US last year in June 2020). So many of you have been generous towards us financially and we appreciate that. We are around 90% of the way to reaching our support goal. Also, thank-you for praying for us the past year as we navigated this season of life. Please continue to pray for us as we travel back to Uganda (with two children under the age of 2 year old).

Love,

Eric (Lauren, Aubrey Anne, and Genevieve)

P.S. Of course I couldn't leave you without pictures of our girls.

Fundraising, COVID in Uganda, The Market Project, A big Thank-You!

Dear Family and Friends,

Fundraising

It's nearly September, where did the summer go? (That's how it feels anyway)! This means that September 25th, our target date of leaving for Uganda, is quickly coming. We are about 80% of the way to our fundraising goal. We are still praying for $400 in monthly recurring gifts and $10,000 one-time gifts to come in before we depart for Uganda. Thank-you all for your generosity, we are getting close to our goal!

COVID in Uganda

Please pray for the COVID situation in Uganda. The COVID numbers dramatically increase about 3 months ago. The government took action by putting a strict lockdown in place that lasted for six weeks. Recently, the lockdown was eased, but many the guidelines that remain still put people in financial strain. Public transport, for example, under guidelines. A bus is only allowed to carry 50% of its capacity. This will certainly cause an increase in bus tickets. Many Ugandans rely on buses and goods and services are sure to also increase in price. Schools are not allowed to reopen until a vaccine is found (which has been very complicated for Uganda so far). 

The Market Project

Last month, I spent two days with some other US colleagues of the The Market Project. It was a very good time of meeting in person and getting to know my colleagues better and learn more about The Market Project as an organization. I'm very excited about joining them in Uganda.

A Big Thank-You!

Finally, thank-you to all of you who have been praying for us and have financially given to this work! We couldn't do this without you. Beyond the financial help, it is encouraging to have you invest in our work in this way.

Prayer Requests

1. That the COVID numbers in Uganda would decrease and for the health of people in Uganda.

2. The financial situation of many people in Uganda who are affected by the recent COVID spike.

3. Support raising; that the money could come so that we would be able to leave for Uganda in September.

Praises

1. Some improvement in COVID numbers in Uganda so that some restrictions were lifted.

2. All the support that has come in for us so far.

3. The Lord's provision for us as a family over the last year as we were in the US.

Thats all for now,

Eric (Lauren, Aubrey Anne, and Genevieve)

December Update

We cut down our Christmas Tree!

Hello Family and Friends, 

Happy December to each of you! We are grateful to be celebrating this advent season once again in the US with our family, awaiting the birth of a new baby who is due at the end of February.

We have somethings to update you on, so let's get started:

1. Back in Uganda

Since returning to the states in June, Eric has been in communication with his coworkers about their ongoing community garden projects. He will share more about the success of the plots in a video in the coming weeks. He also has been making sure that our home and compound are in good hands by communicating with his coworker and our helpers who are overseeing care of our place. While in the US, Eric is working on his parents dairy farm.

I continue to work remotely here in the US on the primary school curriculum that I am helping to develop. The curriculum is trifold including modules of spiritual, character, and leadership development lessons. Schools in Uganda have been shut down since March because of Covid-19, so any training or meetings that I would have planned to have would not have happened. I am grateful to be able to work away at this project that I am passionate about and I hope that we can roll out a drafted version when school opens back up at the beginning of 2021.

A major struggle that Uganda is enduring right now is the campaigning season for the upcoming mid-January elections. While we are not there, we are getting information on how tense the situation has been and how violence is unfolding as a result of campaigning. The current president is well into his 70's and has served for three decades and counting.  There is a serious opponent coming up to vie for the presidential position. This is a threat to the established president and his party, therefore it is creating unrest nationwide.

2. We bought a house!

While it may seem crazy that we would buy a house since we have a (rented) home in Uganda and very much have our lives and work there, this has been a goal for us to own in the US. There are several reasons why. This house will be a space for us to settle for now until we go back to Uganda. Also it will be a place to come back to when we do travel back and forth. And it is an investment that we have been wanting to make. We pray that this home is a blessing to others as we welcome new and old friends in and as we rent it out when we are back in Uganda. Our home is in Mifflin, PA and it is about 10 minutes from the Ranck family farm. A fun fact: in Aubrey Anne's 11 months of life, this is her SIXTH home! She's adjusted so well :)

Move in Morning

Aubrey Anne loves her books!

3. Looking Ahead

We plan to be in the US for several weeks after our 2nd child is born; that brings us to about mid April. Upon arrival back in Uganda, we will settle into our new routine as a family of four. I will return back to work in early June. Eric will continue his agriculture work with the garden plots in the communities and other work with World Renew. 

Prayers 

• The birth of our baby due in February
• Relationship with our new neighbors here in Mifflin
• Peaceful election campaigns in Uganda
• Our return to Uganda in April

Gratitude

• The provision of buying a house
• Good communication with people in Uganda taking care of our house
• A healthy pregnancy as I am now in my third trimester
• For YOU, for friendship, care, support, love and prayers for us!

 

With lots of love and joy to you this season, 

Lauren, for the Rancks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ranck Family Update

Dear family and friends,

 As we write this, we reflect on that fact that we have been in the US for two full months!

 

We always had the plan of coming back for three weeks for a family wedding until COVID hit and the Uganda airport shut down. We were only able to get out on a charter flight with the hope that the airport would soon reopen and we could return back home to Gulu, Uganda. Yet in the same vein, we knew that there was a real possibility that it may be months until we got back. The airport is still shut down, therefore we are not able to return, even though we attempted to get back on a repatriation flight, it seems that we are in the US for an extended period of time.

As with all of you, our life has taken many unexpected turns in the last several months. Although we do long to be back in Uganda with our community, work, and home there, we are here and we have been so grateful for our time. Aubrey Anne has spent wonderful days with both sets of grandparents and her aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family! Eric has been busy at work on his family farm and I had been able to do my work from here. With schools still shut down in Uganda, there is no opportunity of training and school visits, so I am doing the best I can with curriculum development from here.

 

Our days are pretty simple with work and attending to the daily duties of life. We have had a lot of family gatherings and celebrations including the beautiful wedding of Eric’s brother, Andrew and his wife Kiersta!  We have been staying in an Airbnb close to Eric’s family’s farm and then we will move into a small home on one of the farm’s properties in the coming weeks.

Another joy is that we are expecting a new addition to our family! I am just finishing my first trimester and we plan to welcome our second child into our arms at the end of February. This surprise is one of the main reasons that we are now planning on staying in the US for the next several months. We think it is wise to stay here for prenatal care, the birth of our baby then return back to Uganda around mid-end of April.

You may be wondering what our current financial situation is, now that we are no longer in Uganda, especially those of you who are supporting us on a regular basis. Currently, Eric is working full-time on our family farm which is covering our expenses while we are here in the US. However, there are still a few ongoing expenses we have in Uganda. Secondly, we were a bit behind on our support raising when we came back to the US in June. We are asking that those of you who are giving on a recurring basis, continue to do that, as you are willing and able. This will help us cover the few expenses that we still have in Uganda and help us catch up and get ahead in our support for when we go back, Lord willing next year. If you have any questions or concerns in this area, please feel free to contact Eric. We would like to thank all of you who have and are faithfully supporting us financially. Finally, Eric has been able to participate in some exciting work with farmers in Uganda earlier this year that he will update you on in a later post.

Praise God with us that:

-      We were able to make it back for the wedding 

-      For a job for Eric while we are here

-      For good workers in Uganda who are taking care of things for us while we are away

Please pray with us:

    -       For us in this extended time away from our home and work in Uganda

    -       For the health of our growing baby

    -       For our home in Uganda, that our things would stay safe there

We are so grateful for each of you!

With lots of love and joy, 

Eric, Lauren, and Aubrey Anne 

Quarantine in Uganda

By Lauren

Hi dear friends,

First, let us say that we miss you and we pray that our Father has sustained you in this season. We hope that He has shown you more of His love and care. We pray that He has continued to cultivate a deeper posture of gratitude for those around you and for the provision that He has over you each day.

I just finished reading through 1 Peter- in chapter 1:3-4 the verses say, "... we have a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.." How incredible to know that our Hope is in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and that Hope does not diminish, does not go bad, and this Hope is the purest of pure.

It seems that most of the world has been forced to be in hibernation over the last few months.  Here in Uganda, it has been no different. When we got back to our home in Uganda in mid February, we jumped right into working hard to settle back into our home- to set up things and our life again and we both got back to work while trying to navigate a new rhythm with a newborn.

We had Eric’s sister, Susanna, with us who was supposed to participate in a 3-month volunteer stint here that was quickly diverted when lockdown started, her opportunities diminished, and we got her on an emergency flight out of Uganda (since the borders and airports had closed down).

Here is what life has looked like for us recently:

Eric’s work:

I (Eric), will give you a short update on the farming that I've been doing, followed by pictures. I will explain each picture in the caption below the picture. I am mainly farming right now and not traveling to the communities because it is illegal to gather and meet with more than 5 people. I have my 1/4 acre garden on our compound, a 1/3 acre garden outside our gate, and a 2 acre garden/field that I'm helping with on Reverend Kenneth's land. Reverend Kenneth is the man I worked with in the communities before the lockdown. He has a large piece of land. His sons do a lot of the labor, but I go twice a week to instruct on the next phase, and help when I'm there. I've enjoyed getting to know Reverend Kenneth's family.

We live next door to a government owned property, where about 10 soldiers stay. Two months ago, a soldier, named Awilo, came and asked me if I could help farm the piece of land outside our gate. It's been a great opportunity to teach him while also demonstrating for all the people that walk past on the road.

I'm again planting things on our compound, as a way to get produce, but also to try different methods of growing crops.

This is Reverend Kenneth's 3/4 acre of corn, intercropped with cassava. 

Reverend Kennth and I.

At Reverend Kenneth's field, we planted maize and put DAP (a fertilizer that has phosphorus and nitrogen) on part of the on maize after we covered. The maize on the right had the DAP and the maize on the left did not, the difference is quite stark.

We planted cabbage and then covered them with pieces of banana stalk. This shades the fragile transplants from the hot sun; after several days, we remove the banana stems.

Inside our compound, we intercropped ginger and cilantro. Ginger takes over a month to germinate, so I want to see if I can harvest a crop of cilantro before the ginger becomes too large.

This is our neighbor, Awilo, in the garden plot in front of our house. Here, we are planting corn in the dug rows, and sweet potatoes in the mounds, between the maize. The idea is to intercrop in such a way so that plants are occupying the plot vertically (maize) and horizontally (sweet potatoes) so that the net production per acre is higher, than if the plot was split in two and each crop was grown separately. I want to see if the sweet potato vines and cover the ground, helping to preserve moisture and smother the weeds, while the maize grows. Stay tuned!

This picture is from the same field as the picture above, 2 weeks later.

Several weeks ago we had a chameleon in a small mango tree in our compound.

They can change colors so quickly. This picture was taken only 1 minute before the picture below (he is on the stick to the right of the picture).

Collard greens (right), tomatoes (left), and butternut squash and passion fruit (back). Here is another intercropping setup where I'm growing crops horizontally and vertically. Butternut squash is a vine that crawls on the ground. The passion fruit are beginning to climb up the arbor.

More butternut squash outside. I was starting to get what I believed were snails eating the squash. Insecticide does not work on snails, since they are mollusks, I put chicken manure around each plant, hoping that the "saltiness" of the fresh chicken manure would deter the snails just long enough, for the squash to grow bigger to the point where snails wouldn't bother them anymore. The chicken manure will then become fertilizer for the squash. I did end up losing one more hill of squash to something, so I'm not sure if it worked so well.

This is at the base of a banana plant. We dug these holes and planted Turmeric. Another example of intercropping. My goal is for the turmeric to benefit from the manure and mulch that I add to the bananas, while increasing the net production of bananas and turmeric, compared to if each was grown separately.  

Lauren: We are grateful that I am still able to work! My work is curriculum writing from home for an organization that is based in the capital of Kampala. Therefore I spend a few hours each day writing and creating on my computer! I am also still able to meet with my prayer group in the area (online) and of course, I have the joy of being with Aubrey Anne each day. Since we are not able to drive anywhere or participate in public exercise, all of our activities are around our compound, including stroller rides.  We do take a walk to town as a family about once a week to go to the grocery store or to stop at a coffee shop for a coffee/tea date!

Aubrey Anne loves doing leg lifts!

Here we are at the coffee shop, she had just woken up and had a very confused look on her face! 

Family Life: We have loved living life and interacting with our little (and definitely growing) 4.5 month Aubrey Anne! We may have way too many photos and videos on our phones yet there is much to document from her each day (and we need to keep grandparents updated :) ) We have also had the joy of zoom calls and Facetiming a lot of friends and family both near and far!

Eric took Aubrey Anne in the truck to pick up bamboo poles just down the road.

We also get to participate in the Psalms Devotional each afternoon with our community from Grace Fellowship Church (GFC) in State College, PA as well as Worship Wednesday with The District Church in Washington, DC. We also are able to “attend” church with these two communities each week since churches are closed here and online worship is not an option.

During our Psalms Zoom call, Aubrey Anne was so alert and watching our teacher on the computer.

A special thank you to each of you for your prayers and love. We would especially like to thank our Advocacy Team at GFC for their overall support and care for us as we are in Uganda.

With love and joy, 

Eric, Lauren, and Aubrey Anne