Dear Family and Friends,

We thank you for your prayers! The Lord has been good and gracious to us over the past 2+ months of living in Uganda. It feels good to be on the other side of the initial chaos (what we are terming, “the survival stage”). This is where every day you spend most of your time and energy just…getting through the day! It’s also where the list of things to do is accompanied by an even longer list of things to learn before you can get any one thing done! For example, how to drive, pay utilities, set up your phone and internet, where to shop (how much things cost/how much to pay people, etc.), how to safely purify and process your water and produce, how your battery back-up system works when the power goes out multiple times a day…

Settling In?

Another list (that is ever growing) is our list of contacts. It seems there is a different contact for each particular need (the coffee guy, cheese guy, lettuce lady, market guy, boda delivery guy, the plumber, the electrician… You get the idea). Our WhatsApp contact list went from 0 to who knows how many in a matter of days!

In the survival stage, everything seems to go slower than molasses (And not just because this culture views time…a bit…differently). Each task seems to take extra time and energy to complete. It felt like we had bandwidth for just a few items a day (A run to town for errands left us exhausted).

To add to the sense of “survival”, due to personnel changes and different needs on the field, we didn’t have the option of “taking things slow.” We quickly had to jump in and help out in different ways or sometimes figure things out on our own (Not to say there wasn’t help from others around us- thank the Lord for our various teammates, the local church, and other willing individuals!). This “trial by fire” helped (or forced) us to learn a lot in a little time, which we are thankful for!

For instance, just a few weeks after being here ourselves, we became the point person(s) for showing visitors around Mbale and the ropes of how life works here- ironic for sure! Though, based on their positive report, it was an encouraging reminder of all that we have learned so far and the progress that has been made.

However, as in most things in life, adjusting to a new culture and country is not a race, it’s a marathon. That being said, we do feel like we are entering into a new (and longer) stage in that journey…

A New Stage?

Now that we have learned some of the basics on how to do every day life here, we are starting to learn the rhythms for our weeks and months. Those endless lists of contacts can start developing into relationships- where we learn more than just their names, but who they are; where we can stay after a church service and have follow-up conversations, not just introductions; and where our kids can start feeling comfortable enough to start playing with other kids in the church (A praise!). Where we start the many years’- long journey of learning a new people’s language, culture, history, traditions, etc.

It’s funny, but you don’t realize how much it matters to you to ‘know’ people around you (to have a sense of community) until you are dropped into a place where you know… no one. Where every face you see is new. Where everything you experience is foreign.

I (Travis) started realizing this when just seeing some random pine trees (not native to Uganda) as I rode past brought some comfort because it distantly reminded me of “home” (A fact, when expressed to my Ugandan driver, was apparently quite funny, ha!). Or, when you get overly excited that you happened to see/greet your plumber in town running errands!

Or when you have a sense of relief when you start waving to other missionaries and Ugandans you know when driving around your community (Especially when your van stops working at an intersection… By God’s providence not 1 but 4 people drove by that we knew and stopped to make sure we were okay! Plus fellow teammates were following us and helped shuttle our family the rest of the way to church. Our van started working again – praise the Lord!).

Yes, Uganda still doesn’t feel like home (And probably won’t for a longgg time…), but it also doesn’t feel quite as foreign and strange either.

Highlights

Knox conference

On Saturday, September 7th, Knox School of Theology hosted a conference on African Traditional Religion that I (Travis) was able to attend. What was most encouraging to me was that the event was primarily planned, orchestrated, and executed by the indigenous church and faculty of Knox. This included the guest speaker who was from ACFAR (African Center For Apologetic Research). About 75 or 80 people attended, which was a mix of Knox students and staff, local church leaders, and OPUM missionaries/guests. To see the level and quality of the conference and content of the lectures that was produced was a blessing. The Gospel was clearly presented and Biblical truth was brought to bare by the East African speaker on different aspects of his/the attendees own culture that they could clearly relate to. It was incredibly helpful to get his perspective as I come from a different culture, seeking to better understand this one.

Sipi Falls Trip

On Friday, September 6th, the OPUM missionaries in Mbale and the Committee on Foreign Missions (CFM) guests we were hosting took a day trip to see Sipi Falls. This was a fun (though tiring) outing for our whole family. The kids did an incredible job hiking with us adults. The views were breathtaking! After hiking to two of the waterfalls, we got lunch at a restaurant built into the side of a mountain with another breathtaking view of the last/lower waterfall and the surrounding countryside.

Entebbe Trip

On Tuesday, September 10th, we concluded our time with our guests with Travis helping get them back to the Entebbe airport. This was another milestone in getting more familiar with the broader area. It was a long adventure where we (a local pastor and Travis) left in the dark at 6am and got back in the dark at 8:30pm during what is probably the worst rainstorm I’ve seen. What should have been a 10.5hr round trip got extended with traffic, bad weather, and other delays- but we made it back safe and had another adventure!

This concluded a full but joyous two weeks of hosting and showing our guests around Mbale. Shortly afterword we then helped host our team from both Mbale and Karamoja several times. It was fun to have our house (and temporary home) full of those that have become friends, and made it feel a bit more like home. It also felt good to be able to plugin and serve in this way. We enjoyed our time with them, and were sad to say goodbye, but that’s also the life of a missionary we are finding. A life filled with constant goodbyes. But it makes you cherish the time you get with others!

Looking Forward

With that busy stretch behind us, we are finally taking a breath and figuring out what the rest of our time here in Mbale will look like. We have begun to settle into a daily and weekly schedule which allows us to take on a few more long-term roles, responsibilities, and projects. Additionally, we are preparing to move to Karamoja in a month (Something that’s bittersweet as we are sad to leave the community and friends we have made here and are tired just thinking about another move…yet we are excited to finally be going to Karamoja and joining the team/church there [almost exactly 1yr later than expected, ha!]). We are focusing on learning the culture and people we are/will be serving- a big part of this will be learning the language. Praise the Lord for His providing a language helper for us!

In Christ,

The Emmett’s


Praises

  • We were able to find a language helper in Mbale from Karamoja and have already had a few lessons!
  • We were able to host various visitors and our team from Karamoja over the past month
  • The children have made friends at church and love going!
  • We have been able to navigate this new environment and the Lord has provided safety for us
  • The friends we have made along the way!

Prayers

  • Continue to pray that the Lord would give us peace, grace, and flexibility as there continues to be many changes, challenges, and unknowns for our team here. Pray that we/our team would be faithful in the present and that God would give us clarity for the future.

  • Pray for good health (Each week it seems something new comes up – we have had a few rounds of fevers for Jackson, some GI issues for a few of us, a cold that passed through the family, a broken collarbone for Adalyn, and now a double ear infection for Dawson). Though, we are getting good at navigating the health system here!
  • Pray that we (specifically Bonnie) will get good rest. Between sick kiddos, a new environment, an infant who wakes to feed in the night, and many to do’s, sleep has not been as abundant as needed.
  • Pray for Travis as he plugs in and takes on various tasks and responsibilities for the mission.
  • Pray for us as we seek to minister to many we know that are dealing with suffering, death, and loss. It seems every day we talk to/hear of someone that has a family member that is ill or has died. We have already had to have some hard but good conversations with the kids. Pray especially for those affected and grieving.
  • Pray for our family as we continue to settle into the different rhythms of life and tweak various aspects of it to better suit the needs of our family.