Well, after a lovely, long summer holiday it is finally time for Charis, Jonah and Ethan to head back to school. Jonah begins his final year of primary and Ethan begins year 4. Charis starts her journey into secondary school and begins year 7 today; hardly seems possible!!

They are all ready to go back and woke up very early this morning to start getting ready, and were clean and tidy this morning when they set off!

Check this out!

While we were in the UK, Jez got to drive his brother-in-law’s Lotus 7 and I got to ride in the passenger seat!! It was very exciting and we felt very smug looking at other vehicles who were also waiting at the traffic lights!

Well, we are here, back in the UK.

The flights were smooth and uneventful, all the luggage came through as well, and we are now camped in London prior to the next leg of the tour!

It’s great to be here and the weather is just amazing. We are really looking forward to  spending time with our sending church in Swansea and catching up with family and friends in various different parts of the country. See you all very soon!

And many thanks to all of you who went to the trouble of putting up all the flags to welcome us, a very touching effort- thank you….

Welcome back!?

And here we have, served up for your delight, a sample of Uganda’s finest cuisine: stewed pumpkin, matooke (cooked bananas), chapatti, rice and beans! 

A veritable carb-fest, eaten by Helen on a recent day trip!

Clockwise from left: rice, pumpkin, matooke, chapatti, and beans!

A plethora of pictures this week, which are truly delightful!

In true ‘over the rainbow’ style, 18 of our child development projects were competing against each other to see who has the most tuneful, rhythmical and smiley choir!

The prize? The winners get to be the next group to tour America in 2011!

It was a week of nail-biting competition as each project presented a Lugandan song, drum dance and set piece: we sat up in the balcony of the church and to us, they all looked and sounded fantastic! The adjudicators really had a tough decision to make, but eventually the winners were clear: Kawempe, Buloba and Gaba were ‘way up high’ above the others! 

The Mwangaza tour choir for 2011 will be made up of children from each of these projects. 

Well done everyone who took part; it was a great week, the highlight of which for us was a mass choir of all 380 children singing together!

 A couple of weeks ago it was the turn of the married couples to spend the week serving in the church.

Sunday morning was no exception and it was great as Jez and I were able to speak in the first Sunday morning meeting together. It was a great opportunity to work together and model being in a team. Our subject was ‘Five Keys to a Successful Marriage’ and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few pics of the event!

As well as speaking Helen was also part of the choir- singing heartily, even in the Lugandan songs!! 

We are continuing to lead the ‘newly married’ group which meets twice a month in our house. We have a great bunch of ‘less than five years married people’ and we are enjoying the opportunity to encourage them as they begin their marriage journeys together.

Thought you may like to have a quick update of the progress of the youngest member of the family!

Name: Sasha

Age: Six months

Likes: Hunting birds and butterflies

Dislikes: Having a bath

Favourite sport: Football, with Jonah & Ethan

Favourite fictional character: Dogmatix; canine friend to Obelix

Favourite film: 101 Dalmatians

Sasha is fun to have around and she makes us all laugh. She has learnt to say ‘please’ for her food by holding up her left paw; she also uses the same gesture to say ‘sorry’ when she has done something wrong!

We just can’t believe how much she has grown….and she will get much bigger yet!

Check out the photos- then and now!

What a fantastic gathering of all the partnership pastors!

As part of his role with church partnerships, every so often Jez calls all the Ugandan church pastors together to meet at Gaba. Earlier this week, he had his first such meeting!

Most of the pastors were able to make it for the training and they received valuable input from Jez, Pastor Peter, the Chief Finance Officer for ARM, as well as several others. 

It was a great time of fellowship and talking together as different issues were addressed and progress made in strengthening and encouraging these amazing churches and their fantastic leaders! 

Recent pics from Lake Victoria: we are still curious as to exactly what they were doing!?

If you have any suggestions, let us know!!

Last Sunday at Gaba church, Jez was given the opportunity to speak to us in the morning meetings! Here are a few pics to mark the occasion!