February 22, 2012
-
Seasons change...
So February is ending... for those of you in Michigan or somewhere else in the US, it is still probably mild with no expectation of change for another month or two. However, here the dry season has abruptly ended. It has rained everyday for the past 4 days. The hot, dry, and dusty dry season is finished. Now it is time for planting and growth.
Speaking of growth, we are growing too. We are still growing at the waist, like usual. We are also growing in our faith, and in our ministry. We have just said goodbye to our last expected visitors from abroad, Rachel and Cherith. They left on Monday, leaving a little bit of emptiness in us. We have been anticipating our visitors with huge excitement having been separated from the "normal" for so many months. Now that they are gone, we have no more visitors to look forward to. So we have to find something else to look forward to.
Thankfully, the dreaded "first year" is almost complete. Everyone we talked to said that the first year is always the hardest. Specifically because there is little accomplished in the first year of a ministry. Now we believe that we accomplished many things. But they are definitely different from what we had planned in coming here. So we look forward to our ministry growing even more this year.
A huge growth of our ministry... we are going to build! We are in the planning phase of building the clinic in Pallisa. I plan to leave Kampala for two weeks and stay in the village. I will be going there with some experience masons and carpenters and we will go and build the clinic. We will join with the local community and build a clinic that is 25 feet by 40 feet, roughly. When we leave we hope to have a operational clinic building. We also hope to complete a wash house with a pit latrine and shower facility. This will be the first shower in Chelekure-Agule ever! We are ambitious in planning to build both structures in just two weeks. So please pray for our quick progress. Also pray that the finances stretch to accomplish all that we hope.
On Sunday, we budget out the building materials and start buying all of the stuff. We will pre-manufacture trusses before we go. Then we will mobilize with a half dozen men or so and get to work. I am really looking forward to getting my hands nice and dirty. I am not so much looking forward to the lack of running water or electricity for two weeks. I am even less looking forward to the beans and posho (corn starch porridge that is really thick) for most of my meals. But... it is for the sake of the Kingdom, so I will survive!
With leaving for that long, we need prayer for the family. As of last week Friday our house maid, Azeda, moved out. We parted ways permanently this time. But we hired another person, who starts today. So additional prayer is needed for a transition with Milly. She is not used to our culture and our ways of doing things. As most of you know, we are strange Americans let alone Ugandans. So she will need to adjust to our "style of life."
So as you can see, there is much growing this rainy season. Really looking forward to seeing the fruits, both in the garden and in our ministry, as time passes.
Chad Neeley
Volunteer Construction Coordinator - WWCS Uganda/USA
