It’s been one of those weeks here where I have to keep focussed upward.

I have been surrounded this week by heartache and tragedy.  Our former househelp, Harima lost her sister on Sunday in a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) accident, leaving behind 3 small children.

My own house help, Margret is going through some difficult personal issues of her own. Then this morning we got news that her younger sister, whom we helped through school lost her firstborn, a baby boy when he was just a few hours old.  Margret has now rushed off to be at the burial in the village.

This morning I attended my ladies Bible study.  We are looking at the book of Ephesians right now.  As we studied ch1 v18, I was struck in a fresh way with both a desire to know Him better myself and to live a life that reflects my confidence in the certain Hope to which he has called me.  Also, my heart aches for those around me, facing really difficult times right now who do not yet have that certainty and hope for themselves.  Pray for wisdom for me in the coming days…

Sometimes we need these wake up calls eh.  I had been feeling low this week just because my family has been going through a rough patch with colds and tummy bugs.  The weather this month has also been hot, which is draining …. just minor things in comparison because I am filled with “Christs incomparably great power”( v19)

Thank you so much for lifting us up

I thought I would just let you know some of the things that are happening right now and that we would appreciate you remembering in prayer.

On a personal note, Mark has submitted the paperwork application for his next aircraft maintenance exam.  He is busy studying while he waits for an exam date from the CAA.

For Sarah the year has started off quite busily. She is doing speech therapy on a weekly basis with seven children this term at Rainbow school.  She will also be meeting with our lawyer in the next week, to start work on gathering the necessary documents to apply for Amy & Joshua’s adoption in a couple of months. She is really not looking forward to the process but counting on the promise that “My Grace is sufficient for you” and the end result will be worth all the hard work.

We have a couple more visitors planning to visit us, which is always a huge encouragement.

Our MAF planes are extremely busy right now.  There is much need in Uganda and the countries around us…  The fighting between militia and government troops continues in DRC.  The Lords Resistance Army have also been active in Congo lately.  Large areas of N Uganda and S. Sudan are facing drought and acute food shortages due to the lack of rain in recent years.  Areas of S. Sudan are often unstable due to tribal fighting.  With the country also facing elections in April it appears from a human perspective that the violence in Sudan is likely to get worse.  Please pray for safety and wisdom for our pilots and engineers on a daily basis.  That we would honour God in the work that we do each day and that we would use resources wisely.

I realise that we are already well into January but I thought that many of you would still be interested in our Christmas news.  For us it still feels a little like Christmas since all of our cards have arrived in January so I still have them up.

Prior to Christmas we had the visit of friends from the UK, Nick & Aileen White.  They brought some Christmas treats and a new bicycle for Amy which was very nice.  We were able to show them around the hangar and they were thrilled to go on a MAF flight one day.  We enjoyed carol services together and they then moved on to visit another friend on 23rd.

Christmas day was spent relaxing as a family.  The children were so excited with their stockings and gifts although Joshua managed to tip his Bubbles all over his bed before we even got to his room! After church, we had a traditional English Christmas lunch complete with Christmas pudding! We were able to Skype or call most of our family back home which really helps bridge that gap of feeling so far away during the holiday season.

After Christmas we went away to Lake Nabugabo for five days, camping.  It was our first camping trip and Nabugabo was the perfect spot to rest by the lake, swim and build campfires.  We enjoyed wonderful sunshine which was a blessing.  Back home in Kampala it rained every day.  On New years eve we sat on the shore and watched as a full moon rose across the lake - It was stunning! I marvelled at the majesty of our Creator as 2009 came to a close and pondered the things that 2010 may have in store.

Well, I finally feel as though Christmas is here. It looks to be a wet Christmas this year with the heavy rains suddenly falling very late. With drought in much north and north-east Uganda, I am sure the rain is welcome to many and we pray they will now be able to grow a good crop.

It is strange how carrying out those familiar Christmas traditions is so important to us.

Last weekend Mark & I went to the Pantomime. Yes, there is even panto in Uganda! The Kampala Amateur Dramatics Society did an excellent performance of Dick Whittington.

As a family we have put up our tree and yesterday, I made mince pies with my two little helpers.

On Sunday 20^th like many of you, we shall be going to a Carol service at church. I know many of you are used to carols by candle light but the service at our church is advertised as ‘carols on candles’. I will let you figure out what that could mean…

It became clear to me this week that all of our children’s TV programmes depict Christmas in the snow because Amy suddenly said, “On Christmas, I will put on my coat and hat and go to church on the sled”. She does not even own any of those items!

One of the most special times each day for us has been our story time. We are working through a little bit of the Christmas story each day with the children and it is fun to see them take it all in, in a fresh new way. Yesterday, I commented that the Shepherds were the first ones to know the baby Jesus had been born. I was promptly corrected, “No mummy, Mary and Joseph were the first ones who knew”.

We pray that as you hear the familiar story again, you will be able to celebrate Gods special gift to us in a fresh way this Christmas.

Life here is never dull. For the past two days we have all been entertained by the presence of a lorry, which has been stuck on our road.  We live at the bottom of a steep hill. The road is a no through road, so the only way out is back up the hill.

On Tuesday morning the truck broke down at the top of the hill.

The driver then made the unwise decision, to try and jumps start the truck by rolling down the hill.  He was unsuccessful, and had to drive into the ditch to stop himself hitting our neighbours wall.

First the driver tried to repair the truck, then they tried to tow the truck up the hill but no luck with that either.  By evening it was clear that the truck was spending the night on the road.  Wednesday dawned. The truck was going nowhere and therefore neither was my car.  I abandoned the idea of shopping and went for a nice walk with Joshua instead.

When we returned a mechanic had been sent.  At midday the engine roared into life, but it took another two hours and lots of black smoke to finally get the truck back up our hill!!

It should have been five princesses but this is Uganda.  One princess did not make it to the party and another was three hours late!

Yes,  Amy just celebrated her 4th Birthday on December 4th.  She chose to invite a few friends to one of her favourite restaurants rather than have a big party.   So we headed to Spurs and enjoyed a wonderful time of trampolining, face painting, french fries, ice cream & cake.  Not forgetting that her brother had received a ‘Thomas the Tank’ cake earlier in the year she requested a Disney princess cake.  Mummy, got creative and managed to produce ‘Cinderella’.

Cinderella Cake

Amy was thrilled with her gifts (most of which we lovingly carried back from UK in the summer).  She loves her new shopping till and she wore her new cheer leader outfit to her party.  Of course, being a boy who likes transport, Joshua saw the shopping til and said

” ooh, lets buy train tickets”

Opening presents

Emma, Amy & Joyce

Well my two year old boy is growing up faster than his mum wants him too.

I guess all children do that, but he seems to being turning into a ‘big boy’ right before my eyes. Already 104cm, tall I have to wonder how many (or few) years I have before he is taller than me?

Recently, one of Marks projects has been to repair a bicycle that we found for Joshua at a roadside shop. After several weeks of Joshua saying “Daddy fix it?” we were able to give him his bike last week. He has graduated from a little tricycle straight to a big bike with 14’’ wheels and can be seen here pedalling away!

in September 2008 I asked you to pray for me as I worked with the daughter of a missionary couple in Karamoja, NE Uganda.

The little girls parents have spent months trying to carry out speech therapy under my guidance.  I saw them in May just before my furlough and they were very discouraged.  Despite lots of hard work, Megan had made little progress.

Without the assistance of other specialists or other Speech therapists whom I could consult, I began to wonder if I had even made the correct diagnosis. Should I have taken a totally different approach with therapy?

I left them to continue with therapy during my furlough and promised to see them on my return.  Last week when I met with them again it was a wonderful moment.  Megan has suddenly made significant progress and although she still has a long way to go we are on the right road.  This family nearly went home to the USA one year ago to seek treatment and thanked me for enabling them to continue with their evangelism and church planting ministry in one of the most difficult regions of Uganda.

I don’t feel I did very much but I am thankful God was able to use my skills to help one little girl, which in turn enabled her parents to continue their work.  Only God knows the fruit that will result from their ministry too.

There are certain night time sounds that are familiar in Uganda… music down the road at the CD rental store, crickets chirping, voices and even the occasional banging of a stick as Jeremiah, our night guard kills a snake.  Last week the dogs started barking and soon after Jeremiah called  for us to come and see what the dogs had killed.

It was a pretty big bush rat! Now these things are a lot larger than your common pet rat back home.  We knew they were around but this is the first one that has dared to enter the Newnham compound that we are aware of.  Thanks to Spinner and Hope he did not survive too long either.

A good days work

It has been busy here in the last few weeks.  Just to give an idea of the amount of flying we have been doing…

In the whole of April our aircraft flew a total of 260 hours.

In the two weeks at the end of April our aircraft flew to 136 locations around Uganda, Sudan and DRC.  282 passengers were carried together with 4076 Kg of luggage and 4293 Kg of freight.

As a comparison, during the same two weeks in 2008 we made flights to 109 locations, 208 passengers were carried together with 3113Kg luggage and 2390 Kg of freight.

All of this flying has meant that we need more planes.  We have been waiting for many months for the arrival of ‘Scotty’.

The plane arrived from MAF South Africa a couple of weeks ago and the engineering team have been busy inspecting it and getting a mountain of paperwork ready in order to get the plane registered here in Uganda.

Pray the the process would go smoothly so that ‘Scotty’ can be flying across Uganda, Sudan and Congo soon.

Scotty's pod is removed in order to carry out inspections