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

With furlough fast approaching we are all trying to tick as many items as possible off our ‘to do’ lists before we head to UK.

Last week Sarah headed out to the hangar for the day.  I was helping Mark by organising a couple of the drawers in his tool box.  My task… to cut out shapes in a foam insert that the tools fit into.  This way, Mark can look in his drawer and immediately tell if a tool is missing and ensure that none get left in a plane when maintenance is being done.

organised tool box drawer

At the weekend the girls got down to some more DIY.  We painted the frame that Mark made for the dolls house to stand on.

"Paint the wood too Amy"

Mark has also been busy working on the roof rack for the car, trying to get the neighbours internet set up and studying for his exam.  There has been a lot of maintenance to do in the hangar recently but he would really like to take his exam before furlough - please pray that schedules would allow this to happen.

There is one other big item still on our ‘to do’ list that we really must get working on… putting a presentation together for Home Assignment!

I hope you had a very special easter break with your families.  It was quite cold and wet all weekend in Kampala but we had a good weekend none the less.

Mark was on holiday the week prior to Easter.  He was able to make some progress on a work bench he is building in the garage and also on a roof rack he is making for our car. All done under the watchful eye of Joshua!!

We also had some fun family times!  We went swimming, had water fights, went out for some meals (thanks to the generous gift of one of our supporters) and relaxed together.

On Good Friday Mark & I were able to spend time with the married couples from church while the children spent the morning with baby sittters.  Easter Saturday the children were invited to a birthday party where they had great fun painting eggs and doing an easter egg hunt.  On Sunday we celebrated at church with our Ugandan friends.  Many people greet each other here with the phrase ‘He is Risen’ rather than ‘happy easter’.  A good reminder that we serve a living saviour.