Tuesday 20 May 2014

A small update.

It has been a long time since I have written anything and this is not going to be a hugely informative or exciting blog post but I thought I should update you on my favourite people from Kasese!  First up in Moreen because I am so proud of her and the huge professional steps that she has taken this past year in gaining confidence and skills.  Last year I was getting quite frustrated because it seemed as though she wasn't able to think 'outside the box' in terms of our 'creative teaching groups' at a special needs school.  But nowadays she comes up with ideas I wouldn't have thought about that really work with local kids and I'm so proud of her progress.  She is also showing her confidence and calm countenance at Jambo where she is in the difficult position of being in the middle of a long-running dispute between the two other Jambo ladies.  It has been a tough few months with the Jambo ladies' relationships but these past few weeks have made me want to tear my hair out.  Two of the ladies had a problem with each other and they were just not willing to talk through it or have any grace or forgiveness for each other.  We prayed and prayed that God would soften their hearts because we saw no other way of reconciling the two.  Well God answered our prayers one day when one of the women had a dream about the argument being about a spiritual battle over Jambo and finally agreed to apologise to each other and started making tracks back to friendship.  The atmosphere is still slightly thick and gloopy but Moreen coming back to work has helped the two to stick at the business and work on their friendships again.  Time will tell how friendships and the business will work out from here...
Noeline has turned a corner in her motherhood as Israel is finally chilling out a bit and sleeping more, leaving her more time to rest and work.  She is not getting much work locally because people in the area where she lives really can't afford hand-sewn clothes, the second-hand market cuts the prices of ready-made clothes to a pound a piece.  But she is living with a friend of ours who is in the same position of being a single mum to a boy, but she is several years ahead, her son being 8 years old, and they help each other out a lot.
Samuel had a 'fake' 4th birthday last week because his grandfather is here so we pulled his birthday a month early.  He had a fabulous time with about 15 of the local church kids coming round to play and eat sausage sandwiches and eat copious amounts of crisps!  Jonah has developed rapidly in the last week or two and now seems to be a fully functioning small boy who understands most of what we ask of him and can communicate with us in signs and sounds and also has mood swings like any other two year old!
So that's the latest, I hope you feel updated now!  Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.