Farming God's Way Training in Soroti

Many of you have seen or read about the new way of farming that we are working with in the village.  If you go back a few blog post you will see the gardens we have been working on. We attended the first Farming God's Way training in August of last year and took Dan and Charles along with us.  Charles then attended a second training in Mbale a few months later.  The guys had already put in one small test garden and built the compost pile by that time.  The second training was good for Charles (along with four other guys) because he was able to ask the trainer, Chris, questions that you would only have if you have in fact tried this way of farming.  

We decided to invite Chris to come to Soroti and we would host a FGW training here in the Teso area.  

The last day of training in Obulle.  

Making compost.

One of our teammates from Soroti/Pamba area, Steve and the crew he brought to the training. 

The first two days were at Global Care.

It was a great training and both Colin and I are excited to see what God does.  We have a very large group in the village that are putting in FGW plots and we are more than thrilled to see that even more want to know how to do this new way of farming.  We were just at the church last night and our friends, Dan, Charles, Emma, Martin, and Michael all told us that their wives want to know how to do this as well.  So it looks like I will be teaching the ladies of our church the "how-to's"!  It is really neat that the ladies want to know how to do this.  Often times the husband goes through the training, but unless the wife is on board, it has a hard time getting off the ground.  Once the planting is done in the traditional method, it is mainly the wives that do the garden work.  So if I can get the women of Obulle on the same page as their husbands, then we will be in the FGW business!

A little extra

I just wanted to fill those of you in that were praying for us.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that Colin was needing prayer and that we as a family were needing visa paper work to get a move on.  Colin's back is on-again-off-again pain.  He will be feeling better then go and do some work in the village or carry two jerry can's of water at once and he is back to not being able to pick up Silas.  And now the pain is working it's way up to his neck.  It is very much out of alignment, so bad that even I can feel it!   So please continue to lift him up in prayer for healing.  Then with our visa situation.  Due to the holidays the NGO board has still not had any meetings.  I am sure that now the new year is here and the holiday expenses have piled up many will be wanting to get back to work.  
I will be sure to update once things get moving and thank you for all your continued prayers.  

     

December 2012

Silas and Naboth are good little buddies!

Our shop in the village is really coming together.  Colin and these two spend a bunch of time out there. Here they are working on making a slow sand water filter.

Our living room all decorated for our first Ugandan Christmas. 

On the 27th, Colin and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.

My sister Cassie and me on Christmas Eve about 1989 or 90.    My mom still has that little rocking chair, but sadly I do not have those killer red pj's.

Our church had their first nursery school graduation early in the month.    This is the first of many!

After the children received their certificates I loaded them all up in the Land Rover and we drove about one mile to the trading center so they could march through the center singing their praises to God.

Our friends, Dan and Charles, teaching about Farming God's Way to both adults and children at our church garden.   Every week the church members get together for a garden work day.  This gives the guys an opportunity to teach the FGW principles.

Margaret playing guitar, Elliot, Silas and me.  Silas is a trooper in the village and loves playing with the all the kiddos.  A bath is always needed when we get home though!  He likes to eat sand and get it in all his cracks and crevices.

He loves his new shades!

Some of the MANY sweets I feasted on over the Christmas holiday!

The cast of our "low budget" play of the Nativity at our church.  They did a fantastic job and may even do one on Easter! 

One of the families on our team works with the Street Kids Ministry here in Soroti.  They had a Christmas party for them and it was really great to meet the kids and hear about their lives.

And it wouldn't be Christmas without a creepy Santa giving out candy to little kids!

A few prayer requests

It is not very often that I feel the need to post about prayer needs, but this morning as I wait for it to get light enough to run I just can't get these few things off my mind.
First, three weeks ago Colin was trying to remove one of the Land Rover's tires so to fix a flat.  Here in Soroti you have to bring a tire iron and a jack if you want your tires fixed and you have to remove the tire and put it back on.  While he was doing this he managed to hurt his back.  Now three weeks later sitting, laying down, and driving are all painful, to the point where he physically looks like he is in pain.  Please pray for healing for him.  We really have no other way than the healing power of God in this matter.
Second and lastly, the NGO board has not met in about two months and our paper work for our work visa is sitting on their desk.  With the holidays coming it could be another month before they do meet.  Please just pray that our paper work does go through when they come together and the rest of the process is simple.  Having our work visa will allow us to attain legal guardianship of Silas and we can then work on getting him a passport so he can travel with us.  It also means that we will not have to leave country every six months, and at this point if we have to leave Silas can not go with us.
Thanks for all the prayers that are already offered up on our behalf.  We hope everyone enjoys the holiday season!

more stuff we've been doing lately

our chicken, Loretta Lynn, likes to come in the house and pick up all the food that Silas leaves in his wake.  She was given to us as a gift when we went and spoke at a church in Amuria.  Our other chickens are Wynonna and her chicks - the Judds, and our oldest and most loyal chicken is Reba.  We sort of have a country and western theme going on here with our chickens, not really sure why...

Dan demonstrating just how dirty you get with our drilling method.   This drilling method is called  the "cochina" method (cochino means pig in Spanish) in Boliva and the "baptist" method in other places - mainly because you get really muddy and you don't just get sprinkled but you get fully immersed in the mud.

these two snakes were killed at our church.  Colin wanted to hold them up to  show how long they were., but he isn't tall enough to do it justice.  Every snake that is killed is called a cobra, but I don't think we've seen even one true cobra yet.  Not that I'm looking!

Our friend Charla at Veribest ISD sent us Flat Stanley.  Flat stayed with us for a few weeks and toured Teso, hung out around Soroti, did some well drilling, worked in the gardens, went to market, met a lot of interesting people, and then made the long journey back to Veribest, TX.  In the background you can see Soroti Rock, which is the famous landmark for our town.  We'll miss you Flat!

We have been busy drilling wells, but also busy tweaking our drilling method, our materials, and our design.  When you move from one area or country to another you find different materials.  We have had to make some adjustments in our technology to accommodate the heavy use our wells are getting in this area.  As we drill more and more wells in a given area, the use on each particular well will reduce and we will not have to beef them up quite so much.  Here is a homemade piston we are using made from some inner tube, flip-flops (slippers), a bolt, a couple washers, and nuts.  Pretty simple, but it's bringing water to the surface for people to use.

update on whats been happening

We were busy this month putting in some more Farming God's Way gardens to be used as teaching and demonstration areas.  November marks the end of the rainy season so we are trying to get seeds in the ground and mulch cover before the rains completely stop and we have to start hauling water.  

The drilling was successful in Pingire, where 3 wells have been drilled in this village.  The community is very excited and the local church is serving and giving of their time to provide clean drinking water to their neighbors.  When the empowered local church is seen as the agent of change and not some big NGO from the west, then God gets the glory and the villagers do not become more and more dependent on man.

Colin shaved his mustache.  This was the final look.  

Silas discovered watermelon.  He absolutely loves it! We have to feed him outside though because he is too messy to feed indoors.  Fortunately we have a pet cat and a chicken and the three of them are good friends and love to help one another clean up after meals.

This is an old widow from the Pingire area.  She was the beneficiary of a water well drilled by her local church members.  This site was chosen by the church as they wanted to serve her in this way.  She was very grateful to have a well at her home, but for some reason she refused to pump the well for the picture.  I tried to explain that the picture is much more compelling when water is coming out of the well, but she wasn't having it.

Silas also discovered chocolate chip cookies.  His zeal for cookies  got a little weird. as you can see by his face.

October

I realize that it has been a long time since one of us has updated the blog, so here are a few pictures of life over the last month.

Washing clothes, dishes, clothes, dishes...I truly don't mind hand washing our clothes, but there are times when I wish I had a washing machine and dryer!  You can't get clothes near as soft and fluffy when they dry on a line.    

We took the Land Rover into the shop and borrowed our friends car while they are in the states.  Colin pulled in and a few hours later looked out and saw this little guy.  He belongs to our friends where the car came from.  He managed to ride under the engine (a 4 mile + drive on not so good roads) and hopped out once the ride was over.  

Colin has been working a ton in the village getting the Farming God's Way gardens going. 

Silas is a growing boy!  He has 6 teeth and just generally loves life. 

Our small group from our home church in San Angelo sent us THREE care packages!   Along with those 3, we also got one sent to us from College Station with a new SEC shirt for Colin and game day towels for him and Silas.

This is just a really cool piece of tapestry that was found here in the second hand market.  It was given to us by our friends for Silas.  I just love it and think it will make a really neat wall hanging! 

Dan and Emma working on the final touches of their first compost pile!  This didn't cost them anything to make, just their time and effort, but it will produce about $200.00 worth of fertilizer. 

Colin preached in a very small church in the bush a few weeks ago.  This area was hit hard by the LRA but God is healing the land !  

The drilling continues in Pingire.  They have drilled two more wells and start a third on Monday!

Just a small portion of what was used in the making of the compost pile.  MUCH more was needed.  But you can see the small well watered garden behind the piles.  The corn is now three times that size!

This was our first care package to arrive (second behind one from my mom that we recieved just a month or so after we arrived).  Thanks to our family, Jess and Audra, we got some great treats from home!!!  Colin is using the hot suace like crazy, but saving the pecans for a special occasion.  Love you guys!

And Silas got one too from our Community Life Group back in San Angelo.

And then I had to post this just because!  Yes I do leave him home alone with Silas...
Love this guy!

Just wanted to show everyone what we have been up to this last month.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!  

Ronnie