Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our LORD, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21 The importance of thorough discipleship stuck out to me last weekend. It was my daughter Emma’s turn to go on an outing with me, and before getting ice-cream we spent a few hours evangelizing door to door with our church, Calvary Chapel Gulu. Emma, myself and our head pastor, Fred Latim, sat in the yard of a local political leader with the gentleman and his Muslim friend. The politician is a Christian who publically claims Christ and was very eager to talk to us about Jesus, but he didn’t know that Muslims worshiped a different god, he didn’t know the difference between any of the groups that proclaim the name of Jesus, and he couldn’t tell me why God allowed Jesus to die on the cross! The darkness of ignorance is vast when even sincere Christian leaders are severely underdeveloped. ...

“…choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 This month I (Noelle) want to share with you some of what life looks like for our kids. Time has flown by since we left the USA with two baby girls. Three more children have been given to us from the Lord and our ministry has grown as a result. I think the idea that raising children is discipleship was instilled in us when we were in our parents’ homes. Almost everything we do with our kids is purposely developing them for the Lord. I won’t to go into detail on our house rules and parenting philosophies, but I’ll do my best to show you what being a “missionary kid” looks like for ours at this stage of their lives: ...

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8 With this update I wanted to tell you about the crucial and unique part of our ministry that we call “Study Week”. ...

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21 With love and fondness we want to wish you a Merry Christmas! May God reveal Himself to you more and more as we all celebrate our deliverance from the bondage of sin. Let God magnify in our hearts the meaning of His son’s name, the mission He accomplished on the earth; that we might renew our thankfulness and joyfully display His love to our neighbors. ...

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 It fills my heart with awe and joy to realize that God wants to be with me. How wonderful that God wants to bless me for simply believing that He wants me nearer. God smiles down when I smile up! These truths and many more touched us as our school studied through the book of Hebrews in November. As always, our leaders gathered for one week to dwell on our text and prepare ourselves for the two consecutive cohorts of church leaders that gathered the next two weeks. And as always God blessed our time together with growth in the grace and knowledge of Him. Sometimes I can’t believe that God has set me apart as a teacher of His Word and a Shepherd of His flock, we are blessed to serve Him. ...

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galations 6:9 Two major things happened this month. The first thing was that my (Noelle’s) Mom was finally able to visit Uganda. After more than 5 years on the field, it was so good to be able to show her in person everything we’ve been doing, and meet our community and those we work alongside. She stayed for a whole month, praise God, and brought with her 3 of my older nieces and a friend. 12 people living under the same roof made our home practically burst at the seams, but all the housework work, play, and ministry seemed to get done smoothly nonetheless. Without them I would not have been able to finish all the work on my end in preparation for the big celebration, which is the second major thing that happened in October. ...

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32 Along with all the day-to-day things happening in life and ministry, September brought our 9th wedding anniversary. We are thankful to have shared so much of our life together, and we don’t take for granted the peace God has helped establish in our home. To celebrate, we prepared a candlelight dinner for our family and shared the story of our relationship with our kids. ...

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 We are happy to report that our friend Lydia returned home safely after spending 2 months with us here in Uganda. We thank God that He allowed her an extended period of time off from work to visit with us. She was a great help to the ministry, especially to the Discipleship School. Some of our favorite times during her stay were just having her in our home and village, seeing, hearing, and experiencing firsthand what is going on here. I was very blessed to have one of my own friends from home to spend some time with and share what God has been teaching me. And to finish off her trip we went on a Safari to talk and have a debriefing time; just Lydia, our teammate Cassie, and myself (Noelle). It was both Lydia’s and my first Safari! Our family is so thankful for Lydia and her sacrifice of time and finances to come and share in the work, joys, and struggles here. ...

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people,” 1 Timothy 2:1 As is our goal with every update, we want to share with you some of the recent events, and our future desires, with the hope that you will be able to pray more effectively, especially for our little village of Adak. We were discouraged by news that our friend, Caesar Opiro, had passed away. Caesar was one of the first people we met when we moved to Adak early 2018. He and 2 other young men had been friends with the previous missionary, who had built the house we live in; and they hoped to establish a relationship with us as they had with him. Caesar was younger and still in high-school, a bright eyed, friendly well-mannered happy guy. Caesar claimed Christ, but began having serious struggles when he was kicked out of school for injuring one of his classmates. We watched helplessly as his attitude changed over time and he sank into depression, alcohol, violence, and fornication. At some point Caesar no longer saw life as worth living, and eventually found malaria as a means of escape by hiding it from his family until it was tragically too late to get treatment. Sadly, Caesar’s story is not unique. In fact, in the month of July, our village experienced too many traumatic events to be recounted in only one update. Abuse, witchcraft, addictions, betrayal, robbery, revenge, immorality, jealousy, and the like. The world is truly dark, and sin really does produce death. But what the enemy meant for evil, God is working together for good. The visible advancement of darkness in our village has strengthened our resolve for our local community outreach “Yalwak Manyen”, New Generation Sports Academy. Together with my partners in this ministry, we evangelized to Caesar’s family, who finally recognized their need for a Savior. Caesar’s mother rededicated her life to Christ, his father and his brother became born again. ...

But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live… So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them. Exodus 1:17, 20-21 This month I am happily satisfied and thankful for all that God has done. One thing we are particularly happy about is the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade by the Supreme Court. When we first heard about the possibility of it being overturned, I was overwhelmed by a strange joy and anxiety. Joy that there was hope to change the ruling and save innocent lives, and anxiety because with how wicked our country has become which made having hope seem pointless. We gave it into Gods hands continually, and decided that the day it was overturned, we would celebrate it annually as a reminder of the countless lives lost to such a wicked scheme, and to celebrate the lives that will be saved through the reversal of the decision. I wasn’t sure why it came over me to make donuts on Friday, but once we heard the wonderful news, I knew God simply wanted us to celebrate this victory. We will continue celebrating “Birth Day” on each 24th of June, and we will remember to keep fighting for the rest of those lives still threatened. Each child is a blessing from God, no matter the way they have come into the world. ...