You've Been Lost!

In Uganda, when you go for too long without seeing someone they will inevitably say, "But, you've been lost!" I realize that in the blogger world I often get lost. Lately it's been too much going on and too little time to write about it. I wish I could write in much more detail but short blurbs will have to work for now. (Btw, I did finally add links over there but still have goofed up pictures. I'll fix it someday)

The U4U event went great. There were about 70 in attendance. Not a huge number but each one was passionate about Uganda and ministry. When you get 70 people like that in one room great things happen. As Mike Schrage put it so well in the final talk Saturday afternoon, "This is not Sunday, but as far as I'm concerned this is where the rubber really hits the road regarding church happening." There was great prayer, praise and partnership going on as we celebrated what God has done in Uganda and we dreamed about what God is going to do in Uganda.

Probably the best part of the weekend was sharing our home with former Jinja teammates Bret and Johnna, Ben and Kym, Erika, McKensey, Rebecca, Terri, and Greg and Jill. We had a houseful but it was great. I'm not sure that I've ever experienced "community" with a group as I have with our Jinja team. Our small groups here in Tulsa get close to that but the shared cross-cultural experiences and the down time in Uganda we had together allowed those relationships to really deepen. Terry Rush asked Ben Langford Sunday morning if our whole crew was Ben's family. Ben looked at us and then just said, "yes." And he is right.

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From the mouths of little ones....

As we were cleaning up Saturday afternoon, a few of us noticed my 2 1/2 year old daughter (who was in her own little world), McKensey, walk up to the glass podium, stand behind it and started saying very loudly, "Jesus, all over the world!" while waving her arms around. She said it over and over until she realized we were all having too much fun watching her. You don't think she notices what's going on?

On Sunday morning after church, my five year old Tyler began showing off his clothes pin donkey he made in Bible hour. My friend Doug Townsdin asked him what the donkey's name was and Tyler said, "Jack."

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On my upcoming trip to Africa next week.....

After Roz passed away about six weeks ago, my heart wanted to make plans to attend her memorial service and the scheduled Imbabazi Orphanage Foundation Board meetings on Thanksgiving weekend. But I thought "no way" as I didn't want to be away from my family over Thanksgiving and didn't think I could afford to be away from work for that long. Then one morning my incredible wife, Briley, woke up and said, "you really need to go and be a part of this opportunity God has given you." After praying on it for a few days I brought it up with my supportive Christian boss who said, "No question, this is something you should do." So, I am scrambling to prepare for another trip to Africa. I leave next week.

Then last Friday my oldest brother, Mark, called me and asked, "What would it take for a guy to plan a trip to Africa in less than two weeks." Evidently he and his wife, Kathleen, had talked about my trip and she said, "You just need to go with Clint." I've been trying to get Mark over there for about 10 years now so I immediately went to work in getting things lined up for him. He is very excited about seeing new ministry opportunities and being an ambassador for poverty-stricken Africans. We are both excited to share this experience together and we are both extremely thankful for our supportive wives and family.

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More coffee!

I received 200 more bags of excellent Arabica coffee called Kiira Kawa last week. I need to get rid of them. Can you help? They make great holiday gifts as you can tell others that this coffee keeps giving (remind anyone of George of Seinfeld?) . This coffee is bought by the Jinja Church members directly from the farmers. They pay the farmers above market price for their best coffee therefore benifitting those farmers economically (same idea as fair trade). Then the coffee is processed and roasted in Uganda and then packaged at The Source Cafe in Jinja. I bought this last shipment from them at their normal wholesale price enabling them to use those profits to pay for the expenses of the church building. The church, not having to pay for the building expenses due to this business, sends out their own missionaries by buying them bikes and providing monthly support as well as develop their children through exciting youth ministries. And this is not just buying coffee for a purpose. I believe that if you are a serious coffee drinker that you will really like it. So much so that you may end up like Doug and Danna Townsdin, who can't drink anything but Kiira Kawa dark roast coffee.

Let me know (clintatkibogroup.org) if you want some of this coffee for your home, small group, Bible class, office, church fellowships, Christmas parties, etc. It is great coffee with a mission.