A Few Family Photos from the 2017 Archives

2017 has been a good year. If the meager postings on my blog are any indication (and they are) it's also been a very busy and crazy year! There is so much I intended to share with you as the year unfolded, but alas, here we are on the eve of 2018, and there's no way I could possibly catch up now.

Instead, I'll just show a few random family photos from the past 6 months that have been sitting in my blog folder waiting...

In October, during the kids' school break, we spent a day at what the kids like to refer to as simply, "The Pool". We live in Kampala, and this pool is located at a hotel in Entebbe. It takes about an hour to drive there, and it's costs a bit to use the pool for the day, but the kids love it--especially the high dives.

Back in July we snagged a few days of camping at Lake Mburo National Park with our good friends the Browns, which was a blast!

After being continually hot and sweaty and dirty for a few days, we then relaxed for a brief respite at Kingfisher, just outside Queen Elizabeth, where the kids enjoyed the pool and food, and the adults enjoyed the slow pace and great chill time.

Then, in August we were able to spend a few more days tent camping up at Kidepo National Park.

Hudson turned 13 in July. In August he was the guest of honor at a dinner where an awesome group  of men enjoyed some great Indian food, and offered him tidbits of wisdom and insight into becoming a man.

Hudson, Tanner, and Tyler began taking Karate lessons this summer, which they really enjoy!

In short order they successfully tested for, and received, their yellow belts. They will soon be testing for their orange belts.

This is a random picture from earlier in the year--a shot of our son, Britt, and our dog, Georgia, doing a cheesy pose. However, I included this one because Britton and the other kids have decided to breed Georgia again (which took place the week before Christmas). It is a lot of work and responsibility, but something that they did well a few years ago. If all goes well, in late February we should have a bunch of purebred South African Boerboels here.

Christmas at our house this year was a bit underwhelming, as our car repeatedly broke down in the driveway, and we had various kids sick throughout the days before and after Christmas. Nonetheless we had an enjoyable time together as a family, including the big Christmas breakfast that the kids look forward to all year.  Sitting on Joy's lap is our new foster girl, Sanyu.

We look forward to all that God has in store for us in 2018.

A Day in the Life...

Here's a few random shots that show a bit of what I get do day in and day out...

On one flight I was able to deliver some food aid to a village in South Sudan.

As usual, lots of kids came out to see the exciting plane.

Some of my passengers.

A view from my office window in Northeastern Uganda. There's been a lot of rain this year, so it's been very lush and green.

Here's a shot from earlier this year, before the rains came, in Moyo, Northern Uganda, where many people are working among the South Sudanese refugees.

And another one from early this year, when I flew the U.S. Ambassador and some folks from USAID on a multi day flight around Northeastern Uganda to check on some projects.

View From My Office Window

Last month I was once again helping with some flying in a different location. Here's a few more shots from that office window. Hope you enjoy...

Family Game Day

This year, in addition to the normal flying that I do in East Africa, I've also been doing some one-month gigs flying in some different locations where they really need some pilot help. Meanwhile, Joy and the older two kids were also traveling for almost a month this summer during one of the times when I was back in Uganda. When you add it all up, our family has been scattered on different continents for more than four of the past seven months. That being the case, we've tried to be very intentional about hanging out together, and having some quality family time, when we are together in one place. To that end, our son Hudson came up with the idea of having a big Family Game Day. 

He planned everything out, and we were able to have our first ever all-day Family Game Day a few weeks ago. It was really great fun!

We started with the outdoor games in the morning when it was still cool, and eventually moved to indoor games later in the day. Most of the time we played each person for himself or herself, and the winner would get one point. But for some games we played teams, and each member of the winning team got a point. At the end of the day, the winner with the highest number of points, and the runner up, each got a candy bar. (They were kind enough to share with the rest of us.)

We played a LOT of games, and I didn't take pictures of them all. But here are some of them (as you can see, some took the games a lot more seriously than others):

Croquet...

Football (aka Soccer in the U.S.)...

Rollers...

Corn hole...

Knockout...

Table tennis (ping pong)...

And several indoor games...

Delivering Radios to South Sudan

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly thousands of solar-powered radios up to South Sudan for Every Village. There were actually so many radios that we had two of our planes flying them up that day. We loaded the planes the night before, and repositioned them to Entebbe International Airport so that we could leave at sunrise, and fly directly to Juba, South Sudan on the first leg of the long flight. Here's a shot of the sunrise just after I departed Entebbe.

As you fly from Entebbe to Juba you cross the Nile river several times. Here's a shot of the Nile, shortly after it enters South Sudan.

Together, our two MAF aircraft delivered about 10,000 radios that day to three locations, Mvolo, Tonj, and Aweil. Here's some shots capturing the joyous offloading of many boxes of radios from my plane.

Each box contains 100 radios. Every Village estimates that each individual radio reaches a bit more than 7 people (they tend to listen in groups and/or families). Based on these estimates, the radios we delivered that day will reach over 70,000 people in their heart language!

Every Village is currently operating three radio stations in the locations I mentioned above. They train local pastors and staff in radio, and then they record and broadcast everything locally. Here's some shots of some of that stuff.

And here is what it's all about...
This is a typical sight in the morning and evening, when the radio stations are broadcasting  throughout these remote parts of South Sudan.

People carry the single-channel, solar-powered radios with them everywhere (like to this water bore hole below) as they listen to the songs and messages in their heart language. 

I've done several other blog posts about Every Village.  If you're interested in seeing those, then you can type "Every Village" into the search bar above. Also, if you want to find out more about who they are, and what they do, you can visit their website here.