Ready to Go...FINALLY!!

Well...It is officially here. We leave today...It's 12:29am so I can say that! WOW! What a lot of work to get an entire family ready to leave their life behind for a month and take up a new life in Uganda, but we are SO excited! Excited to see what God has planned for us, excited to see Josh :), excited to be following the call God put on our hearts, excited to meet all the members of Team Beyond, excited to meet the people of Uganda, and more than anything excited to be changed by God in ways we can't even imagine yet!

Today was tough though. It was hard to say goodbye to those we are leaving behind. I know it is only for a month, but it was still hard. We have so many people loving, caring and praying for us and it was hard to say goodbye. I can't imagine what it must be like to leave for a really long time like the members of Team Beyond have done! God is faithful and I look forward to sharing our journey both as we live it and after we return, God willing.

Thank you to those of you who are praying for us. We hit a bump in the road with our luggage, but that has been worked out and the prayers offered up on our behalf have been answered so off we go with 23 boxes and 4 to follow with Nate. I can't imagine what the airline personnel @ O'Hare will say when they see us! Uhhh...break time is what I would say! I almost feel sorry for them already...Almost ;)

Please pray for safe travel to Chicago. It is supposed to snow tomorrow and my parents are taking us in their motor home. Please pray that the roads are not slippery and that we do not encounter any delays or mishaps.

If you could also pray for good travel, especially for those of us who experience motion sickness. It is something I struggle with, as well as sometimes both Andrew and Jacob. We have a slew of motion sickness pills packed, but motion and the Feenstras are not usually a good combination. When Josh got to Soroti in August, he emailed us to say that "Mom is going to have a hard time with the 7 hour drive from the airport to Soroti". Apparently the "roads" are rough, potholes rule and the driving is agressive to say the least. It should be quite an experience. I'll keep you posted. Maybe the motion sickness pills will knock us out and we'll sleep right through it...that's what I'm praying for! Please join me :).

I want to close by saying thank you so much for all the support we have had to get to this point. Prayers, encouraging words and emails, financial support, donations for the people of Uganda, hugs and expressions of love have all been such an amazing blessing. Our going to Uganda would not have been possible without all the support we have received from so many, many people. So thank you from the depth of our hearts. We head off to Uganda with hearts full of love and thankfulness, to all of you and most of all to our amazing and faithful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
Julie

Dry season is upon us

Things have been going very well over here. I've been continuing to host the sports and games night every Wednesday with the students from the local Bible College. They have been enjoying it so much we decided to add another night a week, so that has been really encouraging for me. It really shows me how much they appreciate the time they spend over here. We've also continued to organize the street children in the fields and are preparing to get practices started again in order to be ready for our second tournament that begins in December during the school holiday. I've also really been enjoying the time i've been spending at James and Nora's house just down the street from my house here in Soroti. James and Nora have taken in 22 orphans between the ages of 3 and 15 and every Saturday they put on a Bilbe study for the children that stay there as well as for the children of the neighborhood. I go to help out with some of the teaching and then after that we begin playing soccer or tag or anything else the children want to do. Its very rewarding to me to be able to spend time with the children as well as James and Nora who are great Christian examples for these kids. We just finished making 2500 Christmas cards that will be shipped to Canada and sold there in order to have some income for the house hold to support the children they've taken in. Now that they are finished with the cards they will resume making jewelry to sell in the market and to visitors who are around here.

Also dry season has begun and it is getting very hot over here. It used to rain about 4-5 nights a week when I first arrived but now its about once a week if that. Its definately going to be a shock when i return to the Michigan winter in January.

In just over 2 weeks my family will be heading out here for the month of December, so i'm very excited for them to get here and see all of the ministry areas that the team and myself are involved in here in Uganda. Please pray for safe travels for the family and that their trip may be a great experience.