Karamoja Okkens

This can define several things in my life right now. Stuck with regards to blogging, or physically stuck because of horrible roads or having remained in Karamoja for several months without getting 'out'. It has been an interesting spring and summer. Yes, many teammates left us for a time, but several have returned. And through the mass exodus, we and teammate Leah Hopp, got to work and live with a couple of great 'replacements'! Thank you Mick Knierim and Heather Foss (still with us) for your fellowship and faithful service. God got us through each day as He always does. Why do we ever doubt that He will? God needs to continually remind me of this it seems. That He is always faithful and his mercies are new everyday. Two things I have relied on heavily the last few months. Also that we can not worry about tomorrow for today has enough troubles of its own. Even with all of the challenges of the last few months, the time still passed quickly! September is upon us! Thank

David's ministry intern here for the summer has been doing a great job of blogging about his time here. Please check out here for the latest on the road and some great pictures.

I asked you to pray for our friend, Loumo Gabriel. Well, I found out yesterday morning that he had passed away during the night. After worship yesterday, many of us from our church went to the home to be with his family and friends. We and many others from the community all gathered around the grave. I read and shared a bit from the story of Jesus and Lazarus in John 11. Of course, Jesus proved true his claim to be the resurrection and the life when he raised up from death his friend whom he loved. But not before entering into the sorrow of the occasion, weeping with those who wept. Isn’t that the gospel? Resurrection life has come because Jesus has entered into our sorrow. I was able to share about how, just as Jesus called forth and out came Lazarus from the tomb, so a day will come when all who have trusted in him will come bursting forth out of the graves to share in his resurrection life in glory forever. We do not know about Gabriel in terms of where his heart was before

the road on a recent trip down country The rains keep on a coming! The road south of us is very messy making the drive down country very very difficult. Then we heard that a bridge just south of Namalu (nearest trading town) is on the verge of collapsing. The Wright family just returned yesterday and said that our size vehicles can pass, but it has become very narrow, so it is only a matter of time before it is too narrow at all for the vehicles. This news is obviously discouraging. Supposedly the appropriate government officials know so work can be done on it. This bridge going out affects way more than just our little Mission. But, this is Africa, and the timetable is often not the same as ours. I confess that I am also a pessimist, so I am struggling to remain positive. (I suppose saying realist would sound better!) It has been a long time since our whole family has gotten out of Karamoja and it would be nice to do so. Not only to 'get out', but also meet and visit with

proud of a job well done