Karamoja Okkens

It has been our longest stint in Uganda (almost 2 years) but we are finally headed back to the states for a 7 month furlough. Our flight leaves Uganda tomorrow night (technically, Wednesday morning) a half hour past midnight. Pray for our tired kids :( On our way home we will be making a 5 day detour through Barcelona, Spain to visit missionary friends! We have never done anything like this before and we are very excited. We look forward to soon spending lots of time with the grandparents, church family, and many of you. Here we come!

Often events do not turn out at all as we plan because the Lord has planned something even better. That was the feeling we had as we hiked back down the mountain late Tuesday afternoon. The week did not begin on such a positive note, however. We arrived in Namorupus on Monday morning to find very few people. We were told that the pastor had gone to Namalu for the day. We wondered what had happened. He had seemed so eager to welcome us and had promised to invite many to come out for the event. What had happened? Anyway, we spent a bit of time doing some teaching to the few men, women and children who were there. They thanked us and promised to inform the pastor that we had been there and that, as we had told him, we were planning to return the next day as well. We were also told, however, that we should come earlier on Tuesday because the ministry would have to be quick since the pastor had plans to be away in the afternoon. A bit puzzled and discouraged, we hiked back down the mountain...

At 6:30am we drove to Tokora Health Center (about 4 miles from us) where we left the vehicle and began hiking. It was about a 2 hour hike to reach our final destination. There was quite an unexpected turn of events. In an effort to find the best venue for our ministry, some locals suggested that we just use ‘the church’. Al and I were quite puzzled – ‘What church?’ We learned that there is indeed a church building built by the locals. We reached what turned out to be quite an impressive albeit very humble building constructed with wooden poles and a grass roof on a clearing high up in these hills at the place of a gorgeous view. We were told that ‘the pastor’ was away for the day. When we asked who this pastor was, we were told that he was associated with ‘Emuron’. Reverend Emuron is our friend in Namalu to whose congregation we regularly preach. I managed to reach him by phone to ask about this group. He told me that he had no involvement with them but that they had likely used his (w...

A community of Karimojong live up in the mountains not too far from us. To reach their villages one must hike about 2 hours from any main road. Our medical clinic has done a number of immunization outreaches in this place but we have yet to do any extensive evangelistic outreach there. Well, we are scheduled to be there a number of days next week (October 12-16). David and Al Tricarico plan to be hiking up into the hills before 7am each day in order to be with the people preaching and teaching and yet be able to make it back down before the heavy rains (which have been coming lately). Please pray for good weather and for ministry that will result in a great spiritual harvest in Namorupus.

Last week we had an appointment with Mrs. Newnham, Megan’s speech therapist, who had just returned to Kampala after being home in the UK for a few months. She was very pleased with Megan’s progress. Megan has made significant strides in recent weeks in her ability to produce sounds. There is still much work to be done. There are many sounds which she is able to produce when coached but which are not yet coming spontaneously and habitually. Nonetheless, we are very thankful for the progress made. Mrs. Newnham believes that if she continues to progress at her current rate, she should be on par with her peers within 18 months or so. Praise the Lord with us even as you continue to pray for Megan. For our entire Mission, the Karimojong language has been extremely challenging to get our arms (and tongues) around. We have continued to work and make slow progress. Well, we are pleased to report that, for a couple of months now, David has been doing a fair bit of preaching in Karimojong. He is ...

Sunshine here. Before I talk about the footsie part, let me say another thank you to all our visitors we have had this summer. We enjoyed all of those that visited. My kids especially enjoyed them. Thanks AGAIN to those that helped Megan with her speech therapy. She misses you. Caleb, our 6 ½ year old, is very excited about our upcoming trip to the states for furlough. He even has a countdown on our school whiteboard. His first task in the morning these days is to change the number! We all are getting excited about our trip home in about 2 months. It’s hard to believe that it will be almost 2 years since we will have been back in San Diego and seen some of our family and friends! We look forward to seeing all of you soon. We also ask for your prayers as we are setting up our furlough speaking schedule and for the details of setting up a temporary home in San Diego. Please also pray for the health of some of our Mission. Some of you may have heard about the illnesses running around our ...

We are grateful for your many prayers offered up for Megan’s speech development. Therapy continues to go well and she continues to make progress. Now we are thinking about how to best help her during our upcoming furlough (beginning in November and ending at the end of May). We have been investigating our speech therapy options. There are free services offered through the public schools. However, we are told that the process of getting started can be time consuming and that we cannot start the process until we are actually there stateside. We will also pursue the route of a referral from our pediatrician. However, we are not sure whether this will be covered by our medical insurance. We would much appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s provision and direction in enabling us to provide the best help for Megan during our brief time. We also welcome advice which any of you might have for us as we pioneer through this process.