breaking news . . .

Just got an sms from Godfrey in Uganda. He has the receipt for a visa, and will pick up his passport in 24 hours. Many thanks to all who prayed, and to Congressmen Wamp and Wolf. Now for what should have been the harder part: traveling for the first time out of Africa, on an airplane, to America, and having surgery!

Soccer Debut, part 2

From the truly crucial (see Godfrey's latest, below) to the apparently frivolous, we return to Jack's soccer game on Saturday evening. But even as I say that, I know that the game was not frivolous, that our kids love the sport, and the lessons of hard work, team play, cooperation, excellence, exercise, reward are all essential to life.

Jack played his first ever game on a team. This child has been kicking a soccer ball since he could walk, but in a country where the first organized sport opportunities occur for 16 year olds and above. So he was pretty nervous driving to his game, wearing the jersey, and doubting his worthiness. His team is undefeated, and they played the only other undefeated team in the league. Jack started as a left-sided striker, and played all but about ten minutes of the match. And he played hard, got the ball, had drove through the defense, and had many strikes on goal. In the second half he finally scored, which went a LONG way in boosting his confidence. Another of his strikes bounced off the inside of the post, and was probably over the goal line. He also drew a foul in the box that resulted in a team score, and had many good passes. And at the end of a very close and exciting game, he consistently ran back to help the defense, even though he looked exhausted. The final result was a tie 6 to 6, and by that time it was so dark we could barely see which kid on the field was ours.

So we feel one step closer to being real Americans this weekend. Now all four of our kids have played community soccer (Luke in 2nd grade and Caleb in Kindergarten in 2000; Julia in the U14 and Jack in the U13 groups in 2010). It was fun and nerve-wracking to cheer on the sidelines, and a huge relief to see each of them score and celebrate with friends and start to feel a part of things.

Pray now

In seven hours Basiime Godfrey will have a second chance at the US
Embassy in Kampala to convince the consular officer that he really is
going blind, really does have a sponsor for surgery, really can make
it to the US and back without dropping out and becoming a person who
illegally drains American resources. Please pray this evening for him
to be calm and confident and articulate in a very intimidating
situation, and for the embassy staff to actually read his extensive
medical documentation this time around. And mostly for God to bring
healing to his eyes and peace to his heart, by any means that He
chooses. Thanks.

Sterling Lightning

Our very first community league soccer match today, and Julia's team the "Lightning" won 5 to 0 against a Reston team. Perfect Fall day with gusting breezes, falling leaves, brilliant sunshine. A handful of parents in folding chairs, cheering. Excited girls, dedicated coaches. Neon-orange jerseys, laughter. Julia played "stopper", a roaming defender in the center in front of the three backs. And she did a lot of stopping, as well as making the pass that initiated the first goal. In the second half the coach moved her up to left mid-field. And from that position, she scored one of the five goals! She had a fantastic time, and we couldn't have asked for a better first-experience.

Yet we're all still learning. At one point in the game, every player went down on one knee, and Julia looked around confused, turns out it's a rule in this league during a stop for injury. She caught on fast. Both kids were somewhat appalled by the shortness of the standard-issue shorts (girls don't even really show knees in Uganda, let alone half the thigh) so we weren't sure if it was OK to substitute longer shorts, but gambled on it, and it was. I asked other parents where we should put our chairs, and tried to cheer appropriately So much to learn, it takes energy. And as we pulled out from the game, I made a U-turn and was stopped by the police. I wasn't fully in the turn lane, I was straddling one of the lanes in the highway. Whoops, another rule I didn't know. It just all weighs down at at times and is a little much. Thankfully the officer was merciful and issued me a warning, but no fine.

Now on to Jack's game!

A family event, for once

My Aunt Ann turned 80 yesterday, and for once, I was there. Her daughter, my cousin, organized a ladies' lunch at an historic miill-turned gourmet restaurant in Purceville, and Julia and I accompanied my mom, along with two other cousins' wives, one cousin's daughter and her newborn baby whom I got to cuddle, and a couple of friends. Aunt Ann is second-youngest in the family, #14 next to my Dad #15. She has been a good friend to my parents for life, and since my Dad died a stalwart support to my mom. I would describe her as "sunny", caring, loyal, and a serious card player! As the outsider in the family who has missed untold numbers of birthdays, weddings, funerals, births, graduations, and holidays . . it was a privilege to be able to attend this event.

small notes from a Thursday

Highlight of the day:  a picture sent by blackberry from the Johnsons of the team IN OUR HOUSE in Bundi opening a package that Julia and I assembled and mailed in early September I think.  Mail works!

Answer to Laura:  YES, we are returning to Africa, still with World Harvest Mission, but for the next few years we'll be working from a mission hospital in Kenya called Kijabe.  Scott is now the East Africa Field Director for our mission, allowing us to still support and love and pull along with our teams in Uganda, Sudan, and Kenya.  We are looking forward to working in this larger hospital, learning from other doctors instead of being alone, supervising Kenyan interns and residents, and MOST OF ALL living WITH three of our children instead of sending them 23 hours away to boarding school (the school, Rift Valley Academy, is adjacent to the hospital we'll serve).  

Jeans:  wore today the first pair I've bought in probably almost 20 years and realized how COMFORTABLE they are.  I've so appreciated hand-me-downs, but it now occurs to me that the several pairs I've inherited in the last decade or two have been from rather small people.  Old Navy Outlet, highly recommended.

Rain:  came in torrents today, pulling down leaves.  In the car Jack and Julia spy out the best, most colorful trees.  It is Fall.  Chilly.  Damp.  Hot tea weather.  

Emotions:  close to the surface. Watched the Chilean miners being rescued last night.  Beautiful.  

Reality:  Took the frightening step of beginning on-line medical exams to keep up our certification.  Corresponding with our teams, praying for them.  Teaching geometry to Jack and Julia (who usually get it faster than I do), and helping them journal and read and play music and soccer, and cooking for them, and glad that I can pour in a little more than I usually manage in our distracted and demanding lives.  Jack will, on Saturday weather permitting, play in his FIRST ever organized uniform-wearing official-team soccer game.  Pretty amazing for a kid who breathes soccer.  Julia was already named to the Under-14 Girls Sterling Youth Soccer League All-Star team.  She also has yet to play in a game due to our travel, but works really hard in practice . . thanks Miss Ashley!!

Boys-Far-Away:  This week is called "Spiritual Emphasis Week" at RVA, so we are in prayer for the school, sort of a revival, with special speakers and music and emphasis on spiritual growth for the kids.  Join us in prayer.  Luke called me yesterday.  Sounds calm, confident, busy, grown up, thinking about what really matters, asking hard questions, having some fun with soccer.  Nice.  Makes me realize I should call my Mom more.  When we're not living with her, that is. 

More Reality:  our supporters are hard hit by the economy.  Our previously largest single donor has been unemployed now for two years.  And he's not the only one.  In all our 17 years in Uganda God has provided, abundantly and miraculously.  Since we took this HMA leave, our account with World Harvest has been in deficit for the first time ever.  Faith required.  Feels like we took a wrong turn in some ways, we came to America for a few months and our support stopped flowing.  But trusting that God wants us to go back to Kenya at the end of December, and He'll make it possible.  Meanwhile we're working hard to be in contact with our supporters,  to be thankful, to be expectant and faithful.  Thankful that we are living with my Mom for free, that Luke's college expenses are nearly fully covered, that we have a car to borrow for free.  

Quest:  still mulling over Scott's post a few down.  The never-settled, always-outsider feeling, is real.  And I suppose always will be.  It's too late to go back.  Counting the cost, and holding on.

And lastly, the Godfrey saga:  Multiple attempts to fax the US Ambassador in Uganda have failed, the fax number posted on their web site and with the US State Department actually does not accept faxes.  And the only email address I can access has once again failed to elicit a response.  So far we've been told via email from the embassy to the TN congress-person that it is Godfrey's fault that he failed to convince the interviewer of his need, that he could read print on the rejection letter so he wasn't really going blind (which is medically completely erroneous, since glaucoma gradually knocks out the optic nerve from the periphery to the center until one day the person can see NOTHING), and that he should just pay all the fees and reapply with new documentation (never mind the fact that no one read the documentation the first time).  In spite of all that, God HAS intervened, in that his eye exam has held steady in spite of the delay.  Keep praying for a miracle of healing within Ugandan resources, or for a miracle of the US Embassy reversing their decision.

Kindle

I just got an email from a missionary blogger site that is running a contest.  If you link and leave a comment about our blog, we go into a contest to win a free Kindle.  The Massos went to e-books when they went to Sudan, and we've been thinking seriously about it.  It was painful to leave behind hundreds upon hundreds of great books. like old friends.  But it was not possible to cart them all off to Kenya, and it seemed a bit immoral to remove them from Bundibugyo where they are probably more needed.  So we pray they bless many others.  If anyone wants to increase our chances of winning, leave a comment here:  http://blogwatch.missionary-blogs.com/win-a-free-book-and-help-a-missionary.

Happy Birthday Uganda

Ugandan Independence Day was this past weekend.  Ugandans are celebrating Moses Kipsiro's victories at the Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the men's 5000m and 10,000m races, an historic accomplishment in a field of very strong Kenyan runners. And celebrating the oil soon to flow and enrich the country.  And the money that will come in the wake of being named the security hub for the region, with the EU coming to train the military in response to the Al-Shabab related bombings in Kampala a few months ago.  One Ugandan is not celebrating, that is Basiime Godfrey, who reports that his visa rejection letter was pre-printed, that the hasty interview consisted of four questions about his marital status and properties and then a summary dismissal with not even a glance at his extensive medical documentation.  We and a number of other concerned friends are contacting our congressional representatives' offices to appeal the hasty and baseless rejection.  And I have to say the professional responsiveness from our representative (Frank Wolf) and the can-do enthusiasm from friends in Virginia, Illinois, and California, balances the disappointment we felt with the embassy's treatment of Basiime.  

And there are a couple of Ugandan-American kids here who are still longing for their home.  Julia woke up yesterday craving a mango, and misses the sunsets.  Usually they take America in stride, but this weekend we drove a couple of times down a nearby road and passed what used to be a "kennel".  Now it is called a pet motel, with "resort and spa" written under it.  Jack and Julia had a long discussion in the back seat, one insisting that the resort and spa were for the owners of the pets, and the other daring to conjecture that it was for the pets themselves. Services such as "pool" and "beauty" were listed on the side.  When we concluded it was all for pets, they were incredulous.  

As Uganda moves into the 49th year of independence, our hearts are there.  But we are slightly more settled these days, for several days at a time anyway, taking Grammy to doctors' appointments, braving more dentist visits. taking kids to music lessons and soccer practice . . . and even a day of shopping, jeans all around for the impending cooler weather.  Shoes will have to follow.  

Fortress America

Basiime Godfrey was denied a visa to America. This is deeply saddening to us, embarrassing really. We have been welcomed to Uganda for 17 years, in homes, to meals, in government offices, in churches, always on the receiving end of gracious hospitality. Six of us, over and over and over again, often at significant cost and inconvenience to others. Yes, we have to go through procedures and paperwork for long-term work permits, but anyone from America can land in Uganda and get a 2 month tourist visa to visit. But that openness is not reciprocated. A young man, a college student who is going blind, who has full sponsorship for an airfare and surgery in the USA, and carried documentation of all that to the embassy, was turned away. Why our country can not allow an orphan with a serious NON-CONTAGIOUS eye problem through our borders for a month in order to receive care at NO COST to the state, is beyond me.

The ever-amazing Dr. B is appealing through his congress-people. We can all appeal through prayer. Basiime's not asking to live in America, to study in America, to do anything other than walk on this soil to a surgical center where his sight could be saved.

Julia the Jewel, at 14

Our girl is now 14 years old. And we never cease to think with awe that we do not deserve her. She is truly an amazing person. For her 14th Birthday, we celebrated early (on Saturday, though her B-day was Monday) so that her cousins from NC could be included in 14 activities on a 14th Bday. We were in West Virginia, on our way back east, and our main activity was MAKING APPLE BUTTER. This is an Aylestock family tradition, for all of my childhood shared with our dear friends the Hubachs, and for the last five years not even attempted. It was our first time to do it without my dad. The first time that our generation (Scott and me, Steve and Janie) were basically in charge. And Julia was right in the middle of the process all the way.

The all-night drive was necessary so that we could spend Friday afternoon peeling, coring, slicing 4 bushels of apples. For those not familiar with a bushel anymore, that's A LOT of apples. It took hours, even with our super-duper peeler/slicer. The NC crew left after school Friday and drove long hours to arrive that night. But Scott and Steve were up at dawn on Saturday to clean the massive copper kettle and start a wood fire. The first apples went into the kettle with a gallon of cider at 7:25 a.m., and the last apples were added by about 9:30 a.m. The entire day someone has to be stirring, scraping the bottom of the kettle with a large wooden paddle so the sauce does not burn, carefully looking for any peels or seeds that rise to the surface, scraping down the sides with a wooden spoon, stoking the fire to just the right heat. Rocking back and forth, turning in a circle, tending the cauldron.

Meanwhile the rest of the crew went from game to game, blind man's bluff, basketball, speed scrabble, soccer, shooting cans off the railroad track, all Julia's favorites. The craziest moment of the day was the polar bear run to the river and swim . . all cousins went into the frigid water (one had to be pushed by Julia, but he was a good sport), and me. I love that river, even though I have no tolerance for the cold.

By 6 the sugar was in, the oil-of-cinnamon flavoring, and the apple butter was pronounced ready. The day ends with an assembly line of sterilized jars and lids, pouring the hot apple butter into the jars, screwing down the tops. We canned 11 1/2 gallons of the sweet brown spread, enough for a winter's luxury on corn bread and toast and rolls and muffins.

Julia's day ended with a reading of the poetry we had encouraged everyone to compose throughout the day as tributes to her, and the list of 18 characteristics as an acronym to her name (such as helpful, enduring, endearing, unforgettable, indispensable, etc. ). We had an apple cake (a la Mrs. Elwood, Nathan's favorite which he brought to our team) to keep in theme, with fun candles. Julia glowed.

Apple butter is sweet, nourishing, a product of many hours of labor, beautiful to behold, satisfying to all. And so is Julia. Her very first birthday was also celebrated in West Virginia at my parents' "Camp", when we had evacuated from rebels and just before we returned to Africa to work at Kijabe until things calmed down in Bundibugyo. So this was another circle completed, celebrating amidst the turning maple leaves and cooling mountain breezes once again. And that baby who was carried uncomplaining to safety through gunfire is now a beautiful young woman, sensitive and loving, sharp and organized, silly and appreciative. She loves life, food, family, soccer, books, crocheting, friends, dogs . . . and apple butter. And we love her.