For to us a child is born,
To us a son is given;
And the government shall be upon his shoulder,
And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end
Isaiah 9:6-7a
Merry Christmas from Uganda! Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I love the food, music, and time with friends and family that comes with this season. But I especially love the true meaning of Christmas. It’s a time of remembrance and of anticipation. It’s a time to reflect on God’s love for us and the wonderful gift that He gave us in His son Jesus.
Hannah and some of the other EMI ladies at a Christmas brunch on Wednesday
2021 has been a crazy year, to say the least. Hannah and I spent most of the year in transition: moving out of our home in Virginia, visiting friends and family while in the season of support raising for almost 6 months, and then finally landing in Uganda in September where we’ve spent the past 3 months just trying to get settled in. On top of that, COVID has continued to have a much longer and larger impact than we’d all hoped.
Uganda has especially been feeling that impact. The country hasn’t been hit especially hard with cases, but that’s largely due to the restrictions that have been put into place. We’re still operating with a curfew from 7pm-5:30am every night (though people are now largely ignoring it). Public schools have been closed since March 2020 (but they’re planning on opening on January 10!). On top of the effects of COVID, Kampala was hit by several terrorist attacks in October and November, resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. These attacks have been tied back to the Islamic State, acting through the ADF in DRC. While life in Kampala has largely continued on as normal, we are still feeling the impact of those attacks.
Shopping in downtown Kampala
For all of these reasons, when I read the passage above from Isaiah 9, I’m drawn to the word “Peace”. Looking around at our broken world, it’s easy to feel hopeless. But in this season, we are reminded that we serve a God who sent His only son to be our Prince of Peace. My prayer for all of you is that during this Christmas time, in between all of quality time with family and amazing food, you’ll find time to reflect on the peace that Jesus brought to this world on that quiet night in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. And may we always be looking forward to the everlasting peace that Jesus will bring upon His return.
Arensen Update
Sorry that it’s been over 2 months since our last update! We’ve been busy getting settled into life here. We moved into our house 2 months ago and have spent a lot of time making it feel more like home. That takes a lot more work here than it does in the States! For instance, we had a custom couch and set of living room chairs made at a local furniture shop (handmade furniture here is generally cheaper than other options). After finally finding a good place and bartering down the price, we were told that it would take 2 weeks. 6 weeks later, the furniture finally arrived! We are so thankful to have the furniture here in time for Christmas.
We’ve been working 3 days a week since November (which has allowed us to have time to get logistics figured out), and have really enjoyed settling into the office. I (Bruce) have focused my time on a solar kiln project which we are building to dry lumber for our workshop to use. I’ll talk more in detail about that project in a future update. Hannah has been working on getting plugged into the design team at the office. EMI Uganda has never had a full time landscape architectural designer, so Hannah has spent a lot of time on educating the team on the kind of work that she does, as well as starting to learn about design in Uganda and all of the new plants here!
Bruce and the rest of the R&D team in their office
Some of Hannah’s work is already under construction! This outdoor space is for the Amazima school which is located in Jinja, Uganda and serves underprivileged kids.
The EMI Uganda office closed for Christmas on Tuesday (December 21). We are off work until January 4th, which will be a great chance for rest. We’ll be sharing Christmas dinner with some of our team members, and we are also going camping on the shore of Lake Victoria for a few days next week with some other friends.
In January, we’ll be heading to Kenya for AIM Africa Based Orientation (ABO), where we’ll receive training to help us thrive while living in Africa. We’re hoping to see our family in Kenya while we’re there.
Pray With Us
We are so grateful for your prayers and support! Please join us in prayer for the following:
- Please be praying for us as we head to ABO next month, that the time will be extremely fruitful. Also be praying that COVID won’t shut down travel between the two countries.
- Pray for us as we settle into to full time office work upon return from ABO.
- Pray for the country of Uganda: for peace and safety from any further acts of terrorism, and for impact that COVID has had here. Pray for wisdom of the leaders as they make decisions as the pandemic continues.
Join us in praising God:
- We found a hematologist for Bruce here in Kampala! The hospital is super convenient (very close to work) and the doctor is very knowledgable and well-trained.
- We are so thankful for God’s continued provision as we settle in. God continues to be taking care of all of those details.
Stay Connected
I sent out an email a few days ago regarding the EMI Growing Globally campaign that is seeking to raise funds for an R&D workshop/lab space. If you didn’t receive that email, you can sign up at this link (and also receive email updates whenever we write a newsletter like this one).
This new workshop will enable the R&D team (which I am a part of) to have a much larger impact on the work the EMI is doing in East Africa. To find out more about the workshop and the giving campaign, click here.