It’s been an eventful start to the year here in Uganda! In January, the country held presidential elections. We’re grateful to God for the relative peace and calm throughout that season: life continued mostly as normal, apart from the few days surrounding the election itself. We took the opportunity to travel to Kenya during that time, where Bruce’s parents and sister came to visit. It was a wonderful time of rest and family, including a week at a beach house on the coast.
February brought a missions trip from our supporting church in New York. Unfortunately, most of the team fell sick just before boarding the plane, so only Hannah’s mom — who was leading the trip — was able to make it. It certainly changed the shape of the week, but God still used the time well. We were able to take her to several EMI ministry partners to see the impact of our work firsthand. She also spent a couple of days at the office praying for and encouraging our team and leading some seminars on leadership.
The past two months have settled into a much more normal rhythm. Bruce has been focused on some exciting new data logger projects at work — more on those in next month’s update! Hannah has been more than busy with the girls at home, while also spending a few days in the office contributing her landscape architecture expertise to some projects that needed her input. A few pictures below give a small glimpse into life over these past few months.
Project Highlight: 314 Community
I want to start regularly highlighting EMI projects in our newsletters — there’s so much good work worth sharing!
A major focus for our office over the past eight months has been the 314 Community: a new ministry providing community, mentorship, and support for university-age young adults. The founders identified a real gap: students who graduate from schools like Amazima and Empower (both EMI projects), where underprivileged kids receive a quality education, often find that the support structure disappears after graduation. Many struggle to find Christian community during their university years. 314 Community aims to fill that gap, offering a campus near their university where students can continue to find encouragement and mentorship. You can learn more at 314community.org.
EMI has partnered with them to build a campus next to Uganda Christian University in Mukono, a city just outside Kampala. With an ambitious design-and-build schedule, detailed design began in September and construction is starting soon, though currently delayed as we are waiting on building permits. The goal is to welcome the first students to campus by August 2027. Nearly everyone in our office is involved in some way, including our R&D team, who are exploring alternative construction methods to help reduce costs. Hannah has also been part of the team recently, working on bio-retention basins for rainwater infiltration — potentially the first installation of its kind in tropical Africa, based on published research. We’ll have much more to share about this project in the months ahead!
Prayer and Praise Requests
Praise:
- We were able to purchase a “new” car! It’s a 2010 RAV4 — a significant upgrade from our 30-year-old vehicle — and we’re hoping it will be more economical to drive and maintain. Please pray that we find a buyer for the old car.
- Thank God for peaceful elections in Uganda. Please continue to pray for the country: that strong Christian leaders would rise up and pursue meaningful change and reform at every level of government.
Prayer:
- Please pray for our tax situation in Uganda. Based on guidance from tax advisors and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), EMI’s international staff had not been paying income tax here. The URA is now changing that position and may require us to begin paying — and potentially to pay back taxes as well. A more final resolution is expected in the next two months, and the outcome could have significant implications for our family and our office. Pray for favorable decisions from the URA and wisdom for our leadership.
- Please pray for Hannah’s health. In the past month, she’s been advised to consider nasal surgery (to address a lifelong difficulty breathing through her nose) and eye surgery to help with some vision concerns. Pray for wisdom as we weigh these decisions, and for the resources to move forward if the procedures are necessary.
We are so grateful for each of you who partner with us financially — your generosity is what makes this work possible. If you’d like to join us in supporting EMI’s mission here in Uganda, we’d love to have you on the team!