Spooky Trevor!!!

Now, you tell me if this is not spooky! Every time I decide to take a picture of the Field Service Meeting or the brothers in the field, HE KNOWS!!!! And HE'S READY!!!!


Check it out...


ONE!!!!

TWO!!!


And I assure you, I'm not calling him and I'm trying to take the photos as silently as I can!!!!


But there he his... looking at the camera!

THREE!!!




But HE'S ALWAYS THERE....






Now,  he SAYS he doesn't do it on purpose which makes it even more SPOOKIER!!!!
He's like Barney (I can't say from which program but if you watch it you'll know what I mean) coming out in every photo with his suit in a James Bond pose even when he's in t-shirt and shorts (or when he's not even there)!!!

COME ON!!!!

Baibuli Mali Eyegesa Ki?

I don't know if you can understand the joy and appreciation we feel in our heart in this small part of the world...Fort Portal, a small village in the middle of nowhere, with a population of max. 50.000... 
Still Jehovah heard our prayers and saw the REAL need! So he decided to give us this wonderful gift!

We just received the BIBLE TEACH BOOK in the local language RUTORO!!!!! 

Our first year!

Well I couldn't believe today! It was what brighten our day. Everything was going wrong (basically everything was breaking in the house just before Trevor [alaskan brother...remember?] would come and stay with us for a few days) but then I remembered!!!
I found some of the photos of our first year in Kampala...the most important ones! I had totally forgotten... from December 2006 to September 2007... we made a short video for the friends back home with the photos of the most important moments during those 9 months.
And I've found THEM...

Gary and Angela Rappenecker (hope is spelled right)... I will tell you all about them another time, but in the meantime what you need to know about them is that THEY WERE AND STILL ARE AMAZING!!!! And we'll never forget them... We had some wonderful time together and those precious moments will always be in our hearts.
When I was extracting the photos from the video and saw them, I was in the house alone and found myself crying like a baby... a bit silly really, but I can't explain how much I miss them. So be prepared to read about them soon...
Well, as for now you can check out our first year of experiences and all the missionaries we know in our Picasa Album under Kampala 2007 (click on the slideshow on the right handside). As soon as I can, I'll upload the video we had made for the friends back home (although some frames are in Italian but are not important). After 4 years, when I watched it, it still brought tears to my eyes as it brings back a lot of memories... good and bad memories... but these memories will stay with us for the rest of our life. And for this, we need to thank Jehovah that gave us the "inspiration" to come to Uganda 4 years ago.
Thank you Jehovah for making us understand, many and many times, that you wanted us here in Uganda serving you... Thank you for making us come back every time... And thank you for giving us the strength we needed to endure all those trials that, without your help, would have sent us back home!

I missed the meetings here!

I mean, obviously the material is the same everywhere in the world, but the secret is that the brothers are not, meaning that the approach and the quality of the meetings changes a lot. For example, the comments the brothers and sisters give here at the Congregation Bible Study regarding the feelings Jesus may have showed to others in different circumstances, simply shock me! I mean, for someone coming from Europe or US, Italy in my case, where feelings are kind of showed one way or another (where I come from feelings ARE VERY WELL EXPRESSED IN WORDS, FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND HANDS!), the culture here could be a bit...tricky! It's difficult for the Ugandan to show their feelings. It's a culture... thinghy! They will probably express it very well in words, but sometimes the facial expression is completely the opposite of the feeling they're expressing in words. For example, the line between laughing and crying here is so THIN that sometimes, when they're talking about something dead serious, they laugh about it instead of crying. So it could be challenging sometimes to work them out, if you know what I mean.
That is why I'm shocked every time they give an answer regarding Jesus' feelings...they really get them, while sometimes I struggle trying to imagine that type of feeling.
Then we get articles regarding DEEP THINGS OF GOD and I spend hours sometimes trying to understand completely a concept so that I can make it mine and therefore explain it (not being in my mother tongue doesn't help). Then, at the meeting, the deep comments the brothers give explaining perfectly what that paragraph meant, are simply amazing. 
In Fort Portal we're also blessed as the majority of the speakers are really REALLY good, but even when someone is not, you can really FEEL the spirit of Jehovah wondering "above our heads" :).
This last Sunday, we had only the watchtower study as there was a ZONE VISIT in Kampala so majority of the brothers went to attend being a very important event. Well, we were still in 50 between publishers and interested ones and it was THE BEST WATCHTOWER in a long time. 
In addition to that, I had the joy to see 2 of my studies coming and commenting. One of them, Susan, never came. Actually every time I would try to invite her, she would change the subject and every Sunday I would be disappointed. So last Wednesday, after the study, I told the sister that was working with me that I was ready to "sift" this study as she quite advanced into the book and never showed the intention to come to the meetings. So I received a nice "slap" on my face from Jehovah when I saw her coming in and sitting down....and then when she commented. 
The other study, Queenie, stopped studying at least 2 months ago because she started University and I was really disappointed as she now lives 5 minutes from the Kingdom Hall, but came only once and then disappeared. Well, another slap, when I FOUND HER THERE 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE MEETING STARTED!!!! She explained that she was trying to adjust the lessons (yes, they study even on Sundays here) so that she could come on Sunday and do the study after the meeting at the Kingdom Hall. So now, she promised she would be regular.

I was SOOOOO glad to find out that one of my studies, Sarah, went to all the meeting when I was in UK and that the mother finally changed her tune as she was attending the study and be argumentative about everything. So when I was away, Joy, the pioneer sister looking after Sarah, told her that if she thought that our teaching was "confusable", she shouldn't attend the study. From that moment on, she attended the study and appreciated the fact that every single teaching is supported by the Bible (she got to a turning point at Judgement Day). So now she's happy to attend the study and participate actively in a very humble way. 

And I felt amazing the first day back in the field doing first call on a business territory. Even when they're busy, they always listen to you, often stopping what they're doing to check out the scriptures you're reading to them.

So anyway, as you can see, we're really happy to be back! 
The brothers welcomed us again with much love! And we have many good news! For example, from March there will be a Rutoro meeting after the English one on Sundays! This is wonderful news as we have brothers and sisters who don't understand a word of English and can't follow the meetings properly. So now, we have to resume our Rutoro lessons and try to get serious about it! 


Nyniega mpora mpora!


Bye for now!

New year, new adventures!

So here we are...back home...back in our routine that we love so much! 
Of course we liked beingWe were in the field today, in the beautiful SUNNY Fort Portal. Unfortunately the usual peace you find here was broken by people with whistles and trumpets who kept on "playing" them to promote the voting of the current President.
The field was great...first call was great! I finished all the literature within 1 hour. I have 2 returns already (I know...everyone here is a potential study here but you can work them out if they're really interested in the Bible or in your skin colour). 
In the meantime we bought a new bike, a bit better than the last one as is a much more stable bike and the tires are especially for muddy roads...so we should be fine with that for a long time. We really don't see the need to buy a car as the only times we need the car is when we go to assemblies and conventions which means that either we get a ride with the brothers having a car, or we rent a car for few days.

And using a bike in this lovely weather is so...COOL!!! You feel constantly in holiday (I said we FEEL in holiday, not we ARE in holiday!!!) We brought decent helmets and waterproof jackets from UK so we are even safer and "dryer" now.
So here we are again... and it's lovely!


We're having the pioneer meeting on Wednesday as the elders decided to wait for us to come back, which was really nice of them! 
Then every Thursdays we're working on the KH to finish the ceiling meaning that now, during the raining season, we will be able to hear the speaker EVEN WHEN IT'S RAINING!!! That will be nice...Looking forward to that being finished.
One of the pioneers sisters whom I left my favourite study with, informed me that this study has been regular to the meetings and she prepares and give really good answers, so that lifted me up today. And all my studies were really happy to see me, so I have to say that today was a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L day.
So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and start with my studies again. But this year I'm going to make sure I'll be doing first call every day before any return.


So... ta ta for now!