Praise God for He is good always! I am always amazed how the Lord works everything for His glory. Let me start sharing (confessing) that its 2am and I am convinced that its time to update my blog….I took a cat nap earlier for just 30 minutes, but I am sure that’s not why I am up. You see when I flew out of Denver three weeks ago, I found out I could only bring my designated 3 bags…each additional bag was higher in increments….so I had to leave the extra totes home. My brother Jim and friend Stacy spent time repacking some items and then Jim drove them to Denver to meet up with the team coming from the Dakotas two weeks later. It was truly amazing that it even happened this way…but the totes arrived safely last night…I stayed up late sorting and stacking everything to pass out. Today, I handed out shoes and clothes to my family, purses to some Ugandan friends, a sewing project from the Costa Mesa team and kitchen stuff for the guest house…it was all very tiring….hence I took a short nap. Then I decided to get online and check out emails,…and chatted with some friends and my daughter on FB….noticing it was 1:30 am…I thought I should hit the sack…..thats when tote #3 was calling me…..yes the Captain…Captain Crunch that is…. I am not accustomed to eating sugary cereal but I do get a box every year and eat it during my birthday week….since I was in California and missed that, I packed it in the totes….and now almost one month later….the captain was calling…I could not sleep….So now that I am on a sugar rush…I might as well update you folks on life in the jungle….

I had an adventurous trip home starting with a 5 hour delay in Denver, diverting to Nairobi and landing 10 hours late in Uganda…which means I missed my hotel sleep and was met by my driver Setuba. We gathered a few small supplies in Ka,pala to get stocked up in the kitchen and headed back to Kasana. When I arrived, my children from Pacific surrounded the van and my door was pasted with notes from everyone. My neighbors had opened up my home and washed the floors, sprayed the doom and had tea ready for my arrival. I am so very blessed to be back. While at the missions conference they talked about when you start sharing your life around the world, you are never really “home” at any given place. They said thats where we should be, since our true home is heaven and earth is a temporal state, I liked that idea. My treasure is indeed in heaven and what we have here on earth is just material items that seem to loose value so quickly. I had a day of rest and then 5 people arrived at the guesthouse for the week of Envisioning. It is a time where New Hope staff and friends get together to share the mission of this ministry. To be united in thought and prayer and to seek the Lord for direction. Nice follow-up coming off of a missions conference in California. We also had a fun cultural day where they showed us customs, foods and dances from the different tribes. I had a great time when I got pulled in to try the cow dance, quite interesting! There are many changes happening here at Kasana and your prayers for this ministry here are welcome.

As soon as time permitted, I took a boda ride out to the villages. I so missed boda rides and my faithful driver Joseph. By the way, Joseph rededicated his life to the Lord the week before I got home…..about 8 people told me it was very exciting! Ohh….I almost forgot….when I was home I was blessed with a Flip…(awesome video thingy) and will be downloading clips now. Check out my boda ride…attached somewhere in this posting I hope. Give me grace as I have a learning curve! Praise God and thank you to those that gifted me with technology! Anyway….I was able to see Pastor Yosiah & Harriet briefly and they were excited to hear that the Lord provided for the immediate needs of the Kito school project through your love and support. Pastor Yosiah will be working with the vocational manager at Kasana to schedule time to complete the roof. While visiting California, I was able to pick up supplies for a baby project started by the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa team, the vocational school was very excited. Again, I give praise for the insight given to me at the conference and I am amazed at Gods perfect timing in this season, I have such peace beyond all understanding.

After the week of Envisioning, I still had visitors in the guesthouse but was able to spend many evenings hanging out with my family. I really missed them all so much, it was a nice time of catching up. I also feel like I had a divine appointment with a new friend I met this past week. She has been working at hunting camps for six months, so she can support herself to do mission work the rest of the year. Taking December to go home and see family and friends. What an ideal situation I thought…..and perfect timing as I have been asking the Lord…..what next? Before anyone panics……I am not intersted in hunting camps…..but would like to have another mission assignment, Lord willing! I have been biten by the mission bug….or some kind of bug I think. I could totally see working long enough to support this habit! I ask that you be in prayer with me about having the Lords direction of His will in my life. With all that being said, the Lord is moving in strange and mighty ways! Through much prayer, petition and seeking….I am asking now and just waiting….fully surrendered, hopelessly devoted to serving Him wherever I am called. (lets pray for warm weather)

Let me close with this scripture on my heart in Matthew 25:31-36. When the son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will seperate the people one from another as a shephard seperates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom preprared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

As you spend your days walking this earth, who or what do you live for? Some people want me to sit on my porch waiting for a nice man to marry……(I got bored after a day) ……I want to live for Jesus, serving my King. When he comes to take me home, he wont have to look for me. He will know me, because I will be walking beside him and he with me. What peace I have in not knowing what each day brings, but knowing he has planned each of my days. And if he has a nice guy planned in my future….he knows what country to send him to right?? LOL I hope you are living in his peace. To God be the glory, for in our weakness, He is strong.

Blessings to all~

Desiree’