Hello all,
It was my plan to update about the whole month of June, but as I started writing it became clear to me that I wasn't going to make it further than day 1 of our trip. Please forgive me. We will updating very soon about the month of June.
McClain and my last full day in America was Saturday May 28th. We spent that Saturday night gathering with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Worship, Communion, and a "send-off" was the theme of the night with our new church-plant "Ekklesia Muskogee." As the night came to an end I got out our laptop and started it up to check a few things before we departed. We had saved for over a year to able to buy this computer so we can take it to Uganda in order to save the video and photography that we would capture. That Saturday night at 10:30pm, the day before leaving the country for 2 months, it crashed. Something went terribly wrong with the hard drive; we tried everything we knew but we had no way of fixing it ourselves. Without it we would not be able to save more than 1 or two videos and a few pictures. Naturally, I was beside myself. It seems these things (seemingly trip ruing things) always happen right before a trip you've been planning for a long time. "The deep breath before the plunge" turns into "the deep breath, in which you choke on a gallon of water, before the plunge." What's more, is that God is Sovereign. He allows, even ordains these things to happen. In the moment it seems that we're being attacked by the devil. I don't want to give him that much credit in this case. I believe it was God, our Sovereign creator God, showing McClain and I that no matter what bad seems to happen on this trip, it's actually good. It's a test. It's a display of His providence. That Saturday night when everything came crashing down, it's as if God was saying "How are you going to handle this?" or "Watch this, children. I wasn't lying when I spoke through Paul in Romans 8:28." or "I'm not sure if you understand how much of a loving Father I am." or maybe even "Watch me reveal to you that this trip is not about you, but about Me and my glory."
The night of and day following the "crash" turned into a beautiful display of God's providence and just how much He has changed the hearts of His children. One couple went home immediately and grabbed their laptop for us to take, another friend called and said he would buy a new computer for us to take to Uganda and return to him when we got back to the States. What's more is that we for some crazy reason we had a 5 hour layover in Dallas, on our way to Uganda. What seemed like a nuisance turned into an opportunity to make an appointment with the MacStore, get a taxi to downtown Dallas, get our computer fixed for free, and get back just in time to board our flight to London. As well as getting our computer fixed for $100 (the round trip taxi ride was pretty steep) we got an incredible discount on the Bibles that we brought to distribute to Pastor's and Church Members. What was supposed to cost us $112 per tub x4 ended up being a total of $149. This gave us great opportunities to put that money toward printing off of more discipleship materials and we were able to hire a mother for some work at the house in order that she could make some money to pay her sons school-fees.
It was amazing to see the followers of Christ band together and not allow anything to get in the way of ministering for the sake of the gospel. Thank you for your prayers and financial support of our ministry. More updates to come.
Love, hope, grace, and peace to you all from God the Father, through God the Son, by God the Holy Spirit.
May He receive glory through us forever and ever, amen.
Brett and McClain
I can completely empathize with this. I just got to Jordan on Tuesday and the airline didnt have my bag at the airport, so I had to wait until Friday morning to get them. I had absolutely all my toiletries there, as well as my clothes. I thought it might be a test so I decided to be patient and wait. On the second day, I was putting my shoes on and looked at the arm of a chair that I've sat in and there was a bar of soap there. I have no idea whose it was, but it was completely dry and clean. I don't understand how it could have been there before without me seeing it...anyways, it sounds simple, but it had a lot of meaning to me. I'm glad to hear things are going well for ya'll and your in my prayers.
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So awesome to see God's guidance in my prayer for you as my own children going to Uganda. I prayed for not just the people there and your ministry to them but that God would show Himself mighty in every circumstance even if it seemed "bad" to us. He showed us from the start of the trip He was involved even in seeming problems. Praise the Lord, He is involved in our lives! Mom Sheila
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