Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Uganda!

We hope you had a joyful Christmas, celebrating the Savior’s birth with family and friends! We are so thankful that Jesus humbled himself, leaving Heaven’s glory to be born into our sinful world. He did what no man has ever done, living a perfect life, dying a shameful death on the cross, rising again all to redeem us~that we may have eternal life with him when we die!

Isaiah 53
2b-3a "He had no beauty or majesty to attract to us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. 5-6 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Having a warm, tropical Christmas, away from our family and friends, made the holiday quite unique for us but we enjoyed it still. We spent our holiday weekend out at Dave and Darlene Eby’s house, missionaries here with MTW (Mission to the World), our home church’s mission organization. (David stayed at their house for his project trip, they teach at Westminster Seminary.) We are so thankful for the “family” that God has provided us with here!



The Saturday before Christmas, we attended our first wedding in Uganda. My friend Nichol, the third grade teacher at Heritage who’s an MTW missionary here from San Diego, married Emmanuel, a French Teacher at the International School of Uganda from the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo.) The wedding was quite a cultural experience, blending American, Ugandan, and Congolese traditions. Some different traditions were when the Africans cheered, hollered and clapped when the bride entered the church, the bride and groom sat down up front for part of the ceremony, they signed the marriage certificate a part of the ceremony, and at the reception the bride kneels to feed the groom and his family cake.







On Christmas Eve, David celebrated his 25th Birthday. I surprised him with his favorite blueberry muffins with crumble topping from America for breakfast. (Thanks, Mom!) We then worshiped at our church, New City Bible Church, (Presbyterian Church of Uganda) where Dr. Eby preached. Normally Gerald, a Ugandan pastor, preaches. That evening, the Eby’s hosted a Christmas Eve dinner. With over 40 people, a mix of Americans and Ugandans, it was quite a full house! We enjoyed steak, tilapia, BBQ chicken wings, veggies, cheese and crackers, punch (passion juice and Sprite), and of course, Christmas Cookies and the singing of “Happy Birthday!” (David’s had a mint brownie cake on Christmas.) The evening concluded with watching American football, the Eby’s are huge UCLA fans since their son used to play for them. They had fun teaching the Ugandans the rules.



On Christmas Day, similar to our American celebration, we had a large breakfast, read the Christmas story, and opened some presents in our pajamas with Christmas music playing in the background. The five college age Ugandans that Celebrated with us were so excited when they received soap, paper, pens, highlighters, gum, and watches from “Mom”, Darlene!





Christmas for Ugandans is not nearly as big of a deal as it is in the West. It’s refreshing and much more simple here not to have all the commercialism and materialism, most Ugandans cannot afford gifts. You really wouldn’t even know it was Christmas time until just a few days before when Ugandans start to sell mini, Charlie Brown sized plastic trees on the street with colored foil streamers/garlands. There are a few decorations up at the mall and grocery stores, but that’s about it. No Christmas light competitions here! To most Ugandans, Christmas is a time to visit with family and eat. Often, men leave their villages to work in Kampala where more jobs are in order to support their families. So on Christmas, many travel by matatu (taxi) home to their village to be together as a family. And of course, their celebration wouldn’t be complete without rice and matoke (a banana-like fruit that’s cooked liked mashed potatoes.) Traditionally, Christians also go to church on Christmas. Some my students were traveling on Christmas, the beaches of Kenya are a popular place, also Dubai and South Africa.



On Christmas, David’s biggest thrill was going 4-wheeling, compliments of the Sheffer family. This is a picture of him and Dave Eby after an hour and a half of playing! The winding village roads are so washed out that they are naturally perfect for off-roading. Heather (another girl who stayed at the Eby’s) and I enjoyed a nice walk while they had their adventure.

After our Christmas dinner, we were both able to talk to our families, just as they were beginning their day! We are greatly anticipating my mom and dad visiting us in less then a week now. They fly into Nairobi, Kenya on the 31st where we will take a 12 hour bus ride to meet them. In Nairobi, we will visit with Imbumi and his Presbyterian church in the slums of Kibera, one of the worst slums in the world. We met him at CPC last spring and several groups from our church have done short term projects with him and his church. Natalee, (my sister who died), was planning on doing missions work in this part of Kenya so we look forward to visiting there. After Nairobi, we will venture down to south Kenya and to the beautiful Masai Mara and go on safari there (if you’ve seen Out of Africa, this is where the movie was filmed!). We will then make the bumpy journey back to Uganda and share our lives here with them!

We are so thankful they are coming and have a lot to cram in during their 10 day visit! Please pray for good weather for their flights (leaving the US Friday), safety for them flying and for us (traveling by bus to Nairobi), that the luggage would arrive on time and intact, and that they/we would have an impacting, meaningful, and an enjoyable visit!

Here’s some pics of some of our Christmas celebrations:
My 5th Graders and Me:


Our Class Christmas Party:




eMi Staff Christmas Party:


Decorating Cookies!


The Whole Gang:


eMi Interns:
Tricia, Jean, John,
David, me, Julie