Roberts Family

Hi everyone! We're home in the land of Oz. We arrived on Wednesday evening to a warm welcome from family members and friends at the airport.

 

Thursday and Friday were spent unpacking, moving all our stored gear from the Study to our Bedrooms and cleaning up the study for Kerri and Riaan's visit (up from Melbourne for a ten days). We also bought a new double bed for them to use, which Damon can have when they go back to Melbourne. We visited Gary and Sharrell (who are now back from Qatar) and met our new grandson, Jaiden. He's a real chubby bubby! It was great to see Kira and see how much she had grown.

 

We've been hit hard by the heat and humidity, having come from Kabale's cool weather, but I guess we'll acclimatise eventually.

 

Church yesterday was an interesting experience. It was wonderful to have more warm greetings from our friends, some of whom we saw in Kabale. It was impossible not to compare the African church experience with the Australian one. Our church seemed so quiet and dull compared to the exuberant, noisy African churches with their drums, dancing and full voice singers. 

 

We hope that we have brought the River of God with us and that it will continue to flow in Australia. We are praying for our direction and where God wants us to minister next for him.  It's the next great adventure. God has already been providing for us since we came back. We have a real sense of his favour on our lives.

 

Thank you again for your interest, support and prayers.  We couldn't have done it without you.  You mean so much to us.  God bless you.

It's early Sunday morning and I'm the only one awake. I've just taken a quick moment to write this blog, which will be the last from Kabale. We have been ministering in the River of God Conference this week and packing in between times. The numbers at the Conference have been building up all week. We have preached and taught in workshops. The workshops were on Worship, Community Care, and Marriage. Yesterday, we both preached and they were very 'meaty' messages for the church in Kabale about how the River of God comes, and what it brings. Mine seemed to sum up everything that we have been teaching over the 12 months, so it seems that the Conference is the culimination of the year. God wants to send a river of revival flowing through and out from Kabale and it started this year. We are blessed to hear of great things beginning to happen. Churches are being inspired to work together much more. New ministries are springing up to reach the community with the love of God - ministering to refugees, mentally ill and street kids. People who are doing things in isolation are saying 'let's get together'. We've met some great teachers and preachers from Kenya and other parts of Uganda. We've been able to plant seeds in the minds and hearts of the church in Kabale, about their potential and future in God, encouraging them to thirst for God in prayer, repentance and worship. 

 

On Friday night, we had a Farewell Dinner, put on for us by the Victory Community Care Services' Board. There were at least 50 people in attendance, mostly Pastors and leaders, from all different churches. It was such a huge blessing and it was a very emotional time when saying our goodbyes. We love these people so much. We were given some lovely gifts. It was also Favour's birthday, so we also shared a cake.

 

Today is the joint church service to be held at the Conference venue. There will be communion for all believers. It is likely to be powerful. We pray that your church service is also powerful and begins the flow of the River of God in your location.

 

Tomorrow, we leave for Kampala. Pastor Edward will take us there and see us off on Tuesday morning. I'd better go and get ready for church. Bless you and see you soon.

Well this week has been one of deciding what to take home and what to leave behind. We have already posted back Luke's school supplies from Brisbane School of Distance Education. We have started packing essential books and resources to bring back home. We have been giving away things we no longer require (like Luke's clothes which he's grown out of). He's now nearly as tall as Graeme (about 1/2 inch off) and towers over me! 

 

We've also started doing some preparation for the Conference next week. We haven't got the speakers' schedule yet but we are sure that we will both have time slots on it. On Sunday I participated in the final rehearsal for the worship team. Yesterday, I attended the prayer and fasting day for the Worship Team for the Conference. Pastor Moses asked me to give a talk to the worship team so I spoke about the River of God - what it means, what it brings, and how worship brings the presence of God from which the river flows.  I am really looking forward to seeing the choir in action in the conference and the effect of my teachings about the basics of singing. I gave the leaders of each church a copy of the manual I had put together so that they can teach their people. The people here have innate musical ability but no opportunities to learn music theory or singing technique.

 

The countdown is really on - it's now only 14 days till we touch down in Brisbane.

 

Looking forward to seeing our family and our friends. God bless.

On Sunday, we left for Queen Elizabeth National Park. Thanks to Esther’s new [second hand] vehicle, Olivia, John and Judith, Esther, Graeme, Luke and I all travelled to QENP together.  It was a good drive with the Ishaka road being the only rough part. Driving through the Park, we encountered baboons, elephants and warthogs before we even got to the gate.

 

We arrived at the Ecology Hostel (where we have stayed before) only to find that the booking which we had confirmed by phone had been “lost”, so they directed us to the Hippo Hill Camp. After considerable negotiations with the Manager, we arranged to pay half price for 3 luxury tents.  We were very happy because this place was great, with a lovely view of Lake Edward.  We found the reason it was called Hippo Hill was the resident hippo!

 

We had a late lunch and then went for a cruise on the Kazinga Channel at 5 p.m., seeing heaps of wildlife, including hippos, crocs, buffalos, giant forest hogs and birds in abundance. We had dinner back at Hippo Hill and enjoyed a shower under the stars (surrounded by bamboo screens) and a good night’s sleep, only marred by occasionally being startled by the munching and grunting of the hippo outside.

 

The following morning, we woke before 6 a.m. to go on a game drive around the park. We saw Uganda Kob, Bush Buck, Water Buck, Wart Hogs, but no lions or leopards. We were a bit disappointed but, determined to see lions, decided to drive to Ishasha (the southern-most part of the Park) the following day to try to see the tree-climbing lions.  

 

That afternoon, we drove to Kyambura Gorge to take the 3 hour chimp-tracking trek through the amazing steamy jungle in the gorge which just drops into the middle of the savannah.  It was an adventure trek, with suspension bridge and log crossings of the river, circling around a hippo bathing and an elephant feeding. We saw a few monkeys (Colobus and Red-Tailed Monkeys) but again NO CHIMPS!  We were told that the dry, hot, weather was affecting the numbers and behaviour of animals.

 

It was Olivia’s 21^st birthday this day, so we went to the Mweya Lodge for dinner. It was a very nice meal and a great end to a busy and active day.

 

We set off after breakfast the following day to go to Ishasha. After seeing many baboons on the way, we hired a guide and took a 1 ½ drive around this part of the Park to try to find the lions. Once again, we did not see any. The guide put this down to the dry weather. She said that animals stay close to water in the dry weather and do not frequent their usual habitats. We did, however, see Topi - a type of antelope - and velvet monkeys.

 

We decided to return to Kabale via Kanungu, which should have been a very short trip but we took a wrong turn at Kanungu and ended up taking a very long drive through spectacular mountain scenery and numerous villages which eventually ended up on the main road into Kabale from the south.  We arrived back tired and dusty at around 6 p.m.

 

The day after we arrived back was New Years’ Eve which we spent stocking up on a few groceries, paying some bills and relaxing. We watched a couple of movies whilst waiting for midnight and then stood on our front porch to watch the fireworks which were set off at White Horse Inn (just above our place).

 

On New Year’s Day, we were invited to Henry and Harriet Manzi’s place for lunch and we ended staying 6 hours! We had a lovely time with lots of interesting conversation.  Today, we’re catching up on emails and our blog, because we have run out of broadband but have been given our dial-up USB back.

 

Happy New Year, everybody!!