December Update!

October Update

Writing Letters

Since the move to Gulu I have been teaching Izaac from home. In Jinja we had the benefit of a homeschool school. He had about nine kids in his class with one teacher. They were varied in grade but the beauty of the curriculum they chose was that it was student led so the teacher could more easily manage the different grades. We are hoping to find something in Gulu that we could join to give Izaac and hopefully Ellie some outside teaching. Maybe not full time but at least once a week. It has been going pretty well so far though a few days he really tried to talk his way out of doing school.  Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday we do his main subjects and Wednesday and Friday we do extra curricular things like art, athletics, some science experiments, and creative writing. For creative writing we decided to start writing letters to friends and family. They almost always add some artwork to the letter so I feel like we are accomplishing two things in one. Izaac is learning the proper way to write a letter and next week I am going to have him address the envelope too.

So if you would like a letter from Izaac or Ellie send me an email or message on Facebook with your address and we will send one. The mail system isn't always the best so it can sometimes take a long time to get to you and occasionally doesn't make it at all but we still send them and pray that they make it.

Officially in Gulu

Well we did it. We are officially moved to Gulu. I was going to write about moving but now a week and a half have past and I didn't really make the time. I will say one thing though, I was impressed with how much stuff they could fit on the truck.
 So now we are  here and settling in to life in Gulu. I (Christina) have been doing the book keeping for Our Call Missions, the new organization we partnered with which brought us to Gulu. It is nice to have a job and feel more useful. I know that raising our kids is my main priority and I know that our supporters know that but I was feeling like I was somehow letting them down. So now I am feeling more purposeful and I love numbers so this is a good fit for me. It isn't something I have to do every day so I can still homeschool Izaac and Ellie and take care of all the things at home.

My Desk

 Speaking of home, we have gotten a few questions from people about where we are living. Currently we are living in a building we refer to as the EDI (Educator Develop Institute). This is where we hold trainings and conferences. For the next three months there isn't anything on the schedule so we moved into three of the rooms where the trainees stay. We turned one into a kitchen/dining room, one into the kids bedroom/playroom/school room, and one into our bedroom/living room.

We are hoping and praying that our house we are building will be far enough along that we can move into it before the next conference which is in January. We know God is faithful and has been with us each step of the way and had gone before us in this to supply the finances, supplies, and people willing to help. The containers were suppose to come in September but we got bumped back until this month. So Lord willing the containers are now suppose to arrive the 13th and 14th. I can't wait to share the progress with you! Please be praying for us during this time! If you want to give towards our house please click the link under support on the right side of this page. If you want to come visit and help us build let us know. We would love to have you!

Building a House and Related Things

So we're moving across the country and building a container house!

This idea of living in shipping containers is something I've thought about on and off for a number of years now. When I worked for a construction company in Michigan, we were working on an experimental project using containers to build tanks for farming shrimp. The project never really took off but it got me thinking and since then I have read and planned quite a bit.

We are still in the very early stages so stay tuned as many of the posts coming over the next half a year or so will be on this topic.

Here are the first few steps we've taken:

If I learned anything while in the construction industry is that you always start a project by... planting an orchard...?

Well, maybe that's not really related to the building of our house but it was one of the first things we did. We wanted to get the trees started as most will take 2 to 3 years before they begin to produce. We planted two kinds of oranges, lemons, tangerines, mulberries, avocado and jackfruit as well as pomegranate and macadamia nut trees.

So really the first step was lots and lots of planning. We have spent many hours researching, drawing, re-drawing and thinking through many things. We are using two shipping containers but we're also combining some more traditional construction methods. We think we've settled on a pretty good design but we know this will be a huge learning experience and we will have to adjust and change things on the fly regardless of the amount of planning.

Next was the site work and the foundation. We've laid out the corners of the 2 containers and dug and set foundation piers. We used 8 18" concert culverts fitted with rebar reinforcement and filled with concrete. We are now at the point of waiting for the containers to be delivered. This should happen in about 2 weeks and I'm sure it will be an event worthy of its own post.

In the meantime we are busy packing up the house and finishing things up in Jinja. While we work on the house we will be living in the "EDI" (Educator Development Institute) which is a conference center type building on the property that is used for training teachers and hosting conferences. We are a bit cramped and sharing space can be tough but we are so blessed to have a place to stay!

This is our current sleeping arrangements.

The main conference room has become storage and living
space as well as where we do school.

August Update

We just emailed our latest update but thought we'd also throw it on here. If you don't receive our updates by email and would like to, just let us know.

Lady with a baby!

It's August!! As many of you know I love birthdays. Many people celebrate their birthday. I for one like to celebrate my birthday month.  I am finding that many people (not just me) who have a birthday in August like to celebrate for the whole month. So I thought I would share my August 1st, the first day of my month long celebration.

  Off and on over the last few months my friend Lisa and I have been walking in the mornings. I usually get up a little after 6am and get ready and wait for the sun to start coming up which happens around 6:30am. This morning as I was putting on my shoes and texting to make sure we were still walking because it was sprinkling I heard what sounded like a lady yelling. At first I thought they were injured, but then I heard other voices so I thought it was just people yelling to each other. It was now time to leave so I went out the door and our watchman tells me that a lady across the street had just given birth and I needed to go and cut the cord. I just stood there for second while my brain comprehended what he had just said. I repeated it back to him just to make sure I heard him correctly. We went over to see what was going on and what supplies were needed. The mamma was sitting on a blanket in the yard with the baby laying wrapped in blankets next to her. I met my friend and told her what was going on and then ran back home to get some yarn and to the shop across the road to get a new razor blade. I woke my sister up to make sure I knew what I was doing and where to tie the cord properly. Then I ran back across the street to my neighbors. Thankfully an older Ugandan lady, who seemed to know what she was doing, was there when I got back. She was putting on gloves and I was really thankful that she was going to do it because I would have had to run back home to get gloves and didn't want to waste any more time. I told her where to tie the yarn and after she had it tied she didn't waste any time cutting the cord. My brain was going a mile a minute and later I realized I didn't even find out if she had a boy or a girl. I was so concerned that the mamma and the baby were ok I didn't even think about it until later. I am going to try to connect with them in the next day or so to see how they are doing. We told them they should take her to the hospital to make sure everything was fine though I am not sure they listened.
  Lisa and I went on our walk then. Still both kind of in shock over what had just transpired. I thought about all the times I have gone for walks or runs and how crazy it was for this to happen. I was also really glad that today I had decided to get my butt out of bed and go for a walk even though it was sprinkling. I would have missed this really cool experience that I got to be a part of.
  I do think I am good for a little while now and hope that my walks aren't always this exciting, but whatever God has planned I will be available to do His work. So please join me in praying for this mamma and her baby.
 When I got home from my walk, Ellie told me that I should go back to bed and stay there for as long as I wanted. She had helped my sister to make breakfast in bed for me for the start on my month long celebration. Ellie made a picture for me and had her breakfast in my bed too. I think she may be a bit confused on which day my birthday actually is but she loves celebrating for any reason. I think this is going to be a great month!!

 

A Quick Update and an Explanation...

So I know that I (Christina) have been pretty quite on social media lately. I over analyze things, trying to word things the right way. But here is my best attempt:

  On Monday July 3rd, after Benj and I discussed things and gained counsel from a few people we decided to buy a plane ticket for me to go to the states for just under two weeks because my Grandma (my dad's mom) had very recently been admitted to hospice and I wanted to see her one more time before she died. A few hours after we bought the ticket, my flight leaving in just over 24 hours, my dad called to tell me Grandma had passed away. Wanting to still see my family and come for the memorial service that I figured would be in the next two weeks, I left the next morning for the airport and 40 hours later arrived in Grand Rapids. 

  I didn't post things right away because I was waiting to post until I was sure all my family members knew and then wasn't able to share (maybe I'm not so tech savvy as I thought) the post of my uncle or aunt. Also as much as I wanted to see friends, I really needed to be able to spend as much of my limited time here with my family. I should have posted sooner because I know I am in pictures and then people are wondering what in the world I am doing here. My cousin is getting married today and I am so grateful for God's timing that I am now able to attend and see so much more of my moms side of the family. I haven't seen my moms parents in a few years and have been so blessed to spend quality time with them. 

  God has taken my sorrow and turned it to joy. I know my Grandma is in heaven dancing and praising the Lord with Grandpa. There is no more pain and suffering. She loved Jesus with all her heart and has been such a blessing and role model in my life. I miss her tons and it is hard that I didn't get to say goodbye but I know I will see her again someday in heaven and that makes my heart happy! 

  There are many memories I hold in my heart of my grandma. Like playing Yahtzee by their pool in Florida, Grandma camp, creamed eggs on toast and a wooden doll to name a few. I am glad to know that some day I will see her again and can't wait to give her a big hug. 

  Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers. We serve a big God who is in all the small details and takes care of us. Please pray for safe travels as I head back to Uganda on Sunday!

Izaac and Ellie Post

I love asking the kids what they want to share with everyone. Here is just a little glimpse of what is going on in their heads!

  Gulu is fun.  I am Izaac and Ellie is my sister. And we are in Gulu. We are in a place called the E D I. It is fun. I love to run around and see the pigs because it is a big yard. And we planted a bunch of trees our last trip up. Lemon, Orange, and Tangerine are just some of them.  We also planted elephant grass and mulberry shoots. It is fun also to go to restaurants in town. One of my favorites is Elephante. They have great pizza and waffles. When we move up here next year I will have to do school from home again, which is the worst.  And that’s all for now. Goodbye.

  We are in Gulu visiting the new place where we are going to live next year. I like it so much because it is so big I have lots of space to run and play. I love checking on the pigs and feeding them.  We are going to have a playground (or at least some swings). When I get hurt my Daddy gives super nice hugs. My Daddy takes care of me. My Mommy takes care of me too and she loves me so much. I miss you. I love you!

Big Changes Ahead

Dear Faithful Friends,

We’re in transition again! (Have we ever not been?) Much has happened over the course of our time here and it has all served to give us clarity into the work we are being called to do. We are excited for new opportunities and chances to serve together with those who are engaged in life changing work.

At the beginning of next year we will be leaving Welcome Home Ministries and Jinja and moving to Gulu, in northern Uganda, to work with Our Call Missions. OCM was started by Keith and Lisa Coggin who have lived in Uganda for 15 years and have been involved in a number of different ministries over the course of their time here. Their focus over the past few years has been on developing a Christ-centered, Biblical based curriculum incorporating all of the Ugandan

requirements but integrating improvements in content and teaching/learning methods.  This curriculum, called Roots to Fruits, was originally designed with very rural villages, having no real access to “traditional” schools, in mind. It has however, grown in scope and now there are schools and ministries all over the country desiring to implement it for their students.  There is still much work to be done in the development and refinement of the curriculum as well as partnering with ministries to train teachers to use it.

We are excited to be joining Keith and Lisa in this incredibly valuable work. We will join Our Call Missions in support roles, which is were we fit best, the way God designed us to serve. Christina is excited to help with administrative type things, assisting Lisa and managing the financial aspects of the ministry.  We’ll be working to develop and implement sustainability and income-generation projects to support the teachers and Village Learning Centers in remote areas. Also, we are excited about opportunities to engage with the real and present refugee crises coming out of South Sudan. Our Call Missions was started with a desire, among other things, to reach into the under-served communities of that young and struggling country and now, as a group of pastors recently expressed, “South Sudan has come to Our Call Missions”. We eagerly await the opportunities God will provide for us to love and serve and walk alongside people in this difficult situation in whatever ways we can. 

Lastly, joining with OCM will give us the freedom to begin to pursue an area of service that I (Benj) have dreamed about for a long time. I want to offer my giftedness, skills, resources and availability to others who are serving in difficult places- to be a servant to the servants. This type of ministry has begun to happen organically here in and around Jinja with both large and small organizations. However, Jinja is a very well resourced area. There are people here who are able to do this sort of problem solving work and my thought is: If the need exists here, how much more so in areas that do not have the resources to meet these needs? Also, there are a number of young men already connected with OCM who would be excited about joining in this work with me and gaining some real-world skills and experience. We still don’t know exactly what this will look like but we believe that a real need exists, that Gulu will be a great place to call our “home base”, that Our Call Missions will be a great partner, and that God will lead and direct and receive all the glory!

Some of what this means for us in a practical sense is that over the course of the remainder of this year we need to join with a new “sending organization” that will handle the administration of our funding as well as essential things like health insurance, training, and accountability. Also, we will need to begin building a house. It is our intent that, Lord willing, this will be a long-term situation for us and, in order to have some long-term security and financial stability, building a house is the best option. The land we will build on is owned free and clear by OCM and we hope to be able to put up phase 1 of a small, simple dwelling for about $16,000 that we can call home. There are also a number of projects that will need to happen on the OCM property to better accommodate the ministry we hope to do and we’ll need to purchase a better vehicle. We are trusting God to provided what is needed to do all of this. Lastly, our intention is to make a trip back to the states next spring to share all of the details of what this new venture will look like with you, our faithful friends and supporters. We don’t have dates yet, but it will likely be sometime between when the snow melts and when it starts to get cold again. (Our blood may have thinned a bit since we’ve been here. Turns out 60 degrees is really cold!)

Again, (and again, and again) thank you for your support and encouragement! We are blessed by it, God is honored by it and lives are changed because of it! Please pray and seek the Lord and if He would have you continue supporting this new ministry and direction. Please pray for us as we also seek the Lord and His direction and leadership in all of these details. Please stay tuned, as more information and specifics will be coming over the next 8 months. Please be blessed as you grow closer and closer to our faithful Savior and loving Father day by day!

Grace and Peace,

Benj, Christina, Izaac, and Ellie

Welding Projects

Through the generosity of a welding supplier in Grand Rapids, some special gifts from a few supporters (North Sewickley Pres.) and the willingness of Christina's mom to transport, I got a really nice welding machine in January. Since than I have used it quite a bit and have been able to complete some projects that I just couldn't have done with out it.

I've been able to make a bunch of repairs around the house.

I had some fun turning this pile...

...into these for the kids at Welcome Home.

This swing set we built in pieces and set up in Lawmbogo. The kids love it!

I had the opportunity to help out a great ministry called Good Shephard's Fold build some kennels for their guard dogs.

I've done a bunch of small projects too: a hand full of these lock boxes for spigots on rain water tanks, tomato cages for the garden, repairs at my sisters house, and there are still a bunch of things on the drawing board that I'll get to someday!

                                           

I even shared my favorite new toy with my dad while he was here. (I guess since I owe everything I know to him anyway, it only seemed fair)

Thankful for Modern Conveniences (A Washing Machine)

Well we have now had the washing machine for about 5 months. And I thought today as I was washing Ellie's stuffed animals and a very large blanket that I should write again.

I am so thankful for all the support and donations that people gave for the machine. It has been so helpful for getting things washed and dried in the sun so quickly. I have been able to do some school with Ellie or run into town to grab groceries all while getting the laundry done. Even in the rainy season it has been really nice to be able to wash a different day if it is raining or still getting stuff to dry on the porch. It is not really easy to wash the bigger blankets and sheets or stuffed animals (who always seem to find their way outside to play in the mud with Ellie). The washing machine gets them almost clean as new. So mostly this is a thank you post. Thank you for making the washing machine possible. My hands and back thank you and Ellie and her stuffed animals thank you too!!

Christina

It takes a village

You know the saying it takes a village? Well I have been thinking about that a lot this past week.  I have not been feeling well for a week now and so I think that is why it is on my mind.  I was thinking that in the states if I was not feeling well I would try to take care of things on my own and Benj would still have to go to work and I would have to take care of the kids and keep the house clean and make dinner and all that good stuff. It just isn't in our nature to ask for help except maybe from our parents. But here Benj has been able to rearrange his schedule a bit, Goretty has helped to keep the house looking great and helped to cook some meals. Our friends keep checking on us and even picked Izaac up from school because I wasn't feeling up to getting him and Benj was working. My sister offered to drive 4 hours to come stay with us to help with cooking and cleaning and watching the kids. It really has been cool (despite being sick) to see our "village" and how they come together to keep us a float when we need it. So I am challenging you all. Who is your village? Who can you call for help when you are sick or overwhelmed? Your "village" doesn't have to be just family but could be anyone that God has placed in your life even if it is just for that season. I am praising God today for my "village", for the people He has placed in our lives, for such a time as this.  I count all of you who are reading this as part of our village too because you have been praying for us and I could use your prayers for healing now as well!

Christina

Homesteading

I've always loved the idea of homesteading and I dream often of having a remote piece of land somewhere, a house I built with my own hands and a life carved out that's tough but satisfying. Elements of this dream are self-centered and isolationist and need some Divine refining, but also some of it is good and pure and set deep with-in me and worth pursuing. Here in Uganda I'm blessed with opportunities to practice some homesteading and I'm really enjoying it.

So here's what going on down on the Kragt family farm:

              
 Though the rains have been inconsistent this season, we have done some planting and the garden is doing well.

Tomatoes are just beginning to flower. I had to build my own cages since they don't use them here.

The maze and beans need to be weeded and we need to lay some ground cover, but they are also doing well.

I've done some container gardening as well. This one has 2 celery plants though one was just put in and is still very small.

We also have some herbs and some fruit tree starts going. The bigger ones are rosemary and basel. Then in the front are 2 lemon trees, 2 pomegranates and a hibiscus in the bucket.  

Pumpkin is growing well under the sugar cane.

We are also so excited about our strawberries, which are doing really well so far!

We also have a number of matoke (like plantain) trees, our avocado tree is producing far more then we can eat, and we'll get a few mangos off of the old tree in front pretty soon. That is so say nothing of the sweet potato vines, elephant grass and other miscellaneous rabbit food we'er growing.  

We have some "livestock" here on the farm too.

 Ellie's rabbit, Princess, is just about ready to find a good man, settle down, and start a family. 

And our ugly little bare-necked hen has proven to be a good mother and is currently raising 11 chicks. Hopefully in about 6 months we'll be producing a bunch of eggs. 

Lastly, what homestead would be complete without a mouser-in-training (Mario), and a trusty guard-dog (Tyson)