Author Archives: Todd

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packing graphicOur itinerary is paring down to a manageable level, as some of our would-be hosts have not responded to any of my email hails. We plan to spend the first day resting and acclimating to the other side of the world’s time zone. Our first stop will be the Okoa Refuge in Masaka. Then we will be staying with Carol Adams at Y.E.S. Uganda for the Easter weekend. Our plan is to go North from there to Gulu, where there are two ministries we will be visiting, both affiliates of Every Child Ministries, Nancy Cordoza and Cathy Hayes.  After our stay in Gulu, we will head Southeast to Jinja and its surrounding villages, where we hope to visit Russ and Marcia Baugh (also ECM affiliates) and Amazima Ministries. If we can fit it in, we may visit Mbale, where the Baughs have just begun building a children’s home and where CURE International has a hospital. If God will arrange it, we would very much like to meet the folks at the only UMC mission we could find in that area: Uganda Christian Solutions. On our way back South, we look forward to stopping at Noah’s Ark Children’s Ministry, a CRU affiliate run by Pietr and Pita Butendijk, in Mukono on the outskirts of Kampala, the nation’s capital. In Kampala, we plan to visit 60 Feet, the rumors of which were first to get our own feet moving toward Uganda at all. We seek God’s will, not our own, in this tour and with the direction for our lives. We are trusting that, nestled in His care, we will be safe and well.  His will be done!

We covet your prayer support. Thank you for caring. We will post pictures as we find the opportunity. Likely as not those will appear on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ugandatour2014, so be sure to visit and "like" that page so you get updates. Also, don't forget to subscribe to this blog if you haven't yet. Just enter your email address in the subscribe bar on our home page and follow the directions in your email.

Thanks all! Love and hugs!!

~Todd and Cindy


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20140315-162103.jpgIt is the ides of March, one month until Cindy and I depart for our exploratory trip to Uganda. We are looking forward to meeting new friends, building relationships, and witnessing firsthand the work being done and that needs to be done in the name of Jesus Christ.

We got some news this week that has us turning our itinerary over, but it is a blessing, because it will permit us to spend Easter with a friend, rather than among strangers. Carol Adams, of Y.E.S. Uganda, has graciously offered to host us for the holiday at her home and mission hostel in Fort Portal. She is a recent acquaintance and a beloved friend of two of our beloved friends.

Other news we got this week is a new prayer concern. Our home county is completely out of the yellow fever vaccine. We have been advised to travel to Gainesville to get vaccinated, as it represents the nearest supply, and we have been informed that we cannot enter Uganda without it. Other shots and medicines have been taken care of, but this remains at issue. Please join us in this prayer: the Lord will provide.

I worked my last shift as a police officer Wednesday, and today is my first day being officially retired. The last couple days have been full and eventful, with family visiting and congratulatory blessings being received. I thought I was emotionally prepared until, as I prepared my uniform for the last time, it occurred to me it was, in fact, the last time. A nervous hole gnawed at my stomach the rest of the day as I became aware that I was shedding a skin I have worn for twenty-five years. The last call I went on went rather poorly. No one was hurt physically, but tempers were lost and grace did not abound. It reminded me that, along with the uniform of a professional fault-finder and justice-minister, I must be willing to let go the demand for peace and replace it with a passion for mercy.

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
(Prayer of St. Francis of Assissi)

Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (Luke 10:9 NIV)

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Matthew 20:27-28, NRSV:

and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

foot washingJesus’ instruction was that we should consider others’ needs ahead of our own, to be servant (or slave) of our fellows. Have we given enough of ourselves? Certainly we have not given our very lives! Christ, the God-man, demonstrated the extent of His commission: “Lay it all down like this,” as He again attempts to convey to His followers that His death was imminent.

There are certain things about my new calling toward becoming a missionary nurse that I find unsavory, and I can’t help but think about some of them when I read this verse. How disgusting and humiliating a task is before you? Is it worse than leaving the throne of Heaven to come to a stable hay feeder, to touch lepers, embrace sinners, be grabbed by the “unclean” bleeders, be betrayed by friends, abused by guards, miscarried by a faulty justice, beaten with a cat-o-nine-tails, nailed to a log, and suspended till you could breathe no more? Nope! I think, given the example of the Model before me, I might be able to put up with a little more discomfort on behalf of those precious lives Jesus endured all that to save.

Dear Father, today, I lay down my life for Your purposes. Help me remember not to snatch it up again when Your purposes reveal themselves as unsavory circumstances or people. Save me from selfishness!