...:::and we're off ...AGAIN!:::...

Where to begin...

The last few months have been crazy! 

For starters, in case you weren't aware, we're home!

In our last post, we mentioned an awesome prophetic experience regarding Daniel's visa that came true! And although it took another month of dealing with immigration, we eventually touched down on US soil, after two month of separation, on Thursday Nov 6th! 

Being home, and having our whole family back together has been wonderful, but as you could imagine, it's also been a crazy transition. Now that we've got our feet back under us, we'd like to catch you up on what's happened and happening with the Kissling family.

For starters, we came home and moved into a new house with an incredible family, "The Fennigs".

Our New Family

As crazy as it sounds, living in direct community with another family is something we've wanted to do for a long time and started dreaming about with the Fennig's before we went back to Uganda. They (Thaddeus, Kristen, and their two kids) are an awesome family, and so far, living together has been amazing experience!

Coryn is still working at Beckman High School as well as being a stellar wife and momma! She's incredibly busy with work, but I can tell that she truly loves being back and having a whole new group of students to teach and pour into. I really got lucky snatching up this girl!

Daniel has also had some cool new stuff Going on! Not only did the boys get some new siblings with us combining homes, but, Daniel also started Kindergarten! If you know Daniel, you'd expect him to be a ton of fun in the class room, and you'd be right! His teacher said he's acclimated quickly and is making a ton of friends (I kind of think he's her favorite)!

Nemo, who was really struggling with all the transition before I got back, really seems to have settled in with Dad back in the picture. It's been great being back home with him and the rest of the family! Two months of our family being separated was WAY TOO LONG!

As for myself, being home has been interesting! I've jumped right back into serving at Rockharbor as a Worship Leader and Apprentice while at the same time, playing a part time stay at home dad. It took awhile, but I think we've finally figured out the rhythms of this new/old life hybrid thing that we're in.

Now that we've gotten you all caught up to speed, there's a few things I'd like to tell you about.

For Starters; "Align Support"

I've just got to start this section of with a big fat THANK YOU for the way that so many of you cared for, and supported us over the last 1 1/2 year!!! We've had a few friends and supporters ask us weather or not we're still raising/in-need-of support through Align Ministries. We are still continuing to work alongside Align and absolutely love the work God is doing through them, but we're no longer taking our salary from them (read below). We would like to ask anyone who supported us to consider sponsoring a child or helping fund one of Align's great ministries.

Secondly; "The Apprenticeship"

Rockharbor is a church committed to equipping and empowering men and women to be effective ministers of the gospel of Jesus. One of the ways they do this is through a one year apprentice program. Before we left for Uganda, I was asked to join this program and am excited to finally get to jump in and be further developed as a leader within and outside the body of Christ. 

As an apprentice, I'm considered an "un-payed staff member" at Rockharbor and then encouraged to raise funds for my salary. This is an invaluable opportunity, and Coryn and I are already seeing so much fruit and opportunity come out of this season of development. As you might imagine, spending 30+ hours away from our family on a single income makes this a bit of a challenge. We'd love to ask all of you who truly believe in this form of leadership development to prayerfully consider financially contributing to my salary through 2015. Our goal is to raise $1000 a month for the next 12 months to help offset our single income and childcare necessary while in the office. Go ahead and click HERE now if you'd like to support us! We look forward to updating you all next month on how the apprenticeship, and our fundraising is going.

Lastly; "Pray!"

We'd like to ask you to pray for a few things! Obviously, we'd love for you to lift up The RH Apprenticeship and our continued transition back into life stateside, but there's one big area we'd love to ask for a covering of prayer.

...:::Charlotte, NC:::...

Over the last year, we've been in a constant dialogue with the aforementioned Fennigs (our current housemates) about joining them in a church plant through Rockharbor, to Charlotte, NC. The prospect of being sent out once again comes with a myriad of feelings, both excitement and fear. We just ask that you join us in asking God for discernment and clarity regarding this decision. 

We'd also love for you to pray for our upcoming trip to Charlotte at the end of February. Please pray both for provision for that trip, and that we'd get a sense for how God might be planning to use us there.

So for now, that's pretty much it! We're both excited to share what God does with and through us in the following weeks!

If you’d like to unite with us in this undertaking you may send your financial blessings to: Rockharbor C/O Jamesdon Kissling, 3095 Red Hill Ave. Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Please make checks payable to "Rockharbor" and include a memo indicating that payment is towards "Jamesdon Kissling|Apprentice"
...or Click HERE to give online.
 All your support is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!

...:::When God Speaks; CLEARLY:::...

God still works and the Spirit still moves! 

So, as some of you may have noticed, our blog has been a bit quiet for the last few months. Honestly the reason for our silence has been a lack of something to write about. There's been a lot going on, but we haven't really wanted to write about it because none of it had to do with us getting home! But, before I get into that, let me give you a breakdown of the last few months…

Coryn and I have both been on personal leave from our jobs in the US the whole time (1 year+) that we’ve been here! Since my job is, let’s say, a bit undefined, it’s been easy to take time away. That, unfortunately, wasn’t the case for Coryn. She was blessed with a one year leave of absence from her teaching job, and that year ended in September. That meant that Coryn was on a plane in mid-August, with Nemo in tow, so that she could prep for the coming school year AND keep her job! That was a bummer, but at the time, we thought we’d have Daniel’s visa sorted, and follow in a week or so. That didn’t quite play out as we had hoped though.

We got our appointment for Daniel’s visa at the end of August, which meant a trip to the Nairobi Embassy for me and “D”! We had an amazing time there with our new friends, the Magruders, as we awaited the approval of his visa. Unfortunately, we learned that or case had been sent for an “administrative investigation” for reasons the Embassy would not divulge. They also couldn’t give us ANY type of time-frame. They only told us it could be days or months! GREAT!!! :/

Daniel and I have since been back in Uganda; couch surfing in the homes of our closest friends, dearly missing our wife, son, mom, and brother. All the meanwhile, Coryn has been single parenting Nehemiah, moving into a new home, working a full-time job, and missing the snot out of us! It’s been absolutely miserable!

…and then a prophecy?!

One and a half weeks ago at church, a woman named Nicola was teaching on Philippians and how God is in EVERYTHING, even our times of trials and suffering. As she spoke, she kept getting various spirit inspired words, although she wasn’t quite sure what they meant or who they were for. First she said she felt there was someone there who was dealing with some tough family stuff. That definitely resonated with me, but it seemed like it could with anyone. Then, a bit later, she said that she felt the person was a father who felt alone but God was in this with him. Now I was really listening, but still, it could have been for anyone. As she was finishing up, she paused during her closing prayer. She said “it might be weird” but she felt the Spirit saying, “There’s a visa issue and God is going to bring a breakthrough in the coming week.” Bingo! She hit the trifecta! I was completely wrecked and the whole church prayed over our family and the word we had received!

Throughout the following week, we had a ton of support from our friends and family as we awaited God’s big breakthrough! People were praying for us and even fasting with us and we really felt the love of God tremendously! Each day passed, but still we remained confident in the work and will of God.

As Friday came and went, I started to feel a bit down. At one point, I even swore that I had gotten an email notification from the Nairobi Embassy but when I checked it, nothing was there. I was obviously disappointed that nothing had happened, but more than that, I was disappointed that the opportunity had passed for God to show our church and community that GOD STILL MOVES.

This week, out of pure desperation and frustration, I kept trying to call the embassy to see if there had been any progress on our case. Monday must have been some sort of Kenyan holiday or something because I tried the whole day and couldn’t get a call through. Today (Tues) started out the same way but I finally got through! The lady one the phone told me she had emailed me on Friday (phantom email above) asking me for Daniels passport so they can issue his visa. She forwarded the original email, and sure enough, God came through on Friday morning, just as He said he would!!! OH MY GOD has never felt more right to say than at this very moment!!!

“So now what?” you may ask. Now we come home!

It should take a week or so to get the visa issued, but after that, we’re on a plane, and into the arms of the ones we love!!! We’re excited to get home and begin the next chapter (church plant?) of our lives, but I’m suddenly a bit sad at the thought of having to say goodbye to all the amazing friends here who have fed us, housed us, encouraged us, and just plain loved us through this rollercoaster! But right now, the thought of a big ol’ family hug has me grinning from ear to ear!!! GOD IS SO GOOD

If you’d like to unite with us in this undertaking you may send your financial blessings to: C/O Andrew Galbreath 354 Avocado Street #16 Costa Mesa, CA 92627 Please make checks payable to "Jamesdon and/or Coryn Kissling"

..::Hard Truths::..

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! 

When we first started working with Align, I was asked to begin coaching our team through the project management process. In corporate America, this would seem a fairly common skill-set but, here in Uganda, it hasn't quite been adapted. After a ton of preparation (much more than I anticipated) I've now lead two half day classes and the matter. The team here is really beginning to receive the model well, and to be honest, I'm learning a ton through the process too!

Coryn has also been quite busy (way more than me) this month. 

One of her main tasks as of late has been to manage the development of an operations manual for Align's Life Homes. It's been a challenging experience to format their structure since the homes have been running without it for some time, but the team is really making great strides regardless.

Alongside her other responsibilities, Coryn also managed to plan and execute a much needed 2 day retreat for the teachers at Donela Primary School. It was a huge success. The staff really enjoyed getting time to relax, pray together, eat great food, play ridiculous games, and most importantly, there was no work! The leadership really wanted to simply appreciate the staff for their hard work so we made sure there was no training or any other activity that wasn't fun or relaxing. Coryn still hasn't stopped receiving accolades from the staff. For most of them, it was a first time experience, and they're begging for another!

All this awesome work (and a ton more I didn't mention) that we get to be a part of has been such a blessing, and I think there's a big part of us that's sad at the thought of our time here being over. 

But then there's the other part of us... the part that's scared to death that we're going to have to accept the hard truth of us not making it home in August so we don't lose our jobs, The part that's watching our savings and support dry up as each days whizzes by, and the part that is desperately trying to figure out how We can fix it instead of asking, "God, how will You use us through all of this?"

The ridiculous part of all of this (besides our lack of faith) is that we've been here before... MANY TIMES!!!

When we first felt called to Uganda, we had no idea how we'd get here or what we'd do! When God placed Daniel in our lives, we had no clue how to go about adopting internationally or if we were even the right home for Daniel! When we felt God calling us back to the US, we knew we'd be jobless, homeless, and thoroughly culture shocked! When we had to come back to Uganda to finalize Daniel's adoption, and then found out that the process to get back home would keep us here MUCH longer, we were broke, homeless, and emotionally paralyzed by the news!

...but in each of these situations, we prayed! We prayed for God to reveal Himself and His plan. We prayed that our family would be fed, clothed and cared for! And we prayed for our faith to increase! Every time we did this, God responded in some ridiculous way!

So where does this leave us now, amidst another seemingly impossible dilemma? You'd think it's be obvious by now but we're not always the sharpest tools in the ol' shed!

PRAY!

We need to lift our silly heads back up to the heavens and ask our provider to do what He does best! 

So as we've come to this realization and prayed the last few days, we feel the thing that God's showing us right now is to be real! To share our "hard truth"! We feel spurred to let our community know what our situation is and humbly and honestly ask for help! 

So here goes... 

We're low on funds, running short on time, and scarred for what the future holds. We'd like to ask you to think about supporting us financially as we continue to partner with Align Ministries. We'd also like to ask you to SERIOUSLY CONSIDER remembering our family in your daily prayers as we're seeking God's direction through this season. These are some of the most humbling words we've ever had to type, but we feel that this is what we're being called to do, and know that God will do with it what He's intended for good!

We absolutely love you all, and can't wait to get back home to continue doing life with you!

...:::The New Normal:::...

WOW!

I can't belive I've already been home (Uganda for now) for 3 weeks! It feels like I was just in the US a few days ago! Luckily, that feeling doesn't still include the jet-lag I came back with!!! Although it's felt like a blur the past few weeks, there's actually been a ton of stuff happening over here...

 
To start with, we're finally in a home that we can once again call our own! As many of you may know, God has been a bit of a showoff for us since this whole "we're going back to Uganda" thing happened. One of the ways He's reminded us of how big He is, is by giving us a free house to stay in! Not only is it free, but it's BEAUTY~FULL!!!

We share a compound with an amazing family of missionaries, The Carrolls, and are blessed with a daily spectacular sunrise and a constant cool breeze (unheard of here!). We're also only a 5 minute drive from where we now serve (Bombo). To keep things exciting, we've got no running water or flushing toilets! We rely 100% on collected rain water and are getting quite adept at pulling buckets of water from our well/cistern, but honestly, we kinda love it!

The past few weeks have pretty much been a time for us to become better acquainted with the work being done here through Align Ministries and the amazing volunteers and staff that work tirelessly to make it all happen!

Coryn has spent most of her days getting better acquainted with Align's "Life With Hope" program. LWH was established to accomplish exactly what the name implies by coming alongside individuals in the most dire situations (most affected by HIV/AIDS) and providing immediate and long term care. This is done through monthly support and food donations, as well as medical care, and in extreme cases, admission into a "life home". 

Coryn has also been spending a lot of her time teaching and developing leaders and programs at Align's school, Donela Orange Primary and Secondary School.

I, like Coryn, have spent my days familiarizing myself with the projects, ministries, and processes that Align is involved in here. I've also had the opportunity to begin looking into new ways of impacting the communities we're planted in.

One of the first projects our team tackled here was installing "Tippy Taps" for our LifeHomes. Running water is rare in most of the rural parts of Uganda, and because of this, good hygiene is not always an option. This leads to an increase in disease and illness which, in many of our HIV/AIDS infected clients, is detrimental! Tippy Taps provide a great hand washing solution for areas where water conservation is a must! So far, they're a great success, and we're now planning on installing them around our schools and communities!

Daniel and Nehemiah pretty much love it here! They've really taken to their new school, and put up quite a fight on days

when they can't go! They also really love living on the same property as the Carrolls because they've always got kids to play with! Both boys have been hit with a myriad of different infections and bugs (like any kid at a new school) but are hopefully on an immune system upswing!
Lastly, we've got some exciting news...

We're once again "Real Missionaries"! Align Ministries has added us to their easy to use support page! If you're one of the many people who've wondered how you can partner with our family, now you can!

All you have to do is go to alignministries.org/donate/ and select "Uganda Missionary Support". Fill in the required fields and, Boom!!!, it's like you're right here with us, loving and serving the Align community! You'll notice that there's also a ton of other great ways to learn about the ministry and support Align on that same site!

...:::Diving In:::...

For the past two weeks, while Jamesdon was in the US, the boys and I have been getting settled into our new home. When I say home, I do not mean a physical home (we still don’t have one of those), I mean the place where we are going to be doing ministry. I have been spending the past two weeks investing in the people that we are going to serve alongside. The boys have started school and while Nehemiah is still adjusting to the whole idea of school, Daniel is thriving! Everyone already knows Daniel ( I think it helps that he has a “funny” accent, wears glasses, and has a “mzungu” family!). Daniel loves going to class, taking porridge, playing with his new friends, and sharing all of his snacks with other kids. 

Nehemiah has become the focus for most of the students. They love to touch his hair and face, but unfortunately Nemo doesn’t like it and had a hard time adjusting to all the attention, but it is getting better each day that we are here. It didn’t help that Nemo ended up getting really sick this past week. 

It was so tough to see my little guy in so much pain. We are staying about an hour outside of Kampala, but made the trek into town and spent half of the day at the hospital trying to rehydrate and medicate him. The doctors found an amoeba in his digestive tract, which caused an infection in his colon. He refused to eat anything for a few days and was vomiting anytime I gave him medicine (even with anti-vomiting medication). But he is now back to his old self.  It helps that his daddy is back!

I have had such a great time the past two weeks. It is always hard to adjust to no running water, which means pit latrines and bucket baths, but the family that we have been staying with have been amazing. We have been so blessed to have a place to stay where we are just an extension of the family. 

It was hard not having Jamesdon here, but it has allowed me to dive in and get working. I have started teaching Chemistry and Biology to Donela’s secondary students. I am also teaching science lessons to the higher primary classes. This is a bit of a new element for me, but I love that it allows to meet many of the students and work with a lot of the staff at the school.

 I have also had an awesome time learning how to greet each of the staff in their mother tongue. Because there are people from all over Uganda in Bombo, mostly because of the military barracks, most of the staff speak different languages. This has been a way for me to get to know the staff on a more personal basis (So far I know how to greet in Luganda, Swahili, Ateso, Luo, and Acholi, not bad!). Nemo and Daniel have even learned how to greet and respond, but only in Luganda.

It has been such a blessing to not only get to be involved at the school, but to get to learn so much more about the different ministries that Align ministries is partnering with here. Jamesdon will be serving as a Project Supervisor and I will be doing teaching/communications/staff development. If you are interested in learning more about the organization we are working with please visit their website www.alignministries.org. 

In the last month, God continues to confirm that Uganda is where we are meant to be… for now! We are currently committed to stay here until August, even if we receive Daniel’s paperwork before that, due to the clear path that God has created for us to stay here and work with people and an organization that we love and respect beyond words. We have been so blessed throughout this entire process and God just continues to rain down His blessings on our family!

A week in Gulu...and then back to Kampala!

It has been two weeks since we last updated our blog so when I sat down to write a new one, I felt like there was way too much to write. So I will try not to make this too long.

And we are off...Gulu here we come!

Two weeks ago we began our trip to Gulu. For those of you not familiar with Ugandan geography, Gulu is about 400 kilometers north of Kampala. Because we have friends that live outside of Kampala, we stopped off there and visited them on the way. We were able to once again visit Donela Orange School in Bombo. After having another awesome day in Bombo/Wobulenzi we went to a guest house close by to stay the night and then headed to Gulu Tuesday morning. Luckily Jamesdon got a good night sleep because the only road that goes up to Gulu is a pretty daunting road to drive.

Even when the road to Gulu was at its best , it was a stressful road to drive.  You share the road, which is barely wide enough for one car in each direction, with huge buses that go very fast and as they head towards you, you feel as if you are going to be run off the road. The road is filled with potholes and rain continually erodes the edges of the road, so there are times when there is barely enough road for one car let alone for the bus with bad alignment, that is literally driving sideways and heading towards you. This does not include the people riding bicycles, school children running alongside the road, or the women carrying babies on their back and jerry cans of water on their head.  Jamesdon says it feels like 6 hours of playing some twisted game of chicken and Russian roulette. Most of the time Jamesdon was trying to find the best path to travel and sometimes there wasn’t really a best path, but he did a great job.

Nemo (baby Mzungu) always gets swarmed!!

Lazyboy Seesaw

It probably goes without saying, but Jamesdon was exhausted by the time we traveled the 320 kilometers to get there! Even though he was exhausted,  Jamesdon really wanted to see the Congolese women at Remnant International (the organization Jamesdon worked with when we lived here before) so we headed straight there to surprise them. Although, not all the women were there, the two that were there were very excited to see him. We then headed to CTCM (Christ the Center Ministries) school and visited with Pastor Ron and Mama Joy. We wrapped up our day be getting together with our dear friends, Kent and Becky, who are missionaries sent out by Antioch church. After 2 years of not seeing them, it was great to have dinner and catch up with them. Plus Daniel and Nehemiah were stoked to have kids to play with, since they have four girls.

I really missed these Remnant gals!

On Wednesday, we got the chance to meet Jake and Khara, some fellow Rock Harbor goers, that moved to Uganda shortly after we left. Although, I had only met Khara once in Uganda, right before we left, it was so great to sit down and talk with them about their time in Uganda so far and to get the chance to pray for them and what they are doing in Gulu. Later that afternoon, Jamesdon met up with Kent and got to visit their discipleship school as well as a new income generating project that will be used to support the discipleship school and provide business and management training for their community. (Kent spent the better half of the week trying to convince Jamesdon to move back to Uganda to come work alongside him, and Jamesdon spent the better part of the week telling him no!)

Jamesdon moonlights as a 
baking instructor!

Ana, one of the Congolese bakers.

We spent the remainder of our week meeting with friends and visiting different projects/ ministries in Gulu. Jamesdon celebrated his 30^th birthday, which was very low key. (I always pictured getting to do something big and exciting for him, but that didn’t happen).
Kent and Becky’s daughter did make him a pretty tasty cake though!! The boys had a great time road tripping and getting to see more of Uganda and its beauty, including the Nile River and some of its wild life! All in all it was a great week and a good reminder of why we love being here in Uganda!

Worn out from our 
AWESOME week in Gulu!

No big deal, just a scary baboon on the side of the road!

Beyond worn out, just 

CRAZY at this point!

Getting to spend a week in Gulu and having the chance to reconnect with friends made the past week in Kampala a tough one. Reality set back in! Jamesdon has now been here for 8 weeks and I have been here for 4 weeks and there has been absolutely no movement in the courts. While the family time we are having is priceless, not knowing how long this whole process is going to take is a really difficult reality. We know that God has a plan for our family in all of this, but sitting and waiting is not easy to do. Our previous time spent in Uganda was spent in a posture of serving and ministering to the people here, but this time around we are just waiting. Even though we get to visit different ministries here, it is tough not being a part of one and really getting to take part in what God is doing here. As we wait, we continue to pray for God to show us discernment about where He wants us to be, but so far we just feel like we should be home! We feel like God has blessed us with such an amazing community at home and that He is not ready to take us away from that. Although we love Uganda, we do not feel like God is calling us back here. With that being said, He hasn’t allowed us to leave yet either, so we continue to pray and wait on God.

Please continue to pray alongside us for the following:

- a court date

- discernment about God’s plan for our family

- that this would be a period of spiritual growth for our family