...:::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!!!

..::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!