Hello, friends,

I’ve recently returned from Uganda, and would like to update you on some of the exciting things God did during my time there. As always, it was a time of spiritual battle, with both victory and challenge. But I’ll share more soon about these areas. For now, I want to touch upon the battle that none of us enjoys fighting, with the myriad of inconveniences and frustrations that can mount up to tweak our attitude, so we lose our joy and sometimes even lose our witness.

For example, on the way to Uganda, I had an intentional eleven hour layover in Nairobi, Kenya so that I could have meetings with various institutions. Once arriving in Uganda that evening, I found out Kenya Airways had lost my bag. I was leaving at 3AM for far northern Uganda with no chance they’d find me. They finally managed to deliver the bag one hour before our bus left. That night: 45 minutes of sleep. We ended up taking a bus that had twice as many people as should have been in it, with no room for bags so they sat on our laps and in the aisleways. No shocks on the bus over dirt roads riddled with holes, dips and bumps made a long 9 hours.

After arriving back from Kenya, I found out that once AGAIN, Kenya Airways had lost my bag. This time it took most of two days to get it back. Another annoyance. Our power has been out repeatedly, nearly every other day for much of the day or night, which slows down the work I’m able to get done, and during the hot, humid season this sets everyone on edge. The washer broke, our guard is out sick for three weeks so I need to stay up and guard the house at night, and the pile of work I’m needing to do continues to mount as I get very little done.

These, in addition to other frustrations, add up to some tests of our faith and character. Unfortunately, I’ve not always passed with flying colors. Sometimes we think that the testing of our faith is when some terrorist holds a gun to our head and tells us to recant faith in Christ or we’ll die. Certainly this is a test, but not one most of us face very often. Instead, it is the day to day annoyances that can undermine our witness. These are the times when we must turn to Christ and let him shine through us as we demonstrate the fruit of the spirit – you know, things like joy, patience, kindness, self-control – some of the last things we’re quick to produce. This is not just mission work, this is real life, whether in America or East Africa.

So may we all be encouraged to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to be angry” as James says, and may we receive the annoyances that come our way with a gracious spirit, in faith demonstrating the character of Christ instead of the character of a grumpy old man or grouchy old maid.

Pressing on from the Potter’s wheel, Eric