I don’t know about you, but I love summer! I love the chill vibes, slower days, low-key plans, sunshine, swimming, and traveling. In Uganda, summer is a bit different. First of all, the weather is the same year around, so the sunshine doesn’t change. Secondly, the Ugandan school system is not the same as the U.S. school system, so they are still in school during our “summer break.” Thirdly, we have more people who come to visit us in the summer months than any other time of the year, so we are busier hosting teams and groups of visitors. And, in the years that we are not in Uganda, we are traveling around the U.S. visiting churches, family, friends, and supporters on our home assignment. When we are in Uganda (like this past summer), our summer relationship dynamics change because the missionary community travels back to their home countries at different times; so friends are coming and going. But I still love summer, even though it looks different than a typical “American” summer.

Adalyn was very happy that we stayed in Uganda this summer! She loves being at home (a homebody trapped with wanderlust parents), so she was looking forward to “being bored.” Turns out she was not bored, and we ended up being busier than we expected, but we enjoyed the summer break vibes. To start the summer right, Adalyn decided to be baptized, so we were very thankful to celebrate her commitment with friends. Adalyn wrote about her baptism here.

A few friends left at the end of May when school dismissed, but there were several families still around in June, so there were plenty of people around for pool days, bike rides, skating, football (soccer) games, cookouts, lunch dates, and having people over for dinners. With no school during the day, we filled those times with fun activities and friends!

At the end of June, we hosted a large group of adults and students from Quaker Avenue Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. It was a great time together sharing with them about the ministry in Uganda and our here. We are always thankful for people who are willing to travel to Uganda. You can read more about their visit here.

Our July 4th tradition in Mbale is to have a community cookout…hosted by a British guy. It’s very fun to all get together, laugh about America’s independence from England, and appreciate the beauty of our missionary community coming from a variety of countries and cultures. Plus, there’s always delicious food!

At the end of July, we hosted a Leader’s Conference in Mbale for more than 150 church leaders throughout Eastern Uganda. (You can read more about the conference here.) I always enjoy greeting the church leaders as they arrive, and visiting with them to hear what they have learned from their time at the conference. At the end of the conference, our family enjoys a time of worship and celebration together with everyone.

After the Leader’s Conference, we took a family vacation to Victoria Falls. This has been on our bucket list for almost 20 years (especially since we moved to Uganda) and we finally had the opportunity to see the largest waterfall in the world. God’s creation is absolutely breath-taking! We went on safari in Zimbabwe for a couple days, and then we enjoyed several days in Zambia exploring Victoria Falls. We loved the trip and it was a great way to wrap up our summer with family time!

On our way back from our travels, we picked up Leland’s mom from the airport and she joined us for a couple weeks as Adalyn started back to school. We always love having her visit us, and of course, Adalyn loves Memaw time. We had a fun time exploring old and new places, visiting friends she has made here, and enjoying being together for every day life stuff. She also got to help sub for Adalyn’s class for the first week of school since the teacher hadn’t come yet, which was very special. We were sad to see her leave, but now we are getting back into school and ministry routine post summer.

We hope you had a wonderful summer, whether you had a break or continued through like the rest of the year. The fall has some big things in store, so be looking for the next blog posts.