Author: Gina Sawyer

Pearl of Africa

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Uganda is nicknamed the “Pearl of Africa” and that name suits it well. I never realized living on the equator and having 12 hours of sunlight would be so great! I love the consistency of the weather and the rhythm of every day life…year in and year out. While it can get very hot and dry for about 2-3 months out of the year, we live at 3,700 feet above sea level and in the rainforest at the foothills of Mount Elgon, so it’s never as hot or miserable as a Texas summer. Uganda is truly a beautiful place!

Not only do we have beautiful scenery in Mbale with sunsets on the mountain, early morning clouds hovering in the valley, waterfalls that we see from our neighborhood, but we also have the beauty of the Nile River only 2 hours away, Lake Victoria just beyond that, the ice-capped Rwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda, and so much more. We have a plethora of beautiful trees and flowers, exotic birds and interesting animals. I never cared about birds until we moved to Uganda, and now it’s every day life to see birds flying around our compound that we used to only see in exotic pictures. If you are a bird person, message us and we’ll give you a list of the many exotic birds we have seen here in Uganda. (Leland has an East African bird book because we have seen so many cool birds and it’s actually worth identifying them.)

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School Blessings

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Leland and I have always been thankful for Tyler International Homeschool Cooperative (TIHC), the school Adalyn has been part of since she joined kindergarten. It was one of the aspects that helped us feel at ease when we made the decision to move to Uganda. To make the school even possible, we all rely on volunteer teachers, parents, and other missionaries to help, and we can’t take those positions for granted because they are not always filled. Every year, we are looking for teacher volunteers to come to Uganda to teach our kids. Every year, we hope that there are enough classes for the kids who need to be in school. Every year, we pray for the board members, school administrator, and other staff members who make the tough decisions and keep the school running smoothly. And every year, we are so THANKFUL for the school community and healthy learning environment for Adalyn.

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Adalyn Turns 11!

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Adalyn is now 11 years old. When we first moved to Uganda, she had just turned 3 years old. Time has seemed to fly by, but it has been a blessing to watch her grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually over these last several years. Each year, we ask her questions about some of her favorite things, so you can join us in watching her grow. Here are her latest answers:  

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Once in a Lifetime Trip

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It’s no secret that we love to travel! We make it a priority for our family to save for traveling, plus we often celebrate birthdays and holidays with travel experiences instead of gifts. We never imagined we would get to travel on this side of the world, so it’s been fun and exciting to experience new cultures and ways of life. Australia has always been on our “travel bucket list” but towards the bottom, not because we didn’t want to go, but because we never imagined it would be possible. So when the opportunity arose and the funds became available, we decided there was NO better time to visit Australia (and New Zealand) than Summer 2023 when they were hosting the Women’s World Cup. We would be able to watch some soccer games as we explore two new countries on a new continent. But Australia isn’t very close, and it’s not so cheap…

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Australia & New Zealand 2023

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We had three weeks to explore 1 continent and 2 countries, with Australia alone being as large as the continental United States. So needless to say, we did not see everything, but we did do A LOT!

Let me give you the highlights of our trip…

We arrived in Aukland, New Zealand and started with the U.S. versus Vietnam Women’s World Cup game (WWC games were on the top of Adalyn’s to-do list). The U.S. won and it was such a fun and friendly environment. We then drove down to Wellington, New Zealand for the second U.S. game against the Netherlands. We stopped along the way to see glow worms in Watomo Caves and Hobbiton (the movie set location used for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit film trilogy). We also went zip lining in the forest (another favorite of Adalyn) and went to a cultural experience about the Maori people. It is always fun for us to engage with and learn about new cultures, plus try new foods. We drove through Mount Tongariro National Park where it snowed on us, we got a glimpse of “Mount Doom” and we hiked to “Gollum’s Pool” (again from Lord of the Rings trilogies).

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Summer Visitors

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This summer has been full of visitors. It’s the first post-Covid summer that people are back in full swing of international travel, so we were blessed to host many friends over the last couple months.

The first visitor came at the end of May. We had the pleasure of having one of the mission founders, Shawn Tyler, stay with us for a week while he was visiting in Mbale. We enjoyed a village church visit, meeting and reconnecting with the mission staff, and organizing three separate village seminars teaching on the importance of the Lord’s Supper. In all, we taught over 210 church leaders from 51 churches the relational, Biblical, and practical aspects of taking the Lord’s Supper together as a church family.

After his visit, Ryan Hayes (former missionary to Malawi) and Blazio Styford (his Malawian teammate) came to Mbale to conduct a training for village churches interested in forming Village Savings & Loans groups. We had over 140 participants in the sensitizations meeting and 47 churches signed up for further training.

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Re-Learning English

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When we moved to Uganda, we were happy to know that the official language is English. And while there are more than 70 different tribal/local languages, English is common. But the funny thing that we realized after spending time here is that it’s not the same English we are used to speaking. It turns out we speak American, or more precisely, Texan. So we have had to learn to speak “English” with a Ugandan accent and different words / phrases. For fun, we thought we’d share some words and phrases that may be new to you but are everyday language for us (NOW):

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Sawyer Family Farm

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Since we moved to Uganda in 2016, we have often used the phrase “I never imagined I would say/do/have…” and we have learned a lot over the last 7+ years. One of the main things that has surprised us is the large garden we have at our house. With both of us being “city” people, garden and farming were never in our vocabulary.

We started with a few small beds of fruits and vegetables that we couldn’t get in Uganda, and we have expanded our garden to have many options. We grow our own sweet corn, colored bell peppers, jalapeños, lettuce, squash of different types, tomatillos, sweet potatoes, strawberries, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and green onions. We have banana trees, mulberry/blackberry bushes, jackfruit tree, avocado tree, mango tree, and orange trees. We also grow local foods like beans, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and greens to share with our neighbors. It has been a blessing to be able to make meals out of the vegetables from our garden, and to share our abundance with friends around us. It is certainly not something we imagined we’d do with some of our time, but we continue to expand our family farm.

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Reunited DiscipleMakers

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This month I had the pleasure of reuniting with the first women’s discipleship group. This was the first time we were all together to share and spend quality time with one another since we concluded our meetings at the end of 2021. I have made phone calls to each of the ladies throughout the year and we worshipped together at the women’s conference in December 2022, but this was the first time we were ALL TOGETHER to share what God has been doing through and in each of us over the past year.

We started the morning together in praise and worship. It was a beautiful time to worship and thank God for our time together and for watching over us while we were apart. We shared challenges from the past year and how the Lord had stood with us throughout the year. We shared ways we could be continuing to pray for one another, both personally and in regards to making disciples. While each of these women has different challenges, styles, and ways they are discipling others, the confidence I saw in them was truly a testament to the Holy Spirit working in their hearts.

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7-Year Ugandaversary

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We are happy to celebrate 7 years of living in Uganda. It is hard to believe it has been that long, and at the same time, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long at all. Like any place, there are things that frustrate us, but there are also many things we love about living here. There are many things we count as blessings and there are many things that make us shake our head and laugh. It’s a fun mix, and God is always faithful in reminding us that He’s got us.

So with that being said, We want to share some fun everyday life items with you….

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