ANNOUNCING THANK YOU TOUR

Our family running in our new post of Wheaton, Chicago

Dear Family and Friends,

Two commands fill God’s word when His people are in seasons of transition.  Those words are “Remember (150 references),” and “Thanks (100 references).”  (References counted by www.biblegateway.com.)

Our family last week finished getting the kids in five different educational institutions (Lowell Elementary, Franklin Middle School, Wheaton North High School, College of DuPage, and Wheaton College in Chicago.)   This past Sunday at Willow Creek Dupage we heard Shauna Niequist remark, “Enrolling a child in kindergarten is like getting a job in the CIA.”  We concur it is thorough and exhausting.

Christmas 2011 with foster child, Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs

This week we are beginning the process of organizing 19 years of memories.  We must remember.   God was, is, and is to come “Faithful.”  He used many family, friends, churches, and organizations to share this journey.  Here are some highlights:

• Of 21 years of marriage, 19 happened in Africa’s Great Lakes
• 2 nations of day by day labor (Uganda and Rwanda)
• Raised 5 great kids (Sophia, Caleb, Ethan, Ruth, and Timothy)
•   Fostered 1 pre-mature baby through weight gain, colick, and at one point 3 seizure clusters per day until he was adopted (Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs)
• 177 churches developed and 55 missionary families entered Uganda through New Testament Churches of Christ (1993 – 2004)
•   2 urban church plants (Kampala Church of Christ and Christ’s Church of Rwanda)
•  1 School Start (Kigali International Community School)
•    3 ½ years doing a weekly prime time radio show with Monitor FM (now KFM)
•    Volunteering at Kampala Kids League
•    6 years writing a column for The Rwanda Focus
•    200 children sponsored to attend school through Christian Relief Fund
•   1 library developed (Better Living Resource Center)
•  1 ministry to university students and young professionals (UP)
•   Over 300 of Rwanda’s brightest studying at USA universities through the Presidential Scholars program
•   Over 2,000 university students in Ethics lectures (School of Finance and Banking, and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology)
•   10 adoptions facilitated
•   5 houses serving as earthly homes and guesthouses frequently filled with delightful visitors
•   Daily morning walks, runs, swims, and bike rides that occasionally became community endeavors (NTCC Bikathon, Kigali Peace Marathon, and Kumbya 3 Hump Island Swim)
•   More baptisms, baby dedications, weddings, and funerals than we could count
•   Countless friends made and experiences shared
•   ONE SOVEREIGN, PROVIDENTIAL, AND MYSTERIOUS GOD

We sense as the Lord transitions us to a new season as missionaries in the United States He asks us to thank many of you face to face for your participation in this journey.   We’re a little scattered, but starting to put a pencil to a calendar.   

Would you like to see us and share some of these memories?   We’d love to visit.   Please drop us a note and we’ll start planning to share the thanksgiving memories.

Mungu akubariki (God bless you),

Dave and Jana