Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust."
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare

and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes

and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling even the LORD,

who is my refuge-then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
"Because he loves me," says the LORD,

"I will rescue him; I will protect him,

for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Yesterday Travis and I got a call while we were out that someone had broken into our house. After and insane drive back from Kampala (not only did we want to get home to check on the house but we had just watched the new 007 movie. Travis new that this was his one chance to drive, well, like 007 without me screaming the whole way home. Those who know me know that would NOT BE COOL) We arrived home to find papers shrewn about the yard, the back window to the computer room busted up and our computers, Ipod, hand held GPS, sun glasses baught to protect Travis's eyes while way up in the clouds and Travis's back pack (which had his pilots license and other important paper work including passport in it), gone. The thieves had used bammboo (which had been put up to hold some ivey in the yard), and a hoe to pull things to the window and then take them out through the bars. After gathering up all the paper work that they had thrown out of Travis's back pack we found that miraculously they had thrown out his passport. Our smart little puppy had found it and about torn it to pieces. We also found that they had thrown out a Bandana which Andy had given Travis before leaving which has the scripture from above printed on it.

So rather than spending time fretting over the things that have been taken from us I want to remember the most precious thing that no one can ever take away. That is our relationship with a loving, protecting, caring friend, savior and father, Jesus Christ. In the midst of the stressful and scary situation that we were in yesterday God used a little bandana to tell us that there is nothing to worry about because He is almighty, He is our refuge and our fortress and He will deliver us from all that the attacts of those who try to come agaist us.

Please do keep us in your prayers at this time. We are also in the process of switching jobs. Travis will be done working with Air Serv in December and we will begin a short time position working with AIM AIR which is part of African Inland Missions, in January. We feel that it is no coincidence that many of the things which were taken are important to Travis's flying. AIM AIR is ALL about giving glory to God and serving those who are serving the Lord in Africa.

HOME MADE BREAD!!!!!!!!!

I Kelsey Joy Harris successfully made home made bread today, and not only that but it was whole wheat home made bread. I was seriously beginning to think that Bethy just got all the bread making jeans and here I was in a country where good bread is hard to come by, not fare if you ask me. I was starting to think that God was calling me to become a brick maker cause every time I attempted to make bread, and mind you I did it JUST AS THE BOOK SAID, I ended up pulling out two lovely brinks out of the oven. Good maybe for building a dog house or something but no good for eating. Then it hit me, don't think bad of me cause it took me so long to figure it out, my yeast was DEAD. DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. Halleluja!!! Maybe things weren't as bad as I had imagind, maybe I have the bread making jean in me after all. I began to have hope once more. I found some new yeast and put myself to the test and by golly, I succeeded. The end

Go Macho

Yesterday Macho really proved himself to be worthy of his name. We have been working hard with him and at times I think that I am going to pull my hair out because he drives me nuts, pulling laundry off the line, bringing random dead rodents to the front door to present to us, jumping unrelentlessly on everyone who walks in the gate (poor water meter lady), just for a few examples. But he has always been a great barker letting me know when anyone is passing by the house, and pretty early on he got a nice big dog bark which I figured would scare anyone away who was trying to pay us a visit for the wrong reasons. Yesterday I had taken Travis to work and was just getting ready to go pick him up when I noticed that Macho was really going at it with the barking and growling and he sounded more threatend than usual. I looked out the window closest to where I could hear him barking and I couldn't see him anywhere but to my surprise I did see a man pulling himself up on the back wall through the razor wire and everything. I immediately put on my deepest most scarriest voice I could and yelled "hey, hey, get out of here" his head popped up and when he realized I could see him he pushed himslef back down and ran off. I then went for Travises mag-lite flash light, its one of those big ones, and ran for the door, right before running out I realized that trying to chase the guy down when I was the only one home was probably not the smartest thing to do. So I called Travis instead and he had someone bring him home so I didn't have to leave the house alone. In the midst of it I forgot that we have panik buttons in the house which are suppose to alarm a company that sends out guards to your house, Travis had me pull it so I could have someone come and look around to make sure the guy wasn't hanging around anywhere.

I finally got some butterflies in my stomach after things calmed down and looking back I started laughing at myself wanting to chase after the guy. What was I thinking? I am just thankful for Macho because if it wasn't for him I would have had no idea that this guy was coming over the wall.

Just to give everyone a little assurance, I always lock the doors when I am home alone and I always have my mag lite :).

Oh Uganda!

Once upon a time there were two countries, one names Kenya and the other Uganda. The borders were often closed between these two countries which made it vary difficult to transport goods from one to the other. Thus bodaboda boys were born. The boys would stack up goods on their bikes/motorbikes and haul them across the borders using small trails. You guessed it they got their name because they crossed from border to border. That is where it all began and here are some pictures of how it has blossomed and these courageous (crazy) guys are continuing the legacy not only near the borders but through out Uganda.

Who needs a truck when you've got a bodaboda?

I have not idea whot that is but it looks funny to me

Matoke anyone? (banana like food they cook and smoosh up)
If you look closely you can see that he is holding glass

Two of my favs I have yet to add to my collection of bodaboda photos. One is Chikens on a boda, the other fish. The chickens were tied together by thier legs and drapped over every possible inch of the boda, there must have been about a houndred stacked up on top of eachother and squacking away, yep they were alive.The Nile Perch were plopped on the back of the boda behind the driver and were HUGE. They had to have been over four feet long. Bigger than the one that Travis cought the other day (check out the Catching up blog for photo). Oh and how could I forget the bed on the boda and best of all boda on a boda.

That is a turket on his shoulder (alive)

I've been told that what he is carrying is tea

These two non boda guys made it on the boda boda blog cause I just thought they looked funny :)

Catching up

I thought that I should try to catch up a bit on what we have been up to.

We were able to go out to the Seesee Islands with some friends of ours who work with the Baptist Mission. The islands are in Lake Victoria about a three hour boat ride from Entebbe. The ride out itself was awesome! Combine huge body of water, a little wind and a small boat and it equals fun fun fun, at least I think so. We were tossing here and there and were absolutely drenched by the time we got there. Way better that Six flags if you ask me. Once we were there we visited some of the fishing villages they minister in and I got to play for a few hours with some precious little kids. We took a hike (also the trail that the kids hike everyday to get to school, 45 minutes or so) on the main island that we stayed on and see the view from the top.


We went fishing several times but had absolutely NO bites until finally Travis pulled in a 30 pound Nile Perch. It was HUGE and really yummy when fried. According to Ricky and Brenda ( the missionaries) it was a little guy. They have caught ones upwards of 160 pound.

We also were in Nairobi for a few days. We flew a plane over for some maintenance. It was one of the most beautiful flights I have ever been on. We flew over countless Island in lake Vic that were just amazing and then once we got into Kenya the view was gorgeous. The land is so fertile, and there were parts where the earth just rolls then suddenly it just drops straight down into a huge valley. Our time in Nairobi was great!!! We stayed in a Baptist guest house and it was like being at home it was so comfortable. We even had a kitchen so we could cook for our selves. Some of my favorites about the trip were...
~Bagels and strawberry milkshakes at Java house
~Put put yes put put at Village Market
~Hanging out with AIM Air people, great company, great employees
~Going to the Nairobi National game park, Giraffes are hilarious and I love them


And the best off all was when we were flying out of Nairobi, my face was plastered to the window to catch as much of the view as possible when suddenly there was a cloud under us but it didn't ruin the view because I saw the coolest thing ever. I could see the shadow of our plane on the cloud and encircling the planes shadow was a rainbow. I felt God promising that he is and will always be surrounding us with his protection. This was especially encouraging to me since Travis and I are in Prayer right now asking the Lord to direct us to where he wants us to go next. We will be wrapping up with Air Serv Limited in Uganda in mid December. While we were in Nairobi we were able to Meet up with people from Aim Air ( a Christian mission aviation group) and we are really impressed with the mission but are also considering many other job opportunities and waiting on God to give us the go ahead for which one he can use us at best. A reminder that He is all around us and taking care of us really lifted my Spirits and reminded me once more that all the concerns that we have are best off in His hands.

Were back online

So WE HAVE INTERNET again. I went into the store yesterday first of all I felt as usual that I was walking in on someones private residence cause neither of the ladies working there said a thing to me as I walked in they threw me a side glance then went back to talking to each other and working on something on the computer, so I introduced myself and said look it has been a month since our internet has been down and you guys have promised to come out several time and then did nothing ( the annoyed customer), then I said the internet is the only way we can keep in touch with those that we love from home ( the puppy dog face and all), ( I thought I would try a few different methods for getting what I wanted) the employees apologized and said that they had been busy but there was no excuse for a month of waiting. They called the technician and said kindly. He will be there within the hour. (back track for a second, we had already figured out that the router that blew was worthless so we paid for a new one like two weeks ago and the only thing that is left to do is for the technician to bring it to our house and set it up) One of the employees even showed a sign of customer service by asking for my cell so that she could call and make sure that he arrived within the hour. Two and a half hours later I called up and asked what was up. The lady said "oh, he is still at another house he will come". I asked come tomorrow, today? I don't think that she liked my question because then she said "today" and hung up. OHHHHH it took all that I could not to call back and teach her a bit about customer service. I had to go back to my days at covenant studying cultural differences. I remembered that her saying "within the hour" could really be within the next 8 hours and "today" could really mean next week, literally because they have such a different since of time. Also it is not that they are trying to be dishonest, they just want to make me happy so they tell me what I want to hear. To make this story shorter I will just go ahead and say, after three more calls two more promises that he was going to come, a night of rest trying not to get angry or give up on the internet all together WE NOW HAVE INTERNET and not only that, because they were out of the router that we had paid for they brought us a wireless one. I also have to just throw in there that from the time that the technician got to our hour to the time that he headed out the door it was no more than 10 minutes. I ask, why in the world did it take so long for him to get over here but since I have no answer and I'm sure I never will, I will just be ok with it and thank the Lord for the fact that we even have internet here when for so many people in the past and even in the present internet is not even a possibility. I will also pray really hard that nothing goes wrong with the internet.

Home agian

So we ended up staying in Nairobi instead of going to Mombasa :(:( because Travis had to be back to fly on Monday. I have to admit I was a little bitter at first because we had specifically asked for the day off and had purchased a ticket for me to fly to Nairobi with Travis so we could go down to Mombasa for a few days. Since Travis and I have Birthdays close to each other we decided to take a little vacation rather than doing gifts for each other. I was SO looking forward to the beach. It almost kills me to be living just a five minute walk to beautiful Lake Victoria but not be able to swim in it (risk of getting Belharsia, don't know how to spell and don't really know exactly what it is just know that it is really bad). So it would have been GREAT to be able to spend time in one of my favorite environments WATER.

But bitterness is NO fun and profits absolutely NOTHING. So we moved on and made the most of the time that we had in Nairobi. We shopped a little, thank goodness not back to the shopping center that I had just spent two days at. Thankfully there is more variety in Nairobi than in Kampala as far as shopping goes. There was a great book store in the mall and Travis and I read all the time so we picked up a few books. We were able to go to Carnivore which is a really well known restaurant in Nairobi. As you can guess by the name they are know for all the varieties of meat they serve. It is one of those restaurants that you pay a set price and eat until you can't go on, litterally you put up a white flag of surrender when you can't take anymore. They usually have all kinds of exotic meats, the only one they had when we were there was crocodile, which servers bring to the table on swords then they carve off a piece onto your plate. Pretty cool. I think that the experience what better than the food itself but the food was still pretty good. One of my other favorite things was getting a yummy no better than that, super (for Em) duper delicious FRESH strawberry milk shake, a real one made with ICE CREAM from the Java house, another well know restaurant/coffe house in Nairobi. WOW!!! Travis and I haven't stoped raving about it since we have been home. I haven't seen strawberrys or any berry for that matter in Uganda but apparently they have them in Kenya.

So we ate and we read pretty much. I think that a lot of people like to eat, shop and drink in Nairobi because that seemed like that was all that was listed in the tourist book. We don't have much nead for shopping but we definately need to eat so we got to enjoy toe of Nairobi's best known restaurants and that was pretty much our trip. Good times :):):)