Spechts are OK in Uganda

Dear friends,

After the recent bombings in Kampala, Uganda, we who support A.C.T.S. (see sidebar) feared for the lives of Tim and Joanne Specht and their children and for all the A.C.T.S. workers in that country.  (I wrote about their children Samuel and Judah two posts ago on this blog.)  We were relieved to get an email from Tim telling all of us that they were OK.  They are in Mbarara. slightly south and west of Kampala. They were so concerned for those still injured and in hospital, and about the families of the bereaved.

For those of you who say prayers, perhaps you would keep the Specht family and indeed all those mentioned above, in your prayers this coming week and on into the future.

Best wishes to all of you reading this.

Children In Our Lives

Ben at about 3 and Tim about 16 months

I received an email this evening which got me thinking about some of the children in our lives. To the left you see our own two, Ben and Tim when they were very small. I love this picture and decided to put it in the blog for this post. Of course, Ben and Tim are respectively 38 and soon to be 37 now, but very often my memory takes me back to the times when they were as they are shown above. How blessed we were/are to have them. When this picture was taken of them, Tim had already had one heart surgery in Vancouver and he and Ben had battled through that time together. I say battled through it, because Tim was struggling to stay alive with a narrowed aorta, and Ben was so disturbed by all the needles Tim was having poked in him. Tim went on to have the same surgery repeated at age three and another one at age 17. At that time it was decided he’d need a heart transplant and that occurred when he was 26. Those times around the traumas strengthened our family and our faith in what God could do in our lives. Both the lads are now leading great lives with wonderful ladies in them and there are more children on the scene, which brings me to part two.

Oliver and me at Comox Lake

Earlier this week Cynthia and I spent a wonderful couple of hours with Tim, Andi, Oliver and Charlotte (our grandchildren) as the four of them camped at Comox Lake. We had a meal with them and went for walks. We did some fishing of sorts but just being with the children and their parents was so rewarding in itself. Oliver roared around and was so proud because he had graduated from wearing diapers all day to his new brilliantly coloured underwear. Charlotte swam all the way out to the log boom with her Mum and was thrilled to tell us that she’d done so. She’d also received her first pair of tie up shoes one day in the week and was proud to be able to show us how she could whip the knots together.

Charlotte comes to visit

Charlotte came out to visit us at our home today and while she was delightful to me she spent most of the time with her adored Grandma. They chatted while Cynth made lunch. Charlotte helped lay the table. They picked radishes in the garden, built a tent on the back deck from a blanket and some lawn chairs, and read stories together. Watching them together is magic.
So why did the email get me thinking about kids in our lives? Well take a peek at the next two, here on the right.

Samuel and Judah Specht

They are Samuel and Judah Specht and they are busy growing up in a very different environment. Samuel and Judah are children of Tim and Joanne Specht who look after A.C.T.S. people and projects in Uganda. Samuel is 7 and Judah is 9. Here’s a little excerpt from the A.C.T.S. newsletter which this time features those children in Uganda. This is a section from Samuel’s piece in the newsletter.
“Hi, my name is Samuel Specht and I am almost 7 years old. It is really fun to be a missionary kid in Uganda. I like it because I don’t have to wear shoes and I can wear shorts and t shirts all year round. But there is one thing that is boring about Uganda, we have to eat the same food all the time: Matoke, beans, rice and ground nut sauce. I have lots of friends and one that I see every day. His name is Moses and he is our guard.”

Tim and Joanne continue to do a marvellous job with A.C.T.S. (see side-bar) in Uganda and we keep them and their children constantly in our prayers. If you’d like to read more of the notes written by Samuel and Judah you can read on here.

“I like to play football with him, which is really soccer. Another friend I met this year was John Pattison. He was an ACTS intern and he is a real cowboy in Alberta. I got to play cowboys with him. We made sawhorses and Mom made some horse heads which we attached to the sawhorses. I made some stirrups and I made a saddle for my horse, Buttons. Then John and I went to the forest and we saw some wolves. We wore our cowboy hats and bandannas and John had his gun to scare away the wolves. We had a great time. I think it is fun to be in Uganda and to meet all kinds of new people and make new friends.

- Samuel

Hello, my name is Judah Specht and I am 9 and a half years old. I was born in Canada but lived on Bushara Island (SW Uganda) for my first 2 years. I don’t remember much about it but my parents have told me that I rolled down a hill once and that I loved to sit outside with a cookie and watch the birds. The lake is called Lake Bunyonyi and it means the place of Little Birds. We like to go back there to visit and see where I grew up. We visited our old house and saw where I would sit and where I rolled down the hill. I love to go back there!

In the morning when I wake up, I hear the birds. We have lots of doves and plantain eaters. They sound like monkeys. When our sunflowers are blooming, the brown parrots come to eat the seeds. Even though they are called brown parrots, they are actually a brilliant green on the stomach with some yellow markings. We like to watch them when they eat the seeds. We also have a lot of Ibis’s and they make a lot of noise. I like to bird watch.

I like to help with the baking and cooking. I am learning how to cook. I like to make cookies, cakes, tortillas and special juices. I use any fruit and mint from the garden. I also like to work in the garden. I have my own garden planted with beets, carrots, French beans, leeks, dill and pearl onions. I also help my mom in the garden but sometimes I eat all the strawberries and cherry tomatoes. Samuel eats lettuce and anything else he can find in the garden.

Sometimes I feel sad because I don’t get to see my cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents often. I am looking forward to seeing them next year when we come home on furlough. I like it here in Uganda but sometimes I wish we could be back in Canada.

- Judah

Well folks, I think you can see why the letters from Samuel and Judah got me thinking about our kids, the Specht kids, our grandkids and kids in general. We share our lives with them in different places and in different ways, but I know that if we allow them to, they will bless our lives and enrich them. Ben and Tim, you mean everything to us. Charlotte and Oliver we adore you. Samuel and Judah, as you go to sleep tonight, know that we are thinking of you and praying for you. May all of you who in our family and among our friends know that we love you too, and are praying for you.
God bless you and all the best to those who read this.
Martin

What A Weekend!

The Past Weekend

Did you ever have one of those weekends when your feet never seemed to touch the ground?  To me, the past weekend seemed just such a time.  It seemed that a lot got packed into the Friday to Sunday period.

To begin with, Ben, Josée, Cynthia and I went out for dinner on Friday evening.  Tim and Andi were meant to come but had to decline as Tim had hurt his back and wouldn’t have been able to sit long enough for a meal.  We promised to celebrate with them and the children at a later date, when  Tim was feeling better

The principal reason for going out was to celebrate the sale of my mother’s house in Wales. Following my mother’s death in November of 2007, the house was placed on the market. The house remained on the housing market for almost two and a half years until the end of May.  The second reason for going was to celebrate Cynthia’s birthday which was to happen the next day.We visited the Avenue Bistro here in Comox and had a fine meal.

Saturday began with a glorious start to the day.  The sun shone and it was warm right from the start, quite a change from the lousy May we’d experienced.  It was Cynthia’s birthday!  However, we were like ships that pass in the night as she was out the front door and down the drive in a flurry of papers and exhaust fumes.  She was headed to the A.G. M. of African Community Technical Services (A.C.T.S.) of which she is a board member.  The day actually starts with a board meeting at St. Peter’s Church here in Comox, and from which this brilliant organization operates.  A.C.T.S. has a tiny office on the top floor of what was the rectory of the church before the building became the church office.  Several volunteers man the office which is the heart of A.C.T.S. The whole organization is overseen by David Moore who is the C.E.O., a dear friend and a wonderful man.  David is also one of the very few salaried people in the organization.  (To learn more of A.C.T.S. and the wonderful work it is doing in Africa and Uganda in particular, take a peek at the slideshow below and the link to the right of this page)

Acts pp for cool

I had only begun my household chores when Tim arrived, dropped off by Andi.  He wanted to hit the hot tub to see if he could get any relief for his very twisted and painful back.  Tim’s now heading into his third week of being unable to work.  The phone rang…it was Ben.  He was wondering if I could help him with a project at the farm.  I told him to pick me up in just over an hour and got on with the chores, leaving Tim to soak in the tub.  I buzzed through the household duties just in time, for Ben arrived with three  coffees.  We sat and enjoyed them and had a brief chat until it was time to leave.  As we left the house, Andi re-appeared to pick up Tim as she’d finished at the local farmer’s market.  Ben and I said brief goodbyes to Andi, Tim and the children and headed out to begin the project, a fencing one.  We headed to a supplier, got what Ben needed and grabbed a sub for lunch on the run.  By early afternoon we were out at the farm, digging holes for post around the new corn patch Ben and Josée had developed and readied.  By 18.30 we had done the lot…we’d done the fence to keep out the deer.  Guess how we felt when minutes after we’d finished, Monty the mini-pig squeezed his pot belly under the fence and started rooting through the site.  It was a blessing no corn had been planted yet, for Monty the Destroyer would have pig-dozed his way through it.  When I left, Ben was wracking his brains for a way to keep out the pig.  It seems that a lot of the rocks we removed might come in useful any way to weigh down the bottom of the fencing.

When I got home, I showered and got myself a bite to eat.  Around 21.00 Cynthia came in from her day at A.C.T.S..  I offered to make her tea, but she felt she wanted to have something a little stronger, so we headed to the Blackfin Pub and had a Spanish coffee and shared a slab of New York cheesecake to round off  the day.

Sunday morning I was up at 04.00 after getting to sleep at 00.00.  I was wide awake, so rolled downstairs to make a cup of tea.  It was just light enough for me to see the resident herd of deer stripping the leaves from the lower branches of both fruit trees.  Joy of joys!  The tea was fine and I checked email.  After answering a few, I rolled back into bed around 06.00 dreading the sound of the alarm at 07.30.  When it came, I was already awake and waiting for it.  As a matter of fact, I don’t know why I let it ring.

We were soon off to church to help set up equipment there.  Others came to help and within fifteen minutes all was done.  The service went well and Fr. Bill Hedges, our guest speaker, delivered a fine sermon.  We spent time afterwards with the rest of the congregation over coffee and then headed home.

We had promised to drive to Qualicum Bay to meet Ben and Josée there.  They had left their Honda Element in our drive and cycled to Parksville then turned back on themselves and riddden to Qualicum Bay.  I believe they did about 110 Km in all.  (See map of route here)

This was their final training ride before they head off to Vancouver on Friday and participate in the Ride To Conquer Cancer on Saturday.  That ride takes them from Vancouver to Seattle with an overnight stay in tents.  If you want to learn more of that you can watch a video of the 2009 ride on the previous post, Trivia Night.  I drove their Element and Cynthia took her car .  Ben and Josée had packed a picnic lunch in their vehicle for all of us, so when we’d made the rendezvous, we went down a beach access and had a bite to eat.  The drive home took 30 minutes.

As we entered Comox, Cynth swung down to Tim and Andi’s home where we found the four of them in the back garden.  They’d invited Cynthia, (and me by association) to go for a gelato ice-cream as their birthday gift to her.  We all piled into their van and headed down to the shop in Comox which produces this heavenly ice-cream.  It’s run by a Swiss woman who makes an absolute killing in the summer months.  Of course, the winter is lean, so it all balances out over the year.  We had our ice-creams in the warm afternoon sunshine and after we were done we headed home.

What a weekend!  It seemed as if we were always on the run, but it was great fun and I hope to have another action packed weekend soon as possible.

Best wishes to all of you out there who read this.

La Cruz de Juanacaxtle, Mexico. Dec/Jan-2010

Josée and Oliver cuddling.

Swimming with dolphins

On board the pirate Ship

From Dec 12-2009 to Jan. 09-2010 Cynthia and I were in La Cruz, Mexico. La Cruz is a small town about 40 minutes bus ride north of the Puerto Vallarta airport. We rented a house there. one which we found on the Vacation Rental By Owner (V.R.B.O.) website. If you wish to take a peek at the house, or if you think the site might be of use to you click here.
During the middle two weeks of our stay, we were joined by the rest of our Comox Family. Along with them also came Jo Ross, Andi’s Mum. It was great to have her with us.
One of the beauties of using this area is that it is now within our reach direct from our home town of Comox, as Westjet, one of our national carriers started flying direct flights from Comox to Puerto Vallarta this December. As another point of interest, this same carrier is negotiating with K.L.M. to be able to provide flights out of Comox to Europe in the not too distant future.
Back to the Holiday! We had a great time. The weather was superb, with temperatures in the high twenties or low thirties for the whole time we were there. We mostly relaxed on the beach or near the pool, but on a couple of occasions, we took boat trips to snorkel or do other activities. We also made great use of the wonderful Mexican bus system to see neighbouring towns and villages.
We mostly cooked our own meals at home, with everyone taking turns to cook so we took a session once every third night. On a few occasions, we went out to dinner. The trip was great. For anyone who wants to see a few more of the pictures from the trip, please click here.