Team Sinkler

I can’t decide if it’s harder to believe that it has already been three weeks that we have been in our new home in Uganda, or that it has only been three weeks since we left our home in America.  Maybe it’s the weather that makes it seem like snowy and blustery North Dakota is years in the past.

I am writing this having just completed my first week at my new job.  For two weeks we took a look at our surroundings and tried to get accustomed to life at Musana Camps.  Not that we were necessarily ready, but this week I headed down to the office at 8am on Monday to see what adventures awaited me there.  I walked into all kinds of work.  We talked through relational issues in the community and amongst the staff and contractors, similar to the things that I managed at my previous job.  I worked on and produced a first draft of a church constitution for Musana Community Church, similar to what I had been a part of in our sending church.  We walked the boundary of the property at Musana Camps, and prayed over the issues that we currently face, issues not so different from those that we faced in our home church and business in the United States.  This week I learned of the struggles that some of the women of local villages face as they try to maintain Christlike behavior and submission in the home of an abusive or alcoholic husband.  Is it so different in the United States?

It was a busy week, and I finally started to dive into my job.  As I did, one thing really stood out to me.  Not one thing, but one person, I suppose.  While I moved to Uganda to pursue God’s mission for our family, I essentially just changed the location of everything I was already doing.  Life is different, maybe a little bit harder, but essentially my responsibility and functions are the same.

This week I was able to see who went through the most change and now faces the most challenge.  My wife is my hero.  I could face downsizing our lives, because so much of my life was spent at an office, anyhow.  She had to figure out what was necessary to stock her new classroom in Uganda.  She had to figure out lesson plans and structure for our children in a new country, and with a growing 4 year old who can be quite a distraction.  She is the one figuring out how to process new foods, and doing it without the help of the many electrical appliances we had in the U.S.

During the first week in Uganda, Cassava was our staple for food.  Staci had to figure out where to buy it, how to peel it, and different ways to cook it.  We ate amazing food, and invented meals that I don’t think have ever been seen in Uganda.

The second week, Matoke was the staple.  We purchased a huge bunch of them, and they became the mainstay of every meal.  Staci cooked up breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, all using this one base.  Once again she got local produce at a great price, helped us to form relationships with local farmers, learned how to process the fruit, and invented meals to satisfy every member of our family.

Staci preparing jack fruit.

As she was breaking down a jack fruit the other night, it occurred to me just how fully she has poured herself into our family.  She is tired from all of it, but carries no regrets.  The love she has for our new life is greater than her frustrations.  She gets up every morning to kill a dozen or so ants in the kitchen, check the floors and counters for lizard waste, look for bats in the rafters, and boil water for coffee.  She preps food while teaching so that meals will be prepared on time, and somehow she thinks ahead to have Sunday’s food ready so that it can be a day of rest.  We go to bed every night with flashlights so that we can watch our two favorite spiders catch lake flies on the ceiling.

This woman is amazing, and God knew what He was doing when He joined us as one.  I’m such a better person because of her.  On my own, none of this would have ever happened.  With her, and as God wills, we can do anything.

This woman is my hero.  I only hope that I can live up to half of the expectations placed on me to love her as Christ has loved me, and gave Himself up for me.  If I desire Godly children, and if I love her as I profess to love her, let me always honor her and serve her in disregard of any perception of authority I might possess.  I have so far to go, and so much to learn.

Malachi 2:15: Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?  And what was the one God seeking?  Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

 

With many amazing stories of how God confirmed our calling, how He spoke through scripture, and how He timed everything perfectly, we are now ready to begin sharing with you His great work that is being accomplished in Uganda.  After departing the United States one week ago, we have started the process of settling into our new home.  It took some time, but we are finally getting along quite well, and even learning to sleep in the new environment that is strange to us.

We want to take time to thank all who signed up to pray during our journey, and to report back the goodness of God and how He blessed us through your prayers.  Isaac fared Read more…

In this final week of preparation, we are amazed at God’s working on our behalf to prove Himself faithful.  In the course of the last few days, we have been overwhelmed at the favor He has shown us.

For starters, we have seen amazing improvement in Isaac’s development since the tonsillectomy just three weeks ago.  We believe that he is now sleeping restfully, potentially for the first time in his life.  His speech and behavior have Read more…

Team Sinkler in Bozeman

As I write this update, Team Sinkler is winding down another adventurous day, ready for rest.  Today we write from beautiful Bozeman, MT.  This is the place of our upbringing, a place full of friends and family, and a place that still elicits an emotional response as we round the last turn or see the Bridger Mountains on the horizon.  We pulled into town a week ago, pushing over the 7000 mile mark for our distance travelled in the Suburban since Thanksgiving.  That, of course, doesn’t include Read more…

As my wife and I read from the book of Amos this morning, we saw the prophet of God having to remind the children of Israel of the marvelous works He had done for them.  In spite of all the miracles, the Israelites had turned away from God and pursued the world, absorbed by their own selfish desires.

We thought about how so many of the kings of Israel and Judah had started well, but Read more…

On this Christmas Eve, we’d like to take time to give thanks for all the workings of God in our path to missionary work.  We’d especially like to take the time to thank all of our supporters for helping us along the way.  We have humbly benefited from the outpouring of support from brothers and sisters in Christ from all parts of the country.  We have received your prayers, your financial contributions, and open doors to your families and homes.  We have received the benefit of deepened relationships, and know that we will also receive gifts according to the blessings with which you have been called to share.  Thank you so much for being willing to share in this journey with us.  It is so amazing to see the many parts of the body of Christ uniting in the work of glorifying Him, and it’s wonderful to see the truth of the gospel that the disciples of Christ would be known by the love they have for one another.

As we have travelled the country, we want to let our financial supporters know that contributions toward our mission have not been touched.  By the generosity of the people of my family company we continue to receive a paycheck through their donation of paid time off.  It is our hope that we will be able to continue on those wages until we depart for Uganda so that the support we raise will be used as we start our life overseas.

We wanted to provide an update on our current support, and remaining need.  We celebrate God’s amazing provision!

We are currently receiving approximately $3100 of monthly support, with $1400 left to achieve our target of $4500 per month.  It’s hard to nail down a number, since each month varies from the next.  Until we start in Uganda, those monthly funds are being ‘banked’ in our New Hope Uganda Ministries account.  Of the total monthly contribution, 7% goes to the administration of New Hope Uganda Ministries.  This helps with member care, support for children in Uganda, and for some of our great team members in the Unites States that help to support us.  Our monthly support goes to our living expenses, including things like health and life insurance.  We budget some of the monthly support for future travel home for furloughs, or in case of any kind of family emergency.  We also budget ahead, anticipating that we will have fluctuations in support over time.

Sinkler Home in Uganda

For our start-up costs, we have raised $63,000, at which we are truly humbled.  This total means that we have already raised the support needed for our home that we will move into on February 12th (Praise God!!).  We can also start applying this toward our training in Uganda.  We will be attending the New Hope Institute for five months where we will be trained in African culture, Biblical application in that context, and language training in Luganda.  We were also able to cover the import taxes on our bicycles, 4 wheeler, and homeschool supplies that were shipped to Uganda ahead of us.  Our target is to reach a total of $97,000 for our travel expenses, the purchase of our home, our training, and our vehicle.

We rejoice in the Lord for the generosity of the saints and those who have felt led to give.  Our only remaining hurdle is the sale of our home, which we trust that the Lord will take care of as He continues to remain faithful to us in all ways.

This Christmas I cannot escape the thought of what Christ gave up in order to come and live a life on earth, denying His rightful place.  He left the very throne of God to humble Himself and become a man.  As if that wasn’t humbling enough, He died the worst of all deaths, rejected by those He came to save.  He did this for us because His love for us is so great, not because of anything that we accomplished for Him.  In response to that love, He asks for obedience to His calling and a life set apart to Him.  With His example of obedience to the Father, we are committed in obedience to Him.  We are blessed to find this true of all those who are saved by the grace of God’s gift which was sent to us at Christmas.  Thanks for being God’s gift to us.

In business we often talk of goals and even exit strategies.  They are normally referred to as exit plans, but this exit was anything but planned.

This is my last week of work.  Just over five years ago I broke free from my cubicle at Visa in Denver to participate in the family venture in the Bakken.  In those five years I experienced things that I never could have imagined.  I operated salt water disposal facilities, participated in the construction of them, eventually became the general contractor of new construction, and engineered new tank design and facility layouts.  I have great memories of Read more…

As we prepare to serve at Musana Camps, the camp director has put together a video to help explain the story of Musana Camps, and why there is such a need for additional support.  The video was designed to inform those who will be attending our annual Giving Thanks Banquet at Evangelical Bible Church (EBC).  We found the video to be such a blessing that we couldn’t help but to post it here for those who will not be in Dickinson for this event.  If you will be attending the banquet on November 12th at EBC, you get a sneak peek!

Please take the time to watch the video, and thanks for your prayerful support of this ministry.  As we approach our time to leave, we are in need of monthly support to sustain us as we shut down our lives here and prepare for our new normal.  Gifts of any size are a blessing to the ministry, and we only ask that you would seek God’s guidance on this.  Instructions for monthly support are found on the Donate tab on this page.

Also, if you haven’t yet, please subscribe to this blog to receive regular updates as we get closer to our time to join those in the mission field.

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It is my ultimate goal to keep our friends updated on our journey, and to help them to be a part of this process with us.  It’s the mission of this blog to accomplish this very thing.  I have had a bit of a writer’s block, feeling like I needed to provide an update, but unsure of what exactly to write.  This morning the block was cleared, and as usual, it was Scripture that was speaking.

Kaiya Nicole

My daughter has recently committed to reading her Bible more regularly, and in doing so has had many great conversations with her mother and I.  Just last night she was reading in Galatians, and God spoke to her through Scripture.  She came upstairs and explained what she had read, and then told us that she felt like God was telling her Read more…