Staff Sports Day

We had our 2nd Staff Sports Day on Saturday, and it was again an incredible day. All of our staff in Kibaale come out to participate or cheer each other on; it's so fun to be a part of this community!! 

The Pacific Academy Family Team also participated, and were a huge help entertaining all the staff kids!!

Alyssa Miller came in 4th running the 400 Meter, way to go!!

Bakery

One of the departments of our Vocational School is Catering. The students learn about guest services in general, but a large portion of the class takes place in the school bakery. It's quite common to see staff members stop by the bakery in the afternoon, in hopes of sampling a new creation!!

Avin is very social and loves to be around the students whenever she can, she also loves to help with cooking, so she was thrilled with the opportunity to participate in a class last week. They were making a few different types of buns and the teacher said she was a quick learner. Av had a lot of fun and has already asked to go again!

Delicious!!!!!

Home

"Is home in Canada or Uganda?" We were asked this a lot during our visit!! Canada will always be home, especially when we're surrounded by family and friends. Uganda is also home, it is where we live, also have great friends, work, serve and worship.

We’re so thankful for the time we had to reconnect with everyone; we were overwhelmed by your generosity – a car to drive, meals, financial support, having our kids for playdates and sleepovers, and for just taking time (we forgot how precious time is in North America!!) to be with us. We are especially thankful to Mike and Heather Hoffmann, along with their 3 girls, who opened their home to us for 2 months, we couldn’t have felt more welcome. We loved our time with them, not just because they are great friends, or the fact that they have an amazing house and backyard (with a pool!!) although that definitely was a great treat!! They’re an inspiration to us, the way they are so hospitable, giving, and focused on their family.

Although our time at home was busy, it was a different busy than here, and we do feel refreshed and ready for the year ahead!! We are very excited for the two summer teams that are arriving very soon. On June 26^th a team of 6 families (27 people!) from Pacific Academy arrive in Kibaale, and as they leave we will join the team from Peace Portal Alliance in Mpigi. We are organizing guest houses, menus and final details right now!!

Time with friends...

Time with family...

 

Thanks for continuing to keep our family in your prayers!

Vancouver Aquarium

Our kids had a list of fun things they wanted to do while we're visiting, and the Vancovuer Aquarium was high on their list!! We've been pretty busy during our time at home, but are so thankful that we got to take the kids here for the day, they loved it!!!!




Grandma Gesang, Auntie Lisa and Ashton came with us!

White Rock Beach

It was fun to bring Mazzy to the beach for the first time!! Even though it was pretty cold outside, she loved getting wet!

 

Kibaale Walk

Every year students at Pacific Academy School get pledges from family, friends and neigbours as they commit to walk 5km to raise money for Kibaale. We were home and able to walk with the school this year and had a lot of fun, it was great to see how excited everyone involved was!

The money raised from the Kibaale Walk goes towards operating costs to run Kibaale Community Centre as well towards an eating shelter for our students.

This year the most money ever was raised -- $144,000!! THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize this event, walk the 5km and especially to all of you who gave!!

Visiting

On April 10^th our family arrived in Vancouver!! We were amazed at how smoothly everything went traveling with Mazzy thru London and into Canada, we’re so thankful for this opportunity to introduce her to everyone.

We have loved having this time to visit with family and friends, we 

were all very excited to meet Baby Ashton (Shan's nephew), who was born on April 1st! We also got to meet Baby Sarah (Jeff's niece) for the first time, she's already one!!

Finn playing Peace Arch Soccer.

Granville Island.

Mazzy's 1st time at McDonald's!