July Family Update

First, we are just so thankful for the home God provided for us here in Jinja and the growing community we find ourselves a part of! He knew what we needed and were longing for as we settled into this new place we call home (albeit away from home) and He continues to meet our needs in unexpected ways. Praise God!

We've celebrated two birthdays over the last 2 months with Abigail turning 6 and Isaac 4! We are thankful for new friends to celebrate these special days with!

 

Shortly after we returned to Jinja Abigail was able to join a summer camp in town. Not only did the camp include new friends but it also included all of her favorite things like music (she plays a 'flutophone' now. I didn't even know that was a thing...), art, and a new-found love for science! Thank you Lord for this little gift for our sweet girl!

While Abby was away at camp 4 days a week Isaac and Hannah developed a new dynamic between them as well. It has been sweet to see them play together in new ways without big sister around. Isaac is enjoying his 'big brother' title more and more these days wanting to 'help' Hannah with every little thing (although sometimes not with the desired effect...) and reading with her before nap time.

We celebrated the 4th of July with new friends and a BBQ with burgers and hotdogs galore at our house! Politics aside, we realize so much more how we can take fore-granted many of the freedoms we come to expect as US citizens. In a country where liberty and freedom and safety is not a right of every person, we are more thankful than ever to be from a place where it is.

I am particularly thankful for a new opportunity to begin working with single moms and moms-to-be at a local pregnancy center in Jinja! These women are living in high risk situations and the program provides them with some of their most very basic needs in order for mother and baby to remain together. They are enrolled in a weekly program where the child's health is monitored (and referred to a doctor as necessary), receive a small amount of nutritious food, are taught basic lessons regarding the health of their child and themselves, as well as hearing an encouraging word of truth from the Bible. Praise God for this opportunity to serve and support these women and love on their sweet babies!

1 John 5:14-15 - " This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."

Thank you Lord for hearing us, caring for us, and leading us on this journey! And thank you, friends, for your support and encouragement.

eMi is in the process of updating much it's accounting processes. Part of these changes is an updated website for our family with streamlined giving options. ( https://emiworld.org/zimmerman ) Along with these changes however, can come some unexpected glitches....thank you for your diligence in supporting our family. If you have any problems with your giving account please contact us so we can help you resolve any issues!

Back to Work!

We have been back in Uganda now for 3 weeks. The construction team out at Amazima got a lot more completed than anticipated while we were in Michigan, leaving a project that is currently under budget and ahead of schedule. How often do you hear that? Needless to say, that has helped ease the transition quite substantially for me. The project is quickly working through 2 classroom blocks, a chapel, and 2 latrine buildings. All of which we hope to finish before the end of the year. We are in the planning stages to begin the next step which is 8 dormitories, a sports complex, a staff housing block, and 5 latrine buildings - breaking ground on the remaining buildings by the end of June. Building this many buildings at once is a challenge anywhere in the world, but I believe we have the right team in place and so far it is going very well.

Progress at the Amazima Campus so far

We are happy to be back in Uganda in many ways - Our week has more routine, we have a home, and we have some sense of normalcy for our family. Through our time in Michigan I realized how emotionally drained I was from day-to-day life and struggles in Uganda and I needed a bit of reprieve, rejuvenation, and a general re-focusing of priorities. We're so thankful for that opportunity in Michigan and all the time we were able to spend with loved ones that are usually so far away! 

One thing that I have found to be helpful in my daily routine is my bicycle ride out to site. Almost every morning I ride through Jinja town back roads, crossing the Nile River on a pedestrian bridge, through maize fields, small trading centers, even a small swamp on my way to site over the course of about 5 miles. As Bazungu (White people), we tend to often feel like fish in a fish bowl, constantly being stared at everywhere we go. This commute has allowed me to start seeing familiar faces, passing with a wave, or a simple greeting in Luganda or in English.

On the bicycle heading to work

Onsite Chapel with approximately 115 guys can be a bit challenging packed under a single shade structure, but it is going well. We start and end with praise music - when was the last time you saw 115 construction men and women singing praise music during work...? Yeah, me either. My first week back, my coworkers were just wrapping up "The Alpha Series" and 4 men and one woman gave their lives to Christ. What an exciting way to enter back into this work the Lord has for us here in Uganda!

Weekly onsite Chapel

Ramadan started recently, part of which means all Muslims onsite are supposed to fast during the days. When many of these men did not start fasting, they were heckled by the other men onsite saying that "The holy spirit was working in them! ....or maybe just on their stomachs at least..." Although this was done in jest, there is some truth to this. These men aren't ready to renounce their Muslim faith yet because of the greater implications in the community and they will be kicked out of their families and support networks but their hearts are being prepared and they are building new community and support within the other men onsite.

A few days ago our son Isaac asked me what I did all day at work because he wanted me to stay home. I hesitated for a minute, thinking to myself how to respond and maybe how to use it as a teaching moment. Eventually I said something along the lines of "I have the awesome job of working with a bunch of construction men and women building buildings for a great local ministry and I get to tell them that Jesus loves them too!". I didn't go into depth nor did he seem to want to ask any follow up questions. After all, he is only 3 :-). But I have reflected from that conversation that I really do love this work and we could not be here and doing this without all of you supporting us both financially and prayerfully. In God's great plan He is using each of you to show and share the love of Jesus with people in Jinja, Uganda!

One specific prayer request this week is that we have had to fire our guard. This is very hard for us because he has been with us since we arrived a year and a half ago and we genuinely care about him and his family. Our children spent hours every day playing with him and he is missed. It is likely that he will not find other work and will struggle to support his family - knowing this truth about life here in Uganda only made this decision more difficult. Please pray for him and his family as they face this difficult change and that he will use this as a catalyst to the changes that would allow him to be successful in a job and in supporting his family. It was a painful and emotional goodbye for everyone involved as he left our compound - please pray for wisdom as we navigate this loss with our children too.

Thank you to all of you!

-Matt and Patrice

Something New - Settling back in Jinja

Looking back over our first year in Uganda we realized we did not do a very good job of keeping those of you supporting and encouraging us from the other side of the ocean updated on what's happening on our side of it. Maybe you want more updates and photos from us (ehhmmm....grandparents) and maybe you don't :) But it's our goal as we settle back into Jinja this time around that we will do a better job for those of you looking for more!

Here we hope to post brief but more frequent updates on our new project with Amazima Ministries and of course our family. You can come back here for more photos that may or may not make the general social media world as well. 

We'd love your feedback so please tell us what you think! And let us know what is happening in your lives too - we're far away and sometimes we just want news from "home" too!

Please click to "follow" this blog if you want the most frequent updates! We will post links to Facebook the first few times but then will rely on the notifications sent to those following us to update you when new things are posted. 

Much love,

Zimmermans

Sometimes a decent family picture takes a few tries...

An Update - Long Overdue...

It’s difficult to even recall everything we’ve been up to these past several months—And I’m sure all of you can say the same as another summer season comes to an end! Looking back through pictures is a great way to jog my memory so I’ll share some of my favorites with you here….

Ministry:

Construction on the new choir training facility at Music for Life (African Children’s Choir) is moving along quickly. The project seems to be running on schedule despite some materials issues and the start of a new rainy season upon us now. About 30-40 men are working 6 days a week on this project and we anticipate the project to be about 95% complete by the end of the year.

Choir training center for Music for Life - African Children's Choir

It is encouraging to see the opportunities this project provides for the men onsite. They are earning a steady income and are paid weekly which is not often the case here. It is not uncommon to work on a construction project for weeks or maybe even months at a time before being paid, if you are paid at all. Earning a weekly income through projects with eMi gives stability to their families and a sense of self-worth to the men putting in the hard labor. Men are being trained in areas like masonry and carpentry giving them a marketable skill for the future. And the weekly onsite chapel gives them an opportunity to grow spiritually or even hear the Gospel for the first time.

Weekly on-site Chapel

This past week we attended church with Tatyabala, the site foreman. The men’s ministry of the church was leading the service and several other men from site were a part of the service as well and invited their fellow co-workers and friends from the project to join them this week. It is exciting to see the relationships these men have move beyond simply being co-workers at a construction site and into even a simple invitation to join them for worship at church. Providing men opportunities for work through construction is important but it is in hearing the truth of the Gospel that lives will be changed. We were grateful for the opportunity to support them in joining them for worship. Pray with us for opportunities to encourage these men to walk faithfully and for those who still need to hear of God’s transforming love.

Changes ahead—Next project:

With the Music for Life project ending at the start of the new year we are looking ahead to the next project Matt will be working with. This project is the second phase of a secondary school (similar to high school in the States) for Amazima Ministries (https://amazima.org/). We will be moving to Jinja, Uganda—about three hours from where we currently live. Jinja is famously known for holding the “Source of the Nile River” on the north side of Lake Victoria. This move was quite unexpected for our family after finally feeling settled into our home in Akright but we can see the Lord’s hand through it all. Jinja is a smaller town with a lot happening and we are excited for new opportunities to get more involved within the community. The thought of another move, even within the same country, is daunting and it will be difficult to again say goodbye to new friends we have made here. Please pray for this transition and that we can support our children well through another season of change.

Family:

We have a new WALKER since we last wrote—although it seems impossible that she has only been walking for less than 4 months the way she RUNS and climbs on EVERYTHING to keep up with her siblings now!

    

        

June and July brought birthday celebrations—a Tea Party for our newly FIVE year old (how does that happen?!) and a dinosaur themed park party for the new THREE year old! Thankful for friends to celebrate these special days with us when we are so far from family and friends in Michigan.

In August we were THRILLED to welcome our first visitors, my sister and two of her boys, into our home! It was so wonderful to have them here with us and share this new life we have here with them. Matt travelled back to Colorado for 10 days for the eMi World Staff Conference that happens every five years. Although it was a whirlwind of a trip, he was able to meet other eMi staff from offices around the world and spend time learning more about the work eMi is doing globally. His time away overlapped with our visitors so unfortunately he missed the time with my sister but we are thankful he was able to be back in time to spend just over a week with the boys. The goodbyes were no easier the second time around but what a blessing it was to have that time together here!

We have started school at home and I have a very eager kindergartener on my hands! She is reading everything these days and loves it when I give her math problems to solve. Our equally eager preschooler likes the idea of “school” but is much less interested in sitting at the table together most days. And their baby sister just gets frustrated with all of us because she’s lost her playmates while we are working!

You are looking at a future "Real Lion" and "Waitress" :)

Between family hikes, playing at local parks, seeing friends, and welcoming new eMi families to the area, we have found these months to be full. The Lord has sustained us and there is no doubt He will continue as we look at a new season of change on the horizon.

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:5

“I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:2

Thank you for your support and prayers for our family! 

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 

Coming up for air - Family Update

Coming up for air. That is what it feels like for us this past week or so. We are coming up on 4 months here in Uganda. This past month has been especially difficult as we dealt with a lot of sickness in our family, anxiety, loneliness and just the general fatigue that comes with learning to live in a new culture.

I am SO happy to report that we are healthy again! (Fingers crossed…) We still don’t know exactly what was going on but between several teeth finally breaking through for the littlest of us and treatment for more than one type of parasite for most of us, it seems to have run its course. Good riddance!

The newest addition to our compound is of the furry variety with a fierce bark! After an attempted break-in during the night, Cadet, a one-year old German Shepard came to live with us. She is a very energetic but mostly well-trained dog and has a bad habit of chewing up everything and anything left outside. She’s teaching us to pick up after ourselves if nothing else! And as more than one unexpected visitor has made note, she is very good at her job! Our brave baby girl is her biggest fan so far, she would climb all over her if we let her and the dog would likely just lick her to death while the older two are a little warier and don’t like her rough play so much. We praise God for His protection of our family during a frightening situation (and for a crying baby that woke us up at just the right time) and that the older two kids slept through everything!

Rainy season has brought with it some cooler days and evenings. A welcome relief from the heat to which our Michigan bodies are still adjusting! It rains almost every day either in the night or an occasional shower during the day. Enough to bring a nice breeze to cool things down and then the sun comes back out to heat things up again! I’m not sure we’ve had a day yet where the sun wasn’t shining down brightly for some portion of the day. And with all this rain comes a lot of mud! Our experience driving on icy Michigan roads has actually been very useful here as we slide around through the slick African mud that boils up around our tires and threatens to pull us into the trenches. And that’s just the road to get to our house! Rainy season seems to have brought out some unwelcome house guests as well. Namely a rat and (I don’t even want to think how many) cockroaches. Thankfully the day the rat was discovered an amazing Ugandan woman, Dominica, was working and “took care of” the rat around the house after catching it—alive—on a glue trap. Meanwhile I was proving just how squeamish and apparently incompetent I am by screaming and running the opposite direction! She was gracious enough to only laugh at me for a moment.

It seems that we are finding a healthy rhythm in life here once again and we praise God for sustaining us through some weeks that seemed nearly unbearable at times. The Lord is challenging us in ways we have never experienced before but we find comfort in the promises of His Word.

“Yet you are near, Lord, and all your commands are true.” Psalm 19:151

“Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today.” Exodus 14:13.

I am learning that even in the hard, lonely days here there is beauty. On those days I need to lean a little deeper into my Lord’s embrace and open my eyes to see and acknowledge the beauty around me. Even if it’s in the laughter that follows the squeals of another cockroach sighting…

-Patrice

And of course some photo updates : 

Meet Cadet. Our one-year old German Shepard

Watermelon seed-spitting contest. The littlest made sure she wasn't left out!

A race to help Daddy with the gate!

She thinks she's big stuff standing up in the middle of the room!

Happy Easter from the Zimmermans

Water Fight!

Family Hike around our neighborhood

Handsome boys

Celebrated her 1st Birthday in April!

Party's over! Proof that she really does have quite the temper.

Building millipede houses!

Building millipede houses....unfortunately this little guy's friend was
"still sleeping" when we checked on him the next day...

Proof that we've come a long way since moving here! Very excited to show
off their millipede friends!

Showing off the helmets!

Sometimes their is just too much love around here!

Future boda driver dropping his big sister off at the store. 

Kids can cross all cultural barriers. Making friends with our neighbors.
Play is the universal language.

Sunset view from our home. God is so good. 

Music for Life - African Children's Choir

We can’t believe it has been two and a half months since we left Michigan! The last few weeks of adjustments have been exhausting at times, but as a whole we are acclimating and growing stronger as a family.

My work has kept me very busy the first couple months juggling a lot of miscellaneous small projects. As of March 1, we started work on a project for Music For Life – African Children’s Choir (https://africanchildrenschoir.com/) building a choir training facility. The African Children’s Choir consists of children, who in many cases have lost at least one parent to war, famine, or disease. Through performances around the world these children raise awareness of the needs of destitute and orphaned children in Africa while also raising funds to pay for their future education.

I get the opportunity to be on the jobsite most days to not only manage the construction project but to work with the ultimate goal of building relationships with the men on-site. These men come from all over Uganda and beyond and speak countless languages (there are around 40 different languages in Uganda alone). Many of the men are desperate for a job and eager to work very hard for a source of income. I am continually impressed by how hard these guys work.

There are Christians, Muslims, tribal religions and non-believers among the men. We have started holding chapel onsite every Wednesday. Although optional, everyone has been attending. This week, Tatyabala Richard (our site Foreman) spoke about how our strength comes from Christ and he is the Foundation of our lives. Just as the strength of the building we are constructing comes from the foundations we are digging, the strength in our lives comes from our solid foundation in Christ.

It has been a great joy for me to begin learning about these men’s lives. With permission, I hope to share some of these stories in the months to come.

We are so thankful for this opportunity to serve in Uganda. Thank you for your support through prayers and encouragement as we continue to settle into our life here.  

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.” 1 Timothy 1:12

Blessings,

Matt and Family

Here are some pictures from the site over last few weeks:

Site rendering of finished product. 

Clearing the site. First things first - Termite mounds.

And sometimes you find snakes that make even grown men squeal and run. 

Clearing the site. Pick axes, hoes, and shovels.

First foundations.

Chapel on-site.