Karamoja sunset

Bobby and Kipsy playing in the field

I think Nolan took this one with Martha's camera.

Chrissie just got back to Billings last night. She was in church this morning, so we did the usual Karamojong handshake "ejok nOOI" greeting. :) Sounds like she had a great time - I'm looking forward to hearing more. Our friend Amy got safely to K'moja, and in other good news Onyang and Lokwan didn't have to have their surgeries. Having his knee bandaged for a while streched the muscles in Onyang's leg so that it's now ok. Lokwan apparently has TB in his hip, so it's treatable with medicine rather than surgery.

Pastor Al had many good things to say in the family Christmas letter; here's a couple highlights:

The language is rich and fun [if difficult] to learn. There are two words for salt [one for daytime use, one for the evening]. There are more than ten words for sorghum...There is but one meaning to carry the meanings of both salvation and redemption. The Karimojong alphabet is smaller than that of English and makes for much lower-scoring Scrabble games with no h, q, v, x or z.

Please pray for our own hearts as we seek to live happily under the kind rule of the Master. The sins of the Karimojong are easy to spot. Our sins [self-righteous and mental bigotry for example] are more subtle, but every bit as evil. How we all need the mercy of Jesus!

Al is truly a great guy to have there right now; humble, culturally-sensitive, and yet honest and always bringing the gospel to apply. And it sounds like the mission is working pretty hard to hand over leadership to Karamojong leaders, which is good news. It would be awesome to go back in a few years to all Bible studies led by locals strong and growing in their faith.