Manry Family

Lori passed the phone to Connor at London Heathrow. “We’ll call you when we get to America ,” he said.  I was standing in the busy Jinja Market when he told me that, highlighting the distance that separates me from Lori and the kids during September.  Lori, Luke, Connor, and Lydia Jane will be joyfully reconnecting with family and friends we left ten months ago in Michigan .  They will get to worship with the Rochester church community that has supported us, spiritually and physically, in our journey to Uganda .  Not to mention the abundance and variety of familiar foods they get to re-acquaint themselves with in warm kitchens and tasty restaurants.

I’m still a little apprehensive about how I’ll feel their absence, but am initially thankful to be integrated into many communities in Busoga including our mission team and many Ugandans.  It is difficult to be lonely here.  I am also planning to cash in my sudden wealth of free-time with an ambitious to-do list: Summiting the Ugandan side of Mt. Elgon with my teammate Adam, teaching a week-long class on Jesus’ parables at Busoga Bible School , and dwelling for a week in Nawangoma Village with Stephen Waiswa and his family.

So keep us in your thoughts and prayers as Lori and I really experience life apart for the first time in our eight years of marriage (our anniversary was September 5!)  We will be apart but not alone.  The voids created by our temporary distance are being filled by the meaningful relationships we developed in America and are developing in Uganda .  But I’m already anticipating their return "home" to Uganda (with my mom and sister!) and the stories we can share together in October.