Teams, Adventures, and Furlough

One aspect of jobs is that we have teams come from different churches and organizations to help out with different aspects of the ministry and learn more about what we are doing here at GSF.  One of our most recent teams had two physical therapists on it! I had the privilege of working with them, learning from them, and sharing some of our amazing kids with them!  They were able to help through encouragement, advise, equipment, and teaching. One of the coolest parts of their time here was that they took apart our old, bad strollers, mounted car seats on the frames, and made them so that they can be tilted to change positioning.  We also took some the kids with special needs to a local pool, and one of the therapists taught the special needs staff water therapy exercises.  We are excited to add this into our program in the near future.  The kids loved it and worked hard at doing their exercises.  The other physiotherapist was also an amazing handyman! He reshaped AFO braces, built therapy tables, made the car seat strollers, and shortened a pair of crutches.  It was encouraging and reassuring to hear that we are making good decisions for these children.  It was also very helpful to have them here to help make future plans and talk about treatment plans.  I especially enjoyed seeing them love these kids like we do here.

We went to an introduction and give away ceremony for a friend and co-worker at GSF. Penninah is the Childcare Manager, and we work pretty closely together since our jobs overlap a lot! The best equivalent for the event is a very formal engagement party.  Some highlights from it are when the female comes out with a group of women and the head of the male’s family “chooses” the bride from the group.  Then the female has to “choose” her groom from among the male’s family.  Part of the Give Away Ceremony is when the man’s family presents the dowery to the woman’s family.  The whole event lasted 7 hours or so… There was a traditional meal, beautiful cakes, music, dancing, and lots of speeches.  Everyone was dressed in formal traditional wear that is based on the Western Ugandan Culture. We live in the Central Region, so our formal dress and language are different from what we wore and experienced there.  

            On the way to and from the Introduction, we had some adventures with the Gwartney Family and Arrango Family.  We rode with the Gwartneys, and the total amount of driving was over 24 hours round trip.  We all took turns riding in the back. J On the way there, we went on an off-road safari, a.k.a drove into some woods near a wildlife park, and got to see warthogs, antelope, cranes, and zebras! It was definitely a highlight! On the way back, we met up with the Arrango Family from GSF too, and we all stayed at a hotel in Kampala as a get away. We also played paintball for one of the Arrango girls birthday.  The place we stayed was VERY unique.  Some examples were regal orange king and queen chairs and a lodge-style dining hall with a chandelier, One of the beds was egg-shaped with a tent over it. One bathroom had no walls and curtains on all four sides in a tree house style room, and the workout center had a sampling of workout equipment from 1980-2000 including lots of shake-the-weight-off equipment that we all had to try out. J I think you get the picture. It was definitely unforgettable!

 We are super excited about making plans to come to the states for a visit!

We are really looking forward to spending time with people, catching up, and sharing about what God is doing at GSF!  We will be trying to get in contact with many of you, but we would also love to hear from you about when you might be available to see us. At some of our locations we are yet to have a place to stay, so we would also welcome offers/suggestions of housing that we might be able to use while we are there. 

Here is where we will be and when:  

Virginia

July 24-July 29 (Katie Only)

July 30-August 2

Rome GA

July 24-July 27 (Cody Only)

September 15-20

November 1-November 5

Macon GA

July 27-July 30 (Cody Only)

September 28- October 4

October 28-November 1

Thomasville GA

August 2-August 24

September 20-28

October 4-9

October 10-17 (Cody Only)

October 18-28

November 8-November 13

California

August 27-September 3

Savannah GA

September 4-7

Atlanta GA

September 7-15

Tupelo MS

November 5-November 8

Prayers:

Katie’s dad and brother are coming to visit next week along with a good friend, Carl Green (And Praise)

Program sustainability for while we are gone

Deepening of relationships with coworkers

Health-there has been a lot of sickness around here lately (we are fine, guys!)

Strengthening of our own relationship

Finances for building our house

Making furlough plans with people

Setting up travel/housing logistics for Furlough

Praises:

Continuous committed supporters

Good friends that call, text, email, Facebook, write, etc.

Awesome get away night in Jinja with Internet

Deepening of relationships with MK’s, other missionaries and coworkers

New equipment for the special needs program

Increased comfort and knowledge in our surroundings subsequent adventures

Cody and I continue to laugh about silly things and communicate well with each other

Southern comfort from the latest team who brought us good old southern grits!!!

Progress in the Special Needs Program

Special Needs program update:

Some amazing things have been going on with the special needs program here at GSF. I am amazed at what God is doing and what great workers He has provided for these awesome children. I am so thankful for these amazing people I get to work with on a daily basis. We have made some changes to the program in the last few months, and we are seeing great results.  The 13 children who have special needs and cannot attend regular school are now on full daily programs.  Our team now consists of me (the special needs coordinator), our physical therapist who comes two days a week, our occupational therapist who works every day from 8-2, Auntie Christine who is an amazing lady who implements the schedule daily, Teacher Joel who is a certified teacher who works with these children in their daily schedules, and one young lady, Lisa, who is learning about jobs and responsibilities by working with our team.  We are so blessed, and I enjoy the time I spend with them on a daily basis. They love these kids so well and work very hard every day. 

Here are the activities that we provide for the children who have special needs on a daily basis depending on their needs and skill level.:

Life Skills (bathing/dressing/brushing teeth, etc)

Sensory Room (trampoline, ball pit, blocks, music, etc)

Jobs (sweeping, mopping, taking trash, washing clothes, etc)

Going for a Walk

Skills Class (cooking, crafting, fine motor, cleaning, gross motor, cooperative games, etc)

Story Time (looking at books, listening to stories)

Academic Class (matching, picture identification, name recognition, following directions, drawing, writing, colors, body parts, etc)

Sensory Play (smelling, tasting, touching different textures, water play, playing with toys that make noise, playing with objects that are bright colors, etc)

Time at the playground

Swinging

Beginning Skills (cleaning, washing face, putting away toys, pulling up and down pants, opening doors, climbing stairs, etc)

Toddler Time (music, movement and learning with the toddlers at GSF)

Therapy (walking, climbing, standing, stretching, positioning, etc)

Vision Training

Eye Gaze Communication

John and Auntie Christine getting some energy out on the trampoline in the Sensory Room

Tom playing with Legos in the Sensory Room while wearing a compression vest for sensory input and a soft helmet to protect from injury.  

Moses "cleaning up" the sensory room by driving blocks back and forth using a dump truck.

Baby Sarah and Auntie Sarah dancing to music in the sensory room.

Mercy enjoying time in her stander

Lilly washing her own clothes.

Lilly and Kathy doing their daily job of sweeping and cleaning at Agape Childcare Center

Kathy and friends working on cutting skills by cutting a banana for snack during skills class.

Elijah helping me roll out a traditional food (Chapati) before we cook it! 

Lilly and Kathy enjoying the swings while Tom sits nearby playing in the grass (his favorite past time).

Tom with occupational therapist Joseph (left) and John with Teacher Joel (right) having sensory play on Agape Childcare Center back porch. 

Kenny enjoying swinging in a blanket while Auntie Christine and Teacher Joel swing him. 

Mercy, Kenny, and Sarah enjoying water play during Sensory Play Time. 

Catching Up in Pictures

I know...I know...It has been a busy two months! Here is some of what has been going on at Good Shepherd's Fold. I will write detailed blogs about much of it later.  :) For now, here are some pictures of what has been going on here and what we have been up to!

Cody is almost finished with the school year! They have had their first graduation and the last final is on Tuesday of this coming week! 

We have had a blast having visits from our good friend, Tori and my mom. (I don't have a picture to post of mom yet. She took all the pictures!) 

We moved! We are officially living on campus in temporary housing! It is such a blessing, and we are loving being so close to the people that we are here to serve and work along side. 

We said "see you later" to Kim (in the front)  who was the nurse here this past year. We miss her and are excited to visit her in the USA on our trip home this fall. We took a pool trip with our discipleship group to celebrate our last time together. 

We have made a lot of changes to the special needs schedule and daily programs. The more advanced students are now having daily living skills class and working on making items to sell, cooking, and other daily life skills.  

Cooking local foods involves a lot of skills including vocabulary, motor skills, and life skills. They also have to work on social skills by taking the food to share with their house moms. They are so proud, have a blast, and feel very accomplished. 

Another change to the schedule is reading/story time where these older/more advanced students come down to the childcare center and read books and listen to stories as a quiet time activity after lunch. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We are excited for this coming year and all that it is bringing with it!  A lot has already happened. We have purchased a car, and we will be moving on to GSF campus in the following month or two!

We are excited because the car allows us to take more people with us from place to place and to transport stuff more easily between town and campus.  Katie can drive it, too!  We just wanted to start looking because we had heard that it could take months or years to find what we were looking for, but instead, God provided it in a week! What a blessing.  It is a white 1995 RAV 4 with a roof rack.  (yes, the drivers side and wheel are on the other side of the car). This also gives us the freedom to travel later in the evenings with more safety. 

We will be moving on campus when the Fish family house is finished, which should be in the next months or so.  We will be living in temporary housing until we build a more permanent house for us to live in on campus.  This will enable us to expand our ministries, spend more time with the kids on campus, and spend more time with the other missionaries here.  We are excited to be a part of the daily life on GSF campus. 

We are looking at plans to begin building a house for us to live in on campus. We are thinking a two-bedroom/ one bathroom house at 800 square feet. This is 8 times the size of our house in Nyenga! We will be getting more details soon about the exact pricing, but we are estimating the cost at around 25 thousand dollars.  The house will be solar-powered and located in the middle of campus near both of our offices.  There are plans to build many of these housing units because there is a great need for them at GSF for the Ugandan staff.  GSF has the funds to build one of those houses right now (maybe more), and we would like to build along with them, since we will cut a lot of costs by building at the same time.  We see this as a win/win for the ministry and us. They get a new building to use for housing if we ever leave, and we get a place to live on campus. We are excited to be able to bless the ministry with this gift.  If we raise the money to build this house, it means that GSF can allocate some of their funds to be able to support other projects like sending kids to higher education and building a new kitchen/dinning area. 

We are also beginning to plan for some people to come visit, which is very exciting!  My youngest brother is coming for some time this summer, and a great friend is coming to visit for 10 days in February.  It will be great to see them and share what we are doing here in person.

We are also preparing for our first trip home! We will be going back to the United States for Furlow at the end of July. We will be there until Mid-November.  We are excited to speak about what we have been doing, share about what God has been doing here, and visit with family and friends. 

With these exciting changes comes changes in budget and needs. Here are some of the things that we need funds to help cover.

  

            *Building a house

            *Increased expense of living on campus

            *Salary of special needs assistant

            *Purchasing curriculum for next year of the missionary kid school

            *Expenses of living in the USA for 3 and a half months

We may be contacting some of you about helping with our new needs and projects. We would love to have you partner with us, whether it is a one time gift or a monthly commitment.  We would love to be able to begin building this while we are here.  If you would be interested in partnering with us or have questions for us. we would be happy to talk to you, email you, or message with you. 

It is very hard to ask for money, but we know that God has us here at GSF, and we believe he wants us to build this house next, so we are walking by faith. We appreciate all of your prayers, contributions, and sharing our message.

Thanks. Katie and Cody Fox

Click Here to Donate Online or Contact Us         

Checks can be mailed to: 

P.O. Box 1

Tupelo, MS 38802

Memo Line: Account 4128 Katie and Cody Fox

At the Staff Christmas Party each department performed a dance, skit, or song. This is the guard staff. Needless to say...it was very entertaining!

We were able to provide gift baskets and bonuses to all of our staff at the Christmas Party.

Enjoying Christmas Dinner

Cody and Daisy checking out her new coloring book on Christmas Morning.

Neighborhood friends playing with our Nativity Scene in our house

This is how we know we have a lot of company

Slumber Party with Nurse Kim and some sweet girls!

We had these two boys over for a sleepover during the holidays. Riding in a motor car is super exciting!

All three of the boys brushing their teeth  before bed time.

We had a blast having them over!

Our "new" car :)