We Wish You A Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

We trust that although this has been a unique year that you were blessed for Christmas!  We missed many family and friends this year but we're thankful for our small group that gathered. Christmas Eve, we gathered in Bismarck, ND at Matt and Sophia's ( our daughter) place with our sons Ethan and Timothy. We zoomed in our son Caleb, daughter-in-law Sarah and our daughter Ruth who were together in Carol Stream, IL. We had a lovely candlelight service, exchanged gifts, shared appetizers, and all watched A Christmas Carol --the Muppets version! I must say having a granddaughter makes this time of year so much more special.  For Christmas day we gathered at our place with the same group plus invited an older neighbor that had nowhere to be for Christmas and was going to be alone. It is always a blessing to share with others at this time.

Our family that gathered Christmas Eve 2020

As we celebrated Christmas this year, we can not help but think of Christmas pasts. These memories are filled with both joy and sorrow.  Four years ago early Christmas morning we heard that Dave's mom had passed and this is my second Christmas without my mother on this earth.  We thought about our first Christmas in Africa..... In early December 1993, Jana and I had been disfellowshipped, dined with expatriates empathetic to future genocidaires, were in Uganda with no missionary co-workers, and had yet to receive our household goods. Finally, after months of arguing with the Uganda Revenue Authority, we relinquished. We would pay the taxes even though we did not believe we owed any. We paid tax on personal effects. We even paid tax on Bibles. We filled out the forms. We were told to come to the warehouse on Christmas Eve, 1993 to collect our household goods. We came to the customs bonded warehouse early in the morning. No matter how difficult 1993 had been we anticipated on Christmas Eve we would receive our goods. We would go home and unpack and unload. Camping would end. We would sit on our furniture, sleep in our bed, eat from food preserved in our refrigerator, and cooked on our stove. Our toddler, Sophia would play with her old toys. We would be whole again. We spent the day waiting. We missed lunch. We asked questions. Where was the man with the key to open the warehouse? He was gone, but he would be back we were told. We waited some more. We asked a few more questions. Then finally the end of the day came. The guards began ushering all out of the outskirts of the warehouse. No man with a key had come. We were lonely, tired, hungry, and more discouraged than we had ever been. We left realizing that for a day people had been polite, but there was no intention of us taking our possessions home on Christmas Eve..... To read the rest of this story of our first Christmas in Africa check out our blog https://eadiasporacommunity.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-first-african-christmas.html

As 2020 is coming to an end would you prayerfully consider making a one-time gift. We depend on your partnership with us to enable us to serve East Africans here in the Dakotas. We are in the process of evaluating our year in ministry and making exciting plans for 2021. We look forward to sharing this with you in the new year.

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Happy Thanksgiving And Jenkins Update

Wow! It has been a while since we sent an update. What a crazy year 2020 has been for so many of us. As much as we have been trying so hard to avoid COVID-19, as many of you may already know if you follow us on social media Dave, our son Timothy, and I had COVID-19. Thankfully, we did not have to be hospitalized and although the last few weeks are a bit of a blur of survival, we are hopefully through the worst of it. We are now just trying to get back to our baseline and our energy back. We are so thankful for all the support and care that we received. Many of you sent meals our way, and extra cash gifts to help us through this rough season. We also felt all the prayers and kind words that you sent to us!   We are so thankful for our daughter Sophia and son-in-law, Matt who cooked food for us, walked our dog, and organized a meal train for us that many of you participated in! We are thankful to have them living in North Dakota for this year before they head off to Med school next fall.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know this is a different kind of celebration this year. We had our smallest Thanksgiving celebration ever.  We were thankful that some of our family could gather. We held space for both grieve and joy this year.

Many of you know that besides following the East African Diaspora to the Dakotas, we were also drawn here because of a part-time teaching pastor role that Dave got. We were excited to be a part of a church where we could both use our gifts unfortunately none of us could imagine what 2020 would bring. For those of you in ministry know how hard this has been to serve in this season. It was especially hard for us as we were new to this church and did not have the bank of relationships to weather this storm. As our COVID numbers began to significantly increase in North Dakota in September and after 6 months of trying to get the church to develop some type of COVID protocol, we asked the church leaders if they could respect the local health recommendations and several adamantly refused. In addition, through this process, we began to see that we had significantly different interpretations of scriptures, and ways of seeing the world with the other staff and many of the leaders. Considering this after much prayer and counsel from others Dave resigned as teaching pastor at Revive Christian Church. We are disappointed but also feel real peace about our decision. Even though this was a part-time job it had taken a lot of bandwidth and energy that we felt was taking us away from our primary role of serving the East African Diaspora here in the Dakotas. We are still wanting to connect with churches here and hoping that Dave will be able to do some interim preaching in the area. In fact, this month he has already been asked to preach at the First Baptist Church of Bismarck as they sadly have lost their Pastor who has recently passed away with COVID-19.

With this loss of income, we really need to find some additional support to keep us viable here in North Dakota. Will you prayerfully consider giving a one-time gift or becoming a monthly supporter?

Jana and some of our new friends from Adoni Evangelical Church

Here are some highlights of the last several months:   We were thankful when the pandemic hit that much of our ministry is online, so we did not have to pivot as much as other ministries. This summer as there was a bit of a break in the pandemic we were able to have a few young people over as well as being invited into some homes and get to know the East African Community better here in the Dakotas.  Dave spoke several times at the East African church we attend Sunday afternoons-- Adoni Evangelical Church. Dave has started a Sunday morning Facebook live series “Neighboring During COVID-19 Pandemic” and many are joining in to watch and we have had several follow-up discussions.  Several of our adult kids were able to visit us in August. We had to quarantine some of the time they were here, but it was nice to have each other to quarantine with.  Matt and Sophia and our granddaughter Penny ended up moving here to Bismarck, ND for this year as they prepare for Matt to go to Med School in fall 2021. We are loving having them in the same town. This consistent time with our granddaughter is priceless!     Thanks so much for your prayers and support! We could not answer this call without you!   Jana

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May 2020 Update

Wow-what a crazy time we have been in! I hope you all are all well. I know that we have all had losses, health, jobs, and even death. So sorry to any of you who have lost love ones at this time. We have been praying for all of you and for our diaspora community during this unprecedented time.

We like many of you have had to pivot. Thankfully, God had been preparing us. Much of what we had been doing was online so we have been able to continue to support and teach from various platforms. As well as visiting one on one with those who have been struggling at this time. We have like many ministries and nonprofits had a significant decrease in our financial support. In the last 3 months, we have had only a fourth of what usually comes in. ( Which even our usual range was not meeting our budget goal) We are thankful that we do not have a lot of overhead at the moment as we work from home without office space etc… we do not have a large staff-- at the moment just Dave and I are working with EADC so we have not had to lay anyone off. But we are personally struggling to make ends meet.  We would love for you to prayerfully consider either a one-time gift or becoming a monthly partner.  Your gifts enable us to be available for counseling, online teaching, mentoring, and encouraging the East African Diaspora living here in the U.S. and beyond. We feel that God has given us unique experiences and relationships and we need to use these for His glory!

Prayer requests:   Now that restrictions are loosing up a bit we were able to have a few young East African leaders over for dinner this week to talk about gathering East African youth ( ages 16-30) They really liked the idea and thought of several friends they could invite. We plan on meeting on June 13. Please pray that God gathers those that need connection and that we can encourage unity and challenge this youth to be missionaries in their circle of influence. We are almost all settled into our new home here in ND. We just lack a few boxes in Dave’s office. Please pray that we can have time to get fully settled before the busyness of the summer rushes in. Please pray for our financial support. Hudson Taylor ( a British Protestant Christian missionary to China in the 1800s and founder of the China Inland Mission) said, “ God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.”

Two of the beautiful young women who came over for dinner last week-- Joy and Francine

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support at this time. We could not do what we do without you! If you would like to give online go GIVE TODAY You can also mail a check to East Africa Diaspora Community, P.O. Box 480 Wheaton, IL 60187

Peace Of God During COVID-19

These are crazy times. It is hard as our lives and relationships are spread over the world and know that we are all being challenged at this time. For our family, we have moved to Bismark/Mandan, ND a little over 4 months ago. Just Dave, Timothy, and I moved here. Now Ruth’s University has closed but her life and jobs are in the Chicagoland area so she has moved in with Caleb and Sarah in Carol Stream, IL. It is scary how hard the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has hit the Chicagoland area. It is hard being far from my adult kids this season. My son Ethan is in SouthBend, IN working on his Ph.D. in economics at Notre Dame but they have also closed their campus. He is now working from home in his house there. He has 2 roommates but only one is there. I really feel for all the singles who are stranded at home alone. Our oldest daughter Sophia and her husband Matt and our granddaughter are living in New Jersey now. We miss being close to them at this time. It is hard being away from family and friends.

Most of our family together except for Matt in January 2019 We are really missing all being together in this season!

Our ministry with East African Diaspora Community (EADC) just moving to our new location here in ND was just starting to really take off with new relationships being built here but now as you, all have been experiencing events have been canceled and postponed. This has been a disappointment and frustration. Thankfully a lot of our ministry can still happen as we are able to continue doing FB lives and other social network mediums. We can also reach out over the phone and text to connect with others.  We have really hit the ground running since moving to ND so as things are slowing down we are using this opportunity to get more organized in our home and home office. We are also hoping to have the opportunity to do more writing.

Dave with our dog Bayley out on a prayer walk in the beautiful outdoors of North Dakota

We like for you to join us in praying for several matters during this season: Pray for God’s peace to reign in all of our lives Pray for those on the frontlines all over the world fighting and treating those suffering from COVID-19 Pray for all the loss, disappointments, and grief that we are all experiencing at this time. ( Dave did a great FB live discussion yesterday on this topic-- check it out on our FB page @EADCommunity)  Pray for our Diaspora friends that are on the other side of the world from many of their family and friends at this vulnerable time. Pray for the financial hardships that many are already facing. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support at this time. We could not do what we do without you! If you would like to give online go GIVE TODAY You can also mail a check to East Africa Diaspora Community, P.O. Box 480 Wheaton, IL 60187

“Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come. And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One.” Philippians 4:6-7 Voice

Today The World Is Thinking About Love

Today the world is thinking about love. Everyone is celebrating love. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” There are many expressions for love but the one that I am thinking about lately is being present with others. For me, I feel God’s love the most when he is present with me. When I feel joy and know that his arms are all around me or when I am very broken-hearted and can hardly lift my head but I feel his hands lifting my head and I know that he will either change my circumstance or will be with me as I walk through the shadowlands.

In our years in Africa, I learned firsthand what being present for others is. When we first moved to Uganda it was the height of the Aids epidemic.  In some places, as much as one in every three adults were HIV positive. This was before many retroviral drugs were around so there were many deaths. The coffin building business was booming. They would stack their coffins up on the side of the road. It was the small coffins that would really tug at my heart. When someone would pass, their family, friends, and their entire community would gather and sit with those who were morning for days before and after burial. And many would gather a year later to sit and remember. When someone was sick, people would come and sit with you. I think even in my Grandmother’s time it was a part of the culture to sit with those who were sick. People also gathered for celebrations, from weddings to graduations, friends and family were present. Even in the mundane rhythms of life others were present with you, as squeezed into public transport, or when one went to collect your water or do your laundry, and what I loved the most was visitors that would just pop over to your home. I loved all the porch visits. Even among the ex-pats and other missionaries, there was more sitting with others. You go through intense adjustments and you have left your home, family, and familiarity with this new place. So you recreate a new family, new friends, and a new community. Fun parties to sharing deep conversations over coffee are had. Missionary friends Laura Sager and Barb Bennett from Rwanda who was visiting me in Chicagoland and we were recreating our porch time! We have been in North Dakota now about 4 months. One of the main things that we are doing with EADC ( East African Diaspora Community) is building new relationships and a big part of that is sitting with people and being present. Our western culture is very rushed, where busy is worshipped. Many times the people around us are hungry for someone to just sit with them. Hear their stories, see them.  I remember a new Rwandan friend of ours when we had just moved to Rwanda who had also just come back from living in Europe share how he had felt like a ghost there. He said no one saw him. I think what he meant was no one was present with him-- everyone was rushing around. These last few months we have attended many East African events and sat with others and heard their stories. We have been invited into their homes, both in times of celebrations but also in hard times. We have listened, sat in silence, prayed together and have shared with each other God’s love.   A few of us taking a picture by the Christmas tree after attending Adonai Church, a pan African church with Rwandan leaders. In this season where we are all focused on love, may we show God’s love to others. To the single mom who is struggling to make ends meet, to the international student far from home, to the new immigrant family in our community, to the older widow in our neighborhood. Let’s be present in their lives today! P.S. God has even shown this principle to me as our son has been recovering from foot surgery our Goldendoodle, Bailey has laid with him and been present with him during these difficult times. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We could not do this ministry without you. If you would like to give online, you can give at  GIVE TODAY Or mail a check to  East Africa Diaspora Community P.O. BOX 480 Wheaton, IL 60187