Quick Update

Wanted to quickly update everyone on what is happening with us. These next three weeks we will be busily preparing to liquidate the rest of our household goods, pack, and put items in storage. We have to be out of our home by the end of July and will be moving to N. Kentucky until departure day (Aug. 31). A generous couple, Jim and Bonnie, have graciously opened their home to our family. Thank you guys for being so giving and supportive to our family. We look forward to getting to know this couple and taking a few weeks to spend with family and friends before leaving.

Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this journey. God continues to bless and do only what He can do. It's amazing to see and know people that are being the hands and feet of Jesus to get our family to Uganda. We can not do this without the team that God has brought together to support and encourage us along the way. Continue to pray for our support to come in and for us to be fully funded before leaving. Right now we are at 75% of monthly support needed. We are trusting in God to raise up churches and individuals to raise that last 25%. Aaron and I have no doubt that He will do it. Thank you to those who are continually praying for our family. We will be in Uganda before we know it:)

Time Is Going Fast

Our family has been busily preparing to leave on August 31. In the last few weeks we have been having meetings with pastors, individuals, and friends to share what God is doing at Uganda Baptist Seminary. There have been so many blessings intertwined in these special moments where others take the time out of their busy schedules to encourage, listen, and pray with us. Thank you to many of you who have committed to partnering with us through prayer and financial gifts. God has provided around 72% of our start-up and monthly support. We are so close to be fully funded, and a few churches are still praying how they will partner with us. Please pray that the rest of our support will come in by the end of the month, so we can concentrate on logistics.

July we will begin by visiting Aaron's brother, Davy, and his son, Joshua in VA. We are excited to see them before leaving the states. When we return, we will begin packing, selling the rest of our household goods, and getting rid of the rest. God has been so good to allow us to do much of the logistics in stages. However, I have found going through our things the most daunting and sometimes very hard, since many items are tied with memories of the children. We will be moving out of our townhouse on July 31 and moving to northern KY. A lovely couple has offered our family to live with them (including Buckets our dog) for the month of August. Thank you so much, Jim and Bonnie, for opening your home up to our family. We so look forward to getting to know you all better:)

Please continue to pray for our family these next few weeks as so much will be going on. We do look forward to our time in VA, but please pray for safe travel. Things in Uganda are coming along wonderfully well. We have been truely blessed with all the support of those who are spending so much time to make our house beautiful. God continues to bless and amaze us daily. Thank you to all those who continuely lift our family up before the Lord.

We Have a House in Uganda!!

I wanted to share with those of you who have been praying for a house for us. Boy, did God bless us in a huge way. God was the master planner for all that has come together these last few weeks. We give Him all the honor and glory and know all this is impossible without Him!! We just want to thank all of you in Jinja who have worked so hard and tirelessly to help find a home for our family. Without your help and support, our transition to Uganda would be much more difficult. So thank you to Vernon, Charlotte, Dallas, Bill, Linda, Evelyn, Jack, Misti, and Anthony!!! You all make a great team:)

Aaron just returned from a 3 day conference in Louisville, KY on raising support. He learned a tremendous amount and came back ready to dive in full-time to connecting with churches and individuals. Since he is no longer teaching he will be able to devote more time to this. I just finished up having a two day garage sale. The Lord blessed with 2 beautiful days of sunshine. We sold most of our household items and will in turn put that money into furnishing our home in Jinja.

Thank you to all who have been praying for our family and our journey to Uganda. Please continue to pray for connections to be made with churches and individuals to partner with us to teach God's Word in East Africa. There is much ground to conquer before Aug. 31, but we know we serve a God where nothing is impossible. He has been so sweet to show us this time and time again. Please look for our latest newsletter to be showing up in your inbox. Until my next post, God Bless!!

Things are Coming Together

Many things are happening on the other side of the world right now in preparation of our arrival in Uganda. So many people are tirelessly working to find us just the right house, buying the appliances needed, and all the household goods to make this our home. It all seems a little surreal. Right now we have a refrigerator, stove, washer, and dryer sitting in Jinja, thanks to our co-missionaries who worked hard to find ones that work for our family:) We have many who are trying to get us set up for our transition to Eastern Africa. The search for a home is still on-going, and one is a good possibilty. However, it is being built right now, and many things have to come together before August if this is to be our house. So they continue to search and with God's help will find the right home for us. We just want to thank the missionaries over there in Jinja who are spending their time to help with our home and helping us to make difficult decisions when we are so far away.

Aaron and I have prayed, thought, envisioned for so long about being on the mission field. Now the day is fast approaching. On this side of the world, we have busily been working to connect with various churches to continue raising support. We still need churches and individuals to partner with us through prayer and giving. We also have been sorting all our household goods and liquidating them. That is a daunting task, when most everything has to go. The Lord has and is being so gracious to allow us to do this in stages. When selling our house last year we had to get rid of half, and now we have the task of selling the rest. The blessing is that so far people have wanted and needed what we have, and it has been fairly easy to dispose of our items. In a week we will have a garage sale (thank you Jessica for helping us raise funds for Uganda) and hopefully get rid of a majority of our household goods. I love to see how God is working all this out, and as you get rid of something here, He is blessing us with what we need over there.

So please continue to pray for our family during this time. Please pray for partnerships to continue and for God to raise up the remainder of the funds needed to get to Uganda. So much is going on and sometimes it is easy to get caught up in all the doing and not taking time to just be with the Father. Of course with going through and determining what is going, what to sell, and what to store, there are many emotions that go along with that. I honestly thought it would be harder for the children, but they surprisingly are doing very well with it. I think Dad and Mom have the memories that are associated with so many of the items. Pray that the right house will be found and rented over in Uganda and all the details worked out. I pray that this will be a home where Christ's love will be shared with many.

Great News!!!!!

Two wonderful things happened today concerning the mission to UBS in Uganda!

1. We purchased plane tickets today at a price greatly below our initial cost estimate!!!! We will be leaving Wednesday morning, August 31st and arriving in Uganda Thursday evening, September 1st!!!

2. Praise the Lord we have two availabilities for housing in Jinja!!!! Both are in the location we need and both are suitable for our family. We will have more information on this soon, and we thank you all for praying specifically for this need. God continues to answer the prayers of His kiddos so please keep 'em coming!!!

We thank God for your prayers and support and look forward to seeing Him move and supply what is needed to complete this preparation phase of the mission. Still much ground to cover between now and September, but we are certain that the Lord will continue to provide and bless.

Stepping Out on Faith

Global Impact Conference, Urbancrest Baptist Church

Stepping Out on Faith..... what does that look like? Well, for the Bogan family we have said we are leaving for Uganda in September. Since saying that almost two weeks ago, God has done some pretty amazing things. Several people have stepped up to join our team to serve alongside of us in Uganda. This has grown our faith tremendously and our children have seen first hand what reliance on God looks like. When Aaron and I knew God was saying September, we knew that there was still a long way to go before reaching 100% of our monthly support. However, God wanted us to rely on Him totally and not on man. We still have a ways to go, but in the last week he has brought several people to support and encourage us in this journey. Praise God for this, because it is only through Him did this happen.

Aaron contacted the dean of the seminary in Uganda, Vernon Sivage, to tell him the great news and for them to start looking for a house and vehicle for us. They are very excited and things are starting to be prepared on that side for our arrival. There is much to be done on this side as well as over there, but we know God is numbering our steps and we pray we stay faithful to not get ahead of Him. So please pray for more people to come alongside of us to be a part of what God is doing in Uganda. All of us are so very excited to have a month pinpointed for departure.

Last week we were invited to a missionary conference at our home church, Urbancrest Baptist Church. This was the 5th year that we had participated in the Global Impact Celebration in some way. For the first few years we hosted missionaries in our home during this celebration. Now I can't believe we are the missionaries!! Isn't it funny how God works? We have always connected so well with missionaries, because they are as crazy as we are:) We had a wonderful time meeting new missionaries along with other ones that we have known for years. So many people were there loving and encouraging us throughout the week. It was such an inspiring time!! I'd like to thank the Overbey Sunday School class for taking such good care of our family. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share with all of you our heart and calling to Uganda. You're class is so supportive and giving, and I thank God for this time that we had to get to know all of you. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this week special for all of the missionaries.

Please continue to pray for our family. There is much that will be taking place over the next few months. However, we want to remain focused on Him who gives us life each day. Pray that we will continue to make connections with churches and individuals you want to partner with us. Prayer is essential for us to continue down this road. Please, please, pray for us and our trek to getting to Uganda and beyond.

Please Pray

Things on the fundraising homefront are starting to move. In the last week we have hit the 25% monthly support mark. We are very excited about this and realize that we do have a ways to go. However, we know God is all knowing and all powerful. The time is fast approaching when Aaron will be unemployed in May. To be honest that makes me a little nervous, but we are stepping out on faith knowing that God is in control and not surprised by this fact.

Two weeks ago we visited Northview Baptist Church in Hillsboro, OH. We had a wonderful time there with our brothers and sisters in Christ. They all made us feel so welcomed and treated us like family. We like to thank everyone who took the time to talk to us. For those who said they would be praying, please continue. We look forward to visiting with you again in the near future.

We feel very blessed to have a nice warm home. I think it is most in the forefront of my mind when the weather is as bad as it has been. Miami University has been cancelled the last two days. That is saying something:) We have about 3/4" of ice and snow to boot. However, I know by comparison to some other states this is nothing. I thank God we haven't had a power outage so far. Aaron and I keep saying to each other that we hope this is the last winter we have to experience ice and snow. We pray by next winter we will be in Uganda, where there is no snow and ice:)

Please keep praying for God to make a way for us to leave by summer. We know without a doubt that God does answer prayers. Thank you to all the faithful prayer warriors that we have on our team. God hears so please continue to lift us up. We hope we can get across to individuals that if everyone would commit to $10 a month, then we would be in Uganda in no time. Please pray whether God may be stirring your heart to be a part of educating those in Africa about Christ.