African Adventures With The Williams Five!

Leavin’ on a jet plane!

Last night we had the most fluffy huge- flake snow I’ve seen in a very long time! It didn’t start till after the kids went to bed and as the evening wore on the flakes kept getting bigger and bigger. At midnight Mark was out building a snow man for the kids to see in the morning. There’s about 7 inches on the ground. So the wonder of the snow has brought squeals of glee from Seth and Jodie already this morning. They’re having breakfast as quickly as possible and planning their snowball fight and snowman building. Such a great treat for us before we head off! ( A whole winter of snow? Yuck! A fluffy dump before heading off to the equator? Fantastic! )
Five days from now we’ll be doing the last minute packing and piling our crew into two vehicles bound for the Vancouver airport. It’s a little bit exciting and a lot daunting! The cool part is we don’t have to pack many of our clothes… summer clothes, Uganda… winter clothes, Canada. But we will be hauling along anything the kids are grown out of and my maternity clothes and LOADS of donations. It looks like we’ll have 17 or 18 bags this time and two car seats (Seth’s in a booster, hallelujah!)
We’re looking forward to seeing our friends and the staff and students at the school in Uganda. Our heart is always partly there even when we’re here. This is Sarah writing and from my perspective, Mark and I are becoming a bit weary of the international aspects of our life. It’d be great to have everyone we love on one continent. Silly talk but true desire! We’ll keep you posted as we look into the future of the next few years. We would appreciate prayer about that.
So, to those of you we didn’t get to see we hope to see you next time. We missed catching up with you. But, our little Meg has proven to be the WORST traveler we’ve ever had. She is rarely in her car seat without crying/ screaming. Such a good natured child, but such an aversion to car seats! We fully realize what a dreadful time we would have had trying to travel long distances with her. To those of you we’ve seen we thank you for the great times and good memories. We are so rich in friends and true fellowship. We thank God for that regularly.
Before I sign off and carry on packing I have a great announcement! The music group that came into being in Uganda with friends from our church has finally released an album! We’re called ‘JInja Dam’ and made up of me, my Texas friend Downie, and our British husband and wife combo Andrew and Keeley. We were all missionaries at the same time in Uganda and became good friends as we wrote songs together.

The other two families have since moved back to their respective countries but we all keep in touch and continue to write songs long distance. I LOVE the album and I think you would too! I’ve written and sung 2 of the songs on the album and Downie sings the others that she and Andrew and Keeley have written. So everybody!!!!................ Order an album!!!!!!! Many of you know the hard work and cash that goes into an album and the music is no good still in the wrapper! So please email me with how many you’d like to buy. The best part about that is %10 of all profits go directly to The African Children’s Choir Primary School in Uganda. All of us from the group are selling as many as we can so they’re being sold in the US, Canada, and the UK! It’s exciting!
The Cds are $12 each. When you order send me your mailing address in case we don’t have it so I’m sure to get it to you. We have a New Year’s photo here for all of you that we’ll be mailing out to you in the next three or four days. If you place an order we’ll include your CD with that photo and keep it simple! If you didn’t get our photo last year you may not be on our mailing list so let us know! Most importantly, BE SURE TO ORDER (EMAIL) IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE WE’RE LEAVING IN A FEW DAYS AND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET IT TO YOU AFTER THAT UNTIL WE GET BACK!

You can send a check or cash to
Jinja Dam
c/o Winnie Williams
#4 West Terrace Close
Cochrane, AB T4C 1R2

We leave on the 20th (Friday) at 8:30 PM and will fly to London (about 9 hours) and then layover 14 hours (we’ll get a hotel and shower and sleep hopefully) and then fly 9.5 hours more to Uganda. We’ll send an email not when we arrive but as soon as we come up for air!

So everyone, farewell! We’ll be in touch across the miles! We love and appreciate you!

Mark, Sarah, Seth, Jodie, and Meg