Today, i had a little girl at church cling to me and jabber in a different language to me. she hugged my waist as if i was hers. she called me mama...weird though it was, it was an incredible thing...to know that in that moment, my loving on her mattered more than anything...

We Belong to a Family of 28 Million

I wish we had the chance to update more often. So much has happened in the past week. (It feels like so much longer than a week.) But we're staying at a pastor's house who lived outside the city, so it's a pretty involved treck to get to an internet cafe. We're learning how to get around though, which is so fun! Sometimes we have to cram-a-lam into a taxi with about 17 other passangers. Sometimes we hop onto that back of a boda boda. I love riding the bodas because i feel like i'm going to die. :o) I love adventure. On my very first ride, i was riding a boda behind Caitlin, and our friend Faith... and all of a sudden, my boda driver turned around and went the other way down the busy street. For a second, i thought "Oh my gosh! I'm being stolen!" But God gave me a peace. It was a peace that said "I'm the daughter of a King. Anyone who messes with me messes with Him." In the end, it turned out that my boda driver was the only one who knew were he was going.

Working at the baby home is both hard and good. There's one baby in paticular that i've been drawn to. Her name is Sharon and she's very smart. If you call her name, she'll crawl to you from accross the room. The other day she was a little sick and fell asleep on my lap. I was sad that she was sick, but at the same time it was such a blessing just to hold her.

At the orphanage/primary school, we've been teaching basic computer. It turns out that this is very, very needed. The school was just blessed with a few computers and no one there knows how to use them. I'm hoping that we'll get the chance to teach some of the teachers more so that they can tach more kids when we leave. It amazes me how eager these kids are to learn! They are so attentive and they remember everything you say.

This morning, we taught Sunday school. The pastor's daughter, Reba, is in our class. At first we were a little intimidated by that, but it turned out to be a big blessing. She's a sweetheart.

Living in the pastor's house is a blessing too. Despite some inconvenience, i really love that it's outside the city because it give us a place to breathe and relax. We eat real Ugandan food every day and we can go for walks as children run out to the street and chant "bye mazungu!"

So basically, we're being blessed all over the place. We did go though some sickness, but we're past it now and feeling great.

One minute left! Keep us in your prayers!

At Home in Africa

Everything here is different. The smells, the sounds, the flavors are all different. The way people to relate to one another is one of the biggest differences. The people here are so warm and polite in such a a genuine way. Caitlin, Erin, and i were sitting in an office waiting for someone and, as many people passed through, we noticed that the only person not to greet us was a white guy. People here know how to welcome one another and how to celebrate one another. I keep praying that this spirit will sink into my heart. I want to be more African when i come home to America. Someone told us today that we look African because of how we are dressed. I think that was one of the biggest compliments someone could pay us here.



For all those who are curious, yes, we did arrive safely and all of our luggage arrived safely. We are well and we are being taken care of well. We are currently sitting in a small, cozy restaurant with wireless and a wonderful Kenyan couple we just met today, chatting about everything from religion, politics, and history to what snow it like and how African weddings are different from American weddings. We're staying in a guest house called Adonai House until tomorrow when we may be moving in with a Ugandan pastor and his family. That will be both challenging and amazing.



We will be working at Sanyu Babies Home almost every morning and at St. Mary Kevin Primary School and Orphanage a few afternoons each week while we're in Kampala. We have visited both places to arrange times for us to volunteer and we can't wait to get started. Mama Rosemary works at St. Mary Kevin. I think she's one of my favorite Ugandans so far.



Today we went to church. It was a lot of fun to worship with Africans. I want to learn their music! When the kids were dismissed, we went with them and sat in on a Sunday school class. We will be teaching this class next Sunday. When they first asked us to teach Sunday school, we were pretty intimidated, but now that we've met the kids, we're excited about it. There were about 10 kids around the age of 6th grade. I think they might know more about the Bible than we do.



I love African children! They flock to us because we're white. They call us "muzungu" and can't wait to be close to us. They're so eager to be loved, which makes us a perfect match because we are just as eager to love them. Yesterday, we got to walk through a village with a bunch of kids and they tried to teach us Luganda. We picked up a few words. Fortunately, we video taped most of it so we can go back and review.



Continue praying for us. Our hearts are crying out to be able to do something that really makes and impact. Pray for us to not be discouraged when our limited, human vision keeps us from seeing how we're advancing the Kingdom of God. Mother Teresa said, "You can do no great things, only small things with great love." We believe that great love can make a small thing great. Scripture tells us that love can cover a multitude of sins. It's powerful. Scripture also tells us that perfect love casts out fear. And that's a big deal here in Uganda. The enemy has been working hard for a long time to instill a spirit of fear in the people, especially the children. Pray for us to not forget that simply loving can work wonders. Pray for us to not allow our own expectations to get in the way.



I'm going to get back to the conversation now. We're all cracking up now about being able to fart in the presence of your significant other. This woman is hilarious.



We love you all and we'll hopefully have the opportunity to share more stories soon.

Why we go...

A long time ago, I gave my heart to a man I knew almost nothing about. As the years have progressed -- with it's waves of faithfulness and rebellion -- I have, and continue to, grow in my relationship with Jesus. I do not claim to know much about Him, or about how mighty, powerful, and loving He is, but I do know that He is all these things (and so much more).

I've realized over the years -- through trial and error, mind you -- that life fully devoted to Christ is the only life worth living. With Him, I find purpose in something bigger than myself, bigger than the frustrating problems of everything from the house being a mess to the genocides around the world. In Him there is hope for something better, that the current state of the world is not how it's supposed to be...and that it will one day return to pure beauty and true peace. I may not always understand His ways and the reasons He does things, but I've come to trust that His ways are higher than mine (see Isaiah 55:8-9).

But with all this comes what some would consider a price. When I gave my heart to God, I gave Him my life. I signed over my rights to run it to something SO much bigger than myself. My life is not my own (Matt. 10:39, Mark 8:35). That is why I'm going - He led me there, He's taking us there, and for those who are scared for us, who don't understand, who think Uganda is an obsession, who wish we weren't going, who think we're nuts, who think that our judgment is impaired, and to those who understand and wish they were coming, too, to you I say our lives are not our own, our kingdom is not of this world. "I will use my life to shout, 'Another world is possible'...for my kingdom is from another place." (Shane Claiborne in Jesus for President).

And so we go, because the God who made us, who calls our names, and who knows every minute and beautiful detail about us has put a passion in us, a depth of empathy, emotion, and sense of true justice for the people of Uganda. They are our people. They are our family.

Why are we going to Uganda? We go because God is good and there is more for this place than what is. We go because He has called us specifically to go there. We go because our lives are not our own.

We go because we must.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DbyHtq-2sGU&feature=related

Spiritual Warfare

"The thief comes to steal kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

The words of John 10:10 have never been more real to me than they have been the last couple of weeks. I've been finding myself in the middle of an abundance of life-giving blessings, yet feeling so beat up and defeated. I'm pretty sure this is true of Erin and Caitlin as well. Erin feels like she's being pulled in a million different directions, Caitlin feels like plans are falling apart and it's somehow her fault, and i've been bombarded with feeling of worthlessness. How can this be in the middle of the showers of blessings our Father has been pouring out on us? Obviously a thief is in our midst.

We're going to Africa. Satan knows he can't steal that from us. Instead, he has been busying himself with trying to steal our joy, our peace, our unity as a team, our freedom, our hope and excited anticipation, and our security in God as our Provider. It's been a battle, not to hold on to these things ourselves, but to stand up to the evil one and remind him that they are not his for the taking. God is the Source of all these things and Satan can only take them if we let him by cowering in the shadow of his empty threats. But that's not like us. We're fighters. However, that doesn't mean we can't use your help in the battle, so take this as a prayer request and intercede on our behalf.

Pray:

• That we do not overlook our blessings and focus on our fears.
• That we leave our financial situation in God's hands. He's got it covered and there's nothing left for us to worry about.
• That we do not give fear any ground in our relationships. Pray that we operate in trust.
• That we will go out in joy and be led forth in peace. (Is. 55:12)
• That other people in our lives will be understanding.
• That God will give us a clear picture of who we are in Him, and we will walk in that truth and not give Satan's lies about us any credit.
• That we will choose freedom instead of being bound by all of the same insecurities and fears that have held us back before.
• For our faith to be increased. We want the faith that is required for God to do great things through us.

Side note: Erin and Caitlin... God just reminded me of something. We've been praying for increased faith. The opposite of faith is fear. No wonder we've been presented with so many opportunities to choose faith over fear. :o)

I have no idea how many people will be reading this blog while we're gone, but i've got a feeling God has His hand in that too. If i knew the amount of prayer coverage and spiritual support we've got, i'd probably be blown away. Thank you for joining in.

A Mouthful of Beans

Only 10 days till we get on that airplane! We're getting more and more excited as the days go by. On some days it's more real to us than on others that we're really doing this. We're really going to Africa for 2 months!

We just got an e-mail from our contact with Touch the World. She confirmed that we'll be working with Sanyu Babies Home, St. Mary Kevin Orphanage and University Community Fellowship. We're also still hoping to go with them up to Gulu (a city in the northern part of the country) for a few days. There are some things i'd love to see there.

Please pray for each of the ministries and organizations we'll be helping out. Sanyu Babies Home is home to kids (from newborn to 3 years old) who have been abandoned. I can't wait to hold them in my arms and show them God's love. We've been told that St. Mary Kevin Orphanage has a really great children's choir that is always eager to learn new music. I'm super excited about getting the chance to put my musical training to use with them. The University Community Fellowship has a group of primary kids who come to the church every Wednesday sort of like a VBS. We'll be helping them out with that while we're in Kampala.

We're all also very excited about the second half of our trip which will be spent with Northern Lights Ministries. Kate (a Spring Arbor grad) and Peter have decided to open their home to us for that month. Kate sounds like an amazing person! We can't wait to meet her and her family. She told us that however many bags of chocolate chips we bring her, that's how many batches of of chocolate chip cookies she'll make us. I've got a feeling that living and working with her is going to be a blast.

Be praying for Caitlin, Erin, and me as we continue in our preparations. We've been facing a lot of spiritual warfare. Satan doesn't want this trip to happen, and since it's happening anyway, he's going to try to steal whatever he can from us.

I'll update some more on that later. For now, i think i should turn off my computer since the weather is getting really bad.