Saturday, March 31, 2012

Awesome/Awkwardness


Awkward/Awesome moments of Africa

I know of a blog I used to check up on on a regular basis, which is where I found this brilliant idea of awkward/awesome moments of the week.
This trip has been awesome. Super awesome.
But there have been some very awkward times since being here. So here's a bit of both.

Awesome:

-The sunsets and sunrises.. obviously! So divine.
-Getting ready for outreach! We're leaving tomorrow (Sunday, March 31) for our first 2 week outreach. Looking forward to it!
-I can’t complain about the currency here for us; a latte evens out to be about $2 and a delicious meal of a chicken burger, fries and veggies is $4 in our money. Being the frugal person I am, it's pretty nice!
-Seeing legit One for One Tom’s! They are real, and fantastic quality! Buying more Toms asap when I go back home:)
-Can I just say that using a real toilet, eating cold fruit and any food other than potatoes has become quite the luxury and is actually awesome?
-July weather everyday. Obviously.
-I would have to say that everyday is just plain awesome.. it’s just what I get when walking in synch with God! But God does have a sense of humor, yes He does. Therefore there are some awkward moments too.

Awkward:

-Behold, I have learned not to bow my head in prayer when I am half asleep. I have found that it results in subconsciously falling asleep, and drooling. Even when prayer is ended. Yep, that happened.
-May I just say that beans two times a day, every single day results in it’s own awkwardness? It does.
-The Africans finding pictures on my laptop that me and my sibs sniped back at home. Wedgies, double chins and straight up weirdness. How do I even explain that?
-African children teaching me how to say “How are you”. Oh wait, let me correct myself! African children teaching me how to say “I’m going to beat you” while I THINK it means “How are you”. Clever little stinkers!
-Suggesting to one of the African girls that we should do a clothes swap, and being told that it wouldn’t work because I’m too fat for her clothes. Oh thanks, you know, I won’t even mention cultural differences.. that was just flat out rude now!! But not really, I understand the culture difference that fat is good here. It just stings. Ouch..


I can't wait to tell you of all the great and wondrous things God will do during outreach! I am sure and confident that we will discover great things and have faith building testimonies after this time. 

God is great, his people are great and walking in his plan is great! Loving life like never before.




PS... Can I just share this incredible bed art pieces?? I've found i'm the only one in my room who ISN'T doing this everyday... it really must be an African thing. Pretty impressive.







Sunday, March 25, 2012

Never.





Never in my life have I felt so gloriously filled with the fullness of joy that is poured into the depths of my soul.

Never in my life have I been so abundantly poured into with such unexplainable and divinely touched love that cannot possibly contain itself within me.

Never in my life have I felt such a genuine sense of belonging; never have I had these eyes that can peer into the depths of my soul, and allow me a great sense of knowing that the solid rock I stand on lays the sureness and discovery of who I am.

And never would any of these sweet revelations be even mine is it wasn’t for the blessed assurance and nearness of my Savior like I’ve never experienced. Never have I known just how simply close the Creator of the universe is to me; never have I quite sensed the burning desire my God has to sweetly and gently pour into me and renew my spirit with his unconditional love daily.

Never did I know until this day that the sweet simplicity of resting in his presence is where I am filled with these things; where his very hands cleanse my soul and his very voice whispers secrets into my ears that are eternally mine.

Never will I be who I was yesterday.

Never will I be the same after this day.

Never will my mind conceive what new things my God longs to create into being tomorrow, that will be mine forever.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Gardens, revelations and greater things to come!




“…The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in the land he is giving you. The Lord will open the heavens. The storehouse of his bounty, to send rain in season and to bless all the works of your hands..” Deuteronomy 28:11
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come. The fig tree ripens its figs and the vines are in blossom. Arise, my beautiful one. Come with me.” Song of Songs 2:10-11

Since arriving here in Uganda, (actually exactly a month ago! It’s going by so fast!) the Lord has been speaking to me so much about gardens. His words have been aligning perfectly in my life for the identity this season has. That is, abundance. Newness. Freshness. Life. Beauty. Fruit, fruit and more fruit that I get to taste from seeds planted long ago! These are all elements of a garden that God has been revealing in my life.

 The first few weeks I was here, I was in an undisturbed “perfect” blissful phase of so much joy and fruit from obedience. Among all of the other things the Lord was pouring into my heart and soul when in quiet times, he continued to tie things into this concept of this season being like a garden. Interestingly enough, most of the more impacting ways he’s spoken to my heart since I’ve been here have been through the simplicity of nature. Birds, trees, flowers, and the air, as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, are ways he’s been speaking to my heart which all are parts of a garden. (in ways that are so simple that I could have easily missed his message through them!)

To my delight within the first week, I discovered my work duty for that month of school was in the gardens! I just laughed to myself and was delighted to find this not-so-coincidence of working in a literal garden while God was building me with all sorts of garden metaphors! I imagined a beautiful African garden full of color and decorated with fruit, flowers and beautiful plants as I would, in my imagination, plant and water and receive all sorts of wonderful revelations from God about gardens and my life as I worked! ..Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way.
First day of work duty I was handed a machete type tool and found myself in a massive field filled with tall grass, weeds, small bushes and trees for as far as I could see. “Slashing” was the chore, and this garden chore wasn’t quite all that I’d imagined. Two weeks of literal sweat and blisters and then came the hoeing; which was going through the entire field hoeing the ground. I found I was very mistaken to think slashing was difficult! Though the garden wasn’t what I’d expected, of course God still brought revelation and understanding between this “garden” and my life as a garden as I was in that field for a month.

Here’s what I’ve learned: God’s understanding is greater than ours. He knows us. He sees us. And when he calls us to him for himself, promising a beautiful garden of abundance, fruit and blessings to be grown in our lives, he also knows that before a beautiful garden is produced and enjoyed, some heavy duty work needs to be done, and it’s far from easy work. He’s our “gardener”, and a garden cannot be a productive and rich garden without the rough work and process of the weeding, purifying and digging… actions that only the gardener can do.

My friends, I cannot explain what beautifully painful and cleansing work the Lord began to do in me when my regular prayer became, “Lord, you know me- shine your light in my soul and reveal sin and darkness in me that I never knew existed within me!” (How many times in this blog have I said the phrase, “Watch out when you ask God __________!”….. because this is definitely one of those warnings :).)

The very next day I first prayed that prayer, the Lord was quick to shine that light into the depths of my soul, allowing me to see wounds I’d shoved away long ago. My heart was broken as my eyes were opened to how I’d changed myself as a result of past hurts and wounds in my life, changing and molding myself to who I am today because of them instead of letting God heal me. What a great God he is that he rises to have great compassion on the innocently wounded, and graciously walks alongside them, as they reside back to who they’re meant to be and who he’s created them to be. I’m slowly but surely re-learning from him who I am and who I’m meant to be, and let me say that there has been no better peace and contentment in my walk than to be confident and sure in the Lord who I am and what I’m meant to do. Yes, that I am sure of.

It keeps getting better and better. When I thought that was the deepest wound and hindrance in my life preventing growth, the very next week the Lord took me even deeper to a more serious bound in my life; a stronghold of the enemy deep inside my soul. With the Lord’s light in that place, confession on my part and declaration in the name of Jesus against that stronghold, it was gone and I call myself a free woman!


With that said of how the Lord is moving spiritually, I have some informing to do of my DTS!
We have been waking up every weekday morning at 5 am, praying together as a group towards our mini outreach that is coming up in about a week. Here are the details about the mini outreach:
It is 2 weeks long. 
Our group of 28 is being split into 2. One group is going to a certain location, the other group to a different location for the two weeks.
My group is doing something a bit different than the other; we’re at a location for one week serving and evangelizing, and then going to a different location for the other week doing the same thing.
The first week, my team will be partnering with a church in a small village in Jinja, Uganda called Pumodae (spelling.. not certain that's right). It’s a small poor village, and I don’t have much more details but that our group of about 14 students and 3 staff leaders will be housed in the church itself for the week, partnering with the church to reach out to the village, and evangelizing in that village for the week.
The second week we’ll be going to a town in Jinja called Mbiko. This particular location is known for prostitutes; therefore those are the people that we will be most likely ministering to in that weeks’ time.

We'll have no power in that time, we will all be sleeping on that church floor and showers and laundry aren't promised... but God is great and we are filled with joy without question!

I'm THRILLED for what is to come for this trip! The Lord has been so good, faithful and NEAR to me and the group.

To my prayer warriors!
Please pray that we'll be protected and healthy from now up through the mini outreach.
Please pray that our group would have open and ready hearts to receive the Lord.
Pray that God will ready the hearts of those we are ministering to, and that language barriers, culture barriers or barriers built by the enemy would not hinder us from preaching the gospel.
Please partner with us in faith filled belief that the Lord would provide a God-given house PERFECT for the second week of ministry..we do not have one yet.
And please pray that everyone's gifts in the group would be discovered and activated! Pray for unity and love among us as we link arms for the sake of expanding God's kingdom on earth. 

I love you ALL dearly! Thank you for your love, support and prayers!







Monday, March 12, 2012

Quick Update

Quick quick post while I wait for my bota-bota here at a cafe! (Motorcycle taxi pretty much.. so fun.)

Within this last week, we've learned a pretty rad african dance, and a skit which I'm sure some of you have seen on youtube; "Everything" by Lighthouse. So powerful. We'll be performing both of these throughout the outreach phase of our trip.

On Friday, we walked about 20 mins to a small town called Kaikira to do our first crusade. I guess you could say it is like church on the streets; we set up sound on an open area in the middle of the town, start out with dances, then a message, alter-call, then do the skit. All while being able to be with and talk to the people of the village. Kaikira has a lot of witch craft going on, so it was awesome to go and minister to the people despite the difficulty of language barriers. Out of the maybe 100 people watching, about 8-10 people came up to get prayed for, and a handful of them got saved. It was wonderful!

I can say, however, that this week has had numerous obvious attacks from the enemy. One could have been actually quite serious. It's amazing how once you start taking steps to do great things for the Lord, the enemy immediately meets you with one of his uncreative little schemes. So what do we do? We stand confident. We stand as a united army together and intercede against darkness, and walk with sureness that we already have the victory and nothing can stop us. How great it is to walk with no fear! To be sure and confident that we're walking in the path that the Lord has already prepared for us, and nothing can stop us! Every attack from the enemy so far has ended in bringing greater glory to the Lord, and has worked together for our good. God is great! Can't wait to tell you more! Love you all.

Currently listening to:

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Found Where I Belong...






Your presence is all I'm longing for here in the secret place
Your nearness is all I'm waiting for here in the quiet place
Here in the secret place

My soul waits for you alone
Like the watchmen wait for dawn
Here I've finally found the place
Where we'll meet, Lord, face to face

I've finally found where I belong
I've finally found where I belong, in your presence
I've finally found where I belong, Lord
To be with you, to be with you

Your presence is all I'm longing for here in the secret place
Your nearness is all I'm waiting for here in the quiet place
Here in the secret place

My soul waits for you alone
Like the watchmen wait for dawn
Here I've finally found the place
Where we'll meet, Lord, face to face

I've finally found where I belong
I've finally found where I belong, in your presence
I've finally found where I belong, Lord
To be with you, to be with you

I am my Beloved's and He is mine
So come into your garden and take delight in me
Take delight in me

Delight in me, delight in me
Delight in me, delight in me

Here in Your presence, God, I find my rest
Here in Your presence, God


                    -Where I Belong- Cory Asbury

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Some small updates...

Hello world! I'm getting on here really quick to update you all on my trip and days here.


I am attempting to learn the language here! For the whole first week here, an African friend of mine would purposely ONLY talk to me in Luganda... I came to find he was trying to teach me his language. Well, mr friend that is NOT working! So slowly but surely I am learning!! These are the current words in my vocabulary:

Come here
Pound it
I am hungry
How are you
I am well
Goodnight
Tree

I feel like this random assortment of words that I know are actually a simplified version of my vocabulary generally everyday. I can't seem to remember any other words.

Concerning my daily schedule, days are pretty busy. Here's how they generally look Monday through Friday:

6-7 am- Quiet time with God... this is where the magical sunrises take place... oh such sweet times! Minus the bloodthirsty annoying mosquitoes!!
7:30 am- Breakfast. This is usually tea, two rolls and a banana.
8/8:30 am- Worship/Prayer.
9:30 am-This time is usually dedicated to prayer and needs as a class. This is also the time that a student gives a 10 minute sermon/word to the class. That 10 minute sermon rotates with every student throughout the school.
10 am- Lecture. For lectures there is one teacher for the week, and one topic for the week. The first week was hearing God's voice, this last week was about sin, repentance and forgiveness, and this next week will be about the Holy Spirit. There is plenty of time for ministry and meditating on the words spoken.
11 am- Break tea. We drink tea, and eat bread, and fruit and refresh for a bit.
11:30 am- Lecture again. This is usually the continuation of the first lecture.
1 pm- LUNCH! What a glorious time!! For lunch is usually varies between matoke (green bananas- it's just like mashed potatoes) or potatoes, beans or pasta, and usually g-nut sauce. (Pretty much peanut sauce) So yummy!
2:30- Small groups. For this time we've just been hearing each other's testimonies. It is wonderful! We start actual small groups this week. That is nice because It has been very very long since I myself have been IN a small group, not leading one. I am excited for the growth in this! They're co-ed which i'm a bit iffy about, but it's something new which I'm looking forward to!
3:30-5:30- Chore time! Work duty is only Monday, Tuesday, and Friday .. but on Friday it is at 6:30 am. Yes, it is painful. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I wrote next to my name on the chore request list, "Put me anywhere and everywhere!". I believe I was put into the job no one really likes doing; slashing. It really is as vicious as it sounds. I would describe it as African mowing. For this job i was literally given a machete type tool in my had and was told to just slash the tall grass in a massive field. And so that is exactly what I do for an hour and a half straight! it's tough work and I have massive blisters from it.. but I LOVE working hard with my hands! I do all my laundry now by hand and many other things.. it takes much more time and patience but I absolutely love it.
6:30-Dinner time!! Same plate as lunch usually but we are treated sometimes with cabbage and or sweet potatoes. So yummy. There is always pineapple for dessert.
8:00 usually rotates between dance rehearsal for outreach (SO FUN), worship, movie nights, or free time.

There are my days! Weekends are completely free and open, that is very nice. Otherwise the weekdays are pretty busy.

Sorry if that was vague or if I had typos, I had to write something for all you really quick! Love you all! Otherwise all is WONDERFUL!