Stopping at Jehovah Jireh

As I sat next to the lapping Lake Victoria with the sun peeking through the clouds in beautiful rays, she traced the lines of my hands with her tiny, black fingers. I traced the lines of her's too. What a beautiful picture of creation!

We just returned from the island of Lingira -- where our friend Ruthie works at a Christian school. We left on Friday with plans of returning on Sunday, but delayed our boat ride home until Tuesday morning! It was a wonderful weekend filled with such godly men and women, many eager students, Bible studies, ultimate frisbee, children galore, a game of Risk, beautiful sunsets over the lake, teaching at a Primary School, and beans and rice. It was so good to be with Ruthie for so long! It was also a blessing to see where she works and the people that she loves, and to come to love them ourselves. There were four guys from America there as well -- Gabe, Tim, Jesse, and Nathan -- so it was fun to meet new friends too!

Joshua Heschel once prayed, "Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of Your universe. Delight me to see how Your Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not His, to the Father through the features of men's faces. Each day enrapture me with Your marvelous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all." (The Ragamuffin Gospel, 103).

One of my favorite sayings is "lost in beauty", partly because it sounds poetic but also because it takes me back a step for a moment. I can pause and gaze at the beauty that the Lord has provided. I see it in Lake Victoria, in the sunsets, in the flowers, but ever so much in the beautiful men and women that inhabit this land.

This week the church on the island had women's week, so our dear Ruthie gave the message. She talked about how when a man pursues a woman, she need only stop running and be captured. Embraced. It is the same with God; we need only stop and acknowledge that our sins have been forgiven.

“The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise. He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness, it is what we do because we have been forgiven.” (The Ragamuffin Gospel, 74)

All I do is stop. As I acknowledge that I am a sinner, I see Him as an ever sweet Savior! He meets me there and carries me to the cross, sits me at His table, and clothes me in His perfection. 

I stop here too. I stand in awe at the beauty of this land, these people. 

Although it was sad to leave our new friends at the island, I was overwhelmed when I stepped into the Center. In a moment there was a woman crying at my feet, I couldn't even tell who it was. After a bit I got her to calm down enough to find that it was Edith! We haven't seen her in about a month now, so both of us were a little overjoyed! She handed me Miracle and I bawled. That baby, the one I had desperately cried out to God, "please, let this baby live" is gone. I had to keep asking, "Are you sure this is Miracle?" because she has chubby cheeks and neck rolls now!! She laughs! I can't even express my joy in that moment; tears of joy were flowing freely. Thank you so much for praying!

After all that excitement, I went with my friend Mwamini to her house. She has twins (all twins have the same name here, based on boy or girl, first or second): Waswa and Nakato (boy and girl) that come to the Center. But at home she has another set of twins: Waswa and Kato (boy and boy). Talk about confusing. Then an older boy Tomali who is five. Her husband ran away when he found out she was pregnant with twins a second time. She has a beautiful heart and believes in the power of prayer. We prayed a lot today. Sitting on her dirt floor humbled me. Laughing with her, Scovia, and Kampi delighted me. Relationships are hard and messy and long, but there is nothing that beats honestly opening up to another, sharing the same Jesus as them, and loving through laughter and tears. I cried with these women today, but we also shared beautiful laughter! Scovia is praying that her husband comes back, and all three are looking for jobs. As Mwamini said, the God that saved Miracle's life can provide her with food for her family. 

Manna for the day.

Jehovah Jireh -- The God who provides. I serve Him. 

Thank you for your prayers. I cannot express how grateful we are! I tell my dear friends that people in America are praying for them, and they cry. "Why would they love me like that?" were the words of Mwamini today. Thank you for praying for us too. Pray that we would continue to abide in the wonderful grace of Jesus, that we would stop and see His forgiveness wash over us, that we would rely on His strength to love each person, to breathe each breath. Thank you.

To God be the glory!

Court and Kate

When the sun doesn't shine and the solar panel lights fail at 7pm, you get creative!

 Papa O! He has the funniest stories!

 Emma pretending to jump into Tim's arms!

 Teaching the story of Shad, Rack, and Benny at the primary school!

 So many kids!!

 One of our new friends, Tim! So sad he's leaving this week!

 Jesse and Tim. This place is unreal!

Loved With Dirt

The days go by quickly here. Somehow a few weeks have escaped me since my last post, and they have been filled to the brim!

We've spent a lot of time at the Center the past few weeks. Ambassador Institute (a ministry of the AFLC) uses oral Bible stories to teach and train men and women here, so we've been following their method of teaching with our women. We only see each group of women once a week (which makes it difficult to develop a relationship with each one), but I'm astonished with how well they remember the stories! Two weeks ago I told the story of Adam and Eve to one class, and last week I asked those girls to tell the story to me, and they told it almost word for word! I was anticipating a general overview of what happened, so I was astonished when they all spoke at once in detail. It's so encouraging to hear these women reciting the Bible stories back to me, but is that it? Are they just stories that they can retell?

Only God knows that answer.

I love these women so much. I've been reading through their files and it hurts to see so many of them without people to support them, without husbands, without hope. Two girls were just thrown out of their houses this week, they're both 17. One is pregnant (Sanda) and one has a baby (Mary and baby Rion). They now rent a dirt closet; it hurt to go visit them, but they welcomed me in with such love even though they're both hurting from being "chased" out of their homes.  It's hard when I can't say much to them (Oliotya -- how are you? Balunge -- good. Tugendakufumba chapati enkya -- we're going to cook chapati tomorrow. Akwagala -- He loves you! And a handful of other things!) But I've been learning this week that love doesn't need words sometimes.

That sounds crazy, right? But in times when I feel so discouraged that I'm not getting through to these women, I'm reminded of the fact that Christ didn't use words when He showed His ultimate act of love for me. I recount how He came, He served, He got dirty, and He died. For me.

Dirt is a problem here. Mainly because everything is dirt, especially on the island. Somehow, being mzungu, dirt is poisonous -- at least that's what my friends seem to think! My friends on the island are covered with dirt, and it makes me sad that they bathe the kids for me. Last week Alapha was on my right (already bathed) and Sumani was on my left (very dirty) and I hugged Sumani and the mom cried out, "Ah ah! No, you love that one! (Pointing to Alapha) Sumani is too filthy for you to love." They tell the kids to stay off my lap and to get down when I carry them on my back because they'll get me dirty.

This week, I rubbed the dirt on myself.

You should have seen their faces. :)

I told them how I am dirty inside. I can try to be clean and look good on the outside -- with my physical appearance and how others think of me -- but my insides are always dirty, because I sin. The glorious thing is that Christ loves us even when we're dirty. I don't have to bathe to be loved by Him. In fact, He came to me in that dirt so that He could meet me there. He does the cleansing for me.

My friends are Muslim, so they're now observing Ramadan. To them, Jesus is a nice guy that loves them because that's what the children's song tell them. They have a Bible and think it's similar to the Koran, because really, all roads lead to heaven. Would you pray for my friends, please? I want them to know Jesus.

Tomorrow starts a new week of Bible stories with the women at the Center, trying so hard to pour into their lives and to show them that we love them. A new week is always exciting for me! I look forward to every single day here. Satan's lie is that we're not doing much of anything while we're here, and it's easy to fall into that and be discouraged. But with the strength of God and the Holy Spirit within us, we love these women, these children, and we're excited to see what God will do.

Would you pray that God would soften the hearts of these women? We want to reach them, we want to know them, we want them to know Jesus.

So sorry for not reporting this, but a few of us were in a car accident last week. Nobody was hurt and the car is being fixed, so we praised God for His protection! In the words of little Jay (3 years old), God was in between our car and their car. :) Such simple faith. One of the stories this week was when God called Abram, later in the story He said, "Do not be afraid Abram, for I am your shield, your very great reward." God is our shield. We see that here. His protection is evident, it's startling! It's good. Thank you for your prayers of protection over our safety!

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty." -- Psalm 91:1

To GOD be the glory!

 Medina refuses to smile until she sees the photo!

 Alapha, I can't remember the one in the green, Betu (Beatrice), and Lashida

 I adore these kids!

 Alapha declared that he's going to stay with me forever. :)

 One of Medina's brothers, her house is behind

 They taught me how to play some of their games with nursery rhymes 

 So I taught them ring-around-the-rosy. They LOVED it!

The lake was so peaceful this weekend. I wish I could capture the beauty for you.

Even This One

At the end of a long day filled with babies, rice and beans, black cherry kool-aid (thanks mom!), 17 year old moms, Big Bizarre supermarket, “mzungu!”, laughter, and Luganda sentence structure floating around in my mind, it's hard to keep myself awake until 10pm so that I can sleep through the night.

My last post was true and honest. Sometimes reality hits me hard and I catch my breath and have to hold the tears back. Sometimes it's good to recognize reality, but I don't let it internalize. We laugh. We laugh!

Life is filled with such wonder here. Life is simple. It's greeting Robert (one of our guards) in the morning in four different languages (English, Luganda, Swahili, and his tribal language). It's walking down Kisinja Road underneath the poop trees and holding our breath and running as we laugh hysterically when we arrive on the other side. It's being greeted by the boda men that sit at the corner of Kisinja and Oboja each morning and “welcomed back” when we pass them on our way home. It's literally stopping to smell the Morning Glories and the sweet white and yellow flowers that are so potent with fragrance. It's chatting at the coffee bar at The Keep with the girls and laughing as they dance their heart out. It's attempting to speak Luganda and having our friends laugh but love our effort. It's meeting a woman on the street named Mary who is a teacher at a school here, she teaches math and loves Jesus. It is talking to our friend Ruth who owns a shop on Main Street as she calls out to us on our walk to the store. It is the juice man – Adam – as he pours us a cup of delicious juice. It's filled with blessings at each corner, everywhere we look.

I don't want you the be worried that we're drained and depressed here. The reality is, life is hard. But the even truer, stronger reality is, God is good. All the time. It is in Him that we find our strength to live each day, to love each wonderful Ugandan. We're not depressed! Sure, my mind does reel and spin as I try to comprehend and cry out to God on behalf of my dear friends here, but my heart rests in knowing that He knows.

We love these people. We love Sarah, Rachel, and Robina – the Ugandan workers at the Center. We love Claire, Sarah, Joan, Anet, and Prossy – the Ugandans at The Keep. We love Jessica, Magdalene, Jennifer, Shanna, Kate, Sarah, Esther, Alice, Iesha, and the other 35 moms that are in the program at the Center. We even love Ronald – the boda man that every time he passes us yells “KaTIE!” in a high pitched voice!

We laugh with these people! We tickle (the kids!) and dance and skip and sing. We love! Not because they're so wonderful or we're so holy, but because our God loves them. As I was sitting with little Amina today (3-4 months old) I sang the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children”. As I sang, the thought that kept running through my mind was, “even this one, even this one.” As I look into each face, each face, I see His love.

At the end of the day, we are exhausted. Physically our bodies refuse to go further as we've walked many miles. Emotionally our minds can refuse to continue if we allow ourselves the dwell on the events of the day. Spiritually we wonder if we're really doing anything of value here at all. We do appreciate your prayers more than we can express.

However, at the end of the day, we still serve a God who is more faithful as the rising sun. It is in Him that we find our life and our JOY! Joy unspeakable. That comes from God and Him alone. We do want you to be aware of the reality of being here, but we want you to rejoice with us in knowing that God brings joy! The joy of the Lord is our strength. Will you rejoice with us today?

 

This is Adam, he sells juice on a bicycle. :)