A year later

          The last time I wrote a blog entry I was still home in Uganda, not even thinking about the fact that very soon I would have to leave and come back to Canada. That was over six month ago. I don't know what has prompted me to write again, perhaps it is the belief that the story was never finished, and if truth is to be told it still is not.  On June 10, 2013 I  boarded a plane and left my beloved Uganda. I have yet to find anything that has been harder. When I landed in Calgary sixteen hours later so many people asked me if I was glad to be home. The truth was, yes I was glad to see my friends and family again, but home was no longer Canada.
       A year ago yesterday I flew out on the journey of a life time, and what a journey it was. God grew in me, molded and changed me so much in my months in Uganda. The best part though is that he has not stopped in the last six months. Though not a day goes by when I don't miss the home of my heart I have been so blessed and challenged by God in these months of university. I may not always like it that I am back in Canada  but once again I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am right where God wants me. December 16 I finished my first semester of my Bachelor of Music/Education degree and I am so excited to see where God will take me with it. I love the way even in this first semester how He has provided for me and guided me into a path of his choosing. In these few short months I have been blessed to spend hours upon hours re-falling in love with my violin and music, been able to record music with wonderful friends in studio, sit in a chair of the symphony's' performance of Le Mis, and through it all fall daily more in love with my savior. To say that I have been blessed is a bit of an understatement. I do not know the whole picture of how he will use me but I know music is where he wants me. The dream of my heart is to finish my degree and return to Uganda, and if it is Gods will, and they will have me, teach in Suubi the music course that has begun to be envisioned for the school there.

        Today in a display of nostalgia I began to reread some of what I wrote while abroad and one particular post caught my attention. In it I talked about what it means to be a missionary. How it truly is a choice to follow God no matter where he calls and present him with every aspect of your life. I feel now and again firmly that this is the truth. Being back in Canada does not stop me from being a missionary. I believe that is becoming part of who God has called me to be. It is a call for every stage of every life. It is a continual surrendering of ones life to him and his will. It is never a finished work.   God has a use and purpose for each and ever life and if we but agree to follow him without hesitation it will change our lives drastically! His dreams are huge, they fill the sky and I know if I ( and anyone in the world) will have the courage to follow him whole heartedly life will unfold in a way that just leaves you breathless in the wonder of his majesty!  May God bless each and every one of you in this 2014 and may you grow in love and wonder of him more each and every day!

Blessings in the unexpected

                Well once again this week has been incredible and absolutely nuts! I thought that time was moving fast before but these last few weeks since safari have just flown by. Every week there is something that I look forward to and then it all happens so fast that I almost feel like it never happened! This week was no exception.

                In all honesty last Sunday I was looking at this week and dreading most of it but looking forward to one bright spot. I knew even while relaxing on my day off that the coming week had the potential to be a hard one. For our Tuesday ministry we were tasked to visiting the prison and Thursday we were sent to Akiba, the children’s cancer home, in the morning and Mulago hospital in the afternoon. Needless to say none of the above ministries are in my list of top five favorite places to be. Though prison is not my favorite place to be visiting in truth it is not all that bad. The only reason that I dislike going is because everything is in Luganda and therefore I cannot understand a word of what is being said.  My dear friend Vanessa translates for me bits and pieces and I can usually get a general idea of what is happening but in truth I usually feel totally useless as there is not really anything that I can do. This week however my half of the team was on the men’s side of, my other friend Saul was speaking on prayer and at the end we all stood and the men came for individual prayer. This I could do. Lucky for me all but one of the men that came to me spoke English and it was very cool to be able to say that in one of our least favorite ministries we were actually late leaving because we could not stop the men from coming to us to be prayed over. I was especially impacted by one young man who looked not much older than me. As I had been doing with all of them I asked what his name was and what he wanted me to pray for. I really can’t remember exactly what either of us said but what I do remember is one of my favorite moments of the day. He told me that he wanted to go back to school, and when I asked him what he wanted to do after he did not even miss a beat when he said that he wants to be an engineer.   I was so blessed by this man. I know that to most people it would seem that he is in an impossible situation that may never be completely resolved but it was a reminder of the fact that no matter where you go there is hope for a better future. Dreams cannot be stopped when hope is present, no matter what you are facing, no matter how high the odds are against you or how unlikely the condition. Dreams are what make us wake up each morning and turn life into an adventure.

 Thursday was the first time my group has visited the hospital and though I have grown up working in them Mulago is a government funded Ugandan hospital and therefore nothing like what I have come to expect from hospitals at home. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I had heard horror stories about others experiences there for the last four months and very few god reports. I was hoping for the best but I was not expecting it. Praise be to God though, I was not sent to the ward full of people who had been in Boda Boda accidents ( I have heard many hard stories about there, though I do know that they need prayer just as badly as the rest ) but rather I was sent ( with all the guys in my group) to the post-surgery ward. I was still quite nervous but with quiet and sweet Daniel by my side we marched into the womens ward of floor 2B ( at least I think that was the floor number ). I am not really sure how to describe what happened to me in the hour that we spent at the hospital. Perhaps it was because I was on a different floor than the one other time that I had been there, or the fact that this ward was a little cleaner than I expected, but all nervousness left me when we walked into that room of women. I was not exactly sure what to do but with a quick look at Daniel and around the room I moved to the first woman that I saw who was awake and asked to pray for her. She did not understand either English, or Luganda so it put Daniel and I in a bit of a tight spot until her friend came and could translate for us but in the end she was one of the sweetest and most caring women that I have met, though I only spoke to her for maybe five minutes and even that was through two other people.  As we moved through the room of sick and hurting people calm settled over me and something about what I was doing just felt right.  Though I was not praying anything profound and there were no miraculous healings that happened before our eyes I felt like I was doing exactly what God wanted me to do. Even now as I sit here trying to describe it I find that I don’t have the right words to do so. To say that for the first time in my life I was doing what I was created to do is not right , because I know that God has been leading me on every step that I have taken especially in the last year, but it comes close to explaining how I felt. I have been doing my best to serve him 100% for the last four months and I have been incredibly moved and touched deep in my heart by so many things, like God’s Grace, but this was different from any other moment in my life. In a week where I felt just empty of anything worth giving I found peace and purpose. I found God, and once again in one of the our least favorite ministries people were so hungry for prayer that we ended up leaving late.

                 The highlight of my week though was Wednesday morning. For the last week our class has been raising money among ourselves in order to be able to provide for some of the basic needs of God’s Grace, and on Wednesday we were able to go and give all we had bought to them.  I am not sure how much I have said about the actual condition of God’s Grace in previous posts but each time we go my heart breaks and then is put back together by the love of those children. There are 120 children living in a small run down three bedroom house with four adults to look after them all. I don’t know that they ever have three meals in a day, and it is common for them to be “fasting” so that the babies can eat what little food there is.  With what our class raised we were able to bring them large sacks of posho, beans, rice, soya for the babies, mosquito nets, clothes and much more. Never before have I been so proud of my class as I was in that moment. Though it rained most of the time we were there it was amazing to be able to spend more time with the kids and love on them and bless them even as they were a blessing to us. The sad part is that even though we brought them so much, it will probably not last more than a month or two and then they will be back to the old routine of wondering when they will get their next meal. The amazing thing is that as a house of eight internationals we have been moved and have been begging all those back at home to help us provide for these wonderful children.  Thomas has set up a pay pall account where anyone can send money that we can use to somehow help God’s Grace, and without really any long term planning or trying to we have ended up with enough to  feed them for a year.  As we have watched God bless our rather half-hearted efforts beyond anything that we would have imagined we have been blown away and now find ourselves dreaming some incredible dreams for the future. None of us want to say good bye to this ministry in June and we are now dreaming what I like to think of as God sized dreams for how we might be able to help them more and more. So this is my plea to everyone back home. Keep God’s Grace constantly in your prayers, keep us eight in them as well as we seek God’s will on how to bless them, and if anyone feels that God has laid it on their hearts to do something more let me know. I can easily reel off a list of things that they need. J I pray that God is blessing everyone back home as much as he has been blessing me. 

A month later... oops...

Hmmm… I have really fallen behind! After not blogging for almost a month I have no idea where to start or what to say. I suppose I can attempt to do the highlights of the last two weeks in short and hope that is good enough and will not take up hours of both of our lives. J

                 Two weeks ago Thursday I was blessed enough to go back to God’s Grace, and what an experience that was.  Unlike the first time that I went this time I spent the whole day there and the experience, though still good, was completely different. In morning I found myself trying to teach a class of kindergarten children, I am not one who is good at teaching large groups and I likely never will be so that was interesting. After a short break my friend Miriam and I were back at it and very soon it became apparent that there was not a lot for us to do. Much to my delight I found myself with a little boy attached to my hip, where I went he followed. Very lethargic and not one to take part in the class we soon left to sit on our own. For quite some time I sat with my arms wrapped around this little one, rocking and humming.  It was after moving into the shade that I found out from one of the older girls that this little boy I was cuddling was not in fact a little boy at all but a little girl named Gloria.  Needless to say I was a bit surprised and I was not the only one. All of had thought that little Gloria was a boy. My guess is that she is around five and as the day went on my heart was completely stolen by this little girl.  It was quite clear due to how lethargic she was that little Gloria was sick, she had cuts on her ankles that I still worry will become infected and the orphanage was out of food so they were all fasting for the day  hoping for food tomorrow. More than once I asked Joseph and Shirley half in jest half seriously if I could take this little girl home. As expected the answer was no.  However this did not stop us from spending the rest of the day together. For much of the afternoon where ever I went Gloria was sure to follow. After sitting on the bus with her talking to Shirley, I was blessed to see some life come into her little brown eyes as she watched the other children play, eventually she began to crawl off my lap to run up and down the bus, then she would crawl back up and peer out the windows, then back down. When she began to laugh and talk a little I wondered how I could have ever thought she was a little boy. My heart was so full.  For all the good in my day at God’s Grace it was also probably one of the hardest days I have had yet. Ever since coming here I have been asking God to break my heart and then put it back together how he desires it to be. Well that day at the orphanage my heart broke. When you spend only half a day there you don’t see the poverty all that clearly, you are too busy being surrounded by little bodies that all want a piece of you. When you spend a full day and you stop to look around what you see takes your breath away as if you have just received a blow to the stomach.  They literally have nothing! When I say nothing I do not mean a Canadian nothing but a heart wrenching nothing. The home is small a filthy, the most common toy I saw while there on Thursday was a stick of wood, and the class rooms are mostly small shacks constructed out of warped old timbers with gaps between each one and a dirt floor.  When you have children hanging off of you and fighting over the chance to hold your hand just so they can get a bit of love it wrenches your heart in a way that can’t be described.  I could not help but wonder what kind of future these beautiful children will have. They have very few role models to teach them and raise them or to look up to, but yet where they are now is better than where they came from. Yet there is so little I can do. I can support the orphanage, I can buy their products in order to promote self-sustainability, and I can offer love when I visit but I have learned that there is so much that I would love to give them but cannot.  The hardest moment of the day came when we left.  I had to look into the eyes of Fiona, a little girl who I had come to love during my last visit, and say goodbye while tears pooled in her eyes. When I got to the bus I found that many little ones had climbed aboard, Gloria among them (my guess is that she is the one who lead them on in the first place). When they all came off there were many hugs but when Gloria came off it was straight to my side. She would not leave me and when we had to force her to go to her teacher it was amid many tears and screams. Again my heart felt as though it was breaking. One of the last things I remember as we drove away was her wailing.  It is even harder knowing that that was most likely the last time that I will be able to go to God’s Grace, however I am begging God that I will get another chance to go. If he says no though I will understand, more than likely that will just make leaving harder.

                 On a lighter note this week has been one of the best weeks of my life!!! We have been off since last Monday and never let it be said that us internationals don’t know how to make the best of time off! Monday we caught a ride out of the city and headed to Jinja, and the Nile River! It was AMAZING!!!  While Thomas went white water rafting Hannah, Emily, Jack, Callie, and Callie’s Mum who is visiting and I , went riding along the Nile. I still don’t like horses and for the beginning of the ride I was quite nervous but I did enjoy myself. The hostel where we stayed overlooked the river and the view was spectacular. When you think of the Nile being turned to blood by Moses it is cool and all but it does not really have that big of an impact.  When you see just how wide, deep and long it is the story gains substance and it just blows you away!  Before we went riding we had the chance to go downtown Jinja and it was so nice to be able to go for a walk unsupervised and not have to worry about it. The air was sweeter, and cleaner, there was virtually no traffic compared to Kampala, and when we walked downtown there were no people shouting mzungu at us. It was wonderful! 

                Wednesday, Thursday and Friday seven of us drove six hours from home for the thing we have all been looking forward to for the last four months, SAFARI!!! We arrived Wednesday  night and after lunch and a quick dip in the pool we headed out for our sunset game drive.  That was easily my favorite moment of the whole week. Thanks to Thomas and his brilliant mind we all ended up riding on the cargo rack on the roof of the bus not only for our night game drive but for the morning one the next day at six in the morning. It was amazing!!!  Thursday afternoon we had a boat launch down the river to see the falls which was also spectacular. I know I should be going on and on about everything but in 100% truthfulness there are no words that can describe everything. Even as we sat on the roof of the bus with dusk settling around us talking about Gods greatness and glory and singing worship songs I knew that I would never be able to adequately explain it all. Even the pictures can’t capture the amazingness of the moment knowing that I was surrounded not only by God and his gorgeous creation I was there with five friends that not even six months ago I had never even heard of but now cannot thank him enough for! We saw hippo’s, water buffalos ( to which I at one point started singing veggie tales with Emily), heart beasts, African cobs, and other dear like creatures, “pumbas” ( warthogs),giraffes, crocodiles, a hyena, jackal, a lioness, and my personal favorite tons of elephants! If you were to ask me what my favorite part of the trip was I would tell you that sitting on top of the bus while being almost charged by a bull elephant that was far taller than our seat on the carriage rack ranks pretty close to the top. My heart was beating pretty fast at the time but when I look back it is one of my favorite moments. J

                 Yesterday to cap off our amazing week Jack and Hannah organized Disney Day, and let me tell you it is one of the best holidays we have had yet!  We had an obstacle course through the elephant grave yard, painted with the colours of the wind,  had to find the “poisoned” apple, shared the mad hatters tea, and ended the night with watching Princess and the Frog. The best part though was the costumes. Each of us were put in teams of two and assigned a movie that we had to portray. We had Little mermaid, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Pocahontas, and of course the Mad Hatter all in attendance for tea. All in all I have been supremely blessed by my loving father and I am so thankful for all he has done in my life.

Encouragement from half a world away

          Well  the last week or so, really the last two and a half months, have been full of learning but this week I feel I have learned something that I want to share with everyone back home. After journaling about it I feel that this lesson is as much for all of you as it is for me and as I am too lazy to reword everything I am just going to type everything that I wrote. I don't know what brought all these thoughts on but I am so glad to have gone through this thought process for myself and I hope it will inspire and encourage some of you back home.Hope everything makes sense, I am not going to be editing, again I am just too plain lazy today.  Here goes...

      " This morning I was reading Natalie's blog and thinking, " Wow! I wish I was having experiences like that. She sounds like a real missionary!" The thing is we are here together, doing mostly the same things. I am here, living in Uganda, taking a discipleship training course,doing my best to live for God. Whenever I talk to people from home they always want to know what/how I am doing. They always say things like " you are touching peoples lives," or " you must be helping so many people" but in reality I do not feel like I am doing anything all that spectacular. I am simply living in Africa. I do not feel like some super spiritual missionary, I don't have stories about masses of people coming to Christ, or demon possessed people being freed. I am simply living and loving those in my path, and if I am honest even doing that is not always easy. I always have an excuse why I can't reach out to someone, ( for example language or cultural issues, I don't want to break a rule that I may not know exists ) the hard part is doing it anyway. Back home they ( various pastors I have heard a t events like breakforth) you do not have to be in a different country to be a missionary. All you have to do is step out of the doors of the church. I always used to think that though that might be true the ones who go overseas were more important, more special, more likely to do great things. I realize now that I was wrong. I still love overseas missions and think perhaps I would like to do it again someday after 360, but you don't have to leave " normal" life to be an influential missionary. You just need a burning desire to live every breath for God and a love for him that cannot be quenched. Though I am supposedly on a " missions trip" I am just now learning what it means to be a missionary, and it has nothing to do with where you live."

      This is my prayer for all of you back home. That you would see the amazing power you have to be a blessing to all those around you. We live in communities that need the LORD!!  You do not need anything that God has not given you to make a difference, he has created you to be his hands and feet on earth. There is nothing more special about those of us who travel to another country, we are simply following where God has asked us, but he has called each of us where we are at. I believe that if he has not called you to leave your country of birth to be a missionary then he has called you to be one at home, in your community, among the people that you see every single day.  He can use you and he will! If only you will come to him lay all the worries of what it will mean to be his disciple at his feet, leave them there and then step forward with Him as your guide.  I hope this was encouraging, it was my desire that it would be, if it was offensive I apologize for how it was received but not for what I said. I believe that God longs with all of his being to use each and every one of us but he will only use as much of us as we present to Him. He will not force anything upon us, so now it is up to you what you will do. Following him, being his missionary does not mean that we never fall down, but it does mean that we get back up with the help of our savior and continue on. In closing I feel like it would be appropriate to share a poem that I wrote on the 29 of June 2011:

The time is right

take that step.

The world is at your feet 

dare to go forward.

All you have ever known,

is about to change.

All you have been taught,

will be put to the test.

Open your mind to the things you have never known.

The time is right

take that step.

The world is at your feet

dare to go forward.

Dream big and you will find

everything that you were meant to be.

If you take a leap of faith,

anything is possible.

Never forget all that was, 

move into the future to find all that can be,

the world is at your feet

Spread your wings and fly.

         

Babies and Power Outages

 Well I know that I posted just yesterday but currently the power is out ( a common occurrence)  I am sitting in the complete darkness and writing in my journal about this day is more trouble than it’s worth. So instead I will sit in front of my computer so that I am utterly blind to anything but its light and tell all of you back home.  Today has been probably the best day that I have experienced since coming to Africa, maybe that is an exaggeration but that is how it feels right now.

                Today the North group ( me ) was sent to God’s Grace Orphanage. If I had a choice I would never have left. This three room house is the home to 120 children. As an orphanage it is run completely on donations and most days the children only have one meal. Many other days there is no money for food and they do not eat at all. Regardless I will not soon forget the sight that awaited me as I turned the corner to get there. A little girl hair in little braids that were sticking out in all directions , black flower print dress came running full speed down the hill and into my arms. Immediately I was swarmed by dozens of little girls, all clamoring for a chance to hold my hand, or my arm, or just wrap their little bodies around my waste and not let go. I literally could not move and more than once nearly fell over from all the children pressing to come near to me. I felt that today I experienced a true piece of Uganda. Don’t get me wrong I love Watoto with all my heart and am so glad to see all that God has done and continues to do, and I fully believe in the way they have raised the villages to be a family, but that is not common. I get the feeling this orphanage is the true Uganda, the more common way orphanages are run. Watoto is a well-established and amazing organization, God’s Grace is new and has completely captured my heart.  The children are so full of love and smiles and just hunger for a little bit of love.  Within the first five minutes of us starting worship one baby began to cry. If there is one thing that I have learned about myself while being here it is that crying, scared, tired, or just plain cuddly children are my specialty. Thomas immediately picked him up and handed him to me and within thirty-seconds ( I am not exaggerating) his sobs were hiccups and he was asleep on my shoulder. Thomas even turned to comment that that did not take long.  I was very sad when one of the adults took him to put him in bed. However that was not the end of my baby experience! When the first one was taken from me I was handed an even younger girl, and once she was happy enough to be on her own another crying little one came to my arms. When that last one fell asleep she went completely limp. Even walking around and passing her off to others did not make her flinch in her sleep.  By that time all the kids were ready to play a game and I had many little admiring girls waiting for me. They were so beautiful and I love them with all my heart! I cannot wait to go back and love on the again. I wish I were in a position where at least one of them could become my own little girl forever, but alas I am not. I can only pray that each of them finds the love of a mommy some day and grows up knowing their worth.

Prison and Jabez

                                

                Again I find that so much happens in a week, or in this case two, that I can never remember it all. As I am sure that, though you are reading this blog because you enjoy it and want to know what is going on in my life; you also equally want to get something accomplished today and do not want to spend countless hours reading. So I will not even try to say everything that has happened but here come the highlights.

                On Tuesday I went to prison. I will admit that it was not an experience that I had been looking forward to.  On Tuesday morning when my group was given the subject which we were to preach about, mistrust, I found myself quite happy to take the back seat and settle in for a day of observation as I don’t speak Lugandan.   However God had other plans.  Either that or my lack of patience got the better of me. Whichever way you want to look at it. Growing up I have always been taught that when you are given a task you “giver all” and get it done to the best of your abilities whether you like the task or not. I am learning that this is not the case with all people. Needless to say when no one in my group would volunteer for any of the jobs, speaking or leading worship time,  I may have lost my patience a little bit. I did not get angry or throw a fit but I did let it be known that we only had half an hour left to plan and we needed to get this done! Long story short I ended up being delegated to preach. Again this did not make me overly happy as I don’t like speaking in front of people and I was even less thrilled about having to speak through a translator, even if it was my friend. Add that all to the fact that I had less than half an hour to prepare and I was in instant panic. In went the head phones and out came the paper.

  I would love to be able to say that I got there and it was an amazing experience with some incredible supernatural God moment where I lead numerous people to Christ but that would be a lie. I ended up going to the women’s side of the prison with three others and after speaking for about ten minutes (half of the time allotted to me) I was done. Debbie stepped in added to what I said and then we had an extended prayer time. That was probably the best part, I don’t know what was said for the most part, or what it was that touched  the women but I noticed that as they prayed many were crying. One woman caught my eye and I very much wanted to sit on the ground with her and pray, but for reasons that make no sense to me now I did not.  I did prayed while everyone else did and I wanted to reach out and touch these women in some amazing “missionary” way but in the end all I did was share a smile with the one and then leave.

                 This week I am learning a lot about, well a lot of things. One thing is about opportunities. We are always presented with opportunities and we always have a choice if we are going to act on them or not.  Sometimes not taking them has a large impact but more often than not it is simply that we have missed the chance for something great. Our lives will not be horrible because of it, but we will have missed some of the blessing that God would have loved to pour out. I think this may have been the case at the prison. I had an opportunity to share Gods love and didn’t,  I missed out, and perhaps so did this woman though I cannot speak for anyone but myself.  God has been teaching me since then not to think about how it will look or what others will say, take the opportunities he presents me with!!

  On Friday a friend loaned me a book on the prayer of Jabez. I was pretty excited to read it as I have often heard about Jabez but I have never studied it or thought much about how it pertains to me. When I got home that night I sat down and started it, by then end of the evening that little book was finished. I was so challenged by it and I learned so much! At the beginning of the book I was taking notes but by then end I realized that I could not write everything that I was learning and being challenged by on my little pad of paper, so I just kept reading.

                                                 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “ Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that you would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain! So God granted him what he requested.

                                                                                                                                1 Chronicles 4:10 NJKV

                Did you know that the word “indeed” in Hebrew is the equivalent of putting five exclamation points at the end of a sentence, and to ask for blessing is to ask for supernatural favour?  Jabez was not asking for just a little bit here, he was asking God to give it all to him. He did not just want a little piece of the cake he wanted the whole stinking thing.  I mean wow!!! This guy had nerve, right?  The author of the book, Bruce Wilkinson, put it this way,

                                “ Is it possible that God wants us to come to him with the same happy ( ok slightly crazy) confidence [ like that of a child on his birthday] and ask Him to give you the very best he has for you?”

                That kinda blows me away! I mean think about it, God wants to bless us. This is the God of the universe, the one who made the stars in the sky. He spoke “let there be light” and bam! There is the sun shining in all its brilliance. HE WANTS TO BLESS US!!!  We can go to him and pester him like a little kid on his birthday who just wants to rip into all those brightly wrapped packages and ask for his blessing! If that is not enough take a look at this other quote,

                                “ A blessing from God is something you feel… he might give you “stuff” but he is ALWAYS reaching for your heart… God always blesses for a purpose.”

                I have nothing else that I can say after that. Just let that truth sink in for a minute. Let it simmer in your heart until you believe it. There was a lot of other things I thought I wanted to say but as I sit here and listen to the thunder and rain outside of my door I find that I cannot say anything else right now. I am once again so amazed by God. So, cheers for now, may God bless everyone reading this as much as he is blessing me. Maybe later in the week I will write about more that I am learning from this little book but for now I trust that something that I have said will reach through the screen and touch one of you. 

                Every time that I look at the calendar I am shocked at how fast time is going! I cannot believe that it is already March first and I have been in Uganda officially for two months! Life is so good! I cannot believe at times how much God has blessed me, it is far more than I could ever deserve. These last two weeks have been really “normal” by my standards and there are no earth shattering, funny or super exciting story’s to share. I can only tell what God has been teaching me, and before anyone sends me angry messages about how everything is a good story, I do know that everything is interesting I just mean nothing out of the normal.

                Probably my biggest learning curve in the last month, and even since coming to Uganda, came last week at our Thursday night bible study. I cannot really pinpoint what made me realize this or come to the decision that I did but I came to have a new theme, not only the next three and a half months, but for the rest of my life. The theme of the year for our Watoto 360 class, and the entire church, is Fresh Start, last week I realized that along with that my theme needs to be surrender. One thing that I know about myself is that I have a hard time with trust.  I may say that I trust someone or something but ultimately I still like to be the one in control. When something matters to me I will do all that is in my power to make it happen and often I find it incredibly hard to let another step in and believe that they will do as good a job as I desire to do.  I have always said that I trust God and I know in my head that he requires me to live a life of surrender to Him, and for the last 19, almost 20 years I have done a very good job of letting myself believe that I have given everything up to God. I haven’t. He is one person that I trust completely and know will always have my best interest in mind but I still don’t give everything up to him. I still like to hold onto many of my dreams, my fears, my hopes, my future and my past. It is as if I tell God, “ok you can have this little piece of me but I am going to keep the rest”, or at other times I will say with all sincerity, “ God it is yours, take it all,” but then as life starts to become hard again I take back all that I have given to Him.  Well after last week’s revelation I can say with honesty that I have begun to truly let go. I am not perfect and both of the above situations will continue to apply to my life but I have started to truly surrender. It seems that since making this my theme every time I turn around God is showing me another area that I have yet to give up to him and each time I let something go I find that it is a bit easier than the last.  I am learning that just because I have surrendered something to The Lord does not mean that I no longer care about it, I do not throw my hands in the air and say “God whatever you want to do I don’t care go ahead,” but it does mean that though I still care deeply I do not worry. I still present my prayers and petitions to Him, and I will still labour in prayer but I no longer worry about the outcome.  This is a journey that I am just beginning and I know that there is still so so much that I have to work on, but already I have been blessed with the peace that transcends all understanding in many of the areas that I have given up. For that reason I can say with confidence that God is so good!!! He is so far above anything that I can ever understand or deserve but he loves me and walks with me every step of this journey that he has placed me on.

                To end on a lighter and fun note, last week we were again in Subbi village, this time not doing sports ministry but just spending time in the homes. I was incredibly blessed to be in cluster six where there is no shortage of small children to play with. After some wandering around I found them all and Thomas and I sat down to teach them duck duck goose. It was not exactly the game we would play at home with the kids but it was fun none the less. After that Thomas taught them all how to be monkeys by lifting them into the trees nearby and in order to keep some sense of order when they had received their turn they were to go sit with “Aunty” Jess.  There is one thing that no one mentions to you when you are coming that I have come to realize is quite important, and that is the difference between African hair and Muzungu ( white ) hair. Theirs does what it is told and does not move! It is not slippery or soft but course and when it is put in small braids ( plaits) it needs no elastic in order to stay in. Needless to say I have quickly learned that my hair ( being blond especially) is a novelty. When Thomas told the kids to go sit with me he could not have predicted that I would not move for the next forty or so minutes as I became the center of an impromptu salon.  At any one time there were eleven pairs of hands pulling and braiding and running their fingers through my hair. I have seen the pictures and it was quite a sight! With one little girl, Hope, sitting in my lap and eleven others all around me I was in my element. When Thomas told me it was time to go I was quite sad and had no idea how to get up!! It may sound easy but when you have twenty-two little hands in your hair it can be a challenge! The other somewhat funny moment came when I found that my sandals had been peed on , or as we say here susued on, by a little one who didn’t quite make it inside. Well needless to say I did not wear them until later when we could find water to wash them with. When I came back up top carrying my shoes my house mates had a good laugh at the story.

 So there you have it my last week has been normal for me, challenging, but rewarding. The two things I would ask prayer for is guidance into the future, not only for myself but all my house mates as we try to discern what God desires for us after 360. Also if everyone could keep Rashidah in their prayers. We went to visit her last week and it may be the last time we see her as she is going to try to move in with some other friends. She originally moved to the place she is now when she was expecting and was promised help with the baby. Now that she is childless she is seen as a burden and is not being cared for as she should be. She hopes to find work and move and though I am saddened by the thought of losing this friend I do understand and will do whatever I can to help her. So if everyone would pray for her I would be incredibly thankful.  May God bless you all at home, you are in my prayers and I thank you for everything, each prayer and encouraging word means the world to all of us over here. 

                Well this last week has been so incredibly full I am emotionally and physically exhausted, but in the best way. I have learned that here in Uganda Valentines is not just a one day thing but a whole week affair, and being in the spirit of things we international students began the week with a wonderful treat. Natalie, Thomas and Jack spent all day last Monday in whispering conferences and announced to us all that we had to be ready for supper at 5:45 dressed up and  wearing red, pink, or white.  The rest of us girls were pleasantly surprised when we found waiting for us a valentine’s picnic out on the front lawn.  Thomas had cut all the watermelon into our initials sculpted it to say “house of love” only the house was not words but an actual house. We had spaghetti and heart shaped garlic bread, the chocolate peanut butter covered Oreos. Not the healthiest thing I know but it was sooooo….. good!  I love being outside at dusk and doing so for a picnic with my wonderful God ordained family was the best. I cannot think of a better valentine’s day. 

                Tuesday we spent the afternoon in our district groups  out on ministry. When I found out that my group was being sent to Bulrushes Baby Home I could not help but scream in delight.  Imagine my disappointment when I got there and found that it was nap time and after having a tour we would be cleaning.  There was one little girl still slightly awake and I could not help but stand staring at her and having my heart melt. In the end though when I thought about it I felt so incredibly blessed by being able to serve, not in the way I wanted, but in a way that got me out of my own way and allowed others to relax with the children. God has given me a strong, fully functioning body and I do not stop to appreciate that face nearly enough. I ended up scrubbing the floor of the babies outside play area with Brian and as I was not allowed to scrub and ended up holding the hose we both ended up with very wet feet and pant legs.  When we got back to the church later that afternoon we all found out from Mamma Shirley that we had been volunteered as a class to help at the churches red carpet Valentines Banquet.  The class went nuts; we were so excited (mostly) it took quite a while to calm us all down again.  It was only when we found out that we all needed a red, black or white dress that some of us girls started to freak out. In the end though, all was fine and we were given Wednesday afternoon to go shopping with a few of our Ugandan class mates. That was quite an experience. 9 girls trekking around down town, 6 of them white and all looking for the same thing, black dresses. At first it was overwhelming and stressful but once I found my dress I began to really enjoy it all. Being a white woman down town always ensures that it will be an experience but a few of us have now decided that we really want to go back. After it all Friday night was a success! We had twenty-eight young women in a room all with forty-five minutes to get dressed to our finest, it was a bit of a mad house but we all did it. I had thought that I would be over dressed but I quickly learned that when African women dress up they really dress up! I ended up feeling like I was under dressed if anything, though I know I was most definitely not. We were all split up with different jobs and I ended up at the guest table checking tickets against names and though it was at times boring I did have fun. In one slow moment when I got up to visit I ended up dancing under the stars which was super fun, especially given the fact that I don’t dance, or rather compared to all my class mates I CAN’T dance.  After all that had happened during the week (we had also gone out for a full day of ministry on Thursday that resulted in a lot of walking) all our leaders felt we deserved a break so they gave us Saturday off. It was such a blessing!!! We were so tired and being able to relax rather than go to the villages was a nice treat.

                Yesterday was, like every Sunday, our day of church ministry.  I have come to love Sundays, we rotate through various jobs such as children’s church, cell table, ushering, security and a few others. Well the one that I have been avoiding for the last month is parking. I did not want to do it! For some reason or another yesterday Saul decided to volunteer me to help in parking, I was not impressed. However as the day progressed I truly did have fun. I ended up sent out to the road to act as traffic warden and though at times there were people who just made me shake my head it ended up going so much better than I had envisioned.  Brian (not from my 360 class but from the pioneer class of 2009) kept telling me that I did a good job; people seemed to listen to me better than him. His only complaint was that people stopped watching their driving to instead stare at the white, muzungu, girl standing in the middle of the road! My favorite part was when kids would wave to me as they drove by, sometimes this presented a problem though as the parents would drive more slowly and back up traffic a little to let the kids all wave !  Though I did have fun I have decided fair is fair and next week Saul will be working children’s church with me, he really doesn't want to, poor guy he doesn't know what he has started.  After the final service had started Thomas, Hakim, Brian ( from my 360) and I went for a “walk” up the “mountain” ( Thomas says it was a baby hill, I say it was steep and there was nothing ‘baby’ about it) to visit one of their living hope clients.  There I met four of his grandchildren, they were also very cute! When we left we decided it would be fun to run as fast as we could down the “mountain”. It was super fun, I have gone full out running like that for a long time. I was only sad when my shoes ( not runners) began to fall off and I had to slow down. Needless to say though I pulled a muscle in my foot I would not have changed  anything about Sunday. The best part was when we got back and I made another new friend. She was sooooo…. cute and we had a ton of fun beeping each other’s noses  during the final prayer. Oops maybe not the best idea of my life but that’s ok it wasn't my worst either.

This last week has gone by so fast I cannot even really remember what we have done.  I think that is due to the fact that Wednesday was a public holiday and therefore we got an extra day off.  We had planned to head downtown to the craft market and spend a day out together, I was pumped! The seven of us had gone the day Jack arrived and we were all looking forward to going back and showing him around this time. When we woke up in the morning however it was raining, and when it rains in Uganda it is generally not just a little rain like at home, it pours so that start thinking it is time to find some high ground where you won’t be caught if it floods.  Well maybe it is not quite that bad, but pretty close. We were not to be dissuaded however and after making two trips in a slightly sketchy hired car we all made it to the mall. From there we headed out with me in the lead. I know it is hard to believe but I was the only one with a head for the directions to the market!  I am sure that for the few Ugandans who were out and about it was quite a sight to see eight internationals running across the road in the rain, shrieking in fear that we would be hit ( it was our first unaccompanied trip down town and  therefore we had no one to help us cross the street).  However none of us died, though Danielle came close, and we made it safely to the market. It was such a slow day thanks to the rain and I loved being there, I found two beautiful (and cheap) paintings and very much look forward to our next trip there. After we met our “mamma and papa” at Javas for cell, and had a lovely time sitting on the patio having some treats that reminded us of home.

The rest of the week was not as positive, Friday night while all the guys in our class were at a mens conference Brian received a call from Rashidah. She was in the hospital having her baby. Needless to say he jumped on a boda boda ( motercycle taxi) and headed to be with her.  From all he has told me, and each time we talk I learn new bits of the story, there was nothing about this birth that went right or easy. Rashidah had not had anything to eat the previous day and was very weak, she should have had a c-section but did not. By the sound of it she was ready to have the baby whens he got to the hospital however as others came in and paid she kept getting bumped back. Brian has told me that there were many women there in the same room giving birth and the doctors ( I believe there were two ) and nurses would just move from one woman to another as quickly as they could.  Both Rashidah and the baby were very weak and when she was born ( it was a girl), she did not even cry. There was something wrong with one of the tubes in her neck that effected her breathing so she was immediately put on oxygen. However our beautiful little girl died shortly after, as the  hospital did not have the proper equiptment to save her. Rashidah was released from the hospital that afternoon, which made me quite upset, and when we went to visit her she was very weak. For her to sit up and talk with us took much of her energy and she admitted to us that she was very dizzy.

                 Needless to say it has been a very hard couple of days. I was told by Esther when she Jack and Thomas came home on Firday night. I can only recall one other time in all my life when I have cried with such bone wrenching sobbs. Though it may not make sense to all at home I felt like I had lost my own child. I know that I only met Rashidah and learned of her baby a two weeks ago but I had spent those weeks praying for them and imagining this little girl. What she would look like as a baby, how she would grow in the months that I am here and even what she would look like in the future.  I loved her with all my heart, I cannot even imagine how Rashidah feels. At home when something this tramatic happens there are counsilors , family and a whole host of other people to help deal with such an event. Here there is just us, and we are not to steady on our feet at the moment either. Brian saw many things at the hospital that no one, least of all an young unmarried man, should have to see and I am worried about how he is coping. I know that given time we will all be ok and the pain will fade but for now it is fresh and has hit us hard. All I can do at this point is listen as the story comes out in bits and pieces and offer support whilst also leaning heavily on my “ family” here at home, and praying. I do not understand why God has allowed this to happen, and to be frank I have had a few moments of yelling at him, but reguradless I do believe that we have all been brought together for a purpose and that God is in controle. Who knows but that we have been brought to this position for such a time as this. I will covet everyones prayers from home, I know the healing process will be long, especially for Rashidah and Brian, and I am ill equipped to help but where two or more are gathered there Christ is also, so I beg for your prayers. They are what will carry us through.

                On a lighter note, today is the last day of the penny and though it may not seem like a big deal to those at home, we Canadians in Uganda know better. Therefore we have done our best to honour our fallen friend who has served us so well for longer than any of us has lived. This morining we had a brief, but meaningful, burrial service for the penny. Emily prepared a beautiful eulogy that she read  as Danielle and I stood by and once our dear friend, the penny, had been placed in it’s shallow grave in our back yard we stood by for the singing of our national anthem. May he rest in peace for all his long years of service to our country Canada.

This last week has been so incredibly full, and I would not have it any other way! I have loved every minute of it. It all started on Tuesday, though I have a hard time believing that it has been less than a week, when we began our street ministry.

                I guess I should back up a little bit and explain things a bit better. There are five districts to Watoto, North, East, South , West , and Central, and our class has been broken into district groups so that each week we serve in the church at our district. Those large district groups are broken in half to make it easier to do some of the ministry’s. I was very blessed in my group, and in my small group (North district group B) I have been put with some wonderful friends. There are five of us Brian, Saul, Debbie (makes me think of you Mum) Vicky, and I.  I know I have already said it but I am so thankful to God for putting me in a group with these four!  Anyways, on Tuesday when we had all been divided into our small district groups we were driven to various slums throughout Kampala and told to walk until we found a family that we felt God has called us to who will become “our family” for the next five months.  Well after some initial confusion about where we were supposed to be my group got going and as we wandered we ended up in a back ally, when we turned  a corner to get out we found  a beautiful young woman, very pregnant, sitting there. She has become our family. Rashidah is 19 and due to give birth to her first child any day. That first day was hard for me as I really don’t know any of the language and am still finding my way in a culture that is largely the same but then wildly different from the one I am used to. For the most part I just sat and listened, though I really did not know what was really being said, as I had asked Vicky to translate for me when we got back to the bus.  What I found out was incredibly sad, but I found that though I fought tears I was not as moved as I would have expected. The only way I can explain why is that I never actually talked to her and it was like hearing a story told to you about a friend’s friend, if that makes any sense.  I did care about her but not with the crushing sadness and emotion that I had expected.

                Wednesday we again went back to visit, Rashidah, and I am so glad to say that this experience I felt much more comfortable getting to know her and the others she lives with. I managed to talk to her a bit, she understands English but does not speak it well, and then spent a large amount of time playing with the children of a friend that she lives with. During the playing they discovered my hair and I quickly found that the attention had turned from the game we were playing to feeling my hair and moving it all directions trying to get it to stay rather than fall back into place.  The next day we spent the afternoon buying things for our families that we had identified as needs, and boy was that an experience!!!

                 Our list was extensive; Rashidah has next to nothing for herself or the baby. What she was able to purchase near the beginning of her pregnancy is for the stay at the hospital. So Thursday afternoon my group and I headed downtown to the market.  Some of my other classmates were a bit shocked that I would be taken there but I loved the experience! Very few white people venture there so I found myself being constantly called to, and touched. There is no way I would ever go there on my own, I would be lost in the maze of vendors in a matter of seconds! Going with my group however had the effect of building my trust in them by leaps and bounds. When we were finished at the outdoor market we went to the supermarket to buy the rest of the things on our list. Never before have I weaved through traffic the way it is done here.  In the three weeks that I have been in Uganda I have yet to see more than one cross walk, everyone just walks where they please when they please. Car jams are common place and we had fun squeezing between many taxi busses all squished together in order to cross the road. I am just thankful for the jam otherwise I doubt we would have crossed so quickly. In the end it was a rush to be back at the church on time but I truly enjoyed my day.

                Friday we got to return to our families and give them all that we had bought and again, though I was not moved in the way I expected to be, I was deeply moved.  Rashidah did not have the words to express her thanks but from where I sat she didn’t need the words. Her smile lit up the small poorly lit room and there were tears shimmering in her eyes. When we left, though she is very malnourished, she found the strength to stand and walk us back out to the bus where we all stood chatting until we had to leave.  In the moment when we hugged goodbye I knew that I loved this dear woman as I would any of my friends back home and her baby is like one of my own family even though she ( I think it is a girl) is not yet born. I find myself thinking of them throughout every day, wondering how they are doing and praying that when the time comes for this precious little one to come into the world all will go well and Momma and baby will be safe and healthy.

This week marked the first week of classes and though it has been busy I feel like there is not all that much to talk about. We did a few classes on community and then a couple about personalities. Turns out that my personality type is steady very loyal and easy going, that is all a nice way to say people pleaser,go figure!

Saturday we had our first village day. Yay!!! I learned to wash clothes by hand ( all my Ugandan classmates were shocked), mop a floor ( no it is not the same as at home in Canada) and, one of my favourite parts , make chapati. Sooooo.... good, it similar to Nan Bread but not quite. I will be doing my best to make it in Canada as often as possible. The highlight of my day though was playing with some incredibly cute kids. We tried to play three way patty cake, that was interesting, and had many tickling sessions.
Today was the church district tour. All went to each of the five "celebration points" to see what they were like and next week we will break into our district groups on Sunday to go serve. For me that means going to Watoto North with my group. That promises to be interesting! Though our group does not have many "strong " personality types ( as we would say at home) we do have some very outgoing people. I am sure that amidst the work will be a lot of laughter. Afterwards us internationals went out for Indian food! Woohoo!!!! It was so good. I know it seems so wrong that we are in Uganda and we eat other ethnic foods, but it was amazing!! We were on the rooftop of the mall sitting on a lovely couch with the rain falling down around us eating Nan. I loved it and I think most of us agreed that we would be going back sometime in the next six months.

Well the last two days have left us all tired and most of us burnt ( myself included sorry mom ) but all of us are happy and so excited to begin our first official week of Watoto 360 tomorrow.

On Saturday we had a tour of the two villages near Kampala, Subbi and Bbira. They were more than I had ever imagined!!! Subbi is situated on the top of a hill and overlooks much of the lush green country side, where Bbira is flat and woven among the trees.  When we visited Bbira we found ourselves surrounded by children who were eager to play with us, cuddle, or sometimes just walk up to us and stare at the strange white people.

Sunday was the Festival of Hope, and it truly was amazing. The first thing we students were tasked with was greeting all those who came. This was a little different than greeting at home as everything was outside so greeting meant all of us lining the entrance waving and shouting good morning everyone who drove or walked by. It was quite an experience and though I did put on sunscreen I only remembered my arms and face so my front and neck are now burnt from the couple hours standing in the sun waving. At the end of the day the whole thing was wrapped up with a concert and I loved watching as most of my new family joined in the dancing. I would have loved to join them but my arms were full with a beautiful little girl. At first we played peek-a-boo together but in no time at all I had a sleeping little one all curled up against my chest. I would not have traded that moment for all the dancing in the world. Besides when her Mother collected her and went home I got my dancing lessons from a little boy and when all was said and done I was told that I really was quite good. I think all of us internationals are well on our way to completing our goal of learning to dance as well as our Ugandan classmates!!

On the way home on the bus we met 10 year old Esther and once again I found my heart was stolen. It was her birthday and we all got to sing to her and she confided in Jack and I that her dream is to have voice lessons. When I told her that my sister was a voice teacher all she could ask was how and where to find me and Natalie so that she could have lessons. I find myself praying now that if it is Gods will he will place me in the cell that spends each week at Esther's church so that I might build a greater relationship with this beautiful little girl. I will find out tomorrow, I am nervous but I know God has a plan for my life and all I can do is pray that I might serve Him no matter where he places me.

Well the last few days have been so full I don't even know where to begin.  Wednesday was our last day before meting the rest of our Ugandan classmates, and it was the first time that we met many new little friends. We woke up in the morning with a certain anticipation knowing that today we were going to the Watoto Baby home based in Kampala, called Bulrushes. We could hardly contain our excitement!! However we were not expected until three, so that left us with most of the day to find something else to do. While we waited Mumma Esther took us all to a craft market, and what an experience that was!!! In such a small space there was so much, it was almost overwhelming but at the same time I loved it. As we all spread out looking at our own pace at the different stalls three of us, Natalie, Danielle and myself found ourselves the joy of three beautiful little girls eating their lunch. It seemed that everything we said and did was funny to the one and the other two easily caught on to her laughter. I must confess that at the moment I am finding my own unique form of culture shock is in not knowing what to say. I would gladly cuddle every little child that I see but if you ask me to talk to them I don't know where to start. This is a major frustration to me but I am so glad to have Natalie around. This is her second time to Uganda and she has been blessed in that she connects so well with people. She loves them and they seem to know it so when she begins talking to them it comes so naturally.  I hope that in time this will come naturally to me as well, but for now I am super glad to have Natalie to follow around! The two of us also met another woman, Maria, who is expecting a baby in April. She blossomed as she showed us a picture of her two other children and talked to us about the names she had picked out for this baby.  As we left we were able to pray for her and that she would have a safe delivery of her baby, it was very cool.

Around two thirty we were finally able to have our tour of Bull rushes, and I will not lie, I did tear up at the sight of all those precious children. Before entering we all had to promise not to touch the baby's as right now there is a ban on the orphanage with some of the children sick. It was so hard to walk by their beautiful faces that were just crying for us to play with them and not be able to do so. There were a few who we were able to do things like play peek a boo with and to see them smile at even that was amazing. One of my favourites was playing peek with a little boy through the window of his room. I would hide behind the wall and then pop up and he would just get this huge smile that made me crouch down and do it again. After a while he started crouching and then when we would pop up at the same time that smile would flash again. They were all so precious and beautiful, I cannot wait until we can go and actually play with them for a full day.

When we got home around four we had some down time and then the last international student arrived and our family was complete. Thomas was incredibly excited to no longer be the only boy in the house.

Thursday was our first day with the rest of our classmates. Though I have managed to click incredibly well with all my new family members I have found that getting to know my Ugandan classmates is not nearly as easy. However Friday got a little easier and I know as time goes by I will be able to form some good friendships and I can't wait.  Twice on both Thursday and Friday we had worship services for a youth conference that was happening all week and again I was blown away. There is such a freedom of worship here where every hindrance is stripped away and people come as they are. Last night as we concluded the final service all I could think about was the old song that says " I will become even more undignified than this".  For everyone who has been think YC on steroids. I love every moment of every worship service and cannot wait for tomorrow when we have the Festival of Hope at Watoto West where all five churches will gather together, some 20,00 people. I know God will move in that place and it will be amazing!

Home Sweet Home

The last three days have been undescribable! I don't even know where to begin. So far there are seven of us international students with the final comming tomorow. Already we have become a family complete with a host Mom who looks out for us and whom we all love dearly.  When we first met her she told us she was waiting at home for us and couldn't wait until we moved in. Before we could do that on we had to go to thw Watoto central church service on Sunday.

Never in my life would I have imagined being part of a church service like that!! Words cannot fully explain it, it was so overwhelming.  For starters the building is easily four times bigger than out church at home and not only do they have five services each Sunday ( and one on Saturday night) but eah one is packed full of people praising the Lord. So much so that there is an overflow area where everything is broadcased out to. I was reminded of breakforth when everyone worships with abandon, only this is what happens every week. Pastor Gary Skinner has started the year with speaking about fresh starts, as this is the jubaliee year of Uganda.  Never before have I been to a church service where the pastor is so passionate about his message that he is jumping  up and down on the stage!  It alsomst reminded me of myself when in drama I made a mistake at practice ! :)  During communion I was moved to tears by it all, and my heart overflowed with thanks giving to The Lord who brought me to this place. After the five of us who had already arrived went to lunch with our Mom, Esther, and Joseph. That was a time filled with much story telling and it was just so much fun to be out with everyone.

Yesterday after much anticipation we moved into our new home!!! Yay!!!!! Even though we had had a fun morning of game playing and getting to know each other we were overjoyed when the bus pulled in to take us home. I was not prepared at all for this! It is georgous , Sydney will be glad to know my bed is pink and somehow Natalie and I ended up rooming together in the biggest room. Needless to say it has already been deemed the " hang out room " for all my new "sisters". My roomie Natalie is from Texas and I am so excited that I can finally embrace my inner southerner and say y'all and have that be normal!!!  I was going to upload pictures but the computer is not letting me so I will try again later. :(

I am so blessed, already we have become a family and I cannot wait to see where the next six months will take my four new sisters, two brothers, mother and myself!!  Already we have begun planning for how to decorate out prayer room to have thoughts, dreams, prayers, ect. posted on the wall to share with each other and last night after dinner we had a sharing and prayer time compete with singing to close off.  At this moment I feel so blessed beyond measure and certain that I am living as God has called me. I cannot wait to actually begin Watoto 360 on Friday, and tomorow those of us already here are going to baby watoto to spend the day. We are sooooo... excited!!!! After only a few days this country and it's people have captured my heart and I know that I shall never get it back.

Woohoo!!!!!! I made it !!! After years of dreaming I am now in Kampala Uganda. After just under a day I am already falling in love with this country.

My flights were both very good and on the way from London to Entebbe I had no one beside me. That was so nice as it meant I got to stretch out and get comfy when I wanted to sleep.  I landed in London at 1:30 on the second and that is were my first mini adventure started.When I left home I thought that I had an 11 hour layover in London and that was totally fine with me, when I landed however I found out that it was a 22 hour one and that I had to go to a different building to spend the night in terminal 1 instead of 5. That was a bit nerve racking and I got maybe 2 hours of sleep max but in the end I got here and was met by Peter ( my Watoto leader ) and two class mates who I am looking forward to getting to know better.

Right now our permanent home is not ready so we are staying in the Watoto guest house and it is so nice!! The only down side is the bathroom, last night after only just arriving I managed to lock myself in and neither I nor my two class mates could get me out! After what felt like quite a long time they went to look for help and of course that is when the lock finally opened and I was free from my little prison. Though it was slightly embarrising  it was very funny and a good ice breaker :)

Today we had a relaxing morning and then went on a small tour of the city with Peter. I am amazed by the Watoto church! It is gorgeous and way way bigger than I would have expected. McDougal is maybe a little bigger than 1/4 of its size and I cannot wait to go to church on Sunday.

Well the day has come and in a few hours I will be flying out of Calgary bound for London, then after an 11 hour layover I will make it to Entebbe! God has been so good to me and I am so incredibly excited to follow his leading to Uganda. He has answered every prayer that I have had about this trip, not always as promptly as I would like, but in His time everything has and will continue to unfold. For the last while I have been praying that I will find a classmate sitting beside me on the plane, when I mentioned this to a friend he told me this would take almost as big a miracle as me getting the funds that I needed in time ( that happened).  Well today I found out that not one but two classmates will be arriving on the same day at the same time as me! God is so good, I realise that this does not mean that they will be on the same flight as I am but knowing god I will not be surprised in the least if they are.

Well my teeth are out and after a few days of jello and soup I am feeling fine.  To my knowledge I was not one of the overly funny coming out of surgery however I do remember my bottom lip being frozen and trying to make fishy faces then asking my Mum if I looked like a fish. I also told her that it was  fun and could we do it again. Apparently for the first hour my foggy brain had very little concept of pain.

As my departure date comes closer I find myself getting more and more nervous. It will not be the first time that I have travelled overseas, but it will be my first time travelling alone. My current prayer is that I will find myself sitting next to a class mate. I know that there are five other Canadians going, and I am so hoping that one of them will be on the same flight as myself.  I will not be at all surprised if God answers this prayer. When I left B.C I knew that it would take a miracle for everything to work out if I were to go to Uganda and since I have been home God has not stopped working. I feel so unworthy of all the ways he has blessed me. As I am a fairly independent person it is at times hard for me to accept all the blessings that God has been pouring out, and I have needed to be reminded more than once that if God has laid it on anthers heart to help me in any way I need to accept that help graciously.

Yesterday I finally made it to the city and after a day of shopping I think I am finally ready to go ( minus a few small things ) and my Christmas shopping is done.  It was an amazing day spent with my cousins in the morning talking about their past experiences in Africa and then a laughter filled afternoon as another friend drove down to Red Deer from Edmonton to shop with me before I leave. I am sure that after all our giggling and talking the stores we entered will never be the same.

With Christmas in 3 days and my departure in 12 I am so looking forward to seeing my family as they begin to come home tonight. Looking back on the year I am realise how far I have come, and I know that no matter where life takes me in these next six months God will be with me. He is faithful and will never leave my side, His love prevents it.

28 days and counting,  time is flying by, and I feel like I have accomplished very little. On the other hand I feel like there is not truly a lot to accomplish! Everything that I need to do can be done if I spend a full day in the city, and I  have yet to do that. My flights are arranged, and I will be heading out on January 1, yeppers I leave on New Years day! After what I am sure will be a long two days flying I will arrive in Entebbe, Uganda on January 3!! Whew, I am a little nervous about finding my way on my own in the airports but God will guide me of that I am sure.

In the last few weeks since coming home I have been working, trying to figure out how to do everything, and trying to get together with friends while I am home. So far the last is by far the hardest!  Between my work schedule and all the things they do arranging time to get together is not easy, much to my  disappointment. However slowly but surely I have been able to connect with a few people and the time spent with them has been so amazing! I am coming to realise  that once you complete high school there will be people that you lose contact with as life takes you on separate paths, and your role in the lives of those you stay close with will change, but with a little extra effort you can stay close.

For the last five days I have been spending time in Lethbridge area with my big sister and her family. I had not seen my little niece since July and I am shocked at how much she has grown and changed in the last few months. Last time I saw her she was a still a baby, now she is a little girl who is learning to walk and talk! At the risk of sounding old, they grow up way to fast! It was a wonderful five days though. On Sunday afternoon Natalie and I preformed together as the " background ambiance" for a ladies high tea. I am generally not comfortable playing in front of anyone but it was a ton of fun to be able to do this with my sister.  I have been incredibly blessed in so many areas and family tops that list.  Though I am so excited to be going to Africa the thought of being so far from my family for six months is both scary and sad. All the nieces and nephews will be so different when I get home.

On a down note, yesterday I had a dentist appointment in Calgary and learned that tomorrow I will be having my wisdom teeth taken out. I am terrified of going to the dentist at the best of times so this is not going to be the highlight of my week. Prayers for the surgery and a quick recovery time will be greatly appreciated. My sister has made me promise to take a few pictures of my chipmunk face so that will hopefully be some comic relief.  For today though I am trying to get things done around the house and listening to Christmas music while I pretend that tomorrow does not exist. Only 20 days until Christmas and I can't wait!

Praise!!

Well I do realise that I have not had any updates for well over two months so here goes. Working at the orchard was an amazing experience. It was not a job where you wake up and dread going to work, I found that I would wake up and be so excited to go. Weird I know. I worked with a team of amazing women who made my time away from home just fly by.  Perhaps one of the most rewarding things about my time away though was the chance to spend countless hours with my family. Living with Nathan and Leslie ensured that I got to know them and the boys much better than I have ever before and for that I am so incredibly thankful.  Some may have asked my cousin Jillian how she was enjoying seeing me in her spare time. I am not sure how she would respond other than asking, " what spare time?". It is true that I very likely saw as much of her as I did those I was living with, but only because we worked together so much. By the end of the season we were spending one day a week together peeling apples ( when the cold came that was NOT a fun job ) and varying hours at night having dance parties while we made caramel apples together. I think that was easily my favourite job. Often we would go to the farm after it had closed for the evening and when you have a half hour to wait while the caramel cooks ( we made it all from scratch and if I do say so myself it was pretty good) the dancing can get a little crazy. Especially on nights when we would make multiple batches. I think our record was somewhere around 600 in one day.

 

Throughout the summer I found that there were many people at the farm who were incredibly supportive of my desire to journey to Africa with Watoto and they would often ask how the  process was coming and if I had yet been accepted into the program. To never have an answer to that question other than "not yet" was incredibly frustrating at times but I did my best to continue to put my trust in God. Thursday November 8 I was asked to come back to work for the day to assist in inventorying and at the end of the day I found myself chatting with my boss for a few minutes. I admitted to her that I was really feeling that I was not going to be travelling to Africa in January as that date was so close at hand and I did not see any way for it to work and I did not even know if I would be accepted into the program yet. Well that night when I went home I found an email waiting for me from the Watoto 360 office in Uganda saying " Congratulations! Your application has been approved." Well I did not know if I should be jumping up and down in excitement or crying ! I had all but given up hope that this would happen and then God works it all together. What an amazing God we serve!

I have something like six weeks until the program starts and I know that there is no way I can do this on my own. There is an overwhelming list of things that need to be done. Fundraisers, shots, banking,..... the list goes on and in truth my little mind cannot see a way for it all to come together. Thankfully I do not have to. God has looked after me thus far and I know he will not leave my side now. I will covet your prayers as I move forward to discover what God has planned for me on this journey. For today I will end on that happy note and with the verse that I have claimed as my own in the last few months.

 Psalm9:10

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

 

 

 

 

 



Well grad is over and done with and already I am finding my days to be much different than any other summer. For one it is hotter in BC than in Alberta, and for two I am living with the knowledge that a new chapter of my life has started. As Sydney and I decided, to say a new chapter does not seem right as so much has changed that life feels almost like the beginning of a new book. However to say we are starting a new book sounds to final and like everything from the old is being left forever in the past. We decided mutually that though life is changing, all the things from the past will remain part of us and friendships do not have to end with grad. Therefore we are beginning a new book but it is a sequel to the one we have written in the past. The is "the adult years"the sequel to all that has happened up until this point. It will have many of the same characters as before and references to all that happened in the previous book.  For any who have known me or for that matter have taken a few minutes to read previous posts, you will know that for most of June ( in the final chapter of  "old book") I was praying that I would receive an answer as to whether I have been accepted into the Watoto 360 program or not by the 29 of June. In one hundred percent honesty, though I believe that God can do all things and that he loves me and cares for my every need, there was a part of me that doubted that he would answer the prayer for confirmation in the time line I had set. I mean he is God and his timing is not always mine ( as I have learned many times since beginning this application process). However on June 30 I found waiting in my inbox another message from the Watoto staff and though it was not the final go ahead that I have been waiting for I have received the second phase of the application process. This requires a criminal record check , and the filling out of two health forms. So though it is not quite the answer I was looking for God did provide for me in the time frame that I had asked of him (though  it does astound me that I had the audacity to set a time frame for the creator of the universe in the first place!!!), and as one of my cousins and various others have pointed out for me in one way it can be looked at as a kind of acceptance in that I doubt that Watoto would have passed me from the first stage to this second if I had not passed the initial stages of application. Now again the ball is again  in my court and if this application is going to be finished  it is once again up to me. It seems so overwhelming, moving, starting over again, and having this all to do in such a short period, however God has promised that "my grace will be sufficient for you". I know that he is looking after me and will see me into all that is coming in my future.By his grace I will continue on and find my way, even as far as Africa.