(Sorry I tired to post this the other day… but the internet was being… lets just say… not my friend. So here it is again…)
There is a song that my friend/teammate/brother John sings
all the time here… it says “He’s faithful to the end, he’s faithful to my
heart, he’s faithful to the end, he’ll come and marry me.” This song has recently been on my mind and
heart as I have been experiencing God’s faithfulness so thick here in Africa.
Before I go any further I want to say thank you for all the
emails and encouragement I received after my last blog. That meant so much to me and I really was
filled with courage.
Last week seems so like so long ago. We were all getting sick (infections,
malaria, typhoid, combinations of all three and random fainting spells…) Sick
to the point that we had to say goodbye to our teammate Jenessa yesterday…
which is heart breaking so say the least.
Our bodies were breaking, our house was breaking, our bikes were
breaking and we were really struggling with the ministry we were apart of. But in it all the song kept playing in my
heart… “He’s faithful to the end”
I had a couple of hopes regarding my time here. I hoped to form some lasting relationships
with the people here, I hoped to hold as many babies as reasonably possible and
to play and love on kids. I hadn’t
realized it really until last week but I found myself heartbroken as I felt
like these things were the furthest thing from what we were being asked to be
apart of. Myself and my team began to
cry out to God. We were desperate for direction
and nothing seemed to be happening with the urgency that seemed necessary. But I was confident that my God hears me and
confident that he is faithful.
Isaiah 30:19-21
“For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall
weep no more. He will surely be gracious
to you at the sound of your cry. As soon
as he hears it, he answers you. And
though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your
Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way, walk
in it” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”
He heard our cries, and his hand has stretched down and has
led us.
Relationships:
Myself and a few other girls went on Sunday to a church to
share with them. Afterwards I was surprised
as Pastor Moses told me he made arrangements to take me to the True Vine
Headquarters to meet with many of the friends of my Dad and my Seaside
family. We were welcomed and brought
into a pastors meeting where I was introduced to many people I have been hoping
to meet while in Uganda. Arrangements
were made and my whole team will be going to spend a week with Pastor Wilbur at
True Vine in January. I will also be
leaving today with my friend Tara to go spend three days there with them. These are relationships I had hoped would
come about because I know I will be back here and involved with these people
again through Seaside.
The internet café that I come to a couple of times a week is
run by a ministry called New Hope. We have all become friends with the staff
that works there… they are some great people!
New Hope also runs an orphanage with 108 children and the money from the
internet and from the computer classes help fund and take care of the children. I had been invited by several of the people
there to come and visit and spend time with the children. A couple of us went for the first time
yesterday… and I just feel in love with being there. It was like I finally showed up to the place
that my heart has been looking for the whole time that I have been in
Uganda. There is a girl named Joan who I
have seen many times at the café who lives in the orphanage with her five
siblings… she is 15 but is aged far beyond her years. I asked her how old she was when we were
walking home this one day and when she told me I couldn’t help but imagine my
sister Tori standing in her place. And
my heart just broke… she carries a burden that would seem as though it would
crush her… but she walks in this hope and this joy that can only come from the
Father himself. I am excited to get to
be apart of the lives of these children who come from such brokenness and whose
lives scream of the Fathers faithfulness.
I am intending on spending every possible moment from now until I leave
in that place… and lucky for me it is barely a two minute walk from my African
home…
“He’s faithful to my heart…”
I am so thankful for the turn that has happened here… I am
filled with hope and filled with courage to continue to walk this thing out…
and I am so excited to see the way it unfolds to continue to work with Moses
and also with these new ministry partners.
I am thankful for the ways that God reminds me of his faithfulness and
am so thankful that hears me when I cry out to him.
