Love and Chairs

I cannot believe my time in Uganda is already over. It all went by so quickly but it was full of experience that I will never forget. Uganda has taught me so much but I think the most important lesson I learned is how to love and not love like the world but love someone with the love of Christ. The people in Uganda are all so kind and giving. I don’t think I met one person who was not happy that we were there and who were not willing to drop everything just so we had a place to sit. That is the one thing you can always count on in Uganda. Chairs!! These people had a rediculous amount of chairs and wooden stools stuffed in there houses. Chairs and love like Christ. That is what I will always remember of my time in Uganda. How can you not have joy when you go there? Everyone I met greeted me with a huge hug and a welcoming smile. Even though these people live in mud huts and eat basically the same thing everyday, I am still jealous of them. I want to have as much faith as they do. I want to wake up at 3 am and be so desperate and amazed by God that I can’t help but worship him and cry out his name. I want to love unconditionally like they love and kind joy in life in just God alone. One conversation that will always stick out to me was with one of the pastors in the village. He was talking about money and how God always provides for him. As a pastor he does not get paid anything, which is amazing in and of itself, but he said that he doesn’t worry about money every because God will provide for him. All he has to do is pray and if money doesn’t come right away, it is okay because God ALONE is enough. How many of us can really say that? “I don’t need anything because God ALONE is enough for me.” I know that I can rarely say that. I just love his passion for God. He is so in love with Him that no matter what it is okay because he knows God will never leave him. I am just so in love with Uganda right now and so amazed by how much God has refined me. I am new. I am forever changed and I am so in love with my Father in Heaven. He has shown up so much here in Africa and I cannot wait to see what He continues to do on this journey. There is one experience that I would like to share with you that happened this week while in the village…

 

On the first day that we were there, our team split up into groups of two to preach at the churches in the village. Sally and I were paired up and we spoke at the church right outside of the house we were staying in. This church was literally just outside under a tree and there were just some wooden benches for some people to sit on but once those were filled up everyone else just sat on the ground. It was very humbling to attend the service. So during the service, Sally was going to give the sermon and I was going to share a short testimony. Well after I was done sharing my testimony, Sally got up and gave a good 30-40 minute sermon about the love of God. So at that point we both thought that we were done talking in the service. Well apparently not…..the pastor then gets up and says “Well I don’t have much to say so now we will here the sermon from the pastor.” I thought he was talking about one of the other pastors in the church but then he looked at the two of us and we just looked at each other and were like “dang what are we going to do?” We both just started laughing because honestly we didn’t really have anything else prepared. So I just decided to pray to God that He give me the words to speak and I was just going to rely purely on the Holy Spirit. He did not disappoint. I seriously don’t know what came over me. I just started talking and out came God. I ended up speaking for about an hour on evangelism and how important it is to share the Kingdom of God with those around us. Honestly I was just speaking from the heart and since the Holy Spirit is inside of me that is what came out. I had been thinking about talking about the Holy Spirit and how we are no different from them because we have the same spirit living inside of us but it was so amazing how it tied all together and how God lead me to 5 or 6 scriptures to apply to the message. In Matthew Christ says “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At the time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the spirit speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20) I now not only believe Christ when he says that but I saw that verse come to life. I LOVE GOD!! HE IS SO GOOD AND SO FAITHFUL! For the people who are reading this, do not forget that. If you know God, you have Him living inside of you through the Holy Spirit. He is with you always and will never leave you. “My Gods not dead. He is surely alive and He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion.” Let him roar!

 

ps. Mom IYAUMAS! 

 

pss. Please be praying for the team as we head into the bush here in Kenya. We have a long hike ahead of us and will be there for about 10 days so there will be updates in about 2 weeks!