Let it rain

Sunday we prayed for rain in Chapel. Many families have suffering from the dry season and their harvest is few. Then today it RAINED and is still raining as we speak! Not just rain though... HAIL! Lindsey and I are now fit for sleep. I feel like I am home and it is a stormy Florida summer afternoon! 

Thank you Jesus for the RAIN! 

Journey Mercies

Pray for Journey Mercies. 

Tomorrow Morning Lindsey, Sarah and I will leave for Kampala. It is about a 7 hour drive. Then we will spend a week in Kampala going around town. 

Tuesday July 7th Lindsey and I start our LONG journey home. We fly out of Entebbe at 10:20 p.m. Ugandan time and arrive back in the states on Wednesday afternoon, July 8th. 

To Be Free.

 

Have you ever been an abyss of transgression? You are so low, at the bottom of the pit that there is no way you are coming up. You are broken, and the only person that can help you is Jesus. So you fall on your knees in an act of prostration to cry out to the ONE you turned your back on. The ONE you rebuked. The ONE you thought you did not need. The ONE who “…laid down His life for (you).” (1^st John 3:16) The ONE they call Redeemer. The ONE they call Messiah. The ONE they call Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, and before the Lord you humble yourself to ask for help. Then all of a sudden your giant doesn’t look so big. You realize that this bottomless chasm that you are in has a rope to climb out, and this rope is Jesus.

 

So the merciful and gracious Lord defeats your Goliath. You realize that you are weak and He is strong. You realize that He can do anything. You realize that you too can do anything when you hold hands with Jesus.

 

Time goes by and you forget. You forget that it was only because of God’s strength that your giant fell. You forget that you did NOTHING and He did EVERYTHING. You stop relying on the LORD. You stop falling at the CROSS. You stop because you think you can. Your pride gets the best of you.

 

“God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions; it is by grace you have been saved.” (Eph 2:4-5) He wants you to be FREE. Free to sing. Free to dance. Free to clap. Free to love and be loved in return. So why do we wait to be broken to accept this freedom? This freedom was given to us when Jesus died on the cross. This freedom we receive when we accept His Grace.

 

I confess that I am guilty of just this. Not fully accepting His Grace in my life. Not coming to the Lord with a humble heart everyday. Not giving him the daily routines of my life, and only coming to him with the BIG stuff. Oh my Pride, leave me be.

 

What would it look like to like a humble life? If I lived every waking moment for God’s glory and not my own, what would my life look life? Would I be still? Would I have peace? All I know is that I want to be FREE.  There is a burning desire in my soul to get to know the Lord. This is what I hear him saying to me:

 

“Come Lisa, come and know me. Let me show you who I AM.”

-GOD

 

Yes, God talks. He may not use a burning bush or a mighty storm, but He is talking and for once I am still.  Still enough to listen and hear His soft words. I finally realize why my friends in the wards are so peaceful. I believe it is because they truly know they cannot do it alone. They truly live a humble life. They are an inspiration to me, because when I listen to some of their stories my heart breaks yet many still have hope. They say that their life is in the Lord’s hands and come what may.  Their humbleness is a huge reminder for me.

 

“…Train yourself to be godly.” (1^st Timothy 4:7)

 

I cannot get so busy that I forget that these small things in my life are detrimental without the Lord.  So I am asking you to pray.  Pray that I can train myself to be godly by investing time in the word and reflecting.   Pray that I go to God with not just the big things but with the SMALL things.  Pray that the Creator of the Universe, the Star Breather, and the Lord my God will guide me always.  

 

I feel like God wanted me here in Uganda so he could remind me how much I need him!

 

 

 

 

And sometimes you just want to take them home with you.

I love children. I love it when they want to hold my hand or play silly games. I love it when they laugh. I love it when they want to be close to you. This little boy stole my heart. His name is Kenneth. He is a little boy from the village behind Kagando. He wanted love and I wanted to love him. I really just wanted to take him home with me.

Updates!!!!

About two weeks ago the only two girls in the fistula ward who spoke English left to go home. These two girls befriended me and so I was sad to see them go.  These two girls were Peace and Harriet.

 

So what do you do with a bunch of girls who do not speak your language? You SING! Lindsey and I spent Friday afternoon singing with them. We had no one to translate, but that did not stop God from allowing us to spend hours in fellowship! How great is God!

 

Afterwards we headed to the market in Kasinga with our friend Sarah who is also form the USA. We placed orders for skirts and dresses with our seamstress and then something amazing happened. Lindsey found the closest thing to a COOKIE. It was a hot, fried banana cookie wrapped in banana leaves. I think the best thing about it was Lindsey’s face. She was so excited about it!

 

The next day (Saturday) the three of us walked to the dam. It was a hot morning and since we were walking/hiking we all wore our trousers. We started on our journey with some bottles of water, cameras, and a map drawn out by Jane the elective student from Oxford who went back home. We finally made it to the dam after an hour. It was so beautiful and reminded me of the Swiss Family Robinson walk through at Disney World. We climbed up on the dam and then made our way up the river to a waterfall. As we forded the river we manage to completely soak our trousers. So since the walk home was about an hour and it was midday we waved down a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) and somehow all three of us plus our driver rode on it all the way home. We pulled up to Kagando Hospital with one too many riding on the boda boda, all of us girls wearing trousers (which is okay for hiking but still kind of awkward), and to top it off our trousers are wet therefore our driver’s trousers got wet!!! Yes, it was an adventure!

 

Sunday-

Went to Chapel and heard an awesome talk from Jessica who is apart of the Mother’s Union in Uganda. Then I went to St. Theresa’s Secondary School (High School) to give my testimony. Rev. Gideon and Sarah accompanied me.

 

Monday-Friday

Spent the week doing in OPD, Lab, and Palliative Care Outreach. It was a rough week, because I saw so many people with cancer. I saw the same woman who has stomach cancer when I went out for Palliative care. She wanted to go to another hospital or get treatment, she wanted to fight it but all they could give her was oral morphine. Then a woman in OPD came in to complain about discharge coming from her nipple. Her breast was enlarged and the doctor said that she most likely has breast cancer and there is nothing that they could do for her because they did not catch it early.  I saw a lot of subtle tears from women and children.

 

Friday night a group of us went to watch the stars at the MTN tower. Then yesterday (Sunday) Sarah and I went to visit the village her house Mom is from. Lillian (Mom who Sarah is living with) grew up just over the mountain in the valley. We walked there to meet her Mom. Her mother made us tea and we ate groundnuts from the garden. We also met about ten other children from the village who all were welcomed in the Mother’s house. We had a great time!

 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) Lindsey and I leave for Kampala. Sarah is also going to come with us because her cousin lives in Kampala. We will spend a week there having down time before we come home and exploring the capital of course!

 

I am most excited about 4^th of July in Uganda, because we will be spending our Saturday at the U.S. Embassy! How often do you get to go to the U.S. embassy to spend 4^th of July? NOT OFTEN! Possibly, NEVER! So while you all are cooking out and setting off fireworks we will be at the Embassy. 

Her song was her story.

Today we gathered to sing songs. The girls took turns singing in their local language, and afterward they would translate it for me. They sung songs about the glory of God in the midst of hardship, heartbreak, and despair. We clapped our hands, jumped around, put our hands in the air, and danced for Jesus today. We danced in laughter as I mimicked their dance moves. We danced as sisters do when they are little. Today Harriet danced without her bucket. Today she danced without a catheter. Today she danced for JOY.

 

A young woman who is waiting for the repair sang me her story. She once lived a party lifestyle.  She drank lots and danced the night away in local bars, until the Lord came to her. The Lord saved her and redeemed her, and now she SINGS about it!

 

Today I found a way to connect with the girls, today I found a way to have them share their story. Today I realized we all have a SONG.

 

What’s yours?

The day the girls sang for me :)

This is the sign in front of the hospital. 

How true... We as believers care, but it is GOD who heals! 

This was right before they started to sing

"We welcome you, We welcome you, Thank you for your coming"

These girls can really break it down for the LORD!

Harriet's solo. While she was singing she started to dance and as she moved forward she kicked her bucket with her! We all smiled with joy, because there was nothing that could stop this beautiful woman from dancing! 

"...Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19)

Mountain ADVENTURE!

Half-way to the TOP of our 7 hour mountain adventure. I thought this view was great, but the TOP was even better :)

Made it to the top! Our guides told me that I could spend the night up there in a hut and that they would come back for me in the morning.... I passed. 

Yes, this was the hut. 

After we made it to the top. We hike down to a waterfall. 

WATERFALL

Once we made it here, our guides actually filled up empty water bottles with this water, because this water is considered clean. 

   

Bubbles.

This was the day I went to the orphanage with the girls from Oxford. This little girl loved to blow bubbles, she actually went through the whole bottle. I was very impressed, because I do not think I have ever seen an entire bottle of bubbles used in one day!

“Be still, and know that I am GOD.” (Ps 46:10)

I have an extreme personality. I am all or NOTHING. Many people would call me INTENSE or extravagant.

I am really great at DOING, but the hardest thing for me to DO is to be STILL.

So I keep my schedule packed and just continue to push through because the week is almost over or I only have one more month until break. I tend to keep my thoughts on the future and not the present. Then God sent me to UGANDA, where everything is “okay please.”

I was really struggling because I felt useless just hanging out in the wards not doing anything, so the personality type that I am, I sought out a job where I would be busy! I was practically begging someone to put me to work. I was sent to do paper work where, after completing the job, I was told to RELAX. I was told that I did not have to keep working that I should just sit and be still.

…And then He said to me,
“Be still, and know that I am GOD.” (Ps 46:10)

Yes I know you are God, but WHY do I have to be still? I think He brought me here so that He could free me from my bondage just as He freed the Israelites from Egypt.

There is no quick fix; I cannot simply undo who I am. I cannot simply rest and relax; there is a REASON why I keep myself busy, and a reason why I need to drink coffee ALL day long! I go, go, and go all the time and so I am exhausted. I am missing out on the good things that God has given me TODAY because my mind is already on TOMORROW. While I race around controlling my life by making lists and checking them off, I am missing out on “Life that is truly life.” (1Ti 6:19)

Being still means that I have to deal. Deal with feelings and emotions that I have so desperately tried to ignore. I desire to live a life of reckless abandonment to the Lord, but I have been hiding my pain and holding onto an idea. This idea of keeping myself busy enough not to feel has normally kept my feelings in the dark until NOW.
I could never wholly give my heart to the Lord, because I never really knew what was keeping me from Him. I could not discern His voice in all my CHAOS. I was my own worst enemy; I was a slave to my own suffering. My sorrows were such a disappointment that they were actually a BURDEN, that Jesus wanted to carry. Christ wanted Lordship over my life, He wanted my whole heart, but I still wanted my Dad.

A little girl longs to be in her father’s arms, because it is in that place that she can truly rest.

I have never loved anything or anyone the way I loved my Father. He was my comforter, protector, and my friend. I trusted him to protect me and keep me out of harm’s way. So when he led my five-year-old self to the back yard and told me I could keep the garden snake he found, I trusted that this snake would not harm me.

I loved that he cared so tenderly for God’s creatures, and I loved that he wanted to share the experience with me. Catching grasshoppers in our rose garden, rescuing a mole from our swimming pool, or the time he actually gave mouth to mouth when my cat gave birth to a dead kitten. I loved that every Saturday was Kid’s Day. I loved how helpless yet safe I felt in his arms as he threw me across the pool. I loved that I was his Precious, and that I was precious enough to go to work with him. I loved to dance with my toes on his toes and my hands in his hands.

Which is why I hate that when he got sick with CANCER, he never told me. I was angry, because the only man I ever loved broke my heart and left me the day he died. So in my mind I could never fully give my heart to the Lord, because I never really realized that my heart was broken over my Dad. So I kept myself busy for 13 years and NOW I can finally rest.

I KNOW that my Dad was just trying to protect me by not telling me, but it STILL hurt. I was angry, and God wanted me to forgive him just as Jesus forgave me. I had to make “restitution in full” (Lev 6:5). So that I could fully accept and understand the atonement Jesus made.

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing.
The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you; they are a burden and a reproach to you.” (Zep 3:17-18)

God had to pull me into the desert so that I could be vulnerable enough to rely solely on Him. I NEED His daily bread, and daily it shall be! I am tired of running 100 miles an hour in front of where I actually need to be, and right now I need to be in the “pearl of Africa” (Winston Churchill), in Uganda, learning that no matter how BIG the issue of poverty, oppression, death, disease, and famine, there is no need to be anxious or worry because God is in control, so “Be still, and know that I am GOD.” (Ps 46:10)

I admire the Ugandan’s faith in the LORD as their provider and comforter.
My prayer is that I may learn how to relax in the LORD for all my needs. My prayer is that I may learn how to slow down and listen to His commands for my life. My prayer is that I may learn not to be a victim to the SYMPTOMS I perpetuate in order to maintain control: that I will live a life of reckless abandonment!

Alleluia! AMEN!

Palliative Care

Yesterday I went out into the villages to do PALLIATIVE CARE. This is for patients whose diseases are not treatable, so the hospital provides them with the drugs they need to ease their suffering. The nurses visit these patients every month to supply them with new drugs for that month. HOW they find the patients in villages and hills with no street signs or house numbers AMAZES me! I watched as the nurse explained to a 33 year old woman who has stomach cancer, that the drugs she was giving her where not going to cure her or extend her life, but that her life was completely in the hands of the LORD.

 

In Uganda there is NO CURE for cancer. They do not have the resources or funds to provide treatments. Just last week two men died in the wards from cancer, one was an elder but the other one was just a 9 year-old boy. 

PRAISE and ADORE HIM

Yesterday in the Fistula Ward. 

Peace a patient in the ward has become my official translator, but this week she has been sick we did not meet until Wednesday.

Peace's mother shared a story about a woman she knew who only had enough money to buy one piece of material to wear as clothing. As time passed this material became old and worn out. The woman CURSED God for her living conditions and so she went into the bush (the forest) to HANG herself. She was ready to take her life, tied a rope to a tree and removed the old piece of material. THEN a woman emerged from the bush who was NAKED and started running toward this woman's old material. The woman then PRAISED THE LORD and realized how BLESSED she truly was. 

A life with God is a union like a marriage between a man and a woman. It is for BETTER or WORSE. If only we could live a life of PRAISE no matter the circumstance! 

Tomorrow (friday) I will meet with the women again, please pray for our time together! 

Going into Town!

It is just after seven and Lindsey and I are getting ready to go into town. Another couple from the UK, Jane and Derek have graciously offered us a ride :) 

YESTERDAY...

Yesterday was a complete success! The ladies in the Fistula Ward had prepared about five songs to sing to me, they even sung them in english :) Afterwards I had prepared a talk on the Samaritan Woman, but as I sat there I just really felt a pressing need to tell them my story. So I told them my story and told them that I would love to hear their story too! We all have decided that everyday Monday-Friday we will get together in the afternoons to have two or three of them give there testimony, do a teaching from the bible, and have them sing songs! I am so excited for this opportunity and please be praying this time to be rich in fellowship! 

Goret and I were going to go on a run yesterday but Friday is Market Day so we decided to go there instead. I met her in front of the chapel at about 4:30 and we walked to her house where I met two of her friends who joined us. It was so great to hang out with Ugandans who are my age, and we had a lot of fun at the market! 

I am starting to love the markets here, they are overwhelming at times and quite chaotic but it is a great place to interact and be apart of Ugandan culture! 

Wabuchire means Good Morning in Lhukonzo.

Today... 

So I have still been trying to adjust to Ugandan time. Which means that I must slow down and just relax... a foreign concept for a busy American like myself.  Most days I feel like I have done nothing but sit around and chat with people, and I have realized that it is OKAY! I think I might have made my first true Ugandan friend. She is a nurse in the Fistula ward and her name is Goret. She is 21 years old and I have spent most days just getting to know her a little more. She told me before she became a nurse she thought she wanted to be a nun, and I asked her why and she said 

"All I want to do is proclaim the Good News!" 

Her willingness to obey and follow the Lord amazes me. For someone who makes 18,000 Ugandan Shillings (which is about US $9.00) a week and can not even afford to buy a BIBLE (which costs 20,000 Ugandan Shillings) and to be completely trusting in the goodness of God. Most days she does not eat lunch, she is lucky if she has 200 Ugandan shillings ( about 10 cents) so she can buy a mandaze (sort of like a small doughnut but not as sweet). 

One of my favorite things about Ugandan is that they talk in questions. For instance if they were trying to say that you need to wash your hands before you eat, they would say 

"you need to what? you need to wash your hands." It can be funny trying to hold a conversation because at first you think they want you to answer there question. 

Yesterday Goret said

"I trust in what?

I trust in HIS promises" 

WOW, how often do I let myself believe false truths or even worse forget the holy promises that my creator has made to me! 

I am so excited to get to know Goret even more. I have been saying how much I want to go on a run so today she is going to take me running! 

Pray for the women in the Fistula ward, because hopefully today we will start or try to do a group bible study (with a translator) . I am not sure how it will work out, so pray that somehow despite the language barrier that We can all connect with each other as sister's in Christ! 

Much LOVE!

Lisa