Seasons of Life

Have you ever heard an old song and it immediately takes you back to where you were the first time you listened to it?  A rush of memories instantly come back from the emotions you felt, the people you were with, or the struggles you were going through in that season of your life.  One song I know I will always associate with my time in Uganda is 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman.  At this time, I feel pain and agony every time hear the first few bars of the song.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful song, just since I have been here, I have probably heard it… 10,000 times.  Despite the desire to stab myself every time I hear it, down the road, the nostalgia might make me teary-eyed as I remember singing it at Watoto Church amongst my Ugandan friends and international family.

Yesterday, Jack shared that he had a dream about our last day when we were all leaving and saying our goodbyes.  The reality began to sink in that we all might never see each other again and if we do, it won’t be our entire 360 class and in different life circumstances.  The discipleship program is slowly winding down and we even have paid our last visit to some of the ministries we have been involved in. 

Last time to visit the kids at Retrack with my Central team.

It seems like ancient history when we first were informed of when our week off would be.  At the time, it seemed like it our week off was nothing but a distant blimp.  Well, last week was our week off.  The first two days I spent in Jinja riding horses by the Nile with some of my international housemates.  Jinja is absolutely gorgeous and reminded me of a nice small town feel compared to the busy and dusty life in Kampala.

As soon as I came back from Jinja, I packed up to head out to western Uganda for a three day safari trip.  Our safari took place at Murchison Falls National Park, where we stayed at a beautiful lodge.  My friends and I have been dreaming to go on a safari for a long time and couldn’t wait to scratch it off our bucket lists.  The first evening upon arrival to the park, we went on our first game drive.  We went on another sunrise drive the next morning and then a boat ride in the afternoon of that day.  My favourite would have to be the first sunset game drive.  We all were flabbergasted that our dreams were finally becoming reality and our expectations of exploring through the African terrain were getting blown out of the water.  On that first evening, we were overwhelmingly blessed to see elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, and other wildlife.  We even were fortunate to see a lioness lying close to the road, in which our bus driver got out of our bus to wake it up and get it moving.  As we drove back to the lodge, holding on tightly to the bars we were sitting on the bus rooftop, with the sun setting behind us, we couldn’t help but thank God on how incredible His creation is.  We all pictured Jesus on that rooftop with us laughing His face off at this random group of people he brought together to be a family for six months in Uganda and saying to us, “You came to Africa to follow me and I want to bless you for it.  Look at how awesome my creation is!” 

Guess what song I listened to as I saw this sunrise… Click Here

I was looking forward to getting back to class this week to catch up with all of my classmates however this week started off with a bit of a rocky discouraging start.  This bump in the road lead me to adopt the feeling of being very drained and disheartened.  Thankfully, on Friday, we had a session on 2Thessalonians 3:13, growing weary of doing good.  It was just what I needed to hear to push me through the last six weeks of the program.  Even though I have become comfortable with the routine of my life here in Uganda, there are many things still to be learned, many friendships that can become stronger, many places I can impact even more, and many more areas I can grow in my character and relationship with God in these last few weeks.  It was a good wake up call to not check out but fully engage in what God has placed before me in this given season.

Now this season is approaching a close.  Our class has even started practicing our song that we will sing at our graduation ceremony.  YIKES!!  Every time, one of my friends want to discuss when I leave Uganda, I immediately shut down the conversation.  Let’s not discuss the end but live in the present.  Do I want this season to end?  NO!!!  This has been an amazing eye-opening and life-changing experience, where I have been tested and stretched out of my comfort zone.  I will miss it.  I will miss picking up garbage at markets, miss going to the Bbira to play volleyball, miss going to the slums to share life with HIV+ women, miss playing scrabble while waiting for all the ministry teams to come back, miss having men catcall at me as I walk down the street… (THAT’S FALSE), miss being a part of a mega-church, miss Sunday fun with my neighbourhood friends, and miss random holiday celebrations with my housemates.

 Beauty and the Beast at Disney Day

However, it best be that I do not prolong this stage of life.  I wouldn’t want to be sitting in limbo, holding onto something that has been expired.  A new season will begin after 360 and I look forward to what that might be.  Is there a possibility of me coming back to Uganda one day?  Absolutely, but it will be in a different season.

Peace and love

This Beautiful Mess

Recently I picked up the book Kisses from Katie.  If you have not heard of Katie Davis, you should look her up.   Katie Davis lives in Jinja, Uganda with her 13 adopted children where she directs a ministry that reaches hundreds of children throughout Uganda.  Did I mention she is 23??  Anyway, as I have been reading her book, Katie keeps talking about how in love she is with the country and about how many simple yet beautiful things she has encountered.   I decided that my personal prayer for the week would be:

To see beauty in the midst of turmoil and chaos of the world.  To see God’s hand at work even when there is so much destruction and corruption that can snatch away my attention.

Tuesday:

-         -  Waves and smiles from the children at God’s Grace Orphanage as our bus dropped off another team there.

-          - Sitting next to a tree, holding the hands of a prisoner, and praying for her freedom and return back home to her four children.

Wednesday:

-         -  In class we watched a Louis Giglio sermon from a Passion conference entitled Symphony of Praise.  I nearly bawled my eyes out like four times.  In the video, Louis blended different sounds from nature and then played the track How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin with it.  Hauntingly beautiful was the best to describe it as different sounds from all over creation worshipped God.  Click here to watch a video on it.

-          - The central team in our district pastor’s office laughing our faces off.

-         -  My friend Jackie quizzing me on Luganda words and my memory verses.

Thursday:

-          - Playing with a long string until it breaks with five barefooted toddlers out on the porch at God’s Grace

-          - A fourteen year old boy shares with me how thankful he is to have been at God’s Grace for the past five years instead of living on the streets.

At God’s Grace Orphanage, you can find those beautiful moments even when you see a child only wearing one sock and shoe to school, see a stream of urine dribble from a diaper-less child on the porch, or have your clothes filthy dirty after hugging children who probably only have one or two sets of clothes and haven’t bathed in days.  Even in extreme poverty, I can sense an overwhelming presence of love throughout the place.

At this point in my week, I was thinking that my challenge of finding beauty in the midst of chaos wasn’t as difficult as I thought.  Like a slap in the face, I thought wrong.  Here is my journal entry from when I returned back to the church after visiting God’s Grace Orphanage.

I’m in a thick of a cloud today and I do not know why or how to get out of it.  It’s so difficult to see beauty in the midst of corruption and destruction.  It’s so hard to focus on the smiles and laughs at God’s Grace when I then see a mob outside the church beating a man to death for stealing a laptop from a nearby store.  It is so hard to see beauty as those around me flock to the balcony’s edge to watch in excitement.  It is so hard to be the one to walk away.  It is so hard to pray for God to bring justice to the thief and save his life.  Why does destruction overpower the beautiful things? 

Yeah…. To say I was a little discouraged after that moment would be an understatement but quitting my challenge would not solve anything.  The enemy will not win.

Friday:

-         -  Our bus driver showing us how he laminated the birthday card we made for him

-          - My friend sharing her life story with such bravery and courage in front of the entire class

Saturday:

-         -  The girls in our class were asked to help out at Watoto’s women’s conference called Daughter’s of Destiny.  We set up a booth for women to get free manicures during breaks at the conference.  One of the key-note speakers was the Executive Director of Kampala aka the mayor of Kampala.  All my discouragement from Thursday melted away as Jennifer spoke.  Let me tell you, this woman is a mustard seed in a corrupted government.  Because of Jennifer, there is now a water fountain and garden outside of Central church with promise of more gardens to go around the city.  Because of Jennifer, lots of property and money has been returned throughout Kampala.  Her job is not easy but she does it because, in her words, “God has placed me here for this period of time to act in this role.”  Jennifer is slowly beginning to infiltrate the government with restoration and justice even if it means risking her life (many people want her and her family killed).   Hope is rising in Uganda.   Restoration will not happen overnight but things have been gradually developing over time.

Sunday:

-         -  For the past three Sundays, this new couple from church have been handing their two year old to me crying his eyes out for Children’s Church.  He will eventually calm down and timidly observe the happenings of the crazy Amazing Class.  This Sunday, he got up to dance with the other children for the first time as we sang silly songs.

-          - Hearing my name called at the gate of our house by the children that live down the street.

Monday:

-         -  Teaching my friend how to swim at Kabira Country Club on our day off.

In conclusion to my week’s challenge, this world is a mess but I am called to put on God’s eyes to see what is beautiful in the midst of it all.  People screw up but we can fix what is unjust or corrupted by walking away or doing small acts towards restoration.

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things out of us

Lyrics from this song: Gungor’s Beautiful Things

Peace and love

A Year ago Today

Reflection could be personally defined as something that was beaten to death in my education degree.  Even though I hated writing reflection after reflection about lesson plans or educational experiences, I did learn how valuable reflecting truly is.  It always seems to be around a holiday that I look upon what I was up to the year before.  Every birthday, new years, or thanksgiving, I will remember what I did on that day the following year.

Last year around this time, I just finished my final teaching practicum and all the course work for my degree(yes, all those blasted reflections!).  Going to Africa was a small idea brewing in my head.   This year I am at God’s Grace Orphanage, a three bedroom house home to one hundred and twenty children.  They fast and pray as they regularly don't have money for food. They sleep up to 7 kids on a foam mattress inside the home, and the bathrooms outside do not have a roof or even curtains on the doors for privacy. Although there are so few resources and funding to support all these children, the kids at God’s Grace are something else.  We were mobbed by smiling children fighting to hold our hands, and greeting us as Auntie or Uncle as we arrived.  We taught the children a Bible lesson in their tiny schoolhouse outside their home before playing games and singing songs out on the red dirt road.  As we left the orphanage, one of my team members had to stay out of the bus to keep the children from crowding the bus.  It is really difficult for me to portray how special this place is.  The children have such a presence of love and joy about them as they hugged us and talked with us.  Later on in the week, another team visited God’s Grace to only get to witness a huge truck delivering tons of new mattresses to the children.  

Last year I spent my days perfecting my resume and cover letters to hand out to school districts, cleaning my neglected basement suite, hanging out at the Mustard Seed every weekend, and exploring the local trails around Victoria.  This year, I am visiting Akiba, a home for children with cancer.  I spent my day there washing walls, laughing, dancing and running around with kids.  We were informed that a boy we met the previous visit successfully underwent his operation to remove the large tumor on his neck.  Please keep Emma in your prayers for a speedy recovery.  He is maybe 9 or 10 years old with a beautiful smile and likes to play soccer.

Two years ago, I was in Rome along with another million tourists and pilgrims for Holy Week.  I visited the Sistine Chapel, and witnessed part of the Palm Sunday service at St. Marco’s Basilica.  This year, I attended a Revival Night and Praise Rally in the heart of Kampala at Watoto Central.  The Praise Rally alone had 6,000 people singing, dancing, and worshiping in the church and the parking lot for four hours straight.

Last year on Good Friday, I went to a citywide church service at the local hockey arena where I ran into many people I knew from different churches throughout Victoria.  This year on Good Friday, I attended A Night to Unite which essentially is a multi-congregational church service as well with thousands and thousands of Ugandans.  We arrived at the large fairgrounds at around 5pm.  From 6pm to 10pm, we sang, danced, prayed, listened to a sermon, and had a massive communion.  Oh and did I mention we danced!  I think I will have a really hard time not moving around in the pews during church worship when I get back home.  We danced to some African worship songs, and then at the end we formed a LONG chain as we sang Hillsong’s Running.  Callie lost her sandal in the midst of the chaos and I was sure that if I fell down, I would be trampled to death in this Christian mosh-pit!

Four years ago, I woke up early in my dorm to walk down a forest trail in the pouring rain to attend a sunrise Easter service on the beach by the ocean.  Last year, I celebrated Easter at a potluck at my friend Daphne’s house.  This year, I taught little two to four year olds about Jesus raising from the dead by narrating a play and singing songs with them.  I ran down the hill by my house with my little neighbor friends and ate matooke, chapati, g-nut sauce, rice, pumpkin, and some type of meat for Easter lunch.  On Easter Monday, Jess and Danielle planned some activities including egg painting and a hunt around our compound.

So many things have happened in just a year and I can see how much I have been shaped and molded into a better disciple over the last year.  I wonder where I will be and what I will be doing next Easter season.

Happy Easter everyone!  I will leave you with this Easter song I sang with thousands of Ugandans over this Holy Week --> Hillsong's Man of Sorrows

Peace and love