Reflections on our life and lessons in uganda |
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Some of you know, many don’t, that I have a tattoo on my ankle that has references for several verses. These are the verses that shaped my life or have a special meaning to me. One of those verses is Philippians 1:29. It says, “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” I remember clearly the first time I read this verse. I knew I was called to missions in some form or fashion, but this really drove home the idea for me. It doesn’t say, well some of you are going to have to suffer, sorry. It says it has been granted to us, this holds the idea of honor. Being able to believe in Jesus is a gift, and this verse shows us that so is the chance to suffer for Him. It has been GRANTED to us to suffer for Him. I was blown away at the idea that suffering for Jesus could be a gift.
Hey everyone. This is kind of a combined post. Wednesday night pastor Matt apparently taught on bullies or something along those lines (I was in the nursery). Jon told me after that it was really moving for him, not just because of the message but because of what God showed him through it. It really struck a cord with me; because it resonated with a message God hit me hard with in recent years. With Jon’s permission, I’m going to include his notes below, please note there are some pretty horrific things going on in Uganda’s neck of the woods and they are briefly described below: (I just don’t want to send anyone in unprepared)
“Bullies The LRA are bullies. The favored tactic of the LRA since the 80's has been to abduct children from their homes; kids between the ages of 4 and 12 primarily. The drag then into the forest and turn them into soldiers by means of violent indoctrination. Killing other kids who have been abducted, and torturing them by means of slicing and removing body parts usually genitalia. After indoctrinating the kids, they usually bring them back to their families and force them to kill their parents and other siblings that weren't taken, this not only finishes the process of turning them from children into dark soldiers, but ensures they have no place to run away to. They are bullies because they take people who are helpless against them and force them to do according to the evil that is in the hearts of the soldiers. They are bullies because they can't find someone their own size to pick on. I WILL ARISE. I want to be there for the kids when they have no place else to run to; when they don't even know how to be kids anymore; when all they know is how to kill, because everything they ever loved was destroyed by their own forced hand. I believe that God has called me away from the American Church norm of having 2 and half kids and a white picket fence in order to keep my eyes open to God's children who have no earthly parents, God's children who don't remember what it's like to be loved. I will stand in the way of bullies, they are my enemy. Anyone who desires to hurt a precious child of God will be my enemy. God please use me...show me what it looks like to take a stand.” I think in the American church, we often feel that to stand against something is un-Christlike or wrong. Or at least to stand against it in any real way. We love to be point-click-activists (i.e. facebook activists). We’ll click like on a cause and then forget about it. We actually saw this multiple times in relation to Uganda. When Invisible Children first came out there was a huge push to “raise awareness” and it was all over facebook. Then that push died. Then the stop Kony movement came about with a flashy new hashtag and that was all the rage, for a bit. I think a great tactic from the enemy has been to make us feel like we’re doing something when we ‘like’ something on facebook or share a link. I think another brilliant strategy has been making seriously evil ‘causes’ into fads. For a while, we get riled up and want to push to change things. But then something else hits the headlines or becomes the popular issue and we lose sight of the atrocities we were rallying around just hours before. It’s easy to stand behind something from behind the computer screen or to say you’re in support of people working to change it. We love to do that as Americans. If you knew college-Kristin, you’d know I was the biggest facebook activist of them all. I’d tape my mouth for life-day, and walk around barefoot for the Toms shoes day, and I’d post links like crazy, calling out all the not-as-up-to-date-shallow-average-people. (I’ll admit it, college-Kristin was kind of the worst). But then God pulled me back into my real calling and gave me a sharp reality check. Just because the “invisible children’s” faces aren’t all over my facebook feed doesn’t mean they aren’t still facing horrendous suffering. Just because something isn’t popular to be riled up about doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still make our blood boil to hear about it. Sustainable change is hard and it requires perseverance and sacrifice. And then God showed me this truth and rocked my world: just because I’d forgotten about the suffering people around the world didn’t mean that He had. If I am called to be Christ’s representative here on earth, how can I think that sharing links all day every day is enough? Above, Jon boldly declared to stand against evil men committing atrocities. But more importantly, he vowed to stand with the children of God and to be His open arms waiting to tell them that someone does love, claim and cherish them. They don’t care that I ‘liked’ their cause one time before I went on to sip my chocomochalattepuccino and hit the mall for a little “me time”. Those who are suffering will only know my heart is for them when I make a real stand and pour out my life for them. Why? Because Jesus came and poured out His life for me. If the Creator of the universe can give His life, His entire life, for me, how can I do anything but pour out my life for others around me? I don’t believe everyone should pack up and move across the world to far away countries. I do, however, boldly state that if followers of Jesus are not giving their lives to serve and love those around them, they have missed the point. It isn’t enough to just facebook rant about whatever the popular issue is. It isn’t enough to live our lives for ourselves and ignore the children of God around the world. My plea to all who claim the name of Jesus is to not be satisfied with this powerless, loveless Christianity that has become the norm in America. We are called to be world-changing, people-loving, God-fearing, poured-out servants. And the crazy thing is, there’s nothing more satisfying and fulfilling than to give your life for another. And I’m not talking about taking a bullet for someone. I’m talking about true sacrificial love that lets itself be given for the sake of another. That is the kind of life we are made for, and we won’t ever really be joy-filled if we don’t have God’s heart. Jesus said it best in Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets”.” If we love God and are growing in Him we are going to love people. And love will NOT sit idly by when its’ object is suffering. So it’s time for us to arise, to stand against evil, to stand with the weak, the hurting, those who suffer and walk in the footsteps of our servant-King, Jesus. As Jon said earlier, my prayer is this: God, teach show me what it looks like to take a stand. Prayer Requests: Jon and I are getting ready to put our house on the market next week. Prayer for guidance and a quick sale (Lord willing!) I’ve been working on this blogpost for a while. I wasn’t sure what or how to say it; I just knew it was my next topic. To be honest, as I’m typing I’m still not sure how to say what it is that is weighing on me. I just know that I need to. I thought I did for myself, but I think now (after hearing the teaching from church last night) that I need to do it for more than me. I think it’s really for all of us. I have a lot of uh… “quirks” to me. (As you can see). It’s been one of the greatest challenges of my life to understand, accept and embrace that God designed my personality as He did. As a friend put it during his teaching, “God loves me. Not only that, He LIKES me! He like really likes me, He doesn’t just tolerate me!” And I think each and every one of us has a struggle to truly embrace that truth in our life, especially teenage girls. Having been one myself, I still struggle to move past the hurt that faced me as a weirdo back then. Even in the church, I did not fit in. We are told constantly how we OUGHT to be. Culture says we ought to be beautiful, and funny, and smart, and witty, and thin, and cute, and spunky, and flirty and and and. It’s easy for us in the church to reject that. But we have this constant stream of OUGHT from the church too. (I can’t speak really to men here, being as I’m not one :P). But women are told REPEATEDLY that we are to get married, settle down, have kids, stay home, and join Bible study. Which is all great stuff to do, IF you’re called to it. I have been told that a woman who has no desire for children is: not saved, an abomination, in unrepentant sin, unmarriable, in need of prayer to change her heart, unnatural, duped their husbands into marriage… So you can imagine the discouragement one might feel if they don’t desire children. I am one such woman. It’s not that I hate children (it’s my primary ministry in church). I don’t hate God’s ruling in my life; I strive to walk in the center of His will for me. Yet somehow the GENERAL feel in a lot of the American church is that I’m broken. (I can only imagine that single women or other folks who don’t fit the mold must feel somewhat the same). This general air of disapproval for who I felt called to be should not have, but DID, allow for a foothold for the Enemy in my life. For many years I believed the lie he whispered that I was somehow broken, dysfunctional, worthless… Then God led me to a husband with the same desires and callings in his life, and He led me to a church eager and willing to send people out for the gospel, and He led me to a ministry that has a heart to go to dangerous places and provide love, security and acceptance to children who have been left alone with no one to claim them. And He revealed in Jon and I a desire to be free to move into dangerous areas and do dangerous work for His glory. I don’t think parents are necessarily suited to some work for the Lord, because it is reckless and foolish to risk your life when you have committed to raising children for the Lord. Where the Lord leads, we need to follow, but Jon and I are uniquely suited to MORE dangerous work than some others may be because they have children to love and raise up. Jon and I are uniquely suited to love on children who have no one, and if God calls, to help raise up these children who’ve been abandoned and left on their own. God can call us to active warzones, to disease-ridden areas, to areas where we may be martyred, and we can go with no reservation because we don’t have little lives depending on us to be “mom” and “dad”. This is one example of how God designed me to be suited for the unique calling He has on my life. It is my PERSONAL example of how not fitting in to what is expected, is exactly what He expected of me. Even crazier, He DESIGNED that into me. He designed in my ability to get along with children better than adults, my desire to help children while not raising my own, my love of helping the hurting, my odd sense of humor, my goofy laugh, my social-awkwardness, and my intense desire to go do things that other people see and insane and dangerous. Each of these things and more I can see now how they perfectly fit the plan He put in place for my life. So my plea today is to root out in ourselves what is sinful, to repent and turn from it. But to not confuse the unique designs of God for mistakes or errors in our personalities. We are all called to various ministries and places, and we should not allow ourselves to believe the lie that God made a mistake in us, or that He wishes we would change who He made us to be. We should not believe that we are all called to the same life and same personalities. God loves variety in His flowers, trees, fish, birds and all of creation; why would we believe that is any different in His children? And for those of us in the privileged position of being involved in ministries, friendships, families, whatevers, we must be cautious not to, intentionally or otherwise, discourage those around us with our “molds” we want to fit into. I don’t believe that a man/woman called to singleness, parent-less-ness (yup, that’s a word), late marriage, weird ministries or anything else should struggle to fit in the church. God has a distinct niche for each of His children that will say yes to His calling. For some of us that is raising our children in community with other wonderful believers in the local church, for some it is a life of singleness sold out for His glory, for some it’s ministry to those deemed “icky” or “weird”, for some it’s saying ‘God, I don’t know, but lead where you will and I’ll go single, married or otherwise’, and for some (I think) lucky few of us, it is saying ‘God, send me to Africa, I am ready to go’.” Prayer Requests: Still awaiting my updated passport. We are getting ready for our garage sale the weekend of the 12 of September, and we are preparing the house to go on the market! So every blog post up until now, Kristin has written. She is awesome and so great at taking care of so much of the work that needs done as we prepare for the mission field. But now, the time has finally come for me to get one of these written, and I wanted to share something that I've been stewin' on for a while now and it's this, What wouldn't I give up to follow after God?
A few weeks back I got to do one of my favorite things working for Aspen Flying Club as a mechanic. One of the airplanes that's a part of the rental fleet got stuck in Granby, CO., a small town with a small airport tucked up in the rockies. The exhaust valve on one of the cylinders on the engine got stuck open which meant the engine wouldn't start, and the cylinder would have to be replaced before the airplane could fly home, and without a maintenance shop at the airport in Granby, it meant I had a trip to take. So I loaded nearly every tool I own into the back of an airplane along with a new cylinder fresh from the engine shop and flew up to Granby. Every other time I've had to do an intensive job on an engine like changing a cylinder, it was in a nice warm shop with every tool I could need close at hand and an extra pair of hands just a shout over my shoulder away. A job that would normally take me two hours ended up taking about 6 hours on a very hot and sunny asphalt tarmac at 8000 feet above sea level. To make it even more exciting, afternoon storms seemed to be brewing, making me think I wasn't going to make it back home that day. Once the new cylinder was installed and I had the engine all put back together, my friend who was with me in the plane we flew out had left to head back home hours ago, so my ride home depended on the quality of work I am capable of, and maybe a little luck. A new cylinder meant doing a test run to check for leaks before the flight home, so I climbed into the airplane turned on the master switch to get some electrical power and nothing happened. Turns out, the pilot who had been flying the airplane when it broke down, ran down the battery trying to start it. Since I didn't know about the battery issue, I wasn't prepared with a charger or a new battery. So I grabbed the airport car, which I was extremely thankful that the airport provided for pilots, and headed into town for a meal and hotel...and hopefully some aloe for my new burns from working in the sun at that altitude. The next morning another friend of mine flew up to Granby with a power jump box, much like the ones you carry in your car for emergencies. We got the airplane started and I flew it back home hoping and praying the whole way that my work would hold up and I wouldn't have any engine problems, and that, since the battery was bad, the alternator held out so I didn't have any electrical problems. It certainly wasn't a worry-free flight; unnerving at best, but I made it home safe and sound. Even though I was unsure about how the airplane was going to work, and frankly a little scared of the outcome, there are some flights that remind me why I'm a pilot, and this was one. After I pushed the throttle in to take-off and checked that my engine instruments were in the green, I started praying that God would see me home safe. Granby is nestled on the north side of a wide valley in the rockies, and on the other side of a 13,000 foot ridge that has to be crossed to get to Denver. As I climbed in the valley, flying circles to gain altitude, it really hit me what I was doing. The air was perfectly smooth, the airplane was working great, and I was flying through some of the most gorgeous terrain in the world. Even though my knees might have been a little shaky, I believe God was seeing me through a smooth flight home. The best part about flying from Granby Airport to Centennial Airport is once you clear that 13,000 foot ridge, you just start descending about 300 feet a minute until you hit the runway 50 miles to the east. It was an absolutely beautiful flight, and even though the trip took longer than I planned, I wouldn't trade the experience for about anything. There are a lot of mission organizations whose work revolve around airplanes. Organizations like Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), JAARS, and even Doctors Without Borders relies heavily on the speedy travel an airplane provides. In fact, they're used to such an extent that most people, I think, relate mission work to aviation. I've been asked at least a dozen times already, "Are you going to do a lot of flying when you get to Uganda?" or "You must be so excited, I bet the flying out there is incredible!" And I guess I have to agree with that, because I'd bet it's incredible too. But the truth of the matter is, we're not joining MAF or JARRS, we are joining along with a start up mission, one that is so new, it doesn't even have a name yet because we're still in the process of establishing the non-governmental organization (NGO). The advantage of MAF is that they are already established, they have the airplanes, the facilities to store and maintain them, and the support to keep them flying on a daily basis all around the world. As part of a start up mission, we don't even have the capital to build a hut, let alone fund an airplane operation. Some people would read that last sentence, and see it as a discouragement, but I just see it as an opportunity to be faithful; a time to say "God, you called me, and I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm going to answer the call." If Jesus conversation with rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22) teaches us anything, it's that religion doesn't cut it. That God never honors compromise, only sacrifice. That following Jesus means getting uncomfortable. And that for me, I might not fly for a few years, I might not fly for a few decades, I may never get to fly another airplane again. But if that's what takes for my footprints to match Jesus', then I will do nothing less. Besides, in light of eternity of Jesus Christ, what can I even consider to be a sacrifice on earth. What's a lifetime of flying in light of an eternity of soaring on wings as eagles! To answer the question we started with, What wouldn't I give up to follow after God? The answer is nothing. The reward of having stuff is getting more stuff and never being satisfied, the reward of following God is living everyday satisfied. Whatever plans we can make for ourselves, no matter how big, no matter how awesome; God's plan will ALWAYS be bigger, and it will ALWAYS be more awesome. I want to live out what God has for me. My prayer, as we stick my thoughts forever on the internet, is that whoever this post reaches will have a desire to live the same way. But don't just stop at a desire, let God develop a desperation in you to live out His plan for you, to follow after His footsteps, to see what He has in store for you! Fear. Faith. There is much of both in the steps Jon and I are taking. I have attempted to be very candid in these posts and I would not be fully truthful if I didn’t discuss my fears. My mom and I went shopping last week. We bought skirts, dresses, slips and a jacket for Uganda. As I walked around department stores talking with my mother about the reality of if this or that skirt would be washable in a river, I was struck by the contrast of the life I’m about to live. Some, ok most, days it seems so surreal to me that in about 6 months I’ll be boarding a plane to a different world entirely. I remember the first time I read about Elisabeth and Jim Elliot. I was in awe and wonder of their adventure, even though Jim’s was short-lived. I remember reading an excerpt from Jim’s journal where he talks about the excitement of being on his way, finally, to do the work God had called him to. The first time I read that, it resonated so deeply with me. At the time, Jon and I were just starting to date. I remember thinking what it would be like to sit on a plane next to Jon as we left our world behind. Now that is becoming a reality and the excitement makes my skin buzz. It’s also terrifying. Getting ready to face the reality of all I know for something completely alien and foreign has been an exercise in faith unlike anything I’ve ever faced. I heard growing up that faith was NOT the absence of fear. But that made no sense to me at the time. Fear has often crippled me, whether it was the childish fear of the dark, or my ever-present terror of bears (yes that’s true). I’ve often found my tongue paralyzed by the fear of man, and I have passed on opportunities I wanted for fear of failure. Moving to Uganda is requiring me to face most of my major fears: the unknown, failure, spiders, losing Jon, being faithless, death, illness, losing members of my family while I’m away… and so much more. Yet as this process began unfolding I found myself looking at faith in a way I had never had to before. Faith was no longer walking in what I was comfortable with or taking 3 insane seconds of courage. It has become looking at impossible odds, terrifying circumstances, unknown requirements, very real dangers, and sometimes trembling down into the soles of my shoes. Yet. I have learned to say that though I may be afraid, I trust God to handle it. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like I believe it myself. But faith is becoming bigger than feelings in my life. It is KNOWING deep in my soul that God will never leave or forsake me and that if He is calling me to this life of uncertainty, He’s going to make the way. It is rising up to walk before I have any proof that He has healed me. It is a deep-seated confidence in the supremacy of the God I serve over the comprehension of my senses or logic. It feels much like Indiana Jones stepping out to take the “leap of faith” and seeing nothing under his feet, but stepping anyway. Except that God has been and is faithful, so it is no longer a hesitant fall; it is a confident run into the things I can’t understand or control. I’ve always felt that God had made me a bit… peculiar. For a long time I struggled with accepting that. I see now that He hand-crafted me to be discontent with the status quo of the American lifestyle. The comforts and ease of our culture have a surprisingly strong appeal to me even though I always dreamed of leaving it for a life of adventure and excitement. Though I still look longingly to the day Jon and I can get on the plane and go, I never expected the fear that accompanies the thought. But I also used to not believe that I would ACTUALLY be called to the unusual. I never feared death, but I did fear working the same job for 50 years to retire and play golf and backgammon in Florida. Something in me expected and loathed the idea. Not that there’s anything wrong with that life. There isn’t. Many people live the life God has called them to doing just that and being a light in their world. It just never was meant for me, or Jon. Jim Elliot once said “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life, that I may burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like You, Lord Jesus… The will of God is always a bigger thing than we bargain for… Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul? Short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house consumed Him… ‘Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. Oh, Lord, set my heart on fire. Ignite my spirit with Your holiness and Your passion. May my life be kindling to start fires in the hearts and minds of all I encounter.” The danger of our goals and passions is very real. I am more than ready to give my life in service of my King, and Jon is as well. And though part of me hopes my mother doesn’t read this (for her own sake rather than mine), I will not mince words over the fact that death is a real possibility to our calling. But what is a physical death when the weight of human souls is on the line? I fear far more the empty existence of disobedience and half-hearted service. To look back with the weight of reality when we stand before His throne and see moment after moment where I balked and missed the chance to glorify His name. His work and will shall be accomplished whether I am obedient or not, but I pray God never lets me forget the weight of His calling on our life. I desire to be a faithful servant who can look back and say ‘Lord you gave me one, and produced a hundred-fold in my life through obedience’. I don’t fear dying in His service, I fear living outside of it. May God protect our hearts from complacency. I believe the comforts of America produce in our souls an apathy and numbness toward the weight of eternity. We have forgotten the value of a human soul. I am more and more convinced that the wealth and leisure of America is less of a blessing, and more of an inoculation to the world. I would not dream to say that the prosperity of America cannot be God’s blessing, but it produces in us a weakness of spirit. We have no drive, no resilience, no fortitude, no passion left in our spirits. We cannot endure anything difficult or painful or hard and rarely can we imagine anything worth sacrificing for. Hebrews 12:4 says, “You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.” And Jesus called His followers to take up their cross, and said that there is nowhere for Him to lay His head. It seems almost unfathomable in American culture that those who sacrifice the most end up with the greatest joy. We have been indoctrinated that God’s blessing only manifests as monetary wealth and physical comfort. I fear that even though I know this is untrue it may still cause me distraction in our work for the Lord. That, I think, is my greatest fear. The fear of apathy, and complacency. Prayer requests: We are looking into purchasing our plane tickets, and God has provided beyond measure. Thank Him for that. Pray for us as we continue to raise support and begin working toward selling the house. I have to go get a renewed passport this week, pray for no hiccups there! ALSO! Exciting news! We are having a spirit night at Chick-fil-A of Parker on August 25, 2015 from 4-8 pm, so feel free to come out and enjoy some chicken. A portion of the proceeds will go toward helping fund us doing the Lord’s work! Hello everyone! Today is such an exciting day for us! We have been accepted into the New Hope Uganda Institute of Childcare and Family (i.e. the 5-month training we are doing in January)!! This was the last big hurdle for us, so we are officially set to go. We are very excited. So before I go into more details on that I want to talk a little bit about rights. I’m an American citizen; I have rights, and freedoms and liberties. Very often in American culture we refuse to let anyone tread on said rights. But that isn’t the picture that we get with Jesus. As God, He is the only one who has any TRUE rights. He has the right to be worshipped, the right to be adored, the right to be obeyed, the right to be loved, the right to give, the right to take; and He CERTAINLY had the right to not be murdered on a cross at the hands of His own creation. However, that’s exactly what He did. He gave up his rights and took the punishment that was ours, which we could never pay, and paid it for us, AS us. Only a human could pay the price for humanity’s sin, so He became a lowly human and did it for us! We are told to take up our cross daily if we wish to follow Him (Matthew 16:24). This speaks of giving up our rights on a DAILY basis. In marriage, it’s my right to be put first. In service, it’s my “right” to a thank you or to fair distribution of workload. In youth ministry it’s my “right” to my time on Fridays, any sense of being cool I ever had, and my “right” to giving advice without having eyes rolled at me. In kids’ ministry it’s my right to not change 4 poopy diapers in the span of an hour.
In missions, it’s my right to my home, friends, family, comfort, flushing toilets, my church home, and all my worldly possessions. It’s the giving up of my rights to wearing and doing what I want. There are cultures and customs in Uganda that we just simply don’t have here. One such culture difference is the wearing of skirts. Anyone who has known me more than 5 seconds knows that you see me in a skirt or dress for 4 occasions: Easter, Christmas, weddings, and funerals. And that’s it. But in Uganda, women wear skirts. It’s becoming more acceptable to wear trousers (pants) but outside of the big cities it is still associated with a loose character as a woman. How am I to share the love of Jesus if people think I’m a “loose woman”? I won’t be able to. So even though it is NOT something I will enjoy, I will begin to modify what I wear and become accustomed to skirts. We will begin to learn new manners and customs, and will probably be scolded for unintentional rudeness more than once. We will be in a literal hut, with an iron sheet roof and concrete floors. We will have pit latrine (aka outhouse with a hole in the floor) for our bathrooms, and the shower stall is outside. As I read through some of these directions from New Hope, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’m completely insane for being so excited about it! But as I talked with my mom last night, I realized why I am: I won’t notice the discomfort or unusual customs the first time I see a Ugandan child grasp the love of Jesus for the first time, or when I get to help birth a baby, or when I pray at the bedside of someone dying from a preventable disease, or when pastors who have no training grasp the Bible and hunger for it. It is worth the death of my rights all day, every day to share the gospel of Jesus with those around me. And I pray the same is true for you. True ministry requires the death of our rights and wants; in exchange for a peace that passes understanding, and a joy no one can take from us. Charles Spurgeon once said , “Did you ever think of the tremendous value of a single soul. My hearers, if there were but one man in Siberia unsaved, and all the world were saved besides, if God should move our minds, it would be worthwhile for all the people in England to go after that one soul. Did you ever think of the value of a soul? Ah! ye have not heart the howls and yells of hell; ye have not heard the mighty songs and hosannas of the glorified; ye have no notion of what eternity is, or else ye would know the value of a soul. Ye who have been broken by conviction, humbled by the Spirit, and led to cry for mercy through the covenant Jesus; ye know something of what a soul's value is, but many of my hearers do not. Could we preach carelessly, could we pray coldly, if we knew what a precious thing it is about which we are concerned? No, surely we should be doubly in earnest that God will please to save sinners.” Please pray that God never let us forget the value of the work we are doing and that we never learn to de-value a soul over our own comforts or “rights”. Alright. So next steps and prayer request: We are accepted to NHICF (yay!). But in order to officially hold our spots we need to get the first half of the deposit in. This is $4000 for us ($2000/each). We don’t have $4000 lying around waiting to be given to Uganda. So please be in prayer that the Lord provide, but not just provide (because we know He will) but to provide in such a way as to bring glory to Himself. And please prayerfully consider giving as we move forward. We know He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), so He will get us whatever provision we need. Will keep posting as things roll forward! Thank you as always! Psalm 34:3 Kristin! Blog update #2 underway here. So first off, news! We submitted our applications to New Hope Uganda Institute of Childcare and Family for the 5 month training! We are very excited, and are prayerfully waiting on a decision. In all of this, one thing that has been weighing on my heart and mind is counting the cost. I’ve heard people asking why we would give up all we have here to go to a third world country, live in comparable poverty so far away from everything and everyone we love. Jon and I have wonderful families who love us, great friends, an amazing church family, good jobs, fun hobbies, a beautiful home, plenty of surplus to do things we enjoy… so why give all that up? Jesus said “to whom much is given, much will be required”. We have been given love, home, family, plenty, ample opportunity to study God’s Word, we’ve never missed a meal because money was tight, we have hot water on command, AC when it is warm out, healthcare at our fingertips, and yet… Across the world there are billions living in poverty. We have been blessed beyond measure and God has put it on our hearts to share what we have been given. It is not an options, it is a command. This does not mean that counting the cost is not difficult.
However, this is not just a somber thing of doing as we’re told. There is joy beyond measure in the thought that we get to go care for those treasured by our Lord and Savior. Though I ache to think of leaving my beautiful nieces behind, I can’t help but be comforted by the wonderful family they are surrounded by. Then I think of all the little ones in Uganda who have no one to claim or love them and I am blessed beyond measure to think that Jon and I can go share the love of Jesus with them. There’s a video I love that really touches my heart and helps clearly explain why it is worth all we are giving up and more to go share the love of Jesus. I’ll include the link below. So that’s where I’m at for now. Eagerly awaiting the next steps in our journey... Prayer Request: The applications are in, now we are waiting on an answer for the 5 month training in January. We’d love prayer for that: that we’d be patient, for God’s will to be done, and for a yes if at all possible. J After talking with Kent and Becca Nolley (thenolleys.com), God confirmed for Jon and I that we are to step out in faith to head toward the mission field. With the in-state training approaching more rapidly than I even realized, I can't help but get more and more excited. In two weeks we've found the team we hope to join, gotten board approval to be Calvary Cherry Creek's first missionaries, built a website, facebook page and email. Not to mention, we've formulated a plan that gets us to the field in 6 months! God has opened door after door after door. Every time I've asked for confirmation He has given it. We still have a lot to do, but He is providing in it all.
In doing all this I can't get the image out of my head of Ugandan children dancing for Jesus as they praise Him. It's like the Lord has put fire in my very bones and nothing can deter us from following His call. Yes, it's terrifying to think that in 6 months we will be heading to Uganda. The idea of leaving everything we've ever known is still a bit of a shake up. But Jesus said in Luke 9:62, "No man, having put his hand to the plow, who looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God." So although this is more than we could ever do on our own, we know that if we walk in accordance to what He calls us to, it will work out. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills; I'm sure he can sort out the logistical details for two of His kids with a heart to share the gospel! Will post more soon as things unfold! As always, please be in prayer. Psalm 34:3 -Kristin Next Steps: Please be in prayer. The next big step is to finish the application process for the 5 month training at New Hope Uganda. E-mail is hit or miss down there so we are hoping for an e-mail any day with the next steps in the process! |
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May 2020
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