Wednesday, August 31, 2011
on being content where i am
God, I trust Your provision and plan. Lead my steps each day, guiding me waking and guarding me sleeping, and humbling me hour by hour as I see face to face my desperate need for You. Remind me that I am living in a mere tent, yearning for a better country and a home to call my own--and speak to my heart that Your plans are better.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
To Gulu
Hi friends!
Tomorrow our team of 14 will join 200 Uganda university students for a week of service, discipleship, and general mayhem in Gulu, a region in northern Uganda where Watoto, the church we are working with, has established a children's village where orphans live with adoptive mothers and up to seven other children in a home. This is sort of the culmination of the past few weeks' services projects and acquainting with Watoto's mission and involvement in Uganda (and now South Africa as well, with hopes to expand to South Sudan by the end of the year, and potential future projects in Ghana and various other African nations. In fact, if you haven't checked out Watoto's website yet, I'd encourage you to do so; this is truly an incredible ministry that is bringing the love of Christ to Uganda in tangible and invisible ways).
On Sunday after church (when our team served as the choir for 2 services of 800 and 1300 congregants after only having learned the songs--some in English and some in Luganda--during a 20 minute rehearsal the night before... Yet we did it for an audience of One!) we visited Ssubi, one of Watoto's children's villages. After eating a meal in one of Mama Irene and her children, I took a walk with the two youngest girls, Miriam and Violet, who showed me the swingset and wrangled my hair into three impressive braids. As we walked over to watch a game of basketball between the bazungu (foreigners) and some of Ssubi's best basketball talent, I asked a simple question, the response to which I want to share with you: "What does it mean to be a Christian?" There are two parts, they told me: to obey God and share Jesus with people.
So I've been striving to frame my time in Uganda this way, because in these two simple commands I see a parallel with what Jesus affirms as the two greatest commandments in Matthew 22: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.... And love your neighbor as yourself." What better love can we show God than to obey Him as He requires in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 ("Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.")? And how do we better love our neighbors than by sharing with them Jesus, both as we tell of the salvation and hope we have in Him and become His hands and feet in service to our neighbors? Lord, only let us fulfill these two commands as daily we are conformed to the likeness of Christ.
I'll leave you with that for now, as well as many thanks for your faithful and loving support of me and the team! Be greatly blessed.
Love,
Jessikua*
*I've found that I've picked up (or maybe resurrected) quite a strong "African" accent, which has lead to the team calling me "Jessikua," I mixture of the name my parents gave me and the name my host family in Ghana gave me, Akua, which means "girl who was born on Wednesday." But don't worry... It doesn't show itself when I'm speaking with bazungu.
Tomorrow our team of 14 will join 200 Uganda university students for a week of service, discipleship, and general mayhem in Gulu, a region in northern Uganda where Watoto, the church we are working with, has established a children's village where orphans live with adoptive mothers and up to seven other children in a home. This is sort of the culmination of the past few weeks' services projects and acquainting with Watoto's mission and involvement in Uganda (and now South Africa as well, with hopes to expand to South Sudan by the end of the year, and potential future projects in Ghana and various other African nations. In fact, if you haven't checked out Watoto's website yet, I'd encourage you to do so; this is truly an incredible ministry that is bringing the love of Christ to Uganda in tangible and invisible ways).
On Sunday after church (when our team served as the choir for 2 services of 800 and 1300 congregants after only having learned the songs--some in English and some in Luganda--during a 20 minute rehearsal the night before... Yet we did it for an audience of One!) we visited Ssubi, one of Watoto's children's villages. After eating a meal in one of Mama Irene and her children, I took a walk with the two youngest girls, Miriam and Violet, who showed me the swingset and wrangled my hair into three impressive braids. As we walked over to watch a game of basketball between the bazungu (foreigners) and some of Ssubi's best basketball talent, I asked a simple question, the response to which I want to share with you: "What does it mean to be a Christian?" There are two parts, they told me: to obey God and share Jesus with people.
So I've been striving to frame my time in Uganda this way, because in these two simple commands I see a parallel with what Jesus affirms as the two greatest commandments in Matthew 22: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.... And love your neighbor as yourself." What better love can we show God than to obey Him as He requires in 1 Samuel 15:22-23 ("Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.")? And how do we better love our neighbors than by sharing with them Jesus, both as we tell of the salvation and hope we have in Him and become His hands and feet in service to our neighbors? Lord, only let us fulfill these two commands as daily we are conformed to the likeness of Christ.
I'll leave you with that for now, as well as many thanks for your faithful and loving support of me and the team! Be greatly blessed.
Love,
Jessikua*
*I've found that I've picked up (or maybe resurrected) quite a strong "African" accent, which has lead to the team calling me "Jessikua," I mixture of the name my parents gave me and the name my host family in Ghana gave me, Akua, which means "girl who was born on Wednesday." But don't worry... It doesn't show itself when I'm speaking with bazungu.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Along for the Ride
I've spent a lot of time sitting in a bus recently. Traveling between Emmaus Guest House or Adonai Guest House and Watoto Church, the Naguru Remand Home, New Hope Teenage Pregnancy Center, the Bullrushes babies' orphanage, Ssuubi children's village, the School for the Physically Handicapped, and Makerere University has meant many cumulative hours traversing the roads of Kampala--and, I will note, they are for the most part wonderfully smooth roads; I've been surprised to find Uganda (or at the least the corner of it I've explored so far in Kampala) fairly well developed. But aside from that:
I'm not just riding along on a bus... I feel like I'm riding along on with God, and He's showing me everything He's doing without letting me get my hands too dirty or my feet too wet, because He wants to humble me and remind me daily that ultimately, I came to Uganda to do His work and not my own projects. In some ways, as I've been trundled off in the bus to so many different ministries, usually as a "visitor" and not a "volunteer," I wonder why I am in Uganda, who I am actually serving. But God is persistent in reminding me that I am not Him, but rather the one I am serving is Him. He is showing me day by day testimonies of His surpassing love, and of the way He is redeeming creation--and repeating to me that He does not need my hands, but He wants them to be fully surrendered to Him.
Internet access has turned out not to be too difficult to procure, but time has been, so for now: Thank you for your prayers, love, and support, and I send you mine in return! May God guard you sleeping and guide you waking.
I'm not just riding along on a bus... I feel like I'm riding along on with God, and He's showing me everything He's doing without letting me get my hands too dirty or my feet too wet, because He wants to humble me and remind me daily that ultimately, I came to Uganda to do His work and not my own projects. In some ways, as I've been trundled off in the bus to so many different ministries, usually as a "visitor" and not a "volunteer," I wonder why I am in Uganda, who I am actually serving. But God is persistent in reminding me that I am not Him, but rather the one I am serving is Him. He is showing me day by day testimonies of His surpassing love, and of the way He is redeeming creation--and repeating to me that He does not need my hands, but He wants them to be fully surrendered to Him.
Internet access has turned out not to be too difficult to procure, but time has been, so for now: Thank you for your prayers, love, and support, and I send you mine in return! May God guard you sleeping and guide you waking.
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