"God, You are BEYOND amazing!!!"

Thursday, November 19, 2009

So another phone bites the dust.

Well, gets dropped in the dust and then gets rolled over by the van…yup, guess what is next…the screen is broken. It still works but I can’t see the screen. Ai Vi. I am peko (trouble).

But that wasn’t the most exciting part of the day.

WE WERE APPROVED BY ECM AND THE SCHOOL TO BUILD, START AND MANAGE A LIBRARY/COMMUNITY CENTER AT TEGOT PRIMARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got word this morning via phone that both Charles and Lorella said we can go with it – and I just sent the proposal in last night! It will be used as a library for the school and community and we will be able to do programming such as adult education and unschooled classes!!! PRAISE GOD! I have ALWAYS wanted to open and run my own community center...granted it isn’t mine, but I get to play a huge part in starting one up with all the ideas I’ve had over the years! When I got off the phone with Charles I just started jumping up and down waving my hands in excitement. I then told the rest of the staff why I was jumping about and EVERYONE was so excited and giving praises to the LORD. Oh how sweet!!! We were all jubilant and thrilled that God is blessing us so richly for His people of Tegot.

When we arrived at Tegot, the women and Pato went to teach the unschooled children while Simon and I wandered through the old camp to see who was still living in the old camp and needed to be resettled. See, the government came around yesterday and marked the ots that needed to be destroyed with numbers. People need to resettle asap. If not, they have nowhere to live. We realized how that will affect our children and wanted to take inventory of who was resettled and who was not. We especially wanted to know why people were not resettled. Families who had a male head of household were in the process of moving. However, single mothers, grandmothers, and aunties, who some were disabled or just too weak, are faced with the difficulty of not being able to afford and build their homes. Here is where we wanted to see how ECM could help. We found out 11 families, 20 of our children, were without means and ability to resettle back home. We asked for the number in the household and the village they were to move back to. While we were doing that, we met a man, (who happens to be the father of one of our children!) who would be willing to manage a team of men to make bricks, construct and lay the foundation of homes for less than 40,000 Ushillings – otherwise known as $22. $22!!!!!!!!!!!! And people will be homeless if they don’t have $22?!??

We again took Anena to the clinic in town. It gave Simon and me a lot of time to talk through the information we gathered and come up with a plan. Anena’s wound is getting sooooooo much better – PG! She barely squirmed and cried a little. We will need to continue going probably through the weekend. But Praise the LORD she is healing!!

When we arrived back we dropped Scov at tutoring and did more interviews and walking around the old camp. When we got back I was able to do some more first aid. I found a great composition type notebook where I can log all the things I will be treating. I felt like I was at Y Camp doing medical logs!! I do have to say my favorite first aid supplies are hydrogen peroxide and iodine – I just need some cotton balls. Goodness does stuff heal with that stuff!!!! I seem to have a grove set in on all of this…well, at least I know better what to do. I actually enjoy it a lot. I was actually thinking of maybe going to nursing school here. Maybe. Anyways, I also need to purchase more peroxide and iodine soon. That stuff is the bomb!!
Melissa and Sarah made dinner tonight for all of us – Simon, Pato (Patrick), and us girls. I was supposed to help but I got caught up. It was absolutely delicious! It was taco night – even some guacamole! Boy is it good even without cilantro! We all then drove Pato home to Lacor (La Cho). It was fun listening in on Simon and Melissa try to communicate. Sarah and I just giggled in the back. I like the fact that we are always laughing and talking. It is such a good team. I pray Sarah and Melissa come back soon. They will be so missed.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about if I am “really happy/content here”. If what I am writing really is how I feel. And yes, it is. There is nothing that crosses my mind that I don’t write about. With that being said I want to address the concept of marriage right now so I can just answer it all here. There was a point I felt that I honestly loved someone and wanted to marry that man. I shared that right before I left and had such a burden taken off my shoulders it was unreal. After it was said, I never looked back and just felt more confident in Uganda…not in my feelings for him. It was as if it didn’t matter the after fact of what I just told but rather it mattered that I was honest, claimed myself in a situation and moved forward regardless in God’s will. It was a burden of honesty that was weighing me down. I needed to let go of one thing in order to gain another. I was free literally right after the conversation (which is total God thing!). Being in Uganda I believe I only thought about marriage once, and it was after a bad dream that distracted me (I wrote about it awhile back in the beginning of this journey). I talked it through thoroughly with Sarah who holds me accountable even if she is across the planet and I was able to realize Satan was trying to distract me with something that I already passed through. Then it was done. PG!! In the past few days, it has been coming up whether with a Ugandan in conversation or emails/IM’s I am getting from people. Anyways, I believe what I said yesterday about life really being about understanding, doing and being what God created you to be and love. I also spoke about freely loving people. I will continue to hold fast onto that. The Acholi people, and specifically the people of Tegot, are the people I love and want to invest my life into at this point in time. Daily it is changing me, rather I should say transforming me into the likeness of Christ. Yes, there are battles but I am constantly in His armor that the battle is able to be won completely by Him. I can’t imagine my life without these people – regardless if I am here for two years or for the rest of my life, this is the most important part to me. The journey of my past life has led to this right now and the journey ahead leads to an eternal life that excites the mess out of me! For someone to be my husband, he HAS to know and feel and be in this love that I am so completely in love with…there is no way I could possibly truly love someone more than these people unless he fully knew them and loved them as well. So, that being said, please understand that I am fully content and happy EXACTLY where I am. I will never, not be honest either on this blog. It is a way for you to understand the people, God and me better – that this ministry isn’t just an adventure or something I was called to do – it is a journey in an amazing relationship with the One who chose to speak clearly to me in a place called Tegot.

Now, that I am laying down getting ready to go to bed after a nice cold shower, I am just so impressed with God. This morning after my bible study (to which I am almost done!!) I just sat, drank some tea and worshipped the LORD on the porch. I wanted to pray, and did so a bit, but I just wanted to dwell on how good He is. I wasn’t really sure why at first I was feeling that, but after all the news today I know now that He was just preparing me to walk with absolute faith and with my eyes wide open to see Him!