Please pray for Kampala!

Just when I had thought the riots had calmed down, there were riots right outside the office today, tear gas being sprayed on the streets, roads are blocked. There is just a lot of political unrest. There is also a food shortage, so the cost of food has been raised causing riots. Continue praying for the entire nation of Uganda! 'If my people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray, He promises to heal the land.' Thank you all!

Please pray for Kampala, Uganda today!

Please pray for Kampala today! I got word that there were some political riots going on fairly close to where I'm currently staying. One of the presidential candidates was shot in the arm, nothing fatal. Currently, I'm away from the riots, so please do not be worried! Just please pray for peace. There is tear gas being sprayed in two areas. The Lord is in control and I'm not worried! For the Lord is my protection and my shield, I shall not fear.

4/11/11 Update!

Greetings! The Lord has truly been so good to me! He has brought some amazing friends into my life. I received a very nice journal from one of my friends named Shirley. She is employed by Watoto and she works in the medical department. We have really formed a connection and she is from Australia. I’ve also met another girl named Kim who is a nursery school teacher in Bbira village. All of us tend to hang out on the weekends. Saturday tends to be the main day of the week I plan to spend quality time with friends, meet at coffee shops, ect…and surprisingly they do have coffee shops in the city of Kampala J. It’s actually a neat reminder of home. The Lord has really been multiplying my friend base very quickly, which has made such a difference knowing people and having connections in a foreign land. The Lord led me to a lady in a coffee shop and while we were checking out so we began talking and she gave me her business card and we met last weekend. She is actually a dance instructor and the Lord has allowed her the opportunity to share His love through her passion for dancing. She is actually married to a Ugandan and believes the Lord may be leading her and her husband into counseling/ministry together, possibly counseling other cross culture couples. More and more individuals are marrying cross culturally. She told me individuals keep entering her life who are married cross culturally and she believes her and her husband are in the preparation process for ministering together. She said it’s as if the Lord has brought them through 10 years of marriage in just the 10 months they have been married. She told me it wasn’t even a desire of hers to get married (or at least a known desire, it was a hidden desire) and to be a mother someday. She was very independent, however, when her and her current husband began a friendship she did not even see him as an option until one day she distinctly remembers the Lord removing the blinders and showing her this man was the one. She told me it literally freaked her out so she told him she had to leave immediately. That part was hilarious the way she was telling the story. She’s very animated so it made the story that much more entertaining and exciting. Needless to say, the Lord made it very clear to both of them they were to get married and He really softened her heart. It turned out that Thomas, her husband, also had a child so she is not only a wife now, but a mother. The Lord is still teaching her so much, but her story was so neat of how the Lord can change our desires. If it’s in the Lord’s will for me to marry a Ugandan man, the Lord has already placed an amazing couple in my life to learn from. Based on my limited understanding of marriage, discussions with older friends who are married, and my own personal observations of those who are married, marriage is difficult within the same culture, especially when you mix in the cultural differences as well. So it’s that much more important that one is sure they’ve chosen the right one. I say all this to request your prayers in this area of my life.

I am still residing at the guesthouse and have looked at a few apartments, however, they are out of my price range. Please continue praying the Lord provides the perfect place, that is the most cost-effective. Brent has actually left for three weeks for meetings back in the US, so I moved over to his small cottage and I’ve been enjoying having a little cottage to myself for a few days. This Wed. I am planning on moving in with a lady named Tara, her husband is leaving to serve in Cape Town, South Africa. Watoto has expanded and is building a brand new village there, which is super exciting. So she said she could use the company. I will be staying in their basement for awhile until we can work out a more permanent place for me to live.

As I was talking to Brent, the international director of Watoto, who is my boss, he mentioned the possibility of eventually getting the opportunity to work in the trauma rehabilitation program and/or get to assist with the next Restour Tour. There may be a possibility of me getting to travel with them on their next tour. If I go this route, all my food and accommodations are paid for by Watoto. I am praying the right opportunities open up because the maintenance position I’m currently in is only temporary and soon they will need to hire someone full-time. Although I am grateful to be serving in such an amazing ministry, maintenance isn’t my passion. I see this current opportunity as a gateway to future opportunities that align with my heart beat, which is interacting with the Ugandan people.

The Lord's been teaching me so much. I'm already having to depend on Him in ways I never have before. There are times I feel like I am so small and know so little...but it's then I have to remember that it's His wisdom I am to operate in, not my own and not to find confidence from what I "know" intellectually. I'm definitely being stretched, but I'm really enjoying it here. I love the people so much. I attended the Restour Tour last Friday evening at Watoto Church. I observed their final showing of this Tour. They had just returned from a six month tour around the world. This is the same Tour that went through Springfield, MO last Oct. It is a dramatized showing of what took place in Gulu. When the LRA Army abducted children and trained them for war and made them commit horrible atrocities we couldn't even imagine. Women were abducted as well, raped, and left destitute. It was awful. These kids and young adults stood up in front of crowds and told their story and how they forgave all those people who killed their families, ect...right before their eyes. It was a story of hope and forgiveness! How God restores! As I was sitting there taking it all in, I sensed the Lord gently whisper in my heart that my purpose here is very simple: it’s to bring joy into the hearts and lives of hurting, war-torn Ugandan’s. I've been amazed at how many individuals I've come into contact here have mentioned something about my cheerful attitude and my smile. I really do believe joy is a gift of the spirit the Lord's given me. Sometimes I can get caught up in what I know intellectually and what I don’t know, ect…That’s when I sensed the Lord reminding me of a quote I had heard many times before, but it seemed to hit home harder this time. “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” He told me… “just LOVE.” That really resonated in my spirit. That’s one thing I can do in the love He’s bestowed to me! So that, I will do… “walk in love” letting “everything I do to be done in love.” There is so much to learn here. Please pray I am able to learn what I need to when I need to. I love you all! God Bless!