Update

This is a post that I wrote last week after we visited the
only government run “home” for children in Uganda.

“Today we left early this morning to drive two hours to
Kampala to meet with a man who is working in four child prisons in Uganda. He
is there trying to help the horrible situation that these children are in. At
this point I have not seen what these prisons are like but I have heard the
horror stories of what we are about to witness. I honestly have no idea what to
expect or what we are about to see. This whole car ride I have been praying and
asking the Lord to let us see things with his eyes and to break our hearts for
what breaks His.

After meeting with Moses I really do feel like this
organization is doing all they can for now and as they build trust I think they
will be able to do more and more. We were able to visit one of the places they
are working in. This wasn't one of the prisons but is the only government run
homes in Uganda. They have close to 15 children with disabilities out of the
170 children that are there. Moses told us that we are the only people who have
come to see and interact with the disabled children. I feel like these children
are who Jesus talks about when he says to speak up for those who have no voice
(Proverbs 31:8), to care for the orphans (James 1:27), and to care for those
who are imprisoned (Isaiah 42:7). These are the ones who break God’s heart the
most. I'm sure that he physically feels pain and heart ache for these children.
We were not in even the worst place that this organization is working with and
I have literally felt like I am going to throw up since the moment we walked
through the gate. It baffles me so much that these children are in a place like
this when there are so many options that would be so much better than this
place. My heart is aching so much for the beautiful children and I really have
no idea how to process this right now. For now I am going to try and rest and
talk with God on the way home and probably bawl my eyes out the rest of the
night. You can be praying for the hearts of the rest of the girls who were with
me today and for the beautiful children that we saw today.”

Just to update ya’ll on a few things, we are getting two of
the kids from this home on Monday!!! We are all so excited! Please be praying
for a smooth transition for these two over the next few months.

Also, one of our little girls, Selina, got a G-Tube surgery!
She has been doing so well ever since she had the surgery. Every time she eats
now, instead of fighting it and crying the whole time, she smiles through her
whole feeding! We are so excited to see how this changes her growth and
development!

Thank you for your prayers! They are strongly felt here!

Daniel, Rachel, Arafat, and Debra

Staying

I guess I should let you guys know that I have decided to
stay in Uganda for longer than I originally planned. I was supposed to be
leaving Tuesday with my sister, but instead I have decided that the best thing
for me right now is to stay in Uganda until I have to start school.

I promised you guys I would try to give you a little
information about each of the kids… Jojo is probably one of the cutest kids
here. He is absolutely adorable and hysterical. He has Down syndrome and is
unbelievably flexible. Because he is so flexible, he is not able to walk (for
now anyway). He will sit in your lap for hours just making faces and noise and
having you copy what he is doing. He is pretty much always happy! Natasha is a
beautiful little girl! She has Cerebral Palsy, but that does not stop her from
letting you know she is in the room! She has an extremely loud cry. Most of the
time she just want to cuddle with someone and is very content with you holding
her. But every now and then she gets upset and lets everyone know. She doesn’t
move around much because she has very little control over her muscles. Selena
on the other hand move around so much! She cannot walk but she loves to move!
Her very favorite thing to do is dance! Anytime she hears music she gets this
enormous smile on her face and starts dancing. She loves it most when you hold
her up so that she is standing and can dance like that. She is so precious.

Yesterday we has another birthday party for two of our kids,
Walter and Zak. We had one for Debra a couple of weeks ago that I think I
mentioned but didn’t really post about. Parties in this house are so much fun!
There is always tons of dancing and cake and soda and just fun times. The kids’
absolute favorite song to dance to is Shaminamina. Every time that song comes
on the kids go crazy! It is so funny when all of the older kids start signing
it! I will try to post some more pictures but the internet at the house is too
slow to load pictures.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Ekisa

Sorry that I haven’t been keeping everyone updated on how
things are going. I am having such a wonderful experience that I just keep
forgetting to blog. I am in love with the children here! And all of the workers
are like my best friends and family! It is such a great place to be, but at
times it can be a little overwhelming.

Each day we have a little bit of a different schedule. Today
I had the morning shift, which is from 8am-1pm. The main things that we help
out with are the feeding times. There are 5 kids that cannot feed themselves or
have trouble eating. The morning shift has 3 feedings, breakfast, snack, and
lunch. I will be honest with y’all and tell you that feeding some of the
children is a very difficult task. It takes so much patience!! During the times
that we are not helping out with the food, we get to play with the kids and get
to know them better. Most of them can’t get up and walk around, so today we had
a dance party! It was so funny watching them trying to dance.

Some of the kids that I have spent the most time with are
Daniel, Rachel, Arafat, and Debra. Rachael is the most mobile out of these four
but she can’t walk because of polio. She is so beautiful! She always tries to
act shy but she really isn’t! She loves to dance and have you help her walk.
Daniel is one of the newest additions. He is about 2 or 3 and so tiny and has
microcephaly. He loves to cuddle, and today he loved dancing! He sat in a bumbo
seat and was dancing all morning with the biggest smile on his face! Arafat is
also a new addition. He can’t walk because he has hydrocephaly, but eventually
he will be able to. He is a little parrot. When he came he did not know any English,
and now he repeats everything you say! He talks in a really high voice and it
is so funny. Debra is a little girl that was at Amani when I volunteered there.
She is so smart, but trapped in a body consumed by Cerebral Palsy. She loves to
interact with us! She cannot talk but she can answer yes and no. She is also so
beautiful. All of the kids are so much fun to be around! I will try to tell you
a little bit about each one at some point on my blog. One of the many things I love about Uganda is the community
here. There are so many “mazungus” (white people) here that are serving a
ministry in Jinja, or are running one. Each week on Tuesday, we have a bible
study together. Last night we had it at our house and there were probably 25
people here! It was so crazy! Our times together are absolutely wonderful! Everyone
has similar hearts and passion for the Lord. The fellowship and support is like
nothing I have ever experienced back home.

I feel like this post is really long so I will blog about
more later! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I am considering and
praying through extending my stay here and would really appreciate it if you
could pray! It is a really tough decision for me because I’m not sure where the
Lord wants me to be at this time. Thank you for your continued payers!

In Uganda

When I am in Uganda I feel so at home. I am completely in love with this place! I have been here a week and I am already dreading the day that I have to leave. So far on this trip I have really felt God’s presence. He has a way of always letting me know that He is right here with me. When we left Nashville we found out that someone we know would be on two of our three planes to Uganda. When we arrived at Ekisa, we found out that a girl we went to high school with was staying at Ekisa as well. So far since we have been in Uganda there have been about 7 people from Nashville, and there are still more to come. God has been letting me know now more than I have ever realized that He is right here with me and will not leave my side! It is such a powerful and overwhelming feeling!

Ekisa is an amazing place! The people working here are super
sweet and like family. I feel like I have known everyone here my whole life!
Each day we either work the morning shift, or the afternoon shift. I really enjoy
working with all of the beautiful children that God has placed here. They all
have such different personalities that just light up a room. I have never
worked with special needs people before, and to be honest wasn’t sure how I
would handle it. But I can tell you without a doubt that I love working with
these children!! Right now there are 12 children here, two of which came this
week. Tomorrow is one of the girls birthdays, so I will try to post more then. I cant get any pictures to upload so I will also work on that tomorrow.

Patiently Waiting

This post is basically all my thoughts thrown together, so bare with me as I ramble on.

My sister and I leave for Uganda on May 12. We are over the moon excited to see what God has in store for us! In just 10 days we will be getting on a plane headed across the world to be the Lord's hands and feet. There is so much to do between now and then! I am still working full time, and it is rare that I get a day off. But today I have had the full day off! And as I am writing this I am sitting in the middle of my room surrounded by 4 suitcases, clothes, many lists, toys, zip lock baggies, laundry detergent, toothpaste, bug spray, sunscreen, lists, medicine, and so much more. I can hardly walk into my room. I am very thankful for today so that I can get some things together so that I am not overwhelmed May 11 trying to get everything packed. My sister comes home from college this week and will be able to get last minute things while I am working.

I am so thankful to have a wonderful church family and many friends who have been so willing to help us get to Uganda. We have had many donations of clothes for the children, money, and medicines. God has truly blessed us.

I wanted to let all of you know that I now have a Tumblr account. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is basically the same thing as a blog, just a different website. To see my tumblr go to http://trustingalways.tumblr.com/. I will be posting pictures and hopefully videos on that site while we are in Uganda.

Thank you for all your prayers as we are getting ready for a long awaited trip!

I'M GOING BACK TO UGANDA...

and one of the best parts is that my little sister/best friend is going with me!!! I can't tell you how excited I am! My sister had always told me that she would never come and visit me in Africa because she HATES airplanes. But a few months ago I took her to a fundraiser for Africa and that changed things for her. I was telling her about a girl that I know who was starting a special needs orphanage and she was sold. She has always had a huge passion for people with special needs (her two best friends in kindergarden both had down syndrom). We will be volunteering with Ekisa Ministries. I am beyond excited for my sister to experience my passion(Africa) first hand, along side of me. We will be going for about 6 weeks this summer. Please keep us in your prayers as we are figuring out travel dates and making all the arrangements.

This pretty much says it all...powerful stuff!

Amazima_Final

Just Some Thoughts

Don't worry bloggers, I haven't stopped blogging. I just have not had that many things to say lately. Right now I am still praying through where God wants me to be, and for the time being, it is being a nanny for the sweetest family of 5 kids. But at the end of everyday, this is where my heart is...

I have just started reading the book Radical by David Platt. Let me just say, if you have not picked this book up yet, I suggest you do. It has really put things in perspective for me. I am not very far in the book but I have come across something that I just have to share with you guys...

"But in the Bible is missions ever identified as an optional program in the
church?We have just seen that we were all created by God, saved from our sins,
and blessed by God to make his glory known in all the world. Indeed, Jesus
himself has not merely called us to go to all nations; he has created us and
commanded us to go to all nations. We have taken this command, though, and
reduced it to a calling--something that only a few people receive.

I find it interesting that we don't do this with other words from Jesus. We
take Jesus' command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say,
'that means other people.' But we look at Jesus' command in Matthew 11:28, 'Come
to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,' and we say,
'Now, that means me.' We take Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will
lead us to the ends of the earth, and we say, 'That means some people.' But we
take Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that we will have abundant life, and we say,
'That means me.'

In the process we have unneccessarily (and unbiblically) drawn a line of
distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while
keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all. In this way we
choose to send off other people to carry out the global purpose of Christianity
while the rest of us sit back because we're 'just not called to that.'

Now, we know that each of us has different gifts, different skills, different
passions, and different callings from God. God has gifted you and me in
different ways. This was undoubtedly the case with the disciples. Peter and Paul
had different callings. James and John had different callings. However, each
follower of Christ in the New Testament, regardless of his or her calling, was
intended to take up the mantle of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the
earth. That's the reason why he gave each of them his Spirit and why he gave
them all the same plan: make disciples of all nations."

I hope that passage inspires you to read this book, if you haven't already read it.

Sixty Feet

My heart is crushed into a million pieces right now. I was reading a blog and came across this website. As soon as I read it I burst into tears. This is a place in Africa that is considered a modern day concentration camp for children. These children are left here because they are "stubborn children- street beggars, disobedient kids, unwanted orphans, handicapped or mentally disabled kids". I can't even find the words to write now. Please just go read this blog and do whatever you can to help!

Father,
These beautiful children need your help! Move mountains for them and save them from this hell on earth! And help us to be willing to do whatever it takes to help!

Falling Whistles

Please go and read the Story of these child soldiers in the Congo who are put on the front lines of the worlds biggest and deadliest war with a whistle as their only weapon.

More Reflections

Ok I know that I have been back from Africa for almost as long as I was there but sometimes these things take a long time to process…

I have been home since Thanksgiving and almost every day someone asks me, “How was Africa?” Usually they ask in passing and don’t really have the time to hear everything that went on, so my usual response is “Oh, it was so amazing” or “I had such a great time” or “It was life-changing”. But to be honest, I do not have a word in my vocabulary, and there is probably not a word in the dictionary, to describe what my time in Africa was like. I mean, how can you describe waking up to children singing worship songs every morning? Or making a premature baby who never made eye contact with anyone or even smiled, smile for the first time? Or being able to love someone in their last few days on Earth who had never experienced love before? You can’t. It’s impossible. But these are just a few of the things that happened to me while I was there. These are just a few of the things that have changed my life forever. And, these are just a few of the reasons that I can’t wait to go back to Uganda. Experiencing worship through the eyes and hearts of pre-school aged orphans is more than you can imagine. Falling in love with little Eric, even though he threw up on me numerous times each day, and being able to be responsible for causing his first smile touched me deeply. Seeing little Walter take his last breathe while being able to sing to him and read Scripture over him was transforming. God has taught me so much about unconditional love and service. But, I know that I have so much more to learn. As seems to always be the case when you are serving others, I was served much more than these children. These children that the world sees as poor and wretched gave me gifts that can never be taken from me. They are worth more money than I will ever have. And I know that they are just a small portion of what my Heavenly Father longs to give me.

“I love you, Lord! You answered my prayers. You paid attention to me, and so I will pray to you as long as I live. Death attacked from all sides, and I was captured by its painful chains. But when I was really hurting, I prayed and said, ‘Lord, please don’t let me die!’ You are kind, Lord, so good and merciful. You protect ordinary people, and when I was helpless, you saved me and treated me so kindly that I don’t need to worry anymore. You, Lord, have saved my life from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Now I will walk at your side in this land of the living. I was faithful to you when I was suffering, though in my confusion I said, ‘I can't trust anyone!’ What must I give you, Lord, for being so good to me? I will pour out an offering of wine to you, and I will pray in your name because you have saved me. I will keep my promise to you when your people meet. You are deeply concerned when one of your loyal people faces death. I worship you, Lord, just as my mother did, and you have rescued me from the chains of death. I will offer you a sacrifice to show how grateful I am, and I will pray. I will keep my promise to you when your people gather at your temple in Jerusalem. Shout praises to the Lord!” ~Psalm 116

Please continue to pray with me as I wait patiently for God’s directions to wherever He leads me next.

Troubled Heart

I dont even know the words to describe how I feel. Tonight as I'm getting ready for bed I get an overwhelming feeling that this is not where I am supposed to be. As tears are streaming down my face I ask myself "If I know this is not where I am supposed to be then how do I know where I am supposed to be?" I feel sure that the Lord is calling me to Africa...but where do I go? There are so many places I could go.. but where to start? I feel like I should just get on a plane and go and let the Lord direct me from there...but am I that strong? I honestly wish my answer to that question was "Yes, I am strong enough to just get on a plane and have faith that the Lord will show me where to go." I want to have that much faith and that much trust...but to be honest it is hard!

As I am writing this I went to google to look up some verses (because I dont have my Bible next to me) and this is the first thing I read:

"My presence will go with you, and I will give you peace" Exodus 33:14

"It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Deuteronomy 31:8

So if we know we are not where we are supposed to be, but dont know where we are supposed to go, what do we do? My answer is look to God, listen to His voice, and follow Him!

Passion 2010

This weekend was Passion 2010! There is so much to process that I'm not going to share it all right now but I do want to share one of my highlights from the week.

We went to the Hillsong United concert last night and left a little bit early so that we could catch the marta back to our hotel instead of being stranded in downtown Atl at 1 in the morning. When we got to the platform where our train was going to come there were about 100 other college students that had the same idea we had. We started riding down the escalator and heard everyone sing praise songs to our Savior! We joined in and had an amazing time waiting for our marta to come! It was such a wonderful thing to see! Heres a video of it!!

Let the Waters Rise by Mikeschair

Home

I have been home since Wednesday of last week. I have mixed emotions about being home. I love being with my family and friends but at the same time I really miss being in Uganda with those precious children. Being home for a week I feel like I've had a great time with my family and now am ready to go back. But I have to go to school and live here for awhile before I can go back.

I realize that I never posted anything about the Safari that I went on a few weeks before I left. The safari was a 4 day thing. Each night we camped out in different places. My favorite night was the night we camped out on the Delta. When we pulled up to our camp site there were about 10 giraffes surrounding us! The next morning we got up early to do a game drive and saw a lion like 100 yards away from our camp site. Everything about the safari was so much fun! Here are a few pictures..

Weekend Adventure

Yesterday we went to one of the Mama’s Kwanjula ceremony. This is like an introduction ceremony back home except completely different. We left the baby cottage around 11:30 this morning and drove in a Coaster for about two and a half hours to a village. The ceremony was supposed to begin at 1 pm but we are not on American time here so 1 pm really means 5:30 pm. We didn’t arrive until about 3. When we arrived we were sent down the road a little bit to greet all of the women taking part in the ceremony. All the men were back where the ceremony was taking place. We ate lunch with the women and mingled for a little while and then we all headed back to get ready for the Kwanjula. The way these things work is that the family of the husband comes to the village of the wife’s father. They all sit in a special place under a tent, and then the family is introduced. Sometimes they make it funny and go around and ask the people why they are there and other silly things. They introduce the brothers first and they greet their guests and tell them how happy they are that they are there. Next the sisters are introduced then the aunties and the uncles. After that they introduce the grandfathers and grandmothers. And last they introduce the father and the mother(s). All together there are about 30 people introduced. After all of this takes place the groom’s family presents the bride with gifts. And to close everything up they serve a big meal. This lasted about 3 hours.
On the way the landscape was breathtaking! We went through a lot of villages but we also traveled wide open fields. They were unbelievable to look at. Everything was so beautiful. On the way back I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to see any of this anymore because it would have been so dark. But I was wrong. I got into the Coaster and we started our journey back home and the first thing I noticed were the stars shining so brightly through the blackened night sky. In every direction, for as far as you could see, you saw billions of bright shining stars that lit up the wide open fields we came through on our way in. Then I look to my right at the fields and see hundreds of fireflies lighting the way, I look to my left and see the very same thing. I wish you guys could have been there to see this view! There is nothing that can capture its true beauty but your own eyes. When I looked up at the stars and found different constellations I thought about how you can see the very same stars in the very same patterns back home in Nashville. It is so hard to understand how you can see the exact same thing in Africa and in Tennessee. The only way to explain it is the One who created it. Looking up at the stars and seeing their beauty and vastness I don’t understand how people can say that there is no creator. If there was no creator then how is it possible that you see the same stars from opposite sides of the world? If there was no creator then how can there be land as far as I can see in any direction filled with fireflies dancing in the moonlight? All these things had to be created to exist. This world is so beautiful there is no way it just happened by chance. It had to be created. And I know the One who created it!

A Few Pictures

Jonah fell asleep on the boda

Susan!

Beautiful Eve

Dinner time with the toddlers.

Baby Helen

Waiting for dinner