Welcome to Uganda

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven… I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

Ecclesiastes 3:1; 10

On Monday, I said goodbye once more to Gabon, to all of my dear friends and to everything that I’ve ever known in Africa. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be going back to Gabon though I hope that someday the Lord will lead me back there, but if not I know that my time there has played a huge part in shaping me and that I will always pray for my family there. I have to praise God because leaving was more bittersweet than hard. I knew that it was time for me to say goodbye and while I knew I would miss those I was leaving behind, I was ready and excited to see what God had ahead of me. 

These past five days have been full of firsts for me. The first time I’ve: been to Uganda, camped overnight in a village, pumped and carried water from a well, helped make mud and build a mud hut, gone to sleep covered in red dirt and mud, washed my clothes by hand, spoken in a secondary school (high school), given my lunch to someone else. These are all things that will become part of my everyday life and soon I won’t even realize that I didn’t always live this way. Already, I love that this is how I’ll be living for the next two years.

Only a few hours after I arrived at the house early Tuesday morning we left for the village Zirobwe where we stayed till Thursday afternoon. This is the village that Empower A Child works heavily with and has a sponsorship program that some of the village children are in. I will be spending three days out of each week in Zirobwe. We also spend Sunday there as well.

This past week in we were working on building a mud hut, which requires a lot of water, bricks, and dirt. Since we go to the well to fill water getting enough to make mud and to cover the inside and outside of the structure takes a long time. We worked on it for two days and we still haven’t finished. It’s been a while since I did hard manual labor and though it was tiring, I loved it! If you haven’t pumped water from a well and then carried it back a ways then you might not realize how hard and exhausting it is to do so. I’m pretty sure that by the time I leave I’ll be a lot stronger! I actually really enjoyed making the mud, imagine stomping on grapes. After the mud was the right texture we carried it to the hut where it was thrown on and the smoothed out. Most of the time I just carried the mud to those who were putting it on, so my mud tee-shirt was soaked through in mud, literally!

In the late afternoons we go into the middle of the village have a children’s program, where we have worship, a lesson, some sort of craft, and game time. We had around a hundred children (maybe more) and then many of the adults hang around and watch and listen to us. It’s absolutely amazing.

It goes from really hot and sunny to pouring down rain here, so while we were in the village we had a pretty hard rainstorm.  We were all huddled under the tarp which covered our tents, freezing. At one point we had to dig ditches around the tents so that water didn’t get in. Some of the children were there with us and so we gave them our hoodies. It was something that didn’t require thinking twice about, why would I be warm when there is someone next to me who is cold, especially a child. I have never been happier to be soaking wet, drenched in dirt, and freezing. 

Yesterday was the first day I spent back here in Kampala and we went to a secondary boarding school. We had the chance to work with Youth Quake who was having a sort of conference there. During one part of the afternoon we broke up in to levels, I was with S2 (senior 2), and talked to the children about the importance of finishing school and pressing on. I was surprised at first when we walked into the room, because there were about 60-80 children between the ages of 14-20. Here you don’t move up a grade until you pass the exams at the end of the year. After introducing ourselves and sharing some of our testimonies we had the chance to take questions and just encourage and give some practical help to these children. And even though at first it was a little intimidating I was so glad to be a part of it!

 I’m still adjusting to things here in Uganda which are different than in Gabon, smaller things like the fact that it’s cleaner and that they drive on the wrong side of the road, and bigger things as well such as having another language to learn! I really do like it here and I am super excited to see what God does in this next year. 

One thing I’ve learned is that with each season God brings us into He teaches us new things and we see and learn new ways to serve Him and live the life that He has called us too. This is the beginning of a new season for me and I have a lot of learning to do. 

There are some moments in life that you know really matter. They might be small or simple but you know that you are doing exactly what Christ has asked His disciples to do. And just in the few days that I've been in Uganda I've already experienced some of these, like when I held, prayed over, and rocked to sleep that precious baby in the village who was so soaked through that when I gave her back to her sister both my shirt and tank top had been soaked through. But that didn't matter to me, I smelled and couldn't shower for the for the next two days, but all I cared about was that I was able to lift that small child up in prayer and offer her the same love that Christ gives me daily.

 It's the times that you seek only to love someone and you forget about everything else that the Lord is able to use you to the fullest. This is my desire for my time in Uganda that I might learn to show that same love to each person whom the Lord brings my way, knowing that this is the reason that I am here. So, that whoever that person is they might come to know the greatness and depth of Christ's love.

Lover of My Soul

If you were to ask me what my favorite thing about Gabon is, I might give you a different answer than you would expect. If you know me well, you probably would expect me to say the children I get to spend my days with. It could also be expected for me to say that it’s the friendships built and new and amazing culture that I am in. But the answer I’ll give you is much simpler and yet so much deeper, my favorite thing about Gabon is God.

I really mean it. When I think about the beginnings, ends, and in-betweens of each day one thing hasn’t changed, and that would be the constant crushing love of my Father. I have never felt closer to the Creator of the universe than I have in Gabon. I have never felt as beautiful and strong as I have in Gabon.  I have never seen or understood His voice as clearly or loudly as I have in Gabon. I have never been as pursued or convicted as I have been here in Gabon. I have never felt as loved by Him or in Love with Him as I have been in Gabon. It’s this Love, deep and consuming that has begun to direct my life.  

We all know what it feels like to be unloved, many of us know what it is to be loved, but how few of us know what Love is. How many of us are acknowledging that Love with every breath we inhale and are proclaiming it with word we speak. Do we see the way He romances us or the constant reminders of His passionate love for us? Are we listening just to hear Him say are name, in a way that familiar way that repeats His full knowledge of everything about us? Are we waiting for moments that we have with Him, understanding that it’s only His presence that we desire? Are we looking for Him person that we meet, knowing that He is in everyone and everything? Do we recognize His touch, aware that He is with us even before He announces Himself? Do we know what it is to be loved by and in love with our Creator?

You see, I don’t wake up anymore and wonder whom I can serve, love, or help, instead I simply ask my God to help me be aware of His love. The funny thing is, the more and more I see how deeply He loves me I begin to see His love more clearly; Love that extends beyond me to each and every one of His beloved children, and I become a part of it.

 If you want to love the world, you don’t start there, it’s impossible. Love God, and you will find it not only possible but easy to love each and every one here in this world. This is what God has been teaching me. I don’t need to have endless patience or never-ending self-control; I simply need to let Him declare His love for me because it is all I will ever need.

Our God is Healer-Part 2

 Part 2

Saturday morning June 16th, was when it all started. We had gone to Hope House with the current team and were helping with crafts, games, and bible stories. All throughout the morning my contacts were bothering me and I kept rubbing at my left eye. We were only at Hope House for a couple hours but by the time we got back to the center I had a headache. I decided that I would stay home and rest for the remainder of the day instead of going to the beach with everyone else. Even after I had taken my contacts out my left eye was still throbbing and the headache was only getting worse, so I took some ibuprofen and tried to sleep it off.

Sunday morning was the same; my head and eye were still hurting. The pain was getting worse and ibuprofen wasn’t helping at all. My eye was completely bloodshot, swollen, and the light was making it burn. I stayed home from church hoping that by the afternoon I’d feel better. By the time lunch came around I did, sort of. The swelling around my eye had gone down a little and I could open my eye without the light burning it, too much. I thought I was on the mend. However, just a few hours later my eye was swollen again and hurting worse than before. The pain continued all day and once again I couldn’t sleep.

Monday morning I felt slightly better but I still went to OSPAC and had a nurse look at my eye, she gave me some eye drops and an anti-biotic cream to put in my eye while I slept. As soon as I got home I put the cream in my eye and tried to sleep (by this time I was getting pretty tired after not sleeping for two nights). I woke up feeling the worst I’d felt so far and my eye was starting to swell shut again. By this time I’d noticed that there was a white spot on my eye but I had no idea what it was and for some reason didn’t think much of it (probably because I wasn’t thinking straight anymore).  All of this time I had been pretty quiet about the pain, I have a high pain tolerance and have the mentality that eventually it will get better so I shouldn’t bother people with it.  Everyone knew my eye was bothering me and that I was in pain but nobody knew just how bad it was getting, because I was trying to stay positive about it.

Monday afternoon I stopped trying to hide how badly I was feeling and just went and curled up in my bed, sometimes crying when the pain was really intense. The girls all came in my room to check on me and realized that something was wrong (I should mention that most girls are in the medical field). They saw the white circle on my eye, researched it and realized that I had a corneal ulcer caused by bacteria. It was this time that I started to realize my vision was going. Before it was hard to see when my eye was swollen and sensitive to the light but then the swelling would go down I’d be able to see again, but now I could tell that it was getting a lot worse. I started keeping an ice pack or frozen peas on it all the time because it helped numb it slightly.  For the third night in a row I didn’t sleep.

Tuesday morning was when things changed. Here is what I remember. I woke up aware that I was in a lot of pain and stumbled off the couch to find some ice. I remember having a hard time getting to the kitchen because I couldn’t see anything out of my left eye and barely anything out of my right eye (this should have been a clue to me that something was seriously wrong…my right eye had nothing wrong with it but yet my vision was still affected). Someone stopped me and took me to the freezer to get the ice pack and then they led me back to the couch. I promptly curled up, the last thing I remember thinking was that I wished I could get someone to just take my eye out because I didn’t want it anymore. I couldn’t tell you anything that was going on around me that morning or who I talked too or anything, because I was completely out of it. Since then I’ve been filled in on what happened. I really have Daisy to thank, a nurse on the Grove City team because if she hadn’t realized how seriously and quickly I was going downhill that morning, I’m pretty sure I would have lost at least my vision. She was the one who had checked my eye in the beginning before anything looked wrong and had continued to encourage me to get it looked at. Apparently, she came over and asked me a few questions and became really concerned. So, Bongolo Hospital was called and Leanne went out and got both of the anti-biotic drops on their list. They also emailed a woman named Wendi who is an at Bongolo eye surgeon at Hospital (she currently is in the states getting ready to have a baby) to ask how serious this was and her opinion on what needed to be done. They came back to the house and set two people watch over me and to start putting drops in my eye every fifteen minutes.

As the afternoon went on the pain which had moved from just my eye to my entire head started to lessen and the swelling started to go down a little as well. Things became less blurry for me and I was able to start thinking straight again. I could tell that these gatifloxacin and atrophine drops were working. It had been decided that I would be flown to Bongolo Hospital the next morning to have the ulcer thoroughly examined, and then depending on how it looked it would be dictate whether or not I could stay in Gabon.

Tuesday night, I was told to prepare myself because if needed I would be sent back to the states to receive all available treatment. I was going to Bongolo to have my eye looked at but unless I was completely out of danger, I’d be going home. At this point I’d been on the anti-biotic treatment for a few hours, however due to the fact that I was starting the treatment so late (I’d had this ulcer for 4 days) it was thought unlikely that I would respond quickly to it. However, I knew that God had been healing me and that I was supposed to stay in Gabon. So, I trusted God.

I arrived at Bongolo hospital Wednesday around 2pm. We went straight from the landing strip to the hospital and I immediately had my eye examined.  It had been a little over 24 hours since I’d started putting drops in my eye and it was obviously getting better, I just didn’t know if it was healing fast enough that I could stay at Bongolo instead of going home. After a thorough exam and a call back to Wendi the head eye surgeon, it was decided that I could stay at the hospital and receive daily checkups. I was also to continue using both anti-biotics every 30 minutes.

Thursday morning, I was told that my ulcer which had been 1.8 millimeters when I arrived had shrunk to under 1 millimeter.

Each morning, I would walk down the giant hill to the hospital with Hannah and have my eye examined, and each time we would get positive news. Soon I was able to stop using the atrophine drops and just use the gatifloxacin drops every hour. My vision was coming back and the light was bothering me less and less. Sleeping at night was getting easier, I was of course sleeping in 1 hour increments but I was sleeping again. We were still waiting for the okay to travel back to Bongolo, I was starting to get a little antsy because I was feeling so much better and just wanted someone to agree with me that I was fine.

Monday morning, I was told the ulcer was gone and that there was only a small scar remaining. I was able to switch to drops every two hours. And the best news by far was that there was a good chance I would be able to leave the next day.

Tuesday, I was given the okay to return to Libreville, just six days after my arrival. My eye was completely healed. All that was left was a little scar, which I gladly keep.

As, we flew back to the capital I was able to gaze out at the bright blue sky and glistening white clouds as if nothing had ever affected my vision. It was a moment of pure adoration and wonder at the power and deep compassion of the Lord. I know that my life is forever changed by the work God completed in my life and I can only hope that it will bring hope to others who need a small miracle of their own. Never doubt the will or power of God. He loves to do the impossible for His children!