My Journey So Far...

 

Five months. It’s been exactly that long since I left Redding and headed to Africa. When I left two years seemed like a lot but time has flown. I thought I’d take this blog entry to summarize that past months. I’ve been to Mexico, Gabon, and now I’m living in Uganda. So far, this journey has been full of the unexpected and of great things. My mind has been blown so many times by what God has done and shown me. I am always learning; about God’s faithfulness, about what people really need, about what love looks like, about true generosity, about serving selflessly, and about what life should be about.

It hasn’t been easy, but it has been so good. I take one day at a time. I trust that each day God will give me exactly what I need and I don’t worry about tomorrow. I try to always choose love. I am learning to follow God’s voice each time it begins to whisper to me. Every day I am faced with things that are hard to see and that I wish that I could change, but I find peace and hope in the truth that Jesus came to save and set free. I trust in the work that He is doing.  I’ve been homesick. I’ve been burdened and weighed down. Yet God’s joy and strength are new every morning and are always more than enough. I have seen so many dreams and promises come true including ones that I had forgotten about. I am simply one of the people that God is using to show His great love to His people. I have never been more completely content to live outside of my comfort zone, and I do it daily. I have never felt more alive or so full of purpose and joy. This is exactly what I was created for; to love the least and the orphaned.

Ensenada, Mexico

May 22^nd- June 3^rd (two weeks)  

I flew from Redding to San Diego, joined up with our Envision team and we drove to Ensenada. Training lasted for three days and at the end of which our groups were supposed to fly to our destinations. I was on the Gabon team with seven others girls. All of our visas were denied and we waited and an extra ten days for our entry paper work to come. While in Mexico we built a bathroom for one of the local pastors, had children’s programs, visited an orphanage, went to the beach, and bonded as a team.

Libreville, Gabon

June 4^th- July 23^rd (seven weeks)

The Gabon 8 (as we were called) arrived in Libreville, Gabon on June 4^th. This was my second time to Gabon and I was very happy to be back and to see all of my dear friends again. I had spent the past year learning French and was surprised with how much that helped me communicate. My time was spent; working at the Hope House (a home for orphaned or abandoned children), at OSPAC (a medical clinic run by a group of Gabonese Christians), going on mobile medical clinics, and working with large teams that came in every two weeks from all over the world.

I also spent about a week at the Bongolo Hospital (8-10 hour trip by bus and 2 ½ hour trip by plane), though this was completely unplanned. I hadn’t even been in Gabon for two weeks before I was flown to Bongolo due to an emergency.  I had developed a bacterial ulcer in my left eye. Within four days I had gone blind in one eye and had started to go delirious from the intense pain. I was told after receiving immediate care at Bongolo I would almost certainly be flown home for more treatment. Needless to say I wasn’t ready to go home. I had come to Africa for two years and I meant to stay for two years. I had an army of people praying for me all across the world and by the time I reached Bongolo I was starting to see out of my left eye and the ulcer was shrinking. The next week was divided in fifteen and thirty minute intervals which was the amount of time between my sets of anti-biotic drops I was taking. Through this whole experience I knew that God was going to heal me and I was aware of the exact moment when He touched my eye. Within a couple of days I regained complete sight in my eye. This was the first time that I had personally experienced healing and seen God do a miracle in my life. The crazy thing was that during this whole process, I was okay with the fact that I could go blind. I felt so sure of the plans God had for me and I was fully at peace. But God did heal me and now I know Him in a completely new way. I know Him as my Healer.

Kampala/Zirobwe, Uganda

July 23^rd-May 2014 (twenty-two months)

My time in Uganda... where to begin; I may have only been here for three months but already it feels like home. Each week I get to spend time with, teach, play with, praise God with, feed, and talk with hundreds of children. These are all children who come from broken families and who are literally living on nothing. I have the opportunity to serve, love, and build relationships with them. It is all I have ever dreamed of. During the school term we often go to; one to two primary schools a day, secondary schools (high schools), a children’s rehabilitation hospital, babies’ homes, teach three to four times a week, have a program with our neighborhood kids, and spend Sunday in the village Zirobwe. We do children’s programs (praise and worship, stories, games, crafts) with the kids and sometimes have a feeding program. We also help with any work that might need to be done, for example at the babies home a lot of what we do is washing, hanging, and folding clothes. The school year is split into three terms here with breaks in between and our schedule changes with it. When school is out we spend three days every week (not counting Sunday) in Zirobwe.

                My favorite place in Uganda is Zirobwe. It is a village about an hour and a half away from the capital Kampala (which is where I live), it is home to thousands of Ugandans. When I first arrived we spent each week in the village and I got to know many of the children there. Usually, we do a lot of manual labor along with our daily children’s programs and just spending time with the kids.

 I love almost everything about the Zirobwe. I love the people. I love that it’s hot. I love doing hard work. I love what we do. I love all of the children. But there are things that make being in the village hard.  It is a place of extreme poverty. It is a place where a lot of people are hungry. Most families live on nothing. Their source of food is their gardens, which the mother or grandmother will tend to. They usually only grow basic things like matooke and potatoes and the garden doesn’t always produce food. So, many times they won’t have anything to eat. Most families live in a mud hut which they built themselves (I’ve helped build one and it’s a lot of work). They might have a spare set of clothes that they wear to church on Sundays, and may or may not own shoes. School fees are very hard to afford. It’s a life of a lot of hard work and manual labor. Getting water requires going to a well and pumping water into your jerry can and then carrying it all the back.  This being said, I’ve never met people who are more generous or welcoming.

When you go to someone’s house they feed you. Even if it is all the food they have for the day. Refusing the food is rude. Several times I have visited a family and eaten what they offered me, knowing that it was literally all they had. It is one of the most humbling and hardest things to do. Almost every Sunday a child will bring me food to take home. It might be sugar cane, or mais, or passion fruit. It is such a sweet gesture and I never feel like a simple thank you is enough.

One of the things that I’ve only started doing recently is teaching English. I teach at two different primary schools, Newbrain Storm and Victory. I’ve been teaching three P4 classes and will be adding a P5 class this week. I absolutely love teaching! It’s always been part of the plan to teach overseas and I am thrilled to have the chance to do so now. Last week, I gave one of my classes their first exam and they did wonderful. My class of 20 had a 90.8 percent average. I was so proud of them.

There are so many different children and families that I have grown to love dearly. I am so thankful for the time that I have to spend with them. I want to encourage, support, and lift them up in prayer. I’ve already seen some amazing things and I know that God will continue to surprise me. There have been times when a family or someone has had a serious need and God has allowed me to help them. There are children who I am finding sponsors for so that they can go to school. Just the fact that God is using me to meet needs here still blows my mind.

 

 I could share so many stories of what God has done here (feel free to look back at previous blogs to see a few), but this is already a very long entry so I’ll leave that for another time. I am so excited for the work that God is doing here and I really am just honored and excited to be a part of it. Thank you, for supporting me and giving me the chance to love these children and people of Uganda. You are all such a big part of why I am here and able to serve wholeheartedly. If you have any questions about how you can support me, donate, or sponsor a child please contact me.

May God bless you.