at long last...

we are here! We arrived in the Entebbe airport at around 8:45 PM (12:45 PM in Tennessee/Texas time) after 27 hours of flying and sitting in airports.

We were greeted by Rev. James Adyeri and our driver for our trip, Elias. James and Elias are just really...kind (super outdated word, but the best one I could think of describe them). They're just heartwarming people. They picked us up and brought us over to our hotel for the night - The Crown Victoria of Entebbe. It's a nice hotel, so I'm just going to soak in a night of nice accommodations while I can! :) Tomorrow, we will drive into Kampala where we will pick up a computer that we're taking to the Kibbuse school and (hopefully) will be able to hit up the International Market!! (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one...)

Then we will be traveling to the village of Mityana (Rev Adyeri's home) where we will spend the rest of the day and night. Then the next morning, Matt and Amy will be meeting up with us and we'll be traveling to Niyamarwa!!!!

I have said this a million times in the past couple of hours, but I just can't believe I'm here. After years of dreaming of coming to this place, I'm actually sitting in a hotel in Uganda. It's crazy...

One of the things I've noticed most about the people I've met so far here is their smiles. They have the warmest, most genuine smiles that make you feel like they care about you. It makes you just want to give them a hug.

I am so excited to sleep...but even more excited for tomorrow to get here.

waiting, waiting, waiting...

So we're at our almost 4 hour layover in Amsterdam. BARELY made the flight here. We literally heard our name over the speakers in the Amsterdam airport as we were running to our gate.

For the record, I thought our airplane meal was quite delish on the way here. They gave us these oatmeal bar things for desert...amazing! Like I wanted to buy some from the airline. Alas, no room whatsoever in my backpack. I also got to catch up on some reading and writing...and finally got to watch the movie 17 Again...I've been wanting to see that ever since it came out! don't hate...

The flight from here to Entebbe is 8 hours...I will definitely be doing some sleeping on that one. My body is telling me it's midnight...but the clock says 6:00 AM.

I am filled with expectancy right now...can't wait to see what God is going to do over the next 30 days. I can't wait to see how He's going to move, to see Him in new ways through the faces of my FAMILY in Uganda, to experience Him in new ways... I started reading Francis Chan's new book Forgotten God on the plane. He says, "...there will always be more to discover, more of His love to experience, and more of His power to use for His purposes." I love it. We serve an inexhaustible God!

My biggest prayer right now can be summed up in the bridge of one of the awesomest songs ever:

Open up my eyes to the things unseen.

Show me how to love like You have loved me.

Break my heart for what breaks Yours.

Everything I am's for Your Kingdom's cause

thankful

So I woke up this morning, got all packed and ready to go, made my bed (which hasn't been done in who knows how long...) and then sat on my stairs, looked at my bags, and it kinda all hit me. And if there is one word to describe how I felt at that moment, it is: thankful.

I just sat on my stairs and thanked God for so many things...

For the opportunity to do life with my brothers and sisters on the other side of the world

For the fact that He has actually chosen to use someone as messed up as me to be HIM to a broken world and to love His children

For the amazing friends and family members that I have who have just showered me with prayers and hugs and support over the past few days

For the way He has provided for this trip in abundance

The list could go on and on... but of all the emotions I'm feeling this morning, the greatest one right now...is thankful.

I am sitting at the gate in the Nashville airport...we take off in a little over an hour. We just stocked up on some Starbuck's Via and are ready to go! We will be flying to Detroit where we have a couple of hours of a layover. Then we head to Amsterdam and have about 6 hours of waiting there before we head to Entebbe, where we will SLEEP! From the time we leave Nashville, it will be 27 hours before we land in Entebbe. Then on Sunday, we will meet up with Matt and Amy and will all travel to Niyamarwa together.

27 hours....

back to it!

So my last post was over a month ago...which makes me sad. There's definitely been a ton to write about...but just no time to write! I told someone today that every time I open my computer, I just think about the 10,000 things I need to get done and never just spend "fun time" on the computer!

In one week, I leave to Uganda. I am beside myself...if you haven't been able to check it out, I have written a couple of posts about where I'll be, who I'll be with, and what I'll be doing. There's an unbelievable amount of things to get done within this next week - I've been trying to get bills and rent set up to be drafted out while I'm gone, get everything set for youth group and have "coverage" set up for the month of November, get the major stuff set up and sent out about the big girls day we're doing in January, finish writing my Bible Study for all the women and girls reading through it while I'm gone, buy supplies for Uganda, pack, get in hours at my office job, see some people before I leave...the list goes on and on and on. Oh yeah, and then there's our big junior high retreat this weekend...and being sick isn't helping.

Sounds a little ridiculous once I write it all out. I had to remind myself today of Francis Chan's very wise words: "When I'm consumed with my problems - stressed out about my life...I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a "right" to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities."

I am not sure how reliable the internet will be in the village where I'm staying next month, but as long as we have internet, I'll be updating this blog with pictures and stories and such...so STAY TUNED!

thief

I should totally be working right now...there's a lot to get done. But sometimes you have to stop, ya know? And I felt like He was telling me on the way to the offices that I need to stop...if only for one afternoon.

Because I'm so...frustrated. And I just need to vent a little bit. I'm so angry at my enemy. I'm so fed up with the one who exists to steal, kill, and destroy. And today...he's totally after my joy.

I'm so angry at this one who attacks the hearts of God's children.

Who tells young girls that they are only worth what a guy thinks about them. Who pushes them to do things that lands them in a pit of lies and destruction.

Who tells people that they should condemn and "punish" those who are caught in sin. Who convinces them that that is exactly what they deserve and should receive (...as if that's going to draw them back to the Truth...)

Who gets in the middle of relationships and tears them apart with meaningless and trivial things. Where people pull away from one another and worse, leave the church because of each other.

Who attacks the Bride of Christ (the church) by lying to her and telling her that following Jesus is all about going to church and putting on a happy face. Who distracts her from LIFE with the temporary, comfortable American dream.

Who convinces teenagers that they don't have time for the things of God. That there are more important and more fun things that they could be doing with their time.

And let's be honest...I'm frustrated with how he attacks me. I hate the selfishness and the pride that I see in my own heart so often.

I'm so OVER him. I'm so over this punk who knows that He can't get to God because God has already won the war, so he resorts to attacking that which God loves the most - His children. He's a spiteful loser.

But I'm sitting here typing and in the background, I'm listening to Hillsong remind me...

This is my prayer in the battle,
when triumph is still on its way.
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ.
So firm on His promise I'll stand.

I will bring praise, I will bring praise!
No weapon formed against me shall remain.
I will rejoice, I will declare,
God is my victory and He is here.

All of my life, in every season,
YOU ARE STILL GOD.
I have a reason to sing. I have a reason to worship.

God is still God. He's still on the throne. And He's bigger than anything I'm facing or frustrated with. My enemy is simply bitter. And he will not debilitize me with discouragement. He will not steal my joy. He will not tempt me to give up. He just won't win this battle...

Bless the Broken Road

Psalm 84:5 - Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

I know this song wasn't written about Jesus, but wow...I never thought about how amazing this song describes the pilgrimage on which we travel to Him. check OUT these lyrics! This song will never be the same for me...

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to You

Every long lost dream led me to where You are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into Your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to You

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to You
But You just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Now I'm just rollin' home into my Lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road that led me straight to You

expect the unexpected

I just got back from a week at Barefoot Republic Camp, serving as a "Republic Leader" for 14 junior high girls. The mission of Barefoot is to facilitate relationships between kids from diverse racial, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds...so we had kids from inner-city Nashville at camp with kids from wealthy Williamson County. Very cool vision...and very few, if any, other camps in the country do what they do.


I went in to last week completely "spent". In fact, on my way to camp last Sunday afternoon, I almost called the camp director (who just happens to be one of my best friends) to tell her to have a back-up in line...just in case...I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually tapped out.

Had you told me what the week was going to hold, I would've told you there was no way that I would be able to make it without completely shutting down. I didn't really know what to expect out of the week since this was my first time at Barefoot. In many ways, it was exponentially harder than I thought it was going to be. But I had no idea that I was going to experience God the way I did.

It's weird because two weeks ago, I got to watch God supply our HCC students with the love and energy that they needed at Deer Run (see previous post). I thought I had rarely, if ever, got to see God take over in such a powerful way. And it's like this week at Barefoot, He told me it was my turn...not just to see it, but to experience it.

I don't think it's a coincidence that I ended up with the toughest group of kids at camp. These kids were coming from the poverty of the projects and from broken families. There was a lot of anger, a lot of hurt...and a desperate, desperate need for attention and for love. Sadly these needs tend to work themselves out in very negative ways. I have worked with youth for four years now...and although I'd worked with my fair share of hurt kids, I had never worked with this overwhelming amount of hurt kids.

But what was crazy was how God completely took me over and gave me, every minute of every day, exactly what He knew I needed. I truly experienced Him as my Provider in a way that I never have before. I was dependent on Him every moment of every day last week. In my fleshly nature, I would have typically gotten very frustrated, angry, and impatient with those girls. But instead I found my love for them growing greater and greater every minute I was with them...even though their behavior and their attitudes didn't really change a whole lot throughout the week.
Through that, though, I came to a new realization of what God's unconditional, patient, relentless love looks like. And how His love for me has nothing to do with me or what I do and everything to do with Him and who He is.

I prayed going in to last week that God would truly break my heart for what breaks His and that He would show me how to love like He's loved me. It was incredible to experience His heart last week. It was amazing to see His love in a new and real way. It was humbling to realize that the God of the universe chooses to use someone like me to pour out His love into this broken world. It was crazy to feel the way He took over my heart, my mind, and my body in every part of last week, reminding me that He will never call me to something without providing for me the whole way. I want to be dependent on Him like that every day. I want Him to take control of me like that all the time.

Although there were a few breakthroughs, I honestly didn't get to see a huge return on the love that those girls experienced. But you know, God had to remind me that that wasn't the reason I was doing what I was doing. I am not to love so that I can see results. I am to love because I have been so recklessly loved. And because of that, I cannot help but pour that love out onto a broken and hurting world.

I'm so glad God isn't limited by my expectations. He sure blew them away last week.