Me, a Rock, a Lake, and Jesus

One of the reasons I came to Ireland was to have some intentional intimate time with Jesus. The Lord answered this prayer through a rock which became my quiet niche and through leading me to a ridge that looked down to a peacefull lake. As I sat or stood in these beautiful places, surrounded by the intricate design of our Creator, I reflected on the words of Jesus:

Words of invitation- "Come and follow me."

Words of assurance- "Do not be afriad."

Words of promise- "I will always be with you."

Part of me expected that through this intentional meeting, the Lord would convict me of my sin and pretty much tell me all the things I need to change. Instead the opposite happened. Joy, peace, and comfort came with the truth that the Lord knit me together. That I am part of His intricate design. I am His image bearer and His beloved. Transformation comes through truly believing these certainties.

So now here I am longing to live like a daughter who is deeply loved by her Father.

The Journey Continues

I am thankful that the Lord called me back to Bundibugyo, even for a short time. That short time is now over and the Lord is calling me to move on to other things. The interns left Uganda this morning and should be arriving in London in the next couple of hours. I will leave Uganda on Friday and until then take some time to relax at our "home away from home" in Kampala. I am thankful that my team mate Heidi is in Kampala for an internship. This means as I sit around, reflect, rest, and wait for my departure on Friday I will be in good company and blessed with good and helpful conversations.
I will not be going straight back to Seattle from here. I will first go to Ireland for a spiritual retreat and some touring around with my mother and grandmother. Then I will spend some time in Philly. It will be 3 weeks of moving around and living out of a duffle bag, but I am sure that it will be worth the good and stretching times that come. I will be updating my blog when I can along the way. I look forward to seeing some of you when I can finally settle down for a bit again.

Joyful Goodbyes

Although it is hard to say goodbye, I am filled with joy and thanksgiving. I continue to be thankful for the opportunity to return to Bundibugyo. Thankful to see friends again, play with the school children more, teach new things, appreciate full moons, ride my bike and walk down the road, and for the ability to bask in the Lord's glory that is revealed in this place. The Lord continues to give me a thankful heart for the times and moments he has given me in this place. Even in the last two days He has surprised me with some good times as I say goodbye to those I love and will miss dearly. Even though I am still not ready to leave, my heart is truly filled with joy believing that the Lord is going to surprise me with His goodness in each moment that still lays ahead.

Beckoned to Come Freely

“Only by realizing the reality of the pain and acknowledging through lament to God our powerlessness and hopelessness, can we arrive at such a place of freedom as David Inhabited.” Michael Card (A Sacred Sorrow)

As a team we are studying a book on lament. Last week we focused on the life of David, a man after God’s own heart. David freely cried out to God in times of distress and desperation. This acknowledgement of pain, powerlessness, and hopelessness always led him back to worship. I continue to struggle with this idea of lament. I don’t allow myself to feel powerless or hopeless. I realized that because I am surrounded by so much injustice and suffering that many times I feel like when I am in distress I have no right to cry out when my distress seems like nothing compared to my neighbors. But this week I have truly reached the end of myself and for that I am thankful. The Lord is slowly breaking my walls of fear down, showing me that I cannot be Miss Fix It. This week He has shown me that I am powerless and through my powerlessness I can become hopeless. I found myself discouraged thinking of this young boy who I used to help financially with school, who while I was gone made some really bad choices, dropped out of school, and moved away from home. I met with him yesterday, but my heart feels hopeless. Is there anything that I can say or do that will change his heart? Can I really believe him when he says his behavior is improving? I also found out recently that two girls from my past discipleship group have made some bad choices at school. One of them is only a few months away from completing her high school education and now because of this choice she may have ruined her chances of finishing or at least finishing well. More powerlessness, more hopelessness. I am only remaining with 3 days in Bundibugyo. I am not ready to go, yet I am powerless. I have now truly arrived at this place of freedom where I am now crying out to God:

“How long O Lord will ears and hearts stay closed?
Will hearts ever change?
Is your kingdom really coming?
Will the walls of fear we put up ever be destroyed and broken down?
Why Lord is it time for me to go, yet I don’t feel ready?
Why do you throw me into relationships just to pull me right back out again?
I hope in people and then become disappointed.
I trust in myself and become defeated.
I come to you now out of my powerlessness, finding hope in your power, your grace, and your mercy.
For you O Lord have ordained each of our days. You discern our going out and our laying down and are familiar with all our ways.
You are the only one who can change hearts and can pursue us to the depths of our soul.
Though pain comes through sadness and loss of relationship, still you are there.
You say to me, ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Isreael, your Savior.’ (Isaiah 43)
Cleanse me with your water O Lord, and refine me by your fire. My hope is in you."

Why Does the Rooster Crow?

I used to think that roosters only crowed in the morning to welcome the new day as the sun rose. I also thought that it was one hearty welcoming crow and then that was that. Living in Uganda I have learned otherwise. I wake up each morning to the sound of our neighbor’s rooster. It usually crows when I am not ready to get up and I always lay in bed hoping that it will let up and realize that everyone has now heard that a new day has begun, but no, it keeps on crowing. My rooster ignorance continued to show when I kept hearing the rooster at random times during the day. My ignorance also shows that I am very much a girl who grew up in the city. Finally I looked online to gain a better understanding of why a rooster really does crow. I learned that roosters crow any time of day to mark their territory, to communicate to other roosters/hens, or when they find something to eat. Sometimes a rooster crows just because they hear another rooster crow, which makes a lot of sense because here in Bundi you hear one, you hear many. This new realization has softened my annoyance with the neighbor rooster a bit, although I am sure the rooster somehow knows the amount of cock a doodle doos it takes to get me out of bed :).

Sleeping in the Wild

At the tail end of our week away we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park. I finally got to opportunity to camp at Campsite 2 which is within the national park. As the sun went down I could hear the animals beginning to move around, Hyenas yipping, hippos snorting, lions roaring, ... No fear though, the sounds were pretty far. Considering all the stories I have heard from other Campsite 2 experiences I think we had a pretty tame night. A fire was kept going all night to scare any animals away and it never sounded like anything got extremely close to our site. I think the noises I heard the most were from those in their tents tossing and turning and those getting up and down tending to the fire. We get up extremely early to go on a game drive since the animals move around at that time to catch their breakfast. As we were driving it was still a bit dark, but the Myhre children were up on the roof rack with a spotlight, shining it back and forth on each side of the road. About 1 mile or less from our campsite one of the kids notice some glowing eyes and shined the spotlight. It was a beautiful leopard, the one animal that I had yet to see at Queen Elizabeth. As you can imagine the leopard didn’t really like having the light shined down on it, so after a minute or two it got up and walked away. After that glorious moment we joked about going back to the campsite for breakfast because we knew that nothing else on our game drive would probably top the leopard sighting.

Look at my lovely Tukul! This will possibly be my first house in Mundri.

After a squished car ride and a night in Kampala we left for Mundri, s. Sudan on Tuesday morning. I knew going that this time would be different. When I was in Mundri last year the new location had not yet been appointed. Now that Mundri is the official site for the new Sudan team, it is slowly becoming a reality that soon it will be my home. This time as I walked down the road passing men, women, and children I greeted them with the thought in my head that soon all of these people are going to be my neighbors, some will become close friends, and some of the children I might be teaching or interacting with on a daily basis. My love for the Moru people increased greatly in my three days there.
One of my goals for this trip was to have a meeting about primary education with those from the church and district who are involved with education development. The Lord answered this prayer with a 2 ½ hour meeting where we were all able to share our vision for education in Mundri and also those present who are currently involved in the schools were able to share the struggles they were facing. I came out of the meeting feeling ready to dive right in. The thought of having to wait 6 more months seems like a life time away, but I know that the Lord still has some preparing to do in my heart. Before the education meeting I took some time to go and visit the Parish school. I first greeted the preschool children who were over 200 in number and then the rest of the school which I am told there are close to 900 students when they are all present. It was a bit intimidating walking into the middle of their square formation where they responded to their head teacher with a chant and some stomping. It was almost as if I was in the middle of an army brigade responding to their commanding officer. I felt like I was shouting when I greeted because I wanted to make sure they all could hear and understand me. They responded with a very warm welcome and much enthusiasm. Soon after the students dispersed to their classrooms, I moved around to each class and even sat in on an Arabic class where I learned the word for bell.
Right now it is the middle of the rainy season. However, we were there for almost 3 days and it did not rain a single drop. It seems the rain must come in spurts. If I were to guess I would say the temperature was in the 90s most of the time. It did seem pretty hot. When it is hot out people do a lot of sitting because it is too hot to move around. While we were there I was introduced to the custom of sitting under the mango tree. During different parts of the day there are certain places that one should sit. In the morning you start inside the round hut where you are served tea and bread. Once breakfast is over the chairs are all moved outside under a huge mango tree which provides sufficient shade. The chairs remain there for most of the day and then like clockwork they are moved again to a different area outside because the placement of the sun had shifted and the shade of the mango tree is no longer enough. When I head to Mundri more permanently at the beginning of 2009 it will be the hottest time of year. I think I will be doing a lot of mango tree sitting at that time. But I look forward to getting to know my neighbors, future colleagues, and friends as we sit together and enjoy the blessing of a Mango tree’s shade.

Back From the Journey

We have arrived back safely from our adventurous week. Even though our week was full of transit, I have arrived back feeling a bit refreshed, not too exhausted, and extremely happy to sleep in my own bed again. During our 6 nights away I slept in 4 different beds, I saw my future home, had a very successful education meeting in Mundri, was squished in the backseat of a truck with 3 other grown people for over 6 hours taking turns leaning forward and back as we went, went camping for a night, and saw a leopard. It was one jammed pack week and I praise God for orchestrating every minute of it. Please stay tuned for details and pictures. Thanks for all your prayers!!