We are unworthy, but the Glory of God is willing.

We are unworthy, but the Glory of God is willing.

                What does this statement mean? Simply that we are not worthy to have anything to do with God. We are sinful people who do not deserve to even have a God and in reality things probably would have been easier for God had He not created man. The Glory of God, however, is so much so, that He made man. Knowing, even before He created us, that we would fall, but in that being able to glorify Himself in everything that He has done on Earth and in the Universe. From speaking creation into being, to fixing a broken world, it was all a part of the original plan.

                It is this master plan that I believe God has put into place that has gotten me through many of the hard times I have faced in life. Today, it is what gives me hope for people like the two kids I wrote about in my previous post. It is the hope in God’s plan that allows me to walk through parts of this country and smile. From looking at the trash in the streets, to the orphan babies I see and wonder were they will be 10, 20, 30 years from now. If there is one thing I know about my God it is that He loves taking broken things and making them whole and that is His promise at the end of time. That all who proclaim Jesus as God and believe that He rose from the dead will be restored at the end of time. Restored beyond our own imaginations so don’t even try and imagine what it would be like.

                Anyhow, my time here is being well spent. This week three of the other MST’s leave which will make me the only person from outside Uganda working at projects tell the 13^th when more MST’s will arrive. This will be challenging as I will be taking on many roles from leading praise and worship, coordinating the projects, organizing games, as well as telling stories from the bible. I will have the help from some of the Ugandans on staff, who will take on some of these roles, but any prayers I can get for endurance and patience would be great.

                Yesterday I was able to preach to some high school kids that are sponsored through Empower a Child, about 40 of them. It was great! I could see the Lord really allowing them to hear as I shared about the parable of the sower. Then we played soccer which was a lot of fun as well, and I took on my character as Wayne Rooney.

                I shared the Gospel with my friend Unus about a week and a half ago. He is stuck on the testimony that he is sure he has from his Muslim god. That testimony being that he grew up not going to school but somehow knows how to speak English, and does not know how to explain this other than his god blessed him with this ability. I’m stuck at how to approach him on the subject now and have just been praying for him. If you have any insight on how you would recommend me approach him I would greatly appreciate it. If not, please keep praying for him.

                My favorite thing I have started doing lately is going outside the gate of where I am staying; the same place I ran into Charles and Joel from my last post, and just sitting and reading the bible to them. I read on my Ipad in the light of the moon on a tiny curb with anywhere from 6-15 heads just gathered around gazing and listening. Yesterday I read the last four Chapters from Luke and the first two chapters from Genesis. It is such and encouraging time and I absolutely love it. Last night though, when I went out to read one boy ran from his home a few doors down to listen, but his mother called for him immediately after he arrived. I could hear him getting swatted when he returned home. I felt horrible to say the least, and hope that he was being swatted for not listening to mother and not because he wanted to hear from the bible. I also have all the neighborhood kids greeting me with “Ahhwhoo!” As if I am the Leonidas from Sparta in the movie 300. So as I walk down the street I will yell, “Ahhwhoo!” immediately kids will run from every direction shouting, “Ahhwhoo! Ahhwhoo! Ahhwhoo!” It is awesome to say the least!

                Anyway, if there is anyway I could be praying for you let me know. I have received a few prayer requests and have been lifting those people up but would love to be praying for anyone else who needs it!

Be Blessed

Sweet Lou

Two Stories In Need of Redemption

               The sun was starting to set as I walked out of the gate of my current residents. I was simply checking to see what the neighborhood kids were up too. Sometimes I go out there and there are about 20 of them just running around playing or simply standing around and talking. However, this time, there was only one child standing there. I went to greet him and asked him how he was doing. “Oltya?” I say, which is, how are you? In Luganda. “Jendi,” (fine) he responds. I do not recognize this child. He then tells me his name is Charles and does not have school fees, but that he would like them. He is 12. He tells me his father died recently in a motorcycle wreck and now his family cannot afford for him to go to school. He just moved in with his aunt and uncle. I tell him I cannot promise him anything but I can see if we can get him on the list of kids who need sponsors. The boy’s uncle then walked up to us and tells me that the boy is a good kid. I tell him I will try to help. He then points to another boy walking up the drive. He tells me that this child’s twin sister died last night and they just told the boy today.

                Heart broken I walk over to the other boy who seems to be showing no emotion at all. Emily, another missionary, is with the boy. For the next hour more kids would come and gather around as Emily and Obbo (our guard) would try and get the story out of the boy. I would distract the other boys by reading to them from the Bible on my Ipad as it was dark now. It was encouraging to have seven kids from 5 to 17 gathered with their heads around as I read about Moses in Deuteronomy. When we went inside the gate I was able to get the rest of the story of the boy who lost his sister.

                The boy is nine years old and one of many children. His name is Joel and, he says he is one of 20 but only he and his two sisters stayed at his home with his mother; one of the sisters being the one who died just the night before. His father stays with another woman in the village. The woman wanted his father to stay with her and so he did. He is a farmer. I am guessing that the other 17 children are from other women that his father has had relation with. They are Muslim so they may also be his different wives. He and his sister had been very sick for a long time. He had gotten better she did not. The family had tried everything to help his sister. They went to a witch doctor in the village who their family works a lot with. It sounds as if the witch doctor has some sort of strong hold on Joel’s family as his family keeps going back even though people keep getting sick. Obbo was helping Emily with translation and made it sound as if there was some powerful spiritual attacking going on with the witch doctor and the family. Finally, the Joel’s mother sold everything so that she could afford to take his sister to the hospital. The girl improved but then got sick again and died. The family now has on money and the boy stopped going to school when the mother had to give all their money to the doctor. He now needs a sponsor as well to attend school. This is a minor detail to the fact that he did not get to go to his sister’s funeral. He is not allowed to see his sister’s body or even the casket or the vehicle carrying the casket. They believe that as a twin if he sees any of this he will become sick and die as well. He has been told that he cannot cry or show that he is sad. He was outside the gate that night with family friends who he used to stay with while he was in school. The rest of his family was at the funeral that took place that day. He would go back with his family the following day.

                I have been finding it hard to put into perspective some of the things that I am being exposed too while here in Uganda. The best way to do so I figured was by simply sharing the stories of the people I am meeting while here. It seems my emotions have become numb to stories like these two boys. My heart still breaks for them but my response is not so much an emotional shock as it was in the beginning. I seem to be over that. I simply desire for Jesus to heal these situations. I understand that He is the only one that can help either of these kids and will be the only one that can rescue them. Hopefully we can get them on a list to be sponsored but only time will tell. The good news is that God uses situations like these and people like these to magnify His Glory. For that is simply why we were created, to bring glory to God. I hope to spend more time with these kids in the coming weeks and love them in anyway that I can. God loves me and my response to that is to love others.

This is why I am here. This is why I feel God has brought me to Uganda. No amount of money, no amount of service, no teaching, no education or knowledge will give hope like Jesus does. Certainly all of those other things can help or even lead to the understanding of Jesus, but while I am here, if I could give that hope to just one person, child or adult, that it may bring glory to God then my time here was worth it. 

Jesus, The Desire of My Heart

                With my third week in Uganda coming to a close I can say I have missed the states for the first time since I have been here. It may have something to do with it being less busy in the past week and especially less busy the past few days. You can definitely say I’m over doing laundry by hand but I guess this is where I just have to suck it up and ask the Lord for some strength. ha Wed-Fri I was on safari which was a great experience. You can see some of the pictures and videos I took during the safari on my previous post.  Sunday I spoke at Children’s Church on Jesus calming the storm. I hope the Lord used me in that. Other than that though since we have been back I have really just been waiting to go back to work in the village which will start tomorrow. Last week we dug the foundation for the church and this week we will begin lying the bricks, sand, concrete, and cement that will make up the foundation. It will be a lot of work and we will be spending a few days camping in the village in hopes of getting the foundation finished.

                I have been praying a lot lately as for what I will do when I get back from Uganda. For the first time I have been considering going back to school. I do not know where it came from but suddenly I have had the desire to absorb as much knowledge as I can about the Bible, Christianity, and my savior, and what a better place to absorb knowledge than in school. This being said I am really considering studying in the U.K. somewhere, possibly England or Ireland. I also know that I want to serve as an intern at a church somewhere for sometime. As for the U.K., masters programs only seem to be one or two year programs which seem a bit short. Who knows? I have a lot of time and perhaps the Lord will put something totally different on my heart by the time I am ready to make a decision, wouldn’t be the first time that has happened.

                On another spiritual note I have for the first time realized why my walk with Christ seems to be so hot and cold, or better yet, why I seem to get burned out so to speak. I was listening to a sermon from Tyler Jones, the pastor at Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh North Carolina and the whole thing was on the desire of our hearts. He was talking about what the problem with the church in the west is today and how the number of non believers in the West seems to be growing so fast. He stated that it is not because we don’t have the right leadership or the right planning or even enough people with servant hearts, the problem is that the central desire of our hearts is not Jesus Christ. We get so caught up in the desires of this world and what we think we need or what we want (in material possession) that Christ no longer becomes our central desire. Christ says himself that if we seek His Kingdom these things will be given unto us and if He chooses not to give us the latest fashion in clothes or newest gadgets then so be it for His Kingdom is that much greater and that He does promise. As well I heard a quote the other day by Corrie Ten Boom listening to another sermon that I was able to relate to as I try to figure out what to do when I return. It stated, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” It was simple enough and made enough since. I may face hardship and trial in the future or I may not, but I shouldn’t worry about it for God knows all and He will prepare and be with me through it all.

                Aside from all this please continue to pray for me as I continue to serve the Lord here. I ask that you would pray for comfort when I begin to miss home and that I would continue to be a servant in anyway that I can. Also pray that I would have the strength and energy to serve in an effective way. Continue to pray for my friend Unus as I have not seen him much this week I know he still needs it. Again let me know if you would like prayer for anything as I would love to be praying for you in anyway that I can. 

Safari

Selena, will you marry me?

             So I had a dream last night. It was one of those dreams that while it is happening it’s great. So great that you begin to think it is real and when you wake up you are depressed because you realize it is not. In actuality it was a very silly dream, but at the root of it was the same sin I have been dealing with for most of my life with Christ. As Paul talks in Romans 7 about a thorn that is in his side that he cannot remove and why he does what he does not want to do, a part of me feels that way about my dream. Another part of me hopes that it was some sort of vision of the future or a hope for something to come. So here it is, enjoy.  I hope it brings you some laughs as well as some insight at the end.

                It started with me walking in a mall or in an area of people with different shops and stuff around. I was walking to meet my girlfriend but ironically I did not know who she was. I just had this inner feeling that when I got to where I was going I would recognize her. Well I ended up in this restaurant in a room where we were having a private birthday dinner. There was my girlfriend and some of her friends. It was one of her friend’s birthdays. My girlfriend, Selena Gomez, was thrilled to see me. I of course loved this as I was slightly surprised and slightly pumped to have a beautiful girlfriend that excited to see me. The rest of the dream was us finishing dinner and hanging out with her friends. It was great. Our chemistry was that of a hydrogen bond and things were so smooth. Other than that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the situation while enjoying our time together. At one point she said, “Where are we now? 22 heading on 23?” I responded with, “What do you mean? My age?” “No silly,” she said, “Months we have been together.” I was like “Oh, well I am about to be 23 so I didn’t know what you were talking about.” She just smiled and hugged me. We never kissed never got too much time alone. But everything about us together was great. Her friends (most of which were people from the cast of Wizards of Waverly Place) liked me and her male friends approved as if they were her big brothers. My desire to have “nice things” was met of course for she had plenty of money. At some point I had understood that she and JB broke up peacefully. I then tried figuring out if I had met him or was going to meet him. It was all an after thought though to our relationship. I woke up once and was very depressed to realize it was a dream so I went back to sleep and the dream continued.

                The second time I woke up I knew I had to get up. Depressed again that the dream was over and it was not a reality I knew that it’s time was up. Sure I could go back to sleep and who knows maybe the dream would continue. My desire to have a significant other that loved me for who I am, where sparks flew every time we were together, Hollywood Love, would have been met, but in my sleep? With my personality this would have led to an addiction of sorts had I gone back to sleep and been in that dream again. I would find myself hoping to be in the same dream every time I closed my eyes. Which if in case happened could lead to me going to sleep anytime I wasn’t content with where I was at. This false fantasy could control me if I let it but Christ died to free me from that, that I would not be a slave to anything and as a response would slave to Him. This desire for intimacy is something I have always craved but I should not. In reality Christ has died that I may have complete satisfaction in Him. That I would know He loves me for me and that is enough but it still something that I struggle with. As Paul talked about the thorn in his side, a sin he could not rid himself of, it continually drew him close to Christ, just as my desire for intimacy from a woman draws me to Christ to find that I am loved intimately by Him.

                In retrospect, who knows? Maybe this will be something I struggle with forever in that it will continually draw me close to Christ, and just being aware of that and having accountability that I do not idolize my relationship with a woman I am ready for a relationship. As for the dream, maybe it was the sinful desire in me. Maybe it was a foretelling from God of what is to come, that God will provide a woman of the nature of the Salina Gomez in my dream, or maybe even Selena herself. Either way I will continue to seek Christ and hope that whatever happens is His will and not my own, and that it would be clear when the time comes, but if it is the latter, then Selena, will you marry me?

Week #2

                Soft, almost soggy but slightly crunchy and salty, they taste almost like beef jerky but with a different texture. By they I mean white ants if you did not already guess by the description. You know those big ants you see sometimes that have wings? Yes, they were given to us by some people in the village when we finished digging the foundation to the church that will go up soon. Good stuff!

                Week two has been good. I got to share the story of Easter with three different primary schools this week. At one I was asked if I was the Transporter? I did not respond and when I introduced myself to the kids I said I was, “Transporter.” The kids seriously believed and before I knew it I was signing autographs and being asked how I made it through different scenes of the movie. I have not seen the movie. ha

                My message on Easter Sunday went okay. You can usually judge from a crowd’s body language how they are engaging when you are speaking; people seemed to be struggling to stay awake. I don’t know if this was just because they were having to follow with a translator or if my message was really that bad. At the end of the day though I did all I could and can only pray that the Holy Spirit moved in my message. The people that understood English all said it was good, so who knows?

                Friday night we had an overnight worship service in the village. We had different speakers come and give messages; we had prayer and sang, danced, and planned on watching a movie. When we go out there we take a generator because there is no electricity. With all of our electrical equipment set up and the generator running everything was going smoothly until about 2:30 in the morning when it started pouring down rain. It rained the rest of the night and by the time we finished waiting for it to stop it was 4:00AM. At that point it was still sprinkling and so we packed up and left. Before this though we were able to have one of the best worship services I have ever been a part of and it was definitely in my top three dance party experiences. People just love to dance and sing for the Lord it was great!

                This coming week is going to be very laid back besides the four hours of digging and hoeing we did today for the church. The kids are taking exams so we will not be visiting schools after today and in that case some of us are going on Safari for a few days which should be blast. Kid’s going into exams brings me to one of the hardest parts about being here so far. I have had two children come up and tell me that they want school fees. This is a tough situation because kids only go to school here if they can afford it and a lot can’t. They understand though that education is the only way for them to stand a chance of getting ahead in life. That being said, if anyone is interested in sponsoring a child for $35 a month through Empower a Child let me know. Through this you will be able to write letters back and forth with your sponsor and get term progress reports on how the child is doing in school. It is really a cool opportunity; most all of the people that run the Empower a Child organization were all sponsored through Compassion, another non profit sponsorship organization.

                The above picture of me is with some of the kid’s from the feeding project we do at a school called Victory. They don’t really like me that much. They just like getting their picture taken. This morning I was able to share the story of the paralytic man whose friends brought him to Jesus through the roof on a mat. It was a good time. These kids are so smart. Below that you will find another post with a video of my friend Brent butchering a chicken that was a gift to him from the child he sponsors family. We will be eating it for dinner. Watch at your own discretion but he let go of it after cutting its head off and it was pretty funny watching it flop around. Minus the fact that it came right at me!

                Anyway, prayer request this week would include continuing to pray for my friend Unus. I found out that recently he went home one night to find his wife and daughter gone and they had taken everything. She left him because he was, “poor.” He has literally been sleeping on a small mat in his one room home by himself. He has nothing but clothes. He really needs the prayers and I desperately want him to know the Lord. Other than that just that I would continue to be used by God and safety on my travels this week on Safari.

Be Blessed

Sweet 

Organic Chicken

Uganda Week 1

As I sit on a couch in the room beside the common area to my current residents of  Ntinda, Uganda I am in aw of Gods majesty. You see in the common area there are a group of people worshiping the Lord in an unorganized fashion that just happened to occur after a Sunday school meeting. A Ugandan man who goes by Billy is playing guitar while others from all walks of life are lifting up his name. A girl from Texas, another from Minnesota, and another from North Carolina, a married couple from Pennsylvania, two other Ugandan men one of which is the founder of this organization, who if you heard his story would have a hard time arguing there was not a God, all lifting up the praise to one man, Jesus Christ. This is only a small taste of what my experience here has been like. God is so good.

Thus far the experience has been great. That comes with a grain of salt of course, as some would have a hard time understanding with no AC and an average temperature of 85 degrees plus, no warm water (shaving is no fun), repeat meals of the same foods only in different variations (rice, beans, posho, vegetables, eggs and pineapple), the washing of dishes by hand, washing laundry by hand, and other things such as bugs and little lizards crawling around. With all of this in mind it has been awesome. With all of this I am left saying God is good.

We have been serving mostly in schools, primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) schools. At the primary schools we mostly share a bible story, sing songs, play games, and sometimes make crafts. The kids get so excited to see Mzungus (white people) coming and spending time with them. The secondary schools are also breath taking. We go and have lunch hour worship services, were kids skip lunch to sing praise with nothing but the clapping of their hands and maybe a djembe drum. We then share a message with them and again they are so grateful for our coming and sharing with them. We have also been doing feeding projects, visiting villages, serving in a baby’s home, as well as a children’s hospital. My first day on project I was blessed to lead the morning devotion as well as share stories at two primary schools. Since then I have spoken at another primary school as well as lead games at another. This week I will speak at a secondary school and another primary school and leading devotion. They have asked me to preach on Sunday at church. This was a humbling request. I agreed to do so and for the first time I will be speaking in front of a church on a Sunday morning, Easter Sunday of all Sundays. The church is in a village where roughly fifty villagers meet under a hut to worship the Lord. Prayers for my message to be clear on Sunday would be greatly appreciated in that I will have a translator and things can get lost in translation. Just pray that the Lord would speak and use me in this time.

The Lord has also been bringing to light this call I have felt to be a pastor. Two different Ugandan friends, Wilson and Jonah, have told me they have felt on their spirit when they first met me that I was a pastor. This was very encouraging and having talked to Wilson, the founder of Empower a Child, about my struggle with the calling it has been an encouragement to see that he wrestled with some of the same things I am when he felt Gods call on his life. Just need to keep seeking the Lord for guidance in this area.

The people have accepted me as family. The relationships I am building are ones that I know will last a lifetime. They call me many names aside from Tyler. Actually I probably get Tyler the least. Other names that I have developed in the past week are as follows; Taylor, Tyla, Beast, Transporter, Roonie (Wayne Roonie), Pastor Tyla, Reverand, and of course Mzungu. I was able to go and visit Jinja today which is the base of the Nile. Got a little sun burnt but nothing too terrible.

Well that is a wrap for week one. Prayers for a man named Unis would be greatly appreciated it. He is our driver, a Muslim man that the Lord has really put on my heart. We are becoming good friends and I ask continually that the Lord move in His heart. As for me I ask that you would pray that God would keep using me effectively, that my energy levels would stay up and also that I would remain vulnerable to His will for my life. If anyone has prayer request from the States please feel free to send them my way!

Best

Sweet Lou