Skip to main content

Starting my time in Uganda -- Journal and Prayer from the first night and first morning

My time in Uganda reinforced so powerfully how big and good God is.  God is bigger than our weaknesses, than our faults, than our governments, than our pasts, than our circumstances, than any evil. God loves to give good, sweet gifts...even when He doesn't have to...He delights in being faithful and loving to us.  He delights in our faithful obedience to Him.

While I was in Uganda, I tried to journal every night and write out a prayer every morning.  I'd like to share some of these entries with you all to give you a glimpse of God's workings on our trip and in me. I'll be editing the entries here and there to add a detail, to protect a child, to clarify, or to cover over a situation that would only be gossipy to share.  However, I won't edit out the reality of what I experienced on the trip.

I know many of you were praying for me, for my teammates, for the people in Uganda, and for the trip in general.  Thank you.  God was answering prayers big time. I pray that by sharing some of my experiences with you all, you will be blessed as well.

June 19, 2013        12:18am
   We're here! We made it to Uganda.  I'm already amazed at how perfectly God chose The Hiding Place to be my reading material on the way here.  It takes place in Holland, and we had a layover in Amsterdam where I got to see a map showing the location of the cities in the book.  So many of the lessons seem applicable to everyday life and certainly to my time here.  I'm not equipped to do this in my own strength, wisdom, or skill set, and that's just fine.  God will give me what I need each step of the way -- His love, His wisdom, His forgiveness -- all for His glory.  Thank you Lord for getting us here safely and for the work you will do in the next 2 weeks.  Give me the words even to pray to you. I love You, Father!  Goodnight.


June 19, 2013      7:22am     1 Chronicles 5-9
Lord, You are my Rock and my Shield, my Fortress, my Refuge, my Hiding Place, and my Strength.  To You alone, I commit my day.  Please work through me in all I say and do.  Please minister mightily to others through me.  Change my heart to be more like Yours.  Show me what You see in people and situations.  Make me sensitive to Your leading and Your promptings.  Thank You for giving me devotionals to share.  Keep me sensitive to Your guidance.  I praise You today!  You know the names of everyone I will meet and see today.  You know their needs and love each one.  Help me to show Your love to them.  Please give me energy, alertness, sensitivity, discernment, love, joy, peace, and continuing faith all in You and for You.  Give me rejoicing, gentleness, and prayers of thanksgiving.  May my love abound in knowledge and depth of insight.  ALL for YOUR glory.  I love you, and I praise You today!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the team

A few weeks ago, I got the email announcing that I would be part of the PTCC team going to Uganda in the summer of 2013.  I think I stopped breathing for a few seconds when I saw that email.  It had suddenly become real rather than hypothetical, and I was terrified.  What had I done? Should I really be going to Uganda? Did God really want me to do this? After maybe a day or two of panic creeping in whenever I thought of it, I realized that either God had called me to do this, and I could rest in that, or He hadn't but He would still work everything for good somehow because I loved Him.  This conclusion calmed my nerves enough to attend the first team meeting--though not enough to keep my face from turning beet red whenever it was my turn to speak! The day after the first meeting, I left town for a family vacation.  Although I spent portions of my vacation time reading a team-recommended book, I by and large set all Uganda anxieties to the side until I got ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Church, the Nile, a Slum, and More! -- Journal Entry for June 23rd

June 23, 2013        10:10pm I am tired but surprisingly I'm less exhausted than I was 4 hours ago.  Today was like 3-4 days all wrapped up in one. I went to Jinja Christian Center this morning, and it was an amazing experience.  Before last night, I hadn't known which church I'd prefer to go to -- the Cathedral or a more charismatic church, but as soon as Brenda asked last night, I had an immediate knowledge that I wanted to go to JCC.  I'm so glad I went. The praise and worship time was spectacular.  The first song was in Lunganda, but there was a repetitive "Hallelujah" that I could join in on , and I enjoyed participating with their praise by clapping with them to God as they sang.  Their next song was "Worthy is the Lamb."  I was so excited to know the song and to be able to sing with them this time.  It took me to such a deep place or worship and praise -- the words of the song itself, singing with those people, and bein...
Post a Comment
Read more

Body Bootcamp

I was planning to post about how hard it was for me to wait and rely on other people to provide the needed funds for me to go on the Uganda trip.  I was going to explain how I've seen God come through financially for me and my family countless times but how I somehow still had a hard time trusting His Body to come through for me. I'm not sure I can post about that anymore.  God seems to have placed me in a "Body Bootcamp."  It sort of started when He gave me these verses for my upcoming trip to Uganda:   “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does i...
Post a Comment
Read more