There is so much that I am so thankful for each day here. Really everything. Every day I can’t help but walk home saying, “Thank you, Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for the undeserved joy that you overflow my heart with each and every day.”
I even find myself praising Him for the things that I never thought I would be thankful for, like the lack of electricity. On the nights when there is no power (the majority of nights here) I grab a straw mat and take it outside and lay on the dirt to just stare at the stars. I don’t even know why I’m trying to tell y’all about them, because it’s something that I can’t explain with words…and I can’t even get a good picture of them. I’ve never seen so many stars in all of my life. At first, I was trying to find the constellations that I know, but I finally realized that I’m on the other side of the world so I’m seeing completely different stars. I like the ones over here better. So, now I’ve come to love the dark nights I’m blessed with here.
I’ve been making so many good Ugandan friends and the more time that I spend with each one of them and the closer that we get, the harder it is going to be to leave them. When you have friends in America there are millions of ways to keep in touch with them and you can feel like you see them all the time even when you are far apart. My friend Kevin (which is a boys and girls name here) lives in one of the huts on the land next to Zion’s compound and when I leave here at the end of the month there will be no way for me to communicate with her. She has no computer, no phone, not even a mailing address. Even though I have to leave my new friends and even though I might never see them again on this earth, I’ve realized that I never feel closer to someone than when I’m praying for them. I know that God planned to put these people these people in my path even before I was born, and for that I am so thankful.
Every morning at 9:00 am the women who work for Zion making handbags, jewelry, and school uniforms have a “worship and the word” time for about an hour and it is one of the best hours of my day. Here in Africa they never distinguish between people who sing well and people who don’t have a good voice. Everyone sings loudly and with a passion that I’ve never seen in any other group of people worshipping the Lord through songs. They dance and sing in a way that physically shows their longing for the heaven that they are so confident awaits them. I think that it should be that way everywhere. “If trees and hills will be able to clap and dance in the future kingdom, picture what you and I will be able to do.”- Tim Keller
Yesterday during this time with the women we went over Philippians 4 where it says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” We have probably all heard that verse before. People usually turn to it when they are worried or anxious about something, so they focus on the words, “do not be anxious about anything.” I might be wrong, but I think that we so often only look at what God is telling us not to do and overlook what He is calling us to do. If we are praying to God with thanksgiving IN EVERYTHING, then there will never be any room for anxieties or worries.
At the Gulu Bible Community Church service I’ve been going to they turn the volume up on the sound system so loud that I couldn’t even hear myself sneeze the other day. One of the pastors, Mama Joy, told me that they turn it up so loud so that the entire community “can hear the words of God being sung as if from the top of a mountain”.
I am so sure that God is doing something in the women here right now. He has rescued these women from war, hunger, prostitution, and slavery and He is raising them up to be ambassadors of His Kingdom in this world. Blessing, one of the women who works for Zion, is so peaceful and does not talk very much, but when she opens her mouth everyone listens. She is not the oldest, nor the best seamstress, and she has never been to school, but when she speaks she holds the attention of everyone in the room, which is incredible considering how hilariously loud those women are. I asked Elizabeth, another Zion woman, why this was and she told me that Blessing views our time on this earth as short and fleeting, so she uses every word that she speaks to glorify Christ Jesus and spread the testimony of His life to those around her.
All I know is that I am full to the brim with thankfulness that I get to be a part of all of this in whatever small way that I am right now.
I love you all and Hook'em Horns
