Liz-ah

The people in Uganda can’t just say “Liz,” so they’ve been calling me “Liz-ah” since I got here, and the girls in my group have been too. They also call Daphne “Daphen”; we’ve just adopted them as our Ugandan names :)

I will be honest; I woke up today missing home more than ever. My parents are at the Neill Family Reunion, and I really wish I was there with them. But, I’ve grown so much here, and really seen God move in awesome ways, so I know he wanted me here for a reason. We only have nine days left on this continent, and I know God still has a lot planned for us!

Yesterday was the Jinja Youth Conference that we hosted on “Building Your Potential to Advance” from the book of Daniel. The idea behind the theme was that many Ugandans, we were told, have the basics of their faith right, but they aren’t necessarily discipled to be missional and to spread the Kingdom of God, they just internalize their faith. It’s a problem a lot of Americans have, too. But when you read the book of Daniel, you see he stood up, time after time, in faith, knowing that God would do amazing things in Babylon. I was the “secretary” of the event, which meant: running a ton of errands the day before, trying to get things organized, calling the worship band and getting that arranged, and counting the numbers of attendees the churches and schools gave us so we could make sure we would have enough food. It was a lot to handle, but really, I just turned to God, and He took care of it! Had I not, I would have just been one big ball of stress, which wouldn’t glorify God or help the people I was working for.

God made the conference work. We served breakfast to about 150 people at 9 am, and about 250 had shown up before worship started at 10 am. By lunch, we had 360+ people to serve! We have two main sessions with small group breakouts afterward, then lunch, which ran late, so we had one final session and an invitation at the end, where eight people declared that they wanted to know Christ as their Savior! It was pretty cool seeing it all come together. There were definitely a few times when I was stressed out, and God reminded me to love and give without expecting it back, and to serve, and to do so joyfully; He put me back on track right away! At the end of the day, we were all so glad that everything was finished, and that we had been able to serve so many and see so many come to know Jesus Christ. We got their information to their organizations so they can continue to be discipled. My hope is that the Word that was preached will be planted into the hearts of these people, and that they will grow.

This week, I will go to the Hospice twice: Monday is a “Day Care” day (or group therapy; the women come and make paper bead necklaces and tell their stories to the mzungus) and Wednesday we will go on visits with the Hospice. On Tuesday and Thursday, we will go to St Andrew’s Magamaga, and on Thursdays we will plant some trees there. Uganda has a lot of trees and is very lush and green, but the land the school is on has very little shade, so we are providing them shade and something to remember us by.

After that, we are going to Kampala on Friday and Saturday. Friday, Jeremiah’s family is throwing a big party, an “introduction of the Bride,” because his wife is coming to Uganda this week for the first time in their four years of marriage. Apparently they’re going to dress the mzungu girls in their traditional dresses, which should make for some entertaining pictures later on! Sunday and Monday we are going to a nearby rainforest for debrief time, and we have one day, Tuesday, back in Jinja before we fly out on Wednesday. We will be very busy this week, but I know God has some good things planned. I will be very, very sad to leave this country. I may even come back one day; I don’t know where in Africa God has called us to yet, but I know that He wants us on this continent. I’ve actually had several Ugandans ask me to stay, but I joke and tell them that I have to go home to see my boyfriend!

So, this week, be in prayer that:

-The Lord would continue to move in our hearts and sustain us as a group; He has been so good to us!
-We don’t start counting down the days until we go home, but we give it our all, and work hard to make sure that these people know we love them, and that love is because of Christ
-We receive funding; to my knowledge, Jeremiah is currently operating on a deficit, and will be pulled from the school when we get back until he repays it. We’ve cancelled the safari we were going to debrief on so we could cut back on expenses, but that wasn’t enough.