A Hard Lesson to Learn

My fingers brush across the keys. Words twirl in my mind. I glance out the window, dark clouds are rolling in. Oh how thankful I am by that sight! Hopefully they will take away they hot weather that has been haunting this little town of Gulu. Just today the temperature was at 131°F in the sun. I'm also thankful for the fan that turns around the room sending its wonderful breeze into the hot house. Sweat trickles on my head. Memories seem to be haunting my brain. Memories of loved ones...ones that i trusted and now have hurt me. Oh God, please help me forgive...Forgiveness..how foolish i was to think that one could forgive once and forget. No, pain haunts you. It is like a snake, you forgive the snake for the bite, but the wound still stings, you must give it time to heal, and sometimes it takes years. Yes you forgave, but the wound still pounds with pain, reminding you of the culprit and how much they hurt you, which brings back the tears and pain. You must keep forgiving. Over and over again! It is a hard lesson that i have learned, but it is a lesson that must be learned. I laugh at my stupidness, thinking that this person has hurt me one too many times. "They don't deserve to be forgiven!" I tell myself..but alas, neither do I. I mess up everyday. And yet my Savior forgave me. And He still forgives me. So why shouldn't i forgive someone again and again? Am i really that selfish? Am i really too selfish to refuse to give others the gift that my dear Jesus lovingly gave me? Sometimes i am. But Jesus still forgives. And i am blessed to be so loved by a King <3

Make allowance for each others faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Colossians 3:13

What we are doing in Uganda!

You might be wondering 'What are you doing in Uganda?' well my dear followers i shall tell you :)

We didn't do much in Kampala, except for wait for God to tell us where to go. And now that we live in Gulu (i can not write words to describe how much we love Gulu!) my dad has been involved with going to the hospital with some of the Ugandan members of the church we go to here (Antioch Church Gulu) and praying and talking with the patients. Many times a patient has been healed and told one of the church members before they left for the village "Come and tell my village this good news that you have told me!"  So my dad and one of the Ugandan men go together to the patient's village and tells them the good news! 

Since moving to Uganda,  my family and I have wanted to work with orphans. But in Kampala we never had a car. Even if we DID own a car, my mom would NOT even dare to drive in Kampala! It is too insane!! 

So right before we moved to Gulu we purchased a CAR!!! It's amazing how free you feel when you can actually get out of the house without relying on a rented car!

So my mom (the stalker she is ;) started looking EVERYWHERE in Gulu for baby homes. We found a few but the one that stuck out most was Watoto Babies Home. So my mom and I went to coffee with Sarah (who goes around checking on all the Watotos in Uganda) and she told us that the little kids wouldn't be able to come, and my mom was only allowed to take us older kids one at a time! Haha no. So we prayed and prayed "God you called us to Uganda, what are you calling us to do? If Watoto is where you want us please change their hearts!" My mom decided that we should schedule a tour of the Watoto babies home in Gulu and then she would talk to the manager and just tell her that we grew up with babies so everyone knows how to handle them. When we got there the manger was not there :( So we took the tour and then they said "Ok now you can interact with the babies!" I went my separate way and went to play with the toddlers while the rest of my family went to help with the LITTLE babies. It was what God had called us to do! We all fell in love the moment we touched the children! I can't help but smile at the moment that i held one of the toddlers hand and the wonderful feeling that shot up my arm, this is what i was called to do while in Uganda! The women working at Watoto told us 'Thank you thank you! Please come back and help!' but we told them the sad news that we could not.

My mom knew that we all need to be working together as a family! So we continued our search. But prayed that God would change the hearts of the people at Watoto and allow our family to volunteer. So we made a plan, my mom was going to go and talk to the house manager of Watoto Gulu and tell her how well everything went and how the women working at Watoto wanted us to come back. Sadly though we set the plan to the side for a couple of weeks as we got very busy.

Then we had a dear friend Jessie over and mom and dad went on a date! There date started off by going to Watoto. We sat at home awaiting the news. The phone called, i happily answered it and my mom said 'She said yes!!!!!' I'm pretty sure that ALL of Gulu heard us scream! Apparently my mom met with the lady in charge of volunteers and my mom went along with the plan that we had so carefully prayed about and thought through :P The woman agreed and asked 'So how old are your children?' my mom knew that once she heard our ages that she would say no, so she quickly said that ages '15, 13, 12, 10, 8, and 6' and with the same breath said 'But they all grew up with babies so they know how to handle them!' The woman nodded and said that we could come Monday and Wednesday 3pm-5pm!! PRAISE JESUS! We are in love! We finally love Uganda! This is where God wants us!!!

We have friends and we have a ministry!! God is amazing!

I will try to post pictures later in the month of the precious babies that we are working with :)

For my mom's perspective on the whole adventure of finding our calling check out her blog SUUBI FAMILY