African Muzungu

I finally have a departure date!! I don't know if you could tell, but was definitely a joyful shout! :) After meeting with the Tentmakers board on Monday, we have decided that I will be flying to Uganda with Morris and Aida Ogenga when they head back after their trip here in Jan/Feb. That means that I will be leaving the US on February 23, 2011! Looking back on this past year that I've been on deputation, I see so many things that the Lord has taught me, and I'm so grateful for my time here. Every day I've longed for my ministry in Uganda to begin, but I've also learned so much about life, myself, and my God that I know will be invaluable to my life in Uganda. I know that the Lord's timing is perfect, and now with my departure in just over 3 months I'm starting to get really excited! The number of things that I need to settle now that I know when I'm leaving is slightly overwhelming! Moving to a different country can sure be complicated, but I know it...

You know, I've been wondering if any of you would tire of my constant theme of God's provision, so I've been thinking about it quite a bit. Here are just a few of my thoughts: For one, The Lord's financial provision has been one of the main ways in this past year that He has assured me that He's caring for me in other ways as well. Financial and physical provision are just things that my finite mind has a easier time holding on to and remembering. Especially for those times that I doubt if He will care and provide for my emotional, or spiritual needs as well. For two, when I think about this blog and why I'm even writing it, I've decided that its main purpose is to stand as a witness both to myself (see Joshua 4) and to others of the extraordinary work of God in the lives of ordinary people. I have a feeling there are times coming that I will be tempted to doubt God's goodness and concern for me personally, so I write this with the expectation of return...

This past week, I had been talking with my friend and teacher, Dr. Nabeel Jabbour about the need for maturing believers to be learning how to identify their feelings, and then chose the correct attitudes. This is definitely something that I have been praying about and working on in the past couple of years, and this week the Lord decided to remind me of this truth and give me something to practice on! As soon as I got home from Nabeel's house, my dad was on the phone with the insurance company. Last week they were determining how much settlement they were going to give me for my car, and now they were calling dad to let us know. The news wasn't good. The total amount was only half of what I paid for the car initially and in repairs this past year. From the little bit of looking online that I had done, there was no way I would be able to get another car even close to comparable. I was so disappointed! I also felt a bit cheated since the accident was in no way my fault, and yet I...

Today was just one more evidence that the Lord's hand is protecting and providing for me! After church this morning, I went to pick up my sister, Melinda, to get lunch. As I was just about to cross through an intersection, a Mountaineer made a left hand turn right in front of me. My brakes were unable to stop us in time and we crashed headlong into the right rear panel of the vehicle. Melinda and I watched as the hood of my car crumpled up in front of us, but even though we were badly shaken we were mostly unharmed. There were so many wonderful people surrounding us and helping the whole time! The Lord placed just the right people around us (including an off duty EMT) to help us physically and emotionally. Melinda did have some neck pain and tingling in her arms and legs, so after filling out all the paperwork, I went with her in the ambulance to the hospital just to make sure she was ok. She was kept for observation for a short while, but was released within the hour with just a ...

This is just a little something I wrote over 2 years ago, but when I found it again, I was so encouraged by the truth of God's love for me all over again. I hope that you will be too! O Love That Will Not Let Me Go O Love, that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be, may richer, fuller be, May richer, fuller be! O Light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; my heart restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine's blaze its day may brighter, fairer be, may brighter fairer be, May brighter, fairer be! O Joy, that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be, that morn shall tearless be, That morn shall tearless be! O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead, from the ground the promis...

The days have just been flying by like crazy!! The past month has contained so many blessings and challenges, it would be nearly impossible to list them all, but here a just a couple: 1st blessing: I need only 20% more of my monthly commitments before I can buy my ticket to Uganda! I have had several new families join my team, and each one is such an incredible encouragement to me. 2nd: Each of the churches I have visited have been uniquely encouraging. I have been so blessed by each individual's response to the work of God in Uganda and my life, and each pastor has blessed me both by his preaching and personal encouragement. 3rd: My brother, Matthew, returns tonight from a fruitful missions trip to Croatia. How exciting it is to me to see my siblings reaching out past their comfort zones to expand the Kingdom of God! With my passion for cross-cultural ministry, it's so exciting for me to watch them get involved with ministry overseas! It's a wonderful reminder to me to kee...

Just a tiny glimpse of the cross... and this life is all worth it. I, just like everyone else, have days of discouragement and doubt. But every now and then the Lord gives a glimpse of His cross that gives each day a special joy. I sat in the chair, nervously watching the doctor take my small feet in his great big hands. The solution was clear: for me to have healing, I must endure this pain. The doctor took out a long needle and slowly inserted it into the top of my foot. Pain crashed through my foot as the needle made contact with the nerve. The doctor slowly released the cortisone into my foot and withdrew the needle. Tears stinging in my eyes, I looked down to see a stream of blood flowing from my foot. In that moment a picture flashed through my mind. My Lord Jesus, looking down on his feet as an iron nail is driven through, piercing flesh and nerve and pouring forth blood. And in that moment I felt in my body just the tiniest hint of the agony my Jesus suffered willingly for me. ...

"The Lord works in mysterious ways...." Definitely not something I would expect to hear from the lips of a stranger in a gas station in Castle Rock. But let me start at the beginning..... Sunday morning I was scheduled to speak at Fellowship Bible Church in Edgewater (just outside Dever). As I was driving from the Springs to Denver, my car started overheating, the windshield fogged up, and the cab was filled with steam/fumes. I "just happened" to be right near a Castle Rock exit, so I quickly pulled over into the nearest gas station. Distraught, I asked the attendant for help, and as we popped the hood, a man walked over and told me that he just "happened" to be a mechanic and exactly what the problem was. He and his wife then asked me where I was headed and it "just happened" that they were headed to Denver as well to pick up their daughter. DJ and Tesha kindly offered me a ride to the church, as they didn't have to be there until 2:00 (...

If only it were that simple! Unfortunately just an apple a day hasn't seemed to stave off the slew of doctors I've been seeing these past couple weeks. A couple weeks ago, my dad's job ended. (yes, that is a whole prayer request in itself!) That meant that at the end of April, I would no longer have health insurance under my Dad, and it became imperative that I have all my "issues" checked out immediately. As many of you know, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in 2008 and have been working to control, and hopefully reverse my diabetes. However, when I went in for this whole round of appointments my lab work revealed that my A1C test (a diagnosis tool for diabetes) was a bit worse than before, not better. It was decided then to treat me as a full diabetic, even though technically I'm still just pre. That meant a whole round of appointments with a diabetic nurse and dietitian, and new medication as well. I'm now on a strict diabetic diet, exercise, testing, an...

I think this must be a record...2 posts in 1 week! But I was just thinking about how often when we ask God to do something in our lives... He sure does work quickly! As I was driving home from Parachute on Sunday I was thinking about the way that I tend to take myself too seriously, and how too often I'm most concerned about what others are thinking of me. So I asked God to help me learn to laugh at myself...when I make mistakes I'm prone to worry about them excessively and think about how those mistakes might affect someone else's opinion of me. Instead, I wanted to be able to laugh at myself, realizing that I'm an ordinary girl fraught with imperfections, and use the opportunity to praise God for using such a weak vessel as I am. So..... Before I left this past weekend, I uploaded a file of my trifold brochure to a local copy center for reproduction. Earlier on I found a couple typos in the text and had fixed them, but for some reason the file I uploaded didn't c...

Wow. That's all I can say after an incredible day! (Isn't it funny how often after people say that, they go on to say so much more?? :) ) I can definitely say that while this deputation trail can be intense, exhausting, and at times intimidating, it is incredibly rewarding! I was warmly welcomed into the home of Pastor Charlie and Sue Hornick last evening, and spent most of the day ministering, and mostly *being* ministered to at Grace Bible Church of Parachute. I was so incredibly blessed to share with the congregation the love and passion the Lord has given me for Uganda, and then was so blessed to hear their response and receive the encouragement and affirmation of so many people. All of this was topped off by an incredible afternoon with the youth group which included the *best* scavenger hunt ever, sharing some of my testimony with them, and amazing pizza :) So you can see the blessings just kept piling on throughout the day! I was reading back through some of my earl...