I would be lying if I said that Africa is all incredible, wonderful, and amazing every minute of every day.
And for the most part, it really is.
But just like life back home, there are challenges and hard moments. Like finding out that our ministry was to be a boys' high school, and feeling like only working with teenage boys was literally the last thing I had pictured when coming to Uganda. Like the fact that we get up before the sun each day, and get home just before dark, leaving us with little time to relax and have alone time. Like how we've spent a lot of time each day sitting in the school field doing nothing because there's not much for us to do there while the boys are in class, and with all the passion burning in my heart for this country, it's incredibly hard to just sit there – frustration has been an ongoing emotion in my heart these past couple of weeks. Like the fact that being away from home for this long is really strange and hard. And the hardest of all is having to let go of every expectation I had for this trip, because every single thing is different than what I thought, and I have to accept that God's way is always better than my way. So sometimes, living in Rukungiri, Uganda is really quite difficult.
But! Along with all those struggles and hardships comes so many more beautiful moments and experiences, and a God who constantly is proving His goodness to me. Our ministry at the high school has, to my great surprise, become one of my favorite things I have ever done. I am so used to working with small children- they are my comfort zone, the area I am gifted in. And I love doing that, and the times here that we do get to go play with little kids and love them and sing silly songs with them have been some of the brightest highlights of the trip for me. But sitting down under a mango tree in the late afternoons with some high school boys and sharing my testimony and answering a million questions about Canada and sharing my favorite verses and answering 400 questions about the Bible always brings so much joy to my heart and so much satisfaction and knowledge that this is exactly where God needs me. Worshipping and dancing with them at church, teaching them my favorite worship songs, having tea with the oldest boys who are my age and becoming really good friends with them, teaching a Fine Arts class here and there, and getting to preach an entire sermon at their church service last Sunday are all such wonderful and exciting experiences and I wouldn't trade them for the world! Though all these boys know of God and of the Bible because the school is Christian, many of them don't truly know God or understand the excitement and wonder of the Gospel. We get to disciple them and teach them the truth we know and get them as excited about it as we are, so that when we leave this place, they can go out and continue bringing the Kingdom of God here to Uganda. A never-ending ministry – disciples making disciples making disciples. Being a part of boarding school life at Makobore Boys High School is so obviously where God needs us, and I'm so thankful that He has placed us there!
As for the sitting around, I've had to learn to fully trust God and that His will would be done whether it felt like it was or not. I spent a lot of time in prayer for ministry opportunities and clarity on what to be doing during the days, and this week God fully answered my prayers! We've started writing down weekly encouraging verses for each student in our student groups (my group is the Senior 5 and 6 boys, so the oldest ones, ranging from about 16-22) which takes quite a bit of time but is something I know God will work through in huge ways, and this week a few of us girls started going to the Girls' Vocational School down the road, where they teach girls around my age some skills like basket weaving and sewing, as well as home and family care skills and English. We will be going there a few afternoons each week to hang out and build relationships, which I am really, really excited about! I've already learned how to weave baskets, and sitting there with Ugandan girls my age, talking about life and God while weaving a basket is something I know will become one of my favorite parts of Uganda. We also are going to start more ministry in a village that I visited with a few of my other team members 2 weeks ago. This village has so much darkness, including so many people dealing with alcoholism, a ton of poverty, and even some demon-posession. But when we visited, we got to pray over at least 15 people for freedom from their burdens and brought God's joy and love to the kids who surrounded us and wouldn't let go of my hands (I literally had 3 children all holding one of my hands for about 30 minutes). And I am really, really excited to see what else God does through us in that place, and what freedom and salvation He brings!
I expected to always be working with the poorest of the poor, and the girls and boys we work with are at schools that provides a decent standard of living that I did not expect. But just like at home, it's not just the poor who need Jesus. Everyone does, and God is showing me more and more each day that though he calls us to care for the poor, which we have done in a few places like the village, above all He calls us to bring his Truth everywhere we go, because every person on this earth needs Jesus whether they are rich, poor, young, old, married, single, Canadian, or African.
So though there have been hard moments of confusion and frustration, of feeling useless, of having to let go of so many expectations and learning to trust God, and of missing home, I have grown as a person in more ways than I can explain. And God has taught me so much and I know He is faithful and is going to use me according to His will even when I have no idea what is going on. Because He is so good, so faithful, so powerful, and I know He is just as excited as I am about the work my team is doing in this amazing country! It's been an amazing, difficult, confusing, enlightening, hard, wonderful couple of weeks. And that is just month one, so I can't wait to see what these next 2 and a half months bring!
Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of me and this trip, and for everyone who is praying for me and my team. The longer I'm here, the more I realize how incredibly blessed I am to have all of you in my life. I have a really amazing community in Calgary and I know I wouldn't have ended up here if it wasn't for that, so thank you thank you thank you! I can't wait to share all these stories in person with you 🙂
Until next time,
God bless and miss you all!
Here is me with some of the boys!
