Yet, I will still praise Him.

How can I reconcile knowing God's beautiful purpose in a two month trip and a broken heart that longs to remain? I believe it was time for me to come back home but it is strange to be back. 

In Uganda, you are daily surrounded by people who know true lack and want, yet their joy is unquenchable because they know God. Their daily lives are surrounded by prayer and praise of Jesus Christ for anything and everything in their lives, big or small, obstacle or triumph, in live or death. There is no time for fruitless distraction in the things that we fill our lives with in America for them because each day is a miracle so they give every minute of it to God's will and way.

In the name of Jesus Christ, they proclaim the truths about God's goodness, power, might, redemption, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. All glory is God's. Walking down the street, they stop at passerby's to proclaim Jesus Christ. Every blessing in their lives is seen as a gift from God for someone so unworthy. Children jump, dance, and shout with songs even though they jump with torn, rough, cut up feet, they dance with rags on their bodies, and sing aloud with voices broken with heavy burdens. Woman sing praises to God as they work with broken bodies from hard labor because the men just sit around while they have their woman carry all the heavy loads, dig in the fields for hours and hours, cook in kitchens that are so hot and smokey standing 2 minutes in it is a challenge, raise 13 children on their own, sometimes run a business, etc. Being chased by the LRA as a child, losing parents and siblings to war, living in a one-roomed hut with just a "bed" and a curtain as a door, AIDS, walking the streets bare-foot, eating bugs off the ground, being abandoned by fathers, or in real life-threatening need of food and clothing, are not reasons even close enough to stop praising the Lord for these people! One man named Robert, when I asked him his story and his heart towards God, he said, "How can I be angry with God? My life is not my own but a gift from God! He can do whatever He wills with it! I have no right to complain because I am blessed." What a complete act of God!  

Uganda is contagious for these reasons. Christianity in Africa is unlike anything I have every witnessed! In Uganda, I learned that God is the only true satisfaction. All else will leave me empty and in want. They taught me to proclaim that God is good all the time even when my heart doesn't understand! God wrecked me in Uganda for the beautiful reason to know true dependency on Him for life and strength. Praise the Lord! Joy has NOTHING to do with my surroundings or circumstances! There is all real power in the name of Jesus Christ to break every chain! It is all so overwhelming! I should have died in Africa (it is quite an amazing, beautiful story- ask me about it!) yet God gave me breath again for a reason. Now that I have seen, I MUST SPEAK. Let all the nations taste and see that the Lord is good! 

So now I am home in a desparate nation. The mission field does not just consist of the red-dirt roads of Uganda. Daily, we are called by God to proclaim His name! Praise the Lord for whatever He wills for me next! 

My heart is overwhelmed for all the support and prayers for me over the last 2 months. There are not words adequate enough to describe how blessed I am by all of your hearts, but I know I must praise God ultimately for His provision through you all. He is good! I am so undeserving and unworthy of this gift. What grace! Praise, praise the Lord forever and ever! 

"I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

² My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.

³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!" Psalm 34:1-3