Today I met Patrick. Patrick, who is 24. Patrick who has his whole life ahead of him. Patrick, who used to be free. Patrick, who since 2004 has been bound to a bed. Patrick, who because he dropped a suitcase, was brutally beaten by the LRA until his back was broken making him a paraplegic. We prayed for him, and tears flowed down my cheeks. Flowed out of sorrow, out of empathy, and out of complete brokenness. I've been trying to figure out what I was supposed to learn from this situation, and only one thing has stuck out. That every single day, God's heart is completely broken for...

“I’m sitting on the floor in the”   That was all I managed to get written down in my journal before I sat up, grabbed my guitar (accompanied by strange looks from my team mates..), and plopped down in a puddle and began to sing.   Let it Rain.   Cue the harmonizing thunder. Cue the torrential downpour. I live in Seattle. I know rain. This was not normal rain, this was divine.   I wish you had been there, I wish you could have felt what I felt in that moment, I don’t know how else to explain it to you other than telling you that my skirt was dry...

"Living rain, fall again. Over my life over my land. Living rain wa–"         I was suddenly distracted from listening to one of my favorite songs by Parachute Band to see one of my team mates, Haddie grab her guitar and head outside into the rain. Let It Rain was her go to song, it looks like there was a common theme. My other roomies and I crowded around the door watching the rain fall, and then pour. One by one we ran out into the courtyard and joined her in worship and praise.        As thunder filled the sky,...

“She knows its raining outside, right?”   My thought as Haddie grabbed her guitar and headed out to the courtyard into the rain. I’m sure she new what she was doing, and I was getting ready for bed, so I wasn’t terribly bothered by what was going on until I heard it. One of the loudest claps of thunder I’ve ever heard. “Um, okay God, do you want me to go outside?” Another clap not 30 seconds later answered that question and I walked to the door. “Are you sure you want me outside? It’s really wet out there, and cold too. I’m...

"Andy traveled through 500 yards of poop smelling foulness I can't imagine to get to freedom" This is one of my favorite quotes from Shawshank Redemption, my movie of choice on one of our four days of travel this week. I came on this trip wanting freedom. Freedom for the people of Uganda, and freedom for myself. One thing that has become abundantly clear to me in this first week is that it won't be a walk in the park. That it will be hard, that it will nearly break me, that I will want to turn back. But the freedom that I know is promised to me will be worth every step,...

Kenya: September – November 2010. Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania: January – May 2012. Uganda: August – December 2012.   If you would have told me that two years ago I’d be spending a total of 12ish out of the next 24 months in East Africa I would have laughed. But here I am again, back in East Africa for the third time since I left my precious bubble in September 2010. I guess the joke is on me! Although I would have laughed a couple years ago at the thought of all of this, I can’t picture my life any other way. You know how you get that feeling some place and...