When I was little and a stray cat would show up at our house, I would want to play with it, feed it and name it. And my parents, with my best interests in mind would tell me not to, so I wouldn't get attached, because we could never keep them. And now years later, here I am, in Uganda, getting attached.  There is one little girl in paticular, named Janette. She goes to school with Victory Outreach Church, so I get to see her whenever I work at the chuch or go to church on Sundays. There is a bit of a language barrier, but I just love being around her. I have become so attached to...

You know me and I know You You're the God Who calms all my storms You're the voice inside my head: "Don't give up. Don't let go. Don't lose trust. Don't lose hope." You can have all my fears, God You can have all my sins You can have all my weakness And I know You're with me To the very end I still believe there's nothing more beautiful than the love You have for me. I still believe there's nothing more beautiful than the love You have for me, God. [To the Very End – United Pursuit Band]    This is our last week...

I feel like so many things have been happening lately, and that this really can't be my last week in Lira but it is! So I decided to make a list of all the things I don't want to leave -Lucky -The Alpha Staff -The African handshakes that just seem to keep going  -The fact that sarcasm doesn't exist here  -Hearing "MONO MONO, MONO BYE, BYE MONO!" by children everywhere -Feeling like a celebrity because of how eager people are to receive a wave hello from the 'monos' -Waking up at 6:30 every morning by roosters -Never knowing how many US dollars I just...

my soul cries out to God. I AM WEAK. my soul pants for The Lord. There has been pain which greets my heart and tears that meet my cheeks.  This place and its poverty. This place and its nothing. These kids with no family. These kids with no shoes. These people with yellow eyes. These people with dark hearts.  It only takes a day to realize the depravity of the world. We are a people with clean bodies and good health. We are a people with much stuff and big cars. We are a people who will make it on our own, and we will make it succesfully…whatever 'succesfull' looks...

I might offend somebody with that title, but it's okay.  So, let me tell you the weirdest experience of my life. Ever.  So, we help at a church which is pretty cool and they love us and we love them. They invite us to bbig important events and of course we want to be a part of that kind of stuff so we go. Typically it's pretty cool and fun, and we get a chance to build relationships and stuff.  Well, last Friday they had a "youth prayer night". Which I thought was going to be equivalent to a youth lock in.  Oh, how I was so wrong. It really was a youth...

Welcome back!      I'm sure many of you have read in other blog posts, that we (the team) have a wonderful man who works at Alpha that drives us to basically anywhere we need to go at any time regardless the circumstances.  His name is Patrick.     As I said, Patrick is a driver, he is in his late 20's and as a team we have all grown quite close to him over the past few weeks.  Patrick's father was killed by the LRA, and his mother died of sickness.  Both before he was 18 years old.  But you would never know the pain of his past if...