so, its already time for another post.

Next stop, Seattle.

This Thanksgiving break, November 19-29, I will be traveling up to Seattle through United States Service Projects, or USP. USP is a program through my school, California Baptist University, that enables students to live out 'the Great Commission' which Christ calls us all to. We will be going for ten days to work in association with Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Our purpose there is to learn from the leaders in the church and to also pour into the people of the city and ultimately build relationships. 'Inner city work' has never been on the top of my list. Then again, neither was going to and serving in a third world country for a month. God certainly is placing new desires in my heart. Our team has a short time to meet and prepare before our trip, but at our two meetings, I can already see strengths that will benefit the group, a sense of unity, and a true desire to serve. It excites me because I haven't had an experience with missions where I am part of a team that prepares and grows together before going out to minister. I cannot wait to see what God has in store. Not only am I expecting to see Him provide financially, as He has been faithful to do in the past, but I am ready to see so much more come together. This trip is already promising to grow me in new ways. I will be sharing my testimony and the gospel with people in the community, an experience I've surprisingly never encountered.

immaculate showed us how she uses her wheelchair

im not quite sure what this means, im open for interpretations

showing off some digging skills. the people of the village are being taught how to garden, so they can grow their own food.





these kids are so excited every thursday to sing worship songs and learn a new bible story

time to pray.


so this past thursday i was planning to not go to do village ministry, simply because i was recovering from being sick, and had just gotten the news that the next morning i was going to lead the chapel service at a private school in jinja. but as soon as i walked into my guest house i knew i was supposed to go anyway. so i put on my tennis shoes and jumped in the van at the last minute. as we pulled into lombogo, the usual 50 to 60 children who chased the van as we drove crowded the doors. and as soon as i slid the van door open, i thought i heard my name, and then as stepped out into the crowd of children, i realized that they were saying my name. i immediately was overjoyed, they had remembered me from the last week i came. it just reminded me why the village team did this every thursday, and how big of a deal showing up is to the children.

boat rides, island church, and holding hands

the view of the village as our boat pulled in.

the view as we got closer, millions of tiny dried fish on the shore.

the lovely 'hotell' we passed on our walk up the hill to church.

the tiny mud hut used as a church building.

during the service. which by the way was absolutely beautiful. it was 3 hours long, i was amazed at the children's attendance, there were about 40.

some children even watched from outside the window.

this little boy sat with me the entire service and rubbed my arms. pinched my skin, and poked it. they were not used to mzungus.



this girl rubbed her face one my arm for about 10 minutes.

all of the children.

a traditional lunch at pastor timothy's, he is in the hawaiian shirt.
the pastors 21 year old son, quickly befriended aj and held his hand, a custom that aj so graciously partook in.
=]

catching up.

thursday morning i was out of commission, i spent the morning laying in bed. one of the other girls and i both felt pretty sick, luckily a few hours rest did me some good and i felt well enough for our outing on thursday evening. we went to a village about 45 minutes away called gomma gate, or something close to that, it is a village of about 400, the village team from the home started a bible study and thursday morning was the first meeting, 10 people accepted Christ. at around 7pm a screen and projector were set up to show the passion of the christ, the villagers first movie they had ever seen. it was quite interesting hearing the words in hebrew, trying to read the english subtitles, and also disregarding the translator on the microphone speaking lugandan. there were about 250 who attended the showing, and 90 people raised their hand at the end to accept Christ. the feeling was overwhelming. the people were so eager to take their lives in a new direction. with the majority of the town elders and men of the village attending bible study now, the village has a new sense of hope.

a super dark picture of the crowd at the movie, it doesnt do it justice

friday was, in short, tiring. it was party day at the home. the morning was busy with preparations, baking cakes, strawberry is the children's favorite and blowing up balloons. every once in a while one of the kids would sneak into the kitchen and shout "auntie, auntie, we are going to eat PARTY!"everyone ate outside, the toddlers, the babies, and even the moms(the women who work in the home) and other staff. after dinner was over, the cake was passed out, the tiny little squares brought smiles like i would have never expected from such a small piece of cake. it just goes to show our cultural differences and our society's over indulgence i suppose. and if that wasnt enough to magnify the culture gap, what happened next certainly did. they brought out drums and began to sing and dance and shout, while the kids clapped. after a minute or two the moms pulled the volunteers up to dance with them, it was craziness, but so much fun. after everyone settled down and got back in their seats we had a surprise visitor. jeremiah is a performer at bujugali falls, a huge tourist spot. he is a lovely christian man who suffered from polio as a child and now has no use of his right leg, and little in his left. he has a big tall wooden stick that he manages to climb to the top of using simply his upper body strength, its incredible. the staff loved it, the kids on the other hand weren't sure. a few cried, some sat silent with their mouths open, and others scowled in disapproval. one of the older girls, rachel, came to sit with me, when i asked how she liked him she said "i fear him" over all it was a lovely party and the kids are still basking in the after glow, all smiles and talking non stop about the cake and "sweeties".brian, my boyfriend, and andrew waiting oh so patiently for their cake.


the kids examining their balloons, the popping noises came about every 30 seconds.

rachel.

who knew id be spending the day on a farm.

this morning we woke up and headed out early for a morning filled with new experiences. the drive to the catholic orphanage in Iganga is about an hour and thankfully on the highway, so potholes aren't a problem, as they usually are.
this morning i...
held a baby chicken
milked a cow, successfully
held a 2 day old goat
talked to some big mean goats, and they talked back
and last but not least, i drank fresh milk, quite interesting, i don't plan on repeating that ever.

long overdue photos

we took a boat around the source of the nile. water leaked in from the bottom. our guide said one thing the entire hour. "oh oh monkeys here" yes we saw monkeys and a million birds. and the source of the nile river.


bujugali falls. SO breathtaking, especially when you are rafting down the class five rapid with a helmet and a paddle, which i was able to experience on monday when, yes ladies and gentlemen, i went rafting on the nile river. something i will blog about later.
elizabeth and elizabeth. around the home we are called queen elizabeth.
alan, alan, and owen. say that three times fast.
alan, one of the three boys staying in our guest house who are in the middle of being adopted. he is so funny and curious. typical five year old.
aj, tori, alan, and myself. we keep everyone at ebenezer guest house laughing.


market day. boy was this the most nerve racking experience, sheesh. a child on each hand pushing through crowded narrow paths.
st liz's pharmacy.
elizabeth at snack time.
a typical face daniel makes. he is another one of the boys staying at our guest house.
emmaculate at snack time.

internet connection...

is something that is necessary to keep a blog updated.
it is also something that is very hard to come by where i am.
thank goodness for ingenious little karambi computers
turning one computer into ten
making a quite nice little internet cafe a couple blocks away on main street

so here i am, with a little timer counting down on the bottom of the screen
telling me i have 33 minutes and 42 seconds. thats enough time to write about one of the million stories i already have to tell.

this has been such an eye opening experience. i feel so blessed by every little thing i take part in. ive been at the home playing with the kids almost every day so far, which always fills me with a tremendous amount of joy. the children are so loving, and extremely bright. they all love to worship and it just melts my heart to hear their little voices praising God with their eyes closed and hands raised. man, i just soak it all up.

we had the privilege of meeting a family this morning who escaped from the refugees in northern uganda. i couldnt stop a couple of tears from escaping as i listened to this women tell us about the soldiers capturing her mother who dug through their dirt walls and escaped and how her sister was ran over by a refugee truck three times, but they couldnt take her to the hospital because it was too dangerous. yet she couldnt stop repeating how God is good and how they prayed and fasted. it was so encouraging, and just shocking how much faith this family had exercised over the past year. now they live in a village outside of jinja. their floor is concrete, which is a huge deal, and the back room is used to teach the village children after they return from school. doreen, who was crippled by the refuge truck is paid for teaching them, by a local church. she also draws beautiful diagrams to help the children learn about animals and their purpose and use, which is quite important for the survival of their village.

you hear about these things and even seen footage of them through things like invisible children. however the feeling you get from conversing with someone who actually experienced it is indescribable.

i love you jesus, deep down in my heart.

today we went our our first of many village visits. it was such an eye opening and heart warming experience. we pulled up in a van with about 12 people in it, the six of us who traveled here, including mandy, and then about six ugandan workers from the orphanage. mandy honked the horn as we drove into the first village, one of the men stuck his head out the window and began to chant, do you love jesus, the kids who ran along side our van shouted back yes i love jesus. it was an overload of emotion i couldnt help but get a bit teary eyed. i cannot wait to go back. i have loved every minute of my stay so far in uganda, the people are beautiful as are my surroundings. the initial reaction to the poverty stricken city and villages seems to dissipate when you focus on the lush, green, tropical landscape. i cant spend too long writing on her tonight, i have to use somebody elses computer who is staying here for several months, and he so graciously is letting me use his laptop. i'll have more stories for you in a day or so. please keep me in your prayers.

it worked, it worked! praise the lord. there are only two pictures because it takes about 20 minutes to upload each one. these pictures are both with children at the orphanage. the picture on the top is with a little boy named alan. he LOVES for me to sing to him, and the past few days has asked me to "sing sing!" and then tells me promptly "another another" he is one of the several children with aids and also has some sort of tropical disease that causes breakouts of contagious little bumps. the bottom picture has alan again and also a little girl called margret, she and her three brothers are moving soon to a bigger orphanage where they will be involved in a choir that has the privelage of traveling the world and singing and this allows them to stay together as a family.

its about that time.

the time has flown by, from months, to weeks, to days, and finally down to the final hours before i hop on a flight. quick side note, why is the expression hop on a flight, i imagine passengers all jumping from the terminal to their seats, bumping into one another due to some people's lack of coordination, while others have are experiencing side effects of some sort of flight easing meds. anyways, maybe i'll hope a few feet just so i can truly say i hoped on a flight.

my first flight was my sophomore

year of high school, to washington state, a flight lasting for only a couple hours. oh and then there was that time that i flew back from washington. and that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up my list of flight history. me and airplanes are mere acquaintances, not to say that we dont get along, we just haven't spent much time getting to know one another. luckily i dont get motion sickness, but i do get restless and slightly claustrophobic. im planning on being one of those people who power walk up and down the length of the plane, to avoid one of those crazy traveling blood clots. somebody forgot about the importance of discretion and told me all about those little guys. well international flight, here i come.

im hoping that i have time to update this thing as much as possible, ive decided my journal, well and ultimately my blog, are going to be my closest friends for the next few weeks. they will be with me over there, always ready to

listen, and pretty darn reliable.

well off i go...i still have some packing to do, and by some i mean all. from the clothes i'll never wear again, to my well balanced diet of trail mix, granola bars, and beef jerky.

lets start at the very beginning.

i hear that it is quite a good place to start.

i just want to share the story of how this all happened, for those inquiring minds out there.

let me tell you, i am filled to the brim with emotion each and every time i think about it. sometimes my feelings fluctuate, from the realization of it's severity or even just from the excitement of it all. but one thing remains prevalent, and that is my amazement at how God is proving Himself faithful, in every way.

on a sunday, sometime after worship, as i sat in a chair bolted to a concrete floor, i watched the faces of children, each evoking a different emotion. some children exuded joy, which amazed me, considering they were orphans living in Uganda. something inside of me longed to share in their joy, for the understanding of being content in having so little, resting in things far more important than the convenience of starbucks, or my favorite philosophy face wash. yet in another way, i felt lacking. other faces were full of despair, a pure lack of hope. and at this my heart broke. i am so blessed, and the same love that i feel each and every day from my God, is the same love available to these children. why shouldnt i be the one to share it with them.

and that was it. God quickened in my heart a desire i never knew would exist so fervently, and with such urgency. i knew, i needed to be there. all i had to do was wait, and pray, a lot. eventually i made my interest in serving at welcome home known to my dear friends Jerry and Barbara Northcutt. they were the ones who traveled to Jinja and brought back the stories and pictures that triggered this entire thing. they so graciously contacted the operator, who's home is in orange county, and the next thing i knew, i had an opportunity to go with the Northcutts to talk about my potential trip to Uganda. let me just tell you i was blown away with how God was already making a way for the trip to be possible. i absolutely adored Luke and Mandy, the passionate Australian couple who operate the welcome home ministries in Jinja.

since that meeting in november, the ball has just been rolling. all of the little details where God has shown Himself to be faithful, and my provider, have been overwhelmingly encouraging, and i somewhat selfishly hoped and prayed that they would continue, to guide me through this journey, and they absolutely have. so many things have just fallen into place, my work has so graciously allowed me the time off with the opportunity to come back to work when i return. my medical insurance has covered my shots and medications with little or no co-pay. my finances for the trip have been worked out, i wasn't able to raise all of the funds but i came pretty darn close, and just today i bought all of the clothes i need for only $35, mind you this is a double blessing since i will never wear any of these clothes after my trip.

so now i am just waiting, passing the time with so many little things that must get done before i go. shopping, packing, spending time with family and friends, and of course spending time in prayer. i cannot wait to get there and soak it all up, i literally am going into this with no expectations, except one, i am expecting that God is going to use this trip for something huge, knowing there will be immediate effects, as well as blessings that occur in time, keeping in mind that some things will bless me directly, but also i'll have the opportunity to use this experience to bless others.

pslams 31:14-15 "But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying "You are my God!" My future is in your hands."

here am i send me.

Being a part of choir this year at CBU blessed me tremendously in more ways than one. Halfway through the year a song was introduced to our group titled "Send Me". The theme of the song correlated directly with the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 28:19, challenging all believers to "Go then and make disciples of all nations..." Since this past November I have had a burning desire in my heart to do just that. Each time we sang this song, it encouraged me and reminded me of the urgency and validity in those words spoken even today, especially in this world we live in.

Let me sow the seeds of life to a parched a weary land,

Watering with your words of life so that they will understand

That the love that God has shed upon us

is a love that will never fade away

Let me share it with the world

I'll go, I'll be the one to go

Here am I send me

Here am I send me, until every nation knows,

the power of your love

Give me a hunger to know,

where it is you want me to go

Father I'm saying here am I send me.