Uganda: Week One

"What were your expectations of Uganda?"

With the semester wrapping up and just so much going on, I honestly didn't have time to think about my expectations of Uganda. Anna and I heard a lot of things from Emerald so not too many things were surprising. But if I was honest with myself, I imagined myself doing important things. Meeting new people, helping out in the ministry and clinic, and having a lot of things to do. But to my dismay, when we arrived, we found out there just isn't much going on here. With only Dr. Livingstone working at the hospital and the students gone for internships over the summer, there's not many people around in the clinic or in the ministry. So I have been struggling, trying to figure out what God wants me to do here during my two month stay in Uganda. I still don't know what God wants to do through me while I'm here, but I am confident that it is God who brought me to Uganda. And so I pray that he may fulfill the work he prepared in advance for me to do. I pray that I can be a source of encouragement to those in the ministry here. I also read this blog post, which made me realize maybe I've romanticized the mission life as well. I realized that life is life wherever you are. Everyone needs to eat, sleep, and work. 

For now, life is simple. We sleep, eat (lots of mangoes, pineapples, and avocados), and have fellowship with the people here. Hopefully there will be things for us to do in the weeks to come! Also, we might finally be getting over jetlag (thank God)! I thought that a 7 hour transition would be easier than the 12 hour transition (transition to Korea) but it's still difficult to get over jetlag.

Since we have a lot of time, I've been reading a lot. I finally finished a book I began months ago - To Live is Christ to Die is Gain by Matt Chandler. In the book Matt Chandler goes through the book of Philippians, explaining what it means. God has been teaching me a lot through the book of Philippians this year, especially chapters 2 and 4.

Philippians 4:4-9

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." 

God has taught me a lot through Philippians 4:6 alone, teaching me to cast all my anxiety to him. But lately he's been teaching me there's more than verse 6! He wants me to rejoice in all circumstances - whether I am rich, poor, sick, healthy, single, married, in the US, in Uganda, etc. How is this possible? It comes from being content in Jesus. It comes from knowing and trusting that Jesus is better. And despite the uncertainty, I am confident that I am exactly where God wants me to be. I want to be able to declare as Paul declared - "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." How amazing is that? Paul experienced great wealth (which I actually didn't know about until I read the book from his friend Lydia) but he also experienced extreme poverty. He could walk away from wealth because he knew that Jesus was better. And at the same time, he could endure poverty because he knew that Jesus was better. He knew that his life was not his own. So whether I'm doing a lot of things or not, I want to learn to be content because Jesus is enough. 

And for a more thorough explanation of what we've been doing in our daily lives, this is what Anna wrote for our weekly update - 

"The past few days in Uganda have been rather uneventful. We arrived around midnight last Wednesday, but even though we were able to get up the next day, we’ve mostly spent our time so far recuperating from jet lag and settling down in Uganda. We’ve had a good time so far however, having fellowship with the missionaries here and being invited to many meals. It’s especially helped us from having to cook a lot. Living by yourself takes lots of work. The place we are staying at is pretty nice and spacious, but it also means buying groceries, doing laundry, and keeping the place clean.

Friday night we were invited to Cornerstone fellowship meeting by Theresa, who has gone to Chicago just last Saturday. She shared with us Colossians 3:22-24, and we were reminded about how we should do everything giving it our best and with sincerity. We also went to the beach of Lake Victoria with brothers and sisters Gloria, Albert, Mark, and Natako, before dropping Theresa off to the airport. It was lots of fun.

On Sunday Grace and I attended Sunday worship service and shared our life testimonies. We listened to a message on the importance of faith and spiritual sight, and for dinner went to Kyambogo UBF, the other chapter in Uganda. Their center was beautiful and the missionaries there were very welcoming and loving.

There aren’t many people at the clinic at the moment, so Grace and I have been looking for other things to do. We may end up volunteering at an orphanage nearby, but we’ve also been giving violin lessons to the missionaries’ kids and English lessons to Dr. Luke Lim’s nephew, John. We will probably go to the early prayer meetings starting tomorrow. Hopefully there will be more to talk about in the weeks to come.

Please continue to pray for us, especially to get over jet lag.

Thanks,

Anna and Grace"

I've been learning a lot of facts about Uganda. For example, the most common languages spoken here in English and Luganda. Also, tomorrow is a Ugandan holiday called Martyr's Day and next Tuesday is Hero's Day. Let us know if you have any questions!!