Through the Eyes of a Mzungu: March 2012

3/12/2012

Beauty out of Ashes

This was written on the weekend after our rural homestays, when we got to experience the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. We went on a 5 hour hike to 3 waterfalls, and I had one of the best days of my life marveling at God’s beauty. To make things even better, the next morning we had a church service on top of a mountain and listened to a few testimonies from our group.

“In reflecting on the halfway point of my journey here this weekend, I realized just how much I’ve already grown and experienced, how much God has been opening my heart, and how excited I am to live these next 2 months here. My reflection started when I experienced the most beautiful scenery of my life on a hike to three waterfalls. I was in awe of how cool It was to stand under a waterfall or at the top of a mountain. God seriously knows beauty. Then, this morning I truly felt him through his creation in the mountains. As I sat doing devotions and then listening to people’s testimonies at our church service, I just felt this renewed sense of passionate love for God. More love than I could have felt on my own. God is truly expanding my mind and opening up my heart. It’s not because I’m in Africa either. I didn’t need to come to Africa for God to renew my love for him, but it definitely has helped the process by witnessing more beautiful natural creation than I ever have in my life, meeting people who love and encourage and teach me, and being pushed out of my comfort zone to where God was the only one who could comfort me, and comfort me he did. I cannot even express the joy I feel right now that I am finally on the path to redemption and the greatest love I could ever have or ask for. My prayer for the rest of Uganda is that God will continue to amaze me, bend me, comfort me, and make me stand in awe of his beauty and power. I pray that he continues to lead me and work in me until I am more in love with him than anything I’ve ever loved.”

My heart hasn’t just expanded for God however, it’s expanded to have more love for people as well. After the church service on the mountain and hearing people’s testimonies I wrote:

“Isaiah 61:3- God makes beautiful things out of ashes”
“Listening to people’s testimonies this morning has made me aware of how much hurt every person has in his or her life. But in these testimonies, after the hurt always comes God’s healing. It makes me wonder, what is it like for people who have no healing at the end of their stories? The people who have no hope and nothing or no one to look forward to. God’s redemption has been amazing in so many people’s lives, but there are so many people still surrounded with hurt and darkness with no redemption in site. I’ve felt a renewed sense of passion and a broken heart for people, no matter what country they are from. I want to see God turn ashes to beauty in people’s lives, and I want to be a part of it.”

In all that I have been learning about love this semester, my theme song through it all has been “Beautiful Things” by Gungor, and I would love to share the lyrics with you all.

All this pain.

I wonder if I’ll ever find my way.

I wonder if my life could really change, at all.

All this earth.

Could all that is lost ever be found?

Could a garden come up from this ground, at all?

You make beautiful things.

You make beautiful things out of the dust.

You make beautiful things.

You make beautiful things out of us.

All around, hope is springing up from this old ground.

Out of chaos life is being found, in me.

YOU MAKE ME NEW.

YOU ARE MAKING ME NEW.

Finally, I would love to share some of the beauty I experienced with you, although it cannot be accurately expressed in photographs :)

Uganda- The Halfway Point

Hello Friends and Family! I apologize for not having written in a while, but life here has been crazy busy. My time here is flying by, and before I know it, I will be sitting on an airplane heading back home to the states. My schedule for the rest of my time in Uganda is packed. This coming weekend, we are going on a trip to Lira (Northern Uganda) to learn more about Africa’s longest running war. Then, two weeks after that I go on Safari! The weekend after that, we trip to Luwero. Then, we have one weekend off and then we leave for Rwanda for a week and a half before departing for the U.S. My time here is packed with all the things I still want to do before I leave!

The past few weeks after returning from our rural homestays have been busy but wonderful J Two weeks ago, I went with Kristian and Katie (two spring arbor girls) to visit our friend Leanne (also a spring arbor girl) who is doing her student teaching in Kampala. We spent the day at the local craft markets and having lunch at a Ugandan restaurant. Then, I came back and hung out with my friend Priscilla, who has quickly become my closest Ugandan friend here J Next week she is even taking me to her house to meet her family and her sister who is home from Paris (yes she lives in Paris!) for a couple weeks. After the weekend, I had a week packed full of fun and schoolwork. Some of the best things that happened were my Mama taught me how to weave mats out of palm leaves and it has become my new favorite hobby, we had a bonfire and spent one night on campus, and we had an ice cream party at our staff member’s house. They were all small blessings that made my week really great! Another interesting event took place this week on Thursday, when I spent the whole day at my internship site. A 17 year old girl came in with her 1 year old baby, wanting counseling and a place to drop her baby off, as she couldn’t care for the child. The girl had been raped and then rejected by her Muslim parents. Thursday was a holiday here in Africa, so no workers were around, and I ended up going to Papa Peter himself, the founder of Noah’s Ark, and asking him to help. It was a crazy way to meet Peter, but it was cool nonetheless and it was even cooler to have the opportunity to pray with the woman and her baby and to help her find the counseling she needed.

In wrapping up my summary of the past 2 weeks, last night we had the privilege of attending a traditional African dance show. It was so cool to see the dances of many of the tribes we are familiar with, and it was fun to feel like a tourist for a night!