No matter where I was, whether Lira or Kyampsis, loved was
poured out upon me this summer. There are so
many people and stories that I could share about LOVE from Uganda. Everyday God was revealing His love to
me and teaching me more about who He is. Here are two short lessons from the summer:
In the village of Kyampisi, Uganda (outside of Kampala), it
doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from or what you’ve done- they love
you. The first day I stepped off
the van in Kyampisi, I was swarmed by the children and women of the
community. They hugged me and
grabbed my hand and instantly made me feel accepted and loved. I never felt out of place while I was
there. This is one aspect of God’s
love for us- He doesn’t care who we are, where we are from, what we’ve done, He
loves us. He doesn’t require us to
be a certain way in order to be loved.
He just loves us. He beckons us into a relationship with Him.
In Lira when the team would arrive back to Alpha (the place
we were living) all the Ugandan staff would come and greet us with hugs saying to each
one of us “Welcome home, I have missed you!� This is how God feels when we are away from Him- He misses
us. He misses me when I don’t
spend time with Him, when I keep choosing others and things over Him. When I come back into His presence He
opens His arms to me and says “Welcome home, I have missed you!� This is the love He has for
me. For all His children. He misses us, aches when we are far from Him, when we are away, and rejoices when we return home, when we enter into His presence, into intimacy, into relationship with Him.
This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ- representing His love to those around you. This summer God used the people of Uganda to show me more of Him. Their love for me and for our teams made me think about how I love those around, friends, family and strangers. Are people really seeing Christ through me, through how I love? In the end, that is truly what I want most of all: to love God and others with the love He has shown me.
Love,
love, love, love, love…..1 Corinthians 13:13- and these three remain, faith,
hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.
I also have included a video I made from Uganda, just a glimpse of the people and places we loved and were loved by this summer…
