Hey, Team!
This is just a quick update…. Wi-Fi has been very tricky and slow this month, but I am on top of the world in my spirit!
To be honest, I am broken-hearted about leaving my African family here. We were able to do a lot of dance ministry (WOW! Right up my alley!), and we lived with our host family this month. The relationships we made here were deep and full of the Holy Spirit. The lessons God taught our whole team are going to stay with me forever. But how do I leave a place I have come to call home and people I have grown to love so deeply? Thankfully, I have an amazing group of women surrounding me in my Team Teléo, and they will be great support to lean on. Mostly, I am trusting the Lord and leaning on His wisdom that is infinitely greater than mine. If it was up to me, I would stay here in Kampala, singing and dancing, playing with kids, bringing the Gospel to the poor, sick, and hurting, staying up late into the night watching movies & playing cards & laughing about language and culture with some of my favorite people. But that’s not what God has in mind for next month. He knew long before I was even born that my time in Uganda would last one month. He has prepared more work for us in Rwanda, and as much as I’ve cried, as much as my heart is jumping out of my skin to stay here with Christ is our Hope Church, as much as my eyes are swollen from tears and my mind is screaming, “Why do I have to leave…??” I know God has more. More challenges, more love for me to give, more love and grace for me, more lessons to teach me. And He knows I need to go there to fully receive those things. So here I go! Once again leaping into the unknown and trusting Him to catch me there, to meet me on my knees, and to be grateful for my broken heart– it means I loved hard, without fear. It means my heart was open and full and alive, and for that I am so so grateful.
I have a few blogs in the works about this month, but will have to wait for better WiFi to upload pictures. It’s so much harder than I thought to find the time to sit down and write when we have long days of ministry, team time, time for feedback, personal time to seek the Lord, and unexpected and wonderful interruptions like kids outside wanting to dance Zumba or my host brother Jesse asking to watch another cartoon movie like the Lion King or when my host sisters Shirah and Trisha braid and wash my hair. I’m so busy living!!!! I feel so alive! But I want to share this all with you. And I’m working on it! Please know that my heart is full, broken, alive, and missing you all at the same time. And that God is moving in BIG ways here, as I know He is at home.
Tomorrow at 7am Uganda time, we are riding a bus to Kigali, Rwanda as a Squad. We have no idea what ministry will look like yet, but we’ll find out soon enough! 🙂
Love you all! Happy New Year!! 🙂
