I am at the end of Month Two on The World Race. Can you believe it?
Almost a year ago I began this process of applying for this missions
opportunity, and sometimes it is still hard to believe how much of a
reality this whole trip has become. Your prayers and your support have
made this possible. I am currently in Uganda living at an orphanage
with my team and another team from the Y Squad. We are doing a lot of
preaching and speaking at church and crusades. We have the pleasure of
being around children all the time, and the blessing to share the
gospel in whatever way we see fit. We are using this time to grow
closer as a family, and we are beginning to truly break down walls to
get to know each other. Despite our pasts and despite our struggles
here we love each other through it.
This experience has been eye opening for me, I expected to come in and be a missionary instantly, I expected for things to just fall into place and to be helping people all the time. I mean that’s what a mission trip is, right? I have done mission work before, but nothing like this. This experience is breaking me. This experience is challenging me to dig up some stuff that I have not wanted to deal with and work through it because being
on mission for God starts within yourself. I am learning so much about
living a life of servant hood and about truly building relationships.
I am living in constant community on this trip which is challenging at
times, but I know that this family that surrounds me on this trip
supports me. They speak life into me and they challenge me to be who
God has called me to be.
I have seen healing and I have seen deliverance from evil spirits so far on this trip, but I have also seen spiritual attacks, hopelessness, and heartbreak. I have stood on a desk declaring that things that happen here aren’t my fault. I have cried. I have laughed. I have lived in a way that is foreign to so many back home, but an inevitable reality to many people here in Africa.
Honestly, we haven’t had rough living situations, we have been
spoiled per African standards, but per American standards eight girls
sleep on the floor in one room, we flush the toilet with a bucket of
water, we shower with a bucket of water when the city hasn’t decided
to cut the water off for three days, and we eat the same things pretty
much everyday. But honestly, if we want a soda, we buy it, if we want
to communicate with our loved ones we go to town and get on the
internet, and if we are bored we hop on our laptops and watch movies.
Sometimes life here can look a bit like life in America, but my life
here isn’t about me. My life here is about being who God has called me
to be so I can minister to the least of these, because honestly, they
deserve to hear about the truth found in the gospel.
I have seen a joy here in the people that is hard to explain because though they have nothing, they are content and they will offer you whatever they have,that is how we should be, and I am learning that. Children here at the
orphanage sing praises to the Lord from early in the morning until
late at night and the faith they have is pure and untainted. They love
more than any children I have ever met. The Lord is at work here, and
we spend six or seven hours in church on Sundays, and church looks a
whole lot different here, there is so much excitement and dancing and
shouting and praising and praying. Worship here is authentic and
desired. Africa is nothing like I expected but everything that I
didn’t know I was expecting, if that makes any sense.
I am being challenged here and I am truly living life. I can’t imagine not being able to complete this trip. My life has just started to truly change,
and I know that the Lord has so much more for me these next nine and a
half months as we complete our time in Africa, and as we serve in Asia
and Eastern Europe. I am so grateful for all the support I have
received prior to leaving America, and for the continued monthly
support I am receiving, but my next financial deadline will be here in
just over a month and I have $3,000 to raise to stay on the field. I
am not ready to go home. I need to be here, not because the Lord can’t
work through others, but because I need the Lord to keep working on
me.
So to conclude this, I just ask that you pray about supporting me financially, I can’t do this without you. The money you donate is changing lives.I pray that you would continue to donate so that I don’t have to come home early. If you have been thinking about giving to my trip now would be the most amazing time! To donate online, please
click on the link on the left hand side of this page underneath my picture, and to donate by mail please send checks payable to:
Adventures In Missions with “Jessica Walton – August WR” in the memo line to the following address:
Adventures In Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
PS: I would love to communicate with you as much as possible with the
African internet situation, so please e-mail me or comment on my blogs
or facebook me (speaking of which, that is where most of my pictures
up to this point will be located). Thank you so much for being such
amazing supporters!
