Wow, sorry to those of you trying to follow my blog to keep up with what is going on with Uganda, but here is what has been goin' on.
I prayed, along with my loved ones, during the month of July, to see what God was saying. I was starting to think that maybe it was just me, and maybe God didn't really want me to go. What came out of that was that no one had any red or yellow lights about it, and that I needed to go on a short term trip. That made perfect sense to me!
In late August, I began taking the Perspectives course, which prepares you to share the gospel cross culturally. (BTY- God led a former alumni of Perspectives to pay for someone who was going through the class, and I was selected! Praise God!) Lesson number 2 is about the glory of God. The thing that hit home to me, is that just because I want to go, that does not necessarily mean I am called. So I prayed, a lot.
I met IAC's missions team, and told them about my journey with God and what has led me to believe that I am called to Uganda. I told them (see post #1) my story. I asked them not to just pray about whether or not I am called, but asked them to pray about what God gets out of this, how His name will be made great as a result, and if they couldn't see that, then I didn't want to go. They felt that it was already evident that God's name would be praised by this venture, which is the most important thing. It is so easy to loose track of who we are serving. It is so easy to believe that we are serving God, when we may be serving our own sense of self, adventure, or just our own kingdom making ourselves look good. There was a point when I was asking God and myself, "isn't just enough that I want to go?". I know the answer now, and it is a no. It's no if I am purporting to be going under the direction of God. So what's the point? The point for me is that it is easy to build a kingdom for myself and call it God's will. I get a lot of praise and pats on the back just for wanting to go, so it would be be easy to go and believe that God wanted that, when all that was really going on was me wanting some adventure, and some credit. Yuck. If any of you see this in me, feel free to show me my shortcoming.
After a lot of prayer, I do feel this is what God wants, but my pride is ever lurking, waiting to take the credit for something that is all the Lord. One of the things that has been a confirmation for me is my dear friend Moni, reminding me of a conversation we had not too long before I began to feel called to Uganda. We were talking about our lives and our future, and I said that I never thought I would go on a missions trip, as I felt I had enough work to do here.
Anyway, thanks for listening in on the life lesson I learned recently, but the missions team encouraged me to do some things: start serving with refugees here in the Springs, get more info on New Hope Uganda, and begin by going to New Hope's 4 month mission institute that prepares you to be a missionary, no matter where you are going to serve. I think that is all sound advice.
The more I learn about New Hope Uganda, the more I see God at work there.
What I know now is that the 4 month institute begins in January and July, so here's hopin' for July!
I'll keep you all posted! Thank you all for your prayers, they are so precious to me.
