Birthdays And Joy

Birthdays And Joy

Today was a great day, full of blessing and well-wishing. The team celebrated my birthday with homemade brick oven pizza, cookies, Andes mint brownies, and cake. The night was capped off with a candle lit, out door dance party! You know I like to shake it!!!

God has been teaching many things of late, including a journey through the valley of vision. I feel I am in a hard place emotionally and spiritually, but this is where I need to be and have freely chosen to go. God is helping me to discover many new, yet difficult things. He is teaching me to stare deep into the face of suffering and grief, my own personal grief and that of others. It is a place I have seldom looked before. I am learning to empathize at a deeper level, as I am allowing myself to ask God to reveal to me the things that break His heart. In the process my heart is breaking too, but I know there is joy in the maker of all things and that someday all things will be made new.

The Valley Of Vision

LORD, HIGH AND HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depth but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is thy victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.


The Valley of Vision
A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

Saturdays

Children signing hymns of praise to the methodic drums nearby as they practice for church. Birds hooting and chirping in the afternoon sun. The distance sound of people walking, talking, and visiting as the busiest market day comes to a close.

Saturdays are my favorite day of the week in Nyahuka. The rhythmic end of a busy week filled with pediatric and adult patients, early mid-week prayer meeting, constant knocks on my door, children clinging to my side.

Each week, if not each day, is filled with joy, trial, laughter, weeping, smiles, and scorn. Moments of bliss are buttressed against prayers of desperation.

God is present in this place. His work is always near at hand, though sometimes I do clearly see. Satan is also present in this place, with death, despair, and destruction all around.

I told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
-John 16:33

Pictorial Review

I've had some difficulty posting photos over the past five weeks, so finally, here is a pictorial review of my time in Uganda. I had to greatly reduce the size of the pictures in order to post them, so the quality is a bit grainy, sorry.


My good friend Lamech.


One of my favorite kids Kemanuel. He is always smiling and his nose is always running.


Heidi Lutjens & Pat Abbott


My neighbors, Gonja and Charity


Neighbors and friends, Edmond and his son Ngime


Janet - malnourished patient


Scott & Jennifer Myhre


Paediatric Ward


Peds patient back from the brink of death.


780 gram premature infant

Children

Children

I like parties. I like having fun. My gifts of entertaining and encouraging have often come in handy when hosting others.

I have a desire to love children and show them through my actions and inactions that they are loved, I am proud of them, and they are children of God. I never want a child to think that they are worthless and unlovable. Few things break my heart more than a child who feels helpless, hopeless, and unwanted.

Much of my life has been spent working alongside children – a Sunday school teacher, a camp counselor, working in pediatric rehabilitation, and now working in the acute pediatric ward. I love kids.

This weekend I had a “Fall Festival” for the local kids. Its purpose was twofold, to honor and love on the children, and to satisfy my love of Autumn in America. The kids made a beautiful deciduous tree that now sheds leaves daily on my living room floor, a splattering of yellow, orange, and red randomly strewn about. They stuffed scarecrows, a male and female pot-bellied pair that ordained my lawn. They laughed and cheered as they joined in the relay races, and even Aligonilia, a child who has escaped death numerous times, joined in and laughed raucously. What an indescribable joy to see a child barely alive one week, me desperately crying out to God for his return to life, and now witnessing him running around and laughing like a healthy child, even though he is far from “healthy”. Amazing.

It was a great day, and I am so very thankful for God’s abundant provision. I hope these children felt how much we, the World Harvest Mission team, love and appreciate them. For at least one afternoon, they were lifted high and revered.

I often think of myself as a child, longing to run into God’s lap. When I am most desperate and fall into fits of despair, God reminds me of His love, how proud of me He is, and how much He longs to welcome me home.