Uganda, the journey in my heart

Africa has always been on my mind and heart in some way. Now here I am in my 30th year of life and I'm praying that I will finally get to GO! I want to share with you this past year, the journey in my heart.

March 7 2011 - Sad but true, my story kind of starts at McDonald's. Some wonderful ladies from church got together for lunch and play time for the kids. I asked my friend Keltie about her experience in Uganda because she had recently adopted two children from there. As our kids played we got talking about this wonderful place and how amazing it would be to go and love people there. We started dreaming and praying about a trip there in the next year.

Oct 2011 - Since March I've had a really totally crappy time. Through many trials, (death, bitterness, and depression to name a few), I have been drawn to God as my only strength. I am so thankful to come through this hard year, knowing more about God and his incredible love for me. This is important to note here because God has been laying the ground works in my heart for this journey. Around this time Keltie and I started writing back and forth about our Uganda dream. Dream. And prayer. That's what it was at this point, but God knew our hearts, and He had a plan.
Dec - One week before Christmas and Keltie calls to say there are seat sales in Feb to Uganda. That was just the fire under my butt that I needed. It really got me into action. Got me on the phone to our pastor to ask for prayer, help, and support from him and the other leadership. Keltie and I got together with her friend Ruth to talk about the trip and what we would be doing. Like I said, Keltie has been there before and knows wonderful people there that we could stay with, help, bless, be driven around by, etc. God has been giving her the desire to bless Mama Florence, who is a midwife in a small village Kamengo. There are also a couple different orphanages we could help out in. We would want to be in country for at least 10 days. We want to be as much help to people there as we can in such a short time.

New Year 2012!!!! And with the new year, new plans. Keltie can no longer come on the trip:-( I was so disappointed to find out, BUT I was still totally in if that's what God had for me. I really believe that God makes his will known in the Bible. Back in October I read James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" We are also told to love our neighbour as ourselves, and how many references are there to feeding people in need? God gives us all different abilities, interests, talents, and desires. So following His will may look different for different people. This wasn't meant to become a theology discussion, I'm just trying to say that I'm trying to be faithful and let God ordain this trip. I want to stay within His plan as I follow His will. So in the last week I've really been talking with God a lot, asking for His guidance and asking Him to please take over. It's been amazing to watch it all come together. When Keltie first told me she couldn't come I thought of a few other people I could ask. In my circle of peeps not many people can just drop everything and run off to Uganda with me for a couple weeks, heeehmmmm next month! I wrote to my good friend Lindsay, who is also my #1 fan of this once lonely blog:-) She lives in England and it would be so amazing to meet up with her there. Then just today I get a call from Pastor Dean saying his daughter might be interested in coming. Are you surprised to find out that she was someone on my mind last week when I went over my list of possible travel companions? Well you should be, because I hardly know her and it's totally a God thing that she was brought to mind at all. So we got together and acted like giddy school girls looking at pictures of Kamengo, dreaming, and trying to come back down to earth.
So now what? Well by the end of the week I'd like to know for sure if I'm going, and who else is coming. Then we need to get tickets, which is another cool story for another time. Then I'd like to raise money for a building for Mama Florence, but that is also another story. I will keep you all posted on up coming events in this wonderful journey that is going on. Oh one more note before I head off to sweet beddy by. My mother-in-law was in Uganda when our eldest Munchkin was born. She brought back a necklace (I think it was supposed to be for the Munchkin, but I claimed it, ha ha), it's a green stone cut out to look like Africa. I've been wearing it a lot lately, and I LOVE it. God is amazing and I marvel at how he gets people involved in things like this in such different ways. So I'm asking you to be involved and excited with me for this journey as it goes from my heart into the real world.
* Disclaimer: This last paragraph used to be pretty good and eloquent before it somehow got erased. Now the hour is late and the thinking things inside my head aren't working so well. Goodnight:-)