Why Uganda?

First of all, thank you to everyone that has been praying about the Ebola scare. After studying it, they have come to the conclusion that it is a new strain of amoebic dysentery which is much less serious and thankfully treatable. For now, until they can get it under control we are staying in the compound, but prayerfully by the middle of next week we will be free to go out among the people again. I am super excited for that because I will be able to go out to the villages as well as to several orphanages here in town... I am itching to play with all those children :)

Saying that, it leads me to the subject of this blog. The other day, my friend Beth asked me for an explanation of where I am, what I am going to be doing here and pretty much what the basics are of my stay here in Kitgum :) Things are a little crazy right now here in Uganda, with this the scare of what people thought at first was Ebola so I haven’t started some of what I am planning on doing but for now I can tell you the basics of what I believe I will be doing.

I guess that I should start from the beginning however, which was actually in another country far away :) 2 years ago, when I was getting ready to finish Bible College, I was praying about what the Lord would have for me to do next. He really started putting Africa on my heart, but not a specific country. Of course, I explained to him that I had always said I would go anywhere He wanted me, but that Africa wasn’t on my list of countries because “Hello, everyone goes to Africa”. Apparently, my excuses were not enough because the desire to go did not diminish and in fact seemed to continue to grow. I decided to give it to the Lord, put out some inquiry’s and see what happened. At that point, however I was pretty much sure that I would be going, just not sure when or where.

After getting home and talking to my family about it (which I am sure where wishing they had a daughter more inclined to staying home and coming home, earning money and running away again), my dad mentioned the McCourtney’s, whom our church has been supporting for several years. I got into contact with them, just to kind of learn about their ministry and to get a feel for whether they would even want someone to come and work with them. God was totally awesome, and worked it out so that Summer ended up being blessed with the money for a trip to the States, so I was actually able to meet with her several times to get an idea of what I would be doing here, where I would be living and to kind of give me a heads up about what life would be like day to day here in Kitgum. After lots of prayer, the Lord gave me a peace about packing up everything and taking off for the country of Uganda.

So here I am, currently living in Kitgum, Uganda. Don’t know where that is :) fine, stop right now, pull up another window and go to Google maps and look it up. I am right up there on the tippy top near the border of Sudan (which I am also hoping I might get to go into for a bit). I am living with a missionary couple here by the last name of McCourtney. Zane and Summer where called here to Uganda 7 years ago and since then have been ministering to the people. For more info on that, you can go to www.mamainuganda.blogspot.com (Summer’s blog about her family) or to www.fromglory2glory.blogspot.com for information on their ministry here in Northern Uganda. They have two biological children and 10 adopted children from here in Africa. So as you can imagine, there is a lot to do taking care of all of the kids as well as schooling and just keeping everything clean! Part of what I am doing here is just trying to be as much of a help to Summer as I can, whether it is helping with schooling for some of the children that need a little more help, or doing the dishes on days when it is some of the workers day off.

Once I am able to go out into town, there are two orphanages that I would like to go to on a semi-regular basis and help at. One of them is small and run by a local man (about 20 to 25 children from what I understand) and the other is run by a lady from New Zealand and has about 100 children in it. As you can imagine, with children, help is appreciated. In January, there is another lady from Oregon coming to stay with us, so prayerfully she and I will be able to go out and work at the orphanages a little bit more. We will see what happens at the beginning of the year!

Another thing that I will be helping with is the church. Zane is the pastor of several churches and he goes around and teaches at them. Prayerfully, I will be able to go, hopefully doing some music, teaching the children and just ministering wherever the Lord opens the doors. My prayer is really just to be a blessing to all the people I encounter here and really to be an example of Jesus in my day to day life.

Hope that kind of answered anyone's questions! As always, I miss all of you and wish you could be here to experience all of this with me!!!
Blessings from Uganda to all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!