Figuring things out.

I learn new things daily. I have visited Uganda 5 times and then finally decided to make the big decision to move here. I found a ministry that was starting from the ground up and I told the director my dreams of building schools in other countries, immediately he offered me the job. Through prayer and pros & cons list I finally decided that this was my next move. I have been here since March and while it has had both good and bad experiences they are experiences I would not change for the world.

Yesterday, I found part of my calling. Sure, you are all thinking - “she moved to Uganda” that is her calling. That is what I thought too. Honestly when I boarded the plane I thought that I would be here forever, I thought that my one way ticket was something that would make me stay and never return. I figured I would spend my days serving children and loving people. 

Until I got here. 

I got here and Jesus placed a bigger dream on my heart - one that scares me, but excited me. He showed me my heart behind it through my roommate. 

I asked Jesus before my move over to speak to me about what he wants my life to be, I have done almost all of my basics in college, I have my massage therapy license, I have traveled the United States with an Ugandan children’s choir and now I live in a foreign country. So I needed direction. 

We had just gotten back from the slum, Katanga. It is a slum in the middle of the city full of muslim families, this means it is full of single mothers. Single mothers who sell produce, shoe polish or fish to get money for food. Only bringing in less than $3 a day. I got home and started to write and before I knew it Jesus was giving me visions of my future. I cried as I wrote every word because it changed what I originally thought I was passionate about, but it changed it to something so beautiful that I could not have done it on my own. The next week I went back into the slum to get more stories from our sponsorship kids and a lady told our translator that she wanted me to teach her English. I giggled on the way to the car, simply because I knew that there was something there. I talked with my roommate, who is Ugandan and we planned to teach English the following week. 

We arrived in the slum, with a notebook and a few pens. The women were on their way, I was not sure how many to expect. We waited for a bit longer and there were 4 students. Prossy, Grace, Evelyn and Procy - I wanted to hear a little bit about their life before we started the class. All single mothers, all selling produce to get money for food, all living in a slum and all quit going to school when they were in Elementary school due to school fees. My heart broke for the one millionth time. I picked up the notebook, that I had written the alphabet in, unsure if they would know the letters -  I pointed and they started, “A, B, C,” chills rushed my body and I knew I was stepping into another part of the vision. I asked them to write the alphabet, half could and half could not. I knew then that English classes would be harder than I anticipated, which is great because I love a challenge. I told the women that I would be there every Saturday to teach and next week I am bringing notebooks. They shouted and clapped.

This next week we are going back into the slum to teach English classes again, I left them with homework and I told them that we would be spending more time together on Saturday.

Since being here what I thought my life would look like is actually very different. Jesus is changing my heart on somethings and He shutting the door on other things. I am being very vague, but that is because I am praying through so much. I am asking you to join me in this, please be in prayer for this vision, for the next step. I have failed at keeping my audience up to date, I struggle with putting things into words sometimes, simply because a two week trip is such an "eyeopening experience" - while living here is a hard, but joyful season. 

Someone told me last week that living in Uganda is the wilderness for someone people - Jesus calls us here to pour into people, to be poured into and we think we move here for the rest of our lives -- only for Jesus to completely wreck what we thought life would actually look like. This is not to say that Uganda is a bad place, its simply to say that it is a place that Jesus is in - it is a country that takes you away from your comfort and places you in a place where you lay on your floor nightly and ask Jesus what is going on. 

Its a fun season. I am growing. And learning from every single person I encounter.