Conversations with God

I love rain in the summer. Recently, I was outside enjoying a light shower. I relished the coolness and was looking for rainbows. Suddenly, I got hit with something. A deep ache rose up in me. Oh, how I wanted to be back in Uganda. As I mused on it, tears came to my eyes. This wasn't a new feeling, but it'd been a while. I've been back from Africa for a month and a half. My time has become more and more consumed with school-year preparations. As I stood in the rain, tears welling in my eyes, I realized I had a choice. Actually, I had a few choices. My first response was to just shut the feeling down. I'm not there, and won't be for a while. Why subject myself to avoidable pain by dwelling on what I don't have? Anybody been there? Another option was to dive deep into the emotion. I could sigh and cry about what I think I'm missing. Anybody been there ? I decided to try something totally different. I looked past the city sky to my memories of...

I've dreamed about going to Africa for years. I've devoured countless books and blogs written by African missionaries. I've talked about it, dreamed about it, waited for it. My friends Dr. Cliff and Julie Pash from Advancing the Kingdom Ministries  (ATK) lead several churches and a school in Uganda, and have invited me several times. This summer I finally got to spend two weeks with them. Actually packing for the trip was exciting and surreal at the same time. I didn't know what to feel. I knew enough to know that plans and expectations are fine, but that there are some things you can't plan. I figured I would just go and see what happened. Sure enough, some things went as I expected, and some things came as a total surprise. To narrow it down, here they are - 5 things I learned while in Uganda: 1. Dreams are worth waiting for Almost 10 years ago, the Lord told me I'd work with kids in Africa. That was great, but I didn't know...