He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things were created through him and for him. And his is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.- Colossians 1:15-20
Bad things happen, and it sucks. People are diagnosed with cancer, get laid off from jobs, lose loved ones, etc. When people hear of these things, often their response is that the Lord works through these things. And often, if I'm being honest, I can see it from a distance. "Yeah," I tell myself, "when __________ got cancer so many people came to know of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness." Or, "Yeah, when _________ got laid off, they had to rely completely on the Lord to provide for them." But when it directly involves me, and people that I love, it is hard to see how the Lord is moving through these types of situations.
A dear friend of mine took his life into his own hands Monday night. Why? That is something I will never be able to answer or understand. We did ministry on the same team for a period of time. He had a love for the Lord that I didn't see in many other people, and with that came a love for other people. He smiled so radiantly that it was contagious. He was gifted by the Lord in many ways, and wasn't afraid to go anywhere that the Lord called him.
You always hear of people struggling to the point at which they think it is necessary to take their own life, but it is never real until someone you know does it. I knew that my friend struggled with depression, but if I am being totally honest, it has been 8 months since I had a real conversation with him so I had no clue how bad it had gotten.
He came to our Young Life club one week as part of his "fast-track" training, and we hit it off. We had both spent extended periods of time in Africa (myself in Uganda, and him in Kenya), and I knew then and there that there was something different about him. I told the people in charge of placing him that I wanted him on my team because I could tell he saw things differently than most people.
I'll never forget in the spring of 2014 we spent a weekend together on a friend's farm. He had never shot clays before, but man he was a natural. He missed the first one, then after that we coached him up a little bit and then he didn't miss another one. We also went fishing that day, and whoever caught the most fish got a free Zaxby's dinner on the person that caught the least amount of fish. He had to leave early, so he really didn't partake in the competition, but we spent that afternoon on the water together, just being quiet and enjoying each other's company.
We were getting lunch the day before he went back home before he went to Uganda then to South Africa for the fall. We were supposed to meet at Veggie's to go, but he saw Tenda Chick while we were there and decided he wanted that instead. He was such a spontaneous person. He shared with me that day his struggles with depression, and I honestly couldn't believe it. Just goes to show you never really know what is going on with someone.
After that day we never really hung out very much. We stayed in touch, texted every now and then. And of course if he was running down the street we would say hey to each other, talk for a little while, give each other a hug and move on. I would be riding my bike down the street and he would drive by with his hand out the window waving at me, making sure I saw him.
Was there anything I could've done to change his course of action? No, probably not. But that isn't what I'm struggling with now. I know that the Lord moves in ways that we don't understand, and I know that the Lord didn't will this on my friend.
The Lord is very mysterious to me. His Spirit moves in ways that I don't understand, but through everything that happens I know that He is teaching us something. So what are we supposed to learn from a situation that hurts so much and we don't understand? Over the past 24 hours I have learned a lot about myself and what I believe as I try to think through what the Lord is teaching me through this.
The number one thing that I can say with confidence is this: Satan may have won a battle, but the war has already been won by my friend Jesus. In this situation it may seem like Satan wins because he got in the head of a guy that was so full of life and followed Jesus with such passion, but I can assure you that Jesus has won the war. He says it himself:
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"- Revelation 21:3-5a
Jesus wins, and creates this new way of life for us. There will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness, no more hurt in this kingdom that Jesus has established.
The one thing that I have probably learned from all of this though, is that Christ is supreme over everything. Over every situation we could ever imagine, Jesus reigns supreme over that. That's what those verses out of Colossians are talking about. Jesus is God, and from Him come all things, and all of those things will be used for Him. And through him we have peace with God. I am learning through this that Christ will reign supreme over this situation. We may not see it now, but He will be glorified. And I am in that stage of not seeing it now, but He is showing me that He will get the glory from this, and even though I am not certain how, I am 100% sure that He will.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
Identity
So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.- Galatians 4:7
I don't feel like our identity is something that too many of us think about a lot. If someone were to ask me about my identity or simply ask me the question "Who are you?" I could come up with a lot of different answers. My name is Camp, I'm an Auburn student, a Young Life Leader, a gardener, and the list could go on and on. The thing is that none of those things tell you anything about my identity. They tell you my name, and what I do. None of them tell you who I am.
This word identity is something I have been learning a lot about over the past week or so, and it is something that the Lord has definitely spoken to me about. It really started when I saw a picture that showed arrows going like this: Father>Obedience>Identity. This is the way that the majority of people live I feel like. We think that if we are good enough that we can get to the Father, and when He decides that we have been good enough that He will bestow His identity on us. With this all of the pressure is on us to be good, to do it on our own. This is so oppresive to all of us because we will never be good enough. The way the arrows go in reality is like this: Father>Identity>Obedience. The Father, through Jesus, has given us an identity as sons and daughters- "You are my son, and with you I am well pleased."- and through that our natural tendency is to live a life of obedience to Him. With this model our identity comes not from what we can do, but from what Jesus has done for us.
This past week I was thinking about this a lot, and as I dove deeper and deeper into this truth I really felt the Lord saying to me, "Camp, you can't do it. But I can." That is a relief to a guy like me. I'm a doer. The type of person that, if I see a problem, I try to find a way to fix it. After I realized all of this I felt the Lord inviting me to stop doing so much and just come be with Him and rest in His presence. So on Saturday I spent a lot of time alone just reading and listening.
I was reading the gospel of John, one of my favorites, and I got to chapter 5. In the second half of the chapter Jesus is just ripping the Pharisees a new one because they were trying to kill him because he called himself the Son of God, which made him equal with God. So Jesus went on a rant about how the Father has given him authority and that his witness is true, and then he really started getting on the Pharisees about how they search the Scriptures because they think that in them they get eternal life, when Jesus is really the one that gives life. Then I came to verse 44, and it hit me like a freight train.
"How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 5:44
Not gonna lie, that one stung a little bit. He is telling me that I am finding my identity in the approval of other people and not in Him. That was really hard for me to hear, but He was speaking a word of grace into me and it was so relieving. I will never be fulfilled seeking the approval of other people. I need to live into the identity that He has for me.
"And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'"- Mark 1:9
That is my identity, and every day I will choose to live in that truth. I am His son, and He is well pleased with me.
I don't feel like our identity is something that too many of us think about a lot. If someone were to ask me about my identity or simply ask me the question "Who are you?" I could come up with a lot of different answers. My name is Camp, I'm an Auburn student, a Young Life Leader, a gardener, and the list could go on and on. The thing is that none of those things tell you anything about my identity. They tell you my name, and what I do. None of them tell you who I am.
This word identity is something I have been learning a lot about over the past week or so, and it is something that the Lord has definitely spoken to me about. It really started when I saw a picture that showed arrows going like this: Father>Obedience>Identity. This is the way that the majority of people live I feel like. We think that if we are good enough that we can get to the Father, and when He decides that we have been good enough that He will bestow His identity on us. With this all of the pressure is on us to be good, to do it on our own. This is so oppresive to all of us because we will never be good enough. The way the arrows go in reality is like this: Father>Identity>Obedience. The Father, through Jesus, has given us an identity as sons and daughters- "You are my son, and with you I am well pleased."- and through that our natural tendency is to live a life of obedience to Him. With this model our identity comes not from what we can do, but from what Jesus has done for us.
This past week I was thinking about this a lot, and as I dove deeper and deeper into this truth I really felt the Lord saying to me, "Camp, you can't do it. But I can." That is a relief to a guy like me. I'm a doer. The type of person that, if I see a problem, I try to find a way to fix it. After I realized all of this I felt the Lord inviting me to stop doing so much and just come be with Him and rest in His presence. So on Saturday I spent a lot of time alone just reading and listening.
I was reading the gospel of John, one of my favorites, and I got to chapter 5. In the second half of the chapter Jesus is just ripping the Pharisees a new one because they were trying to kill him because he called himself the Son of God, which made him equal with God. So Jesus went on a rant about how the Father has given him authority and that his witness is true, and then he really started getting on the Pharisees about how they search the Scriptures because they think that in them they get eternal life, when Jesus is really the one that gives life. Then I came to verse 44, and it hit me like a freight train.
"How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 5:44
Not gonna lie, that one stung a little bit. He is telling me that I am finding my identity in the approval of other people and not in Him. That was really hard for me to hear, but He was speaking a word of grace into me and it was so relieving. I will never be fulfilled seeking the approval of other people. I need to live into the identity that He has for me.
"And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'"- Mark 1:9
That is my identity, and every day I will choose to live in that truth. I am His son, and He is well pleased with me.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Grace
"...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."- Romans 5:8
Grace. It's a word we've all heard before, but if I asked you to define it for me would you be able to do it? The definition by Merriam-Webster says that grace is an unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Another definition says that it is a virtue coming from God. Although these are the official definitions, I don't feel like they do the word justice.
Over the past week or so I have seen this word a lot and I have been learning a lot about what it truly means. Early on in my journey with Jesus I would sit and wonder why in the world God would show us grace in the way that He does. We turn our backs to Him all the time and basically curse Him to His face, and He still shows us grace.
We have done absolutely nothing to deserve grace. None of us deserve it, and there is nothing we can do to deserve it. We were the ones that messed up our relationship with God, but He is the one that has chosen to do something about it, to make things right.
God pursues a relationship with us even when we do things that He doesn't want us to. If His Spirit is within us, and we are called to be perfect because our Father is perfect, then are we not supposed to do the same thing?
It's easy to show this kind of grace when things are going our way, but when things don't go our way we have the opportunity to show grace in the way that God does. That is when we get to show that God's Spirit is moving in us and we have the opportunity to put our money where our mouth is.
In the book of James, James talks about how faith without works is dead. If we really believe in the grace that God shows us, then we should long to show that to other people. If we don't show that grace to people, will they think that we actually believe in the grace that we talk about so much?
Over these past few days I have learned so much about the grace that God shows us by Him presenting opportunities for me to show that to people, and then saying to me, "Camp, you need to show Jesus even when it's hard to." When it is hard, that's when you really get to show what you believe. Take Jesus for example. He preached about this kind of grace and love, and when the time came to show that, He did so and even in the middle of being crucified. He showed grace to the people that were murdering Him while He was on the cross! He said, "Father forgive them..." as He was dying. That is how I want to live.
Over these past few weeks my prayer to the Lord has been that He would present opportunities to me in which I could show people love. He has definitely granted that to me. It wasn't in the way I expected, or really wanted, but because of the way it happened it is a lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life here.
Show grace and love to people even when it is hard to, because that is when they see the Lord in you.
Grace. It's a word we've all heard before, but if I asked you to define it for me would you be able to do it? The definition by Merriam-Webster says that grace is an unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Another definition says that it is a virtue coming from God. Although these are the official definitions, I don't feel like they do the word justice.
Over the past week or so I have seen this word a lot and I have been learning a lot about what it truly means. Early on in my journey with Jesus I would sit and wonder why in the world God would show us grace in the way that He does. We turn our backs to Him all the time and basically curse Him to His face, and He still shows us grace.
We have done absolutely nothing to deserve grace. None of us deserve it, and there is nothing we can do to deserve it. We were the ones that messed up our relationship with God, but He is the one that has chosen to do something about it, to make things right.
God pursues a relationship with us even when we do things that He doesn't want us to. If His Spirit is within us, and we are called to be perfect because our Father is perfect, then are we not supposed to do the same thing?
It's easy to show this kind of grace when things are going our way, but when things don't go our way we have the opportunity to show grace in the way that God does. That is when we get to show that God's Spirit is moving in us and we have the opportunity to put our money where our mouth is.
In the book of James, James talks about how faith without works is dead. If we really believe in the grace that God shows us, then we should long to show that to other people. If we don't show that grace to people, will they think that we actually believe in the grace that we talk about so much?
Over these past few days I have learned so much about the grace that God shows us by Him presenting opportunities for me to show that to people, and then saying to me, "Camp, you need to show Jesus even when it's hard to." When it is hard, that's when you really get to show what you believe. Take Jesus for example. He preached about this kind of grace and love, and when the time came to show that, He did so and even in the middle of being crucified. He showed grace to the people that were murdering Him while He was on the cross! He said, "Father forgive them..." as He was dying. That is how I want to live.
Over these past few weeks my prayer to the Lord has been that He would present opportunities to me in which I could show people love. He has definitely granted that to me. It wasn't in the way I expected, or really wanted, but because of the way it happened it is a lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life here.
Show grace and love to people even when it is hard to, because that is when they see the Lord in you.
Monday, November 24, 2014
National Lampoon's African Thanksgiving
Two years ago I was in Uganda experiencing my first Thanksgiving without my family and this is what happened. I wrote it up as the week went on just because you can't do anything but laugh at stuff like this, and I figured I'd share it with everyone else one day. Hope this provides you with a laugh!
Well I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! While all of you in the States were on Thanksgiving break, we decided to take a little break of our own. Since all of us are away from our families we went to visit the closest thing that the East's have to a family over here. We went to go visit the Segnar's down in Jinja. The East's and the Segnar's went through training at New Hope together, so their families became extremely close to one another. Anyways, we left on Tuesday to go spend a few days with them.
The plan was that we were going to leave Gulu at around 8 o'clock Tuesday morning. So we all got up, ate a little breakfast, then we were ready to go. We all piled into the car, and for some reason the car wouldn't start. It was really wierd because Matt had spent all day Monday getting the car looked at to make sure there weren't any problems with it. So we spent about 30 minutes trying to mess with it, then Matt went into town to get a mechanic. When they got back they jumped the car off and drove into town to go to the mechanic's shop. Turns out it was an alternator problem. The mechanic said that the car didn't need a new one, so he just pulled it out and rebuilt it in about 3 hours. He put it back in the car, and it ran just fine. So Matt came home at about 1 o'clock and we all loaded up into the car again and took off.
The car that we were taking was supposed to have air conditioning, but we weren't even out of Gulu before we figured out that it didn't work. So we just drove with the windows down. We had to stop in a town called Luweero to pick up 3 dogs that we were delivering to Jinja. Well when we got to the gas station we were going to meet the people that had the dogs at, we found out what was wrong with the air conditioning. So we got a mechanic to put on the belt that was needed to make it work. At about 6:00 we got on the road again. Prior to the beginning of the trip, we decided we were gonna be smart and cut a couple of hours off of our trip by taking a shortcut from Luweero as opposed to going through Kampala and over to Jinja. You usually want to avoid Kampala at all costs anyways, but it would've taken three hours to go down, then over as opposed to an hour and a half using the shortcut. When we got to the shortcut it was a dirt road. At first it was a pretty good dirt road, but as we went further, the road got worse and worse. And to add to how bad the road was, it was dark, so it was hard to see all of the holes to dodge. Eventually we got to a paved road and that road led to Jinja. We got there around 9 p.m.
After a long day, I went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 10:30 the next morning. Just a side note- the turkey that we were saving for the next day was outside, and he was gobbling at any and every noise that I made. So for those of you who know me, I had a lot of fun with that. Anyways, I was staying at a different house than everyone else, so the plan was that I would wake up then call one of the people at the Segnar's house first off to get directions, and second off to find out the plan for the day. Well little did I know that my Ugandan phone had fallen out of my pocket on the bumpy roads the night before, so it was in the car which was at the Segnar's house. So I just decided to set out for their house not knowing where I was going. Luckily I found a nice boda guy that told me directions to the "Jinja Club" which was just across the street from the Segnar's house. And I got there just in time for lunch. Score.
That afternoon Mrs. Kari decided she was going to bake a couple of pies for Thanksgiving the next day, then put them in the fridge to cool overnight. Well the oven wouldn't work. But the oven at the house I was staying at was working, so I took them with me and cooked them that night. When I was about halfway done cooking them, I had to switch them and put the one that was on the top rack on the bottom and the bottom one on top. Well I didn't have anything to grab them with, so I just used a rag that was in the kitchen. As soon as I touched the first pie, the pie plate shattered. Great. So they finished cooking and I pulled them out to cool then put them in the fridge. Not much of the pie that was in the shattered pie plate was salvagable, but a little bit was. I was told that it was pretty good.
The next morning we went to the source of the River Nile. That was freaking awesome, and I think I might do a separate post on that in a couple of days. We got back and had a small lunch because we were planning on eating around 4:00. Not long after we ate lunch, we went to "take care" of the turkey. We also had to bake another pie while we were at the house I was staying at, so we were there until about 2:00. Then they decided to call a mechanic to come fix their oven. He got done at about 3:30. So it was too late to roast the turkey, so they decided to pressure cook it. We had a lot of time to kill between the oven getting fixed and everything getting done cooking, so we did a lot of goofing off. Finally, we ate around 8:00 and it was all delicious.
We spent the next day at the Nile Resort Camp. That place is a ton of fun. We spent most of the morning in the swimming pool, but then we decided to go down to the rope swing. While everyone else went down to the rope swing, I stayed up at the pool area with the three youngest kids. That was quite the experience- me caring for a 4 month old and two 2 year olds. Virginia was easy. I put her on the couch and she went right to sleep. Well then it started raining. So I had to leave her and trust that the two year olds would sit still for at least 5 minutes while I got everyone's stuff out of the rain. Well wouldn't you know it that as soon as I returned I found Cole messing with Virginia. This is a very common thing that happens all of the time- while Virginia is either in a great mood or asleep, Cole decides that is the prime time to show her some "love". Luckily she didn't wake up.
After lunch it was my turn to go down and do the rope swing into the Nile. So I did it, and as soon as I came up from under water I look to my left and what do I see? A crocodile. So I swam as fast as I could to the shore and as soon as I got out of the water I said, "I'm not a big fan of swimming that close to a crocodile." It was just Mr. Jason, Mrs. Kari, and I down there, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Then they saw it and let me know that it was just a monitor lizard. But let me tell you, swimming that close to a 3-4 foot lizard that swims a lot like a crocodile in the Nile river isn't too much fun. We all went a few more times, then a couple of the kids decided that they wanted to come down and do it as well. Well the kids wanted either their mom or their dad in the water to help them when they landed, so Mrs. Kari began to make her way down there. And when she got to the very bottom, she slipped and landed on the rocks just below the surface scraping up her knee and hand. She got out, then Mr. Jason went into the water to help his daughter when she landed, but then she bailed last second and so we decided to head up. While Mr. Jason was getting out of the water, he slipped and his ankle got stuck between a couple of roots and began falling backwards. Luckily he caught himself because if he had fallen back any farther, his ankle would've snapped in two. After all of that we finally decided it was time to head up.
Later that afternoon we went for a sunset cruise on the Nile, and at the very end did a little fishing. Sadly, we didn't catch anything, but hey, I went fishing on the Nile. How many people can say that? When it got dark we headed back to the camp then got some dinner. After that we went home. As I was getting out of the van I asked Matt what the estimated time of departure was and he said around 9:00. I jokingly said, "Alright, well I'll see y'all at about 11." Then I went inside and packed my stuff up getting ready to leave the next morning.
I woke up at about 8:00 the next morning to do a little more packing then read a little bit. At 8:45 I got a text from Jamie saying that everything was going as planned so far, so everything was looking good... until Matt tried to start the car. Of course, more car trouble. So they decided that it might be a good idea to go buy a new battery, just to eliminate that as the cause if it was. Well they bought the battery and on the way home came to pick me up, coincidentally around 11. It took forever to get the battery in the car because the posts for the battery were on the opposite sides of the positive and negative connectors in the car, and the ground for the wiring had to be moved but eventually Matt got it put in there. And sadly, we found out that the battery wasn't the problem. So Mr. Jason called a mechanic to come out there and take a look at it. Once they got it started they took it into town to get another battery because the one that Matt had bought earlier that day turned out to be fake. But anyways, they finally got it running by about 1 that afternoon. We decided not to go through what we did on the way to Jinja, so we just stayed another night.
So once again, I woke up at 8:00 the next morning to finish up some packing and read a little bit. Luckily the car was running and they came to pick me up at about 9:30. We were headed back to Gulu. We decided to take the "shortcut" again that we had taken on the way there. It was a lot better during the day though, which is good. So, we were about 40 or so kilometers away from Luweero when suddenly the car died. On a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. Matt got out to see if he could figure out what was wrong, when a guy on a boda came up and started to help us out. He said that he didn't know what was wrong, but he would go into town and find a mechanic if we gave him money for gas. We did and he zoomed off. Not long after he left Matt got me to start turning the key so that he could listen to see where the noise was coming from. The engine turned over once, then I turned the key a couple of more times and the car started running. We just decided to go on and leave since the car was running. The only problem we found was that the air conditioning had stopped working again. We didn't even care this time. We were just glad to be on the road. Once we got to Luweero we had to pick up the East's dog that they were getting, then we kept going. Surprisingly, we made it all the way back to Gulu in one piece.
There are a couple of things that I learned from this trip: 1) Things don't always go as planned (especially over here) and 2) God definitely has a sense of humor. My family has always joked about us being the Griswold's just because we will pack up and go anywhere at anytime and stop anywhere that looks interesting, but this trip was a REAL Griswold vacation and I hate that my family didn't get to experience it. This Thanksgiving was quite the experience- really fun at times, and hard at others- but it will always be one that I will never forget.
Well I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! While all of you in the States were on Thanksgiving break, we decided to take a little break of our own. Since all of us are away from our families we went to visit the closest thing that the East's have to a family over here. We went to go visit the Segnar's down in Jinja. The East's and the Segnar's went through training at New Hope together, so their families became extremely close to one another. Anyways, we left on Tuesday to go spend a few days with them.
The plan was that we were going to leave Gulu at around 8 o'clock Tuesday morning. So we all got up, ate a little breakfast, then we were ready to go. We all piled into the car, and for some reason the car wouldn't start. It was really wierd because Matt had spent all day Monday getting the car looked at to make sure there weren't any problems with it. So we spent about 30 minutes trying to mess with it, then Matt went into town to get a mechanic. When they got back they jumped the car off and drove into town to go to the mechanic's shop. Turns out it was an alternator problem. The mechanic said that the car didn't need a new one, so he just pulled it out and rebuilt it in about 3 hours. He put it back in the car, and it ran just fine. So Matt came home at about 1 o'clock and we all loaded up into the car again and took off.
The car that we were taking was supposed to have air conditioning, but we weren't even out of Gulu before we figured out that it didn't work. So we just drove with the windows down. We had to stop in a town called Luweero to pick up 3 dogs that we were delivering to Jinja. Well when we got to the gas station we were going to meet the people that had the dogs at, we found out what was wrong with the air conditioning. So we got a mechanic to put on the belt that was needed to make it work. At about 6:00 we got on the road again. Prior to the beginning of the trip, we decided we were gonna be smart and cut a couple of hours off of our trip by taking a shortcut from Luweero as opposed to going through Kampala and over to Jinja. You usually want to avoid Kampala at all costs anyways, but it would've taken three hours to go down, then over as opposed to an hour and a half using the shortcut. When we got to the shortcut it was a dirt road. At first it was a pretty good dirt road, but as we went further, the road got worse and worse. And to add to how bad the road was, it was dark, so it was hard to see all of the holes to dodge. Eventually we got to a paved road and that road led to Jinja. We got there around 9 p.m.
After a long day, I went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 10:30 the next morning. Just a side note- the turkey that we were saving for the next day was outside, and he was gobbling at any and every noise that I made. So for those of you who know me, I had a lot of fun with that. Anyways, I was staying at a different house than everyone else, so the plan was that I would wake up then call one of the people at the Segnar's house first off to get directions, and second off to find out the plan for the day. Well little did I know that my Ugandan phone had fallen out of my pocket on the bumpy roads the night before, so it was in the car which was at the Segnar's house. So I just decided to set out for their house not knowing where I was going. Luckily I found a nice boda guy that told me directions to the "Jinja Club" which was just across the street from the Segnar's house. And I got there just in time for lunch. Score.
That afternoon Mrs. Kari decided she was going to bake a couple of pies for Thanksgiving the next day, then put them in the fridge to cool overnight. Well the oven wouldn't work. But the oven at the house I was staying at was working, so I took them with me and cooked them that night. When I was about halfway done cooking them, I had to switch them and put the one that was on the top rack on the bottom and the bottom one on top. Well I didn't have anything to grab them with, so I just used a rag that was in the kitchen. As soon as I touched the first pie, the pie plate shattered. Great. So they finished cooking and I pulled them out to cool then put them in the fridge. Not much of the pie that was in the shattered pie plate was salvagable, but a little bit was. I was told that it was pretty good.
The next morning we went to the source of the River Nile. That was freaking awesome, and I think I might do a separate post on that in a couple of days. We got back and had a small lunch because we were planning on eating around 4:00. Not long after we ate lunch, we went to "take care" of the turkey. We also had to bake another pie while we were at the house I was staying at, so we were there until about 2:00. Then they decided to call a mechanic to come fix their oven. He got done at about 3:30. So it was too late to roast the turkey, so they decided to pressure cook it. We had a lot of time to kill between the oven getting fixed and everything getting done cooking, so we did a lot of goofing off. Finally, we ate around 8:00 and it was all delicious.
We spent the next day at the Nile Resort Camp. That place is a ton of fun. We spent most of the morning in the swimming pool, but then we decided to go down to the rope swing. While everyone else went down to the rope swing, I stayed up at the pool area with the three youngest kids. That was quite the experience- me caring for a 4 month old and two 2 year olds. Virginia was easy. I put her on the couch and she went right to sleep. Well then it started raining. So I had to leave her and trust that the two year olds would sit still for at least 5 minutes while I got everyone's stuff out of the rain. Well wouldn't you know it that as soon as I returned I found Cole messing with Virginia. This is a very common thing that happens all of the time- while Virginia is either in a great mood or asleep, Cole decides that is the prime time to show her some "love". Luckily she didn't wake up.
After lunch it was my turn to go down and do the rope swing into the Nile. So I did it, and as soon as I came up from under water I look to my left and what do I see? A crocodile. So I swam as fast as I could to the shore and as soon as I got out of the water I said, "I'm not a big fan of swimming that close to a crocodile." It was just Mr. Jason, Mrs. Kari, and I down there, and they had no idea what I was talking about. Then they saw it and let me know that it was just a monitor lizard. But let me tell you, swimming that close to a 3-4 foot lizard that swims a lot like a crocodile in the Nile river isn't too much fun. We all went a few more times, then a couple of the kids decided that they wanted to come down and do it as well. Well the kids wanted either their mom or their dad in the water to help them when they landed, so Mrs. Kari began to make her way down there. And when she got to the very bottom, she slipped and landed on the rocks just below the surface scraping up her knee and hand. She got out, then Mr. Jason went into the water to help his daughter when she landed, but then she bailed last second and so we decided to head up. While Mr. Jason was getting out of the water, he slipped and his ankle got stuck between a couple of roots and began falling backwards. Luckily he caught himself because if he had fallen back any farther, his ankle would've snapped in two. After all of that we finally decided it was time to head up.
Later that afternoon we went for a sunset cruise on the Nile, and at the very end did a little fishing. Sadly, we didn't catch anything, but hey, I went fishing on the Nile. How many people can say that? When it got dark we headed back to the camp then got some dinner. After that we went home. As I was getting out of the van I asked Matt what the estimated time of departure was and he said around 9:00. I jokingly said, "Alright, well I'll see y'all at about 11." Then I went inside and packed my stuff up getting ready to leave the next morning.
I woke up at about 8:00 the next morning to do a little more packing then read a little bit. At 8:45 I got a text from Jamie saying that everything was going as planned so far, so everything was looking good... until Matt tried to start the car. Of course, more car trouble. So they decided that it might be a good idea to go buy a new battery, just to eliminate that as the cause if it was. Well they bought the battery and on the way home came to pick me up, coincidentally around 11. It took forever to get the battery in the car because the posts for the battery were on the opposite sides of the positive and negative connectors in the car, and the ground for the wiring had to be moved but eventually Matt got it put in there. And sadly, we found out that the battery wasn't the problem. So Mr. Jason called a mechanic to come out there and take a look at it. Once they got it started they took it into town to get another battery because the one that Matt had bought earlier that day turned out to be fake. But anyways, they finally got it running by about 1 that afternoon. We decided not to go through what we did on the way to Jinja, so we just stayed another night.
So once again, I woke up at 8:00 the next morning to finish up some packing and read a little bit. Luckily the car was running and they came to pick me up at about 9:30. We were headed back to Gulu. We decided to take the "shortcut" again that we had taken on the way there. It was a lot better during the day though, which is good. So, we were about 40 or so kilometers away from Luweero when suddenly the car died. On a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. Matt got out to see if he could figure out what was wrong, when a guy on a boda came up and started to help us out. He said that he didn't know what was wrong, but he would go into town and find a mechanic if we gave him money for gas. We did and he zoomed off. Not long after he left Matt got me to start turning the key so that he could listen to see where the noise was coming from. The engine turned over once, then I turned the key a couple of more times and the car started running. We just decided to go on and leave since the car was running. The only problem we found was that the air conditioning had stopped working again. We didn't even care this time. We were just glad to be on the road. Once we got to Luweero we had to pick up the East's dog that they were getting, then we kept going. Surprisingly, we made it all the way back to Gulu in one piece.
There are a couple of things that I learned from this trip: 1) Things don't always go as planned (especially over here) and 2) God definitely has a sense of humor. My family has always joked about us being the Griswold's just because we will pack up and go anywhere at anytime and stop anywhere that looks interesting, but this trip was a REAL Griswold vacation and I hate that my family didn't get to experience it. This Thanksgiving was quite the experience- really fun at times, and hard at others- but it will always be one that I will never forget.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
His Breath
Today we played a song at church titled "Great are You Lord" by All Sons and Daughters. If you haven't ever heard it I highly recommend it because it is freaking awesome. Anyways, I started practicing it early last week and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it as I went through my week. The chorus says this:
"It's Your Breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, pour out our praise
It's Your Breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only."
Sometimes the most simple songs are the ones I connect with the most, and that is the case here. I was just amazed at this chorus because it is so true! I couldn't help but think about Ezekiel 37 when God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones and tell them to come together and come to life. They came together and tendons grew and flesh reappeared, but they weren't alive until God sent His Breath to enter them.
God breathed life into us, and because of that I will praise Him and Him only.
"It's Your Breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, pour out our praise
It's Your Breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only."
Sometimes the most simple songs are the ones I connect with the most, and that is the case here. I was just amazed at this chorus because it is so true! I couldn't help but think about Ezekiel 37 when God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones and tell them to come together and come to life. They came together and tendons grew and flesh reappeared, but they weren't alive until God sent His Breath to enter them.
God breathed life into us, and because of that I will praise Him and Him only.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
The Perfect Plan
For those of you that don't know, the past couple of weeks have been hard on the Lee County area. Four young people have passed away in the past two weeks. A young man by the name of Andy from Beulah was about to start his senior year in high school. A young woman from Opelika that was 17 years old. A young man from Auburn that I went to high school with. A girl by the name of Caroline that was about to start first grade. I feel like deaths of young people are very hard to deal with because they were so young. It seemed like they had their whole life ahead of them, but James 4:14 says, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
It is in these times that people begin to question God, which is what they need to do. Ask Him questions. He'll answer. I learned this while I was in Uganda. I met a young man that was 16 years old. I never got his name, but I hung out with him for a few hours on one day very early in my time there. We were walking and I began to ask him questions. I had been asking him questions for a little while then I asked him about his family. He then told me that his mother, father, and sister were all killed by the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. That is when I started asking God questions. Why did that happen? What made God put him in that situation and not me? Why am I so blessed to have a loving family, but his was taken away from him?
When the Sandy Hook shooting happened I went through the same thing. I was angry because all of these young kids were killed in a place that was supposed to be safe. So I started asking questions. Why those kids? Why so many? At the time that I was asking these questions I was spending some time alone in a hotel room in Arkansas reading the book of Isaiah and I read this:
"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man His thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."- Isaiah 55:6-9 ESV
God's ways are higher than ours, and we will never understand how He operates until we see Him face to face. He has a plan, and it is perfect. His plan is flawless. His plan includes things like these that I have talked about. He has a reason for doing everything. We might not know what it is, but there is always a reason behind these things that God does. It may sting a little, but God knows what He is doing and it is for our good that He does them.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."- James 1:2-4 NIV
It is in these times that people begin to question God, which is what they need to do. Ask Him questions. He'll answer. I learned this while I was in Uganda. I met a young man that was 16 years old. I never got his name, but I hung out with him for a few hours on one day very early in my time there. We were walking and I began to ask him questions. I had been asking him questions for a little while then I asked him about his family. He then told me that his mother, father, and sister were all killed by the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. That is when I started asking God questions. Why did that happen? What made God put him in that situation and not me? Why am I so blessed to have a loving family, but his was taken away from him?
When the Sandy Hook shooting happened I went through the same thing. I was angry because all of these young kids were killed in a place that was supposed to be safe. So I started asking questions. Why those kids? Why so many? At the time that I was asking these questions I was spending some time alone in a hotel room in Arkansas reading the book of Isaiah and I read this:
"Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man His thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."- Isaiah 55:6-9 ESV
God's ways are higher than ours, and we will never understand how He operates until we see Him face to face. He has a plan, and it is perfect. His plan is flawless. His plan includes things like these that I have talked about. He has a reason for doing everything. We might not know what it is, but there is always a reason behind these things that God does. It may sting a little, but God knows what He is doing and it is for our good that He does them.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."- James 1:2-4 NIV
Monday, June 3, 2013
Where is your faith?
“Where is your faith?” Jesus asked his disciples.- Luke 8:25
For those of you that don't know, I am very involved with something that a few people started this year called community gardening. We are doing this to build relationships with people that are working along side of us and to do the same with the people we will be giving the produce to. Anyways, we have four gardens. Two of which have a consistent water source and two of which that do not. The two that have that water source are looking great; I can't say the same about the other two. When we first planted these gardens we were getting great amounts of rain and everything was looking fantastic. Then for about two weeks we didn't get a drop of rain. The sun was shining bright, the temperature was rising, and the plants that weren't getting watered weren't looking too hot.
After I saw how bad it was, I started praying a lot for rain because we needed it bad. Day after day I would pray for rain, and it looked like it was going to but then the clouds cleared and it was sunny for the rest of the day. I started getting more and more frustrated at the fact that we were relying on God for rain and He wasn't sending any our way. Throughout this whole process I have been reading through the book of Luke, and Luke 8:25 stuck out to me. Where is your faith? My faith was dwindling because God wasn't working the way that I wanted Him to. Thankfully He sent us some rain yesterday afternoon, and I'm sure that it helped out all of our gardens a lot. But I've been thinking about how I was handling this whole situation, and I've really been thinking, "Is my faith really that circumstantial?" Am I so selfish that if God doesn't do what I want Him to, that I'll start doubting His ability to do something?
There are two things that I have learned from all of this:
1. My faithfulness is NOTHING compared to God's faithfulness. If you look throughout Scripture, every promise that God makes He keeps. And I am so thankful for that because if He didn't who knows where I would be right now.
2. God knows what He is doing. One of my all time favorite verses is Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." God is teaching me to trust Him with everything. I am 100% sure that He knows we need rain for these plants to survive and hopefully for this ministry to be successful, but we have to trust Him. Everything that happens is for His glory: whether this attempt to grow food and give it away succeeds or fails, it is all part of His plan.
If you want to know more about these community gardens and are willing to help out shoot me an email at camp_hand@yahoo.com and I'll let you know when we are going to do some work.
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