My first craving...that won't be met for a while

So I know this random and has no spiritual value whatsoever, but it's still part of the experience. For some reason I'm totally craving a turkey sub from Subway right now with lettuce, tomato, pickles, olives, mayo, mustard. Oh man! It sounds so amazing!

The land of the deep and profound

Wow! Ok, so yesterday I taught on John 1:1-5 and in that teaching I had to cover the topics of eternity, the Trinity (specifically how Jesus is God) and creation. I honestly loved studying for this teaching and it has definitely been the most difficult teaching so far just because of the complexity of the subjects. It challenged me though knowing that if I don't know it well enough to be able to simplify it and explain it properly then I don't know it as well as I should. It was awesome though because I handed out notebooks to them so they could write down what God has been showing them throughout the week, so I'm hoping and praying that come Sunday they will have learned something that will draw them closer to Him.

One month

Well, today marks the official one month mark since I've left. I am honestly amazed at all that God has done over this past month in and through me. I am so excited to see what all God will continue to do as long as I don't get in the way. These past couple of days, I've finally begun the whole settling in process: putting up pictures, buying a printer, etc... I wish I knew what to say other than the fact that I am in awe of our God and how He works. Little (well, actually kind of big) things that have taken place and prayers that have been answered, ways He has changed me, things He is teaching me, it all adds up to a month that has been one of the most difficult months of my life, yet one of the most amazing and holding the most growth. I ask that you continue to pray for me and the ministries that God has placed in my path, I'm beginning the book of John in my girl's Bible study and so there's a lot of deep yet foundational truths that I'll be teaching, and I just hope and pray that my delivery would be from God, not based upon my own knowledge or experience.

Johnny One Note

Ok, so today was my turn to lead worship...um yeah, I'm not sure what words could describe this experience, especially for those who had to hear it. For those of you who don't know I'm rhythmically and musically retarded and honestly couldn't keep a beat to save my life, not to mention that one of my dad's nicknames for me is Johnny One Note, all that to say that music just isn't really my thing. Even Lukas would try and get me to sing in front of him and I wouldn't because I'm so self conscious about how bad I am. Ok, so anyways, this morning I was in the middle of some crazy stomach thing where I just didn't feel good all over and hadn't really been able to prepare at all and I was really weak, so needless to say it was "interesting" but the guys in my SOM class were really sweet and supportive and oh man, I'm just thinking of some of how some of the songs went today, boy...well, I guess being a worship leader isn't necessarily my calling, but oh well. The fun part is that since there's only four students in our class I'll get to do this about 4 more times, oh man, those poor guys in my class!

procrastination station...

I have my Bible sitting in front of me open to Exodus as that is the current book I'm outlining, I'm finding myself allowing myself to get distracted by any little thing...kids coming in and enjoying photobooth on my computer, watching gilmore girls, making hard boiled eggs, blogging, oh and now it's time to help get ready for dinner...bummer! :) Oh man I'm terrible.

struggles and victories

Ok, so today I had my third girl's Bible study. I can't believe it's been that many and therefore that I've been gone for three and a half weeks therefore making it now the longest I've been away from home. Today in my girl's study, I had what was the most difficult time so far with maintaining their attention, and they didn't seem too talkative with me, but they seemed to want to talk to eachother in their language which I have to admit was just kind of hard, but in a way I think I needed it, it humbled me that's for sure. Anyways, I know there is still so much more I need to learn, but I know God is in it as long as I don't trust in my own knowledge or ability. Now that was the struggle, and now for the victory (and I know this doesn't sound like much) but I have always made an attempt at memorizing the books of the Bible, and I'm having a test tomorrow morning where I will have to have them memorized and in order. And tonight I've achieved my big hurdle of the minor prophets and therefore have the Old Testament memorized, I'm so excited! Anyways, like I said it's nothing big or exciting, but it's been stressing me out.

Ka Fancy Fancy

So tonight at youth group we had what is called a Ka Fancy Fancy. It's a night where things kind of get shaken up, it's more about fellowship than a teaching and the kids get hooked up with some food. Tonight was a blast because I played volleyball with the girls and none of us were really good, but they were just laughing and having a great time, so it was really awesome just getting to play with them. We then had worship and then I did announcements and broke the kids up into groups to talk about what they've learned and then prayed for their next school term. It was awesome because I had the girls who were in secondary (high) school and they were the smallest group out of the bunch, but it's just so cool getting to talk to them.
I had a revelation during this small group time while we were in prayer. There were a couple of the girls who were praying and they were praying in their own language and it just kind of hit me that God doesn't hear prayers in English, it really reminded me of that time in the book of Acts after the disciples received the Holy Spirit and were speaking all the languages there and everyone was able to know what they were saying. God doesn't need an interpreter, He's not the God of western civilization or America and although I knew that, it was just so cool to really have it hit me in the way that it did! Our God is truly so good!

Uh oh...

Ok, so I have a grand total of ten mosquito bites on my right leg...that can't be good.

Girls Bible Study

Well today I had my second time having my girls Bible study. The hard part is that some of them come on time and others come on Ugandan time so it's hard to gauge when I should start. I had 4 girls for the first 40 minutes but then I had about 6 more show up and so it kind of was a little difficult recovering and catching them up without loosing the other girls. One thing was pretty difficult about today is that there's this one girl, her name is Joy, and she actually is a really cool girl, but she has AIDS, and I have never met anyone who's had that before and to meet someone who's so young is kind of hard for me to process. Other than that it was good, I'm just trying to figure out how to make my delivery more Ugandan friendly. So if you could pray that I would learn how to do that, that would be awesome.

Ugandan: you are smart?

Ok, so I learned something new yesterday, I had my girls telling me that I am smart, and I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. I thought they were talking about how I was getting their names, down, well I came to find out that when people say that, it basically means you look stylish. Haha, I have to admit I enjoyed the compliment (although I didn't necessarily agree with them).

Reading is my life

So today from when I woke up at around 8 to about 2 and then from now (8pm) until about midnight my day will be have been consumed by reading. I've seriously either been reading Romans in the morning, Genesis for school, or studying for my teaching that I have tomorrow, not to mention the books I'm reading for pleasure (I just got done with Screwtape Letters and now I'm reading God's Smuggler). I hope I don't get burnt out, but honestly I love it! I'm learning more than I have in my whole life. For instance, I've never known that it's not the "fruits" of the Spirit, it's the "fruit" of the Spirit and that is love. Anyways, just thought that was cool and so reading consumes pretty much all of my time, but I'm not complaining :)

Two weeks...and SOM

Well I've now been gone for two weeks, and things are intense now. I'm now in my second SOM class of the day since we decided to double up on Mondays and Thursdays since there's only 4 of us. I'm loving this so much, and even though it is only my 4th real class, it's seriously rocking my face off right now! I love sitting here in a run down little classroom on benches with African folding tables in front of me with a ceiling fan going and the windows open with African curtains blowing in the breeze and looking out the open door to yard of grass and banana trees and and flowers everywhere, hearing the birds (I don't mind hearing them, I just don't like seeing them), and having Jesse teaching me about homelitics (studying the Bible). This is seriously so amazing!

It's really beginning to get underway...

Ok, so today was my technical first day of the school of ministry here in Jinja. If anyone ever thought that it would be cake, boy were they wrong. One of the biggest things I'm going to have to do is outline every chapter of the Bible looking for specific things as well as do other work for the courses being taught such as systematic theology, apologetics, etc... To add to that, I have my girl's Bible study every week that I get to study for, and some other projects that are beginning to be put onto my plate now that people know what I've done before. I'm so excited because I thrive off of being busy, now it's starting to hit so fast, I'm just afraid I'm going to do too much, but I wouldn't be me if that wasn't the case. Also, today, we had a staff meeting that lasted about two and a half hours but it was a neat time to hear what's going on here some of the issues and how the locals approach thing. I'm learning so much, and I know I haven't scratched the surface yet.

100% American girl...

Well, today I was sitting and waiting for the girls to show up for my girls Bible study when I realized as I was sitting there with my big ol'e sunglasses and my macbook that I was still 100% an american girl who had been placed in Africa.

One week down

Wow! I can't believe that it's been exactly one week since I've left Albuquerque. Today was marked with a very big cultural day for me where I was able to just take in a whole lot. I feel like I can only do it justice by kind of giving you a breakdown of the day:
- Woke up at about 7:30 to the sounds of roosters and dogs barking
- Got dressed and had breakfast of toast and coffee
- Read my Bible and checked my e-mail
- Studied for my teaching that I'm doing on Sunday afternoon
- Was introduced to the village pastors, that was probably the highlight of my day because I was there for praise reports and hearing of all that God is doing around Uganda is so amazing. One pastor from Gulu was talking about how many people are leaving the camps (where the invisible children stuff took place) and are moving back to their villages but they're struggling with coming across land mines...that just blows my mind to even think about how intense that is.
- After that I went with Ryan into town to get my cell phone so I'm now a little more accessible. My phone cost me 40,000 shillings which is about $24. And you have buy airtime in chunks so I got 20,000 shillings worth of airtime. In town the streets are filled with people and cars and motorcycles where car lanes are a very fluid concept.
- From there I just studied a little bit more and read Screwtape letters in my office.
- Then we had service where we also had communion where there were all sorts of ants crawling over the communion plate...only in Africa.
- Following that we had lasagna and carrot cake, it was really good!
- right now, it's about 9 at night and we're watching Hoosiers.

So that's what my day was like, just thought you'd enjoy a little glimpse at how it is out here.

Check Check it Check Check it out...

If you look to the right of this page you will see a lovely slide show for your enjoyment of some of the pictures from down here. Please note that the kids took most of them.