Things I learned in Dar es Salaam:

~ Tanzania is sandy as Uganda is green.
~ White Sands Beach Resort is paradise. Praise Jesus for day rates, taxis, and cheap guest houses.
~ Big cities are NOT all they’re cracked up to be.
~ When you live directly above hell, you don’t need a water heater—the water heats itself!
~ SPF 30, twice a day, is not enough.
~ It’s weird to eat ice cream sitting on a tropical beach while listening to Christmas music.
~ Sand creations are always fun.
~ It’s a great thing to be chin-deep in the ocean and still be able to see your toes.
~ It’s not a great thing to get stung by a jellyfish or sunburned or knock a huge gash in your knee… especially not all in the same day.
~ It’s an odd feeling to see a Masai warrior, an Asian Hindu, and an African Muslim on the street and know that you’re the one who doesn’t belong.
~ As bad as I thought the Entebbe airport was, the Dar airport is worse.
~ My mom wrote a book of African proverbs—who knew??? Pretty sure she had no idea!
~ Fish and chips are that much better when you’re sitting by the ocean the fish came from.
~ If you’ve never had Krest Bitter Lemon, you’ve missed out on the best soft drink ever!
~ It’s hard to function in Dar if you don’t know Swahili. Which I don’t.
~ Some people are so lost, they have no idea how lost they are.
~ I’m grateful that my salvation isn’t up to me.
~ Prepaid electrical service isn’t a good idea. Especially when the service runs out at 11:45 at night when it’s still 90 degrees outside.
~ The end of vacation is a sad, sad thing.

Things I learned in Zanzibar:

~ There are more shades of blue than anyone can count.
~ Every now and then, we all need to escape from reality.
~ Whoever invented open-air markets was a genius!
~ No matter where you are in the world, teenage boys are all the same. Give them a body of water and an audience, and they’ll wind up jumping in and turning flips.
~ I NEED to live near water.
~ God created Zanzibar to whet our appetites for heaven.
~ Africa is much more interesting than America. Not nearly as convenient or reliable, but much more interesting.
~ Hole in the wall places are tons of fun to explore.
~ Freddie Mercury was born on Zanzibar. Seriously.
~ The underwater world we rarely see is so much more beautiful than the world we spend most of our time in.
~ I can’t begin to imagine how creative God must be to dream up coral reefs, zebra fish, sea urchins, angel fish, tube coral, and starfish.
~ Recipe for a perfect day: Hire a private boat operated by Khalid and Khalid. Snorkel in the Indian Ocean. Play with 100-year-old giant tortoises. Explore Prison Island. Stop for a light lunch in the prison that was never a prison. Sail back to Zanzibar. Jump in the pool for a quick dip. Wander through Stone Town and find really cool doors. Watch the sunset over the Indian Ocean from a rooftop.
~ Mango just tastes better in Zanzibar.
~ It’s really difficult to communicate with a deaf woman who only speaks Swahili in the middle of a rainstorm.
~ I don’t understand why the only men willing to pursue me are the ones I’d never be interested in.
~ Everything tastes better when you’re sitting by the ocean.
~ Vacation was definitely God’s idea.
~ On top of all the ways He surprises us, God scheduled sunset every day just so He could show us His God-ness every single day.
~ Names like Eyebrows, Happiness, Rabaju, Felidah, and Michael the Masai just make me smile.
~ Vacation within vacation is a brilliant idea.
~ Zanzibar doors are amazingly creative pieces of craftsmanship.
~ Island life is just better.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I write, I am sitting in a (nice) hotel in Jinja, Uganda, overlooking the Nile River. The Baptist Mission of Uganda has gathered here for our annual prayer retreat, and I am so grateful to be with our mission family for one of the "big" family holidays. It doesn't feel like Thanksgiving. It's 85 degrees and steamy. We had pizza for lunch. And my family is on the other side of the planet. But, in spite of all this, I am reminded that I am called to give thanks, regardless of where I am or where I wish I were. So, in an effort to "fake it til I make it," here is the list of the Top 10 things I am thankful for.

10. Velveeta Shells & Cheese... comfort food at its best.
9. Jesca. She does all the dirty stuff, so I don't have to.
8. Washing machines and dryers. What I would give to never wash anything by hand again!
7. Living within two hours of elephants, hippos, and giraffes. Who lives like this???
6. Toilet paper. 'Nuff said.
5. Knowing that all I see is not all there is. My Redeemer makes anything bearable.
4. Amazing students who are seeking the Father, even when it's not popular.
3. A niece and nephew who love me and will throw fits to talk to me on the phone. And the fact that I don't have to be there to deal with the temper tantrums!
2. A family who supports me, no matter what harebrained idea I come up with.
1. Friends and loved ones around the world who are lifting me up today and every day. You are all so amazing, and I am truly blessed to have you in my life.

A Bad Day in Africa

I have to admit—I don’t like Africa today. The past 24 hours have not been good for me. So I’m going to vent.

Yesterday afternoon I went to wash the dishes, but there was only a trickle of water coming out of the kitchen faucet. No big deal, I thought. We have water pressure issues all the time. There was water in the rest of the house, and the kitchen water should come back by the evening, or tomorrow morning at the latest. We’ve got plenty of drinking water already filtered, so we’re good.

The power was off all day, which, again, isn’t unusual. We have back-up batteries to run a few lights and for charging computers and phones. This is totally do-able, too.

I went to Bible study later in the afternoon, taking two pans of homemade brownies, since I was in charge of snacks this week. When I got there, I cut into the brownies, which were perfectly fudgy and gooey… and also firmly cemented into the pans. How on earth is it possible for brownies to be perfectly cooked and still not come out of the pans??? I still don’t get it. My friend Cathy helped me dig the brownies out and put them on plates. But seriously-- why?!

Kelli and I got home from Bible study to find that we still had no power and no water. Arggh! I set out to make my amazing corn chowder for dinner in the dark (the batteries don’t run the kitchen light), using the only 2 clean pots left in the house—since we can’t wash dishes, since we have no water. I started sautéing the onion too early and scorched the pot. Lovely. About this time I tracked down our night guard to check on the water in our 1000-liter reserve tank… and found out that it was empty. Evidently, the water pressure from town had been too low to push the water up to the second-story tank for the past couple of days, so we had been using water and the tank wasn’t refilling. Now none of the pipes in the house had any water. No toilets, no sinks, no nothing. Great.

(We do have a 2000-liter rain tank outside that we can use for washing, mopping, etc., but we have to draw the water outside and bring it in by the bucket. And it was dark and mosquito-friendly outside by this time. And my mood was already sour.)

I came back inside and realized that my soup had started boiling too high and was scorching. Fabulous. I turned the eye down as low as it would go and stir… no major damage done, just another frustration in a series. When the soup was ready, Kelli and I sat down to watch a couple of episodes of How I Met Your Mother before we put in the Harry Potter DVD we borrowed from Cathy. But when we put the disc in the DVD player, it wouldn’t read the disc. It worked the night before with no problems… but it is a pirated disc (don’t turn me in, please!), so maybe that’s the issue. We put it into Kelli’s laptop, and it work just fine. Some much-needed smart humor came our way… praise the Lord!

After How I Met Your Mother, it was time for Harry. I put the disc in, and the DVD player wouldn’t read it, either. Now, we knew this disc worked. But not in our DVD player. Which we just got last month. After 10 minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, to get the DVD player to work, I finally just gave up. I sat down with a book and a brownie to try to make things better. Surely, some chocolate will help.

A few minutes later, we hear someone at the gate. The visitor, a friend’s watchman bringing something by, was knocking, and the dogs were barking like crazy. We heard them… but the watchman didn’t. For five full minutes. Finally, Kelli went out to answer the gate, since Godfrey obviously had no intention of doing so. As soon as she walked out the door, I dropped my pen—my nice, American, great-writing pen—and the end broke off.

Fine. I quit. I’m going to bed.

I got up this morning and there was still no water. (On the bright side, power was back.) We still had plenty of filtered drinking water, so I made some caramel coffee and finished off the last of the brownies for breakfast.

Finally, the water tank started to fill, and my supervisor offered to let us take showers at their place across the street. Jesca came to wash the dishes, make tortillas for tacos tonight, and clean the house. And I got to shave my legs.

I hate that my frame of mind is so determined by what’s going on around me. And honestly, none of these things was really that big a deal. But put them together, and pile on a bit of homesickness, and you get a really bad day in Africa.

But it doesn’t matter how bad my day is. It doesn’t matter how many things don’t work out, or how long the dogs bark. Regardless of the bad day I’m having, God is still good. His goodness isn’t determined by my circumstances. Even when I’m in a funk and forget that He is good, it doesn’t change the fact that He is. Or the fact that He, for whatever reason, wants me to be here. And I want to please Him… so here I am.

Tomorrow will be better, because His mercies are new every morning. And I’m going to the pool.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:16-17

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in Him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

What Comes Next?

A very important anniversary passed for me last month. As of October 20, I have been with the IMB for one year. That in itself is pretty unreal to me. I’ve been in Arua for almost 10 months—also unreal.

You may know that I am serving a two-year term with the IMB. (You may know have known until five seconds ago… or you may not even care!) What all this means, in the big scheme of things, is that my term is over halfway finished. In less than a year, I’ll be home. And, honestly, I’m pretty happy about that. But it also brings up a whole new batch of issues, because I am a planner. And while I can’t wait to hug my niece and nephew, to eat really good food, or have some seriously cold weather, I have no idea what I‘m going to do for a living once I get home.

Okay, so I take that back. I have some ideas. I would love to work as a missions coordinator for a church. I would love to work for an HIV outreach ministry or at a crisis pregnancy center. I would love to open a restaurant or work in event planning. And I could always go back to teaching… although, right now, that’s not really on the “I would love to” list. Let’s just say I want “work” to be ministry.

I feel like I have this deadline of October 20 staring me down. That, by the time I head for South Carolina, I should know what comes next. I should know were my next paycheck is coming from. I should at least have the next destination in mind. But there are two things wrong with this thought.

I can’t trust how I feel. Because I am broken. Because I am sinful. Because I forget that, even though I have no idea what comes next, I serve a very big God who knows exactly what comes next… and when it is coming!

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

The other thing God keeps reminding me is, it’s not October 20^th yet. Even though it seems like that’s my deadline, it’s not here yet. Honestly, it’s not even close. Over and over again, God has proven to me that I can trust Him to meet my needs at just the right time. He has always provided for me… so why should I think He’s going to stop now?

So do not worry, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:31-34

Last week I was reading a passage in Luke; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard or read this story before. But this time, something totally different jumped out at me. In Luke 17:11-19, ten lepers call out to Jesus and ask Him to heal them. Once they’re healed, only one of the ten comes back to thank Jesus. Everyone things it’s a story about gratitude… but it’s really a story about faith. See, verse 14 tells the climax of the story: “When He saw them, He said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ “ Then the ten lepers, who were still lepers, went to be examined by the priests. “And as they went, they were cleansed.”

These men hadn’t been healed when they set out on their journey. They hadn’t seen a mighty work of Jesus yet. But they knew His character, and they trusted Him. I imagine they were thinking, “If He’s sending us to the priests, I guess He’s going to do something. Let’s go!” They didn’t wait around until after Jesus worked in their lives to start moving. They took Him at His word. They believed Him.

He’s told me, over and over, that when I go home next October, He will provide for me. He’s told me to let Him handle the details. He’s told me that I don’t need to add next year’s trouble on to today’s. He keeps telling me to trust Him… I guess I should start listening!

This is Where I Live

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

To abide somewhere is to live there. That’s home. That’s where you belong. Day in, day out. Where most of your day-to-day “stuff” is. The place you keep coming back to. If I go to a place every 3 or 4 days, or even once a week, that’s not where I abide; I’m really just visiting. It doesn’t matter how comfortable, how friendly, how familiar it is—it’s not where I’m living. If I’m being completely truthful, the place where I do live now isn’t all that comfortable, definitely is not convenient, and is way too far away from anything the least bit familiar… but I’m here every day. I sleep here. My stuff is here. At least for the next year. (11 months and 2 weeks, but who’s counting???) This is where I live.

In John 15, Jesus tells us He want us to abide in Him. (I know, easier said than done!) We need to be with Him daily, even constantly. We can’t just “pop in” every few days to “catch up.” He wants our resting to be in Him, our day-to-day life to be in Him, our emotional breakdowns to be in Him, all our “stuff” to be trusted to Him. The place we keep coming back to has to be Him.

It’s not always comfortable. Not always convenient. It sure as heck isn’t always familiar… in fact, He’s brought me to places that don’t make any sense to me whatsoever. But I know it’s where I’m supposed to be… so this is where I live.

Or at least I try to live here. Every now and then, I try to run away from home… but wouldn’t you know it, that amazing Jesus keeps bringing me back? And when He does, there’s no place I’d rather be than in His arms!

Swap Your Stuff

A few weeks ago, my sweet friend Joanna had a brilliant idea. In an effort to clean out her closets, she had a Swap Your Stuff party. And I have to say, I am a huge fam.

The basic idea was for everyone to go through their closets and bring all the stuff you didn’t want or need anymore. We brought it all to Joanna’s house, and whatever you wanted to take home, you were welcome to. No limits, no prices. Whoever saw something and could get to it first got to walk away with it.

It was a great night. I was able to clean out my closet, and everything I brought from home went away with someone else at the end of the night. And let me just say, I racked up. I walked away with loads of new books, a few new clothes, some Irish Crème coffee, an immersion blender (no blender in the Baptist Sorority house until now!), the board game Settlers of Canaan (not a typo… really… think of a map shaped like Israel!) and… wait for it… an ice cream machine!

I’d been debating over ice cream machines for a few weeks now, really wanting some good ice cream (which is VERY scarce in Arua), but not wanting to splurge on a 220-volt appliance I can’t take home next year. And now, praise the Lord, I have one for free—and I get to pass it on to a luck friend next year to boot!

So, to make a long story short, I highly recommend getting some friends together and having a Swap Your Stuff part. Who knows what treasures you’ll walk away with!