God is Love

So much has gone on this past week and I have learned so much about myself through change and the Holy Spirit working within me. One of the biggest things that happened this past week is that we (my family) moved from Sozo house 3 to Sozo house 1. This was so hard to do simply because house 3 had really become my home. I was comfortable in my own room no matter how small it was. I had my own bathroom, even if there was a gecko and about a thousand mosquitos in there. It was nice and comfy; it was home. And the physical things about house 3 were homey but they were not the only things. The people under that roof were so amazing. I had fallen in love with every single one of them. Aunty Dora and I were getting along so well we both understood each other’s sense of humor, which is so great because she is hilarious. And then Joel, I don’t even know where to even start with Joel, he is one of the funniest people I have ever met. There was more laughter in the 3 weeks I was there with Joel than I could have ever expected. He has a sense of the Holy Spirit like no one I have ever met or even heard speak. He knows when the Holy Spirit is speaking to him and he communicates it to the people around him so well.  He is really so close with God and the Spirit more than anyone I have ever met, he is so great. And then leaving those 4 wonderful boys, Samuel, Ronnie, Daudi, and Wilson, I felt like I was really a brother to each of them. Matthew 12:50. I knew them each so well, and it had become so easy to love on each one of them.  I realized how much the boys looked up to me when Samuel took a sharpie and drew a tattoo like mine on his ankle. Though you could barely see the sharpie because he is so dark, it really made me realize how much I love them and how much they love me. God is so good. God is love.

Another big moment from my week is the moment that I saw the woman we had been ministering to in town. It made her seem real, and human. I guess up until that point we would just go to her home on Wednesdays and wash her clothes and do her dishes and give a word to this woman who we did love very much, but I never thought that I would see here in other places out and about. And seeing her, a familiar face in Kabalagala, was so great. I got to yell SARAH! HEY! And I think she had just as big smile on her face as I did on mine. It was just such a real moment, I suppose, that I shared with Sarah. I really felt like I saw the Spirit in her, and working in her. And her seeing me allowed her to know that we are there to serve her and the community we are not just giving her some lousy lip service, but we really are there to love her and her community. Since we are talking about Sarah, Wednesday when we went to serve her it was very cool. Well we got there and the interpreter was talking to her and said she was sad because we got to her house so late, and that she was scared something had happened to us. She loves us equally if not more than we love her, and serving her. It is a very special feeling to go into serving and really not expect anything in return for serving, not because you would not want anything but because you do not think the family you are serving has anything to give. Not that I am here to serve to gain something, but I am here to serve because it is what Christ calls Christians to do... James 1:27.  But the more and more I find out about these wonderful people here in Uganda the more I understand that “things” are not always physical. Love is something that everyone has to give, may that be love in Christ's name or not, these people have love and they know how give to love. Even though sometimes the love may not be from a Christian, it feels so good. I think many of us in the states could learn from this love that Ugandans have.  Even though their motivation of loving may not be God, God is still working in that love and He created love that all people share. Ugandans love because it is all they have to give in most cases. It feels so good to experience and to see this love. The love here is so great and real. 1 John 3:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.” God is here in Uganda even though you may not see it because the “things” that the people have here may not be shiny new or they may have nothing at all but God is here through love and the Spirit of God is here in this place.  

This is some of the kids at Rays of Hope School praying over their porridge breakfast

1 John 3:11 “Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”