Well this my 9th day out of California and away from everything I have ever known and have been comfortable with. I guess I left with expectations that I did not even know I had about this trip; from training camp in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Amsterdam airport layover, to right here lying on my striped mattress at a church compound in the middle of Kampala, Uganda, Africa.
There are so many stories, prayer and worship times, outreaches, and just loving on people! Since there is so much I guess I will just talk about 2 subjects, that relate into one subject, that has been significant to me in the past week and a half; expectations and peace in God. So, I can stress a lot over some of the simplest things. Coming with unknown expectations that are then broken can to me be a little stressful. I wanted this trip to be stress free, filled with joy and fun, and completely filled with love. But by just having the smallest expectation broken, for example the showers and bathrooms at training camp in Georgia, to even a normal stress like my baggage getting lost and me not having any of my herbs for my make shift vaccinations, God showed me that he was there through it all. I had peace and joy that I have never had before. A peace that overfilled my cup into a radiant joy that I knew was ONLY from God.
This joy and peace again reminded me of the verse in Joshua 1:5, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life I will never know you or forsake you. I feel like this is an average verse that I even relate to many of times, but to be reminded that God is with me and that he gave me uncontainable peace and joy that I can not control. As I walked through the market today, open meat and fruit stands and dress shops and people welding gates surrounded me. At first I wanted to whip out my camera and shoot everything in my path to show all those back home, but I stopped myself and just looked around me. The expectations there that were broken astonished me. I had had this picture before I went of a ?Uganda African Market? before I went, but as I walked those dirt paths in my skirt I was mesmerized by the joy and peace these people had in doing their daily life here selling and buying their food and items off the dirt street. It amazed me! What kind of trust, peace, and joy would it take me to live my life here. They know they don?t have everything by looking at my team and I and many others probably walk through this market, but yet they are peaceful and joyful just to live life in what they have and the world around them. What a heart these people of Uganda have. And what peace and Joy God has showed me not only different situations that have come my way, but also the these amazing giving people of Uganda!
