But the truth is, I've only been home two weeks.
The most frustrating thing about trying to blog about everything I experienced there is that my words aren't sufficient. My pictures aren't sufficient. Nothing that I could try to relate to whoever reads this will be sufficient. Only being there, holding babies, holding hands, loving on people, getting filthy, tromping through mud, swatting mosquitos, wiping sweat, wiping tears, embracing differences, noticing similarities, reading scripture, praying for new believers, talking to unbelievers, smelling body odors, seeing desperation, touching lives and letting yours be touched as well- only those things would sufficiently explain everything that's on my heart.
I think the only way I can adequately express the lessons I learned while in Uganda would be to blog one story, or maybe one day, at a time. So naturally, I'll start with day one.
There is nothing like knowing you're in exactly the right place at exactly God's time. I knew it from the moment I stepped onto the runway in Entebbe. After we ate lunch, we went on our first "mission." I was told about Kimombasa long before the trip began, and I was so happy that we were going to work in that slum. It's name has come to mean "The place of the sex workers." Victims of sex trafficking and prostitution stole my heart a long time ago, so I was excited to get to work in Kimombasa. Those people need Jesus in a very desperate and urgent way.
That first day, we met some ladies who were already believers. We talked with them awhile, and I got to know a 13-year-old girl named Tabitha. After talking with her, I asked if there was anything I could pray with her about. Her response? "Please pray that God would bless me with wisdom. I would like to have wisdom." Wisdom!? I was sitting there, looking around at the SHACK that she lived in, and at her shoeless, dirty feet, at all the holes in her clothes, and she was looking at me, asking that I pray she would have wisdom. It seemed to me that any 13-year-old girl who had nothing and only wanted wisdom-- probably already had some.
Of course, my immediate thought when she asked that was of Solomon. He asked for wisdom when God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you," (1 Kings 3:5, 2 Chronicles 1:7). "The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this," (1 Kings 3:10). God said, "Since this is your hearts desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge, wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, and riches and honor," (2 Chronicles 1:11-12).
And so I prayed. For both of us. That God would bless her as He did King Solomon and that I could grow my faith to the size of Tabitha's. I doubt that girl knows how much she impacted me. No shoes, and she wanted wisdom. God bless her.
This is me holding a little one who shares my name, and Tabitha is in the orange skirt. Partner with me in prayer for these two! Thank you so much!Many, many more stories to come.
Rachel
:)
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