I just received the official call. Tim and Hannah are on Ugandan soil. This is the fifth time in a two year span that some or all of our family has been in Africa. What began as an poorly formed idea and morphed into a poorly formed prayer in August 2011, has led to a life-changing experience in a country with people we love deeply. To say that our family has "Africa in our blood" would not be overstating it. That being said, yes, there are three members of our family jealous that we weren't in Uganda calling someone here. Yes, jealous, full-fledged," we want what you have" jealous. No one gets to know how many times Hannah heard said with a not-so-polite tone, "well, YOU are getting to go to Africa...". Like the fact that we were so jealous should make her more grateful. Handy that I am realizing that I was parenting so poorly AFTER she is gone. Apologies will be needed to be said when she returns.
ANYWAY, to say that our lives have been turned upside down by Uganda and her people, is saying it lightly. It is also true that with all the blessings, there have been difficulties. So as I lay here still in the last bit of recovery from a bad episode of pancreatitis, waiting on the call to hear that my husband, daughter and all with them had arrived safely, I pondered the question "why are we doing this again?"
Since many of you are supporting Hannah, praying for her and Tim, and others of you have supported us and our "Adventures in Africa" in the past, I thought you might be interested in hearing a very un-eloquent explanation on why we keep doing this.
When we began, it was really selfishly motivated. I was thinking that our family needed fresh perspective on how "good" we had it, as we were all grumbling a lot about our life circumstances at the time. I was not thinking about anyone else. I was thinking that we had a family-wide need of "getting our priorities in order". Thankfully, God is kind to use even our selfish motives to do something good. After I went, then Tim, then our entire family, God changed us. Not to say that we have our priorities straight now, but the motivation is different.
For now, Uganda isn't a place on a map. It is the names and faces of people that we love: Christine, Charles, Faith, Josh. The stories of the country now have real people who have really been impacted by these events in tangible ways that we saw, touched and smelled. The concept of a "third world country" is no longer an idea and statistics: it is real poverty, hard work, dirty conditions, the preciousness of water and a struggle for hope. Imprisoned children doesn't just sound terrible. It is worse than it sounds, and each child there soaks up every hug, every kindness that you can give them, and we've seen how the ministry of 60 feet makes that possible. Upper level Christian education for Ugandans can transform an entire family's future for good for generations. We know that the ministry of African Bible University has done this.
So what is the bottom line? We are in love. And love can do crazy things. We love our friends, family and co workers in Uganda. We are in love with Jesus. When you have two people you love, its natural you want them to be connected. This is why we do what we are doing. We want whatever tiny cupfuls of Jesus' love that we can share in Uganda, to share it. We do this knowing that it is God's love that is what transforms everything. We just have the privilege of being the ones who get to carry this good message.
So thanks for supporting our family. Thank you for supporting our ministry. Here's to falling in love more and more with each passing day, no matter how much it turns our world upside down.
