Away We Go: To Uganda

In a few days, I will be flying en route to Kampala, Uganda. This trip to Africa has been a long time coming, and will no doubt be an adventure. Many of my friends and family have been, but my feet have yet to touch African soil. 

My friend Kristen and I took an African film class in college, which is why I have never-to-be-erased images of cows being slaughtered embedded in my memory.(We quickly learned that what many Africans consider cinematic art is slightly different than our perspective, but it was an education, for sure.) 

So it's been a dream for awhile, different than the dream of owning a cabin on a lake, but a dream nonetheless. And in a couple of days, it will be realized. I'm leaving for a few months to go to Uganda and Liberia, to help with a school and a couple of different ministries. In Liberia, I'll get to meet up with my parents who take an annual trip as orphan advocates. I'm pretty sure that I will leave part of my heart in these places, with the kids especially, and have been warned by more than one person that I can't smuggle any of them home. 

I'm getting more excited by the day, but I also realize there will be lots of challenges. "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape." My friend Ken reminded us of this daily on our last two spring break work trips, because nothing in these settings goes quite according to plan. I'm learning this again even before I go, because the housing option we thought was going to work is still in process.  

Please pray that I will be flexible and peaceful and ready to serve however needed. I am very convinced that I will not change the world on this trip, but that God will change me the most through this opportunity. Funny how my perspective has changed in the last ten years. But hopefully I'll still get to help lift some burdens, encourage some friends, and love on some people who don't have much in this world.