Saturday, December 29, 2012

Nnyo, Nnyo, Nnyo!

There are only a few months left until our family says goodbye to family and friends, hauls our very heavy suitcases into a car and boards a plane for an 18 hour flight to a little country in East Africa.  Although we've been preparing for this trip for nearly two years, it's hard to believe we are really so close to getting on that plane.  

When we first admitted to each other that we felt God leading us to Uganda, I really thought our journey would begin when we got on the plane and landed in Uganda for three months of serving with African Children's Mission.  Little did I know, or really understand, the journey God would take us on this year.

Some highlights from 2012:

- We broke the news of our Uganda plans to our families, something we were very scared and nervous to do but because we did, we have experienced more support and love from them than we ever expected.

- We received overwhelming love and support from our Sunday School class and church family at HSBC when we finally began speaking about our call.

- I went on my FIRST trip to Uganda!  It was Wes' 6th. Though the first two days were bumpy, full of self-doubt and unrealistic expectations, by the end of the trip we were trying to figure out how to get the kids over without having to leave ourselves! :) We knew we wanted more time to explore God's call and made the official commitment to three months of cross-cultural training with African Children's Mission.

- Wes got approval from work for a three month leave of absence for our trip.  The support he has received from his work was unexpected and such an answered prayer. Some initial uncertainty led us to decide firmly that we are committed to follow God's plan for our lives even if it causes financial uncertainty.  Very scary but…

- We are learning to trust our Father.  If you had asked me a million times before this year if I trusted God with everything I would have said "absolutely!" a million times without hesitation.  This year I have learned that what I saw as trust, was really me controlling everything I possibly could while allowing God little to no room to work in my life.  If I have learned nothing else this year, learning to trust, really and truly trust God, even just the tiniest amount has completely changed how I do…just about everything.  

- 16 years after graduating high school, I finally completed my college degree! In May I graduated Cum Laude (with three kids, thank you very much!) from Birmingham Southern College with a degree in Dance Education. As a sweet Ugandan friend, Johnstone, taught me to say, "I am an artist!" 

- We began fundraising. When I say we, I mean God began our fundraising.  Honestly, we have done little to nothing to raise any funds for this trip.  Every fundraiser, from painting parties to garage sales to Boston Butts to T-Shirts has all been done by friends or family.  Well, technically we put on the garage sale to get rid of a little extra stuff, but mostly things from a business my side of the family recently closed.  My parents and sisters then decided they would rather donate the profits from the garage sale to our trip, that was ALL God! 

- Our kids got their first passports & are officially Frequent Flyer card holders! They'll never admit it, but they agree with us that this is pretty cool! 

- We left our old Sunday School class, full of friends we consider family…people we have grown, moved, cried and celebrated with for almost 10 years and who have supported us tremendously during this time, for Wes to become the teacher of another SS class.  While this wasn't in our plans at all and was one of the most difficult parts of this year, we love our new class so much!  We can also see how God might be using this experience to prepare us for what He is calling us to do in Uganda.  While this has been one of the hardest parts of following God's will this year, it has also probably been the most rewarding as we've gotten to know and love so many new friends and have already seen how God has used them to bless us.  

- The first Jr. Board style group for African Children's Mission, PWC, was created.  Through this group we've been able to work more closely with our incredible friend, Jamie, who is one of the most special people I've ever met and has such a heart and passion for ACM, Uganda and Jesus Christ.  By focusing on the goal to support ACM and promote the work God is doing through them, this group has established a ACM Facebook page with weekly updates and has already been able to raise nearly $8,000 towards necessities for ACM children through their Christmas Sponsorship drive.  I can't wait to see what this group accomplishes in 2013! 

- We've seen friends drift away.  Definitely another one of the hardest parts of this year has been seeing people pull away from us as we get closer and closer to leaving.  A very wise very sweet prayer warrior friend of mine called me out of the blue a couple months ago.  She warned me that dear sweet friends might start pulling away in an effort to protect themselves from being hurt when we leave.  It had never occurred to me until she spoke those words at that moment that many of our friends were doing just that.  How precious of God to give her those words for me so that I could respond to these friends in love and understanding instead of anger and bitterness.  I still pray for a renewal of those friendships, but I can't blame them for wanting to move on and I still love them dearly.

- We celebrated as our son made it 12 and then 13, then 14, now 15 months seizure free!  What a huge answered prayer and blessing upon blessing from God!  Please continue to pray for our son as we meet with his Neurologist in January to discuss his continued treatment for epilepsy.  

- We went to ALOT of football games!  Between the girls dancing with their middle school dance team and me coaching the JV dance team at the high school, we spent most of our Monday, Thursday & Friday nights at one stadium or another! Seeing my daughters dancing together on the same field was so special, not to mention that they are smart and beautiful and look pretty cute in sequins!  It was also amazing to be one of the coaches on the field at the State Championship Game in Auburn as I watched my dancers perform for the last time.  I consider my job teaching and mentoring these girls such an enormous gift and love every minute of it.

- We purchased our plane tickets!  It's official, we leave for Uganda at 11:45 am on May 2nd!

- We helped my sister, best friend, business partner, and main source of support outside of Wes, move her family 10 hours away.  A few months later, we helped move my grandmother 4 hours away.  While these moves might be what was best for each them, they were heart wrenching for me.  My sister was definitely the hardest.  But with each move and every tear shed, I knew that God was preparing me for an even harder goodbye in a few months and that He was calling me to trust Him over and over again. What a bittersweet lesson.

- We saw the creation, through the handwork and support of many many people, the first ever ACM Short-Term Missionary Handbook & Devotional.  This labor of love will hopefully prepare short-term missionaries physically and spiritually for the work they will do in Uganda and will help them to return home with a renewed passion for those things that are close to God's heart. 

- While we are definitely not going to change career plans to modeling anytime soon, we recently had our first ever professional family pictures made…no, not at Sears.  We're talking on location, with just the right lighting, beautiful talented photographer family pictures.  I know, many of our friends have these done twice a year and it shouldn't be a big deal, but this was a first for us and we are super excited about the results!  

More than anything else, 2012 has seen us learn more about our Father, our selves, and our relationship with Him.  None of what has been accomplished in 2012 has been done under our own power, but through the power of God. If anything, our biggest lesson has been that His promises are true, that His strength is glorified in our weakness, that we can accomplish nothing without Him but that He will never leave us. 

Like I said, I originally thought this journey would begin in Uganda, but we've learned quickly that our journey began when we said, "yes".  God has already taught us so much and we still have so much to learn, but we are so very very blessed.  In Luganda, the language spoken in our area of Uganda, they say, "webale nnyo" which means "thank you very much" but people often add several "nnyo"s when something is so good..better than good…more than expected…much much much.  That was 2012 for us, nnyo nnyo nnyo.  

"But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much he made us alive with Christ, and God's gift of undeserved grace is what saves you!" Ephesians 2:4-5


Saturday, December 1, 2012

Learning to Pray with Belief

A few weeks ago Dr. David Hogg served as a guest preacher at our church.  While preaching on Joy in Prayer & Thanksgiving leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, he told a story from when he was in seminary.  A young African man was in his study group and asked for prayer about a serious situation regarding the safety of his wife and children while he was away at school.  On their next meeting, the rest of the group desperately wanted an update on the situation but the young man was surprised at their asking. "Didn't we ask God to protect them? Why would you then ask me if they were protected?" What faith.

Throughout this journey there has been a million times that I have prayed or asked for prayer about something and then stressed out like crazy about whether or not God would answer that prayer. How dumb am I?

The biggest example has obviously been in fundraising.  Over and over again I've crunched the numbers, over and over again I've tried to grab the reigns away from God and make things happen on my time instead of waiting on His, over and over again I've doubted…everything.  I KNOW God is in control, but I don't act like it very often.

Recently some sweet friends put on a fundraiser for us by selling smoked Boston Butts.  We were so humbled by their offer…and then I started worrying.  How many people have ordered?  How much money will we get?  What do we think we'll make total?  Did I tell enough people about it often enough?  We still have so much money to raise, what else can I do to get the word out?  Is my flyer snazzy enough?

It was exhausting because I was trying to do it all within my own power.  Finally, I said enough and let go.  The last count I got before I let go was around 25 butts.  The final count was 59 and we made around $1,000.  I'd definitely say God out sold me!

There is no doubt that I will have to learn this lesson a billion more times in the next 152 days (and the next 100 years!) but it was awesome to see what God can do in and through the people we love and that love us when we let go and let Him work.  We continually get sweet phone calls and emails encouraging us, asking how to pray for us and donating financially to our mission trip.  With a little more than 5 months to go, we have a little more than $5,000 to raise.  We are continually longing to be working on the ground in Uganda, to be with the people God has put such a love in our hearts for but we believe that this calling is from God and is in His will so we know He will make this a reality.  What an honor it is to be in this situation, seeing God work first hand despite my doubt and control issues!

Like Dr. Hogg's friend, I want to pray according to God's will, believing that He will answer me, without doubting that He will do what He's promised me He will.

"It is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him." ~ 1John 5:14-15