Once again I've let time slip away from me and it's been a few weeks since I've updated. Well I did indeed hang out with my friend Nick and it was refreshing to be able to talk face to face with someone I was with last year. Since that weekend I've been working and reconnecting with my church family. I'm still getting over this nasty sinus infection that I've had for two weeks. That's kinda been weighing me down and I've been trying to rest so that I can heal from it without going to the doctor.
I'm really excited for this weekend... I'll be heading down towards southern Illinois to visit with the Hopson family for the weekend!! They are a missionary family with WGM that were in Uganda while I was there. They are home on furlough, raising support and their home just happens to be close enough to my home to visit them. Their son, Austin was in my class this past year at Heritage. He's so fun!
Anyways, this past weekend I was asked to speak in my home church about my time in Uganda. I'd known about speaking for almost a month, but still didn't have anything formal prepared. So I decided that since I never have anything formal prepared in anything I do, why start now? :) Yes, that sounds irresponsible, but honestly I work so much better that way. I have no problems speaking to large crowds, especially when the topic is something I'm so passionate about. I played a slide show of my pictures and spoke for about 50 minutes straight. I really just asked the Lord to speak through me and to help the congregation have a better understanding of more of His creation. Of course God is faithful and everything went well. It was nice to finally get to stand up and talk, uninterrupted about my time in UG. It helped me process through some stuff better too. The Lord is faithful in getting His message across... it was cool. There were things that I knew I wanted people to hear... things the Lord taught me last year and there were things I knew I had to tell them about my ministries. I feel like God allowed me to successfully communicate everything. It felt like I was preaching a sermon part of the time and it was great! I'm really hoping to have more opportunities to speak in other churches.
My best friend and her husband and sister came out. My mom came too. I know it's hard for her to hear my heart about going back, but I think this helped give her a better idea of why I'm so passionate about it.
Oh! Something I'm excited about... I went to a pool party over the weekend and got to see some dear friends and supporters, Ben and Joy Thomas. Joy asked if I would come to a small group that meets at their and I of course agreed, but because of my schedule I won't be bale to go for a couple of weeks. BUT I got a message from her yesterday about us leading a group together at my old church! I'm so pumped about this because I love Joy, I love WSC, and I would love to partner with her in ministry there. Please be in prayer about my involvement at Wheatland Salem UMC and at Plano UMC.
Other cool stuff to look forward to... My other BFF is coming in from Seattle in a couple weeks and I'm pumped to see her! I'm going to a Cubs game with some very dear friends in a couple of weeks. AND I'm hoping to travel to Alabama to visit with Jade and Shelah while they are home for a month from Uganda! :)
As per my return to Uganda... it's in the works. Nothing has been decided at all and I have no time frame yet. At this point I'm excited about some new ministry opportunities there and I'm praying and asking the Lord to open those up to me if that's what He wants me to do next. I'm also praying about the different programs that World Gospel Mission offers and I'm very seriously thinking and praying about the MD program (http://www.wgm.org/Page.aspx?pid=1917). I'm also thinking about going back as a VIA (Volunteer in Action) again. Would you partner with me in prayer about these important decisions? Your prayer and support is necessary to my ministry. Thank you for being faithful and serving the Lord with me!
Here are some links to some albums I have on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051135&id=161500306&l=8cc1952faa
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052041&id=161500306&l=a795e75648
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053265&id=161500306&l=7e0e0cf4c5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054212&id=161500306&l=85ec51869b
