A hope and a good future!

Day to Day life:
I spent the first week helping Uncle Francis in the office—filing, typing, etc. I am glad to help him as he is SUCH a busy man. The Lord is using this man in incredible ways and I blessed to get to witness it.
Some mornings I get up when the children start singing for devotionals.
Some I sleep in a bit.
Went to Kampala one day. Relaxed one day. Worked in the garden one day. Went to Gaba one day to see Africa Renewal Ministries big compound of school, church, offices, and Baby Home.

The kids were on “holiday” until the 14th so everything was a little up in the air my first week or so. Never knew when I was eating, never knew what everyone was doing.
It has been good for me to learn to just go with it!

As much as I am able, I try to make time to just play with the kids, learn some Luganda, journal, sit in awe of our incredible Father, and praise Him—every day.

Gained a little more a purpose the second week: report, preschool, office, need lots of help at the baby home, feeling less like a burden and more like a blessing at the house and around the village.


Good plans
Written on the wall of our home are the words:

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,
‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you a hope and a future.’
Jeremiah 29:11

I have heard this verse many times before, but why the heck haven’t I written it on the walls of my home/my heart yet?! I think it is becoming the words for my life!

If you have not read this or thought about it before, I encourage you to do so now.
If you have ever doubted if the Lord really is good, if he really wants the best for you, if he really loves you, if your life could get any worse—if you just want to give up sometimes and quit this life (all of which I have experienced)—TAKE COMFORT!

I do not type these words and this verse flippantly or to sound cliché—the Lord has dug this words into my soul. The Lord has made these words so true to me, that even when I want to be in complete despair (which has happened many times here), I am brought back to the fact that
Our Loving Father really does have WONDERFUL plans for my life—and yours.
He never, ever wants to harm us. And he never will.
He has a plan to give you a true, real, and deep HOPE for life.

Though it seems like the Lord IS harming us—because why else would he take away our loved ones, make us lose our jobs, give us diseases, allow us to have depression, etc—HE IS NOT! What looks like harm to us is actually the Lord making us better—stronger, more whole, complete, and full! He allows us to share in the suffering of Jesus so that we can be made more LIKE JESUS! And who else would you like to be more like? He allows us to go through seemingly harmful situations so that we are forced to depend on him emotionally, physically, financially, mentally—and dependence on him is the only thing that can bring us A BETTER LIFE AND A HOPEFUL FUTURE!

Forgive me if it seems I am rambling—my Father has simply made suffering a very beautiful thing to me. I do not think I could ask for a better blessing but to be able to rejoice and find strength in suffering. (Not in a sadistic or self-deprecating way.) Simply because I have found the fullness that comes from it!