The past week has been a whirlwind of moving back to Uganda, figuring out a new house, renewing friendships, and meeting an influx of new folks. It’s been surprisingly good to return, far better than I had expected, by God’s grace for a variety of reasons. Probably the main reason is the simple fact that I am more familiar with life here and can skip culture shock, allowing me to instead focus on deepening relationships I’ve already built.
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| Passion 2013! |
Another reason might be the fantastic start to the new year that I received: free tickets to the first evening of Passion 2013, an event for 18-25 year olds hosted by Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin (among others!).
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| The Refuge at Passion - a God-incidence. |
Jennifer and I were so blessed by the Passion’s staff’s willingness to give us access to an amazingly refreshing evening of worship and encouragement. Louie Giglio’s teaching on the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 and a father’s small seed of faith in Mark 9 were words that boosted my hope for a less painful second half of my Ugandan experience...and God has thus far abundantly answered and increased that hope!
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| Anna--SO excited to worship with her the day before leaving! |
Now that I'm back in Africa, we're currently in the midst of Envisioning, an annual five-day, all-staff event at New Hope Uganda. NHU’s leaders teach several sessions each day on a variety of spiritual topics, all focused on a particular theme for the year. This year’s theme is “In Christ Alone”; our guest speaker, Bishop Edward Muhima, opened Envisioning with two excellent chats about salvation, transformation, and life in Christ. I wish so badly that my church peeps and camp pals could be here to learn with me--if any of you ever have the chance to come to Envisioning at New Hope, take it without hesitation!
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| Jennifer: the girl who can take credit for me being in Uganda....and with whom I always have exciting adventures... |
The only rough part so far is that sitting to listen for 7 hours daily while battling jet lag and a head cold has been difficult, to say the least. My roommate and I keep falling asleep during the mid-morning sessions. I would classify this week as one of those times where maybe I might need “Jesus plus”--”plus” taking the form of coffee!
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| "Gourmet" coffee: a new norm |
i've gotta show evrett the coffee photo ... ;-)
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