Janews

14 January 2011… 5 months down, 13 to go

It takes SO long getting ready for Christmas, and then it is over so fast! I hope that you enjoyed the festive period and grabbed a few moments to marvel at God’s step into humanity.


Christmas Day
Christmas in Uganda was great, despite a spot of homesickness, but thanks once again to Skype, cell phones and God’s niceness, the day was filled with people I love. Christmas breakfast was an elaborate affair shared with Lizzie, before we both hurried off to our respective churches. I just missed the rain as I jumped from the bodda and mounted the 10 flights of stairs to Calvary Chapel and into a special and beautiful service filled with the ‘tingle’ factor. A very skinny, chocolate-distributing Father Christmas made an appearance, confirming my hopes that he is, in fact, a Christian.


Onwards to Kampala’s shiniest mall called Garden City with 5 street boys for a slap-up meal of chicken’n’chips from various providers in the food court (for the record, Chicken Express was neither the best nor quickest). I shed a secret tear looking around at them and thanking God for making the day special for them and me. And from there to a Christmas dinner and get-together with a lovely family and their friends, orchestrated by Lizzie. The day was made even better by a phone call at 11am UK time by Pastor Pete at Sawyers Church, and an exchange of greetings and stories over the phone and microphone. I felt very special and wrapped up in love as my church family sang ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ down the phone, and swallowed another lump in my throat! The day ended with a Skype home and present-opening together across the 4000 miles. Sadly, my brother didn’t make it to Devon, so the parents had to face their first Christmas without the kids… they seem to have survived rather well. Tea at the Grand, darling?

On a Jolly
Lizzie and I then drove to Lake Bunyonyi (via the Equator) which is a beautiful, quiet and CHILLY place in SW Uganda, near to the Rwandan and DRC border. We had 6 wonderful days on the lake bouncing between the 29 islands, bird-watching, reading books, sleeping late in our ‘luxury tents’ (I’m not sure ‘camping’ was the right term after all… we had a double bed each) and swimming. It was terrific, and I enjoyed the sensation of needing a jumper and pair of socks! But living entirely without electricity was interesting, especially finding the tent in the dark. Thankfully the fireflies and lanterns helped.

Highlights included: walking around the island accompanied by kingfishers and weaver birds, swimming from one island to another and back, playing cards in front of the roaring fire, showering outside under a cleverly engineered bucket-shower, eating wonderful food with 3 good friends, reading a great book, and being surrounded by breathtaking beauty.


Back to the real world…
We returned back to the Oasis office on Monday 3rd January, only to be struck down with various ailments! Gill got malaria and suffered for 2 weeks, and 8 other employees fell ill with colds, ‘flu and, in my case, a bacterial infection and VERY sore back (connected?). Our training programme has been pushed back 2 weeks, but a lot has been achieved in terms of moving desks, resettling and beginning to pick up work for new job roles. The Central office, where 5 of us sit has been reshuffled and feels great, and what was Bambejja (which is now called the House of Hope) is utterly transformed to accommodate our 4 new departments – it looks fantastic!


The first quarter of 2011 will be a lot of admin and planning. We are overhauling our website in line with Oasis’ new branding, writing newsletters and annual reports, and I must put everything in place for various short and long term teams arriving from April. All of a sudden, it seems like a short time before returning home for a visit in July/August and for good in Feb 2012!


Please continue to pray for colleagues moving into new roles and departments, and especially for those assuming roles of management and leadership. We are very excited to get started on projects, and work towards meeting targets. The new strategy should unwind very satisfactorily, since there will be clear goals and targets which will help quantify our level of service to the locality. Our work will be specifically channelled through agreed and long-term methods, rather than trying to help lots of different people – far better for the community, and far easier to manage and develop.


The rest of life
Non-work life rotates a lot around home at the moment! I’m not 100% well, and enjoy evenings and weekends resting. Hopefully the energy will flood back in, and the travelling adventurer will emerge once again, but for now, a cup of tea and good book does very nicely.


However, in 2 weeks, Emma Stone arrives for 1 month. We are off to Mbale for 1 week to spend with the Beersheba Project, camping at Murchison Falls for 3 days, and avoiding election riots (between 9-14th Feb) by holing up at home with plenty of food, water and DVDs… I’m really excited about Emma coming to see and explore Uganda, and also getting involved in some kids/youth work whilst here, which is her forte. She also has some charity work lined up with Frontline...


Calvary Chapel is becoming home more and more, and I am really enjoying both the services, and also spending time with Frontline Ministry. Sunday morning services are spent side by side with boys associated with Frontline, and also often accompanied by my neighbour Elspeth – I’m delighted she has started coming! The words, prayers and songs acquire a depth of meaning to me unknown before because they are shared with the homeless. The Bible reads differently… Prayer shifts… Songs become either profound or ridiculous…

Thanks so much for your love, and for reading this far!


God bless you in ways you hope for, and in unexpected ways


Lindsay x

From the Birds Nest, over Lake Bunyonyi

Health Watch

Well, a brief one today, after a monster gap in blogging. I'm ill again, hence picking the bile-coloured font.


This time, a bacterial infection of the digestion... no comment except a word of warning: steer clear. I am one of 8 off from Oasis this week for similar ailments apart from one particularly icky case of malaria (sorry Gill). And another bizarre symptom of this bug is an incredibly sore back. My hips hurt, my shoulders are agony, and everything is... well, just uncomfortable. Sitting, lying, standing - it's no good. And I'm getting a little tired of it, and would like to feel normal again. 


SO... antibiotics and painkillers on top of the normal meds fill my pill box. I'm rattling, it's bad. I think I should stop ALL pills and see what happens. I'd love to rely on God for health every day, and ask Him for healing whenever my head aches... maybe it's a lack of faith, but as John Perkins says take Tylenol, and trust God for miracles we can't do by ourselves. 


Shameless plug: 'Follow me to freedom' by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins - a conversation about leadership and followership. (Thanks mum, great Christmas prezzie)


ANYWAY, moan over, love from Uganda x

New Year, New Day

A new year... did anyone else wake up on 1st Jan and think 'this should feel more significant'? The problem is that 1st Jan is just another day, in this case, just another Saturday. The new year produces no more challenge or choice than any other new day. 


The power of a day, TODAY to be exact. Today holds within it unlimited potential, opportunity and decisions which could change your life. Choosing to live, work and love hard. Or choosing to live, work and love easy. Both sets of choices, even picking the middle road, create a future. If you choose TODAY to live well, you create a different tomorrow from what might have been. 


What legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to achieve before you die? You better start making decisions now, or these things will never happen.


Praise God. He is faithful every day, and He will take however much of yourself you choose to give Him TODAY. If you offer Him a measly 10%, He'll take it and make the most of it. If you offer Him 99%, He will take it and make the most of it. 


Bearing in mind God made us, knows us and loves us... shouldn't we offer Him our empty hands every day and ask for His maximisation? Bearing in mind He alone knows what makes us the happiest, most content and most purposeful, shouldn't we give Him our own small and unadventurous life-plans and trust He has a better one? 


Say you work in a dull job. It pays the bills, and it is tolerable. Life ticks by, the weekend comes around, and before you know it, a year has passed and it's 2012. What would happen if in Jan 2011 you gave God your life, job, mortgage repayments or rent... and asked Him to fulfil His will and build His kingdom on earth using 100% of you? Maybe He asks you to quit; maybe He doesn't. Maybe He asks you to continue but asks you to downsize and use your money to help those without food and clothes and homes. Maybe He asks you to continue but make a real effort with the office's difficult person, praying that 2011 may be the year they come to Christ and are transformed... transforming you at the same time. Maybe He does ask you to dramatically ditch your job, home, 'security' and swan off into new directions... is it really that dramatic, or is it the ultimate act of sanity? To trust One more reliable than the economy, to do what He knows will bring you joy and satisfaction? Bettering the world until Christ returns and smiles at you for joining Him in the adventure? 


Choices.


I choose to bow. I choose to do as God prompts (we KNOW when He does, it's a feeling in your stomach, a whisper into your mind, an awareness of something that needs doing) whether that's climbing after £millions or living from nothing, trusting Him for daily bread. Neither is more noble. Only Godliness counts, never a payslip. Sure you can get more stuff, but you can also entirely miss God's BEST soul-satisfying, earth-changing purpose for your life, and then who is rich on their death bed? One who lived without stuff but followed Jesus, choking on the dust from His feet, or one who lived with stuff but kept 100 paces behind Jesus, out of earshot, in case He asked something difficult? Since He is the One we share eternity with, nice to get to know Him now, don't you think? While there is still an earth to save and a Saviour to serve.  


I want my life to count, and to this end, I want to want to watch less DVDs and invest more 'spare' time in knowing and loving Christ and my elusive 'neighbour'. I want to make 2011 full of purpose, joy and depth, and this is through learning about, and experiencing Christ.


He's a tough cookie. People wanted to kill Him, people followed Him then left Him. Those who devoted their lives to the glory of God despised Him. He didn't only address children and hug lepers, He also spoke harsh and confusing words, challenging every root of security. He literally pulled the rug from under feet - removing EVERY (formerly) trustworthy and reliable source of identity, value and purpose. He reduced people to... people, and yet instilled in them a purpose so powerful and mind-blowing that they were elevated to the throne room of heaven.

Oh Jesus. We will never fully know Your mind and Your depths, but we can know You by the Holy Spirit now, TODAY. I'm more scared of not following You and regretting later in life the missed adventure, than I am scared of following You into the unknown where I might be poor, subject to illness and poverty, and without my own family and home. One sacrifice for another - which is bigger? 


2011. 365 days (God willing) to know and love God, to know and love our neighbours, and to choose to respond with Christ's responses in every situation. To love as He loves, to ache where He aches, to pray what He prays. 

Bow down... heart open, hands open... ears ready to hear and courage to say yes...