Christmas Joy

I'm sorry if it's getting a little redundant reading about how much fun Christmas is here. It's just that I can't get over it. I can't get over how the smallest of gifts can bring such joy to our friends here. Joy. That's the only word I can find to describe it. We were privileged to watch our friends experience this joy on Friday. We had a Christmas party with our hostel girls' Bible study. We made pancakes for dinner (because they're kind of fascinated with them. It was funny how sweet they thought they were and that was when they were eating them plain. :) We also watched Elf, because really, what is a Christmas party without that movie, and we ended the night by giving them some gifts. We burnt a few cd's for each of them of some of our favorite songs, and wrote them each a letter explaining why these songs are so special to us. It wasn't really a big gift, and it barely cost us anything, but you would have thought we had given them the most expensive gift in the whole world. I don't want to say much more because I feel like the pictures of this night say a lot more than I ever could. I know that many of you have sent gifts with Mom and Dave for many of our friends here. Enjoy this post and know that this is the type of pure joy that you are giving our friends. Thank you for your generosity. I love you all.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Ok, so that title of this post isn't exactly true. It's still 80 degrees here, and I went to the pool on Saturday and got a nice tan. But I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit. I've listened to some Christmas music, even though it just doesn't feel the same when the leaves are still on the trees outside, I sweat everytime I walk to school, and there is no sign of snow. We listened to "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" while we were making pies for Thanksgiving, and it just seemed a little odd. I got super excited yesterday when I found some Christmas lights on display in a store, until Desarae pointed out that they weren't regular bulbs but instead they were little colored flowers. Bummer. But regardless of all the differences, I'm getting more and more excited about celebrating Christmas, Uganda style, this year.

My time in Uganda has changed my perspective on most things and Christmas is no different. Growing up the most exciting part of Christmas was Santa and the presents that he would bring. I remember not being able to sleep the night before because I couldn't wait to see what new things I was going to get the next day. The older I got, and as I went off to college, Christmas became important because of the people I would be with rather than the gifts I would receive. I always looked forward to a break from school, and time with all of my family, as Christmas is one of the few times in the year that all of my brothers and sisters are together.

Now I find myself in a culture where people barely have enough money to survive, let alone shower their loved ones with gifts at this time of year. I'm also going to be away from the majority of the people I love, but I'm so blessed to be looking forward to the arrival of Mom and Dave on Christmas Eve. Talk about an awesome Christmas present! Christmas will definitely be different this year, but I am rejoicing in those differences. Instead of making my own wish list this year, I'm having a blast dreaming with Desarae about all the gifts we could give our friends here. Many of these people have never been given a gift in their life, or very few, and I'm excited about the opportunity to love them in this way. Instead of mourning that more of my family won't be here, I'm thankful for those that are coming, and I'm enjoying making my own Christmas traditions with my new family here.

Today we got to experience the pleasure of giving a small gift to some of our dear friends here. It was our last Bible study at Bishop Stuart University before all of the students go home for the break. So we decided to whip up a few surprises for the ladies, including a few loaves of banana bread that we took and shared with them. The best part of the day was that we had our friend and language teacher Doreen translate an entire paragraph into runyonkole so we could thank them for their love and friendship in their local language. I videoed their reaction and I wish you could all see it. They were clapping, cheering, and laughing of course at our awful attempts to pronounce the words correctly, but their faces were so full of joy. They loved that we had taken the time to learn that, and I think it was the greatest gift we could have given them.

This Christmas I'm choosing to focus on the many good gifts in my life that God has blessed me with instead of grieving that Christmas won't be the same as I'm used to. This Christmas instead of wondering what gifts I'll get, I'm choosing to wonder how many gifts I can give to my friends here to bless their holiday. This Christmas I'm going to watch "Elf" with some of my new friends here, so that I can share the joy that Will Ferrell brings to all, rather than wishing I was back at Harding watching it in my dorm room with my best friends. This Christmas I'm thanking God for the family that I miss in America and the family that I'm growing to love and dreading leaving here in Uganda. This Christmas I'm just so thankful for the life God has given me, and the ways he continues to be merciful and gracious to his daughter.

Never assume anything

One would think that after six months of living in this culture, I would be used to never really being sure about anything. I've finally started preparing something each week before the Bishop Stuart Bible study because it's a given that I'm going to be expected to share something. I've gotten used to girls looking at pictures in the apartment and either commenting on how I used to be fatter or how I'm a lot prettier in America than here. I've even gotten used to the occasional marriage proposal from random men on the street and perfected my answer of rejection. Basically I've come to expect the unexpected, and laugh through the awkward situations....or at least I thought I had. Tonight was a whole different story.

On Thursdays we go to a joint care group/Bible study with our hostel and the Golf Course Hostel next door. I have to confess that I don't always look forward to this care group simply because it starts at 9:30 (by African time, that means people are usually there by 10), and it usually doesn't wrap up until 11:30 or later. It's a fun group of girls, but I'm kind of an old person and I get tired when I stay up that late. I know, it's sad. I also don't feel as comfortable around these girls because the majority of them live next door so I only see them once a week. So I enjoy it, but I definitely enjoy our hostel Bible study more because I know those girls better and feel completely comfortable around them.

Tonight was the last care group before the girls go home for Christmas so we had a gift exchange. As we were getting started, Florence, who is one of the funniest people I've ever met, was talking about how tonight was going to be a special change for this care group. I naively sat there and figured she was talking about the gift exchange because we hadn't done that before and it was new. But then to my surprise, this was the next sentence out of her mouth. "Yes, it's a change tonight because Betsy is going to be leading our praise and worship this evening." Picture my jaw on the floor and a serious case of the red face. I immediately stuttered through some excuse about how we didn't know the same songs, blah blah blah. For those of you who don't know, I love to sing, but I don't exactly love my voice. I just wasn't blessed with the gift of a beautiful singing voice, and I can sometimes be a tad self-conscious about this. I also hate to be the focus and center of attention. So basically this wasn't shaping up to be my favorite Ugandan experience so far.

Long story short, it turned out ok. Desarae is a good friend, and after composing herself and getting some control of her hysterical laughter at the announcement that I was the worship leader, she helped me think of a few songs, and we plowed through it together. So I conquered a small fear of singing in front of others, went way outside my comfort zone, was completely caught off guard, learned the lesson AGAIN to never assume anything here, and I think I pulled it all off without my face turning too bright red. It was a success.

The gift exchange was also a success. I was really thankful to have drawn my friend Rachel's name. She is probably our closest friend here, and I knew exactly what I wanted to give her. She is a huge Christian music fan, so I burnt her a cd of some of my favorite songs. Her face lit up when I gave it to her, and I could tell she was ready to get out of there and go listen to it. It's amazing how such a small gift can mean the world to our friends here. It makes me excited for Christmas.

The girls here have what they call an "escort ministry," that takes place after care group. Basically it's just a funny name for walking each other back to the hostel and making sure they get home safely. Our church here just received 1,000 Bibles from a group in Ft. Worth, and when I made the announcement that anyone could come to our room for a new Bible, the escorting ministry became much more popular. In fact, every single girl who was at care group escorted us home. They all loved getting to see our apartment, and they really loved getting a new Bible.

Tonight was a great night. There were several moments of just laughing at the hilarious things that I'm experiencing daily mixed in with continual amazement at the people that I'm building relationships with. I could go on and on about the testimonies shared tonight, but I feel like this has gotten long enough. I'll leave you with a picture of me with all the girls and their new Bibles. Florence, the crazy one who spontaneously decided I would lead worship, is the one striking a pose in the front. I told you she was funny.

Halfway and Thankful

So today marks the exact halfway point of my time here in Uganda. Crazy, I know. I can hardly believe that I've been here for 5 1/2 months, and it's even harder to believe that I'll be home in less than six. I think it's a pretty awesome coincidence that the midpoint of this adventure falls on Thanksgiving Day. Thinking back on the past few months of my life and looking forward to the rest of this year makes me realize just how much I have to be thankful for.

I'm thankful that God brought me to Africa to teach me some things that I just wasn't quite getting in America. I'm thankful that He gave me a partner in ministry and one of the best friends I could ever ask for to walk this journey with me. I'm thankful for the many friends back in the states who faithfully read this thing, email encouragement, and most importantly, pray for me. I'm thankful that I see God in the good days in Uganda, and even in the bad days.

I'm thankful for the mission team that I am privileged to be a part of. I'm thankful for the new friends that I have made here, not only with the missionaries, but also with the Ugandans. I'm thankful that I live in an incredibly fun hostel where people drop by our apartment all the time. I'm even thankful that we had to pause our movie for 30 minutes tonight while we had five unexpected visitors. I'll miss that when I come home in May. I'm thankful to be able to see faces light up when we give our friends new Bibles that were just sent to us and hear knocks at the door of people wanting more. I'm thankful for the hostel Bible study we have every Wednesday and the way that those girls never cease to amaze me and change me. I'm thankful for friends like Rachel and Fiona who make me laugh so hard that I forget I'm living in an underdeveloped country thousands of miles away from everything that is comfortable.

I'm thankful for times of being stretched and grown. I'm thankful for the chance to go the village today (even if it was a little surreal eating matooke, g-nut sauce and kasava root for Thanksgiving). I'm thankful for how comfortable and at home I feel in a place where all of the comforts I'm used to are so far away. I'm thankful that I'm absolutely in love with chapati and chai...can you imagine how awful this year would be if I didn't love the food? I'm also thankful that on Saturday I will get to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast with turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and pumpkin pie. I'm thankful that Gigi will be here tomorrow to help these two amateurs make the four pies that we're in charge of bringing. :) I'm thankful that I look out my windows to see one of the most beautiful views in the world, and I get to go running by mountains everyday. I'm thankful that I feel completely alive and at peace knowing that I am where God wants me to be right now.

I'm thankful that Mom and Dave are coming to visit in 32 days!! I'm thankful that two days after they leave, Jessica will be here! I'm thankful that I got to talk to all of my family today, minus Laura and Picker who are bums and didn't answer their phones. :) I'm thankful that when I get home in May I'll have a new niece and new nephew waiting for me, plus two incredibly beautiful girls who will have grown so much. I'm thankful that God blessed me with a family who never questioned, but only supported my decision to move to Uganda for a year.

I hope that you didn't read the title of this post and think that I am thankful because I am halfway done with this year. That couldn't be further from the truth. Instead, I am thankful that I still have the second half of this year left. Don't get me wrong...I miss my friends and family so much and May 10 will be a happy day to be back in the states. But this journey is not finished. There is so much of the adventure still left to live, and I'm convinced that there is so much more that God is waiting to teach me. Thanks for walking the first half of this year with me. I don't know about you, but I'm excited to see what's in store for the next six months. I'm thankful for all of you, and I hope you all have an incredible Thanksgiving.

Shouting the Gospel with My Life

One of the things I love about my life here in Mbarara is that I have a lot more free time to read, which is something I love to do, but had very little time for in the midst of all the reading I did for my classes in college. I'm not sure why, but somehow I could never fit in reading for pleasure when I was bogged down with reading my textbooks, a biography of some historical figure here and there, and of course the random other books that professors love to assign. So I've really loved being able to read so many different books while I've been here. I've fallen into the trap of being in the middle of 3 or 4 different books at a time, but thankfully right now I'm able to concentrate on reading one of my favorite books in the world.

If you haven't read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, then please stop reading my weak attempts at writing, and go read his incredibly powerful book. I read it for the first time last summer, and it only made me more passionate about mission work than I already was, and I'm convinced this book had a lot to do with me actually stepping out and committing to come to Uganda. It's an inspiring book, and it makes me want to be so much more than I am right now. It's for sure not an easy read, only because you can't walk away from this book without being challenged to make some necessary, but incredibly difficult changes in your life. I know that I was challenged and convicted of my own lukewarm Christianity last summer when reading it, and again now as I'm reading it again. This guy is onto a real kind of Christianity, and this books makes me excited about living more radically for God. Ok, I'll stop the free advertisement for the book and get on with my thoughts, but seriously, I recommend checking this one out.

Something happened yesterday that kind of goes along with the part of the book that I've been reading, and it's got me thinking a lot about my life and the way that I live out my faith. In James 2, we're told that Abraham's actions made his faith complete. Our faith in incomplete unless there are actions that accompany it, and this is something that I need to be reminded of daily. Yesterday, my daily reminder came by way of a random Ugandan that we ran into in town. D-rae and I were waiting outside of Gigi's restaurant to talk to her, when this young woman walked up to us. Instead of the usual Ugandan greeting of "How are you?" this woman just looked at us and said "Praise God." She then turned and walked off. This obviously caught Des and I a little off guard, and as she walked away I joked that the way we sat there on the curb must have just showed our love for God and our commitment to follow him.

Unfortunately, all too often in my life, that is all that is...a joke. People usually can't tell just from interacting with me that I'm a Christian. They don't see the noticeable difference in my life that I am called to have as a follower of Christ. They don't see it because it's not there. Over the years I have become way too comfortable with being comfortable, and way too fearful of being different. I've become satisfied with life as an ordinary Christian rather than thirsting for a life as one who is radically in love with God. I've spent way too much time conforming to this world, all the while fighting the transformation in my life that God wants and desires to give me.

In his book, Claiborne uses the old quote "Preach the gospel always. And when necessary use words," under a heading entitled Shouting the Gospel with Our Lives. This quote inspires me and reminds me of just how rarely I preach the gospel by the way I live. I think back to when I was in high school. I wonder how many of my classmates heard me proclaim my faith at the weekly Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting, but questioned if those were empty words when watching me fail to love my neighbors in school everyday, one of the basic principles of the gospel that I preached. People have a hard time understanding God because they have a hard time understanding the hypocrisy of God's people. I cringe at the times I've been a stumbling block to those around me simply because my actions didn't match up to my so-called faith.

What a beautiful thought that the primary way of sharing the gospel should be with my life rather than with my lips. My faith can be most real and most effective by what I do rather than what I say (or write). I want my life to shout the gospel. I want to run into strangers on the street and after spending a few minutes together, have them not only questioning what is different about my life, but finding themselves so attracted to it that they can't help but want to find out more. We are called to be different, and I pray that the difference in my life is evident to everyone that I meet. Jesus lives in me, and I want others to see him, instead of me.

Birthdays, Ballerinas, and Beaver Fever

It has been quite the eventful week here in Mbarara. Desarae turned 23. We celebrated Halloween, Ugandan style, and we've had a special visitor with us here in Beco all week. I'll start with the birthday.

Celebrating Desarae's birthday was really fun and really challenging at the same time. It's hard to plan anything even close to a surprise when you're with that person 24 hours a day. I finally just had to tell her I was leaving for a few hours, and she wasn't allowed to ask why. That was fun because D-rae is a curious little friend, and really hates not knowing what is going on. Her birthday started off a little differently than I had planned because I was sick (more on that later) and unable to do a few of the things I had planned. So poor birthday girl had to teach by herself while I stayed home and tried to get better. We actually spent most of her birthday laying around, napping to make up from the lack of sleep we'd been getting, and not doing much of anything. That night I had planned a little surprise party for her at Agip Motel in town, but I pretty much had to drag her (and me) there because neither of us felt up to doing anything. But thankfully we went and enjoyed the party with the rest of our team. During football season, one NFL game is taped and replayed on Tuesday nights at Agip so we watched football and had a football themed party. Here is a picture of Desarae wearing her birthday hat/helmet, posing like the Heisman trophy, and holding her brownies. And no, I didn't really think that Des was turning 24. I know it looks like that on the cake, but I actually did that on purpose just because I thought it would be funny. Turns out it was, especially when Emily Glisson, who is the queen of throwing really cute, themed parties, was watching in horror/amazement as I tried to make the icing look as funny as possible.

The next day was Halloween and we had one of the best Halloween celebrations I've ever been a part of. We decided to have a progressive dinner, starting with appetizers at our apartment, salad at the Gage's, and dinner and dessert at the Glisson's. The kids showed up at our door at 6:00 in their costumes, yelling trick or treat (I think our neighbors were slightly confused at this point). We had a gladiator, an Indian, a princess, a ballerina, and one cute little chicken. Of course, Desarae and I decided to get in on the fun at dress up as well, which is really hard with our limited resources. So we wrapped Des up in cling wrap, me in aluminum foil, and went as leftovers. It was fun, but amazingly hot, so the costumes only lasted long enough for a few pictures and laughs. I think the highlight of the night might have been scaring Emily with a fake, but very real looking cockroach 4 different times (great birthday gift). We hid it in her cup, in between a few chips (my personal favorite) and Scott even threw it from across the table back into her drink when she wasn't looking. It was hilarious, and we were all crying from laughing so hard. Nights like last night really make me thankful for the incredible team that I'm a part of. They challenge me, love me, support me, and make me laugh. They have become some really great friends, and I thank God for allowing our paths to cross for this year.

We've also had a very special visitor for all of the festivities this week. His name is giardia lamblia, and he is a parasitic disease that loves to camp out in our small intestines. We think we might have drank some bad water in the village on Saturday, and as a result, we've had our worst case of giardia yet. D-rae got it first, on Sunday, but being the great friend and roommate that she is, she passed it onto me because we love to share everything here...even sickness. We've both been up all night at least once this week, and we're having trouble getting rid of it this time. We bought our second dose of medicine today (for $3...Uganda is incredible) and hopefully that will do the trick. Desarae has done a little research on this little disease, and she found out today that it is also called Beaver Fever because it tends to be prevalent in artificial lakes that are made by beaver dams. So there's a free little fun tidbit for you today. Just to let you know, Beaver Fever is awful and you should avoid it all costs. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So it's been a really fun and really full week. Keep us in your prayers as we're trying to get better so we can keep up with our schedules. We've had to cancel several things this week, and we hate doing it, but it's hard to plan to go to the village when you know you're going to be needing a bathroom every 10 minutes. I know this is kind of a pointless post, but I really wanted to share some of these pictures with you guys. Thanks for always reading this thing and wanting to keep up with my journey. It means the world to me.

The Newest Addition to the Family

So most of you probably saw the title of this post and immediately assumed that I'm dedicating a post to my adorable new nephew Caleb. I know you're shocked, but this post is actually not about him (Stacy...don't be offended). Now while he is definitely worth writing about, I'm actually talking about the newest addition to my Ugandan family. Let me introduce to you, Goretti, or Gigi for those of us who still struggle to roll the r's here like you're supposed to.

All of the missionaries here have workers that either do yard work for them or help with some of the cooking. Most foods have to be made completely from scratch here, which tends to make things more complicated and time consuming in the kitchen. For example, let's say you're craving some chips and salsa? Well, that craving is going to wait a few hours while you make the chips....from scratch. Then you have to whip up the salsa from scratch as well. Yeah, let's just say that we don't eat those a lot. Desarae and I are not exactly what you would call skilled in the kitchen, but I have to say that we've done pretty well for ourselves so far. We're definitely not wasting away to nothing over here. But when the opportunity arose for us to hire Gigi, we jumped at it.

Gigi has been a worker for the Fouts' for the past nine years. She became really close to them and is just another member of their family. We've gotten to know Gigi really well over the past few months from spending so much time at their house, and we've come to love her a lot. Not only is she one of the greatest cooks in the world (the greatest according to the Fouts' kids), but she is an incredible woman. She makes us laugh a ton, and she's really become a close friend in our time here.

Gigi owns a hotel in town, but the business is pretty slow. She's kind of lost and without her family now that the Fouts' are gone, plus she has taken a big cut in pay since she's no longer working for them. Des and I don't necessarily need a worker, but we saw this as a great opportunity to help a friend, and be blessed even more by having her around our apartment. We know that she could use the financial help, but even more, she could use the companionship.

So as of last week, Gigi is now working for us. She comes two days a week to make some staple foods for us, and maybe even some posho chips and salsa when we're having one of those cravings. Gigi is such a blessing to us, and I couldn't be more excited about the newest member of Beco Hostel. I just hope I don't gain too much weight as a result.