Thank God for Dirty Dishes

People are asking how I'm handling life without a dishwasher.  Here's the poem I chant in my head (author unknown):

Thank God for dirty dishes

They have a tale to tell,

While others are going hungry,

We're eating very well.

With health and peace and happiness

I shouldn't want to fuss

Based on this stack of evidence

God's been very good to us!

This has kept me very getting too stressed out when I see the dishes piled up on the counter!

Things are moving along with our trip.  I received the "Mission Manual" from Believer's World on Friday.  It made everything seem very official.  Well, the manual and the payment schedule.  I was incorrect about how the payment schedule would go.  Instead of two payments, it's actually a payment each month, starting March 1st.  The first payment is $598 and then each payment thereafter is $825.  That was very sobering!  But, as I said, God is faithful and he will show up in this.  I can hardly wait to share the "God stories" with you!

Please continue to pray for this trip ... that souls would be saved and that our work may bring physical healing to many.

"In the poor we meet Jesus in His most distressing disguises."  Mother Teresa

The Dishwasher

As with most things, the trip to Uganda is not free.  Typically missionaries (both short and long term) are asked to raise their own support for their mission.  The same is the case for me.  And how much does a trip to Uganda cost these days?  About $3,900 for flight, food, lodging and in-country transportation.  I wish I had a few thousand dollars lying around just waiting to be spent, but as with most of us, that's not the case.  So I'm back to my old profession ... fund raising.  One of the first rules of fund raising:  don't ask someone to give if you're not giving yourself.  

You might wonder what this post has to do with my dishwasher.  Well, it broke last week.  And it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.  I've decided that instead of replacing it, I'm going to do dishes by hand and apply the money that would have been spent on it toward this mission.  I know.  It's radical.  :)  And in March I'm going to have a garage sale and sell so much stuff that the kids think they're next!  And I'm going to ask you, dear friend, to partner with me.  We need to raise $1950 by April 1st and the remaining $1950 by June 1st.  This may seem daunting, but I have no fear.  God will show up in this.  He equips those he calls, and he has most definitely called me to minister to the lost and hurting in Uganda.  Perhaps he is calling you too, if so, LET'S GO!!!  But if he's not calling you to actually go at this time, then help me to go in your place.  This is a chance for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  

(You can send your pledges to me at 9828 Crestline Drive, Knoxville, TN  37922.  Make checks payable to Believer's World Outreach, and you will receive a tax deduction.)  

Uganda

After asking the Lord to "send me", I started wondering ... send me where, to do what, with whom?  What exactly am I doing here?  I started researching medical missions.  I found one that says they send missionaries into "high security" areas and you're only allowed to say you're going to the "Middle East" or "East Asia".  Uh.... Robert wasn't too excited about that one. 

So I kept looking and stumbled upon Believer's World Outreach which has a trip this summer to Uganda.  I had read about Uganda in another book called "Children of Hope" by Vernon Brewer and had been blown away by the atrocities committed against its people and children during the civil war against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).   The book said this "Since 1987, the Lord's Resistance Army has wreaked havoc on the civilian population in northern Uganda.  Their purported goal is to create a state based on the Ten Commandments, but most of their activities center around looting villages.  Tens of thousands of children have been abducted and used as soldiers or sex slaves, while thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million displaced.  The government has been unable to subdue the LRA which often uses neighboring Sudan to launch attacks."  The book also tells of Grace, an 11 year old little girl whose hut was attacked by the LRA.  Her father was killed and her mother severely beaten.  Then they turned their fury on Grace.  "They dragged the frightened girl out of the hut and hit her over and over again, telling her they would kill her if she did not do as she was told.  The rebels forced her to carry a weapon and ammunition for their army.  She was raped and soon became pregnant by one of the soldiers.  Grace had a baby when she was only 12 years old.  She was just a child herself!  Then Grace was forced to watch while soldiers shot and killed her baby."  Grace finally escaped and returned home only to find that her mother had gone insane.  She was left alone with no one to care for her.

Where was I when all of this was going on?  How did I not know?  More than 25,000 children ages 7 to 17 have been abducted from towns and camps since the war started in 1986.  25,000 CHILDREN.  If one child gets abducted in America, we send out Amber Alerts and the whole country gets involved in looking out for that one precious life.  But 25,000, well, that's a number that most of us can't begin to comprehend.  

Uganda has a population of 28.8 million.  1 million children have been orphaned by AIDS.  110,000 children are living with AIDS.  85% of the population lives on under $1 a day.

I asked Lillian from Believer's World Outreach (BWO), could they use an extra nurse on their trip to Uganda this summer and was given a resounding "YES!"  There were 2 different trips listed on their website and she told me about 2 additional trips that had yet to be posted.  One of the trips was a two-week trip to Midigo and Kampala (the country's capitol).  She said that this trip would be more "roughing it" than other trips, as Midigo is a very rural village way up in the "bush".  We would be working in the local "hospital" (don't think of Vanderbilt here, we're talking about a hospital made of concrete bricks that serves maybe 10 people) and would help many AIDS patients in the community.  In addition to that we would have the opportunity to evangelize in the local schools, as 95% of the population is Muslim. 

It took me by surprise, but this last fact is what sealed it for me.  My heart leapt.  The opportunity to witness to those living in darkness and minister to their physical needs as well.  The opportunity is perfect.

Oh, and to those that think I've lost my mind ... the LRA has since weakened and has relocated to the Congo.  The trip will be safe.  The thing that scares me the most is the food!

Isaiah 6:8

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying "WHOM shall I send and WHO shall go for us?"  Then I said "Here I am, send me!"

You know how some days start out normal and then something amazing happens and life isn't the same after that?  Well, that's what happened to  me last Sunday morning.  Let me tell you about it.  

My friend Kimber had given me the book "It's Not Okay With Me" by Janine Maxwell.  She gave it to me with the warning "it will change your life".  Needing something to read at work, I took it anyway.  So after getting Maddie settled into her bed, I settled into the book that would, in fact, change my life.

Janine Maxwell owned a successful marketing agency in Canada when she traveled on a short-term missions trip to Africa and had her world turned upside down.   She described in detail meeting hundreds of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS who were living on the streets.  She asked me to fill in the blank of this sentence "If I died, it would be okay with me if ___________ had to prostitute herself for food." (Fill in your daughter or son's name here.  Do it too, my friend.  Don't leave me alone in this.)  How could I (how could anyone?) possibly complete that sentence?  And yet, 15 million children (11 million in Africa alone) have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS and many of them are doing just that.  

WHAT?  How could this be?  How did I not know about it?  Oh. Well, maybe I might have read the statistics somewhere, but somehow 15 MILLION isn't a number that I could wrap my mind around, so I just didn't.

Here's the ugly truth about me.  I cared more about my comfort than I did about these children.  That's the reason I allowed them to stay a statistic.  That's the reason I didn't allow myself to get involved beyond dutifully sending our $35 each month to support a little boy in Mozambique.  

Jump back in time with me to April, 2000.  I was raising money for an organization that was building a hospital in Haiti and was asked to travel there so I could adequately speak about the people there and their need for healthcare.  Not being a very adventurous person, I wasn't too excited about this "opportunity", but duty called so I went.  The sights and smells were overwhelming.  Poverty was all around me.  My heart bled for these people who were so gracious and humble.  I was humbled.  For two weeks I saw things that most people can't even imagine.  And then, after two weeks, I hopped on my waiting 747, ordered a Diet Coke and thanked God that it was over.  Was I changed?  Yeah, a little bit.  But I promptly declared (after taking my first hot shower in 2 weeks) that I would NEVER, EVER set foot in another third-world country again unless Jesus Himself came down and told me I had to go.

Fast forward almost 9 years.  There I sat in Maddie's comfortable room, in the dark, with her ventilator quietly humming and suddenly Jesus Himself was speaking to me.  Asking me, no, imploring me to go.  And I found myself saying "yes Lord 'here I am, send me.'"