constant, unbroken connection

"If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust. If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury for special times or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God that you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin." Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender.

This is one thing I've been learning here in Uganda. The desperate need that I have to be led along by the Spirit of God. There is so much need, there's so much that is just not possible depending on my own weak flesh. I need that connection with Jesus to remain unbroken throughout each day, and this is what Holy Spirit does for me. The Holy Spirit is the one that searches and knows the depths of both my heart and the Heart of God, and continually aligns my heart with His and my desires with His. Praise God with me for the gracious gift that is His Holy Spirit.

home visits

Went to the village the other day to check up on three of the girls that we took on retreat. The first one we visited, called Dina, we spotted along the road as she was running to her home. She quickly brought out chairs for us to sit in and then ran off to the local town center to get sodas and mandazies for us her guests. (the picture with pig is Dina's grandmother and Bena as we wait for Dina to come back.) she was running everywhere, we could tell she was excited to see us again. One of the difficulties in visiting people in the village is that they always want to prepare something for you the visitor and you can spend hours under a tree by yourselves while the host prepares something, then the whole point of visiting is missed. In this case we only had to wait about 30min for our host to sit down with us...she went to get the sodas, came back sweating, b/c she was running everywhere she was going, needed to bathe, than she finally came back to us when her brother told her to go get more sodas and mandazies for us, there she went running again, but finally made it back, I confirmed with her that she should not bathe again we just wanted to sit with her, allow her to share and pray with her. (this is us sitting and sharing)

Her story is a hard one. Her mother gave birth and then pretty much handed her over to the grandparents to raise, no one knows who her father is. Now her mother has died and she still lives with her grandparents. I should say with her grandmother b/c the grandfather is actually staying with his other wife a few kilometers away so he's not really around most the time. Her uncle is only 2 years older than her so he grew up like a brother of hers, yet the grandfather has refused to pay for school fees any longer for this 17yr old girl. she made it to her second year in secondary school when her grandfather thought it time for her to stop wasting his money and get married. But she didn't want to, she wants to go to school, we think her grandparents could even afford the school fees and yet they won't let her go b/c they don't want to waste money on her. sometimes the auntie that's around will say mean things to her and tell her to go find her dad, then she goes away for a week to visit another auntie and calm down and clear her head. She loves the Lord and we really see her come alive when dancing and doing drama. And she loves singing in choir at church. After she shared with us some struggles, we prayed for her and her family and went on our way. We headed to the next house..that of mary's. But I think that's enough posting for right now. I'll have to talk more about her in another post later on. Please be praying for Dina, especially that she might be aware of her identity in Christ despite those around her not caring for her so much. Also pray that somehow she would be able to go back to school again. thank you.

Keeper of our hearts

Wednesday nights is when the women from our team meet together for bible study. This last wednesday night I knew there would be much pain and frustration among the different team members, as we have been under what appears to be increased attack from the enemy. We decided to do a worship and prayer night instead of studying the bible. Jennifer and I were hosting. As each woman walked in the door that night I began to become overwhelmed with the burdens they were carrying. As we chatted I silently prayed for Holy Spirit to do His thing and minister to our hearts. As we began to worship and many of us began to weep I was reminded of how much Jesus cares for us. I slowly handed over each heart to him, confidently knowing that there was no one else who we could trust our hearts to like Him. I wanted to some how give peace and comfort to each heart, but I couldn't really even scratch the surface, however I saw Holy Spirit work in such a real way ministering to the hearts of us women as we ministered to our Lord. A deeper revelation and understanding of the perfect love of Christ came to me that night. I saw clearly the way He loves His beloved bride and longs for them to come to Him and offer their hurting, bleeding hearts to him. I was reminded of how he continuously intercedes for us, fights for us and how quickly we are to blame Him for not caring for us or forgetting about us. I thought of how much hurt was in a room of only 7 ladies, and yet wow, thinking of all the rest of the hurting hearts in Soroti alone none the less Uganda and the rest of the world. Praise God that He is big enough and caring enough to reach out to each and every one. Lord Jesus, thank you that we can trust you with the very depths of our hearts! Holy Spirit thanks for ministering to our hearts. Continue to lead us to the Father's heart. Thank you that what overwhelms us is not overwhelming at all to you. Your love is so much deeper.