HELLO AGAIN

Hi friends!!

How is everyone??

I’ve been in Uganda for a little over a month and I am falling in love with this place!! The people, the culture, everything is so beautiful and the people are SO kind!!

Yesterday was Sunday and my team split up into 3 groups for our morning ministry. Some people went to our normal church, some to the local prison, and some people went to a church in a small village. I went to the village church and we had the BEST TIME EVER! We were about a minute away and we saw a bunch of people waiting on the road for us to get there and ran next to the van all the way down the road to the church, where the whole congregation was waiting outside dancing and singing and welcoming us. One thing about Uganda is that the people are extremely hospitable. So the pastors and the pastors wives all welcomed us with hugs and escorted us down the aisle to our seats. The church service yesterday was so amazing and has given me a greater appreciation for the people and the culture I get to surround myself with for the next 2 months!! As the church service was ending and we were about to have lunch with the pastors, they brought out 2 branches of bananas!! Which is very valuable here so to be given that as a gift was SO amazing. They continued to bring out gift after gift after gift! We went home with SO many fruits and vegetables. AND THEN…… THEY CARRIED OUT A BUNNY!!!!! So my team got a pet bunny yesterday!!! To make things even better, we found out she’s pregnant with 20 babies and will be giving birth in a month. We named her Gladice. I’ll put in some pictures of her:) We are currently trying to figure out where and how she is going to live with us but hopefully we’ll figure it out…

The last couple weeks since my last update have been a little bit more restful! When we first got to Mubende we were doing about 10 hours of ministry a day! We now closer to 5 hours a day. We still have crusades 5 nights a week!! Still struggling with having the crowd stay engaged, but we are still seeing a ton of salvations and so much freedom! During the crusades, we are mainly dealing with demon possession and prayers of deliverance! It has been so cool to see how powerful God is for my own eyes on the front lines of ministry. Seeing people get set free from YEARS of bondage has been life changing.

We are also praying for healing quite a bit! At the crusade we just finished last night, there was a woman who couldn’t walk. She was only able to move with a cane and someone helping her walk. Both legs were like pegs! She was in excruciating pain every time she had to sit down or stand up or make any movement with her legs. She had been in this condition for 2 years!!! We noticed her on the first night and some of my team prayed for her every night!! Within the first couple nights, we never saw the pain lessen or her ability to walk improve. But on the last night we prayed for her again. She had said that the pain was in her left leg. But when we were praying for her on the last night, the pain moved to her right leg. Which was crazy on its own because her left leg had been where the pain was for the past 2 years!! We were all looking at each other because the movement of pain meant that it was spiritual. Most likely witchcraft! We began praying again and we saw her completely healed and free!!! She was able to stand up, and sit down with no pain and walk on her own!!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!

Another cool thing…. We went to a school in a TINY TINYYYY village and got to share a message with them and pray for them! We saw so much healing!!! Maybe 10-15 kids had pain somewhere in their bodies and after praying for them they were totally healed! We also told the kids to ask God what He says about them! 3 of the kids shared what God told them and it was precious!

It is so cool to see how much God loves the children and how intentional He is with them, and how much He also loves elderly women who can’t walk and how He loves her so much He wants to heal her!! I am so in awe of the love He has for us!!!

As most of you probably know, last week Sunday was my Moms 3 year anniversary in heaven!! To be totally honest with you all, it was SO hard to be away from home on the special day. I’m not a very emotional person, and I don’t cry very often, but I was so emotional! But praise God for breakthrough in my numbness!!

I was very homesick the whole day and was crying quite a bit which was SO GOOD! We spent the morning at church, came back for lunch and then we went to the crusade around dinner time. The message at church was PERFECT for what I was thinking and feeling. The preacher spoke about having an intimate relationship with Jesus and let Him into your emotions like you would with a friend! It got me thinking about how important that real relationship with Him is. One of YWAMs main values is the relationship you have with Jesus. My outreach leader told our team before we even got to Uganda, that she doesn’t care about the numbers. She doesn’t care how many salvations we see, or how many healings happen, her main goal for our time in Uganda is that we all come out of it knowing Jesus more. Knowing Him on a deeper level. Having a REAL FRIENDSHIP with him.

One thing that I am making a priority every day is my quiet time with the Lord. I am so thankful that my leader values that time just as much as I do. She sets aside time every day for our team to have our own time with Jesus. It has changed so much for me. Not only with my relationship with Jesus, but even just my mood throughout the day! I have so much more patience and joy and love when my day is started out with the Lord! Sometimes we rely on our own strength to get us through the day, or we rely on different things to fill us up. I am learning more and more everyday that I cannot do anything without Jesus!!! Our days get pretty busy and so exhausting with all of the worship, intercession, and ministry we do... but somehow we all have the energy to keep going every day!! I know that strength comes from our time with Jesus and if we allow Him to fill us up.

This past Sunday I got the opportunity to preach at church! I spoke out of Philippians 3 and I was talking to the congregation about the importance of knowing Christ. In the beginning of the chapter, Paul is listing his achievements and accomplishments. At first glance, it looks like he is boasting, or bragging. But he is actually doing the opposite, showing that human achievements, no matter how impressive, cannot earn a person salvation and eternal life with God. Paul did not depend on his deeds to please God because even the most impressive deeds don’t measure up to God’s holy standards. A couple verses later, Paul says…

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I CONSIDER THEM GARBAGE, that I may gain Christ.

Philippians 3:7-8

After Paul considered everything he had accomplished in his life, he decided to write it all off as garbage when compared to the greatness of knowing Christ. We should value our relationship with Christ as more important than ANYTHING else!! To know Jesus should be the ultimate goal. Somethings things can get in the way though!! Are you willing to change your values in order to know Christ better? Will you fix or rearrange your crowded schedule in order to set aside a few minutes each day to pray or read your bible? Will you change some of your plans, goals, and desires in order to know Him deeper? Paul gave up everything…family, friendships, freedom… in order to know Jesus and his resurrection power. We too have access to this knowledge and power, but we may have to make some sacrifices to enjoy it fully!!

As I am trying to know Jesus better in my own life, I am realizing just how rewarding it is!!! So if you get anything out of this update I want it to be this: setting aside 30 minutes… even 5 or 10, any time at all, to focus on Jesus and talk to him is so rewarding and you will never regret it!!! Align your heart with His each day and you will feel so joyful and so positive. Talk with Him throughout your day!

Jesus wants to have a real friendship with you!!!! Invest time during your day to build that friendship!! If you don’t, you’re getting robbed of so much joy:)

Life with Him is SO FUN!!!!

thx for reading:)

talk soon!!!!!!!!!

-jam