A Different Ministry

On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 1:48 PM, 

Well mom is once again bugging me about sending out an email.  So it is midnight and I am trying to decide if I should continue on with this email or pack!!!  Wow decisions, decisions.  But for those of you who really know me, I guess I don’t have much of a decision to make, I don’t even leave here until Friday, so I guess what is the hurry???  I mean I really can’t stand packing.  It drives mom crazy.  I think she was pretty well packed almost two weeks before she came here to visit me.  Now me on the other hand, maybe I’ll be packed a few hours before I am supposed to leave! J  So I guess you will get an email.

I guess I should also update people on how I am feeling.  After I sent my last email, I continued to have chills and a fever throughout the night.  So Thursday one of the nurses came to my place and tested me for malaria.  It came back negative; however, I had all the symptoms of malaria.  I had the chills, then I was burning up, I had a fever of 102, and a throbbing headache.  I was basically in bed all day on Thursday, drank a little water and ate nothing.  On Friday, I felt much better, but still had very little energy and stayed in bed most of the day, but didn’t have all the symptoms.  Saturday was better, but just got exhausted easily.  Went down to the playground with the kids and cleaned up some rubbish.  Was only there about 30 minutes and then I had to go take a nap, I was so exhausted.  Finally by Sunday I felt almost 100% and for lunch had my first meal since Thursday.  So all is well, it just took a few days.  J  Thanks for the prayers and the emails checking in on me.

So far this week, I have been wrapping things up, so to speak.  I hung out with the house moms on Monday.  We did our last nail party, then after dinner, we had most of the teen girls to the house and we did nails for them.  Tuesday, we as missionaries went out for our last meal together before a couple of us leave.  Today, I went to town and spent the day with a couple of the big GSF kids.  I am really close with one of the older girls , so I spent most of the day with her.  A number of the kids who are at boarding school came back today and some will be back tomorrow.  I am excited that I’ll get to see these kids before I leave.  Then Friday I leave the orphanage and then leave Uganda Saturday right before midnight.

When I came for my three months, I didn’t know what God's plans were for my life here.  I struggled with the not knowing and the constant feeling of not doing anything.  I felt like I had no jobs and sometimes, just felt like I wasted so much time.  I felt like my relationship with the older kids was different than what it has been in the past.  So after being here about a month, I was so frustrated with God and wondering, "Ok, I don’t understand why I am here for so long."  When I made the decision to come, I felt very strongly that God wanted me to be here for these months, but when I got here, I started to question what His plan was.  I felt like I have always had a ministry with the kids and I felt like that wasn’t there.  That is when I started to spend time with the house moms.  I decided that at that point maybe God's plan was to have me here to encourage and get to know the house moms.  It was a struggle for me to accept that, because of what I felt for the kids, but I thought, ok God, I can do this.  I am ok with this change.  In the other years I have come, I would walk past the house mom’s houses and greet them, but other than that, I didn’t even know some of their names; I didn’t really have a personal relationship with them.  I am so excited to say that after these past couple of months, that has changed.  I know these ladies.  They are wonderful women, and work so hard, and so I wanted to show them how much I care about them.  We had some great times talking and sharing.  I might not have thought this at the time, but, I am thankful God changed my ministry here at GSF, at least for this trip.  I got to know some really wonderful Ugandan women.

Ok, well it is almost 1am and I really need to get some other work done, so I can spend time with the kids tomorrow.  Please be praying for me especially the next couple days as I have to say some hard goodbyes.  Also, please be praying for safety while travelling.