oh the irony.

After my last post, one would assume I understood the meaning of joy.  God shocked me last week and taught me the true meaning of joy.  I won't go into the details, but I have figured out one of my prayers for my trip.

joy.

So many people go to Africa and bring back and take pictures of sad-looking toddlers with potbellies and bare feet.  But do they do this because that's what people back home expect to see?  Because that's what they know of Africa?  Because when they go to "save" Africa, that's what they expect to see?  Well, I want to change that.  I want to see the joy in these potbellied children.  I want to bring home pictures of children dancing and praising God for one more day they get to be truly alive.  I want to see a joy that is only explained by God in the people who have the least reasons to be joyful.  

As an update on the status of my trip, I just sent in my consent form and am about to place my administrative $100 deposit down.  However, I cannot buy my ticket or pay for the rest of my trip yet.  I am short about $700 and I have no clue where that is going to come from.  But that's the beauty of it.  This is just another opportunity for me to place my trust in God and wait and watch for Him to work.  I trust He will, but the waiting is making me anxious.  So badly I yearn for these kids, for these people, and the fact that money,  something that I consider to be the farthest from God, is standing between me and them is so incredibly frustrating.

But I have been blessed.  There is such an incredibly supportive community around me lately that I can't help but smile.  

Another update, I got my first tattoo, finally.  It is on my foot, and is the most incredible reminder of a crucial part of my walk with Jesus.  It reads, 

let go, let God.

Proverbs 3:5-6

That in itself was an incredible experience.

Lastly, it is spring break.  So many of my friends are in foreign countries right now on mission trips and I am so excited for them.  Just from talking with my friends as they prepared for this trip of theirs, I know God is going to work radically in so many people's lives, and I can't wait to hear everyone's encounters.  I am at home.  I am on a mission trip myself.  I won't go into details here either, but I have been convicted with a mission for this week in which God is going to provide the most drastic restoration ever.  I cannot wait for the opportunity that I am sure God will provide, but at the same time, thinking about it makes me more nervous than I ever have been before.  I know God has prepared me for everything that may come up, and will give me the right words and timing, but it is scary.  It's sad that talking to those you love can sometimes be harder than talking to an absolute stranger.

God.  is.  moving.  

Mukama Asiimwe.  (this means Praise God in a Ugandan tribal language.)