Let's be Unconventional

    Are we not called to live in an unconventional way? There is nothing normal about the way the Jesus lived. We are called to be imitators of Christ. Did Christ count his money and wonder if he had enough? Did Christ walk past the irritating co-worker to talk to the office cool kid? Did Christ give up his calling in exchange for a comfortable life with a white picket fence? Was Jesus indifferent to the injustices of the world and surround himself with only the wealthy? If you don't know the answer to those questions it would be best if you stopped reading this and opened your bible to investigate for yourself.

    Jesus understood the temptation for an easy life but he chose the hard route. He chose to forsake the comforts of the world and focus purely on Gods plan for his life. He knew that Gods plan was hard and he even "fell on his face rand prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39. He was not blind to suffering but understood that it was a path that led to something greater.  

    Jesus' suffering was for our sake. His love for us was greater than any desire for comfort. He could have decided not to seek Gods will and reject what God was calling him to but submitted is life to God. Should we not submit our lives to God and follow Him with the same unconventional love that was demonstrated to us on the cross so that others can meet the giver of unconventional love? Let us examine our lives and continually be pursuing ways to shed society norms and put on the fanny packs and socks under sandals of Christ. Lets get unconventional! 

I feel like my time in Uganda has been divided into three distinct chunks. Number one trying to work with the Phase Project, number two moving across town and moving in with a family that I had just met, and the most recent development being a pretend “co-mom” to six children while their parents are out of country trying to figure out emergency medical care for the mother Michaela. God works in crazy ways. Seriously I came here with the expectation to be doing something extremely different then what I am now and the random connections that lead me to my current predicament are mind-blowing.
I met a random girl names Laura at church somehow ended up mentioning that I had a lot of free time and I once had a job teaching swim lessons. I am not even sure how swimming was even brought up. The next day Laura messaged me and said that they were starting a swimming program and desperately needed some help. She asked if I could come teach the next day. Just like that my life changed. Sunday; talked about how I taught swimming in the past. Monday; told they needed help. Tuesday; started a new chapter of Uganda. Not long after I started teaching the job I initially thought that I would do fell through. I was given three days to re-figure out my life. It seemed like almost an impossible task. But anything is possible for God.
The next bit was a whirlwind. I talked about my situation with Cody the guy I taught swimming with. He said he had a girl who lived at the house with him and his family that he thought I should talk to. On the day I was supposed to give my final answer to the girl I was living with whether I would stay and tough it out or go Elise messaged me and said she was at a coffee shop and asked if I wanted to meet up. I thought about making an excuse and not meeting up with her but I didn't. I grabbed my bag and headed out the door.
She ended up bringing me back to the house for dinner… and promptly left me to have a “short” three hour Skype call… (I still give her a hard time about that) but it worked out fine. I talked some more to Cody about my situation and he gave me some really good insight on why I should probably just quit. I used to pride myself with not being a quitter. I almost would torture myself by continuing doing things I hated just so I could say that I didn’t quit. But the more that I have “quit” the more I have realized how awesome it is and sometimes God lets us go through hard things to break us out of what we are doing and move us towards something better. If I hadn’t had a hard time with the Phase Project I wouldn’t be where I am now..phase three in my project..I mean the third part of my time here.
I feel like I am exactly where God wants me to be. I knew God wanted me in Uganda but when O first got here I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. But now I get to be a blessing to a great family who so generously opened up their house to me when I was on the bring of being displaced. Because they are so open with their house the three random girls living with them were able to take on parenting so that they were able to leave for the U.S as soon as possible knowing that the six children they left would be fine in Uganda.
I am not going to lie suddenly becoming a “mom” to six children has been kind of exhausting at times and it makes me really appreciate my mother... apparently it is true what people always say about the correlation between having kids and being grateful to your mother. But I am super happy to be here for them and I am so glad there are three of us “moms” at the house to make sure everything happens smoothly… well at least semi-smoothly.
Today has been kind of rough though nothing particularly bad has happened besides the three year old spraying Deet directly in his eyes at 7:00 in the morning. (Cody and Michaela if you read this he is fine and can still see) it just meant I had to peel his eyes open and dump water in them for a long time. I would say I feel bad for him but his siblings told him not to and he still did it… so natural consequence… I feel heartless… but not. So that is where I am at right now.
I know God is teaching me a thousand things but I haven’t had time to process them. How do parents do it!?! I now understand parent bed time. I can say in earnest "8:30 no wonder I am yawing" before I would say that as a joke to people who aren't night owls but now I can relate.
 If you feel like God is calling you to pray for the situation here please pray for Michaela as she is getting medical tests done to figure things out. Pray for peace for the whole family during this stressful time and that God would use this time to draw everyone involved closer to him and that we would find our strength only in him.

     How important is joy in our lives! God wants us to have joy. He wants us to sing, dance, and rejoice in what he has done. He created everything so beautiful. When you truly look around at creation it will take your breath away if you really ponder the intricacy of what you are seeing you cannot help but be in awe, a gorgeous sunrise of vibrant reds and oranges gracing the skies over a peaceful majestic mountain, crashing rivers surrounded by a thick forest with a clear blue sky above who can even imagine the views that God has blessed us with. 

     On top of the beauty of creation there is also the exquisite value of our fellow believer’s souls and our own hearts. God has created each one of us unique. God has enlightened each of us in different ways and each of us understands things more fully than others better than others. That is one of the reasons why community is so important we are always learning from one another. God is using us in our own ways and words cannot describe what is going on in our hearts. It is a treasured privilege when you are in a deep enough community where you are able to get a glimpse of the spiritual growth taking place in another person. If only we always thought this way all the time. 

     It is our choice to see the beauty in the world. There is no denying that the world is a fallen place. There is heartache and sorrow every place we look. If we get caught up on these things we can get bitter and depressed. We forget that God did not make sin that is on us and we blame him. Sin is our choice. We cannot say it is God's fault for the terrible around us though sadly that is what we do. Proverbs 16:9 says that "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps". Man will do what he wants but God can turn it all around for good. So Instead of being upset at God we should be praising Him for all that is good and pray to Him for continued redemption for the world. 

     The bible says all that is good comes from the Lord. When we are caught up on the negative our eyes are not on God. How sad is it when we are only focused on the bad. The joy and wonder is sucked out of us and we become so serious. We all have different temptations when this happens. When I get too focused on the bad I become depressed at the people in the world. I only notice the stupidity in people. Then I go the opposite direction and I start getting caught up on my flaws and start comparing myself to others and think that I am worthless. It is true that I am not good at many things which a lot of Christians value. I pray and pray to be better at these things. But God time and time again has made it clear to me that he has created me this way for a purpose. He gave all of us our own talents and we should not be looking around at others comparing who's talents are "better".  When we focus solely on God and his desires for us joy comes naturally.

Last week I moved in with a family that I met here. I am really enjoying my time with them. They are very fun Godly people and are super open with their house (hence me living there). There are also two other girls living there as well. I went from having hardly any community to having a second family. It has been very reassuring. It has been a very low key couple of weeks due to moving in. I am still getting used to living in this area of town but I like it way better. Almost all of the friends I have made live on this side so it is way easier to do things with people and my new house has a gorgeous view of lake Victoria.

 Life is almost back to normal. Elections are over and it seems like there won't be any more trouble with the different political parties over who got elected. It was safe enough for me to go back into town for the first time this week and it was so nice to be able to get out of the house. I think everyone else felt the same way because town was the busiest I have seen it yet. It took me three hours to get home the other day on a trip that usually takes me half an hour. I really should have just walked but I kept thinking that the traffic jam was just about to end.

 I had a good day today. I was able to take a new friend that I met to volunteer at the orphanage I sometime help at. God has given my friend a great heart for kids with special needs and she is planning on starting a girls home for disabled children. She was able to do some physical therapy work with one of the girls there who has cerebral palsy. The little girl enjoyed working with her. She smiled and laughed more then I had ever seen her anytime I have been there. It was good to see her with so much light in her eyes. 

 As for me, God has been teaching me a lot about trusting in his plan for me. If you read some of my previous posts you might recall that I am no longer working with the person that I came down to work with. I realized that I care about people more than I care about getting things done. I also realized that those two are way more different then you would think. When you are focused so much on getting things done you don't have time for deep relationships the people you are working with. You meet, you talk about what needs to get done, you go over your timeline then you leave and repeat the same thing with whoever else you are using to accomplish your goal. We are all different and God has a unique plan for us. There are people who are great at getting things done and thrive on this kind of work. I am not one of those people. So now I am trying to figure out what God wants me to do.

  It's a little hard having a life that is so up in the air. I am moving for the second time this coming week. Luckily I didn't bring much stuff so the actual move won't be hard. The last time I moved I carried my suitcase on my lap while riding on a motorcycle, which actually went smoother then I thought it would. The hardest part of moving again will be transitioning to another way of life. I am sure it will be great but it will take some getting use to. I will be living with an awesome family that I have already learned a lot from and I am sure that living there grow my faith substantially.  

  Another thing God has been helping me with is to be satisfied in the knowledge that He loves me just the way I am and I don't have to worry about other people's opinions of me. Due to a couple different things on how my last couple months have been I have struggled with feelings of being incapable and that I am constantly being judged for being naturally terrible at many things. I know these things are not true and hopefully no one is actually judging me but it is a temptation to think these thoughts. In general life has been a little hard but I would not replace these challenges that I have had. God is good and I believe that he blesses those who struggles with times of extreme growth and spiritual intimacy. Nothing like having no one to get yourself worth from to make you really get your worth from God. God loves me and he is more important.

If any of you keep up to date on Ugandan news…Unlikely though possible, you would have noticed that it is election time. On Monday there was unrest in the city center. One person got shot and tons of people got tear gassed. I also heard a couple people are missing. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been pretty peaceful. Thursday was election day and since then they have limited internet access. No social media and a couple other things. Luckily if I needed to get a hold of anyone I have a program downloaded that lets me pass through the block but I only have a certain amount of time free so I will be limiting that until it becomes unblocked. It has been an interesting time. I have been pretty bored because I have chosen to follow good advice and stick around indoors despite my desire to see the action (You’re welcome Mom and Dad). I am staying with a friend and we “stocked up” on food and supplies… but we were bad at estimating so really were weren't stocked up and we will have to buy more stuff which isn’t a big deal, we live really close to a market and a grocery store. I don't need to be to worried right now if anything intense happens it is likely to happen after they announce the winner of the elections. If the current president wins he will have to and I quote “squash the opposition” If the opposition wins he pretty much has to overthrow the current government.  It could go smooth, it could not. Please pray that things will go smoothly and that I won’t die of boredom from being cooped up in the house. 
 P.S I didn't take this picture because I was smart enough to avoid town but this is what it looked like.

My time here so far has been interesting. It has been one of the times were I have learned a lot and grown a lot spiritually. I am not going to lie, it has been hard. But from the challenges I’ve had I have figured out a lot about myself. I use to think that I was passionate about getting things done and implementing ideas. It turns out that I just care about people. In my opinion if you get things done but step on the people around you and tear them down even if you have implemented some grand idea you have accomplished nothing. If you help people but they can't see God in you it is all worthless. No matter how much you teach a person trying to improve their life they are still broken and miserable unless they have God. It is better to be starving and know Jesus then to be wealthy and deny him. So with that being said I have quit what I am doing here, moving in with a family I met and have turned to trying to invest in relationships with people and pursuing God. A lot of the people in Uganda are very religious but they haven’t read the bible and they don’t know what following God actually means. They go to church and follow what the pastor says and frequently what is preached is not the real gospel. I am looking into finding people like this and helping them learn to study the bible on their own. 

I got to go to a village to work with one of our project partners Plan for All today. The are doing a number of things in the community. One of the projects they are doing is taking care of the elderly people who are living by themselves. Uganda has a very high death rate and a lot of them don't have any family left and have no one to look after them. Plan for All goes in and makes sure that they are living in safe(ish) conditions, have food and clothing. Other projects they have include teaching the people in their community about farming and using their resources. The area is very green and has great potential for farming there is also food that is already growing wild that they don't realize.

                                      

                               

God has been faithful. I am having a hard time adjusting to my job pretty much being all my weaknesses. Everything I have to do is new and not what I would do. But God has a plan and he wants me here so I will trust in him and carry on. In James 1:2 it says count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trails of various kinds. for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Its weird to think that you should be thankful but when life sucks but really there is only two things you can do. You can get depressed and focus on how terrible things are or you can dig into God and hold tight. He can get you through any storm. I have done both options and believe me life is the worst thing ever when you try shutting God out. 

  Today was fairly productive I got to organize some of the projects that I have been working on and I also got to explore the city which was super fun. I was lost inside a market for an hour or so which was fine because there was so much to look at and I had nothing else I needed to do. Once I made it out of the swarms of people it was pretty easy to get back to the apartment.  One doesn't really need to know where they are they only need to know where they are going. All you have to do is hop in a tro or taxi (which is really just a large van crammed full of people) that is going to your neighborhood and ta-da you are back to where you want to be. I have had a lot of free time since I have gotten here and am not really sure what to do with it. I guess I should start a hobby.

I made it to Uganda! It has been super busy since I arrived. Since I got here we have met up with two universities to get students involved with different projects to help empower the community. We also met up with Crossroads Animation Studios to look at the final production of the first episode of Sinza a name that means Praise in Luganda the local language. Sinza is a girl who teaches about different health topics. This first episode was on Vitamins. They want us to write 12 more episodes by the end of February so that they can turn it into a T.V series! Crazy! God has been doing a lot here and I have met some awesome people. Today has been a super chill day which is good because I get to wander around in town a bit and get situated.

I am off to Africa again. I am super excited to see what God has in store for me there. God has taught me a lot since my last excursion. Before I went to Ghana I had a "I can do anything" mindset. I had a savior complex. I thought that I was going to "save" the world. The world is not mine to save nor can it be saved by anything except Jesus. By myself I can do nothing. By myself I am a looser. With God however all things are possible. I firmly believe that God loves to use the people who are not good at anything. No one can look at me and say "That Naomi she is so great" because everyone knows that's not true. One can only look and say "God is doing work there". I need a lot of prayer as I follow God on my next journey. Please pray that I will seek God in every situation and that he will give me the strength to follow him without hesitation.

It has been one year and two days since my arrival back to the States.  I have been thinking back to my time there. Analyzing what I could have done differently and what I need to think about for future adventures. Its hard to remember hard times that I had when I am here. It seems that I am never satisfied with where I am. I am always trying to go places and never stop to appreciate what I have. Paul writes "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do anything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:12-13. I still have a lot to learn before accomplishing this. Maybe that is why I am here doing the same mundane thing day after day. God is constantly trying to teach us we just have to be willing to listen.  

It's christmas break! which means that almost all the kids at the school have left so its really quiet which is quite a change. I am excited for today though because one of the peace corp volunteers that I have met here is having a christmas party!which should be fun. I am not sure what I will do for the break but I think I will probably travel to the coast some. Who knows?

My newest goal is to get the kids really interested in reading. There is a library at the school that is rarely utilized. Also kids here have a really poor reading level and I feel like if they read more it would definitely help a lot. I have been borrowing a lot of books from it. Some for me but some for the kids. We have been having a lot of fun having reading parties in my room. I pretty much have one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish memorized. I also spent most of yesterday thinking in rhyme.. thanks a lot Dr. Seuss!  

After traveling around for the week of Thanksgiving I was really happy to be back at the school. When I arrived all the girls ran out to greet me they are all so cute. The weekend was a lot of fun and we played ALOT of go-fish and I finally bought a phone so they were really interested in that as well. I have been really enjoying working in the preschool class the teacher is a lot of fun and the kids are  both crazy and adorable. I did get sick though this week so I kinda just hung out in my room for a day or so. Prayer for good health would be greatly appreciated. The fact that I have been eating all sorts of food that I am not used to and the fact that I am surrounded by a bunch of kids all day leads to a lot of not feeling well. Also please take a look at this fundraiser that is going on for the school that I am helping at! A donation would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.indiegogo.com/ClassroomforAll?c=home

So I went to the coast this weekend it has been super fun. I love the ocean we spent two nights in cape coast which is a bigger coast town it was very nice and a definitely did more shopping then I had planned. We also went to Elmina Castle which was the first slave castle where they were kept before sent off. It was very interesting. There was two different rooms where they kept the men and the women. They also had a room they would put anyone who resisted and the room was small and all dark and they would leave them there to die of starvation. In the castle there is also the very first church of Ghana. It is really depressing that people could declare that they are Christians and yet enslave and kill so many people.
   On a happier note.. we also went to this little beach town which was gorgeous and I played tag with the little neighborhood boys when I was swimming and that was really fun they were really cute.

I have had a pretty great week. I taught the kids how to play spoons and war and they love it. Though it does get a little crazy at times. The girls are all very sweet the culture here is all about sharing an being helpful. The other day we had a dance party and we all shared cookies and danced like crazy. They are a lot better at dancing than I am. They actually look legit. We had a really good time. Now I am off to the coast! I am pretty excited.

Not a whole lot has happened since my last post. My days at the school have become a lot more productive. I now have 4 girls that I tutor in reading and I usually go in to a random class everyday and teach some sort of lesson. Yesterday I went into the first grade class and taught geography it was a lot of fun we were going over the continents and after we went over then all and I asked them what the names of the continents were they all kept yelling AFRICA!! It was pretty cute. On a different note my debit card finally started working! Yay! Praise God!

I had a really awesome weekend! I went to a monkey sanctuary it was so beautiful! The trees were tall, green and just looked really cool and the road is a very vibrant red. There is a group of Canadian researchers there and it was fun to hangout with them. The stars were also crazily amazing there because its out in the middle of no where and the power was out. The sky was really clear except one area where there was  lightning storm which I also love. When we were there I got to climb this awesome tree called a strangler fig. The tree grows around a tree and then cuts off the tree's light supplies so it dies making it so you can go inside the tree and climb it. You should look it up because it looks awesome.  After a day there we (Anna the other volunteer and I) went to a town that had an amazing waterfall . On our way there our chocho (van were they stuff a bunch of people in order to get to some place) broke down! which was really fine with me because I was very uncomfortable because they squeezed me into a little spot facing backwards with about five things digging into me. So we waited in the middle of no where for a while and I looked down and saw this fern that is super awesome if you touch it the plant shrinks away and closes up its super cool. So i entertained myself with that for a while then a huge truck came by and we all hopped on it. It was a lot of fun. When we went to the falls the first day there was a ton of people there so we didn't actually swim but then we came back the next day right when it opened and we got the whole waterfall to ourselves! I hope everyone   is doing well! On a side note about my last side note I was talking to the Canadians and discovered what all of the bites were on my stomach. The updated count of bits on my stomach is 43. They are chicken flea bites which are caused by my bed  being infested so all I have to do is stick my mattress out in the sun and washing all my bed stuff really well.