Church, Eating and Shopping

Surely eating and shopping are two pastimes we take for granted in the US. At the tail end of a work and ministry trip, however, they can be extraordinarily redemptive. It seems our entire team is lugging around tired bodies. But God gave us the wonderful gift of restaurant food (Java’s) and a shopping market in Kampala today. It was good to have fun and laugh and buy stuff through “negotiation.”

Our team is also lugging around full hearts after attending Ken and Cathy’s church at Worship Harvest. And that is wonderful! We were taught the word of God out of Romans 8 and worshipped in singing and dancing. We were welcomed so warmly in humility and hospitality. How wonderful to have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world! We were able to visit with church leaders about how we can best encourage this church from the US.

Tomorrow we head to Jinja to visit the source of the Nile River. This has been a popular excursion in the past, and we look forward to spending time with Ken.

On Tuesday we will make our final visit to Tender Hearts to spend time with the babies, finish a small project, and say good bye to everyone: the babies, the nannies, the staff and Ken and Cathy. Please pray for us that we can find:

1. Rest and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

2. Time to pray for one another and debrief before we leave.

3. Peace in saying goodbye to babies we will likely never see again.

4. Renewed passion to address poverty and orphan care in and from the US.

Our apologies for the limited entries so far in this blog. Time, exhaustion and limited internet connectivity have made frequent posts difficult. Please know that we are so thankful for all the prayers and encouragement you have sent our way. We would not be able to be here without you all.

And God is changing us. He is so faithful to take care of us, even through eating and shopping.  

Please stay tuned for a full post on the celebration!

Thursday Aug. 27th

We worked hard at the Baby Home yesterday. Many jobs were accomplished, and yet there are still many left to get done before Saturday's celebration. Painting, construction, organizing supplies, and holding babies were just a few of the ways in which we were able to help. 

The team is doing well in spite of exhaustion. Thank you for your prayers! Please continue in prayer for our health, and physical strength, as well as reliance on the Lord as we serve. Pray also for great communication as we serve alongside our African friends and seek

to meet their goals!

Africa is beautiful!

cup of joy

What a beautiful morning as we wait with patience in the city of Detroit. Our Omaha flight was delayed, setting us back a day to arrive in Uganda on Tuesday evening instead of tonight. We have been learning about the joy of Christ in waiting. 

How faithful our Father is to sweetly lift our grip from the things we think we can control: time, plans, and goals. Proverbs 16:9 says,  The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."  This is His plan. This is His purpose. To slow us down and set our eyes on Him, for every step of this journey and trust in His sovereignty....what a gift! 

We were blessed to come together as a team this morning and recognize evidences of God's grace in each other and spend time in prayer. There is much to be thankful for even in the tension of this delay and our strong desire to be working at the Baby Home today. How do we find joy in this tiny setback? We fix our eyes upward to the One who is faithful. 

A Desiring God blog post from John Piper states it well:

"Philippians 3:8 says, 'Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.' In other words, knowing Christ right now, experiencing fellowship with him right now, is more precious, more satisfying, more sweet than anything else. We are not just waiting to see how all the circumstances are going to turn out when he works everything for good. We are experiencing the sweetness of Christ right now in the moment."

Piper goes on to explain the secret of finding joy in our circumstances:

"The secret is faith in God's sovereignty and in the sweetness of Christ. When we have little and have lost much, Christ comes and reveals himself more valuable than what we have lost. And when we have much and are overflowing in abundance, Christ comes and he shows that he is far superior to everything we have. The secret of joy in the hardest of times in this book (Philippians) is the supremacy of the sovereignty of Christ and the supremacy of the sweetness of Christ." 

He receives the glory, we receive the joy! Wow! What a precious gift. 

Here's the link to the entire blog post:
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-secret-of-joy-in-suffering

Thanks for praying for us! We will keep you updated. Uganda, here we come!

Stewardship of Grace

We left for Uganda yesterday, but there have been some road blocks, or runway blocks, if you will. Our flight out of Omaha was delayed over two hours and we missed our connecting flight to Amsterdam. I am writing right now from a hotel in Detroit, where we spent the night last night. Our flight to Amsterdam leaves around 6:45 Detroit time tonight. In the end, we will be arriving in Uganda a full 24 hours later than planned. Although we are bummed that we are losing a day, God is stretching us, growing us, and showing us His grace. 

There have been many stories shared together. There are so many unanswered questions of why this happened, but one of the many great things that has come from the delay is the strengthening of the relationships within the team. 

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:8-10

In preparation for the trip, one thing we learned about and studied was the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. This scripture spoke to me today as we were sharing how we have seen God's grace through each other during this trial. When there could have been grumbling, there was joy and love. When there could have been stress and confusion, there was peace and leadership. It is only by the stewardship of our gifts that we are able to grow together in the grace of God during trials. 

All in all, we are learning. Above all, God is sovereign. By God's will, my next post will be in country. God Bless. 

-Taylre 

John 15:12 

Love Gives - Uganda 2015

It is with excitement and anticipation that we begin telling the story of all that God is doing through His love and grace in Uganda, and specifically, at Tender Hearts Baby Home. At this moment,  three team members are on the way to Uganda and the rest of us will depart on Sunday, August 23rd. But the story hardly begins at the airport.

We have already seen God's provision in numerous ways over the last several months of preparation:

- Ken and Cathy Nganda, the directors of the home, invited us to come and help them prepare for the grand opening of the new baby home. Their love for us is clear, and the opportunity to serve them in this way is humbling.

- A team of 17 people responded to this invitation and have committed a large portion of their summer to prayer, training, fundraising, travel, serving, learning and growing. Each person has learned that we do not desire to do things "to" or "for" people, but "with" instead.

- Love gives. This theme emerged from a message that Ken shared with our church. We have seen love on display as individuals and businesses have given of time and resources for this team to not only travel but see many things provided to the home: a newly graded road, ongoing work on the guard shack for safety, necessary medical supplies, and funds for the celebration itself. God has proven himself faithful over and over again, tenderly caring for us and the needs for this trip.

- God's love for our team has been evident, helping us to understand poverty, poverty alleviation and who the poor truly are: We are the poor. We are all poor because of the four broken relationships we see after sin entered the world: our relationship to God, ourselves, others and the created world. Thankfully, God's rich grace and mercy was on full display as Jesus came to right these relationships. God gave us Jesus. In his life, death and resurrection our relationships are reconciled and we are redeemed to God. What a gift!

As our team travels to Uganda, we leave confident in all these things and many more. Would you please pray for our team? Here are some specific needs:

1. That God would be most glorified in us as we are most satisfied in Him. We need humility as God continues to teach our hearts how to truly serve and love others more than we love ourselves.

2. That we would be quick to listen and slow to speak. Travel, hard work, and exhaustion create opportunities for conflict. Pray that we would seek unity and defer to the needs of our team members.

3. That God would teach us each day how we can best address poverty, as He is faithful to address our own. We need wisdom and discernment and generosity to reign in our souls. We need to learn.

4. That we would be filled with joy to see the grand opening of the home and all that it represents: God's kindness to adopt us in salvation and the physical adoption of children, a mission that works to break the cycle of discarding children, and a people who work tirelessly to take care of orphans and widows.

5. That upon returning home, we would ask God to reveal His ongoing mission to alleviate poverty in us and our communities here in the US.

Love truly does give. Jesus is the Creator, Sustainer, and Reconciler of all things (Colossians 1:15-20).

"Jesus, unlike the founder of any other major faith, holds out hope for ordinary human life. Our future is not an ethereal, impersonal form of consciousness. We will not float through the air, but rather will eat, embrace, sing, laugh, and dance in the kingdom of God, in degrees of power, glory, and joy that we can't at present imagine." - Tim Keller