uganda: week five.

comparison is the thief of joy. i will be honest: i don’t know who said that but boy, is it ever true. comparison takes away our ability to see how blessed we are. this week, i found myself comparing my experiences and my struggles here and losing sight of how blessed i am to be here. this summer isn’t like any summer i have ever had. i can’t expect it to be like my other summers. i can’t expect my intern experience to be like past interns. when i start to compare my circumstance to others, i lose myself in a world of “what if?” instead of enjoying what God has given me now. God showed up big time this week. but if i had let myself become lost in my comparison, i would have missed it. that was such a temptation for me this week but i am pleased to tell you that i still have the week five highlights!

• this past sunday, the teenagers and the interns became monkey hunters. kaitlin and i were casually eating lunch on our porch after church when we hear this animal fight behind our house. we look over right as a troop of monkeys, about 20 - 25 in number, come running by our house fighting. right away, three of the teenage boys that live in the house across from us ran from their house screaming and chasing the monkeys back into the forest. well, one of the baby monkeys made the mistake of climbing into a nearby tree which two of the boys immediately started climbing in order to catch the monkey. word quickly spread that they were trying to get a new GSF pet and soon, lots of the teenagers were down around the tree with blankets to catch the monkey when he left the tree. long story short, the monkey jumped out of the trip and chloe jumped on the monkey. she had a hold on it for about three seconds before it wriggled its way out of her hands and into the forest. it was a very short lived dream of having a monkey as a pet.
• also on sunday, i got to dedicate daisy, the new toddler at GSF. GSF, once a month, has a worship service called family church and during that time, someone dedicates the new kids that came to GSF that month. i didn’t realize that i would get the opportunity to dedicate daisy until the middle of the church service when i was asked to pray for her. i was totally put on the spot but i am so glad i was given the opportunity to pray over her.
• funny medical story of the week: one of the GSF kids this week swallowed a pencil. i promise you just read that last sentence correctly. when i got the call from nurse ruth, i was a little confused as to what happened because all i heard was that she was waiting on “the poop to pass”. the child was given lots of food to soften her system and we basically waited to see the results of her decision. the pencil did in fact pass out of her system and the patient is feeling so much better.
• we also went to buikwe hospital for the second time to take some of our kids to get immunizations. it is always an interesting experience going to ugandan hospitals because of the obvious reason that i am a white girl with a troop of little black kids. so there are lots of deserved stares as we sit and wait for our turn to see the doctor or as i feed one of the babies with us a bottle of milk. you just have to chuckle when things like that happen.
• this weekend has probably been the most relaxing and the most necessary so far. the past two weeks have been very long and tiring and we were all in need of a little away time. on friday, we took a day off of work and went into kampala to celebrate hope’s birthday (one of the MKs here). we watched maleficent at a movie theater, ate amazing pizza, and walked around the mall. i almost convinced myself that i was back in america until we walked outside and there was a huge elephant statue out front. then on saturday, kaitlin and i went into town and went to a country club for lunch and wifi. it was so relaxing. right on the water of lake victoria with amazing green hills in the backdrop. a perfect day in my book. when we got back to GSF all the teenagers were running up to auntie claudia’s house for games and cake for hope’s late birthday party. the community here always encourages me and i love spending time laughing and making memories with these kids. 

if you want to actually see a little bit of what life is like during a week for us interns, my fellow intern, kaitlin, made an amazing video that just shows clips of things we see everyday. if you look closely, you can see me and you can even spot me and my baby joseph. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OYrH7faWNY

some quick prayer requests:

• i am feeling so much better than last week! praise! keep praying that my health improves and stays at 100%.
• pray that the interns would be taking time to be still with jesus everyday. that seems like such a basic thing to say but for me, my schedule becomes too big and full that i think i don’t have room for anything else. when in actuality, my quiet time with jesus should be number one on my schedule. pray that i would be more disciplined in that.
• pray for the ugandan leadership at GSF. there are several ugandans that are in positions of authority and because of their positions are called upon more to handle disciplinary issues and things like that. pray that they also find rest and that they have the wisdom to handle many different situations.

thank you so much for praying. you don’t understand how much it means to me to know that i have people at home taking my burdens to the feet of jesus. keep going prayer warriors. three more weeks until i am home!