I have just a couple minutes but I want to thank-you so much for your prayers and continued email. God is doing such unexpected work in me and I am learning every day that the most beautiful place I can be is the place of utter dependency on God. Wherever that place is I want to be there. Right now it is here at New Hope. Daily I am reminded of my dependency on God; that through no strength of my own am I surviving... by his grace I am thriving.
The ministry here is exciting, exhausting, uplifting, humbling, frustrating... it takes all of me and then when I have nothing left demands more.
I Kings 19:7 has become so personally powerful to me here. In the passage Elijah tells God that he has had enough, he is tired and drained and wants to give up. He has no strength to carry on. In response to that God sends an angel of the Lord to Elijah and the angel says, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." In his perfect providence God brought Elijah to the end of himself so that he would be forced into utter dependency on God alone. And at that death of self, God provided the strength to go on.
Here he has provided me with a tough journey that in myself is too much... but in his grace he has also provided such strength and provision... and I see it most when I am at my lowest points (with the kids, the ministry, my selfishness, God breaking me...) there he touches me and says, yes, it is too much for you... go on. And with no strength of my own his strength raises me up to keep on going.
I hope you find yourself in this strength. It is the most beautiful humiliation to be so dependent on God.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Thank-you...
To all who stood with me in prayer throughout the end of last month's elections, thank-you. Forty-eight hours after elections ended I was walking along the outskirts of New Hope along a common pathway and could hear shouts and screams coming from neighboring villages. The sound was tremendous and I was unsure of whether it was good or not. It became apparent as little children ran by with huge smiles on their faces that whatever was going on was a good thing. The older guys that ran by whistling and yelling were waving their hands and shouting, "Museveni!"
It was a strange feeling that I experienced in those first initial moments taking in the shouts and screams and whistling that signaled Museveni was again president of Uganda. Part of me sank, part of me felt troubled... The Bible says that it is God who appoints leaders and takes them down... nothing is outside of God's hand. Museveni has been elected for a purpose beyond what I can see and I trust that God has appointed this time and leadership for Uganda in his good and perfect wisdom.
Later that night my roommate and I stood under the HUGE Uganda sky in awe as the sky lit up with bright pink and white streaks of lightning... the whole sky would light up and then sink into dark black. The thunder came in in cracks that we could feel... it was amazing.
As we stood there my mind went to the familiar words Psalm 18- abbreviated- that we had prayed for weeks leading up to the election:
"...In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears...
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his
canopy around him-
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence
clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High
resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the
enemies,
great bolts of lightning and routed them...
He reached down from on high and took hold of me,
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for
me...
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great...
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!...
Therefore I will praise you among the
nations, O Lord...
he shows unfailing kindness to his
anointed,
to David and his descendants forever."
The God we serve is a great God who is as alive and mighty today as he was when David wrote these powerful words. While I stood under the raging sky with these words pouring from my heart I was captivated by the thought of God coming through the flashing sky, canopy of dark surrounding him, rain clouds at his feet and reaching down to me. Stooping down in all his greatness to hold me. He is intimately aware of my fears, my weaknesses, my enemies... but his awesome power is so much greater than any of these.
He has proven himself victorious and gives me that shield of victory, his hand of power sustains me.
What have I to fear?
He still speaks in the thunder and lightning- and it declares how powerful he is. And in that power he set his heart on us... powerful.
I have confidence in that.
As of now, Uganda is peaceful here. I have not heard much of the North, people rarely converse about it... usually only in small talk. But from what I have heard, Koney (the rebel leader) is back in Southern Sudan and there has been somehow rest in the North due to his absence.
Thank-you again for your continued prayers. I still am drawing much strength knowing that we are standing together as the months out here continue to unfold.
In His Strength,
Brittany
It was a strange feeling that I experienced in those first initial moments taking in the shouts and screams and whistling that signaled Museveni was again president of Uganda. Part of me sank, part of me felt troubled... The Bible says that it is God who appoints leaders and takes them down... nothing is outside of God's hand. Museveni has been elected for a purpose beyond what I can see and I trust that God has appointed this time and leadership for Uganda in his good and perfect wisdom.
Later that night my roommate and I stood under the HUGE Uganda sky in awe as the sky lit up with bright pink and white streaks of lightning... the whole sky would light up and then sink into dark black. The thunder came in in cracks that we could feel... it was amazing.
As we stood there my mind went to the familiar words Psalm 18- abbreviated- that we had prayed for weeks leading up to the election:
"...In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears...
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his
canopy around him-
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence
clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High
resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the
enemies,
great bolts of lightning and routed them...
He reached down from on high and took hold of me,
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for
me...
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great...
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!...
Therefore I will praise you among the
nations, O Lord...
he shows unfailing kindness to his
anointed,
to David and his descendants forever."
The God we serve is a great God who is as alive and mighty today as he was when David wrote these powerful words. While I stood under the raging sky with these words pouring from my heart I was captivated by the thought of God coming through the flashing sky, canopy of dark surrounding him, rain clouds at his feet and reaching down to me. Stooping down in all his greatness to hold me. He is intimately aware of my fears, my weaknesses, my enemies... but his awesome power is so much greater than any of these.
He has proven himself victorious and gives me that shield of victory, his hand of power sustains me.
What have I to fear?
He still speaks in the thunder and lightning- and it declares how powerful he is. And in that power he set his heart on us... powerful.
I have confidence in that.
As of now, Uganda is peaceful here. I have not heard much of the North, people rarely converse about it... usually only in small talk. But from what I have heard, Koney (the rebel leader) is back in Southern Sudan and there has been somehow rest in the North due to his absence.
Thank-you again for your continued prayers. I still am drawing much strength knowing that we are standing together as the months out here continue to unfold.
In His Strength,
Brittany
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