Pain (May 14)

How do we come close to understanding pain? I have never experienced pain if I begin to compare myself with the faces and stories of the people of Uganda. One set of sorrowful eyes looked deeply into mine tonight and just began to scratch the surface the life he had led. “Suffering, suffering, suffering,” he uttered as his eyes looked away from me.
Charles began to speak to me as I sat down with him. He smiled widely and put his arm around me while his other hand held tightly to an AK-47. It seemed so surreal. He began telling me about his sister who had six children. She was a single mother and had just died five days before. “I want cry, but sometimes I cannot find the tears,” he muttered as he recounted the new found responsibilities that came with her death. Now he was responsible for caring for not only his own two children but the six children of his sister. He looked out at the stars as he wondered how his salary as a guard would pay for food and schooling for all eight children.
He looked back at me and I could only see the brokenness that I hadn’t seen before. I just sat and listened as he spoke. He began to ramble about his past and my eyes just focused on his face.
“Bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet…” he just kept repeating the word until silence settled upon him. “I lost my parents,” he said “when I finished P3,” what we might call 4th grade. The rebel troops had come into his tribe while he was gone at school and shot all of the parents in the tribe. When he came home he said that the houses of the community had burned down with all the dead bodies within and then a group of his friends were taken from that place. “If your mouth wanted to smile, they would cut your mouth and if your ears wanted to hear they would cut your ears. They just cut, cut, cut.” He described this horror and showed me some of his scars. He didn’t tell me how he had gotten away, but he sat for a while until he began to speak again.
I wish I could say that this story is an exception to the other people I have met, but it is not. Brokenness is all around me.

Beg For This Nation (May 12)

This past week I have been staying with a group in Kampala, being discipled by Dr. Krabbendam and reaching out into the community by doing door-to-door evangelism while working with the churches. This is a very receptive culture and many accepted Christ as their Savior. However, while it is receptive, there are several lies that are confusing the new believers and the non-believers. Islam and Mormonism along with churches that are practicing human sacrifice and that the enemy has corrupted really confuse the Ugandan people. Pray that God would invade this situation and bring his light and his truth. Pray that eyes would be opened.
I love the song “You Said”- it has been such a promise to me as I see the way in which Satan is trying to confuse. He is the father of lies – is he not? The song says:
You said ask and I’ll give the nations to you, Oh Lord, that’s the cry of my heart. Distant shores and the islands will see your light as it rises on us.
Please beg God for the nation of Uganda and that His light would illuminate all the half-truths and lies in which Satan is entangling those around us.

Here We Go AGAIN!!!!

Family and Friends!
I am so sorry not to have written in such a long time. Once I found out that Uganda was for sure, studies really started hitting me along with preparation for the trip and now, three days before I leave, I am writing you!
I have a couple AMAZING stories to share in which God really blessed me in one of the most complex parts of my trip: travel. As many of you know and have been experiencing gas prices have gone up....exponentially. I am a little overwhelmed as I am sure you are along with our fellow friends in the airline business. Needless to say: the ticket costs a fortune. That is taking up most of the $3000 that I was raising. Problem number two: whether the price of the ticket was expensive or not, I would have been traveling alone for a very long time as a single white woman, and that was not the safest thing... (lets just say my parents weren't to keen on the idea).
So our amazing God decided to just put his hand in as an intervention and provide radically for me. First HE PROVIDED THE FUNDS!!!! Then, to top it off, there was a team from Covenant College, led by Dr. Krabbendam, that was going to Uganda at the same time I was. So, after a fifteen minute meeting with Dr. Krabbendam and an exciting phone call with my mom, I decided to travel with the team headed to Uganda. I was still needing to somehow drive north about 6 hours after the flight, and Dr. Krabbendam knew an individual from the town I am going to and asked them to come pick me up and take me. This is not some small task - this is a HUGE miracle.
These are just a couple of ways in which God has provided a way and is pushing me toward Uganda. I know and have been made aware of the many dangers I face, but I KNOW that my God has brought me this far, and He will NEVER leave me. He will NEVER let me down. He is my PROTECTION and SHIELD and I am trusting in Him.
Please, please, please, please be in prayer as I head out. I know I am going to need these prayers. Remember that the prayer of a righteous man is both POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE. Your prayers are powerful and effective and I know that as the body of Christ, we can reach out and touch the heart of God as we intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ. So PLEASE, add me to your prayer list this summer.
I will be doing my best to keep you all up to date with pictures of the little babies I will be working with and with stories of how amazing our God is!!! I am SOOO excited to be able to go. Thankyou for coming along side of me and supporting me through your words, through your money and through your prayers.
God bless,
Standing in HIS grace,
Conquered by HIS love,
Lauren Conrad