"Captivated" part II

As if seeing God move in regards to the church plant in Bweya Village wasn’t enough, God decided to jack up the “shock factor”!---(which shouldn’t shock us at all) In addition to His movement as it concerns the church for Bweya Village, simultaneously He is working to provide a “safe haven” for some of the children to be rescued from the local orphanage.

One of our indigenous partners contacted me proposing he and his wife move forward to establish a children’s home in Bweya! This couple shared with me a year ago that their passion and desire to serve the Lord is through establishing and running a children’s home. Following our initial involvement in Bweya, this family has committed every weekend to go and provide direct care for these mistreated children at the local orphanage. It appears the government has gotten involved in the local orphanage and it’s going to be closing in a few months. God’s timing is always just right on time! I often feel it’s late or He’s “coming in on 2 wheels” (at the last minute)… but His timing is always perfect.

So, it looks like God’s been doing a little OT (overtime) in Bweya and the ministry of ekissa… my cup spills forth!

I was trying to explain my emotions to a friend today. I have all the faith in the world that God can do anything… anything He wants and chooses to do! I see Him moving about and doing the most amazing things in and through the life of so many. However, while I expect Him to work and move in the lives of others, I’m regularly caught off guard when He wants to move and include me in what He’s doing.

I told my friend the only word I can think of to describe my feelings is “captivated”. I am “captivated” by what He’s doing, all He’s doing and captivated at His love for me. I don’t know why He’s chosen to give me this “birds-eye view” but I’m so humbled He has. It’s not anything I deserve and certainly nothing I’ve earned, but I accept it with a humongous sense of gratitude. IF God showed partiality among His children and had a “favorite”… well, I’m feeling like I’m it right now!  ---again, not that I deserve it…I suppose it’s that concept of in being a “child of the King”, I’m feeling “chosen”.

I’m cuddled up in His blanket of love. This world can be a rather cold place but when wrapped in His blanket, it’s as if nothing can penetrate the threads of love and acceptance. This is where I am right now… how great it would be to stay like that…never moving from this place! ---soooo… healthy or not… I’m considering myself “His favorite!”

How about you? Are you feeling “chosen”? Are you feeling that “blanket of love” on a chilly evening? Are you feeling like His favorite?

Not that one ever needs a blanket in Uganda, but, it’s those threads of love and acceptance I pray every child in Bweya Village will eventually feel. This will only come through knowing and experiencing the life changing love of a Father… Jesus.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17-19

"Captivated" part I

You know…we are one strange creation created by Christ Jesus! I often have to sit back and laugh at myself.

ekissa (our nonprofit- www.ekissa.com )has been looking for land as we’ve partnered with Gaba Community Church in Kampala Uganda, to plant a church in Bweya Village; a village just outside of Uganda. Bweya is void of any church and lacks many basic necessities for a “community” to function productively. (Keeping in mind that “productivity” is subjective.) It needs clean water sources, a medical clinic and an orphanage/ children’s home where children can thrive, frolic like children should, and grow in Christ.

I was reminded this afternoon of my first introduction to Bweya village. It was May 26, 2009… less than one year ago. Upon arriving in that village and entering an existing orphanage, my life has been forever changed…changed in such a way I dare not to return. The affects of my seeing and experiencing have had a deep branding in my soul. The lack of care and concern for humanity in a local orphanage was about more than my heart could take.

My first trip to Uganda was called a “Vision” trip… and indeed it did just that… it gave me “vision”…a vision to see the unthinkable really does exist and some children live it every day. Children live through the aches of going days without anything to eat. Children living with the chills from fevers, the sting of skinned knees and the absence of a mother’s warm embrace when the boogie man comes out at night. Young girls endure exploitation and the unthinkable when the sun goes down. At night when they should be having “sweet dreams”, nightmares are all they know. Dancing sugarplums are not in sight; they simply hang on in fright.

I wondered why God had taken a “stay-at-home” mom all the way to East Africa, exposed her to such atrocities, simply to return home with passion as her only resource.

I began to pray… pray for God to move… move in a way like I had never experienced; move in such a way that no one could deny it was God.

I wanted to see him do the impossible, in what seemed to be an impossible situation. My desire was to somehow see the local orphanage closed, the children placed in a loving environment… to see Christ raise up a church in order that the people of this village could know of a hope in their desperate situations.

Well, 11 months later He is doing all of these things. When I think over the last year, I am in awe and humbled at all Christ has done. He has heard the cries of these young children.

Land is in the process of being purchased for a church plant, “Bweya Community Church”. The asking price of this land is $25,000, and within a matter of 3 days, almost $11,000 has been raised. God is calling the North American church to step up and provide the financial resources for a physical church in Bweya! What a beautiful picture. Just as I began to feel weak in my belief (not doubting God’s sovereignty but doubting the response of His people), God “busted a move” to remind me that HE is GOD… and I am not! His people have responded! God is faithful….but stayed tuned… He’s not finished yet!

“The one who calls you is faithful…1 Thessalonians 5:24

Do you want to know

Please click on the link below to view the ekissa video.



Do you want to know

"Free-flowing?

I read something the other day which I’ve been marinating in…so much that it woke me up in the middle of the night. It’s the idea that we as Christians “imprison” Christ within us…the notion that the Lord is so confined with in us that nothing flows out of us.

It’s been interesting to experience the worship of my Christian brothers and sisters in Uganda. They are so free with their worship as well as their everyday Christian walk/ life. When I return home to North America, it’s such a “let down” to be with the average Christian.

Christ lives on through His followers…and while I know Christ is certainly alive here in the states, we DO imprison Him a great deal! When I was confronted with this concept, my head immediately fell in shame! How often we squelch the Spirit of the living God. How can we say we are His agents if we don't allow Him to freely flow through us?

"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing." John 6:63

Oh God…may we all submit to you as a broken alabaster jar, such that your spirit flows like a river through us. May others smell the pure fragrance of your love. May we know you experimentally and may our brokenness be a picture of beauty.

Are you living the full life He has called you to? Or…is He your rainy day fund? How are you imprisoning Christ? Is He "free flowing" in your life?

....Release Him…release the Spirit!