"do you believe this?"

If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you're either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: "Can I believe it all again today?" No, better still, don't ask it till after you've read The New York Times, till after you've studied that daily record of the world's brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer's always Yes, then you probably don't know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you're human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that's choked with confession and tears and. . . great laughter.  -Frederick Buechner


Many of the things I've seen in Uganda over the past 4 months have led me to question the presence of a tender and merciful God in the world... how can they not? The disease, the poverty, the witchcraft, the corruption, the darkness; the list goes on, and it's overwhelming. Other days, hope and redemption among those same things lead me all the more to cry out with belief--the Gospel of this God-man, Jesus, who showed us that life is more powerful than death is so unbelievable and so good.


Martha knows. This morning I read the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11, and after the miracle Jesus says to her,


"I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 


Martha replies, "I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is come into the world."


A resounding Yes. I hope that your Easter is a day of Yes, like Martha, and that it's choked with confession and tears and great laughter. 

hit the mat

dear yoga instructor jamie, 

i'm not sure you ever knew that you would be teaching a yoga class in africa, but here you are in the sub-saharan opening our hips and strengthening our spines. 

thank you for your encouraging words and pushing us to "open up our wings and fly." I can't do that yet, but you've really helped me improve my triangle poses. 

somehow im sweating bullets after only 10 minutes every time -- how do you do that?!? it's fortunate for you that we aren't together because im beginning to think there is something in the african water that creates the "african body odor" scent. it's aroma is unparalleled...in the worst way possible. 

although i'd like to keep you all to myself,  i must share you with all my friends! it would only be fair. 

i hope they like you as much as I do. 

a very african barbecue

Last weekend we had the Ugandan CoG staff over for some traditional American dinner: Barbecue, the obvious choice. And slaw, homemade sweet rolls and fries--the obvious sides. Delish.

Even the Ugandans thought so! And where there are Ugandans, there will inevitably be a dance party. And where there is Holly and Meagan there will inevitably be the Dixie Chicks.

So we all got down, and it was perfect on so many levels. After dinner we played a combination of catch phrase and charades (fish bowl, for those of you who know the game), which resulted in some seriously heated competitiveness and a couple inappropriate references to sausage. Also perfect on so many levels.

Americans really have a lot to learn about parties.

The Nsimiire Family: part 2

Remember Gift and her awesome story? Well this is her family and her mom, Vennie. Our afternoon together ended with a family Ugandan rendition of high school musical's we're all in this together -- priceless.

The Nsimiire Family

I read somewhere that joy runs deeper than despair. Over and over again, families like the Nsimiires keep reminding me of that here. The suffering that they experience is deep -- you can see that in their eyes. But behind that there hope --twinkling and shining in the darkness.

 

rookie mistake

I just added pictures to Facebook and the nifty, new tagging feature confused this dear adolescent Ugandan girl with my dear American friend, Anna Benson. I make the same mistake all the time...