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Jordan
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
A Lesson in Bravery
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| photo credit: Rachel Pieh Jones | www.djiboutijones.com |
“Except for when I woke her to nurse, Lucy slept through the first night, her face serene and flawless. I kissed her rosebud lips and smoothed her hair and sang lullabies. This was my Djiboutian American daughter, a perfect combination of my two worlds. Born to American parents, in a Muslim country, on a day of infamy, she epitomized the people and places I had come to love.”
She has a video on the Desiring God website. I don’t have kids and I have never done anything as dramatic as give birth in such conditions, but before I moved out here people, even those who didn’t really know me, kept telling me how brave I was. It’s a weird feeling because so many times you feel anything but brave. I think that her video sums it up perfectly. We are not brave because being brave indicates that we have summoned up some kind of courage from within. But rather, we are desperate, breathless, and fully dependent of God. It would be a huge mistake to think otherwise.
If you enjoyed this, check out the post: Bless Her Heart (And Other Reactions)
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Monday, June 30, 2014
5 Things I Have Learned From Not Living at "Home"
Eliminate
Your Expectations
Before I
moved to Uganda I spent so much time on the internet reading blog posts about
people who had moved to other countries and what their experiences were like
thinking it would give me some idea of what I was getting myself into. I had no
idea what to expect, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t know what I wanted to expect. My limited knowledge
of what it is to live in another country opened wide the door for the
unexpected; and boy has it been a wild ride. There are days that are completely
mundane and I just hang around in sweatpants longer than socially appropriate
for an adult my age, drink some coffee, and read a book; while there are other
days when I can’t imagine my life being any more bizarre. All expectations are
out the window, mainly because they are pointless, but secondly because they
can ruin the joy of spontaneity.
Food is for
the Stomach…and the Heart
I have never been what some would
consider a “foodie”. Foodies can tell the difference between fresh lemon juice and
juice from a bottle and unfortunately that’s not my gifting. But, since living
in this new country where the food can be so different and admittedly bland…I
have had some desperate moments when I thought I would scalp someone for some
Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Covered Almonds from Trader Joe’s. Nonetheless, I have
learned that there are just some things that do a body good – emotionally
speaking. When my parents came to visit in March I couldn’t have been happier
to open their luggage and see the multiplicity of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese packed
next to the Fun Size Milky Way. My heart was happy.
Time is
Really Just a Number
Punctuality has never been my
strong suit. I am a recovering procrastinator with a take-it-easy personality. One
things I have come to embrace and cherish about this culture is that time is
just a suggestion. It’s ok to stop on the way and take care of the multiple
things that might need to be taken care of, and the person waiting is ok to
wait. They will find some way to fill their time. Patience is a virtue you
know…what’s the point in getting all bent out of shape over something so
menial? Maybe this concept is just nursing my shortcomings, but I truly believe
time was not created to control our lives, it was created to be a more
hands-off assistant.
You Won’t
Be In or Out
Being the new kid in town has its
perks and its downsides. When you get to town everyone wants to welcome you and
make you feel at home and comfortable, but there is something even more
comfortable about being a local. It’s been almost a year since I relocated to
Uganda and the way that I feel now as opposed to the moment I stepped off the
plane is really incomparable. But, I am still the Mzungu walking around the
village and trying to navigate her way around the city. I have roots here now.
I have friends and I have my usual places that I go to hang out, but that
doesn’t make me a Ugandan. And it’s ok. In the beginning I was really troubled
by this and it hindered me from ever calling this place home, but now I have
come to embrace it and enjoy the fact that I will always have the opportunity
to experience something entirely new.
You are
Always Missing Something
Whatever your reasons for
relocating to a new country, you can never truly leave your hometown behind. So
much of who I am is wrapped up in my life back in America. I’m not ashamed of
that. Many people that I have talked to out here want to put down their country
of origin almost in a way to convince themselves that this new place is the better
choice and they don’t miss their old life. While I love making new memories in
Uganda, there are things about my “old life” that are missed. It was a
wonderful life that deserves to be remembered. But, I know that things are
always changing and we are always moving forward, so I am thankful that I have
something that is worth missing and remembering; something that has made me who
I am, and now I have something new that is continuing to make me who I will be.
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Friday, June 27, 2014
Granny's Love-Filled Wanderlust
Sometimes I get on Pinterest and see those inspirational travel
quotes. I think you know what I’m talking about. They have the cool typography,
Instgram quality picture of a road with mountains or a well-weathered map, and belong
to the Wanderlust board that we all
have on our profile. Travel excites. The thought of seeing a different part of
the world and experiencing something life changing moves people to leave what
they know and endure certain discomforts or unknowns so that they might
discover something extraordinary.
Three years ago my Granny was very sick and coming to the end
of her marvelous life. All of my mom’s family returned to the homestead in
Murray County, Georgia and spend a week together sharing time with each other
and my Granny knowing that these were our last moments of our family as we had
known it for so many decades. During this week my cousins and I spent some time
going through some old pictures together. My grandparents have this huge trunk
in their den that is overflowing with pictures from years and years of family
memories. There are enough embarrassing images in that trunk to run off all the
unwanted boyfriends that have tried to steal away my cousins and I. I already
have photos set aside to show the first girl that my brother brings to
Christmas; it’s only then that we will truly know if she loves him or not.
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| Ok, he might be too cute to keep the girls away... |
While going through these gems three years ago I found a
picture of my Granny when she was just a teenager standing in front of a bus
headed to Miami. Once she arrived in Miami she paid $78 for an airline ticket
to Cuba. I fell in love with that picture. I remember being a little girl and
my Granny showing me the airline ticket and telling me about how grown up she
felt going all the way to Cuba on her own and how other girls her age were too
scared to do it, but not her. She wanted to see the world. It was then that I
decided that my 5 foot, biscuit-making, pastor’s wife Granny was the ideal
woman. She was a real pioneer; a revolutionary. I wanted to be this woman. It
was that moment in her guest bedroom as a 7 or 8 year old girl that I decided I
was going to travel and see the world and love it just like she did.
This new wanderlust
was consuming my thoughts at all times. I would make lists of countries that I
wanted to see, plan out how to see all 50 states before I was 35, save maps of
places that I had never been before…I was a goner. But thankfully my Granny
didn’t just inspire me to travel; she inspired me to love. Travel is a
beautiful and wonderful thing. It can reveal a lot about yourself and I believe
God did create this world to be admired and enjoyed. His presence is declared
and revealed in creation. As I have lived here in Uganda I have seen so many
beautiful things and discovered so much about myself in the process, but the
real joys have come from the relationships that have been built and the people
that I have come in contact with. Those are the most beautiful and complex of
God’s creation. Travel the world, expand your horizons, go beyond what you
know, and love people along the way. What a waste it would be to see the world
and miss God’s most prized possession throughout the journey.
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| Gearing up for my trip to the Dominican Republic back in 2006....Granny was right there to see me off. |
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| I sure do miss her, but I'm so thankful for everything she left behind. |
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Monday, June 16, 2014
The Trouble With Love Is...
I have been thinking
about love as an emotion a lot lately. How much this emotion can control you
and how it can make you do things you would have never dreamed of doing before. There is
the love you feel for another person, the love another person feels for you, the
love that you see other people show to each other and even the love that you
wish you were receiving from someone. I come in contact with so many people in
a day and I show love to them, or fail to show love to them in many different
ways. Some of those people are easy to love and I can’t get enough of them and
other people take a little more effort to care for.
But, regardless of
how lovable the people in our lives are, we are expected, required even as
believers, to love them. We are to love those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44),
love those who sin against us (Matthew 18:15), and love those who have nothing
to offer (James 2:1-7). We are to be
patient, kind, humble, thoughtful, sacrificial, joyful, and persevering in
love.
When you are
reaching out to love others you are putting a lot on the line. You are allowing
yourself to be exposed and put in a position allowing someone to possibly take
advantage of you. Sometimes the return is wonderful and will lift your spirits
and other times it feels like a slap in the face because you quickly realize
that the other person does not have the same interest in loving you back.
Why does God want us
to experience this? Why does he want his children to abandon all and reach out
to others in such a vulnerable way? The answer is always Christ. Christ
knowingly showed love to those who had no intent in loving him back. He loved
those who might have been a bit needy (Luke 9:10-17), selfish (Luke 18:23), hypocritical
(John 8:1-11), backstabbing (John 18:2-3), cowardly (John 20:19), and just
simply hateful (Luke 22:63-65). Christ loved the unlovable.
But he also loved
those who would wash his feet with their perfume, hair, and tears (Luke
7:36-40), give as much as they have in offering to him (Mark 12:41-44), humbly
prepare the way for his ministry (Matthew 3:1-12), listen to his words with complete
abandon of all other things (Luke 10:38-42), defend him (Luke 22:50), give
years of their lives to follow him (Luke 5:1-11), and even die for him (Acts
7:54-60).
Not to even mention
the love he has for the rest of the world outside of those recorded in the
Bible. When we sit down and seriously think about all the offenses that we have
against Christ and how he still gave his life for us, how can we say that
someone else is too difficult for us to love? I’m not saying that I am perfect
in this regard or I don’t have times that I avoid walking past someone trying
to keep from hearing their next request for help, or I don’t become frustrated
with people who aren’t what I think they should be. I fail so many times in
this area, but God is quick to convict my heart and he is teaching me to
consider how hard I am to love before I pass judgment on someone else.
I praise God for his
patience, kindness, generosity towards me. I am thankful that God’s love truly
does bear all things, hopes all things, and believes all things. His love never
fails even when mine often does.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Burning Down My Kingdom
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| We were so blessed and thankful to have Dr. Mark Tatlock from Grace Community Church as our speaker for the week. |
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| The President of the Baptist Union of Africa sharing with our pastors about how the Church is God's chosen family. |
The focus of the
conferences this year is on the Invaluable Church: Seeing the Church from God’s
Perspective. A challenge here in Uganda, as well as many other parts of the world, is the issue
of ministers being consumed with title and respect and not humbly serving their
church without any recognition or benefits. This is not just a temptation for
leaders in the church; it’s a temptation in the life of every Christian. So many
times we are focusing on serving our own kingdom and not humbly and sacrificially
serving the Kingdom of God. It was so encouraging and challenging to see the
pastors respond to the teaching, and also have my heart and motivations for ministry
challenged and strengthened.
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| It took some time to get this little guy to smile, but when he did it was totally worth it. |
Conferences are
always fun because they give a chance to interact with people from different
parts of the country and live a little differently for a week. I am pushed out
of my comfort zone when I work conferences. I’m not used to bathing in a basin
or using a pit latrine to go to the bathroom, eating rice, beans, and posho (almost like grits) for each meal.
It’s always a little unnerving to share a room with a rat the size of your
forearm, or have a cow walk in on you while you are trying to bathe, or to even find a
green mamba to be resting outside the latrine when you finish going to the
bathroom. But all of these things remind me that loving God and loving people
can get you through many things and even bring joy into those little moments
when you feel so far from what is familiar.
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| Edgar, Christine, and Ojulu are just a few members of our fabulous SOS team that worked so hard at this conference. |
Sometimes it’s hard
to serve people when you are tired, smelly, and hot. I become quickly annoyed
when I am uncomfortable and people are coming to me with needs and concerns. At
the conferences, I am the one in charge of registration and medical, so when
people have issues with small things like water, pens, books, questions, toilet
paper, I am the one that they are sent to. And when the pastors who haven’t
played soccer in 15+ years come from sports time and their bodies are aching, I
am the one who is supposed to work a miracle to bring their youth back. Satan
uses these times to tempt me to be unloving and quickly disturbed by their needs, but the Holy
Spirit convicts my spirit and reminds me that I am to deny myself and my time
and my comforts and serve others before I serve myself. It is an experience
that always brings me back to the purpose of ministry and Christianity in general.
Paul tells us in Romans 13 that all the commandments of the Law are summed up
in this one saying: love your neighbor as yourself. This saying is bold and
essential. How many times I fail and love myself and serve my kingdom more than
the Kingdom of God.
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| Everyone plays football. No exceptions. |
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| The love for the game never grows too old. |
My prayer is that
the pastors from the North East and Eastern regions can repent for loving
themselves more than the people that God has entrusted to them and that we as
believers can repent for not humbly serving others in order to advance the
Kingdom of God. I love Africa, I love Uganda, and I love having the opportunity
to serve these people however I can, even when that means that I am pushed far
out of my comfort zone. It’s in those moments that I am forced to remember why
I came here, what is truly important in life and ministry, and how much I need
strength and satisfaction from God alone.
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| The little guys always find ways to have fun at the conferences. |
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| All you need is a big rock and a jerrycan and you have your entertainment for a few hours. |
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