The LORD is Faithful!

Friday: Find out that I need $1,500 for my plane ticket...by next week. Commence freakout and mass texting to see if I can send people a copy of my support letter.

Saturday: Still freaking out.

Sunday: Freaking out more. But still trying to lean on God more than my freaking out. That night I can't sleep. I'm just staring at the ceiling not able to even get a sense of relief from closing my eyes. So I start thinking. I'm thinking that now I have even less time to get my fundraising in. How I'm supposed to believe that God is going to come through and is able to provide more than enough of what I need. And how I can't stop freaking out. Then I remember that I haven't responded to an email from a family friend about a potential fundraising opportunity. Throughout this whole Uganda journey I've learned that if I get this feeling that I could lift a car off a baby, aka an adrenaline rush, and a severe prompting to JUST DO IT that I should follow that gut feeling. So very late last night, I answer his email. And then I can go to sleep about 30 minutes later.

Monday: Wake up and can go about 30 minutes into my day without freaking out. And then I remember that I'm still $1,500 short of a plane ticket. And so the freaking out begins again. I call Imagine Design Team to see how my bracelets are doing. Melanie says that we've raised about $100 which was awesome to hear! I gather up all my checks to send to Sweet Sleep and the total is $1,050. And about half of that amount was from my own money. I had listened to a podcast earlier today that was talking about Abraham, Isaac, and if he should've trusted God. A God that said, "Here's your promise, here's the actual promise come alive, and now I want you to kill it." Or, at least, that's my version of Abraham's thought process. I knew that God had given me a promise that He would get me to Uganda. Truly, there is no other way to describe this mission journey besides God has promised to send me to Uganda. And now, I felt as though He was asking me to lay it all on the line and kill my promise. Umm, WHAT? WHY? But He has been faithful before. He has brought me this far. So I gave up a lot of my security in one check and got busy praying. I knew that God would open a door at anytime with anyone in any place. I just thought it would be at the end of this week. Instead, God answers my prayer and even gives me almost a double promise! I got an email back from our family friend saying that he would like to partner with our mission journey and donate $3,000! DOUBLE THE AMOUNT THAT I REALLY NEEDED. So all I could do was hug my mom and cry because God provided. He really does have unlimited supply and He really has promised that He will send me to Uganda.

If I ever needed a bigger gesture that God is truly faithful and that I WILL be going to Uganda on July 12th then this was the gesture. I know that God doesn't always work like this and I know that what I see in Uganda will change my whole worldview. For some reason God REALLY wants me in Uganda and I cannot WAIT to see why!

Be Still and Get Moving

The theme of this week has been "Be Still and Get Moving". God works in oxymorons so just let me explain.

Be Still
Psalm 138:8   Hebrews 13:6   Psalm 62:1
Obviously, this whole process of going to Uganda is teaching me the importance of being still and letting God work. I am definitely more prone to feeling as though I need to take everything in my own hands and that I will be the one that makes it all happen. I needed to learn that it wasn't me that was actually doing the work. I could put the support letters in the mail, but do I hand deliver them? Do I make sure that they are put in the hands of the people that will help me? No, God does that. So that already helps take some pressure off of myself. I don't have to feel as though I need to be in control because as soon as something leaves my hands I don't have any control.
God knows what He is doing. I have to trust that He does even when I have a little doubt that this might be the time that He doesn't come through.

Get Moving
Galatians 6:8   Isaiah 6:8   Romans 5:5
But this does not in anyway give me an excuse to put off sending out support letters! Or talking to the person that I know needs a little encouragement. Or thinking that God is going to move in some HUGE way so I can just "be still". So when God tells me that I'm going to Uganda in July and I have about a week and a half at the latest to get $1,500 for the plane flight you best BELIEVE I start moving! But it also shows what I should have been doing these past two weeks, then not to feel ashamed or stressed that I procrastinated, and to keep moving forward.

By the way if you happen to have $1,500 in your wallet and want it to be tax-deductible please email me at righthanddistance@gmail.com.

Wow, it's been awhile.

Just realized that I haven't done a post in about a month. I knew I kept forgetting something!

This past month has been...a trip in itself. I thought for awhile that going to Uganda wasn't going to happen. I wasn't sure what was going on with our group and communication seemed a little spastic. It was very very VERY frustrating especially since I highly value a person with great communication skills. This past month has really taught me to

1. CHILL OUT 
2. Trust that God has made a promise that I will go to Uganda this year
3. Trust that God has already made the way to go to Uganda in July

Even with trip miscommunications we are officially underway on getting everything together! This means that even with the communication level that I like we now have a bigger problem: financials. I wasn't too worried about it (REALLY, which if you know me is probably pretty amazing to you) until I was filling out my Visa application. It then hit me how THIS IS REAL. I am filling out a Visa to stay in Uganda, somehow I have to get money to get there, and yet God is still going to be the same throughout this time. 

Even when schoolwork is piling up, my laundry hasn't been put away for two weeks, and my fish's tank is needing to be cleaned God is still the same. Even when I start to feel like I need to control everything but that I know it will still slip out of my hands, even when my first reaction is to snap at others, even when I just want to sleep, God is still the same. As long as I keep my eyes on Jesus then everything else becomes strangely dim. And it really does! He promises a peace beyond understanding that will guard our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7). He says to cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). And since I'm trying to live by the Spirit, I'm trying to stay in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). I thought that for awhile I got it but that just goes to show that I really didn't. I can never fully understand everything that I want to understand, but He promises peace in the uncertainty.

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What I Am Reading

"Blessed, because as truly as the widow's meal and oil failed not according to His word through Elijah, so shall every promise made to His saints yet receive its perfect accomplishment. The unimpeachable veracity, unchanging faithfulness and almighty power of God to make good His Word, is the impregnable foundation on which faith may securely rest." 

-The Life of Elijah by A.W. Pink

Praising while Praying

So last Wednesday, I found out that I have a spot going on the Uganda trip!!! SO. EXCITED. I have been praising God for the past 5 days because He did make a promise that I would go to Uganda this summer and He made it happen!

Now I am praying that my parents will "officially" be on board with this idea. Or at least quickly-on my time frame-get on board. God is teaching me a lot of patience right now because I have WAY too many ideas going around and around my head for support/fundraising and I feel as though I need to wait for my parents to make their decision. I am an adult, and they recognize that, but they would like to make sure that I am as safe as I could be.

So please pray that my family is as comfortable with the idea as they could be and that they get in touch with all the leaders so that they feel even better about what I will be doing/who is going with me.

(By the by, the summer camp that I went to when I was younger did a blog post on Teaching Spiritual Discipline. Essentially, Waiting on God. Here's the link if you want to check it out!)

I'm Still Waiting.

So no word on Uganda. Just a feeling that I'm taking as a promise that God has said I am going to Uganda this summer...somehow.
...
...
...

I'M GOING INSANE.

But I'm trying to learn something through this waiting period. 

I'm reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and thought I could learn to do prayer circles...in a day. So I'm learning patience. And to pray and praise through. That's actually what they say in the book. The patience part is just me.

I also read this article by Kristen from We Are THAT Family titled "When God Says Wait It's For A Reason" today. And yes, the title essentially was God's own tunnel vision to me. 

"Because even when you have the power to make things happen and go your way, it doesn't mean you should."

 And this is my struggle. This year has been where I learned to be the go-getter, the GET IT DONE and MOVE ON kind of girl. So when things are in my power to get it done, I get it done. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten how to be slow and still. I learned to be a river when I should just be the stream. I'm still moving but it's not all about my power.

So God didn't send the storm to speak, or the whirlwind, or the hurricane, or the train, or really anything else that would have slammed me in the face and made me be more patient. But He's giving just enough encouragement to get through tonight. And He will encourage into tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day. And until I hear a "YES!" or "Thanks for playing but NO." I'm going to hold on to that promise.

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." -Micah 7:7

P.S. Here's the article by Kristen!