Faith and Hope

The most encouraging words for me lately are ‘faith’ and ‘hope’. So I flipped to the back of my Bible, and looked up those words in the concordance, and I read through the verses that they had list, and here is what I found when I looked up ‘faith’

2 Cor 5:7 We shall walk by faith, not by sight.

That one of those verse that I hear all the time, but when I read it, it hit me. Even though I don’t see why God is doing certain things to me, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a meaning. Even though I think God has forgotten all about me, doesn’t mean He has! God is in control! No matter how big the situation is! No matter how hard you cry, no matter how bad it hurts, no matter how scared you are, no matter how confused you are. God does it all for a reason, and it will all be clear soon. So even though I don’t understand, doesn’t mean it’s not happening for a reason.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God much believe that he is…

Lately I’ve put God on a shelf, and taken him down only if I wanted some. I found my prayers ended up just being ‘Dear God, I thank you for the beautiful day, and keeping us safe.’ Then I begin asking for Him for things. But when I read this verse, I began to think, why do I have such little faith, I thank Him for doing what I wanted, then give him another long wish list. But then the next day I fear. But I need to step back, and tell myself that God is in control, and He is who He says He is. And that I can’t change what He has planned.

Now this next verse caught me off guard.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

Which pretty much brings me back to 2 Cor 5:7.

Now ‘hope’,

Psalms 71:5 For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth.

Rom 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

1 Tim 1:1 …God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.

All of these verse are pretty much saying, God is my hope. And if I want I hope, then I need Him.

I really like Psalms 139:7 which says ‘Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

And

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

God is with me everywhere, on the highest mountain, to the deep sea, in Arkansas or in Uganda.

And lastly these verse have really helped me through some hard times in my life.

Psalms 2:12 …….Blessed is all those who put their trust in Him.

And

Psalms 30:3 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Next week I’ll try to post some more stories :)

Hi Mzungu!

HI everyone! I’m so sorry that it has taken me so long to post, but I’ve been really busy. But yes I’m alive! Uganda is amazing! I can’t even put it into words! It’s..amazing! Life is crazy, but good! I miss my friends and family a lot!

Oh and the title mean 'Crazy white people' which is what the kids yell at us whenever we walk by (they mean it with affection! haha)

Nothing really eventful happened on the plane, so I’m going to start from when we got of the plane in Entebbe, Uganda.

We all got off the plane, exhausted. (3:00am Ugandan time, 12:00pm Arkansas time) And huge sign welcomed us saying “Welcome to the Pearl of Africa!” I got chills when I saw it. Then while our parents dealt with visas, us kids sat down with our bags. It took an hour or so to get visas dealt with. Then we went to get our luggage. Then we headed out of the airport, where a man held a sign say ‘Scott and Kelly’ (Aunt Cari the lady we are working with here, had him come get us) so we followed him out to a van. And put our stuff into the van, and piled into it. And as we drove away from the airport it hit me. There were no more planes. Not more packing for Uganda. No more goodbyes. No more. We were here. We were in Uganda. We ARE in Uganda! So sitting in a van, bumping across the dirt road, Annie on my lap. The Uganda scenery passing by my window. I cried. I asked God ‘Why do you want me here? Why did I have to leave my friends? Why did I have to leave my family? Why did I have to say goodbye to my big brother and sister? Why me? Why?’ We drove for 40 minutes, to Kampala. Once we arrived at our house, we all made up our beds, and went to bed (or laid in our beds not tired at all, because it was like..3:00 in the afternoon to our bodies) But we did finally go to bed. But before I knew it my dad was shaking me awake telling me the Aunt Cari (we call everyone here Aunt or Uncle) Aunt Ruth, and Courtney where over to take us out to eat. So I slowly (but surely) got out of bed, got dressed, and we left. We got to the mall where we were going to eat. (it was 12:00pm Ugandan time, and 9:00pm Arkansas) There were like 4 restaurants, and once we turned the corner to where they all were, different people, from different restaurants, came around us, handing us menus. Asking what we wanted, and until we ordered, they finally left.

Nothing really else happened, until Monday. Which was when we went to help with the Holiday Program, at the school we’re working at. The Holiday Program is pretty much VBS. We did sports, bible, and music. It involved older kids and younger (from ages 6-14) which was nice because I got to meet the girls my age too :) That was so much fun! Those kids are so talented!!

After the Holiday Program was over. A week before school started. My mom helped the teachers with getting ready for school. And somehow, the teachers found out I could draw. So they had me come up to the school, and draw all of the posters for there classrooms. And I guess I didn’t say my name clearly, because they think my name is Merisha. Haha! They had me drawing, mangos, huts, yams, zippers, doors, apples, oranges, bananas, pineapples, jackets, igloos, rats, snakes, kites, and much much more! But they all turned out really nice ;)

Now that’s just a bit of what we’ve been doing. But I’ll post more later

Check out the pictures of our house, and around where we live!

I was walking around with Courtney, Benji, and Laura. And i had my camera out. And these kids came running out of house all around, screaming "Photograph!"

This is out wonderful house!