processing.
below are two posts i wrote for sweet sleep’s blog—the first, while in uganda and the last, after my return home. i’ve been home almost 3 weeks and just now really processing my trip. i’ll warn you, this post is kind of a stream of consciousness, so i’m hoping it will actually make some sense.
it seems that the way i’ve started processing things is in terms of before and after. before gulu and after gulu. i’ll start with before.
before, i was anxious and fearful. i made that pretty clear in this post. i was already pretty involved with sweet sleep—god had already placed a burden on my heart for his orphaned and abandoned children. i already hurt for them, prayed for them, and gave what i could to help them in my time and resources. i felt called to go specifically to gulu and was doing so simply out of obedience. i was expecting to see things that were hard to see, even expecting for what i would learn and see to break my heart. however, i walked away with more than a sad heart and an increased love for orphans. much, much more.
i walked away not only with an increased passion for orphans and for sweet sleep and their mission, but a passion for my mission. we all have one, whether we acknowledge it or not. we have all be given talents and gifts and resources. we have all been called to care for the less fortunate: the less fortunate half a world away, and the less fortunate in our own backyards. if you are like me, it is easy to get wrapped up in your own world, your own problems, your own battles. we are so very short-sighted, aren’t we? i went to gulu already broken. it has been a hard year in a lot of ways. i went to a place where i thought hope and grace would be hard to see, and it was just the opposite. as i watched hope restored in the sweet people of northern uganda, hope was in return restored to me as well. i went empty and left overflowing. i learned that if you are seeking to be ministered to, minister to others.
that is about as far as i’ve gotten. it’s a work in progress, i suppose. i’m a work in progress.
