That seems to be the question on my mind, and I am sure that of all of us who went to Uganda. We saw God do some amazing things and there is much more that He is doing there. One of my greatest fears is that I will come back home and get back to life as usual. Quite honestly, after being that close to God and being involved in His work in Uganda, I don't want to get back to "usual".
It was truly a blessing to get back home, see my wonderful wife, children and grandkids. To get the hug in the parking lot of the church that I'd been longing for was as good as I had imagined. Walking back into my house was a bit of a shock though. After what we had seen and done, I felt like I was walking into a palace. I had available to me all of the food I could want, fresh/clean water just by turning on the faucet, fresh milk in the refrigerator, several kinds of bread, heat, a stove to cook on, a warm shower - basically more luxuries than I had seen in my entire time in Uganda.
I'm not sure that God wants me to pick up and move to Uganda. I won't rule it out, because I found that my plans are not necessarily God's plans, but I really don't feel that's the path he has for me. Rather, there is a lot of work I can do from here to help the people in Uganda and regular visits will be a must.
There were some amazing relationships built in a short time down there. I have talked in previous posts about the growing bond between Ken and Pastor Sylver of the church in Kachungwa. Most of us have been friended by several new friends from Uganda on Facebook. I even had one young Sunday school leader from Uganda ask me to be his spiritual father. This is a relationship that I envision continuing for a long time.
We all had some deep relationships develop with our own sponsored children. We loved them not just with a few gifts, but we are investing in their lives by paying for their education, meals, clothing and other benefits that REALLY improve their quality of life. Not only that, we were able to hug them, see their homes, meet their parent/parents and spend some good quality time with them. While writing letters has been a joy, it will be much more meaningful now that we have had that personal contact. Many of the children cried at our departure - just ask Isaac about the mixed feelings that come with the love and tears of a child.
Above all things that I learned down there is that I need to seek God first in all things. Probably the hardest thing about coming back is that in my home and in the US in general, we really don't need to in order to get by. I read a little of this in the book "Kisses from Katie" (which if you haven't read, you should). She related a story of a time when she had been in Uganda for some time and came home to go to college and she really missed the dependence on God. I really didn't understand it at the time, and probably still don't fully, but have a much better idea of what that means. I loved being dependent on Him and seeing God answer prayers in a very real way.
While we were in Uganda, there was a noticible shift in our thinking and our actions. Prayer came first in everything. God's will was the one that we answered to, not our own. Prayer was sweet and God answered.
I've taken a few extra days off work to process what has happened and recover from the travel. Next Monday, I will go back into the office and read through many hundreds of e-mail messages, then start back to the grind. How am I going to be different? What is going to change? I pray that God will never let me be the same as I was before this trip and that I will remain in His will. I also pray that I will pray like I never have before and that He will make His will known to me.
One of the recurring thoughts that nagged me throughout the time in Uganda was the story of the rich young ruler. What was he willing to give up, or not, to follow Christ? What would he do or not do to gain everything? I have had a taste of what God will do with those who serve Him and now need to figure out the answer to the question "Now what?"
It truly is in the powerful and holy name of Jesus that we pray and believe!
Dave
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