...the adventure begins...

Friends.

Here it is. The morning I leave home to begin the trek to Uganda. I cannot wait to meet the other 21 students I will be sharing this adventure with. We will train for a week stateside before we fly out.

As today got closer and closer, I began to get emotional. I am leaving all that I know for something I really don't know. Yes, I grew up in Europe, so that's foreign...but it is definitely NOT Africa.

In those moments over the past few months where fear has seized my heart and threatened to keep me preoccupied, I am reminded of Jesus' words recorded in Matthew:

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (10: 39)

If I am married to this life: my relationships on earth, my material possessions, my human experiences, I miss the point that an eternally personal God is trying to make. If I cling, I begin to manipulate the course of this life, rendering it solely mine. But, as usual, Jesus proposes something counter cultural, counter intuitive. He asks us to give it all up and trust that he has a better, more full, more shalom plan.

As Paul writes in Philippians, "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him . . . " (3: 8-9)

It doesn't make sense, does it? Lose everything to gain...everything? It requires a step of faith, but knowing that you will gain eternal life and a further glimpse of the creator of the universe is enough of a carrot for me. So, here I go.

Thank you all for your prayers, your commitment to keep praying while we're gone, and your concern and compassion for others you don't know who have endured great suffering. I don't know what God has in store, but I cannot wait to find out.

Final requests to be covered in prayer (taken from the book Girl Soldier):

• Please pray for an end to over two decades of war
• Security, peace and restoration for the people
• Nearly two millions displaced people to be able to return home and to receive back their land (check out IJM's mission in Uganda: ijm.org)
• Rehabilitation and healing for child soldiers
• Reconciliation for families
• Protection, health and wisdom for relief workers and church leaders
• Lives, homes and farms of the people to be rebuilt

I'll leave you with a quote from one of the great examples, Mother Teresa:

"I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me."

In love, in prayer and in eager anticipation ;)

An Overwhelming Response!

Hello friends :)

Just a brief post to say THANK YOU! So many people came together to donate to Child Voice International and reach my birthday wish of $100.

But it didn't stop there.

Together, we actually raised $170!! It would be amazing to reach $200 by the time I leave, which is *drum roll please* on Friday.

If you're interested in helping the cause (an organization that works to help rehabilitate former child soldiers) then check out my cause page here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/351757?bws=sl

I will return soon with more specifics on how to pray while I'm away. Much love for now and thank you so much for those of you who gave to CVI last week :)

Sobering Reality

Two hours ago I finished my final exams, signaling the close of my sophomore year at Wheaton. For the past few weeks, Uganda has been a strange shadow or a fuzzy future that I cannot really flesh out. It has been more of a concept than a reality.

Right now I am catching up on the reading we are completing to prepare ourselves for the trip. We have been assigned "Girl Soldier" which is a split testimonial by former child soldier, Grace Akallo, and American activist, Faith McDonnell.

The passages in this book reveal a sobering reality. Published in 2007, it is not completely up to date on the strides peace and hope have made in Uganda, but it paints a painful picture of the horrors these child soldiers faced.

I am going to completely misquote Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission, but he alludes to social justice work and its message needing to include roughly 30% facts and 70% hope in order to motivate people to help. I think that's pretty accurate.

The graphic descriptions of murder and rape in this book are so hard to stomach. I am sitting here in the Admissions office for my final shift getting sick to my stomach, feeling a distant echo of the wounds I am reading about.

Come to think of it, now is probably not the best time to be reading this, when I am expected to answer the phones in a chipper and professional way...

All that to just be reminded that Uganda has had an intense past. I want to do all that it is in my power, through God, to prevent any more of the children of northern Uganda from going through such despicable tortures.

Please join me in prayer today for the current and future leaders of Uganda, that they might find peaceful ways to avoid the violence that has shed blood on its past.

A Birthday and a Cause

Friends :)

In five days I can finally say that I am twenty! I am eager to leave the "teens" behind... (especially when you're dating someone well into their early twenties...now I will join him!)

Facebook Causes has a great program where you can set up a birthday wish for others to support a cause you are passionate about. It's a brilliant idea. On your birthday, how many people visit your profile to state the obvious in a very sweet and overwhelming way? One of my friends recorded 105 posts. What if those 105 people could give $10 to a cause? To an organization that relies on donations to actually make a tangible change in the world? That would be (English major consults her calculator, yes, sad, I know) $1050! That's crazy!

So. This birthday my goal is to reach just $100 for Child Voice International, the NGO we'll be supporting and learning from near Gulu in Uganda this summer. The internet is amazing. Almost seconds after I posted this cause to my profile I had a donation. Over the next few days, I'll be raising awareness for my cause in hopes that we might, together, raise $100 for CVI.

This summer we'll be helping them construct an Adult Education Center that will seek to provide resources for adults who need to reintegrate into society. We'll also be embarking on a very exciting venture with CVI, a conference for the women. Our team director shared that "It is the first time in 20 years of war for these women to get in depth Christian teaching. I see it as a critical step in healing the land."

If you're interested in donating to my cause, check it out here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/351757?m=a835d7ea&bws=dms

Today I spent some more time in Psalms. Psalm 19 reminded me that God really is everywhere. Creation sings of his orchestration and his beautiful artistry. My brothers and sisters in Uganda have experienced him simply in the blowing of the wind, the majesty of mountains. "There is no speech or language/ where their voice is not heard." I am getting excited to help color in their picture of God just a little bit more through introducing the Bible to those who might not have had access to it. It is amazing that God would deign to use a broken vessel like me to be the bearer of the best news in the world.

Fifteen days.

Thank you, truly, for considering to donate and for supporting all of this in prayer.

In love,

Erin

Poked and Prodded and getting Prepared

Yesterday, three of my fellow Uganda-mates and I went to the Miriam Hospital in Providence to get all of our immunizations up to date. FUN.

Shots have never been a great experience for me. There's always the mental build-up and insurmountable fear that creeps in. But this time I knew I had people praying for me and can honestly say that God filled me with so much peace. It was great. No tears, little fears.

Three shots later and the only obstacle between me and Uganda is two final exams and jury duty. Yes, two years into my American stay and they already tagged me for jury duty...this should be interesting...

In other news, Tom has updated us about possible projects we'll be working on in Uganda that could use your prayer! Ready for the break-down?

-While we're in Uganda, we are partnering with local university students knows as FOCUS students. Please pray for real bonding and relationships to grown between us as we travel and work together.

-While we work with the NGO Come Let's Dance in Kampala, we'll be helping out with the New Start Center for boys. This includes tutoring, cooking, cleaning and learning from the boys.

-Child Voice International is in Lukodi village, just north of Gulu, and there we will be doing a LOT: Construction on the school, beginning an adult education center and planning a Women's Conference in June. We'll also be doing a lot with the youth there and coordinating Vacation Bible School.

Hopefully those are some more tangible things for you to pray over. We will have to be very flexible, so we do not know which projects we will see through to completion, but we trust that God is going to use us in his timing, in his plan.

Countdown: twenty-two days. Let's do this.

I'll leave you with a snippet from Psalm 10 that hits the mark for me re: Uganda:

"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the
afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen
to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the
oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more."