ring, ring, ring? Who is calling?

So, this past Sunday was palm Sunday, and let me tell you, the palm branches were flailing as we worshipped Jesus in Nikoyoyo Hall!  It was beautiful and brings a smile to my face just thinking about it!

Pause in the story.

The school semester has now finished- I am a graduate of UCU Study Abroad Semester.  This past week, the group has been discussing what it means to have a calling.  Do we have a call?  Do individuals have special calls?

Think about Moses, Joseph, Joshua, the first disciples, Elijah, Jonah, and Noah.  God spoke to all these people directly or through an angel.  I have often thought, "Wouldn't that be sweet if God could tell me specifically what He wanted me to do just like He told these people!"  Can you imagine God speaking to you through a burning bush as you are walking down the road, or can you imagine suddenly seeing an angel as you are making dinner?

The thing is, these people who God called were the humblest- they were from the smallest tribe, they were the youngest, they were those who others looked down upon, they were common people.  It is true that God did speak specific callings to these people, but have you ever thought about all of the other hundreds of people that were involved in these stories?  Have you read the stories from the perspective of the crowds or the townspeople: the hardworking mother of 5 children, the adventurous 12-year-old boy, or the respected grandmother?  Has not God also called these people?

Have you ever played the game of Mafia?  You know, in a group of people, you pass out cards and the kings are mafias, the queens are doctors, the jacks are sheriffs, and the number cards are townspeople.  So, in that game, who are the majority of the people? doctors? no. sheriffs? no. townspeople? yes. The majority of the people are TOWNSPEOPLE.  Normal? yes.  Important? YES.  Just because townspeople are the majority does not mean they don't have a "calling."  Rather, their calling is a community calling to discover the mafia and save the community.  It is worthy.

Calling. Do you realize we all have one, together, as follows of Jesus?  My heart has desired a "specific" calling that is "unique" and "special."  However, embedded within that desire, is all too often my desire for recognition or power.  I like to feel like I am different than others (like being a sheriff or a doctor!).  However, it is not my Kingdom that needs building.  It is God's Kingdom!  And He has given us a calling!

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
 ¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:14-21

That is our call- together :).  We are ambassadors of the Almighty God- compelled by the love of Christ. We do not bring the kingdom of God ourselves, rather we testify to the Kingdom of God already being here!

Unpause top story.

--random interjection: a Ugandan friend just told me: "bonfires are good when you are roasting a goat."  I was expecting marshmallows, but goats are good too :)--

So, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, with everyone waving their palm branches and shouting Hosanna in the highest!, who are the characters that are most commonly remembered?  I would say Jesus and the donkey.  So, do you want to be the donkey, one who Jesus' calls?  or, more commonly, a townsperson, waving the branches, worshipping the King?  Let us together, simply hold to our call to be an ambassador to the Lord!  That looks different for various people, animals, and creation, but we are simply called to be obedient!  We have that calling together.

What has this taught me? relax.  humble myself.  God's Kingdom is here.  We are ambassadors.  Our call is to be obedient testimonies to His faithfulness, and we do not need a voice from Heaven to tell us that because we have already been told!  Let's take this calling seriously, and commit ourselves to the reign of Christ over all else.

Okay- good night friends!

PRAY: Tomorrow morning, the group is leaving for Rwanda.  A brief history: 17 years ago in April, there was a genocide in Rwanda where 800,000 people were killed in 100 days.  It will be the anniversary while we are there, so please pray that all of Rwanda would experience a greater part of God's heart of reconciliation.  Also, pray that all of our hearts would be protected from fear or doubt.  May this be a time of further uniting and understanding our identity in the body of Christ- the world Church.

With love (nkwagala- i love you),
nicole

Restoration of Voices

A few weekends ago, a group of 14 travelled by van to Gulu, a district in northern Uganda.  Many of us Americans associate Northern Uganda with what Invisible Children has taught us: themes running along the lines of child soldiers, war, Joseph Kony, HIV/AIDS, and others...  all of these things are aspects of the history of the North, but solely individual facts which, in reality, are woven together with feelings of defeat and hope, suffering and life, deep pain and powerful joy- God's presence in it all. This group visited an organization called Child Voice International. Words I would use to describe the 2 generations of women affected by the war in this place: raw, beautiful, strong, family-focused, pain, life, freedom, fight.  The perseverance of these 13 women and their children, whose voices at one time seemed silenced and forgotten, are surely being strengthened through the power of Our faithful God!!

"By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all... Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." -Hebrews 10: 10, 13-14

Here is some background on the organization from the ChildVoice website:

ChildVoice International was born in April 2006 after visits to Uganda revealed the hidden horrors of a long-running war. The Lord’s Resistance Army has staged a 20-year rebellion during which it has sustained its forces by kidnapping children and forcing them to become soldiers, forcing them to march through the bush and carry out acts of brutality on villagers across Northern Uganda. An estimated 30,000 children have been abducted since the war’s start. Many have escaped and found their way back to their home communities – many of them shadows of their former selves. These children face innumerable hardships, from post-traumatic stress disorder to lack of education.

By 2005, with internally displaced persons (IDP) camps swelling and the incidents of sexual assaults and disease increasing, non-governmental organizations (NGO) were working in the region to provide short-term solutions for returning abductees and displaced villagers. But it was clear that more help was needed. After spending a year researching the issues, developing on-the-ground contacts, and working with experienced NGO managers, Conrad Mandsager developed the concept of a long-term rehabilitation center for child victims of war. The program model would address not only the mental health and educational needs of individual victims, but also the health and reconciliation needs of communities torn apart by war.

When we arrived at Child Voice, we were greeted by the ululations and dancing of the women under the black sky and sparkling stars. IEIEIEIIEIEIEIIEIEIIEEIEI!!!!! Wow. This is going to be an amazing weekend.  These women have such different backgrounds from us. How will we connect? We got out of the dusty van after about 7 hours of driving to be shown to our huts and hammocks that we would be sleeping in!!! :)  What will tomorrow hold?


The next day, we met a man named Nicolas who is a Social Worker, Councilor, and in the process of getting His Masters of Divinity, and had planted himself in Gulu throughout the war.  He also helped design the counseling program at Child Voice.  This man was incredible.  He testified to God's faithfulness and presence throughout the war, as one whose cousin had been abducted twelve years, and is still with Kony's army who is now in the Congo.

Throughout the weekend, we were able to see glimpses of the girls lives... it was such a beautiful picture of God's reconciliation and faithfulness.  Through the 18 months in the program, the girls received psychological and spiritual counseling, learned life skills such as conflict management and how to work together as a community, and did skills training in cooking, hair solon, bead business and more..  IT IS AWESOME!!  There is such restoration that happens as the girls gain back confidence and understand the value they have in being children of the awesome God... Satan is crushed every day, and these girls' lives are testimonies to there being "no fear in love, but perfect love casting out fear" (1 John 4:18).

some of the beautiful ladies who taught me some dance moves one night under the stars :)!

I have been thinking more lately about what fears have a hold on me in my life... and how really, they are all insignificant.  The fear of failure.  The fear of insignificance. The fear of conformity. The fear of death. All are made void in Christ.... spend some time thinking about that today :).

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful... But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." -Hebrews 10:23, 39