Miss you...

So this experiencing life in Africa for the summer comes with its ups and downs, of course. And right now I'm experiencing one of those downs...the missing of people that I love. Actually, I cannot sleep and I think that's why. So my plan is to ramble my thoughts out....

I feel like I've learned so much from my aunt and uncle about adjusting and building a life in a foreign culture, thousands of miles from the one you know. They're wonderful at sharing everything from grocery shopping to jet lag to culture shock to schillings and exchange rates to African church to raising kids to the importance of community to driving to baking to the dangers of thieves to reupholstering furniture to raising support to trusting God to being a mzungu to bargaining to malaria to being part of the Body...there's so much to think about when you pick up and move across the world! Each difficulty I have makes me think about the great task that God has called a foreign missionary to. This is experience is certainly helping me to know how to pray for those serving Him cross-culturally. Missing home is something that all of them feel sometimes, I imagine. Probably just this small longing for the familiar.

I've had Matthew & Heather on my mind so much lately. I listened to their latest podcast a couple times this past week. Please pray for them if you would...I know that they are still doing a lot of wild adjusting and learning. Coming to Africa is not nearly the same as where they are, but it helping me quite a lot to pray for them and relate a bit to what they've felt. They must be exhausted. I think that experience really affects our prayers. I would go so far as to say that everyone needs to take even a mission trip to another country...maybe not to another country, but definitely to a different culture. I just think that the ability that travel and cross-cultural ministry give you to begin to empathize with missionaries would help us all know how to pray for the needs of missionaries is all. I hope you consider it anyway. Our world is pretty enormous, I'm learning.

So...this wasn't much, but it's like pretty early in the morning and I'm not my sharpest at this hour. Tomorrow we're off to Embali for the field retreat for the next few days. I'm heading up the teen Bible study group, and looking forward to just hanging out with the missionaries and seeing more of Uganda. Pray for the missionaries and mish kids...this will be a much needed break for them and a sweet time of refueling.