Summer Highlights

Snapshots from July & August

Brooke's Uganda Ministry Update #10

Brooke’s Uganda Ministry Update #10 Sunday, September 3, 2006

Dear Loved Ones,

When you walk through the waters, I will be with you
And the waves, they will not overcome you
Do not fear, for I will be with you
I have called you by name, you are mine

For I am the Lord the your God
I am the Lord your God
I am the Holy One of Israel, your Savior
Do not Fear
Do not Fear
I am the Lord

Many times when the Lord comes to people in the Scriptures – perhaps through an angel or a light in the sky- the voice that comes immediately afterwards is: “Do not be afraid.” I think this is a message that I have been trying to remind myself of again and again lately – God is with me and He has promised that He has NOT given me a spirit of fear. He also has been speaking sweetly into my Spirit (when I have been quiet enough to listen) the truth that perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment (1 John 4:18). Although we deserve punishment in our sin, Christ’s blood covers us and therefore we can cry “Abba, Father!” It is exciting this message that Christ came to bring… and yet, how often in my circumstances do I miss that message and get caught up in wanting to control and just simply know what is coming next rather than trusting, seeking and believing? I want to remind, challenge and encourage all of us to seek in an active way to find the rest of God, the Shalom of the scriptures. It doesn’t seem to exist in this world, but in God there is a promise that it is available.

My life in the past 8 weeks has been one of opposites: striving, seeking to find rest, prove myself, feeling free as if I have nothing to prove, transition, loss, celebration and sorrow. I feel as if I have been loved so deeply and have been afraid it will all come crashing down. I have been so vulnerable it hurts and cried more than I ever wanted to… In many ways I feel as if since Tom returned from China we have been in a pressure cooker where every possible emotion and scenario can be played out again and again. We together have been living in the tension of the questions of identity as a single and choosing to perhaps become a couple in marriage and it is a difficult road in a culture that doesn’t truly fight for relationships beyond a romantic comedy or Disney version of “happily ever after.” I am not sure what I am doing most of the time, and then I remember God is supposed to lead this journey and I am called to be faithful and to seek first His Kingdom and righteousness…

Matthew 6:33 & 34
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

This is the day the Lord has made – let us rejoice and be glad in it! The scriptures are full of reminders that we are to look to the Lord as our provider and as the lifter of our heads. I have been through many questions and transitional places these past few weeks and yet, I have been reminded again and again that the Lord is faithful and that hope does not disappoint. As I write this update I am sitting on my bed in my new room at my friends Chris and Dani Fuller’s house. I am so grateful for their gift of hospitality and the generosity with which they first offered me this opportunity to stay with them back in December when I laid out for them my year plan… and when I e-mailed again in early August to see if they remembered that conversation and were they still open to me staying with them. It is a gift to be able to live with a Christian couple for a season especially as Tom and I consider marriage and walk through all the questions associated with that. Chris and I were in a Bible study through National Community Church for 2 years beginning 4 years ago and it is such a blessing to be able to reflect even on my past 4 years in DC as I have now simplified much in terms of possessions and stuff to have relationships be so sustaining and lasting. Now that Joannella, Anita and I have all moved out of our house, I am working at the Church of the Resurrection’s new office space. This space in itself is a great answer to prayer after 10 months of looking for viable space on Capitol Hill it is truly a gift from God that it was provided – just in mid-August and such a gift to me to share the common space with Miriam, our church administrator until I head to Uganda on September 6th. Truly, many things have changed, but that is also what I am realizing, things are always going to change and only Jesus remains the same – yesterday, today and forever. The Word of God stands true and He is the living Word. Lord, help us to trust you as all other sceneries change and perhaps even the people we are close with change as well.

“Praise you in this Storm” - Casting Crowns
I was sure by now, that you would have reached down and wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again I’ll say amen, but it’s still raining
As the thunder rolls, I barely hear your whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
As your mercy falls
I’ll praise the God who gives and takes away

I’ll praise you in this storm
I will lift my hands
You are who you are, no matter where I am
Every tear I cry, you hold in your hands
You’ve never left my side
Although my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm

I lift my eyes up to the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Honestly friends I feel that I am in the biggest discernment time of my life. Essentially the questions are: do I go to Australia and continue with my plans as a single woman, or do I stay in the US and flesh out what the relationship with Tom really is and could be… in some ways I have been feeling I am on the edge of a precipice and I have to jump and right now it could go either way… Tom would like there to be a way for me to “have my cake and eat it too” but I don’t know that this can be with my heart. Please pray for continued wisdom and discernment and for the Lord to clearly lead the path. I am headed back to Uganda this week and I do desperately need your prayers. I can’t do this alone and am seeking your covering dear ones. I am going from September 6-October 14. Already I have seen the Lord surround me with His love and favor in this trip planning and making it clear that this will be a different trip than the one I had a year ago. Anita Johnson(my roommate of the past 2 years) and another woman from our church, Marnie Nair are both going to be on the same flight I am taking on Wednesday from Washington, Dulles Airport to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. At this point our itineraries will vary and I’ll continue onto Entebbe, Uganda and they’ll head to Kigali, Rwanda. It is a great gift they have given me to join me in the flights. Then on the return to Washington, DC I do another part of the journey leaving Uganda to Amsterdam with the team that my Perspectives co-leader (and Tom’s roommate) Moses is leading to Uganda. Truly – I am not alone! After such a long and often lonely season of working from home, I am going to be able to join my brothers and sisters and Africa and re-connect with my co-worker Julie and her husband Scott in Uganda and the Lord has given me companions every step of the way. I feel His grace is upon me and although there has been many hard things happening lately within this work, I feel that He is calling me to persevere and end well the task He has set before me to accomplish.

What I will be doing once on there is to make sure the ground is ready to receive the almost 85 or so American guests we have joining us from around the US for our annual conference, the National Celebration Bible Believers Convention (BBC) and the short-term missions opportunity immediately preceding the conference. My task is to make sure logistically that all is in place for the medical team to travel to Lira, Northern Uganda and work both with our orphan homes children and those from the IDP camps; create opportunities to use the construction team in beneficial ways in Kampala; make sure the educators, social workers, pastoral leaders, evangelism and prayer teams all have a working schedule, and more! Whew! I would ask for your prayers that I would be able to rest in the Lord’s provisions and trust in Him for how He desires this all to come to pass. Pray that all those who are traveling to Africa (myself included) would have their hearts prepared for God’s will to be done (even if it looks different than our expectation) and for protection and safety during travel. Pray also for my working relationship both with Pastor Jackson Senyonga as I seek to serve him faithfully both on the ground and in the other ways he requires as I wrap up my job, as well as with my Ugandan co-laborers who I will rely on much when I am on the ground. Pray that I would have a spirit of flexibility and humility coming into my role this year and would be able to delegate and trust. Pray also for the time that Tom and I will be spending apart – that we both would clearly hear the Lord speak concerning our futures (shared or individual). Keep also in your prayers the trip that Anita and Marnie will be taking to Rwanda. Anita, as a librarian professionally, is serving with the Kigali Anglican Theological Seminary there to help set up their library cataloguing system and Marnie will be helping the school to develop their teaching programs (she is an accomplished educator).

Deuteronomy 5:12-14
“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD, your god has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, so that you may rest.”

We are entering a new season here in Washington. As tropical storm (formerly hurricane) Ernesto swept through it brought in its wake many downed leaves and cooler temperatures. Seasons must change and therefore although we are entitled to a mourning of what is gone (summer in the weather sense) there is anticipation for what the new season brings. This past two months has yielded 4 weddings (congratulations April and John, Kate and Seth, Anna and Jairo and Duni and Abenet), a few wonderful birthday parties (Tom, Courtney), an introduction of both sets of my parents to Tom, Tom’s annual family vacation, goodbye parties (Christian), hosting of the Rwandan pastor and his wife who pastor our sister church in Nyagatare (Deo and Beatrice), my moving out of my house, moving my office, closing out a storage unit for work, a 10 mile race, Family Vacation with a Purpose, visit from Rachael from England, reconnection with Charisma, Southeast White House back-to-school BBQ… and the celebrations and transitions are bound to continue. I am so grateful for the season I have just come through as hectic as it all has been and hopeful indeed for what is to come. In each celebration, step and question, the Lord is faithful and reminds me of His love. I am especially grateful for the sacrifice of driving time my parents made to come and meet Tom. I felt so incredibly loved by them as they support me through the questions and remind me of who I am, where I come from and seek to point me back to Jesus. Only the Lord knows the tomorrows, but as today is Sunday and I am seeking to rest, I can enjoy this day and pray that you would all as well. In our first (Tom and I) meeting with Dan and Elise (the rector and his wife of Church of the Rez) Dan said to us: “The biggest sin I see in your relationship is that of busyness. It is a sin glorified in our nation and especially in this city, but unless you get together and look at your schedule and clear some time on the calendar, I don’t know how you are going to make these important decisions.” This comment to me cut to the quick of the struggle I have for so long been trying to lay down before the Lord. How do I rest and cease from striving in the midst of a culture that screams out to do different opportunities and options? Here I am now in a relationship with a man who also has a lot of responsibility in both professional as well as personal arenas and a wide variety of interests, much like my own… how do we choose the great and be willing to sacrifice the good…? I am off to Africa in 3 days and I pray that my time in a more event-oriented rather than task-oriented place will help me discover something about that. Pray that we will all learn to rest in Jesus and become what we are called to as followers of Him.

All my love and hope, holding today loosely…

Brooke