Internship Day One and Two

Good Afternoon.

Day 2 of real internship. I mean, today was the second day that I went to the church.

I'm not gonna lie, yesterday was real tough. Let me take you through it step by step: Pastor Micah came to pick me up in the morning and told me I would be preaching that night. HOLY COW! Luckily, I had written one manuscript before I came, but of course I did not bring it with me. So we got to church and I went to staff meeting, and they told me all the things that I would be doing, which only consisted of teaching. That was kind of a bummer. I had wanted to invest more into the lives of people in a discipleship kind of way. But I just kept my mouth shut at that point. So then I went into another meeting, and they told me more specifically what I will be teaching on. This is the best. Friday night (as in this friday night, two days away. They kinda sprung that one on me), I will be teaching from the book "Single, Sassy and Satisfied" dealing specifically on the topic of men. So, I mean.... I don't know! Over here its a real big deal if you're in your twenty and thirties if you aren't married, I mean real big. Marriage is your identity. So these women are single minded, all they want is a husband and they totally comprise their standards in order to get one. It's pretty sad. So that's legit. 

After that, Liz, the lady in charge of ministry planning, told me I would be teaching Sunday School two times (but its like High School age kids), and then going through the "Don't Waste Your Life" Bible Study with adults on Sunday morning. So that's fine. I've read that book before. 

So anyways, like I said, it was real heavy on the teaching and not on anything else. And the whole time I was in these meetings, all I was thinking about was the fact that I had to preach in about 6 hours and hadn't even thought about my manuscript since two weeks before. But I figured out that I didn't have to come all the way home to print out my manuscript, because it was on my gmail! I could just go to the internet cafe. But of course right around the time I got out of the second meeting it started POURING! Uganda is paralyzed by rain. No one goes outside until the rain stops, which is usually fine because it only rains for about 30 minutes or so. But of course this rain lasted about 4 hours. So i just sat, waiting... getting stressed and anxious. During this time, some glitch happened with my phone's software and now it doesn't work! So that's just another thing to think about and get worked up about. I started to cry... and Ugandans don't handle crying well. I knew that, so I held it together when I was around them. So finally, I was able to print out my stuff and had about two hours to look over it. I had a really sweet time with the Lord before I went to teach, and that was surely the brightest spot of my day. And then around 6, the choir showed up and I gave my sermon, and then finally was able to go home. But on the way home, the guy got lost and it took an hour and a half. When I got home, I just let it flow. There's a lot of other cultural barriers that happened throughout the day, that I won't bore you with, but those things added to the tension I was feeling. 

I am so grateful for my teammates and Dr. Lightbody, as they just listened and encouraged me after a pretty discouraging day. And I am also so grateful for Brian and Renee and their wisdom and insight. They took me out to breakfast this morning :)

Like I said, day one was rough. But day two was much better. There has been a real lack of communication, and once we started to hash that out, everything is seeming to fall in place a lot better. And even in the hard times, I know that God is working and He has a purpose, and I just need to be faithful. God really is so so good. 

Brian asked me this morning that if I could "play God" in this situation so that I feel effective and at peace, what would I change. I told him that if I could meet one person and have a real connection with them and really be able to invest in her life over the next six weeks, I would be so pumped about that. So I ask you to pray for that. And pray that I would be able to just be myself. I have found myself trying to be so culturally sensitive that I am always second guessing myself on what I say or how I act, and its starting to really become a hinderance! Oh man.

Well now, I'm going to go and start reading "Single, Sassy and Satisfied." Nate was like "You'll be awesome at teaching that because you are all of those things." Hahahahaha. Sassy... haha. Loved it.

I really am so excited about the opportunities that I will be able to have while I'm here and the way that I will be able to minister. Although yesterday was a bummer day, like I said today wasn't, and I praise God for that. Everyone has a bad day once in a while, and this internship is going to be hard. But hard in a really good way, and I am already learning so much. Hallelujah. 

And Mom, don't worry. Brian and Renee got the phone thing figured out. I mean, I'll probably have to get it figured out at home, but at least they got me a phone to use while I'm here. No prob.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my life and for praying for me. I am really so thankful. 

Love.