One Week...

It's honestly hard to even comprehend the fact that in One Week the 11 of us will begin our journey to Uganda.

So much prayer and preparation have gone into this trip, that as our time dwindles down, I cannot help but feel slightly anxious and overwhelmed. And yet; at the same time, completely overjoyed and elated at the thought of our Father using us!

It's just unreal how obvious it is that God has orchestrated this. Hearts have been changed, funds have been raised, and spirits stirred; all highlighting a mid-summer commitment of 11 young people to fulfill the Great Commission. Throughout this process I am continually humbled by God's sovereignty and provision. From our garage sale and t-shirt profits, to generous donors, the pieces are all falling into place.

It is so evident that this is His trip, in line with His plan, to fulfill His mission.

We are vessels, mere servants, simply seeking to glorify our Lord and respond to His clear calling. Thus, as we pack our bags with supplies for Jireh, and buy lots of last-minute trail mix and military grade Deet, each one of us is completely aware that those packs wouldn't even be zipped if it wasn't for the clear purpose our God has placed before us.

Each one of us has prepared a portion of Ephesians to speak on (6 chapters for the 6 days we will be speaking to the older students at Jireh) and my heart is so full when I think about how God is going to use each person and their individual story to bring these words of Paul to life.

1 Corinthians 12:4-31 is a beautiful passage that talks about the importance of individual gifts and I feel like these verses are appropriate for our team. We have been so randomly assembled. Each of us with different backgrounds and testimonies, and yet our Lord sees us uniquely fit for His Divine purpose. In keeping in line with this scripture, it will be important for everyone of us to keep in mind what it is that the Lord wants to use us for while in Uganda. The older teens we will be working with are in need of serious love, and who better to bring that love than impassioned followers of Jesus Christ?

I think it can be easy for us to look at this situation and think, great, what does my testimony of being raised in an upper-middle class white family have in common with their lives as orphans in an impoverished country? How can they honestly see me as "relating"? And true, there are alot of things we may not have in common with these brothers and sisters, but the reality of the situation is that regardless of our life-circumstances, we have one MAJOR thing in common: we are all sinners. Entirely deserving of eternal punishment, and yet a mighty, loving, God decided to take on flesh and humble himself to the lowest possible standing. Jesus Christ lived a life we could have never lived, and died a death we completely deserved. All this suffering in order to bring a rag-tag group of sinful human beings into an eternal, debt-free, relationship with Him forever.

It is this, the beauty of the gospel that compels us to love these children. It is the beauty of the gospel that takes all of our blatant differences and reveals the important commonalities. And it is the beauty of the gospel, that allows this ragamuffin group of 11 people to travel almost 40 hours to a Ugandan village, in order to make sure our brothers and sisters there are experiencing the transforming power of this unparalleled truth.

One week. SO ready!