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Wow.
Time sure does fly...
Those were my exact words in my first blog entry '6 Months Left...'
A lot of things have happened over the first 6 months of being here in Uganda, specifically in Arua. Some good times, some bad times, some alone times, some fellowship times, some joyful times, some sad times. There's this term that missionaries usually call as the "honeymoon" stage, and I believe that I have gone past that stage. What do I mean? Well basically when you look back at the photos that you've taken over the past several months, you start to notice that the number of pictures you take, it decreases by the month. You also begin to call the place your home and you can relate to your colleagues and neighbors.
The first few weeks were quite slow when I got here, but now, time flies by quickly! Can you believe that I've been in Arua for 6 months already? Next thing you know, I'm at the one year mark!
I must admit, I do miss my actual home with my family and friends. I can list out a lot of things that I miss from home but I will not or else you will get bored of this blog.
Here's a collage of pictures I've taken for the past 6 months:
I got a chance to go to one of the national parks in Uganda, Murchison Falls National Park.
After being here for some time, I finally got a chance to take a break to go and enjoy seeing some of God's wonderful creations in Uganda. It's pretty amazing when you drive around in a Landcruiser, watching these animals sit/stand/play/make noises. Especially when you are driving by and they stand there partly frozen and then after a few minutes of looking at each other, they move along. 
Many times when I travel to Kampala from Arua or vice versa, I would have a sneak peek at this park because it's a bit like an open area where they can relax. The times I've gone by the park, I would see a bunch of elephants as well as hippos. Elephants are not rare to see because they are never hidden since they are so huge. Hippos are huge as well, but they would be in the waters all the time and as we drive by, you can only see their ears. This time, in the park, we are able to spot one out in the open. One thing that I have not seen or taken a picture of yet is a yawning hippo. Go ahead, search up yawning hippo and you'll know what I mean and why I would love to take a picture of one.
Fact: The running speed of hippos vary from 30-50km/h!
If you are ever close to one, remember to be ultra cautious and quiet. You don't want one of these big ones come charging at you!
To be honest, I sometimes find God quite humorous in His infinite wisdom to create such beautiful, yet odd looking animals. Giraffe, long neck? Really? God, You have to be kidding right?
I had one of those Kodak moments. I find this picture quite a beauty. Doesn't this picture make you smile? If it doesn't, look closely at the face of the elephant and tell me if you see the smile. The elephant is probably telling you to smile at the picture that is being taken of it smiling.
Though the national park was amazing, but there was another part that I feel is even more amazing, the falls!
The Nile off on a wide path and then once it reaches the falls, it suddenly becomes narrow and the waters come crashing down onto these massive rocks and then the Nile becomes wide.
If you ever get a chance to come up here to Northern Uganda, I would bring you here and you would know what I mean. Being a Canadian, you would think that Niagara Falls is quite powerful, but to be honest, even though this may not be on a large scale as Niagara Falls, I like Murchison Falls more!
As some/many of you know by now, I decided to do a 40-day journey on a devotional book during the Lent Period. Instead of literally fasting from food for the 40 days, I decided to fast from something that was distracting me from connecting with God: Internet Communication/Connection. As you know, I've been using a lot of Facebook and chatting with many of you back in Canada. I had to reflect whether this was spiritually healthy for me as well as if it was a distraction in the ministry I'm in. I knew one thing was that I had spent less time with the Lord, connecting with Him, and instead replaced Him with connecting with those at home. I knew that there was a major problem in this so I left my 'post' for some time and currently half way through the 40-day journey. Well as you read this, you may ask yourself 'Where is Stephen getting to? The title of his blog states Experiencing The Sovereignty of God but he's not getting to the point.' I just wanted to give you a brief background of what's been going on.
So back to the sovereignty of God. A friend of mine went to a gathering called Teens Conference that is held once a year during the high school March Break period. As I was on my 40-day journey, I also forgot that Teens Conference was happening. After a few days that the conference had ended, one of the students that I was leading last year mentioned how great of a conference it was. That's where I remembered that my friend mentioned that she was one of the student leaders for her group.
She sent me a long email, telling me about her experience. There's a lot of details into it, but she was one of the individuals that I cared a lot in terms of her spiritual life since she was almost like a little sister to me. Before leaving Canada to come here, I had a hard time thinking to myself of how things will turn out if I leave to come out to the mission field, especially when I was in the middle of the process in doing discipleship with her. One thing that God reminded me from this email was that HE IS SOVEREIGN! That's pretty much been the major theme for me ever since coming out here. In all that He's doing with His infinite power and wisdom, things will work out not according to how I believe it should work out, but according to His plans. I tell you, it was a really encouraging email hearing/reading/seeing what God is doing with His children, transforming them.
Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For the past month, I've expressed to many of you how I've been feeling lately. The way I've illustrated it is that my borehole is running empty in this dry season of my life. My relationship with the Lord began to feel empty and dry. One thing that I noticed was that I did not have the same type of fellowship/community here as I did with my church back at home. Almost every Sunday, the congregation back at home would enjoy times of fellowship, chatting and catching up on each others' lives. Everyone knew more than just one each others name but we knew each other well enough that we can share, joke around and know how to pray for one another. This fellowship was not available here. I finally came to a realization that being part of a mega/large congregational church is not what I feel comfortable being in. Since I had a tough time being in a large congregational church, I decided that I needed to find a fellowship among a few of the believers. I came up with the idea that I should have a Saturday Morning Prayer Breakfast with a few of my brothers from this large church. It began well and the test came when I took a break going to Kampala from what I stated in my last post. I was a little concerned because I would be t a few days in Kampala and would miss the Prayer Breakfast. I decided to text my fellow brothers to notify them in advance. This really meant that I had to trust God on this one, that even if I am not around, the Prayer Breakfast would still happen. Very selfish of me to think about this isn't it? Even I believed that it was selfish of myself to have these thoughts, but I knew that the Devil wanted to play games with me and bring doubts into my mind.
While you read this, maybe you can reflect on a situation where you had the same type of doubt because I am sure many of us have a small feeling and would be concerned that an event would not happen because we are not there.
After returning from Kampala after preaching on Lukewarm, I asked one of the brothers that goes to the Prayer Breakfast on how it went. He mentioned that it was a good time and even told me that they are changing it to begin at 8:00am instead of 8:30am because others have prior commitments. I was blown away when he told me this! Not only did the Prayer Breakfast happen with the three of them, but that they made a decision without my consent! I'm not saying they need my permission, but it goes to show of a few things:
1) God started this, not me. I am not the one that is considered the leader of the Prayer Breakfast since I came up with the idea. Others should not ask for my permission to move on.
2) God will continue to do His work amongst His people even if I am not available/around.
3) God is in control and there is no doubt about that. He is at the centre of all this, not me.
Talk about experiencing the Sovereignty of God!
