New Home + New Challenges

Many of you heard about my travel plans down to Kampala for six days of AIM language orientation. Not only was I in Kampala for this reason, but I was there to purchase a few household items since AIM has found a place for me to stay permanently in Arua. I must say, that it is quite a nice home, but now the challenging thing is living alone and to do many things in the house independently. Many of you experienced that kind of independence when you were in University or College, but I never did. Not only was this a challenge but the biggest challenge that I faced was my trip back to Arua. As many of you know, my experience of traveling alone to Africa was rough when I was stuck in the UK for an extra two days due to my foolishness. I went through a rough time as well since there were many things that went wrong in this trip back up to Arua.

I had purchased a lot of household items for the new house, excited to return to Arua and setup the place. It's too bad I did not take a picture of my loaded vehicle, but I'll post a picture of my vehicle now to have you imagine how loaded the vehicle was:
So basically, not only did I have appliances in the vehicle, but I had furniture on top of my vehicle. If you can imagine for a second, that the amount of furniture that was strapped to the top of the vehicle made it look like there was another vehicle on top of the Landcruiser. As you can imagine now, there was a lot of things in my vehicle, and actually I also had two 70Kgs of batteries for the house, so it was definitely overload. The challenge began when officers started to stop me because of my attempt to travel all the way back to Arua. Of course, if I did this in North America, this would not have happened because they would not allow it, and the purchase of furniture/appliances usually comes with some sort of shipping option. As many of you know, that when you go through something and you know there's something wrong, the snowball effect would apply and the trouble keeps on coming. As we finally came to a stage where there wouldn't be anymore officers, my friend and I noticed that the fuel was running very low so we decided to add some to the vehicle. Only driving about 10kms, did we notice that it was happening again so we decided to add some more. About 10 minutes later, the vehicle completely ran out of fuel for some reason. After waiting for almost an hour to get fuel, we found out that the tire was flat but there was no jack to be found in the vehicle to put on the spare tire. We decided to drive slowly to the next area where we can borrow a jack, but within 2KMs of driving, the tire blew out! It was definitely not the best day to travel for me. Long story short, we brought the vehicle back to town around 3:00am.

I've told this story many times, and there are many times where I've sat there thinking to myself of how foolish it was for me to get all the furniture in one shot. It definitely was a defeating time for myself, but one thing I kept in mind during the rough times: God is still sovereign and He continues to work in others' lives even in the hardest times of your life. I had some good times of reflection during my alone times while my friend went to get fuel. One thing that I knew was the promise that God will not abandon me nor forsake me. He is faithful!

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Reinforcing Missions

Before you watch the video below, I would like you to answer these questions and reflect: Do you love Jesus Christ? Do you follow Christ? Are you willing to sacrifice anything for Him? Are you willing to leave your friends, family, social life, status, employment, education for Him? Better yet, are you willing to give up a few months of your many years in life for His greater purpose and not yours? Do you desire what He desires? Do you want to give glory to Him and not yourself? Do you want His will to be done and not yours?

The thought should not be "I will do missions and see where God can take me from there ONLY IF it means that I will benefit from it." Instead it should be "I will do missions and see where God can take me from there EVEN IF it causes me to suffer from it."

Malachi 1:11
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

Land With A Thousand Hills

"Land Of A Thousand Hills" is where the AIM Central Region Conference was held from January 4-9. This conference hosted AIM missionaries from Chad, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. This was an exciting time for me since I just finished the Youth Camp in Arua and now I was ready to journey on with the next item on my list.
I felt very blessed to attend this conference, not only with other AIM family members but also having to go to Rwanda. The first place that I visited on my first day in Rwanda before the conference was the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. I'm not sure if you've seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, but I have. It honestly broke my heart when I was watching the movie. Now that I was actually in Rwanda and at the Genocide Memorial Centre, the only things that came to my mind were some of the scenes from the movie. Other than the scenes, the thought I had was 'How can this happen?'.
When traveling on the bus to our final destination in Kibuye, you can only think to yourself 'With a beautiful country and being known as the Land With A Thousand Hills, why?'
Even though there are many questions that are unanswered in our lifetime here on earth, God continued to reveal to me His sovereignty at this conference. God had planned this well for me to be constantly reminded of His sovereignty since the conference was held in Rwanda.
Throughout the conference, God spoke in many different ways, as the theme for the conference was 'Wrestling With God'. We took a look at Jacob's life, but the main thing that stuck out to me the most was one of Jacob's sons, Joseph. The preacher emphasized on the passage Genesis 50:20. When we talk about God's sovereignty and our suffering, the first person from the Bible that usually comes to mind is Job, and how he recognized that even through his suffering, God is still sovereign and in control. Well this time it wasn't Job, but it was Joseph.

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

I would like for you to reflect on this passage. Maybe you're experiencing something that you've never experienced before. Maybe you're in trouble. Maybe you were abandoned or betrayed by someone. Maybe you loss a friend or family member. Remember that He is sovereign in all your circumstances.
I want to encourage you, that even though you are suffering right now, remember that these events are only for a short period of time. When you are going through a rough time, remember the picture posted above. Will you bless others even in your times of trouble? Will you serve Him even in your times of trouble? Will you show others God's grace even if you are going through a rough time?

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Youth Camp

I attended a Youth Camp that was held from December 27 - January 2. I would like to say that it was a very hectic and busy end to 2010 and beginning of 2011, but all in all, I want to say that God began to open doors for me to serve Him when I was beginning to doubt that His will for me is to serve Him in Uganda. The reason why I had these thoughts was that I began to feel as if I was not doing anything that's ministry related. Things changed right away when the Youth Camp committee asked me to be a photographer/videographer for the camp. Basically it was God reminding me that I am here to serve Him and there will be times where I'll be doubting, and when it happens, He will show me that I am here to serve Him.
The Youth Camp went well and it reminded me a lot of the years served at the AFC Teens Conference. Now I know how the AFC Teens Conference photographer/videographer feels for those 2-4 days. Even though the Youth Camp has been around since 1997, there is still room for improvement. It is still going through its maturing stage at this moment and ideas came to my mind on what needs to be done. I am very excited for how it will look like in the years to come and how I can implement some ideas from AFC Teens Conference into this Youth Camp. I hope that you will enjoy this video even though it is 15 minutes long. It wasn't easy putting this video together and to shorten it because it was a summary of what went on.

I pray and hope that this video will spark something in your heart, to come and work alongside for this Youth Camp and especially for those of you that attended AFC Teens Conference before. This Youth Camp is held at the end of every year and ends in the new year. What better way to close your year by serving Him in Uganda and to celebrate the new year with a bunch of Ugandans. Imagine if you served at this Youth Camp, and when you have completed your time here in Uganda, you can go home and tell everyone of how great it was to serve the Lord in Uganda at a Youth Camp that reminded you of AFC Teens Conference.