“Love consists in the this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another…
We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:10-11, 19)
I leave for Jinja, Uganda in THREE days!! :) I’m getting more and more excited as it gets closer, but it all still seems sort of surreal. I can’t believe I’m actually going to be back in this place that I love with these kids that I love doing the type of work that I love.
Let’s be real- I didn’t love all of it. I didn’t love the food (for the most part). I didn’t love showering and never really feeling clean. I didn’t love finding a dead lizard in my toaster after just having finished my morning peanut butter toast (yes, that really happened).
But I did love being in Jinja. And even now, thinking about going back, I have all kinds of wonderful excited feelings going on inside my stomach, because I really can’t wait.
And I'm so thankful that God has given me love for His children in this particular place. Yes, there are people in need all over the world- even here in the United States, as people love to bring to my attention ;) But God has led me to these people, to love and be loved, for reasons that I can’t understand.
Through them He has shown me more of who He is: the God of the fatherless and the widow, the God who rescues, the God whose love is eternal, the God who provides, the God who feeds the hungry, the God who is faithful, Father-God. And my hope is that by God sending a girl from the other side of the world just to spend time with them and play with them and rock them to sleep and paint their toe nails and pray over them, these children will see more of who God is: the God who has counted every hair on their head (Matthew 10:30).
I think this is what it’s all about. Being loved by God and then sharing that love with one another- wherever we are, in whatever we’re doing.
We love because He first loved us.
I'm really looking forward to sharing my time in Jinja with all (three or four) of you :) Hopefully I'll do a better job of updating my blog this time around. Please be praying for my heart as I get ready to leave- that God would prepare me for all that He is going to do in and around me this summer.
LOVE you guys!
Jordan
