Sunday, December 23, 2012

Walking life together and roaring like lions!


Yesterday a close friend came over, we will call her Fla for now. She is in University here in Kampala studying business management. Over the last year and half I have loved getting to know her.

Fla is a little younger than me, has a big family, works many jobs to pay for school, is a solid believer, has big hopes, single in a culture where that is not normal, and is just one of the most AMAZING Ugandan ladies I am blessed to know! Can you tell I love her?!

We normally meet every Saturday for bible study. We are going through a good book on Proverbs 31 and both are taking a lot away from our weekly studies. But for the last month Fla has been taking tests. She has been studying like crazy and we have not gotten together. It was just a month but it felt like FOREVER! As of yesterday the wait was over! We got together and hung out for over an hour, so not long enough but I take what I can get. We chatted about EVERYTHING. What else would you do after being apart for a while but yet life keeps going on?! She told me about her Christmas plans and how the family was doing. (She has the cutest niece! She is called Zoe and she and I are roaring like lions at a Christmas party.) 
While together we talked about how we were really doing, spiritually. I love the fact we can be real with each other. We just say where we are with the Lord, our faith, and the life we are called to live. By the end of our time she had to head off to work. We ended our time in prayer. It was the sweetest time, holding hands and giving EVERYTHING to the Lord as we prayed.  After Fla left I had some time to think and pray.

Many thoughts were rushing around my head…but the one that stood out the most is the fact God is asking me to walk life with Fla. Not here to tell her the gospel, she knows it and believes it! The crazy thing is God asked me to move ½ around the world to walk this crazy thing called life with her. To pray for her, spend time with her, laugh with her, cry with her, hold her hand, share blessings with her, and LOVE HER.

Often people think that a missionary is someone that works with people who do not know the Lord, yes sometimes that is true but not always what is needed. Something that has been forgotten is the “make disciple” part of the great commission.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit -Matthew 28:19

Jesus did not say go and make “converts,” people who say they believe in Him. From what I can see in this messed up, crazy, up side down world is there are more converts than disciples. Many people who can talk a good talk but that suck at being with people. We are called make disciples and to LOVE.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. –John 13:35

Love is an action verb. It is a daily choice, one we have to make no matter what kind of mood we are in.

The fact that the Lord has called me to Africa to walk life with a believer and that I daily have to choose love, is the biggest lesson the Lord has been teaching me. You might say “well that is not a hard lesson,” and you are right.

It is not a hard lesson to get but living it out is a whole other story my friend. Daily I am working on the living it out part. How about you?

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