A dose of Reality

Here it is, a little over 3 weeks since we arrived back in Oklahoma from Uganda, and I am getting a healthy dose of reality.  Let me explain.  Since we sold our home in Duncan and moved to Uganda in February, we have had our heads down serving others, but wondering what our new reality would be when we got home.  Our plan was and continues to be that we will live in our farm house that is on our ranch.  Over the past weeks, we have been based in our farm house, but we have still had our heads down with Jill’s father.  First, we had a week to spend time with Herb, doing things that he liked and going to his favorite restaurants.   Then, we spent 10 days in OKC, helping as he had his surgery and recovery.  He has recovered faster and better than we expected, and now, we have come face to face with our new reality.  WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF, for the available space and it is 100 degrees, all the time, in Oklahoma!

This week, I will be digging back into my work at the clinic, and we will start trying to unpack and sort through some of the boxes that we have stacked in the house and barns.  It is just now that I am wrestling with feeling depressed that our work on the ground in Uganda is on “hold” for now.  The work that we started in Uganda through Due Unto Others and Renewal Health Network continues.  Even this week, our friends, the Gash family, will be helping in a 4 day clinic in Gaba. 

At the end of these 4 days, 100% of the sponsorship locations in the Africa Renewal Ministries program will have been visited by our team.  Joseph and Faith, with other hired and volunteer help, will be performing various outreach and community clinics over the next several months.  Even though all of this medical mission work will continue, and we will be helping to fund raise and bring awareness to the need from the USA, we still will miss being in Uganda, with our hands on the need.  Jill and I are looking forward to going to churches to share about what God is doing in Uganda.  It also looks like we will also be able to share at the World Medical Missions conference in Kentucky in November.  We would trade these engagements for a long day at Mulago, taking one of our starfish to see a medical specialist and trying to avoid the bathrooms.

I think the trick for me will be to spend the next period of time working to deepen my walk, my prayer life and my study time.   Then as I get back into my work routine, I will need to continue to look for “That One Person” that needs to feel God’s love.  I will be continuing to keep up with our special friends in Uganda.  As you know, 4 of the Cardiac Kids will be undergoing operations between now and the end of the year.  We are still raising funds for these procedures to allow them to move forward.  The reality is that we feel that we are where God wants us, for now.  It can seem less fulfilling than loving on kids in Uganda, but God’s will is not for us to understand, it is for us to try to discover, then follow.

The Reality is that we are blessed and we would be wise to Realize it.

Jay