Monday, January 28, 2019

Testimonies

"Praise the Lord!"...."Amen!"

Testimony time at our church each week is usually my favorite part of the service.  As various people stand up and declare praise to God for the big and small things He has done in their lives, the focus of my mind and heart begin to shift toward this great God that we come to worship.  There is a reason that "Praise the Lord" is a common thread in the Psalms, a book of worship.

People here begin most of their testimonies with "Praise the Lord!" And the congregation typically responds with a resounding, "Amen!" Then they begin to tell of the things God has done for them.  I am usually fairly shy in public settings, so I don't stand up and share a testimony very often (even though I probably should!).  But if I could shout out some testimonies of praise to God for things in our lives over the last month, these would be some of them...

  • We want to praise God for our church's Christmas outreach into the community.  We have written before of how our church gathers food and basic household supplies to deliver to widows, single mothers, elderly, and families in need in our community.  This year, our family helped to deliver basins to many elderly men and women nearby.  One man who was mostly blind needed a lot of convincing that we were there to give him a gift rather than steal from his garden!  Another woman had just found out she had HIV and had no money to go to a hospital to be treated.  I was continually reminded of God's heart for those who are poor and afflicted. As we delivered food and supplies, we prayed for these people to also come to know our God whose names are Jehovah Shammah, the one who is with us always, and El Roi, the one who sees and knows all of our needs and lovingly takes care of us.

Cousins at the waterfall

  • We praise God for the gift of family!  We enjoyed ten very special days with Nathan's sister and part of their family over the new year holiday.  Our kids absolutely loved the time with their cousins, and it was so refreshing to share our life here in Uganda with them.  We fed them some local foods like jackfruit, matooke, and samosas and took them on a few boat rides on the Nile River and in Lake Victoria.  It was a lovely time together!
On our way to "Equator Island" on Lake Victoria
  • We praise God for His many provisions for our family - healthy, growing children; a week of leave time spent resting, reading books, and playing games; beautiful sunrises that refresh our soul; and faithful people who reach out to encourage us!
Hannah's 8th birthday
Abigail's 4th birthday




Bike rides on vacation!
  • We praise God for the work that He does through Musana Camps.  We received some wonderful testimonies from parents of campers who came to a ROPES camp in January.  One parent said that their son couldn't stop talking about the lessons learned at the camp, such as teamwork, responsibility, how to control his anger, and how rebellion doesn't work.  Another parent said that their son's attitude toward work around home improved dramatically and their daughter wanted to become a ROPES mentor in a few years.  Several of the parents took the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with their child talking about purity in relationships and encouraging them to make a commitment to purity.  It is so encouraging to hear of the work of God in young people's hearts through this place!

So for all of these things and many more, we say an emphatic, "Praise the Lord!!!" And we hope that you will respond wherever you are with your own "Amen!" to the work God has done here!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for writing these updates! It's so great to hear these stories of how God is working at Musana, and in your family. :) Praise the Lord!

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