Happy Monday and welcome back to the Birthday Surprise series. Today we welcome back Nicki, or as I now call her Mzungu (white girl). Last year Nicki shared on the Birthday Series about her two week trip to Uganda ( read here part 1 and part 2). Since then, she returned to Uganda for a much longer visit and chronicled her thoughts at FollowtheNicki.com. If you're up for some serious life changing reads, go visit the links. Without further ado, scroll down for the first of three posts by our favorite Mzungu.
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Hi everyone!
You know some things I love? Birthdays, for one, so happy 4th
birthday, blog!! I also love getting to
hang out and share some words here on Rak’s space. I love her loud, hilarious,
creative and insightful heart, and it’s a joy to share here at her blog. Even
better—she asked me to talk Uganda for a few posts! I’m excited by that and I
pray you take away some encouragement from this week’s posts with whatever the
Lord wants to share with you. So off we go…
May 1, 2013 I stepped on a plane bound for Entebbe, Uganda
without a clue as to what God had in store for me. He knew.
Questions raged from others on whether this was where God
was “really” calling me and for how long. Only He knew.
I had only previously spent two rapid weeks in Uganda less
than 9 months before this time. I knew close to nothing about what culture
would be like, how awkward the ever-changing weather would be, or how difficult
it would be to survive on my own cooking for four months. He knew.
He knew the hardships, the bouts of loneliness, and the
depths of intimacy and vulnerability that I would experience. He knew the place
I had just walked through with wounds and bruises, and a slightly bleeding
heart, and He knew where He needed to take me.
My God knows me. He also knows my absolute confidence when I
say that my heart and my life have been utterly transformed because of this
crazy leap I took to leave the familiar and cross into the unknown—alone. I am
still in awe of the privilege I have been given to share life and ministry with
the people of Uganda. The capacity in which I had ever previously served God
was easily eclipsed by the glow of relationships birthed, the experience of
working alongside churches, ministries and in homes, and the joy of seeing a
lost and hurting heart being made alive in Christ.
There was a point where this role of Nicki ended and where
the great and awesomeness of God began. This point was an acknowledgment that
in order to truly be safe, protected, happy, secure and fully used, I needed to
completely abandon myself before God, Creator and Savior. My everything was in Him. My everything is in Him. Uganda pushed me to see
beyond myself, my flesh, and to witness the miraculous love of my God. His
thoughts and His plans are way above mine; yours too. He knew what I needed and
where I needed to go.
All along, He always knew…
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| photo credit: Nicki, Uganda 2013 |
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| photo credit: Nicki, Uganda 2013 |
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| photo credit: Nicki, Uganda 2013 |
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