There is Hope!!

God has truly blessed with with the privilege of getting to know some amazing Godly people along this journey. A friend wrote and shared this poem with me. She is just beginning her journey of Freedom in Christ. With her permission I have placed it in one of my favorite pictures of a Karamojong sunrise from my trip last summer. It just speaks volumes. Volumes that I understand completely, though I'm almost a decade farther into my journey than her. But still on the same journey.

 It also comes on the heels of reading a blog post last week by another fellow Christian friend. She is also just starting out on this journey and touched on the unbiblical attitude towards missions that we had instilled in us from a young age. It was a good reminder that I needed. It was also encouraging to me to see how great God is and how far He has brought me over the years. Now I'm literally just a few short months away from moving to Africa.

You can read my friend's blog here:

The Bitter Belly Blog- "Another Gospel"

It just really blesses me and encourages me to see how God can really heal and redeem things that the enemy intended for destruction. What a privilege to travel this journey of faith with them and so many countless others!! Others who have discovered this hope we have in Christ.

I love the last part of Jen's poem:

A new joy sweeps over me. A flicker of hope, a resonating Light
 His love is real, it wipes away all of my tears from the cold dark nights
 This one thing I know and I know in my heart it is true
 That He has loved me and will eternally keep me. 
He will carry me through.

I also love the closing points in my friend's blog:

We drive past the homeless and the hungry.  When disaster strikes our thoughts are to the message believers only.  We cast off all of the other life that God has breathed into to say, it is only “birth pains” judgment upon them.  Where is our charity, the love that is the greatest of faith and hope?

God commanded us to love our neighbor as our self.  I highly doubt we even know their name.  You cannot close your eyes and pretend not to see the hurting.  When you are a new creature in Christ, saved by grace through faith, you cannot place it in a box for safe keeping.  You must pour it out and empty it, so He can fill you up again.

“And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.”- Matthew 25:45

So this is why I'm going where God has called me, to Africa. To offer others this hope found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone. And to love my Karamojong brothers and sisters, pouring myself out as God sees fit, to come along side of them in their need. I know that He loves me and will keep me and carry me through.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future."- Jeremiah 29:11

We are all called to this. Not moving overseas per se, but sharing the Gospel and helping those in need.

Where/what is God calling you to? What are HIS plans for your future? Are you obeying His Call?

Fittingly this the Christian Veterinary Mission's theme for this year

Ps. Even Spiderman got it. I love this quote in the movie. It was even cooler when I discovered Luke 12:48 "...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

"With great power comes great responsibility"

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the POWER of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16