Current # of Committed Monthly Sponsors: 6
Remaining Monthly Sponsors Needed: 24
Well...it's OFFICIAL...I'm going to Uganda for 9 months! My flights were purchased last week, so there's no turning back now! :)
As far as my timeline goes, I'll fly out on Thursday, October 16, 2014 on an overnight flight from Dallas TX, have a layover for a few hours in London the next morning, and then finally land in Entebbe, Uganda a little before midnight on October 17th! That's LOTS of flying for someone who is sincerely terrified of flying...but i'm kinda hoping that all the traveling i'll be doing over the next 9 months will just naturally curb my flying phobia...i guess we'll see!
Anyway, since I sent out all of my support letters last week (see images at the end of this post), I figured I should probably start-from-scratch and explain a little more about why I'm going to Uganda for 9 months and the events that have converged to get me to this point in time. In case you don't know anything about me yet or haven't heard what I've been up to in a really long time, I suppose I'll start by filling you in on the basics: I was born and raised in Texas, I have an amazing family that consists of my mom, dad, and 2 younger sisters (Hannah and Madelyn), and for the past 6 years I've been working with pediatric patients as a Certified Child Life Specialist at children's hospitals in Colorado and Florida. For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about 4 major things in life: #1- living for the Lord and growing in my Christian faith, #2- working with kids, #3- the medical field (just ask my parents about my "Rescue 9-1-1" tv show obsession when I was in elementary school!), and #4- international missions (ice cream also ranks up there pretty high, but I decided I probably shouldn't label that as one of my passions in life...). From my teenage years on, I've tried my hardest to consistently incorporate all 4 of those passions into my life in some way or another. However, the passion that has always challenged me the most- in terms of figuring out different ways to mesh it seamlessly with the others- is #4... my love for international missions.
In high school it was really easy for me to incorporate international missions into my life, because I was able to use my spring breaks and summer vacation time to go on half-a-dozen mission trips with my school or church youth group. It got a little more difficult to try to incorporate international missions into my life in college, because I worked as a camp counselor during all of my summers and never really felt like i had enough time off during the school year to go on a full-blown mission trip somewhere. So I tried to satisfy my passion for missions by sponsoring needy children through organizations like World Vision and Compassion Int'l or by giving money to missions organizations instead, and I told myself I'd have more freedom to go on mission trips again once I got into the "real world" and got my own job. Participating first-hand in international missions became even more of a distant memory once I started my career as a Child Life Specialist, though, because it's a pretty well-known fact that hospitals aren't the most lenient of places when it comes to time-off policies. When I actually did get a decent chunk of time off I typically chose to spend it by flying home to see my family, because by that point my sisters and I were spread out across the country from Hawaii to Florida and rarely got to see each other during the year. So I continued to sponsor children, support various missions organizations, and tell myself I'd be able to go on another mission trip "in a couple years"... but my heart yearned for so much more!
About 2 years ago, this yearning grew immensely deeper after I read a book called "Kisses from Katie" about a girl just a few years younger than me who moved to Uganda when she was only 19, started an incredible ministry and child sponsorship program there, and adopted 13 precious Ugandan girls who were orphans. As soon as I finished reading the book, I felt an immediate and distinct calling from the Lord that I was supposed to do something very similar with my own life. I'd actually experienced similar feelings to this at previous points in my life ever since I was in middle school, but they always seemed to hit me during seasons of life where it was just wasn't "practical" for me to realistically consider moving to some far-away-land... so I just kept tucking those feelings away and reassuring myself that I would get more involved in missions again once I finished high school, graduated from college, got a job, became more established in my Child Life career, had accumulated more vacation time, etc (you get the picture...). On top of making all these excuses in the past, I should also point out the small fact that I had ZERO interest whatsoever in going to Africa. I took 10 years of Spanish during my school years and had always felt strongly compelled to work in Spanish-speaking countries (which is why all of my previous missions trips had been to Mexico and the Dominican Republic). In fact, I can even vividly remember emphatically telling one of my roommates in Florida (who had a huge heart for Africa) that I had "ZERO desire to EVER STEP FOOT on the continent of Africa" during my lifetime (OH, THE IRONY!!!). Anyway, after reading "Kisses for Katie" and feeling such a strong, clear, and distinct calling from the Lord about going to Uganda, one would think that I would finally listen to Him and start putting some plans in action to get myself over there....unfortunately, though, my hard-headedness prevailed for a little while longer.
I spent the following two years pouring every ounce of my being into my job as a Child Life Specialist, telling myself I was "working at it with all of my heart, as if working for the Lord and not for men (Colossians 3:23)." I was accomplishing some amazing stuff and truly making a significant impact on many patients and families in Florida, but spending so many endless hours at work left me with a lot less time and energy to devote to my spiritual life, so I was actually becoming increasingly stagnant in my walk with the Lord. Interestingly, although my spiritual complacency was continuing to grow deeper, I also started to develop an intense love for Uganda and began to actively research short term mission trip opportunities there during this period of time. However, I wasn't making any additional efforts to truly get my heart right with the Lord, so my spiritual complacency began to manifest itself in my daily attitude and actions in ways that were not very pretty (more on that some other time...) and my life started to spin out of control. Luckily, the Lord loves us unconditionally and chooses to fight for us and draw us back to Him even when we continually push Him away! The Lord ultimately had to bring me to a place of complete humility and surrender in order to help me realize that I needed to return to Him and make some serious changes in my life, but I am SO grateful that He loved me enough to do whatever-it-took to get my attention and guide me back to the place where I was walking in the center of His will again.
One of the most significant life changes I experienced as a result of my big "spiritual wake-up-call" back in March involved me leaving my Child Life job in Florida and moving back home to Texas (where I also ironically declared I would never live again!) for a bit. The Lord made it abundantly clear to me that I was no longer supposed to be living in Florida, and pretty soon He also began to clearly reveal His plan for me to move to Uganda for an extended period of time. About a month after I moved home to TX (and after many years of the Lord's prodding!), I finally ended up going on a two-week mission trip to Uganda with an amazing Christian organization called Man Up & Go (www.manupandgoblog.com). The mission of Man Up & Go is to protect, defend, support, advocate for, take care of, and most importantly love big on orphans, widows, the poor and sick, and other castaways in society. I cannot even BEGIN to explain to you all the ways that the Lord specifically orchestrated my steps to go on this particular trip with this particular group of individuals! I cringe to think that I was ever resistant to the idea of going to Africa and that I made so many excuses for not going for so many years, when this trip was VERY clearly part of the Lord's perfect plan for my life all along! To say the mission trip was a life-changing experience is a vast understatement. We spent a full two weeks loving on kids in orphanages and slums, sharing Christ with people, encouraging pastors, and empowering young men to "Man Up" and become strong leaders and Godly men in their communities. I absolutely fell in love with the beautiful people and precious children of Uganda and knew throughout the entire trip that the Lord wanted me to come back and live there for an extended period of time. I have literally never felt more content, purposeful, and filled with joy than I did while I was on this trip....in fact, I can vividly recall a specific moment towards the end of the trip when I was sitting down in a muddy field in the pouring rain with a solid dozen slum children laughing hysterically and climbing all over me and distinctly hearing the Lord say to me, "This is exactly what I made you for and created you to do with your life!"
As soon as I got back to the US in June, I immediately began making plans to return to Uganda for a longer period of time to help with several major unfinished projects headed by the different ministry partners we spent time with. Since I'm not able to start grad school to get my Masters in Public Health w/ a Global Health focus until August of 2015 (due to some application deadlines I missed last January, before I knew I'd be leaving my job and Florida), the Lord has clearly provided me with the perfect opportunity to spend a full 9 months of my life serving people in one of the neediest countries in the world. I am still amazed at how He has completely flung open doors right and left in order for everything to fall perfectly into place so all of this can happen! Thank you SO much to those of you who have committed to pray for me in the remaining weeks leading up to my departure and during my time in Uganda, and to those of you who have stepped out in faith to provide me with the financial means to be able to go on this incredible adventure! You are quite literally becoming "the hands and feet of Jesus" alongside me, and I am beyond grateful for your support! (If anyone is interested in making a financial contribution towards my personal monthly support costs, you can click on the "GoFundMe" picture/icon towards the top righthand side of the page and you will be redirected to my fundraising site, where you can give a one-time gift in any amount or elect to become one of my monthly sponsors.) Thank you for sticking with me all the way to the end of this post (i promise to try to write shorter posts in the future), too! Have a blessed week!
In Christ,
Katie
PS...(Seeing as how this has turned out to be a total marathon-post, I'm going to wait and give you the details about the 3 different areas I'll be working in and the specific projects I'll be working on in a different post. I think I may actually highlight each location in separate posts for you guys over the next couple weeks, that way I can post some pictures and go into more detail about each location and its coordinating pastor/ministry.)
