I have now been in Uganda for two months, with a month left in my stay. To be honest, the longer I am here the harder it is to stay so astonished by what God is doing. It is true, I am experiencing God more here in Uganda than I ever have before in my life; The first month of my internship I was astounded constantly by His unbelievable love, and nothing has changed about that. God continues to pursue my heart as well as the people around me. But the longer I stay here, the more I get accustomed to the routine of praying for the sick, ministering to the lost, and teaching young minds. The interns have begun to feel a little like maybe we’ve plateaued. No longer do I wake up wondering what awesome things I’m going to see God do that day. It has become common to see God move and change people’s hearts. So in the last several weeks I’ve been focusing on what God is teaching me through everything I see.

The answer is: a lot. In the past two months I’ve learned so much about the Father’s love, transformation, our authority in Christ, and the beautiful unpredictability God has woven into our stories.

In week six of his study, the Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, Bill Johnson talks about the importance of remembering what God has done for us and those before us. Day 28 encourages us to write down what the Lord has done. He says, “Writing down what God has done in the past empowers you to run with faith in the present.” I don’t want to forget what God has done here in Uganda and what He is doing inside me. These testimonies can bring many to Jesus as well as bring hope and healing to current believers.

So here I am, writing (or blogging) about what the Lord is doing.

I don’t want to forget that time and time again, God answers my prayers, even the simplest ones. When I eat too much chapati and am still trying to digest it days later, I pray to God for relief, and he helps me. When I am preaching at the prison or for instance, last week, when I was asked to stand up in a high school sex ed class and speak, I ask God for words and He gives them to me. When I ask God to make a way for me to have a special moment or conversation with a friend, an opening is presented.

Saturday, March 14, I attended Say No to Hunger in the village of Bakka. After the morning lesson bible lesson on the Last Supper, and the meal of cole slaw, rice, ground nut sauce and chapati, I set off with outreach team member, Joy, and a girl from Bakka named Florence, to do home visits. On these home visits we present children with their gifts and letters from their sponsors and help them write letters back in English. After finishing at one house we continued on through the village.

Spontaneously we stopped at a small home on the left of the six-inch wide path considered a road. In this house lives four children all in the Say No to Hunger program in Bakka: Eric, Kevin, Rebecca and Rachel. We stopped because Joy said their mother had just given birth a week before. We walked in and met this young woman and her new little baby girl. In Luganda, she spoke of how she now wants one more boy to make in an even three girls and three boys. I held the baby with soft hair and big, dark eyes that looked up at me wondering if I was providing her food. The mom told us she had yet to name the baby because she wanted a name that started with R to match the rest of her girls, but she couldn’t come up with anything. As I held the baby, I silently (and a little selfishly) prayed God would provide me with the perfect R name for the child. Even out loud I prayed for this when the mother asked me to pray a blessing over the baby’s life. Unable to come up with anything, I handed the baby back and Joy, Florence and I went on our way. As we walked down the hill that had led up to that home I continued to rack my brain for an R name suitable for the child. I mentioned Rose out loud but Joy told me the woman was hoping for a biblical name. As we kept walking I opened up my bible to the dictionary in the back and skipped to the R section. My eyes scanned down and I saw Rachel and Rebekah and got discouraged until finally I saw Ruth. RUTH! I yelled the name and Joy and Florence turned around and exclaimed. We decided we just had to run back up the hill and name this baby right then. So we ran all the way back up the hill and burst into the house we had just been in and declared the little girl’s name to be Ruth. The mother was delighted. God answered my simple little prayer for me to provide this baby with the perfect name and I was again, in awe.

Even though I was discouraged and uncertain whether God would answer my prayer in time, He did. God’s power has nothing to do with me, His glory will stop at nothing to be revealed.

I am so excited about this child that is now my second goddaughter in Uganda. Unlike the babies we name at the Wakiso clinic and then never see again, I have a relationship with this family and I could potentially see her as often as I’d like.

My God is in the business of answering prayers. While there are still prayers that I am waiting for an answer to, I know He is looking out for me constantly. He has always provided for me. He is the healer and the helper.

I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds (Psalm 77:12)