Gloria! Have you heard?

One of my favorite songs of this year’s Christmas playlist is by Jason Gray. It’s a song called Gloria! (The Song of the Shepherds), and it tells the tale of the shepherds after the angels’ announcement and song: 

After the angels song, everyone held their breath as the darkness rushed back in upon those shepherd boys. Staring into the night, climbing up off their knees, with their hearts on fire, they were trembling with fear… and JOY! 

Gloria! Gloria! Was a choir of angels singing, the shepherds’ ears were ringing, they were ringing with Gloria! Gloria! Now everything is going to change—Christ the Lord is born today!

Racing down from the hills, running like children run, reckless and wild, with a song that they begun again. As the field beneath their feet turned into city street, they were crying out, “Have you heard, have you heard O Bethlehem?!” 

Gloria! Gloria! Was a choir of angels singing, the shepherds’ ears were ringing, they were ringing with Gloria! Gloria! Now everything is going to change—Christ the Lord is born today! 

A land under the rule of the priests and kings

Only shepherds heard the song that the angels sing

The humble are the keepers of the secrets of the Kingdom that is coming

With a song that will break the whole world like 10,000 horses running

Gloria! Gloria! The shepherds they were singing, Now all our ears are ringing, they‘re still ringing with Gloria! Gloria! Now everything is going to change—Christ the Lord is born today!

….

One day He’ll come again to bring us a brand new song but til then we’ll sing along with those shepherd boys”

Can’t you picture it?  These shepherds have been astounded by the announcement of the birth of the long awaited King by an angel of the Lord shining with the glory of heaven.  WHAT?! And then this angel is joined by a choir of angels, glorifying the Lord and speaking peace to those with whom He is pleased.  INSANE!

The shepherds have heard and seen this all upon their knees.  They were afraid (or as is said here in Bundi, they were fearing.).  The angel knows this and commands them, “Fear not” and then speaks wonderful, jubilant news.  It isn’t announced to the kings and leaders of the land. Not to the capital of the known world or people with accolades and riches.  The angel comes to the humblest, the lowly.  Those who keep the sheep.  Those with whom He is pleased. Those who are doing what King David began with.  Those who are doing what our King does, our Great Shepherd of the Sheep.  The humble are the keepers of the secrets of the Kingdom that is coming.

As the angels went away into heaven, can you imagine how that darkness rushed back in?  How those shepherds looked at each other in wonder?  I might have looked around thinking “Was that for real? Did that really just happen?”  But, as this song says, their ears were ringing with “Gloria!”  They got off their trembling knees filled less with fear now, but finding joy rising up.  My ESV says they said to one another, ““Let’s go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste…” 

I love the image this songwriter paints, of them running like children run, reckless and wild.  I think they were probably screaming, giggling, running as fast as they could.  They were churning up the earth, maybe taking a few tumbles on the way and hopping back up with joy and glee.  Running to find this baby. This King. This Savior.  The one of whom the angels sang, the One who the Lord made known to them.   Can you imagine being in their sandals? My mind would be blown.  I would be sprinting down that hill, willing my legs to move faster, forgetting the sheep, not caring how foolish I looked.  Crying out in the streets, “Have you heard Oh Bethlehem?! The King! It’s the King I tell you!”  Racing to find him, to bow down before Him, to bespeak the work of the Lord I had witnessed in the fields and now witness in the arms of his mother Mary. 

As I picture myself as a part of that night, I find myself praying that the joy and glee these shepherds experienced will revive my heart this season.  That I might delight anew in the miracle of the Savior’s birth.  As I await His return with a new song, that my ears might echo with this song and my heart and life might live it out.  That I might call out in Bundibugyo, “Gloria! Now everything is going to change—Christ the Lord is born today!”  His birth changes EVERYTHING.  May He awake my heart once more to this beautiful reality.  That the gift of all gifts has been given, the child of the Living God who lived, died, and was raised to life for me. For you.  For my friends in Bundibugyo.  For the students at Christ School.  For each and every one of us.  For the whole world.  Who might need to hear this good news this season?  I know my heart needs to hear it again, and the Lord is asking me to share this news like those shepherds.  Have you heard, have you heard? Everything is going to change.  It already has. And it will continue to. He is bringing His Kingdom to earth through His people.  What is your heart echoing and crying out this season? 

I’m also hung up on and delighted by the idea that He comes to the humble, He comes in unexpected ways to the people we’d least expect.  Are we living with hearts attuned to the humble ones? Who are those people in your community, who you may least expect to see Jesus? They may be the ones He’s revealing Himself to today.  Are we living as humble ones who have been given the secrets of the coming Kingdom?  What does that look like?  Are we opening our hearts to share this beautiful secret?

As this song continues to play, my heart continues to ponder. Christ the Lord is born today.  What a mighty, miraculous, magnificent, true story.  Merry Christmas friends!

Go

We spent Sunday morning worshipping as a team, engaging in some beautiful praise led by one of my roommates, Jenna, and then sitting at the table to eat from the Word as taught by Alistair Begg.  We are listening to a sermon series about Abraham from Begg called “Venturing in Faith.”  Check it out if you have the chance, the first sermon is rich!

Begg starts this series by talking abut Abram’s background—not something we often look at with Abram, but something we all wonder about with one another.  Where have you come from? What are my roots?  Our backgrounds influence our behavior, our stories, and our lives.  They matter.  Yet I have never spent much time looking at Abram’s background, so I really appreciated Begg’s message.  The main crux of his teaching in this was that God can use anyone, the most ordinary, the most flawed—our backgrounds do not determine whether or not He can use us.  He’s the one who makes that call. 

In the midst of talking about backgrounds, an idea Begg taught about really struck me.  He asked, “Have you come to the point where you’ve asked God “What do you want me to do?”  Where you’ve stopped telling God what plans you have, or making plans and asking for His blessing, but truly laid all that down and said, not my plans but yours.  Begg states, “When Abram asked this, his answer was “Get up and leave all of your security, everything that represents security to you—and go.”.”  He didn’t say where.  He didn’t say for how long. He said leave it all, and go.  That’s what I want you to do Abram.  And Abram followed this call into the unknown, following the One who Knows, the One who is trustworthy and worth it all. 

On some days here, I wrestle with longing for all I’ve left behind—family, friends, a church home, community, wonderful Nashville, secure jobs, {relative} safety and peace, ministry, the known of day to day life.  In the settling in, learning language, meeting people, building relationship, all of it new, I wrestle with wanting to trade all this unknown back in, and get back some familiar.  Maybe even just some bits and pieces? 

Yet God meets me in it and He sets before me Abram’s example.  He sets before me the example of Scott and Jennifer Myhre who are celebrating their 20^th anniversary of serving in East Africa, with the majority of those years spent here in Bundibugyo.  He sets before me dear friends who have lived in this country for years laying their lives down for His name’s sake.  He reminds me that this unknown, it is for His glory and renown.  It was never in the deal that it would be easy or familiar.  What was and is promised is that laying my life down is where I truly find life.  Giving my life away is where I will find joy.  Loosing the chains of captives and bringing light in the darkness is where I will find Him and where His banner will be raised high.  And every step, every moment, is worth it.  And I am so thankful His grace is enough to carry me on the days I forget these examples and His promises, and His grace call me back to His purposes and plans for me and this place—glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.  Loving the one He puts before me and pouring myself out for the sake of His name.

In the words of the old hymn, He’s asking me to “venture on Him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude.”  This is my prayer and hope, that my trust would rest secure in Him, and that in the unfamiliar, His presence would continue to lead and guide me.  I’m full of trepidation mixed with anticipation in this new venturing, wonder mixed with some fear.  And in it all, I feel on the brink of great and glorious things, if I venture out to engage them and find Him.

As Begg concluded, “God used Abram’s leaving the best society can offer, the most advanced city and people of the time*—he turned his back on all this represented and turned forward to all He had to offer.”  As Abram turned to follow God into the unknown, he proclaimed to his generation and all to come:

“I’m heading for a city whose builder and maker is God.”

Amen and amen.  I’m following your lead father Abraham.  Unto that redeemed city will I run, and on behalf of this city will I work for shalom and restoration.   Even in the unknown, I know Whom has called me and where we’re headed.  Today, I’m venturing on Him from Bundibugyo. 

*check out some history, Ur of the Chaldeans was pretty legit…they even had central plumbing y’all!

arrival and settling

I’ve been back in Africa for close to a month now, and it feels like only days!  I got to spend the first week here in Jinja, my old stomping grounds, soaking in time with friends, seeing my foster baby and precious ones I love at Ekisa, and being in a place that I know, that is like home, that is easy and good and comfortable. It helped ease back into Africa life.

 sweet baby loves at Ekisa

reunion/sendoff dinner with many of my dear Jinja friends

In some ways, it definitely made it harder to say another round of goodbyes to friends there after all the goodbyes from America, but it was also such a time of encouragement and blessing and sending out from this community of brothers and sisters.  It was a sending out with deep encouragements from them for leaving the comfortable and known and choosing the unknown, the risky, the far-flung.

In early August I met my team in Kampala (the capital) and spent a few days there getting groceries, going to an English-speaking church (Watoto, which I LOVE), and spending some time getting to know my team.  The team who is here now is comprised of people I had not yet met, and whom I had been praying for good connections and community early-on between us. The Lord richly answered those prayers, even from the outset with sweet conversations and connections! I am thrilled to be here with these current teammates, they’re the bomb!  They are deeply rooted in the Word and the Lord, and they are working for the Kingdom, each in their own ways.  I am blessed to know them and serve alongside them here.

The drive out here was long and oh.so.beautiful!  So green, full of little villages and people all along the road, going who knows where, carrying all kinds of things on their heads, their backs, their bodas, or their cars. Men standing on top of cows in the backs of trucks, women and children carrying jerry cans of water, school children on the way home, and so much life happening outside our windows.

driving through the green-ness

Then we got to Fort Portal, the closest larger town, and had a little breather in the clean mountain air. Then, onto Bundibugyo, toward the mountains!  Oh how beautiful they are! So high, so green, so different than anything I've ever seen in Uganda. The clouds are so close you feel like you can touch them, the road so curvy you feel like you might find the cliff edge around the next turn.  The mountains spoke deep to my heart of His majesty and creative heart and mind.  They are magnificent!  

early view of the glorious Rwenzori Mountains

 

We drove around the top edge of the mountains, then cut back down toward Bundibugyo town and then toward our homes.  I was stunned by the drive. It's breathtaking and awesome.  It is His handiwork on display.  And I get to live at the foot of these mountains and see His glory day by day. 

daily view...this doesn't even begin to do it justice

These last few weeks here I have been seeing the town with Ann, who is my mentor for the time here and also does new team member orientation.  I’ve been to market, we've been around visiting friends of hers, beginning to learn the language, seeing town, getting to see Christ School where I'll be focusing (SO exciting), and doing some orientation for the bundi life! I have begun making some friends here, and for that I am very thankful!  Two girls, Edith and Ida, are becoming sweet friends. They took me touring around town and to their homes yesterday, and we have plans for getting together this weekend as well.  Thankful for relationships happening already!

It's been fun, exciting, tiring, good, full, and just much.  There are moments I can't believe I'm here, that this has actually happened and all come together and this is my home for two years.  And then there are moments I feel totally inept and ill-equipped for learning a new language, building a whole new community and life, and living out the gospel before those I meet. So thankful that He is faithful to meet me in each of these and be truth and life and joy and peace, equipping me for what He has asked for today, for this moment, and asking me to trust Him with the rest.  It is in this that I keep walking, knowing He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that He has given me manna to feed upon for today, and that is enough.

More to come on Bundi life, what I’m learning, and all kinds of fun…stay tuned

what am I DO-ing?

 As I get ready for this journey to Uganda, I thought I’d fill you in on a little of what I’m up to!

reading:

Finding Calcutta by Mary Poplin was written after the author spent two months in Calcutta serving with Mother Teresa. It is about her time there and also about how she applied what she learned to her life moving forward. It is about finding her own Calcutta and investing love and Christ there, every day, in each person she meets.  It is wonderful!

The Peacemaker by Ken Sande is assigned reading from World Harvest and I

am loving it! It speaks biblical truth to conflict, resolution, and is all about grace and truth and love…really, it’s about Christ and what light the gospel brings to

conflict. And that, my friends, is beautiful.

Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers is a compilation of the beautiful stories of the five women mentioned in the lineage of Christ.  Rivers paints these women’s lives into reality and speaks truth throughout each of them

eating: all kinds of good American food I can get my hands on : ) Chickfila, Zoe's, Burger Up, good coffee, strawberries and peaches and all kinds of delicious fresh fruit

working: babysitting and spending a few more days as part of the Frothy Monkey family down in Franklin! I am having such fun working at a coffeehouse, something I've wanted to do for quite some time!  So fun to get to be a part of a wonderful company in this season! 

listening:  to lots of country because it just sounds like summer. You feel me on that? Check out Parmalee's song Carolina. So fun. Put your country on and roll the windows down, summertime.  And also a lot of Kari Jobe and Matt Redman who speak truth to my heart through song.  Got them on repeat.

learning: I am going through Sonship with World Harvest and I am learning about how I am such a big sinner and Christ’s work on my behalf is SO amazing, full of so much grace and love….I am learning this freshly and much more deeply.  As John Newton said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”  Just learning that. Over and over. And over again. Thankful for the cross and for grace.

praying: that the Lord will use these next 6 weeks to prepare my heart and soul well. That I will have time to spend with those I love in these last few weeks.  That all my packing and to-do’s will get done and not make me {or those around me} too crazy : )

traveling: to the lake to hang with some of my team while we're in the States...then Canada for pre-field training...Philly for my deployment meeting...Florida for Crane family vacation...then.....UGANDA!

watching: I’ve gotten hooked on Call the Midwife thanks to my mom.  It’s a beautiful narrative of so many lives, of birth and death and all that’s in between. It’s about life and people and full of good stories…good stuff.

enjoying: time with my family and friends at the lake and time with friends and family in Nashville as much as I can...

sweet friends here for Summit IX

Lion King with Mom and Emily (thanks daddy!)

Austin's graduation party

anticipating: the big move to Bundibugyo, my new community that comes with it, my stop in Jinja on the way, and my first trip to Canada!  SO much to anticipate!  Adventures ahead.

Thanks for being a part of this journey with me!  I am working on getting into this blogging business on a regular basis!  Let me know what questions you may have or what you’d like me to write about : )