When You're Looking For Uganda.

I read a book last year that changed my life.  I borrowed it from a friend for a long car ride, thinking that it would only serve to pass the time.  When we arrived at our destination, the poor girl practically had to pry it from my fingers.  I went home, ordered my own copy, and pored over the words.   

Those words rocked my world and wrecked my heart.  Kisses from Katie is largely responsible for my desire to dive deeper into my faith, into my life, into my relationships.  If you've never read it, step away from this screen and go find a copy.  Seriously.  Right now.  Go do it.

The book is about a young woman originally from Tennessee named Katie Davis.  After she graduated high school, she traveled to Uganda with the intentions of serving as a teacher at an orphanage for a year before starting college.  But she soon discovered that Uganda had stolen her heart, and so she tossed her plans and trusted God one day at a time.  And He continually met her.  (I told you.  So good.)

She founded Amazima Ministries, which hopes to accomplish numerous things, but primarily focuses on funding the education of the children of Uganda.  Katie has also adopted thirteen girls and is an intricate part of the village where she lives.  Everything is not easy.  Everything is not perfect.  She tells some heartbreaking stories in her book.  But she has found the place where her heart beats in rhythm with the Father's heart and she is doing an incredible work for the Kingdom there.

And even now, a year after reading the book and being impacted by this young woman's story, my heart aches to find my Uganda.  My heart aches to find the place where I feel I am fulfilling my purpose.  I am looking for the intersection of my passion and a great need.  I'm looking for my place, my story, my thing.  You know?  That thing that makes your soul feel like it's on fire?  That.  I'm looking for that.  I'm aching for that.

I want my heart to bust wide open with His love and my life to bust wide open with relentless faith.

Some people know immediately and they pursue their place of passion, their Uganda, from an early age.  "I've always known that I was going to be a missionary," they'll say.  Or "I always loved the joy that came from working with kids, so it only makes sense that I would become a teacher."  And God bless them, they're following His heart with all of their heart and it's such a beautiful and wonderful way to live.

But there are others, like myself, who still feel as though our Uganda hasn't yet been revealed.  Where does our passion meet a great need?  What is our passion?  Where is our place?  

But we all have a Uganda, regardless of whether we discover it from an early age or if we're still looking for it.  We all have a calling, a place, a purpose in the Kingdom of God.  And maybe it's not as a missionary or a teacher or a preacher or a worship leader.  Maybe your Uganda is being a stay at home mom, molding little hearts into strong and courageous warriors for Christ and nurturing a husband so he can be the mighty man of God he's called to be.  Maybe your Uganda is a hospital where you selflessly care for each patient that is entrusted to you.  Maybe your Uganda actually is Uganda.  

God will reveal His will in His time, so until you know your Uganda, know this: you have a story and it is written with such love.  So if you don't know where you're supposed to be, simply serve where you are.  Love where you are.  Be where you are, because where you are is where He has placed you for now.  And even that, friend, is beautiful.  

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Day Twenty Three.

You can find the rest of the series here.