Tough Love = True Love

Two days ago, I was training for soccer with a friend who had just recently rejected the Muslim faith and became a Christian. We started talking and I asked him to tell me what had motivated him to become a Christian. I knew that just a few months ago he had refused to come to church and was very defensive about his faith. His story went like this:

My whole family is Muslim, so I grew up with it embedded into me. Every Friday I went to the Muslim call to prayer and I knew the Arabic prayers by heart. I didn’t know what they meant, but I knew them. I got married at a young age and I tried to provide for my family, but jobs were scarce where I lived. I had a brother who owned land near SOS, and so I left my wife and kids at her mom’s house and went to try to start a new life for us. I entered a state of depression. I feared that I would never be able to provide for my family and so I started to drink heavily. Soccer and beer were my way to numb my mind from my problems. A Christian boy who also got saved at SOS invited me to play soccer with him at SOS. So I started playing every evening; that’s where I met the Hurley family. They reached out to me. Elisa invited me to church many times and I told her that I’d come, but I had no true intention of ever joining. I was a Muslim. Alcohol was my way of escape. I would pass out on the side of the road. During that time, no person from my mosque ever came and confronted me about my sinful lifestyle. No one cared enough. But the Hurley’s came to my house all the time telling me that drinking was wrong and I needed to stop. They cared. I started to give Christianity a second thought. I wasn’t satisfied with Islam. One thing that caused me to second guess my beliefs was that the Koran and the Bible’s Old Testament are very similar, but Mohammed is only talked about in the Koran. He is nowhere to be found in the Bible, but Jesus is found in both holy books. That proves Jesus’ superiority. I started to go to youth group, then from there I started attending church. It was exciting! Shannon gave me a job, a house, and brought my family to live with me. The Hurley kids fetched my family water from the bore hole for our first month in our new house. The Christians cared about us. I decided that Christianity must be true, because it is lived out and I can understand it.

If you love someone, you will tell them that they are in sin. My friend’s Muslim friends didn’t love him enough to tell him that what he was doing was wrong. We did. How many times do we care more about our friendships than our friends? Our friends are about to get hurt by sin, but because we care too much about our relationship with them, we do nothing about it. Come on, dear Christians, we need to love people with Biblical love. Jesus loved people, but he called them to repentance. That’s true love. Love that cares more about people than ourselves. Who do you care about that is in sin? Call them out! Love them with Jesus’ love.  

Sports Day 2016

Not of This World

I don’t know if any other missionary kid has ever felt this way, but one of my main struggles of being a third culture kid is trying to figure out who I really am. When with Ugandans, I put on the Ugandan version of me; when with Americans, I put on the American version of me. But many times I’ll be in bed at night trying to figure out who I am. Am I an American or a Ugandan? My family is American, but I live in Uganda with Ugandans.

I hate it when I’m walking down the road here in Uganda and everyone is staring at me, seeing me as different from them because of my light skin and blondish hair. And even when I’m in America, I’m still different, unsure of how things work there. Regardless of how hard I try to fit in, I never can. So who am I really? Which culture is mine?

I just recently came to the conclusion: I’m not a Ugandan, nor am I an American. Who am I? I’m a Christian. Period. No comment. My citizenship is in heaven; I’m not of this world.

My problem is that many times I will try to fit into this world and act like a part of it. I will try to conform to it, just to fit in. But I’m a Christian. I’m not from here. I’m not in my native land. I’m not at my home. So in the same way that I don’t fit in as a white person in Uganda, I also don’t fit in this world. So I actually want to let everyone know that I’m not from here. I am different. I’m not in my home. I want to be an odd man out.

So, I asked myself, how should a citizen of heaven act?

The answer: Like Jesus did.

He was most definitely different from normal people of this world. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone knew that He wasn’t from here because He was loving, kind, and he spoke out against the culture.

I’ve decided that I want to stop trying to fit in. Instead, I want to stick out! I want everyone who sees me to know that I’m not from here and to know that I’m a child of the king. I want them to know that I am a Christian, by my love, my example, and my culture. My native culture is not Ugandan or American; it’s heavenly.

What about you? Where is your citizenship? Is it obvious to those around you?

Update:

I don't really have any good excuse as to why I haven't posted in this blog for about 3 years, but I'm going to start blogging again.

My life has been really busy lately with school, soccer, helping the Basabas move in, and Bible studies. I've been really encouraged by all that God is doing in so many people's hearts here in Kubamitwe. Three weeks ago I started a Girl's Bible Study every Thursday for just a specific group of 5 girls. The goal is to strengthen them up so that they can start their own Bible study, teaching other girls on their own. We've been going through the book, "Lies Young Women Believe" by Nancy Leigh Demoss.  God has been so faithful, as the girls have been very involved. I pray that He will continue to faithfully grow us to love and seek Him with our whole hearts!

Also, SOS has been so blessed to bring Anthony, Mary, and little Hannah Basaba to our ministry. I've been having so much fun with them! I'm so glad that they're here!

New Blog

My brothers and I decided to make a blog about our new club Compassion in Action. If anyone would want to check it out than you can go to:

kubamitweforchrist.blogspot.com

Goat babies!

Last week my goat had two babies. Here are some pictures when they are just a couple hours old:

Sauda’s Kitchen

After the second day (after I fell)

Last day

Completely done!

This last week my siblings and I have been very busy! Last Thursday Sauda, (Christopher’s Mom) came to my mom (I was the translator) and shared some worries that were on her heart.  One of them was that her kitchen (in Uganda everyone cooks outside) had fallen over so whenever it would rain she wouldn’t be able to eat. That morning it had rained and her and her two little kids hadn’t eaten breakfast.  I felt sorry for her and I told my brothers. We decided to build her a kitchen.  So that day we carried old scrap wood and iron sheets (we also purchased some new wood) to Sauda’s house.  The next day my brothers and I finished our school really quickly and hurried to Sauda’s house to start the kitchen, we worked the whole afternoon. At 5:00 that evening we were ready to put the first iron sheet on.  I climbed up on the roof and sat on the pole that was there and then all of a sudden (after I had the first nail in) the pole under me collapsed and I fell to the ground (about a 6-7 foot drop)! I landed on my flat on my face.  I was all right; I just sprained my thumb and bruised my hip and knee.  The next day (Saturday) I went back and worked but I didn’t feel very good.  I went back at lunchtime and was sick in bed the next two days.  Anyway, today we finished it and are recovering from our sore bodies.  It’s really cool seeing how just a little thing like that would bring a lot of happiness to others. My brothers and I were talking about every week going out and helping someone else who is in need. God is so good. I thank him for allowing us to be in such a good place to serve.