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.

Quick Update

The Sky on the rainy Afternoons!

School has started again and everything is really busy. Most of the people who live in the house are at the conference so the house is basically empty, except for my mom and siblings. Since everyone is gone we've been having a lot of fun. It is the rainy season now and it has been raining every night. Every morning at 8:00 (that's when we have family devotions and we start school) we all come bundled up in our sweaters and blankets. The coldest it gets here is around 60 F, but for us that is really cold! Because of the rain we don't have our normal nightly activity (playing soccer with village kids); instead we play games and watch movies inside the house. God has really blessed us with nice weather these days; we're really thankful!

Lira Conference!

There's another conference that that my dad is doing right now. It is in Lira.  On the day that my dad was going to Lira he had to go to Mukono (which is the city about 2 hours away from where we live).  He didn't come back until 9:00 at night! So he had to drive in a pickup truck 4 hours in the middle of the night. When he was still multiple hours away there was a leak in the car. So he had to stop again... long story short, he arrived in Lira at 4:00 am that morning. So please pray for my dad as he is exhausted and he has to preach to hundreds of pastors for the rest of the week.