I love this kid

Michael was reading to Luke this past weekend and Luke said turtle for the first time.  It just makes me smile to hear him say it.

Recently I’ve learned…

1.  Eyeballs are important

2. People are not always asking what you think they are.

3. My mom doesn’t think I am as weird as I thought she did & turns out she really does think I am pretty neat.

4. My heart has been hardened in areas I didn’t know about until starting to read, Strong Woman, Soft Heart

5. I hurt in ways from my dad’s death that I didn’t know about until starting to read, Strong Woman, Soft Heart

6. It’s ok to be misunderstood.

7. Jesus is my Remedy and He will Never Let Go.

My New Eyeballs

Here they are!

On Friday, I had PRK. It’s like LASIK, only a much longer recovery process.  Before Friday, I could not even see the big E without my glasses or contacts.  I had been told  I was legally blind.  I was petrified and conitnue to have the nagging thoughts of what if I never see again.  It’s a little late for that now. :)  I can’t see very well right now, but that is to be expected.  I really won’t be to 100% for 6 months, but I will be at 90% in about a week.  I’m really excited for what my new life looks like and still wake up thinking I have illegally fallen asleep in my contacts.  Even in the tough recovery process, this has been worth it. Let’s hope it keeps up that way!

I’m really not meaning to drag my feet

I’m struggling a bit with the catch up and re-entry into my real world. I’m tired and welcoming the mindlessness of watching TV and surfing the web, but I KNOW I have to attempt to put words around what God did on that field on Makerere University in the middle of Kampala, Uganda. For all of you who supported us, you were part of something amazing and allowed others to be so also. I learned so much about myself, others, and God through this whole process. I was able to see my husband through a lens I had never been able to before and I fell in love with him all over again. I saw people on the other side of the world worship God with a passion I had never seen. I swear, I think every single person there has the incredible voice God was supposed to give me!

Anywho, as we headed into the week, I really had this weird peace that it was all going to be ok and that whatever was going to happen, was going to happen. I also was convinced that we were going to die because we were on a separate flight than everyone else, but I didn’t dwell on that one. ( I never said I was rational) So the whole week we were pretty busy with preparations, shopping, and dodging falling LED screens-it was fun!

The big day arrived and I was walking around the field with my friend and leader, Amy and she said, “Hey Kristen-turn around, it’s really happening.” And when I did my last year was a reality in front of my eyes and I just lost it. Every frustration, every joy, every new experience, every lesson, every early morning Skype, every late night email and Ichat, every bit of broken pride, every conference call, every meeting, every misunderstanding, every bit of laughter, every fear, every bit of peace, every hope, everything that I didn’t even remember or know about-it was right there and was really about to happen. It was AMAZING. I have always loved the unique way God draws me to himself through my opportunities to lead I have had with Passion since 2000. My pride is BROKEN, I become more of the person He created me to be, and I experience Him in a way totally different than in my day-to-day world. This time was no different. Students were lining up at the gate and I heard over my radio, “Kristen, are you ready to call the doors?” Every part of me wanted to scream, “YES!!!!!, but instead, an emotional little voice responded, “umm, OK” and with that I opened the doors to Passion Kampala.

The remainder of the weekend was a blur of worshipful power outages, teaching, and just fun times with new and old friends. I got to learn what deliverance was (that wasn’t a big topic at my church growing up) and even had 2 sections on the field for it. I hear that Kampala is still reeling from the post-Passion buzz that frankly, no one was expecting. I miss my African friends and know that our leadership team, both US and Ugandan came together to accomplish something huge for God. Jesus was made famous in East Africa at the end of May and I am humbled that Michael and I had the opportunity to play a part in it. We could not have done it without our team who sacrificed so much to be there.

Joshua, Marcus, Nathan, Patrick, Susanne, Joseph, Ben, Alex, Peace, Renee, Michele, Amber, Steven, Ps. Micah, Ps. Peter, Tague, Michael, Beth, Doug, Dan, Brian, Jeff, Sally, Melanie, Apollo, Caitlin, Brad, Stephanie, Rachael, Matt, Doug S., Isaac, Rev. Johnson, Paul, William

I see this picture of the field on our final night there and you can see the lights of Kampala up the hillside behind it, and I’m encouraged as I think that God is the God of that city and there is so much left to do there, but greater things are yet to come. I’m reminded that our purpose in going was to unite students globally for God’s renown, that they would be encouraged to live for something bigger than themselves and I believe we were successful in that. Our sweet new friend, Pastor Peter told us that nothing like that had ever happened in Uganda before and he had never seen God move like that. Michael and I are incredibly humbled and thankful that we got to be there and are thankful to all of you for your support. Thank you.

In the meantime, Luke is fun too.

I haven’t had the ability to process Kampala just yet so I figured I would post pics of Luke to help pass the time until I can tell you all about Africa.

He is obsessed with meerkats thanks to his Aunt Jenn…

He is Charlie Brown’s brother…

Umm, I can explain, it’s not what it looks like. I didn’t inhale.

What 1 year old chews on raw asparagus???

Sorry, skipped a few days…

This is all I have right now: <:: 268 BLOG ::>

Love all of you and thank you for being on this journey with Michael and me these last few months.  It really was truly amazing,

Night night.  I’m off to hear the radio voices in my head…

Third Day down!! Along with monsoon rain, an LED wall, and a few tents…

Yep, today was a fun day. This happened:

More tomorrow morning.  Pray for the weather and that the wall would work. Night night, I’m sleepy.

Second Day down!

We had a fun day today.  I got to head to the field for the first time since November and boy has it changed.  Doug, one of our fabulous guys who is here with us has a great blog that does a much better job than mine to show it. http://dougmancosky.blogspot.com/ We have an amazing bunch of volunteers here with us.  Right now we are in the calm before the storm so I am very conscious of them feeling like there is “nothing to do”. It’s not that there isn’t anything to do, it’s just not yet! We kind of walked around the field today, checked out the progress, got really hot, ate some food, and then our team headed to the market for some fun goodies.  I didn’t get to go, but I am hoping my new friend, Olivia, will be taking me soon. :)  We get to introduce our US leadership team to our Ugandan leadership team tomorrow to merge forces and start divvying up the massive number of tasks that are starting to build.  You can pray for a smooth introduction and that we would bond as a team quickly.  All of our efforts are going to be needed to make this thing happen.  I found out today that since we started running radio ads on Friday, each of the 4 radio stations have had at least 400 students A DAY come by to register. That does not include the ones that are registering through their on campus ministries, their churches, or are going to register the day of.  SO CRAZY!!  Well, it is 2:15 here and I should go to bed. (especially since I just woke Michael up…)

First day down!

So we got through our first day really great!  Some of us shopped, so of us went banking, some of us maybe wondered why we came half-way across the world to sit around, and some of us (Michael mostly) put out fires. :)  Tomorrow starts off with meetings, we head over to the field, we eat, and then i think we will treat all of our volunteer team leaders to some souvenir shopping.  That will be fun, a van of mzungus (white people) pulling up to an outside market.  Where is our old guy with the khaki shorts and black socks!!!???  Anywho, great fun to be had and i will update you tomorrow!

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Luke walking around with his blue chalk the other afternoon reminded me of Harold and the Purple Crayon. They were some of my favorite books when I was in elementary school. You compare: