Slight change of plans....

Slight change of plans... tomorrow is my first day of school! (Never thought I would be saying those words again).

I have been offered a job for the next 6 weeks of working as a personal assistant to a 15 year old girl named Zoe (she is part of a missionary family here). She has autism and has non verbal communication disorder (people with this disorder can be very verbal, including Zoe, this just means it makes it hard for them to pick up non verbal cues, sarcasm, etc.). My job will be to spend the school day with Zoe.

I am still looking into taking some Luganda lessons late afternoon/evening, but I am unsure of how that will turn out.

As you know, I have just moved into an apartment and setting up house here was not cheep (appliances are quite expensive here). This job will give me more experience with autism and give me a chance to make some money in the process. I have not spent too much time with high functioning autism, so this will be a bit of a challenge, but an amazing learning experience! I truly believe this is a gift from God.

Again, thank you all for the continued prayer and support,

Temple of the Holy Spirit

Okay, there are 2 parts to this blog post...
1. What God has been putting on my heart
2. My apartment and life here

(So, what God has been putting on my heart)

Right now, as a female (I know guys go through the same kind of things, but since I am not a guy, I am going to talk from the female point of view) there are 2 things being crammed down our throats…. 1. Be skinny; be a supermodel. 2. Accept yourself just the way you are; you are beautiful without changing a thing.

Now, I want to start off saying, don’t hate who you are (and believe me, I know that feeling just as much as the next girl.) God made you the way you are, accept that…. I believe that 100%. But, it’s not always that simple.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “Do you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (Now, I do know that different people will take this verse differently, but I am just sharing the way God has used this verse to teach me.)

Is eating junk food 24/7 and never exercising- because you hate it with a passion- honoring God with your body? Obviously not. I can say with confidence that when this….

...is no longer just a funny clip, but becomes a reality I think it is safe to say that is not honoring God with your body.  (Which is exactly where I am, sadly) So, I am going to start changing my life style. I love food so much that I am not going to go on a diet or anything, but I will get past my hatred of exercising.  (if after I am in the habit of this and I feel God’s desire is for me to change my eating habits, I will do that as well but I am going one step at a time).

Now, I want to say… No, I do not love my weight and yes, I do hope that exercising causes me to lose weight but that is not my reason for doing this. That is why I will not be keeping track of my weight. I do not know how much I weigh going into this and that is the way it is going to stay. I do not need to count pounds, if I begin doing that it would change my motive.

So, I am telling you all this to keep in mind, it does not matter how skinny you are, it also does not matter if you love yourself, what matters is how you are treating Gods temple? If you are honoring God with your body then yes, love it, embrace it… whether you are 105 pounds or 360 pounds, everyone is different and you need to remember that. God made us different, love that about yourself… but in the processes honor God with that. 

(Now, my life here)
If you guys have been keeping up with me on facebook you have probably been seeing my regular updates... if that is the case feel free to skip or skim this part.
I am still working on getting unpacked and organized (I am taking it slow, simply because I want to). Here are a few pictures of the place. Sorry for the blurriness, I meant to get some better ones today while the sun was out, but I forgot. 

Setting up house has been very expensive so far (the apartment was completely empty, so fridge, microwave, hotplate, bed, couch, chairs.... all things I had to buy within the past few days) and there are some more things that would be really, very useful (desk, bedside table, lamp, etc.). If you feel God calling you to help, that would be so, greatly appreciated. If not, that is fine but I please continue praying for me. 

Also, this morning I visited a church that had some amazing worship! This church is call Watoto church; it visits in the theater of an water/amusement park. Watoto is a branch of mega churches here in Kampala (this branch is on the smaller end). I really enjoyed it, the preaching was good, the worship was amazing!

P.S. the videos do not do it justice.

 

So yes, that is an update on me. I am still figuring out exactly what my normal day will look like, it will take some time for me to properly get my life set up here... but I am really hoping that very soon I will have another (more informative) update for you all.

Thank you all for your time, your prayers and your support.... it is all greatly needed and appreciated. God bless!