“Never allow this feeling to come in-
‘Well, I am going to do no more for that one, I did everything I could and all I got was gross ingratitude.’
We are not here to serve our own purposes;
we are here by the grace of God and His indwelling Spirit, to glorify Him.
If He brings us up against callous people, mean, ungrateful, sponging people,
we must never turn our faces for one second away from Him…
We have to learn to go the second mile with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way, and we think we will wait until we get nearer the big crisis. We can all see the big crisis, ‘ Oh yes, I would like to do that for God,’ but what about the obscure duty waiting to be done? If we do not do the walking, steadily and carefully, in the little matters, we will do nothing when the big crisis comes. We shall flag when there is no vision, no uplift- just the common round, the trivial task;
but if we keep our faces steadfastly towards our Jerusalem and go there considering Him,
it will not be possible for drudgery to dampen us.”
– Oswald Chambers
“Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem…
there met Him ten men who were lepers.”
– Luke 17:11-19
So we know the famous story of the ten lepers.
Though God had healed all ten of them, none but one returned to thank Him.
The missionary journey brings one right into the reality of this story: we are in His shoes, the Person who healed the ten lepers, waiting for gratitude to be doled onto our laps from each person we had stopped for, each situation we had sacrificed our time, careers and lives for. Yet, we might find ourselves stranded in shock, not knowing how to handle our misplaced surprise and despondence at disappearing acts of thanks.
The missionary journey brings one right into the reality of this story, on the other side, too: we are ourselves the nine lepers, having received the grace and mercy of a generous God and yet turning our backs on Him, hurrying along without remembering His kindness towards us.
Lately, I’ve been wondering, whose shoes I am wearing- those of the nine lepers, the healer, or the one who returned in joyful gratitude with a loud voice of praise and gratitude?
Our flesh so often presumptuously calls us to the position of the Healer, awaiting the thanks we think we deserve.
Yet, it takes a jolt of reality, doesn’t it, for us to finally see, that it is our very position in demanding gratitude that puts us into the shoes of the nine lepers.
God has done so much for us, and yet, we complain.
This morning, I’ve decided to give thanks for the amazing generosities, breakthroughs and miracles God has given to us, since we landed in Africa.
I am grateful for the amazing sunrises and sunsets God paints every morning, in front of and behind our home. One thing we enjoy very much is the early morning workouts we have at our front yard, to the chirping of birds, a cool hilltop breeze, and beautiful sunshine, before having a homemade breakfast and a morning devotion.
I am grateful for a husband who loves me. I am grateful, that at the each day, I can return to a man who loves me. Most women here, and almost every other Ugandan lady I know, is abandoned by her husband or widowed.
This is Cliff, who, after eating meal after meal of plain ol’ home-cooked fried rice or porridge in Africa (plus a failed dessert attempt), can –still- smile and say, “I love eating this food 2 meals a day and every day forever and ever! If I eat out, I’d just be full. But when I eat what you cook, I’ll be full AND filled with love!” … And after being brain-dead from writing 2 research papers for my Masters in Theology after a long day at work, to hear him say, “Yo, if you can endure being married to me, you can definitely do this!”
I am grateful for a husband who surprises me in different ways here, even though we don’t have malls to go to or fancy places to dine in. Our weekly “highlight” is going to a little supermarket down the road. He continues to express his love creatively, not with bouquets of flowers ( I haven’t seen a single florist here) or fancy dinners or dates… but simply showing up with a black brolly on the hillslope when I was racing up from my office beneath treacherous, rolling dark clouds, and with a plucked wildflower to put into my hair…
The valiant knight and his trusty umbrella
Hard to mad that he plucked a wildflower when it was to put into my hair!
I am grateful for the amazing wildlife here, and the opportunity to spot these beautiful hornbills just outside our home.
A precious moment captured!
I am grateful to be a witness of the most amazing surprises in the sky- we were working out one morning in our frontyard when we both stood amazed at a group of half a dozen Crested Cranes, the Ugandan National bird, which flew by us. It was our first sighting of this majestic bird since coming to Uganda.
Photo from Google, but close enough to what we saw!
I am grateful for a little windy, open-air office space at the public health institute I volunteer at. I didn’t expect a space at all to work in. And though I struggle with the pace of work moving here, I am thankful for colleagues who truly value people and conversation, and am learning to be patient to partner others, and not sit on my moral high horse for nobody’s fault in a different chronological rhythm here.
View from my office- looks like someone came to evaluate my progress
and check on how I was coping!
I am grateful, to have a home with a stove to cook over and dining table to have dinner on. I am grateful to have a bed to sleep on, no matter that we have had to shift our mattress from the bedframe to the floor next to the kitchen area, to avoid the loud booming noises at night from the valleys. I am grateful we have a toilet that works and running water. Because most of the homes we have visited in the villages are but a mattress in a dark, dank tiny room, and a stove at the ground of the doorstep.
I am grateful for the twenty-year old (maybe older) rented car we have for travelling around this land of dirt roads, and ferrying people. Though it is infested with dozens of unkillable cockroaches and requires a fiddling with the engine in the front bonnet every time we drive it, it has never failed to start. Very few of our Ugandan friends actually own a vehicle of their own.
It has been trusty enough to help us navigate through the worst of dirt roads,
even when they melt in the rain into waterfalls and raging rivers!
I am grateful, that after a stressful, near-cheat deal that fell through at the last minute (phew), two full-day trips cross-country, a 4.5-hour negotiation, a full-day trip to town for insurance and overhaul, we have finally obtained a cosy 20-year old, 2-door vehicle for travelling and ministry purposes. It would not start when we first got it, but has since straightened its mood out since getting a full servicing. I am grateful that for all the terrible traffic Cliff has had to navigate through, and one or two near-hits, God has kept us safe. I am grateful for Cliff, that for all the draining and tiresome negotiations and errands he has had to run and endure, he is often is good spirits.
Cliff has affectionately named this 20-year old tin-can “Cookie Monster”.
I am grateful, that for all I think I have given up, I still have so much more compared to what people here have. On a full-day visit to the field districts and villages one day with the NGO to monitor some income-generating activities they had helped HIV-patients start up as a means of livelihood, we saw women with young children, abandoned, struggle for a means of survival and now consider life good because of a micro-loan they received to start a food shack by the roadside selling steamed bananas and stewed beans. This man below now has dignity and strength to start making and selling bricks, after a boost from the NGO to help him with his first set of firewood to start off as capital.
I am grateful, that when we returned from the field visit, we came home to the drama of a thief who tried to rob the convenient store next door and had been beaten by the angry mob and taken by the police, that we were not present at the time of the robbery.
I am grateful, for having the chance to be serving God’s people, in ways I sometimes don’t understand- whether it is speaking at a youth conference to young people from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi, or simply ferrying an elderly lady to the doctor. I am most grateful for the privilege to see Cliff grow in wisdom and stature, in his giftings and calling.
I am grateful for the friends I have made here, for the chance to be a blessing to them, and to receive their blessings unto me.
For all that we think we lack or complain about,
let us remember to ask ourselves,
if we would better find ourselves in the shoes of the nine lepers,
or the one who returned to God to say “Thank You”.
Thank you for all that you have given us, God.
Forgive us for complaining.
We are grateful.
Sunset from home