UGANDA BOOK... PROLOGUE

I've mentioned this as a new writing job, and the Lord laid it on me last night and I put it together.  The combination of Cary and Pastor Max was through "The Annie Project".  This new piece probably ain't perfect, yet, but it is truly beginning.  The portion that is bolded in blue are the pieces that actually DID take place when I was on my way to Soroti, November 12, 2003, and spending a day in London during plane timing.  Some is fictional and some is filled with truthfulness.  So, friends, comment if you can.  I'll also FB it.  Anyhow, here it is:

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                                            PROLOGUE

    Cary, in the Heathrow Airport in London, after flying from St. Louis and New York and arriving a dozen hours earlier, called Pastor Max in Newton, and calling him instead of her kids.  She knew he’d need to know more and could spread it around.  So, she pushed the numbers and phone was ringing and he answered.  She was so happy that they could talk for a while.
       “Hi, Pastor Max.  I’ve been in London for twelve hours.  Been around and about part of London town, but so dark early here now.  I’d been around town, as I said, but now I’m just wandering around Heathrow.  The houring issue is a challenge, to say the least.”
      “Oh, it’s so good to hear from you, Cary.  Though, somehow, I can’t remember the timing.”
      “Well, it’s about six hours later here, so when we land at 10:00 in the morning here at their time, it’s 4:00 in the morning at our place.  It’s a challenge for me to adjust to, but going downtown on a subway train, and then getting on the top of the buses to see other parts is fun.”
      “Did you meet anyone or see anyone or have a good food time?”
      Cary laughed.  “Yes.  I met a lady who is going to Uganda to be with her daughter who has been there for a couple years and has a few orphan kids living with her in Jinja.  The lady, Linda, wants to meet her new Ugandan grandkids.
      “We met at the bathroom at the airport this morning while I was brushing my teeth, and we went to town together.  We went to Harrods, that famous place, for lunch.  The cost was horrific.  Normal size of soup, salad, and pop came to $30.  I was pretty shocked!”
      “When are you leaving to Uganda? And when will you get there?”
      “I’ll be leaving about 11:00 tonight and get there between 9 and 10 in the morning, because it’s about three hours later than here.  My body will be struggling again, believe me.”
      “When will you be calling FAITH and connecting there and getting to Soroti?”
      “Think it will be when my Ugandan son, Sam, whose home where I’ll be  staying first, will be able to call FAITH.  Sam’ll take me up, I think, to Soroti, in about a week.  And I’ll connect with people connected to FAITH who are there or nearby.  Either way, I’ll do my God-job.”
       Pastor Max laughed.  “Yes, Cary, I know you’ll do whatever you can whenever you can to serve our Lord.”
        Cary laughed, too.  “You’ve made me smile.  I’m very tired and somehow might be dozing a bit on the plane tonight which isn’t normal.  But don’t have my husband with me, so it’s a lot different to be heading to Uganda.”
      Max said, “Well, your name will be spread around and about the church and the town and you will be prayed for, over and over again.”
      “Thank you so much.  I appreciate you and my family and my friends.  And I better hang up.”
      “I understand.  Keep in touch when you can, though.  And I’ll call Sue, Mike, and Luke right away.”
      Suddenly Cary said, “Oh, one more thing you can spread around. Last night on the plane when I was standing by the toilets, a lady by me indicated her original family was from India, but she had been born in the States and had been living in D.C. and London since she had married.  Her husband was originally from India and they now had two small children.  Her husband had decided to return to India.  She was very upset, because his mom had already said to him that she hates Rahajina, because Rahajina was not the girl she had chosen for him to marry.  Rahajina teared up when she talked about leaving all her family and friends behind and how hard the road ahead looked.  I told her my church people would pray and be standing with her.  I prayed to her that God’s grace would be with her and our Lord would meet her.  I anticipate she’s Hindu by what I saw on her jewelry and her face.  Anyhow, last night was truly an amazing ‘divine appointment’.  So please add her to the people and spread her around and about our nation.”
       Pastor Max said, “Oh, thank you, Cary.  God obviously put her in a Christianity location, because of you being in the ‘right place, right time’."
      Cary laughed.  “Yes, now you obviously know one of my main personal 'quotes'.  Thank you.  Now, I will say goodbye.”
      And she did.
      And he did.
      They both heard each other laughing and rejoicing when they were hanging up. Why?  Because of the joyfulness of their time to share.

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Sam's wife, Adhe, my daughter, her birthday shortly after my arrival.

 Met Stella then when she was 2, and she is 13 now,

 and Dave and I miss her MUCH!!

And we also miss her parents, Sam and Adhe.

In Summer, 2008, they were here to visit 

so this is them then in our yard:

GOD-GIFT BETWEEN ASIA AND I

In the Fall of 2006, I became e-acquainted with a lady from Singapore.  In September, I had been on a long prayer walk in northern Minnesota, and then at a spiritual warfare conference in Grand Forks, North Dakota, just across the state line.  She contacted me a few weeks later. She certainly wasn't there and I don't know who told her about me and my focus on spiritual mapping.  [I love how the Lord does that for us; a total surprise!]

A year later, in 2007, I edited a spiritual warfare book she had written.  Since it was being shared in the U.S. and Canada, and much of it was aimed at Asian thinking and spiritual history, some of it needed adjustment or further explanation.

We e-communicated frequently.

Now, also, in the Summer and Fall of '07, while editing, some heavy extended-family issues crushed my heart.  Then, in early November, I had an appendectomy, and, even after a flu shot, I was hit hard twice with flues during the next few weeks.  In those months I had become very weak, physically and emotionally -- and believe it was spiritual, too.

I hit one of my hardest depressions in years.  I began to wonder if the Lord was disappointed in me -- I knew others were -- and if I should just stay at home, isolated, alone .... forever.  [My poor sweet husband having to deal with my sad heart.  So sorry for him.]

One day near Christmas, I was walking through my house crying and overwhelmed with sadness...

AND the doorbell rang.

I went and Patti, our USPS lady, handed me a package, a bit torn, and taped by the post office.

It was from Singapore.  I thought, "WHAT?"

I opened it up... and cried again... but from joy, instead of depression.

WHY?   Gifts were from Serene.  One small inner package had lovely chopsticks wrapped in cloth napkins held together with ribbons.  And, then, when I took the paper that covered the other piece, it truly was a gift from God.  I still laugh ... when struggling in sorrow and depression for weeks and wondering what I should do, how life should change, Serene had already mailed this.  It was running late, according to the expected arrival time, which she shared with me later when thanking her.  But it arrived exactly when it should have, spiritually speaking.  

This was a golden, blue, royalty-colored cloth.  It said to me, from the Lord, that I was a royal princess, would continue to be kept in part of His family and that serving Him -- in, out, and about -- was what counted.

 

I left it on my dining room table for a while so I could never NOT see it every day.  Shortly thereafter, I folded it and put it in our curio cabinet.  It's been there ever since and I still smile and think of when it arrived and why.

It's another testimony of how the Lord so kindly breaks through the heavy walls of our lives ...  and fills us with encouragement.

And today?  Filled with appreciation.  For Serene... and Him.