Christmas

    All over the world, in most countries, in almost every single house, Christmas is celebrated. It has to be one of the most celebrated holidays in the world! To some it means: Getting presents, spending time with your closest family, and (for some) going to the Christmas eve service. For others it means, It means going around to the families who might not have a real Christmas, to give. One of the last ways Christmas is celebrated is giving to God. I mean after all, it is Jesus's Birthday! Maybe you are one of those people who are all three!

    This Christmas is going to be hard. Just last year we were in Africa. We were struggling to go through this season without my family, my friends, and (as much as I hate to say this) the real presents. It was unbelievably hard to go through some of my favorite holidays without all these key things. Now, I have all these things and I still don't feel complete. If not worse than I did last year. Yes it was different, but it really taught me that Christmas isn't really about anything, but God.

    So this holiday season what are you celebrating? 

-Lu

Invisible Children

    Tears slide down my already damp cheeks as I watch children run from there homes. I cry for those who are taken from there homes, and are forced to do things most Americans cant think about. women are abused. Children are forced to go to war. And people are murdered.

    The Lords Resistance Army has been abducting children from central Africa for 20 years. Children would go out in the day, but in the night they hid. Because they didn't know if they were going to wake up in the same place. This happened in Uganda. But it is only one country of many.

     I lived in Uganda. Uganda is mainly free now from the lra but surrounding countries aren't. No one dared to stand up and say, 'STOP.' not until invisible children. Most Americans didn't know thats was going on in this broken country, this broken Continent. But thankfully, some did. Some American boys went to Uganda and saw all that was going on and decided to help. They made the movie Invisible Children. They payed for school fees for children who had escape and had nothing. This made Joseph Koney and all the rebels move out of Uganda. God is great. He used these three boys to stop a war. Well, maybe not a war, but helped stop a war in one country. They couldn't have done this without God.

    The lra is still in other countries like the Congo But invisible children are doing things for them too. They are building radio towers to help other countries know where the soldiers are. They also met with President Obama and they convinced him to send troops to uganda. THis is definitly a miracle.

    Last night I talked to a Ugandan women who grew up in this war zone. She has an amazing story but it is only one of millions. And she was able to come to America through invisible children. She spoke in font of everybody but after I went to talk to her. I greeted her in lugandan. And her reaction made my bad day better. We began talking and it really made me miss my home. We swapped stories about Africa and our travels. And we were able to connect. So, I decided I'm going to start saving for another trip. My overall goal is to raise $4,000. It is a lot but I am hoping to bring my friend Baylee with me. I know we can make this much with Gods help.

-Lu

That Person is Me

This was written a long time ago in a journal. I was flipping through the journal and i found it. It was written on January  15 20011;

'Today I realized how sad I am to leave, how sad I am to say goodbye to all those friends. Tomorrow I'm leaving. No, I cant believe it, no I don't really want to. Don't get me wrong I really want to see my family and eat American food, but in Africa everything is harder, but in a way better. It doesn't really make sense but Africa is a part of me. I wonder why God lead me to this place, When six months later I would be leaving. I just don't get it.

In Africa we've made some awesome and funny memories. Ive met so many adoptive parents, TONS of boda drivers, and all of the Homeboyz, and lastly I found a more patient person, someone who makes more of an effort to forgive and look past the faults of others, that person is me. I'm glad that I got this far, and now I have to let got guide me.'


When I reread this it brought tears to my eyes. It showed me how changed I am. When I reread this, it showed me how I changed. It showed me more Change than I look back on now. This wasn't a lie but it seems so unreal. I  mean how much can a person change? Not this much, by myself. Then I remembered, it wasn't just me, it was God. and I think that's what made me change. It still seems so unreal, but a lot of things about God seem unreal. am I right?



-Lu

Ashes into Beauty

It may sound strange and mean for me to say this, but everyone likes to be right. We all do. So why do we deny it? Because it makes us sound a little arrogant? Because we want people to see our better side and not our conceded side? There both good answers but what I came up with is if we are wrong it bring out the ugly. God is right. Never wrong. He fixes the ugly, and makes beauty. Beauty unto ashes right? I'm learning to show God my ugly and trade it in for beauty and perfection. It's like hand me downs. I used to take them, and give them. I know what it's like to keep a shirt that doesn't fit just because it's 'special'. You know it's useless to you but to the next person it could be just as special. So, if you DON'T give away your sins and other problems you are just going to be stuck with your special shirt. Does that make sense? 


Explanation: beauty unto ashes come from a chapter in Isaiah.
Isaiah 61:3 "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."
I read this and was simply blown away. Of course I know of Gods healing, perfection, and mercy, but why did this fill m with awe? The details? No... I think it's because it's unlike another passage in the bible. it shows Gods awesomeness, power, and also it's like a poem, a biblical one. 

-Lu

God works in weird ways. Don't I know it! I mean why else would God send me to Africa just to be sent home 6 months later? He had his purposes, but that's what bothers me. I like to be in control. like I want to know whats happening tomorrow so I can get ready. I'm not a control freak but I like to be prepared. So that's why only God knowing bothers me. All the time i ask God to tell me his plans. The answer isn't what i usually want but, I know god has a plan for me. I guess it doesn't matter that I know gods plans, but it still bothers me. I look at this verse when I feel helpless and worry about tomorrow.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

OTHER NEWS:

My family is doing good. I'm still missing Africa but that's probably not going to change soon. And I have a new found love for Lord of the Rings. 

Here is another blog. Her blog is really good. She also need your prayers. Please keep my family in your prayers.

-Lu

Dreams & What if's

We all have dreams. I have them. Some are bigger than others. Others as simple as the next meal. One of the things I wish I would have done while we were in Africa is get to know our kids. I never asked them what there favorite color was, or what they wanted to do when they finished school. Now that it think about it I didn't really do much. I baked, helped cook, did the Saturday mandatory cleaning, and read. I wasn't all that close to God, my family, or our other kids. I look back on it more is see myself doing nothing. I read books and felt sorry for myself. Sorry that I could have been going to middle school, could have had a semi normal life, but then again how normal can you get with so many siblings? I think about it and realized how much more I could have done. I read peoples blogs on how they "change the world". I envy them. I had the chance but it doesn't feel like I did anything. I thought well I guess I'm here...is this really making a difference? I thought yes. I thought being the difference was just going. Not doing. I find myself dreaming of going back. Doing those thing that I wish I would have done. I want to be the difference but how? I'm 11, turning 12 in like 2 months. I want to make a difference with my writing but doubts and 'ifs' are running through my brain.
What if people don't take me seriously because I'm still a kid?
How can people take me serious?
I ask myself this practically demanding answers and god just says "TRUST ME..." I guess I'm scared. scared of people thinking "shes crazy" or like "OH yea she went to Africa blah, blah, blah." I remind myself that life isn't a popularity contest, but I still ask myself what if... I don't want to look back on my life and say "what if". I want to say, "oh yea I did..."

-Lu

favorites

Favoritism comes up all the time in my family. everyone has a favorite, sometimes they tell who it is sometimes they don't. This conversation usually comes up when there is something everybody likes and they have to choose who gets it. any one with a big family knows how it goes. it always end in an argument and some unhappy kiddos. my point of this blog post is fairness. it isn't fair how the family favorite (in my case Jemma), gets more than others. this isn't always the case but usually it happens unfairly. It also isn't fair that kids all around the world go to bed staring and we have so much to be grateful for.  like when i think about it I just get so frustrated. I know that god does all he does for a purpose and he has no intention of harming us but i often find myself wondering, WHY? I have seen with my own eyes how much hunger and poverty affect life. if you want to help go to this site and sponsor a child. : lovegodandloveothers.com this is my family's site. i write my blogs mainly on here, but some of my older blogs are on there.

i also want to say how happy i am to be back, as much as i bag on America i am glad to be back...thanks for reading my blogger.


-Lu