“Everybody, everybody wants to LoVe! Everybody, Everybody wants to be LoVeD…”-Ingrid Michaelson lyrics

I am not much of a enthusiast of this day the commercial world has made into a ‘holiday’, but I am thankful today and these first two months of 2012 that in the midst of the business of life, the joys and sorrows, the work and fun, God is answering my prayers and is leading me in the long journey of knowing, growing, and understanding LoVe…that He is LoVe…how to LoVe as He is and does…

I thank my Lord for His life of love. I thank Him for His Word and the instruction and teaching it provides me for what LoVe truly looks like and means. I especially thank God for the people and opportunities that He has placed in my life daily to practice and be challenged to LoVe God and others:

LoVe is patient and kind

LoVe does not envy or boast

LoVe is not proud, rude, self-seeking, or easily angered

LoVe does not keep record of wrongs or delight in evil

LoVe rejoices in the Truth

LoVe always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres

LoVe never fails…

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (adaptation)

I also thank my Lord for the many people and opportunities that God has blessed me with to be LoVeD on both sides of the big pond in all areas of life! Above it all I am learning that I could not be more LoVeD than I already am by the Savior of the World and I am learning to place Him as my first LoVe in return with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength!

It is my prayer for each of us reading and following this blog and God’s work here in Uganda that over time we all would come to know and share that same LoVe of Christ who came while we were still sinners and died for Us! It is this that makes me believe that He is continuing to patiently form me and each of us into His beautiful workmanships...and for the hope of transformation through His LoVe I can not be more grateful when I look within and around me...

“[I am so] Lucky to be in LoVe with my best friend [Jesus]…”-Amos Lee lyrics 

(A year ago...even a few months ago I wouldn't have been able to say this...It shows God is transforming and shaping me and I praise Him!)

Much LoVe and blessings to each of you this week! May each of us come to know and experience the depth of true LoVe this week, month, and year and may we find it spilling over to others!

melanie joy

Here are a few of the easiet moments of loving captured over the past few days :)

My sweet and stubborn companion for the day "Sophia" in one of the fishing camps 

My dear friend, a nurse here, Lucy's newest addition...a baby boy!! Meeting Auntie Melanie/Auntie Joy for the first of many many times!

Lucy and baby...Proud and happy first time Maama!

One of the many little boys being born to the nurse's at Mengo hospital! Wee 5 months old John and I enjoyed some precious love and play time together when visiting this week!

"They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor." Isaiah 61:3

Sometimes I feel more like papyrus swiftly flowing down the Nile through the rough and tumble of the current rather than an oak tree steady and strongly grounded on the bank of the river displaying God's splendor...but all that to say I praise God He hasn't given up on finishing the good work He started in me and I hope I am becoming such an "oak" as I have seen and heard in others who so uniquely and distinctly display the splendor of our King! 


I said I'd write on the weekend and I like to be a woman of my word, so I'm still calling this "my weekend" although really I don't believe my weekend ever started...Maybe that gives you an idea of the background to those quotes and verses that I began with last entry...


"NEVER tire of doing what is right."-2 Thessalonians 3:13
The phone rings or I meet with a friend and am slammed time after time with the reality of pain and joy, the rejoicing and the suffering in life...Deaths, births, illness, broken families, abuse, restored relationships, legitimate fear of threat, effects of corruption, darkness and depravity of the human heart, accidents that lead to the upheaval of life, loss of jobs, dignity, food, rent, school fees, hope...(I know this is scattered but I hope it gives you a wee picture and gets you thinking. Each of these ideas all stem from real scenarios that have or are happening to people close to me in the past few weeks, weeks, not months or years even...). The seemingly insurmountable problems that I can not imagine facing on my own are the very opportunities that God is laying in front of me and all around me giving me opportunity to do right and walk as Jesus did along side people as I learn to love; to pray for wisdom for what to do when hope seems gone, and how to help bring relief or wisdom or encouragement as appropriate. 


I never cease to be amazed that as I ask God to teach me something very specific...along the barrage of lessons and opportunities to practice and see come! This year I'm striving to learn to live by and obey and make my first priority at all times the command in Matthew 23: 37-39 "Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." God is certainly answering my prayers for Him to teach me HOW to love Him first and then to love my neighbor as I would want to love myself. Before I used to love in the reverse order of this verse, but I'm learning and He's graciously teaching me, but like most lessons we ask Him to teach us and grow us in, it is not the easy way around. It takes opening up our hearts in order to love Him and others and opening our hearts means we open ourselves to the reality that we will FEEL, joy and sorrow. But something I am learning is that, "Where our [my/God's] work is there let our [my] joy be"-Tertullian. I think or hope I am beginning to understand or taste a bit of the joy in suffering that Paul so often talks about in the New Testament...It is not a happy feeling, it is hard to explain...it is JOY and joy isn't changed or removed when we're living right before God even if circumstances do plummet. It seems to be both a choice and a blessing...


My prayers are as follows each time I'm confronted now by such opportunities to find Joy through Love:


1) Thank you God for weaving me to be a woman who CARES deeply for people and for bringing me to a place of understanding that purpose that you've created me for and how nursing is a means to using it fully. Thank you for calling me to care for people as you did which often means walking hand-in-hand, kneeling side-by-side, and crying arm-in-arm.


2) "Teach me to number my days aright that I may gain a heart of wisdom...Satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing Love that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days."-adapted from Psalm 90:12 and 14.


3) Most of all right now, how do I love you 1st? Then how do I love my neighbor as I want to be loved? Thank you for your Word that teaches me what love is so I can learn how to apply it in each scenario brought to my heart each day..."Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the Truth. It always protects. Always trusts. Always hopes. Always perseveres."- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8


4) Lord, teach me to trust that you love each person so so much more and far beyond what I will ever be able to! 

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."-Abraham Lincoln I'm now beginning to realize and slowly learn that this is one of the best places I can be and best things I can do as I walk in love beside my brothers, sisters, friends, and loved ones.

Obudde Bugenze (Time has gone)!  Time for bed before waking early to travel again! Back to the islands until the weekend. I will fill you in with more detail soon...particularly with the island ministry, but also with the ministry that is my life here in Kampala. For now there's some of the food in my thoughts these days...Good night from Uganda!

May God bless and keep and grow us all in His grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the life of love He lived...

melanie

"Where our work is, there let our joy be."-Tertullian

"Never tire of doing what is right."-2 Thessalonians 3:13

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."-Abraham Lincoln

"Pray without ceasing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

I know I have just left you with some 'at random' thoughts...words from some renowned figures in the past accompanied by some simple and yet profound agreements and instruction from the Word of God...Actually I'm going to leave you with just those for now to reflect on and consider...


I will write an entry this weekend and expound upon some of those thoughts and how God has brought them into my life this past very full month. For now, I'm preparing to go back to the islands tomorrow morning...just a few hours from now...and will be there until the weekend. We hope to visit and teach in another four camps this week and I ask those of you interested, to join me in prayer in these ways...

1) That our hearts would be open and guided by God's Word in the work before us and seeing everyone of the individuals as the only and most important one as God sees them...And that they would know Jesus through such encounters with Him and the value and worth they have as His own children...

2) That my mind would be fully present this week, as in honesty I have to say that my heart and mind have been and continue to be pulled toward many dear people in my life in many different directions and places who are currently suffering in tremendous ways and whom I am and want to continue walking along side and ministering Christ and His love, care, and compassion to, but I need God's strength, hope, joy, stamina, grace, and wisdom to care for all well...and also grow in Trust that God cares infinitely more than I can or imagine...And pray with me that God would be each of their Great Counselor in the way they need...

3) That our Joy would be so evidently not our own but from God and living in obedience to and hope in Him.

4) Also and always team unity and safety on the water as well...


Tune in next Sunday (God willing) for more specific updates on these 31 days of January 2012...In the meantime, may God keep us all and grow us in His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-24)

MuCh LoVe,
MeLaNiE jOy

OLD YEARS AND NEW YEARS, OLD MEMORIES AND NEW MEMORIES

A month since you last found me here…in the meantime, a lot has happened as usual in my life and all of yours. I wish I could hear all of the little details and events that make up the lives God has given each of you, but who knows maybe in eternity we’ll have story time J Until then here’s a taste of what’s happening this side…

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I was reminded very much this year and wanted to share with you the Truth of Emmanuel, Our God with us. What a precious name for the Lord, the One who came to save us from our Sins, conquered the grave, and now reigns on high and within!

“She will bear a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins…’Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name Him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us’.” –Matthew 1:21&23

I am blessed as I am reminded of this precious truth about my God…I am never alone…He is always with me…This past year and even now I am learning to cling to my precious Emmanuel more than I ever have before...

The visit from MY MOM, DAD, and BROTHER HERE IN UGANDA was another clear reminder of God’s presence always with me!! I was blessed by their company, laughs, encouragement, and memories, and I know I will continue to be blessed as time passes and now part of my family can picture, understand, hear, and know the life and people God has called me to live, walk, and love among.

We traveled about half of the time north, south, and west and the other half of the time we were backward and forward in Kampala between many friends and important individuals in my life this side of the pond. After three weeks here, I think they have a good taste of a portion of what my life involves these days J The quick stop in the supermarket which almost always takes an hour...The stroll down my street and all of the hellos that accompany it…Relationships, transportation, relationships, food, relationships, weather, relationships, health care, relationships, social life, relationships, language, relationships, culture, relationships, safari, relationships, village, relationships, Ssese islands, relationships, music, relationships, joy, relationships, sorrow, relationships…I think you can see a theme here? ;)

I think the best way to share about their time and the impact it had on people is to show you the story through a series of photos that capture some of the interactions and faces…I wish I could recount to you the whole experience, but I’ll do my best to invite you into it…

Photos… Click here to see a photo album tale of the three week visit and some of the interactions and visits with people and experiences while my family was here visiting...

Merry Christmas from Ntungamu!

As I enter this new year, God has placed it on my heart to slow down, reflect, organize, and refocus so that in 2012 I may live and love well and intentionally, investing in a few things and people to a deeper level. This may be coming partly from the realization of how very full my life is and can become and how stretched it could be, but I think it also comes from Jesus’ words in response to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:37 “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I realize this year is yet another opportunity for me to realign my priorities and focus on Loving my God first and allowing that to flow into selfless love for others in all I do. Please be praying with me for wisdom and obedience to God’s Word as I decide on areas and people to focus on investing on and allowing what I’m learning about the life and character of Jesus to play out within. Some of these I already know including Biblical Counseling Bible Study Members, developing my nursing skills and health care base, Ssese Islands (teaching/counseling, patient care, and relationships), Language acquisition, a few youth, neighbors, and health care workers who have become dear people to me…

Thanks again for tuning in and I will be sure to be frequenting this page more often in the coming weeks and months to invite you in this world and life…Thanks for joining for the ride in so many ways! I cannot be more serious that if it were not for YOU, your support, your love, your prayers, and your encouragements I would not be here. SO THANK YOU!! I wish I could put in words how valuable and meaningful you are around the globe, especially here in Uganda, but my words are insufficient...I hope that through the stories, the photos, the thoughts you get a wee glimpse of how very valuable and loved and appreciated you are!!

I pray God blesses you beyond measure and reminds you of how precious you truly are to Him and the world!

With Much Love,

melanie

"Is it a girl or is it a boy?"

“Is it a girl or is it a boy?” the few children crowded around in one of the camps who hadn’t met me before asked my colleague. When she informed them I was a girl and in fact a woman, they all understood and gave an agreeing “Oh…” This lent for a great laugh the rest of the week! Seems some little ones in all of their blunt honesty see my short height and don’t know what to make of it…am I a girl or a woman; am I my colleagues child? Ha! 

I guess it gives me an ‘in’ into the kids world, but when it comes to speaking to women and mothers, it can bring its own challenge. Here within the culture I now live and move, being a female without children and unwed means you are still a girl. That has been a bit difficult to adjust to since in my own mind and culture I have been a woman for some time and yet now seem to be referred backward to as a girl only after others discover I have not yet given birth…shocking to most apparently, except for those kids :)

All this to say that place can be a bit intimidating at times when my role now is to stand in front of communities of men and women and TEACH about HIV being spread from mothers to children and how WE can prevent that as mothers and fathers. Well, anyway, that was just a bit of intimidation added on top of my great fear of speaking in front of people…a mountain this week I could not go under or around. I had to climb over it! Thanks to God and His help and reminder to me that “it is not about me (Melanie). No, it is about people knowing and understanding the Truth and allowing that to work change.” The way we have come to know is because someone was not too scared to tell us, right? So, up I went and God in His great mercy surrounded me with the prayers of many of you and the support of those with me as well as audiences eager to listen and learn. The words even came out!! I could not ask for more!

These words came as a help to me this week as they have challenged me to know where my heart is…and was created to be:

            “Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”- Matthew 22:37-40

            “If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, ‘You do not understand,’ or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; If I put my own good name before the others’ highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary [Jesus Christ’s] love.”-Amy Carmichael

This does not seem like a challenge that will be moving from me for a while, but I hope one day my love for people will really over take my fear of being in front of them.

I hope one day to be a maama, but until then, though I have not yet given birth, I find myself mothering many children and working with many maamas, in fact this daily routine makes me feel I’m filling the role. Anyway, all of this mothering in the month of December brings ANOTHER BIRTH to mind…Can you think of who it is?

Yeah, Jesus, the reason for this season…can you imagine Mary, finding herself pregnant like many of the young girls I work with?  Although she unlike some of them wasn't experiencing a consequence of actions! Like some (for example those raped) she may have felt the guilt of being blamed and accused when she had not acted outside of the moral and cultural expectations known to her. The difference being with Mary came in the peace she received from the Angel of God reassuring her this was an act of God and she was carrying the Savior of the World within her womb…I like to think of how carefully she cared for herself and Jesus even as he was still inside and when He came on that special day…we all have such value…

Even more I love to reflect on and meditate on the Savior of the World, of you and of me, the One who came to make all things right, to make it possible for one day there to be no more mourning or crying or pain…that this One chose to come in the form of a baby going through the whole process God designed for human babies to come…He did it all, knowing that He was doing so to die for ME, for YOU, for EACH ONE OF US…wow…if He could do that, I can stand up and speak the Truth!

Thank you so much for everything everyone of you :) God bless!! Touch base again in the next week or so this time  :) Much love and grace and peace to you!

My Welcome back:) Kagonya Camp, some of the kids who asked the above question:)

Myself with the help of Alice (my teammate and interpreter) teaching about mother to child transmission of HIV to a group of about 25-30 men, women, and teens at Mukaka Camp

Camp for the teaching...brief pause in the teaching as one of the young teen boys spotted it and killed it...probably came to take care of the rats scurrying past on the other side of us...this is our life ;)

we had a joint 2011 birthday party after I returned from the US last week for the kiddos who hang out with me many weekends from my neighborhood. Cake, juice, games, laughter, individual candles and happy birthday songs! Good times had by all :)

Links some people look for from my old blog when beginning to follow this story from the middle of the book...

All the Little Children-previous blog
Ssese Islands Intro 2011
Join my support family
Island Video

Simply so it's easy to catch up on the past year and find info you may or may not want :)
Thanks for taking the time to look through my eyes into this world...

Currently, I am on an unexpected visit to the USA following some unfortunately events in my family that I felt God was calling me to come back for a few weeks to be a support to them. While I returned to support them in the death of my grandma, the recovery from surgery of my other grandmother, and the farewell to my brother who is being deployed to Afghanistan in January, it has been a blessed time for all of us to be together again and for that I am so grateful that my Creator and King knows our needs before we even articulate them or know them.  I am in the Philadelphia area with family and some of you and will be returning home to Uganda after two weeks...

In the meantime, I ask for your continued prayers and thank you for your support that enabled me to take this compassionate leave for my family and make the distance seem less far.

Much love and blessings and I'll tune in again soon to catch you up on all that happened before I took this unexpected leave and what will happen when I return...
melanie joy

Josh and Caleb (My Brothers), Jessy (My Sister-Josh's wife), Me, Emily, Zion, and Stazi (Niece and Nephews)

I Welcome You Behind the Scenes...

Hello and welcome through the window into the thing I call My Life, which I'm learning is the very thing the Craftsman is taking out of my grip and working with me to reshape and reflect in His own image, the image of my Creator and Redeemer.

For those of you who have been following my part in the Author's grand story, welcome to my new blog. I hope you will find this easier to navigate and read than the previous one as it is much easier for me to update and communicate to you in word and picture!

For those of you who are just beginning to follow my story, I have made the switch from another blog All the Little Children which I began to keep when I was preparing to move from USA to Uganda and have maintained over the past year if you like a bit of history reading you are welcome to check it out at http://melaniejm.aimsites.org/

I will be recounting glimpses into my story over the days, weeks, months, and years to come on this page . It is my hope that as I do we both come to know the Designer, Craftsman, Author and Redeemer of it all!

Thank you for visiting today!
Much Love,
Melanie Joy (and Joshua as pictured below)