It’s been around just over a month since our team got back from Uganda.
Getting back in to the structured schedule of school and life in the states hasn’t presented itself as too unnatural for me as much as I had expected.
I’ve tried to write down a few lingering thoughts from my time in Uganda, but I felt constrained in my limited vernacular to accurately convey the physical, emotional, and spiritual experiences I’ve encountered, in a way I wished to. Thus I’ve been putting it off for awhile, but I’ve decided to just succumb to my critical nature and simply begin to attempt the process of processing.

Uganda is perhaps one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been to. The luscious fields in infinite shades of green, omnipresent soft dark orange African dirt, roaring rapids of the Nile river, multiple shades of ruby red sun setting over lake Victoria, and deep navy skies soaked with endless arrangement of stars at night…
The smells of ripe coffee beans on trees, smoked talapia fish wrapped in banana leaves, and steaming motoke…
The sounds of children at STAO shrieking with joy…
I’ve never witnessed so much life and presence of God in both the people and the surroundings on such a regular basis ever before.

However, I do not wish to idealize the trip in any way.
Perhaps the greatest irony was witnessing the utter poverty and injustice in such a beautiful place.
Being in Uganda was definitely one of the most sobering and stretching experiences of my life.
Visiting child headed households in deepest parts of the villages whom with multiple younger siblings, suffering from curable diseases, countless widows with literally nothing to get by, the HIV positive orphans agonizing in pain from multiple treatable infections and diseases, realizing it as a daily norm for these kids to not know when their next meal will be…
I’ll refrain from going into any further details, because I’ve been tremendously humbled by the hope and faith that these resilient people still had in God in mist of their dire circumstances. God revealed so clearly that HE truly loves these people very powerfully and passionately. The first day of our HIV testing was a tangible miracle that He graciously performed during our stay. Out of 96 children we tested the first day at STAO, ZERO tested positive. In a village where 25% of the adults were HIV positive, God surely had his hands of protection on these kids. He is truly taking these people’s mustard seed of faith and doing miracles in ways we can’t even comprehend.

To everyone who supported our team, and and kept our team and the people of Uganda in prayers throughout the trip, we are immensely grateful and incredibly overwhelmed by your love, generosity, and heart. If I may, I want to ask you to continue to keep the people in Uganda in your prayers and also our team as well, as we continue to seek God’s heart for His people and discern ways in which we may continue to pursue His calling in our lives.

p.s. here’s the link to couple of blog entries i wrote while I was in Uganda
http://trip.wehavehope.org/Sam

these are some of the pictures from the trip, enjoy!

In less than 24 hours, I’ll be leaving for Uganda. I’m not too sure where to begin.. what to think, what not to think. I’m still trying to barely comprehend the fact that I’m actually going! Plus, just the mere thought of the impact this trip is going to have on my life has been absolutely mind boggling. However, I guess I’ll never know what this trip will have in store for me until I actually get there.

Just around ten months ago, four of my friends and I had been given the opportunity to start a non profit organization named Tusubira (We Have Hope) to help support an orphanage (STAO) in a small village called Mafubira located just outside of Jinja in Southeastern Uganda. Three of them had just gotten back from Mafubira at the time, where they spent three months of their summer volunteering at STAO. Though two of us haven’t seen the situation first hand yet, we all felt convicted and called to respond to the absolutely tragic and incomprehensible circumstances in Uganda we’ve been exposed to and informed of.

Frankly, as much as it has been an exciting journey, it has also been one of the greatest challenges I’ve had to face. The challenge wasn’t the grueling 501c3 documentation process, endless hours of fund/program development and budgeting, or logistical complexities we had to manage as five college age students with no experience in managing a start up non profit organization.

The real challenge was in trying to grasp what it means as followers of Christ to respond to the ways in which God has broken our hearts accordingly to hurt for those suffering beyond our imagination. The real challenge was countless nights of losing sleep over contemplating about what it means to be an NGO, what the definition of “sustainable development” is-and our role in walking alongside them and working with them, and trying to comprehend the utter reality of our status to live in an absolutely opposite world this very moment. And most of all, “why us?”

I’m simply hoping to grow and learn more about God’s heart through this trip. My main prayer request is that our team will stay as faithful servants and learners, and that He’ll continue to grow our hearts for love, compassion, and justice – and keep our minds and hearts open to see it, regardless of whichever form it may present itself to us in.

I can’t wait to finally meet the children and the STAO staff in Mafubira – Uganda!
Looking forward to updating you guys on our adventures in Uganda!
Check out our team blog at

http://trip.wehavehope.org

peace!

I’ve picked up a new hobby this past spring quarter.
Although you won’t see me walking around in rolled up capris and funky plastic shoes quite yet, I have to admit that I fell in love with biking.
Sometime during beginning of May, my buddy Jamie and I randomly decided to build a bike from scratch.
We picked up two beat up, rusty, non-working road bikes by Recycled Cycles, and began working on it.
After few weeks of getting our hands dirty, we finally finished them the day before our finals!
I must say I’m quite proud of it.
The last time I had a bicycle was when I was in elementary school, and frankly, I really feel like a kid again, when I’m pedaling down the good ol’ burke gilman trail.
If you’re in seattle this summer and want to go for a ride, let me know!

Couple of nights ago, in a conversation with one of my friends, he mentioned a book called “How ‘Not’ to speak of God” by a post modernist author named Peter Rollins. He briefly explained some of the things he got out of his reading that really intrigued me. Then as I was browsing through this book at Barnes and Noble today, I came across this passage:

“In short, a true spiritual seeking can be understood as the ultimate sign that one already has that which one seeks to grasp. Consequently a genuine seeking after God is evidence of having found. Of course, much desire that appears to seek after God is nothing of the sort…A true seeking after God results from an experience of God which one falls in love with for no reason other than finding God irresistibly lovable. In this way the lovers of God are the ones who are most passionately in search of God.”

I had to read that over a few times to let it soak in…

I often find myself frustrated not being able to arrive at a “higher” or more “mature” level of spirituality whenever I encounter doubts, skepticism, and plain misunderstandings or lack of answers. I understand that this may (hopefully not) lead to striving for intellectual self-sufficiency rather than reliance on God, but my natural instinct is to still seek direct “tangible” answers, thus causing much confusion and frustration.

However, how encouraging and powerful is that God understands my innermost desires and motives and still calls me to embrace His love and grow in Him? He brings healing in my life despite my brokenness and depravity. How convicting is it that our God truly knows our hearts? How could I NOT seek His heart?