Daring to Hope
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV)
I was tired.
In five short years, I’d become a mother to 13, grown a ministry of 60 staff members which provided schooling and discipleship to over 700 children, and learned to function in a completely different culture.
I sat at a school and watched children dance as they sang in a language I still only half-understood. My mind wandered back over the years:
The day I moved halfway around the world, from Nashville to Uganda, thinking I’d only stay a year.
The day God planted in my heart to begin Amazima, with the goal of teaching His truth to families in my village.
The day a house collapsed on a little girl I had adopted. What started as a short-term foster situation became a permanent adoption as she and her siblings filled up my heart and home following their grandmother’s death.
The joy when, with a few friends and a few dollars and a lot of faith, Amazima sent 40 children to school for the first time.
I shifted in my rickety chair as the students recited a poem, but instead of their words I heard a whisper, “Let’s do it again.”
I knew it was from the Lord, as the thought rose from a place deep inside.
Recently, Amazima staff leadership and I discussed opening a secondary school in Uganda. We felt it would simply be too much. We were already spread thin. But as the idea persisted, we committed to spend a few days praying and fasting over it together. Today was the last day before we’d make a decision.
“Let’s do it again,” I felt the whisper a second time.
Later that day, I haphazardly flipped open my Bible, still mulling over the words I felt the Lord had spoken to me. My eyes fell on 2 Corinthians 9:8, and tears filled my eyes as I read, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
All things. All times. All that we need.
The next morning, I told the leadership team I felt God leading us to build the school. It would require more than we had, but I was confident He wanted to use it to make disciples. Thus began years of research, planning, dreaming and praying.
Another five years have passed, and in our first year operating The Amazima Secondary School, 72 students received a Christian education from compassionate, Jesus-loving teachers. As I listened to parents describe how this school is changing lives, I blinked back tears and remembered His words to me.
“Let’s do it again.”
He’s spoken those words many times, calling me out of my comfort zone to places where I would not have enough time or resources and would have to lean on Him. And each time He has been all things, in all times, and given everything I needed.
When I was joyfully preparing to marry the most wonderful man, but also grieving the life of “just me and the girls,” He whispered, “Let’s do it again. Come with Me again to this place of uncertainty where you lean on Me to be all you need.”
