A Season of Change

I have always felt God's leading in my life here in Uganda. When he called me here over 5 years ago, I had no idea for how long, how it would impact my life, and the lives of others here. I hung out my fleece and asked God to reveal His perfect will for me and He most assuredly did. He spoke to me in a way, He never had before. I was in it for the long haul no matter how long.

These last 5 years, I have had NO idea when or if he would change that or call me back or on to the next mission. I have always been willing to be here for as long as He desired or for the rest of my days. God, it seems, has finally revealed that time frame to me.

With some fear and trepidation and yet a perfect peace that passes all understanding, I will be leaving Uganda January 2011. I am certain that God is saying "Go Home For Now". I have no certainties, however, about where He is leading me next or when or how, or even what I will do when I go back home. I have nothing but precious family and my church and friends and you wonderful people to go home to. I only know He is calling me to go home for a while.

I am open to suggestions or any interest you might pass my way. Perhaps He is allowing me time with my mother who is so frail. Though I missed many milestones with my Grandchildren, I have always been willing to give up family for this calling and yet God has been gracious in allowing me the times I have had to go home and 'visit'. I do know one thing, I will always be involved in Missions at the heart, and I will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS within my power be a supporter of Amani Baby Cottage. This place has been my lifeblood for over 5 years!!

This decision has not been abrupt nor easy. I have been praying, and fighting this with God for several weeks now. I knew this would probably happen someday but truly didn't expect it now. I love Amani and my work here. This is my home and has been since I first set foot on Ugandan soil.

I would like first to ask you to join me in prayer that God would continue to reveal His perfect will for my life and that I be patient and willing to bend or wait or go or whatever He has planned.

Secondly, I would like to ask you dear ones, for now, to partner with me and continue supporting me financially, both now and in the interim which of course starts January 2011. While it is still 4 months off, I need to prepare to begin shutting down my home and possessions I have acquired here in Uganda, get back home in Colorado, and then wait for God to direct my next move. Since I have no home, car, job or prospects at this time, I ask for your continued support. My goal is to be able to be ready, willing and able at the proper time. If you are so willing I would greatly appreciate it. Know that the funds will continue to be projected at Missions support. I will also continue for now with my blog comments on my work at Amani.

Lastly, I would ask that you let me know your thoughts, encouragements and any direction you think I might benefit from. I greatly value your love and support, your prayers and your friendship. This has been a difficult time and I feared it, yet, God said, Trust me, and that I shall do.

Thank you so very much and may God richly bless you as I pray you read between the lines and see into my heart. A heart filled with love and service to the kingdom.

By His Grace;

Siouxanne Mease
Reaching Hands Missions

Shanley's Thoughts

The coffee at Siouxanne’s flows abundantly in the morning hours. Often I find her sitting on the veranda with a second or third cup, curled up with her Bible or a good novel. This is her escape – a home where the Nile breeze enters in between the curtains in quick gusts, and she can check on the progress of her mango and lemon trees in the front yard. Often, towards the evening, she’ll juice lemons in her kitchen, and freeze the juice for a treat the next day.

I came to visit Siouxanne after spending four weeks in the Luwero district. Coming to be with her was a haven for me - a place of quiet and rest, running water and (mostly) dependable electricity. I trusted her home to be a place that I could come for normalcy, because she has learned the secret of adaptation. She walks a fine line between Uganda and Colorado, her work with 54 children off the Nile River, and the photos of her grandchildren that fill the rooms of her home in Jinja.

For me, it's the way that Siouxanne has adapted to her life here that is most remarkable. Just today, she was laughing telling me about the boda she bought when she first arrived, and her quick confrontation with a truck driver trying to move it while she was parked outside Jinja's marketplace. "I said, 'What in the world do you think you are DOING!?'" she laughed. She left, after that, to enter the market to grab some ingredients and I noticed the quick sureness in her step that tells me she knows her place here. And quite the place it has been - one of both healing and administrative volunteer, midwifery and volunteer coordinating (which she only did for 9 months) aside from her full time job as medical director. I know that, for her, it's a calling, more than a job - and that it is the calling to be here that gives her a sense of place, in the midst of living across the world from her children and grandchildren.

"I know I wouldn't be here if God hadn't put it on my heart that this was undeniably exactly what He wanted from me," she told me at dinner, over her delicious chicken tikka masala that I ate way too much of. "But that's what He did, and so I came."

I've heard the story before - the way she couldn't find a house to buy in the states, because, unbeknownst to her, God was preparing her to leave the country. I've heard about the heaviness in her heart when she left America for the first time, and the way she laid out a proverbial fleece before the Lord before she decided that it was, indeed, time to sell most all of her early possessions and move to Africa.

I think it's the honesty in her struggle between Uganda and Colorado, grandchildren and orphan care in Africa that gave her the ability to relate to me, and to laugh, as we compared ourselves to the Israelites, looking back on the parting of the red sea, but wondering just exactly how He plans to feed us in the desert. When she talks about the amount of time she might stay here, or when she'll be called to go, she turns back to the signs that brought her here the first time and says, "I don't know why I worry, when He provided so miraculously in bringing me here."

I once sent my mother a Confucius quote that reads, "Wherever you go, go with all your heart." It was a form of recognition, more than an admonishment. My mother has moved five times in the past four years - two of them across the country, all of them in houses with small kitchens and makeshift basements, unkempt gardens and half hearted paint jobs. She told me once that it had clicked for her that each place had to be made a home. I reminded Siouxanne of it this morning as I sat at her kitchen table and we talked about my own journey into Africa. I feel the tug she talks about, but I don't know what fleece to lay out, or how God will answer.

Until then, I'm encouraged when I think of Siouxanne, living here on the Nile and Lake Victoria, treating the children at Amani, midwifery, AIDS testing and running an emergency unit outside her clinic. On the side, she's housing and encouraging weary travelers like me, unsure of their own place in Africa but reminded, by people like her, that it's the answer to the call that matters in the first place - and that when it comes, one can rest in knowing that when His call does come, it comes in absolutely undeniable ways.

. Shanley Knox

Shanley Knox http://sjoknox.blogspot.com/2010/08/jinja.html

Voye'm: Jinja

sjoknox.blogspot.com

August 12, 2010 In the words of photographer Kendrick Brinson, "Life, I love you." I woke up this morning in Jinja, where my journey in Africa began. I haven't been here since August of 2008, when I hugged my roommates a quick goodbye at 5am, and climbed into the left seat of a taxi bound for Enteb...

Thursday at 6:51pm ·

PRAISE HIM IN THE STORM

As most of you have probably already heard via the International News Affiliates, we had some bombings in Kampala last night. Both places have been frequented by us when were in Kampala. I am safe and those dear and near to me here are safe and sound.

We are all a little unnerved and have a heightened awareness that we are in the midst of terrorism, but we also trust in a mighty and awesome God.

We are asking all our friends and families to keep us in your prayers and especially those that were affected by last nights bombings.

We know without a doubt that God called us here and so in saying that, trust that He knows best.

You can get on the local newspapers website and see the story, but please be aware that the photos are VERY VERY graphic.

www.newvision.co.ug and www.monitor.co.ug

Thank you dear ones for your prayers and your support. God is good and on His throne and He is in control. Bless you all

Following His leading...

I am constantly amazed by the complexities and simplicities that are always tied together in this country. They are interwoven so tightly that sometimes you cannot tell the difference. Daily I feel that God is constantly speaking to me and bringing about a message my heart can barely contain.

One of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life is being called to this country. A little over 5 years ago, I stepped on an airplane for a two week trip that forever changed my life. You may have never experienced such life changing, mountain top events, but I pray that through my words, my eyes and my heart, you can see from this blog that I truly have.

The children at Amani Baby Cottage never cease to amaze me. I am daily confronted with different issues and yet sometimes the same issues repeatedly. Sometimes I have to stop myself from being complacent. Oh that I would never forget the primary objective to my being here. I try to always be ready for the Lord's leading. I never know when or where He will do that, and I try always to be prepared for the unexpected.

I have had a small 4 month old baby that has been sick without knowing the etiology (source).

Fevers, and at first cold like symptoms. I treated him for them, tested him for Malaria two times with both showing negative. The little guy started having focal seizures and was a sick little guy.

At one point the volunteers brought him to me thinking he was near death. I treated him as best as I could, took him to the local hospital for testing. They didn't find anything either. But nevertheless, I treated him for infection and went ahead and treated for Malaria. The fevers and cold symptoms left but he continued to have seizures. I bumped my prayers for this little guy and started an Odyssey of phone calling to find a neurologists and an EEG. Phone numbers I had were no longer working, doctors no longer available, I was going crazy trying to find some help for this little guy.

The hospital in Kampala we use for testing like that had one tech that performed them and this person was on "leave". I finally after 4 days of phone calls and pleading found a doctor, but he would not answer his phone. Meanwhile, my prayers continued and I am sure all the volunteers were praying as well. Amazingly, the seizures STOPPED and he started smiling and acting like a normal 4 month old baby. I cannot explain it except to say the POWER OF PRAYER WORKS MIRACLES.

I don't have an ending to this story yet. Today, I have sent him to Kampala for testing finally and evaluation, even though the seizures stopped. We found somewhere else to test him. I pray though the medical is limited, that if there is something going on with this little one it will be found out. I will continue to treat and observe and do whatever it takes if possible to keep him well. Oh and By the way..... He is HIV negative!!!!!

From stories like this little guy to another child at the home who is Autistic. He is like the wind. It is hard to contain him. He is a free spirit. This week he threw gravel on my car seat. I had to spend 15 minutes cleaning it out so I could go home for the day. That same day he had thrown gravel in Mama Cook's outdoor kitchen so that had to be cleaned up so she could cook. You have to laugh at this, though, it means closer watch on him as he gets to big to manage. We wait for another special home to open this September so they can take him and love on him too.

'God, so move in my life and my heart, that I remain open to your leading and direction. I am your servant Lord, and ready to follow you to ends of the earth.' AMEN AND AMEN