Daughter of the King

Had you asked me five years ago where I would see myself today, I can definitely tell you I would not have said that I would see my 24 year old self serving as acting director for an organization in a foreign country overseeing 43 Ugandan staff, 65 children, 60+ women in our program, and 7 interns on a daily basis. But alas, here I am, doing just that. Normally it's not just me here. Normally either Tina Weir, Founder and Executive Director of HEAL Ministries, and/or Trey Weir (her son), Director of Operations, are on ground in Jinja. My first year on ground, there were two different two week periods where it was just me. This year, things are a little different. Trey had been gifted a trip home to attend a class reunion. He was gone for about 2 weeks the end of September into the beginning of October. Then he was supposed to be here until almost the end of November. However, he had some medical emergencies happen suddenly and had to fly home early. He left on the 19th of October

It’s hard to believe that I first came to the James Place over two years ago. I love HEAL Ministries and all that we do. I love that we help mamas young and old keep their families together by providing a safe place for their children to come and learn while they go and work. I love that we empower women by teaching them a trade so they can become sustainable. I love that we have hired from within the women in our program and now 15 of them on our staff. I love that we have allowed God to shape the ministry and that even in the two years that I have been a part of it, we have grown and changed so much. I love seeing our artisan program expanding and all of the beautiful products that our women are creating. I love seeing the joyous faces of the children in our program, and I love getting to watch them grow up. I love that despite facing hard, sometimes almost impossible, situations, that God is always good and He is always faithful. The other day, I was sitting with

Last time there were three months in between my blog posts. Now I'm down to two months in between. That's a little better, right? I am very sorry for being so terrible at writing these. The days are so long and the weeks just fly by and writing these escapes me. I don't even want to be writing this at the moment, but yet here I am forcing myself because I haven't been very fair to anyone who is following my journey this time around. This was the first time my new "googles" were tried on by a child this time around. Last time I wrote, Heather had just left for America. She had almost two months at home during which she pretty much worked all day, every day, and is now back here with me. We've been enjoying hanging out since she's been back, going out to eat for food and watching Grey's Anatomy in the evenings together. We went through a period of a few days without having water in Jinja right before she got back...and I was a little worrie

View during dinner at the Haven It has been way too long since I’ve last written my friends; for that I am sorry. There has been a lot going on at home that I’m not allowed to speak about so I’ve been dreading having to sit down and write. I still can’t speak about what’s going on at home, but please be praying for my family. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” –Ephesians 4:2 These past three months seem to have flown by. At the same time, so much has happened within those three months, more than what seems possible. We are now in Mzungu season here in Jinja. Teams and interns have been arriving (not only for HEAL but every other organization in Jinja as well) and there are overwhelming amounts of white people around town. Bible study with the women in Masese  There are a few things that I love about having people come here for the first time. First of all, they remind you of how you saw this place when you first got

Today is Easter my friends. I woke up sore and exhausted, having gotten back from safari last night around 1:30am, but knew that I needed to go to church. Not for the fact of saying I went to church, but because I new my heart needed to be in a place where I could worship my Lord and Savior freely in community with others. And let me tell you, church this morning did not disappoint.  The worship was on point and you could feel the Holy Spirit moving in the room. “The ground began to shake. The stone was rolled away. His perfect love could not be overcome. Now death where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated. Forever He is glorified. Forever He is lifted high. Forever He is risen. He is alive. He is alive! We sing hallelujah. We sing hallelujah. We sing hallelujah. The lamb has overcome.” –Kari Jobe, “Forever” There was one point while we were singing that I was so emotionally overcome that my voice was breaking. Lord knows that I needed to be in that