Forever and the Beginning of It

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have returned to America.

As I’m listening to Thrice’s new album, Beggars, I am reminded of a very serious simple truth that God has shown me time and time again. The song called “In Exile” resonates with my soul with where I stand right now, having my heart straddle two continents to find my own identity and to see how God’s love stretches the distance, and yet has the patience, kindness, gentleness, joy, peace, GOODNESS, to overflow out of our broken vessels. The song’s lyrics are:

I am an exile, a sojourner
A citizen of some other place
All I’ve seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror
But I know one day we’ll see face to face

I am a nomad, a wanderer
I have nowhere to lay my head down
There’s no point in putting roots too deep when I’m moving on
Than settle in this unsettling town

My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through

I am a pilgrim, a voyager
I won’t rest until my lips touch the shore
Of a land that I’ve been longing for as long as I live
Where there’ll be no pain or tears anymore

My heart is filled with songs of forever
A city that endures, where all is made new
And no, I don’t belong here, I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through

listen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHyZ4ET_ee0

And though we all will see one day that this place we call our world was just a temporary stop on the journey of our lives, I am recognizing that we are all here where we are for a reason. Like the mission field I have been living in for the last 2 months, California, and San Diego, is where my purpose now lies, and communicating all I’ve learned over the last 2 months, and all the incredible works that God has been doing in that time, is now my challenge. To be able to explain fully how the world of God moving in the hearts of the broken in Uganda meets and is a part of the lives of the people of America, is my next step.

How will I do it? I don’t know. How do I know I can? Because my God is with me, here as He was in Uganda.

Going back to the regular updates of what happened over the last few weeks in Lira, our team fell pretty ill to various diseases, and we were challenged by our ministries which never seemed to work out for our schedule. However, we successfully were able to restart our temporary school for the kids in the village that could not afford to go to school, or had no way to get to school every day. I taught a class of Primary level 4 kids and above with my fellow intern, Emma. We got to know our students pretty well, and had a blast teaching them English, math, and writing them songs to learn and sing.

We did our last ministries at the Lira hospital, praying over the sick there. This place is a serious heart testing ground with the brokenness and pain of sick children and adults, women giving painful births, and new mothers mourning over the loss of miscarried children. It was a challenge at first to realize that God was present with these people, but from talking to the many families there, I saw incredible, unmoving faith. One man was sitting in the malnutrition ward with his skeleton of a son, whose name is Dennis. The first week that we saw Dennis, he was barely able to sit up in his bed, with his skin cracking and suffering from malaria as he lost all the nutrients of his body by diarrhea and vomiting. We prayed over this boy, and I was personally afraid that we would not even see him alive the next week. When we returned, we saw the same gaunt figure sitting in bed, with his father sitting faithfully beside him. We prayed again intently, asking and accepting God’s presence into this child’s life, to be a movement of healing and restoration. Our team returned to the hospital the week before we left, and what we saw gave us all a reason to praise God deeply and wholeheartedly. Dennis could stand up, and he could hug us. Still frighteningly skinny, but Dennis was finally showing some roundness in the shape of his face, and his limbs were not showing the joints so pronounced. He was actually retaining the nutrients that the hospital was providing to him! We all praised God, and the news of this brought me to tears, and reminded me, in the midst of our own brokenness, that God was actually moving in our prayers, and in the needs and in the hopes of the needy in Uganda.

Like I said in one of my first blog posts, I have learned deeply that in the most destitute places, in the deepest sorrow, God’s glory and joy is most clearly revealed. In these times I have felt the most pain I have ever endured, and in the same breath, I have never before understood how intensely deep and wide and high and everlasting Jesus’s love for us is.

I have also learned that God is present everywhere, it’s only a matter of looking hard enough. Sometimes God’s presence is through people who love you, sometimes it is the Holy Spirit that moves your body into a tantrum of joyous worship, but in every case, God has never left our side. As I have returned to San Diego, for the remainder of summer, I know this is essential for my survival in making sure that God’s work is made lasting in my heart.

This western world is full of distractions, with the internet offering every thing that might possibly tear my attention away from God, with regular friendly activities that remind me of how I used to live, with a million choices at the supermarket of what to eat. I am fighting them head on with my bible in hand, and I hope that you will pray for my team as we search out God’s will for us to carry our stories home, so that they will meet the ears of our friends and family in the way that God intends, and that God’s glory would be revealed in all that we were able to see Him accomplish through us and despite our own lack of ability. God fills all the gaps, and I am trusting my whole life in His hands all my days.

My next ground of learning is learning the depths of God’s love. I am learning that sacrificial living for others is an incredible way to see how God loves us, and I know that the secret to who I was born to be lies in my ability to overflow with God’s love.

With this, I close a chapter of life that was partially committed to God, and open a new one, which contains a realm of which my heart spans across the globe, and I learn how to love truly, and God’s glory and goodness are known by me and proclaimed to all those I know. May the gospel blossom from my team’s mouths, and may our lives grow exceedingly outward to our communities to share God’s joy and love. May we decrease in ourselves as God increases in us.

Please rejoice in the truth of God’s word to deliver us safely throughout our trip, and to do through us works that we could not do on our own, to love beyond our own limits, to become a little bit more fully in love with God.

May God bless all of you, our supporters in prayers and finances, and all the outpouring of those who care for us. May you be blessed always as you were a crucial part of our trip, and you helped sustain us in times of trial, and helped us to not fall under the crush of oppression.

God is incredible. You really need to learn this if you don’t know it, and you need to know it more thoroughly than you do now, I am working on this still.

God is good, no matter the circumstance. No matter how bad things get, no matter how far away he might seem, he’s right next to you, holding your hand every step of the way.

God is lovely. God’s desire to be exceedingly loved comes from him loving us exceedingly. Make sure you accept this gift for all it means, and I promise you won’t be able to keep from returning the favor. This love is the greatest thing of all.

Until the next mission field beckons, I am signing off to sort out the next mission here in San Diego. I count myself a man among a family that is blessed by God, and I pray to remember every face that has touched my life thus far. My life is a work in progress, and always will be, and I pray that God gives me the patience and guidance to bless you if your life overlaps with mine sometime.

With all the love that God has blessed me to give,
Scott Thompson

PS.
I love you. You know I’m talking about you. Yeah, you. I love you.

On the Road Home

We are packing up our things after saying goodbye to the sponsored kids of COTN Uganda. We embraced them with tears and with much joy in reflection of how wonderful our time with them has been. There is much to say, so I will post on the blog on returning to America and to let you know how the last times have truly been a blessing here in Uganda. Pray for safe travels, and for us to understand how big God is throughout the sorrow of leaving a place that has been our home and for the Ugandans that have become our family.

Psalm 84
God is good! Don't doubt it for a second.

Sincerely,
Scott