For about the last three months I have had other countries on the brain. I keep talking about the possibility of working in various places that strike my fancy or catch my heart. God’s up to something.

One of the places I talked about while in Kenya was, (drumroll please) Somolia. When the car bombings happened in Mogadishu a few weeks ago I cried while I listened to NPR on our satellite radio, in marked contrast to the distance I usually feel from such events. I felt a call to pray for those in Mogadishu.

I mentioned all this to David who said: “don’t even think about. Not going to happen.” I mentioned Somaliland which is MUCH safer and more progressive. “Still not going to happen,” he said.

But Naomi’s response was the most classic. Coming out of the bathroom after nature called, she was fresh from reading a National Geographic article about some of the most challenged countries. Her comment, yelled to me in passing: ” Mom! Come ON! Somalia is the number one failed nation in the WORLD. And that’s where you want to WORK?? NOT a good option.” (all in a valley-girl tone.)

I’m not REALLY thinking about working in Somolia so don’t you all get your knickers in a twist. It’s sort of like newborn envy; country envy. And I think this heart-call towards various nations and their people reflects something of God’s heart for them. But it doesn’t mean we are going everywhere I pause to pray for.

And as David pointed out to me; for the moment we are in Uganda, anyway!

After reading the story of the Good Samaritan this morning I have been pondering hospitality. How a sanctuary is a holy place – not just the one found in a church but any physical space offered as a resting place, a healing place, a safe place. The inn where the injured man rested was his sanctuary.

As a missionary, I am more blessed than many by hospitality – both giving and receiving. The experience of hosting total strangers who turned out to be soul-brothers after our week together was nothing short of God’s love, leading and care to me. I hope to them too. In 2007 we spent five months living in the (deluxe!) basement of friends. We had known them only as casual friends before God prompted us to ask them for sanctuary during our times at home. They have become heart friends and soul-friends through shared life; thanks Dave, Shari and Kacee.

I remember too:

Ken and Beck offered us deep hospitality each time we walked through their doors in North Idaho in the first two years of our marriage. I still haven’t forgotten my first visit to their home, which just REEKS of sanctuary. Becky walked towards me, arms outstretched, literal hearth fire lit, smell of amazing foods cooking and said: ” I love you, honey, because David loves you.” Sanctuary; really.

We had a very special chance to offer sanctuary to Karl after the 9/11 attacks left his hotel closed. We had moved into a new rental just a day earlier and he was still a perfect stranger but we cried and prayed together as we numbly watched the replays on TV and pondered where our world might end up. He is now a dear friend.

Sharon, Kathryn, Patty have been three special women who offer(ed) me sanctuary of the heart when I needed it most. Who listened while I cried, prayed when I was faithless, and brought me on to the next step in the journey with Jesus.

The list could go on and on and I am struck by how many ways hospitality can express itself. There is a physical hospitality that we talk about being “gifted” or “not gifted” with. I think this means that some of us are better than others at cooking, lighting candles, creating an atmosphere and thinking of fun things to do. I think of Scott and Jennifer who excel at atmosphere and fun, who love to host and who create sanctuary in this beautiful way. This is a gift that blesses many.   But there is another hospitality, a soul-hospitality, that many of our friends who might not consider themselves “gifted” in this way, still possess so clearly. The ability to let others be at-rest with themselves in your presence. The ability to accept, to hear, to not judge. The ability to have a sense of humor about others and ourselves. The ability to be less gifted and still so loving.

The friends who have blessed us with with both physical and soul-sanctuary can not be counted. Instead I thank God, the ultimate Sanctuary for our souls, hearts and bodies. And I renew my desire to live as sanctuary for others; isn’t that the true missionary life?? I’m not here to DO something, but to BE something – to be His, truly His and to draw others into His presence. And I kinda like that.

What good will it do for a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his own soul?

Mathew 16:26
The meaning of earthly existence is not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prosperity but in the development of the soul.

Alexander Soltzhenitsyn

Reading in my daily devotional book today (Jesus Calling) I was reminded of this simple, essential fact written from God’s perspective: ” when you follow Me  wholeheartedly, you will discover facets of yourself that were previously hidden.  I know you intimately and far better than you know yourself.”

Hidden facets??!!  COOL!  I’m all about that.  I love noticing how people reflect their Creator-God like the edge of a diamond reflects a rainbow of light.   Each perfectly poised, simple plane  of a jewel that brings a myriad of colors, so many that we can not even count or distinguish them.  That’s amazing.

I went on to read Mathew 16, quoted above, and I am struck by how well it applies to all kinds of life situations. In fact any time we are not living true to who we know God made us to be, any time we sacrifice our identity, our calling, our heart or our soul to others (well intentioned or not) we are betraying the reflections of God that we uniquely are called to be.  Get your head around that.

When I went to 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18 it all started to come together for me.

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (ed. freedom to be who He designed us to be)  And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I love that phrase, “unveiled faces”.  In the context it refers to how Moses had to veil his face to approach the holiness of God.  It references Jesus as the uncoverer of the veil, the one who eradicated the distance necessary between God and man.  I love all that.  But even more I can see to a new level of depth in the verse.  The process of soul-gain mentioned in Mathew above is a process of unveiling.  If you haven’t read the book True-Faced you might want to check it out.  It is when we are real with ourselves and with others that we become “unveiled” in the truest sense.  When we fall in faith on the truth that at our deepest level we were created in beauty and purity to reflect something of God that no one has ever been able to see clearly before, we become free in the Spirit.  Jesus unveiled us at the cross, and as we continue to lose the world (our ambitions and common sense) for soul-gain he unveils us still farther.  Till naked in His presence we become ultimate reflections of Him (“transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”)

I don’t know if it all makes sense to you but I’m about to step into a whole new level of risk based on this.  And I’m ready, so ready, to continue unveiling.    You can’t walk on water if you don’t get out of the boat.

I was having a talk with my Daddy-God yesterday morning. Trying to work through some stuff on my heart, asking Him for inspiration, leading and guidance. One of the things I reminded him of was some of the promises he has made to us here which are not yet fulfilled. I felt He reassured me to trust him.
Later in the day, Uganda’s Scripture Union representatives came to do a student assembly. This was something I had begun working on several months ago that came together on it’s own this week through the efforts of the Union and a staff member at school. The afternoon was given over to an all student assembly where the Scripture Union reps presented songs, testimonies and a gospel message.   30 more kids accepted Jesus yesterday afternoon.

We only have 280 kids at school, people. 100 have gotten saved just in the last three months!

He is faithful – He will fulfill. I am grateful, expectant, rejoicing, trusting, and hoping. And if you know how inclined to fear my human heart tends to be, you would not that this too is a miracle.

Monday nights are “friend night” at the Pierce house. We invite N and Q’s friends (who pretty much happen to be all Ugandans) over for dinner and play time. Naomi and Quinn look forward to it all week. Mondays I also cook “meat and potato” meal. Here is Bundi it is usually “fillet” steak (here in Uganda you pronounce the “t” in fillet) and sweet potatos from the local market (not like the ones we have in America. Our kids and the Ugandan ones all LOVE it. We through in some fresh-made bread and home grown veggies and it’s a hit.

Last night Naomi’s had two staff girls over and Quinn had the brother of one of our teachers. They gobbled down dinner followed by pumpkin pie then starting running around like madmen. Naomi was just SPARKLING, the girl I know and love coming back out after such a long transition to African life. They told me they wanted to dance and I turned on a latin music CD. What happened next was priceless, three girls on a homemade coffee table dancing away while “singing” into banana “microphones.” I loved watching them love their lives, celebrate their differences, embrace all things.

Next came a spirited game of Twister which involved multiple domino-effect falling down situations. Twister is hard for children who don’t learn colors or right from left in school. But these guys were bright enough to have figured it out!!

We finished the evening wiht a game of “drafts” (sp?) which I think is just another game of checkers. The kids play it with bottle tops from our Ugandan soda bottles. Quinn and his buddy Manzi were immersed in their game until almost nine pm while Naomi and I walked her friends home across CSB campus, shining our flashlight on huge spiders in the dark.

This was a night to remember, a night to rejoice in, a night to cherish. May many more nights of community come.

What a week it’s been. The first week of the term; filled with the activities of exams, teacher scheduling, student returns and cleaning. A week of meetings with some of our mission leaders from America: discussing the school, the team and our lives. A week of growth: a wonderful staff meeting (an answer to prayer from one of my last blog posts) where David built renewed and bigger trust with teachers, our children investing into new friendships, great time of prayer and counseling with pregnant students and their parents and a positive response to choosing life for their babies. A week of chaos in Kampala: staff who waded through violence to make it back to us were escorted by armored vehicles and AK 47s as they rode buses out of the city. Check out www.newvision.co.ug for more stories and pictures on the awful conflict that has enveloped our capital city. We must pray.

As days pass, we see changes ahead. We don’t know all the details of when and how but we know that God is preparing us. I am learning a new respect and admiration for my husband, a new comfort in wading through sorrow with my children, a new thankfulness for friends. I said to David this week, “after all, it’s all about relationships, isn’t it.” His response has given me pause, a sense of reflectiveness: “I don’t think it’s all about relationships, I think it’s all about people.”

So as we pass a weekend in the safe haven of Bundibugyo (it’s not often that you feel safer here than in Kampala!), praying that the inter-tribal conflicts will not develop into something more, stockpiling fuel just in case, cooking pumpkin pie, eating pancakes with friends, watching old British comedy shows, playing games with the local kids, eating sugar cane, giving away books, sweeping out the endless ants . . . . As we pass a weekend in Bundibugyo . . . . we value people. People, both loveable and harder to love, who each reflect a precious facet of the Creator, who all have something to teach us about who we are and how to live. From the many graduated CSB students who are now in Primary Teachers College and came today to collect the pocket money we give them, to the former teacher who came to share with us about his new job in the city, to the team mates who discussed life and grief with us, to the baby next door who yelled ” mamma!” when she saw me pass by, and the current teacher to whom I carried scones to fatten him up after his month long bout with malaria. These are some of the lives that have passed into our yard or through our doors today. Who offer us the chance to be irritated, yes, but more importantly to learn, to love and to offer life.

I am reminded that even as some changes loom, some things will remain the same. It will always be about people because that’s where God’s heart is, in the precious beings who imagine, rage, doubt, hope, fear, suffer and believe that Someone and Something more exists. He is slowly giving me courage, He is slowly teaching me what I most need to know: “believe the unbelievable, come be a fool like Him.” (Michael Card)

What a week it’s been. The first week of the term; filled with the activities of exams, teacher scheduling, student returns and cleaning. A week of meetings with some of our mission leaders from America: discussing the school, the team and our lives. A week of growth: a wonderful staff meeting (an answer to prayer from one of my last blog posts) where David built renewed and bigger trust with teachers, our children investing into new friendships, great time of prayer and counseling with pregnant students and their parents and a positive response to choosing life for their babies. A week of chaos in Kampala: staff who waded through violence to make it back to us were escorted by armored vehicles and AK 47s as they rode buses out of the city. Check out www.newvisionuganda.com for more stories and pictures on the awful conflict that has enveloped our capital city. We must pray.

As days pass, we see changes ahead. We don’t know all the details of when and how but we know that God is preparing us. I am learning a new respect and admiration for my husband, a new comfort in wading through sorrow with my children, a new thankfulness for friends. I said to David this week, “after all, it’s all about relationships, isn’t it.” His response has given me pause, a sense of reflectiveness: “I don’t think it’s all about relationships, I think it’s all about people.”

So as we pass a weekend in the safe haven of Bundibugyo (it’s not often that you feel safer here than in Kampala!), praying that the inter-tribal conflicts will not develop into something more, stockpiling fuel just in case, cooking pumpkin pie, eating pancakes with friends, watching old British comedy shows, playing games with the local kids, eating sugar cane, giving away books, sweeping out the endless ants . . . . As we pass a weekend in Bundibugyo . . . . we value people. People, both loveable and harder to love, who each reflect a precious facet of the Creator, who all have something to teach us about who we are and how to live. From the many graduated CSB students who are now in Primary Teachers College and came today to collect the pocket money we give them, to the former teacher who came to share with us about his new job in the city, to the team mates who discussed life and grief with us, to the baby next door who screamed ” mamma!” when she saw me pass by, and the current teacher to whom I carried scones to fatten him up after his month long bout with malaria. These are some of the lives that have passed into our yard or through our doors today. Who offer us the chance to be irritated, yes, but more importantly to learn, to love and to offer life.

I am reminded that even as some changes loom, some things will remain the same. It will always be about people because that’s where God’s heart is, in the precious beings who imagine, rage, doubt, hope, fear, suffer and believe that Someone and Something more exists. He is slowly giving me courage, He is slowly teaching me what I most need to know: “believe the unbelievable, come be a fool like Him.” (Michael Card)

Yesterday CSB began Term 3 with the usual fanfare; trunks checked for contraband, fees taken in, pregnancy tests run, meal cards given out. Since most parents pay their ($300/year) fees in cash we ended the day with the usual large sums of cash on hand which always makes me a teeny bit nervous. David has tricky skills for taking care of it, though and we also hire two armed guards for the night.

Two girls showed up pregnant during the mandatory intake testing so tomorrow we will begin the process of counseling them and working with their parents to determine the best approach. I am hopeful that they can finish this school year while pregnant.

Today our own N and Q began 5th and 2nd grades, respectively. So hard to believe that they are so grown up but truly they are. Packing their own lunches (well sort of), and doing pretty much everything independently (but oh so together). This is the first year that both will be in school until 2:30. I feel free as a bird, and also sad at the change. But I know it’s only a matter of time till we adopt two more and younger years start again.

I have noticed recently how joyful our children are. And all I can say is ‘thank you, Babba (Daddy)’.

First it was one computer, then the other computer. Then we borrowed a computer (from Scott, who else) and it broke too. A second computer was borrowed and lost yet another essential function (such as the capacity for a screen to turn on.)

As of two months ago, we were using two half working computers which David and I did a delicate dance to keep operating. One did not work unless kept plugged in at all times, the other had no capacity to charge. As the computers continued to pile up at our house (around five are now stacked, lending an air of wealth to our home (but since none work, not really) we decided to spring for a new computer. Actually we bought ME a new computer!! My first “me” computer, ever!! A thing of beauty, and a real joy to my heart. I was slowly getting it set up; adding photos, tunes and my favorite sites as well as work files.

Sadly it too gave up the ghost in the second day of our trip. Our camera (also new to replace the one that broke about two months ago) died too. So we have very few photo memories of the vacation. I also lost photo memories of friends visiting, the Joy/Eric wedding and CSB staff reunion and many more. Not to mention all the blog posts!! (Yep, my email blogging link also stopped working (don’t ask me why) so many, many posts were sent but never uploaded.) We still have the two half working computers, but have lost function of three of the shared batteries (David always buys an extra so we have two per computer) and are now down to sharing a single battery between the two computers, this should explain my lack of blogging.

So that’s the technical difficulties. The latest wrinkle is for David, who keeps track of both home and school accounting on his PDA. It has now developed a syncing problem with one of our still half working computers Pray for David’s syncing to work again. Unlike me, this isn’t just a hobby. This is a really crippling loss. And he’s faced enough of those at CSB for a lifetime.

Tonight we gathered again with staff at the Christ School veranda for our term-ly prayer walk, back by popular demand. With some staff feeling tension towards leadership, it was a cool gathering. I felt the Holy Spirit move briefly and certainly I experienced the Spirit in my own heart. But overall it was an act of faith. An act of believing that through prayer we will gain union.

We prayed along the lines of building altars to what God has done to stir revival in the last three months. We extended honor to those who have come before us: our founder and the visionary who dreamed up this school, Kevin and Paul. And we asked God to grow our faith in the impossible; to help us live so that if God does not show up we are certain to fail.

From Mark 11 we reviewed the story of the fig tree, something God spoke so eloquently to me a few days ago. Christ School, just like the fig tree, is green and leafy and abundant. And just like that fig tree, not terribly full of fruit. Yet God is walking toward us and asking us to respond in faith, reminding us not to mention that ” it is not the season” (for figs). I was struck by how this passage morphs into the “faith that makes mountains jump” passage and that the essence of such faith is not to waste time on excuses or explaining away but simply ask and expect the impossible. A fig tree that breaks out in fruit out of season simply because God commands it to. Now that I could get used to.

The highlight for me of the evening was our time in the “girls’ kitubbi”, a round open hut for gathering in the center of the girls dorms. We prayed one word prayers of blessings for our girls, the target of so much of the Enemy’s attacks. Hearing male and female staff bless our girls, blessed me: “freedom”, “self-confidence” ” achievement” “kindness” ” spiritual power”, these were among a few of the gifts we bestowed by declaration. In faith we trust God to answer.