When God Asks, You Go

I made the decision to apply for a Uganda impact trip shortly after I started sponsoring a student at Kuwasha. I had always wanted to sponsor a child but was pretty skeptical about where the money actually goes.

When someone posted on Instagram about sponsoring a student I messaged her, got more info and checked out the Kuwasha site and blog. I was honestly in awe of what God was doing there and how He was using this family in Uganda (and they were from my own hometown!).

Earlier in the year our family had the devastating loss of my grandfather. He was a very inspiring man, I remember sitting at his funeral listening to all these stories from all the people he impacted and thinking to myself, “What am I even doing with my life? What had happened to all those things I had plans to do but never “got around” to?”

I remember sitting at his funeral…and thinking to myself, what am I even doing with my life?

Shortly after that, I started sponsoring and sent in the trip application. I had no idea how I was going to raise the money to go, what I had to contribute, or how I was going to be able to leave my kids for two weeks. I have a history of anxiety and the thoughts were spiralling! But I could feel God was asking me to go. People would ask me why I chose Uganda and I still had no solid answer why other than, “He asked me to.”

Over the next few months, I flip-flopped between being so incredibly excited to lying awake at night seriously considering cancelling. As a mom of two young girls, in a pretty transitional time for our family, I kept thinking how does this even make sense? Why ask me? What do I have to offer to this team? Anytime these thoughts came up I would get a confirmation from the Lord, whether it be the song that was playing when I turned on the radio, an out of the blue text, or a random conversation that would just reconfirm God’s voice saying, “I got this. You focus on getting there. I’ll show you the rest.”

About three weeks before our trip departure date everything was starting to fall apart. The plans we had for childcare were falling through, my mom had a health scare, and my nerves were going crazy. But again and again, God kept putting people and things in my path that would allow me to go. Before I knew it our team of six was on the plane headed to Entebbe, Uganda.

Through this experience and my time in Uganda all I can say is God’s love is REAL. Everywhere I turned on every step of this journey He showed me examples of this love through complete strangers. From the amazing airline staff who were so amazing and kind after my very public display of flight anxiety, to my fellow teammates who bonded like a little family, to the wonderful staff and children we spent time with in Uganda – it was all an amazing display of how His love truly knows no bounds. It crosses oceans and shapes communities and brings people together in such a way that I never thought possible. I went into this trip thinking I would serve God and contribute where I could but I never would have imagined this gift He would give to me.

The people of Uganda especially were such an amazing example of love and authentic community, both to each other and us as visitors. The time spent with them learning and laughing and the joy in the faces of the children is something that I know I’ll carry with me. And those sweet girls –the family I have the honour of sponsoring– they absolutely stole my heart! Bonding with them and seeing the world of opportunity opened to them through Kuwasha was nothing short of amazing. I never would have known any of this had I not said yes and followed the call to go.

Kali went to Uganda with one of our impact teams in 2018. Click here to learn more about Kuwasha, our Golf Tournament partner for 2019. Click here to learn about upcoming impact trips.