Pre-Uganda Journal 3

I am feeling great peace this morning. I feel like God has been showing me little by little what to speak about when we get to Uganda. I've been praying for quite some time about what to share at the chapels (the current plan is for me to speak at several high school chapel services with anywhere from 400-1400 students) and the Sunday services while in Uganda. I keep coming back in some fashion or another to the fact that Jesus is ALL that we need, and that He is truly our greatest treasure. Over the past few days the stories Jesus told of the pearl and the hidden treasure have been on my heart. I think I might be able to make those my beginning point, and to develop the concept from there. I feel great peace inside because I am seeing that God is going to show me exactly what to share. Having a few ideas on paper is helpful, too.
I still have much work to do for everything, but I feel a little less overwhelmed. A lot of people must be praying for me this week, because it is the first week that I feel like I've gotten something productive in the way of teaching preparation. If any of you has a great illustration for the process of our sanctification----that it isn't an instant change----that I could share at the women's conference, let me know. I had wanted to get some white flowers and put them in a vase with colored water, and then each day, the women would see the color of the flowers changing, and finally being bright like the color of the water. Unfortunately, there are no white flowers to be had, so if any of you has an idea, please, don't hesitate to share. Any ideas for illustrating our new life in Christ, being reborn, etc.... My resources are really limited there, but I want to make the teaching as visual and clear as possible.
Rebecca, Karin VanSweden (she's our friend from church who is also coming with us to Uganda) and I met again this week. We have sorted out which things we want to share in church sometime in the next couple of weeks. We've gotten most of the details worked out for our spaghetti dinner, we've begun putting some things in our suitcases. Thanks to so many kind friends, I am all set with skirts & dresses, and so are Rebecca and Karin.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us. God is faithful. Pray for us, but also pray for the people of Soroti, Uganda----that we may be a mutual encouragement to each other, that God would truly be exalted in their lives, and that Jesus Christ would be their Hope and their Greatest Treasure.