Special Issue: Christmas in Uganda

Merry Christmas Everyone, 🎄

I hope that everyone is having a Merry Christmas! My squad and I are currently in Entebbe, Uganda celebrating Christmas in our own way (see pictures below).

A bit of an update of how Uganda has been; Uganda has been such a time of inner healing, rest, and new levels of intimacy with God.

One area that I’ve been receiving inner healing in has been in the area of relationships. With this, I don’t mean like with a girlfriend, but living in close Christian community. In living in close community with one another, there will be times where you feel hurt and offended. As one of my mentors put it, “You’re living in close proximity to one another, there is bound to be friction from time to time. Sometimes you’ll offend each other and rub each other the wrong way. But that’s part of living in close community.” But the important lesson to learn from this is: We must learn how to take that friction and turn it into iron sharpening iron. It’s where we call each other higher through mercy, grace and forgiveness. Does it mean that at times it won’t hurt? No, of course it will hurt. But it’s in those moments of laying down our pride, and giving forgiveness that we exhibit the character of Christ in such a tangible and undeniable way.

While my team and I were in Lira, Uganda, we were blessed with many opportunities to rest. In this, it challenged me to slow down and learn what it actually looks like to Sabbath rest. As my teammate Matt challenged me towards, being okay with stopping, sitting and not sketching out what my day is going to look like. It was in this challenge that it was revealed to me that I struggle with slowing down, stopping and even with sacrificing my idea of productivity because I have not been content with who I am. I often times strive to be productive because I’m not satisfied with who I am as I am, whereas as God loves and accepts me regardless of how much or how little I accomplish.

In addition, I learned the peril of misplacing your purpose. For a while, I was struggling with not feeling like I had a purpose while here on the Race, and that was until my good friend back home, Ben, spoke some scriptural and Holy Spirit led insight that we all have a purpose. We may not know our purpose just yet, or maybe we do, and we don’t like (which bingo, the latter aligned perfectly with me.) God had revealed to me my purpose prior before coming on the Race, that my purpose is supporting others and encouraging them (which funny enough, aligns with my primary spiritual gift – Exhorter). I didn’t originally like this because this meant that I would be receiving the applause or the praise, but God has continued to remind me over and over again, the praise doesn’t belong to me, but to Him.

Finally, I’ve received the opportunity to immerse myself into a new level of intimacy with God through the discipline of fasting. In it, I’ve been learning a whole new way to connect and depend on God, which has been so fruitful!

Love you all, I’ll continue to share more updates! But until then, Merry Christmas! 🎄

– Hunter Land