Everywhere: an excerpt from my journal 3/10

Today I hit “the homesick hump”. I didn’t think I’d have “the hump” this go around. Partly because I feel at home here and I’m really loving what I am doing and partly because last year for a 3 month stay I really didn’t have a “hump”. So I thought three weeks, easy-peasy! Oh contraire!  So as I was sitting in church this morning… going on the fourth hour… my eyes were welling with tears and I had that feeling of just wanting to quit… I felt “the hump” coming. I was so confused, why am I feeling this way?  And then I realized the last time I had seen a white person was 5 days ago. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, however I have never been the minority before, so 5 days had subconsciously gotten to me I think. (in past trips I have worked in the vicinity or with white people)

So church ends, and I am holding back tears like it’s my job; all the while may ugandans are greeting me. I started to walk to lunch with 2 other Africans I hardly know and I was literally about to sit down, in the road, in the muddy filth and just cry and legitimately think about going home. And then I had this thought… surely if God is everywhere like the bible says, He must be here even know; watching little Arielle just crumble in the middle of dusty Uganda.

No less than 1 minute later I turned the corner and on the street I spotted the back of a white woman with blonde curly hair! I just got a glimpse or three of her as I bobbed and weaved around the people that separated me from her. She was about 50 feet up the busy street. I never could see her face, but she was walking slowly and after a couple glimpses she was gone. Indeed, she was a God-send. Sometimes I wonder if it was God in real life! It was almost mysterious, the nature of the woman. She walked slow and peacefully and I never could see her face as I fought the crowds to get closer to her. I guess you could say I felt a little like that woman in the bible who was trying so hard just to touch and see Jesus to be healed as He walked through the masses.

Whether it was God in the flesh, or not, seeing her was not a coincidence. After I saw her I sighed that sigh of relief, when you feel settled, comfortable where you are, and have come over “the hump”. So surely, surely, as the dirt stains red, Jesus is everywhere.   

Do any of you have a story when you really knew Jesus was there?