Different Cultures...Same Need...Same God...Same Mission

We made it to Uganda late Monday night Ugandan time, mid afternoon Texas time.  We got dropped at the guest house and found our rooms.  We sat outside for a while and watched bats fly overhead before crashing for the night.  Early Tuesday morning we enjoyed a breakfast at the guest house and then made the 5 hour journey to Mbarara.  While driving through Uganda we all were in awe of the differences between Texas and Uganda.  The culture is shockingly different in so many ways.  However, no matter the differences between countries and cultures, we all have the same great need.  That great need is a savior and that savior wants us to use our differences to reach people and show them how he is the only one who can meet that great need. 

When we arrived at Joel and Jill’s we had a great time of catching up and showing our team around their compound.  We may have enjoyed a turn or two on the mini zipline.  We had dinner with their AIM team that night and enjoyed being a part of their team training.  Joel had planned to show Louie Giglio’s sermon The Symphony of Praise.  He shared how we all have a place in God’s symphony and how we need to embrace that place on the team.  It was a great reminder of how we need to be who God created us to be and to do what he created us to do.  God’s definition of success for us as individuals is not earthly, but faithfulness to God.  We had a sweet time of prayer at the end as a group and just asked God to help us be faithful to who he has called us to be. 

My prayer for our church and these university students is that we would all recognize who God has created us to be and see our place in his great symphony.  I pray we would all see God’s view of success as faithfulness to him for what he has called us to do individually.  Each of these university students has their own place in fulfilling God’s kingdom here on this earth.  We all have a unique purpose to fulfill as well.  You don’t have to be me and I don’t have to be you.  Ugandans don’t have to be Americans and vice versa.  We all need to embrace our differences from country to country, culture to culture, family to family, individual to individual.  If we can embrace God’s unique design of each one of us, it will be so much easier to fulfill God’s purpose for your life.