Flying Past

Nieuwe Kerk

I can't quite believe how fast 2017 is going past. I mean, its the last day of January now and February begins tomorrow. January has been a very busy month. My dad's been here for two weeks and I've been able to spend quite a bit of time with him... usually in the car, as we've traveled from one place to another. He came to Redeemer with me this last Sunday and he's met some of my friends, just like I've met some of his friends, who I haven't seen in years. Its been a lot of fun but quite busy and to some degree, tiring. Thankfully I've been able to take a week off work, to spend with him.

January's been a busy month, but a good one. I've grown a lot as a person as I've had to step out in areas where I wouldn't normally have stepped out in... sometimes we need to choose the hard path because its the right one to walk down. So often I've wanted to walk down the easy path for that simple reason. It was the easy path to take, but the results aren't the same and I might easily end up somewhere totally different that where I had planned to go, or where God had wanted to take me. I've seen in my self that I grow the most when there's a little bit of pressure on me to grow. If I'm left to my own devices and don't bother challenging myself, then I know I wouldn't grow. Its a journey I'm on and I want to share bits and pieces with you as the process moves along. I can't share everything with you because sometimes the challenges I face are too personal to share on such a public domain or because it involves other people, people who have had an influence on me in some way or other.

February's going back to a more normal schedule. I started work on Monday and I'm going to be coming in every day until the end of the month. I head back to England for another Impact Training. Like the last training block, I'm going over by bus. Hopefully there won't be any strikes on the Underground or bad traffic jams that'll make me late. I'm also headed back to the gym this month (life has been too busy in January and I've also had a pretty bad cold).

I'll write again in about two weeks time.

Name Change... & The Reasons Why

Journeys Together With My Papa

My dad arrived last week, and I've had the chance to spend a lot of time with him this last week. He's the one who inspired this post and as time goes by, I'll continue to share as things progress over the next few months.

As many of you know, I officially became a member of Redeemer International Church, The Hague, just a few weeks ago. It was a journey to get to that point. Since I left England in July 2015 with the dream of returning to London. If God had told me he wanted me to stay in the Netherlands this long, I wouldn't have gotten on that ferry in the first place. When I joined the Redeemer Office, I wasn't sure what my plans were after my internship finished. I was a bit confused about what I wanted. Part of me wanted to return to England, but part of me just wanted to stop traveling and find somewhere to call my home... which is a concept I've struggled with a lot since I left Uganda in September 2012. I've never lived anywhere longer than a year and a half since then and I began to believe I never would. It was hard as it meant that I stopped bothering making friends as I knew I would be leaving soon anyway. When I arrived in The Hague, Tjitze (my line manger) suggested I become a member of the church, despite the fact I probably wasn't going to stay after my internship. However, that suggestion triggered a thought process. I decided that no matter how long I'm in Redeemer, be it for a few months or for a few years, I need to start calling Redeemer home, and thus I began the process of applying to become a member, which was an important part of the process to calling Redeemer home.

I then began to earnestly began to pray into the plans after my internship finishes and that led me to decide to stay on in The Hague. I've lived in the Netherlands for about a year and a half now, though I've still been traveling around the country a lot and I've started to get that feeling that it's time for me to put my roots down and to start calling the Netherlands and, especially The Hague, home. This is why I've decided to change the name of my blog. I'm no longer traveling from place to place like a nomad (though I still live to travel). I'm putting my roots down here, and even though I miss London, I know that this is where God wants me to be. I'm happy here.

Now, you're wondering what I'm going to do next... after my internship finishes. I still have about six months to go and I'm still praying about what the future holds. I'm looking into getting an apartment and a job (though the type of job I'll be getting is still a work in progress between God and me). I'm focusing on the last few months of my internship. God is going to direct me into the next step at the right time... why should I focus on what comes next when I've still got next about six months of my internship that needs my attention?

As it looks like I'm going to settle here in The Hague, my dad pointed out that my blog's name isn't totally accurate anymore... I'm no longer a nomad, I'm a settler. I've settled here in The Hague for the foreseeable future.

Love God Greatly: Telephone Lines

Today's my first day back in the office after three weeks away. I've needed the last three weeks to refocus and to rest, though the last week of that was Impact Training at Elvenden Forest Centre Parcs, near Norwich, England, but instead of writing about my life and what's been happening, I thought I'd share something of a revelation with you... its something that I've been thinking about for a while and I think its about time I share it with you all.

Over the last few weeks I've had time to reflect on my walk with God and what it means, for me, to be called a Christian. More than that, what it means for me to be a radical Christian. So often people look at Christianity as a religion full of rules and regulations... with endless lists of things we have to do, and even longer lists of things we are not allowed to do. If we break so much as one of these rules, we're bad people and we won't go to heaven. Let's face it, we're all bad people, no matter what we believe in. Every human that has ever walked this earth and will ever walk this earth is bad, has evil in them, with one exception, Jesus. No matter how hard we try to do good, we fail miserably. As Romans 3:22-23 says: "This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." There is nothing we can do, there is no hope to gain entry into heaven without Jesus.

God wanted and still wants a relationship with us... but when Adam and Eve sinned (in Genesis 3), the telephone connection dropped... then throughout the Old Testament we see God making temporary fix to the telephone line. This is why Leviticus is my favourite book in the bible. God put the rules into place to purify the people of Israel, so they could have a relationship with Him. In a way, it was a prelude to the Salvation Story. Every year, since the Israelites left Egypt they had to kill a lamb without defect or blemish on Passover as an atonement offering. Jesus became that lamb. Jesus is the only one who has ever walked this earth who is without sin. Yet, he took all the sins of mankind for past, present and future generations, onto himself so that the telephone line between us and God could be restored. We don't deserve this, and no matter what we do, we can't earn salvation, all we need to do is choose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and ask him into our hearts. To ask for our sins to be washed away... and then the telephone line to Father God is opened for us.

I'm going to end this post with what Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy (chapter 1 verse 9) which says: "God saved us and chose us to be his holy people. We did nothing to deserve this, but God planned it because he is so kind. Even before time began, God planned for Christ Jesus to show kindness to us." God is the definition of kindness and he wants nothing more than for us to know this and to know that he has chosen us as his children, not because of what we've done, but simply because he wants to have a relationship with us.

New Year

Four days into the new year. Can't quite believe that its 2017 already. Time is definately flying past. For some 2016 was a bad year and for others it was good. For many, like me, it's been mixed… but swings strongly into bad for many reasons, one of which was depression has hounded me throughout the year. I've struggled with it through April and May, and I couldn't talk to anyone about it because I didn't trust anyone. When I moved to Den Haag I'd hoped I'd left my depression behind, but to no success. It's been hounding me on and off over the last few months. Thankfully I've had people to talk to about it and I have been feeling a whole lot better. Still tired but better.

However, I don't want to write this post or start this year on such a negative note. Depression won't define me. One of my New Year's resolutions is to leave healthier so my good friend, and fellow Outlander fan, Mckenzie, and I have joined MPC2017, which stands for My Peak Challenge 2017. MPC2017 provides a nutritional plan and exercise guide. One of my goals is to loose weight this year but I've struggling with my weight over the last few months due to my low level of enegery over the last few months.

If you have the time, please take a few minutes to fill in this survey in for me! Your help would be much appreciated! Just click here.