Hannah Maria Joy

It's easy for me to say "God, I trust you." It's hard for me to say, "God, I trust you and I am okay with not knowing how or when you are going to act in this situation." I can be spontaneous and flexible. I love a good adventure and the unknown when it comes to exploring new things. But I am also a planner. I like to be organized, color coded, and prepared for what is ahead. When God doesn't show me how he is going to "work all things for my good," I get a unsettled and a little nervous. There seems to be two sides of a coin. On one side, I say I trust God to work but I do so much trying to "help" God work that I'm probably not really trusting that he is going to do what he has promised he will do. My excuse is, "I'm going to work super hard in this because then God can work through me... and I can get to my goal faster." On the other side of the coin is me trusting God and doing absolutely nothing to hel

I spent the last four weeks in Uganda as an intern with Kibo Group International. A total of 13 of us went on this adventure; 3 from Oklahoma Christian University, 4 from Harding University, 4 of us from Rochester College and then our 2 fearless leaders, Larry and Danny. Our last Sunday at Jinja Church of Christ I've been putting off writing this blog because I don't feel as though I have words to adequately describe and explain my journey to Uganda without sharing every big and little thing that we did. I will do my best to keep this short but thorough. Kibo Group is a non-profit ministry that works on sustainable development in villages in East Africa. Kibo has 4 projects that they work on with the villages: Water Source Community Lead Total Sanitation (CLTS) Women's Empowerment  Mvule Project  Before going to Uganda, I knew about the projects Kibo did and I thought they were really cool. But let me tell you, the work Kibo is doing is far far more than

Pain. Hurt. Sorrow. Uncertainty. Darkness. Despair. Faith. Hope. Healing. Love. Comfort. Support.   Joy. Light. When someone you know and love is hurting so bad it’s hard to understand why? WHY do people go missing? WHY can’t we understand? WHY doesn’t God bring them home right away? WHY can’t I do more to help? WHY? WHY? WHY? When thousands of people gather and share in prayer for someone you know and love you have to wonder why? WHY are we so united through this? WHY don’t we support each other like this all the time? But then you have to think; Do you have resurrection hope? Do you believe in cruciform power? Do you believe that God works even when we cannot see? Do you believe that good triumphs over evil? Do you believe that God is God and we are not? Do you believe that God’s love is beyond understanding? Do you believe in the God of peace? Do you believe in the God of comfort? Do you believe in the God of love? When I don’t