Posted in Journey by Elizabeth Uhles on 3/3/2010
I just wanted to let you all know that after a looonnnng break from blogging, I have started a new blog again. Nothing special, just more of my journey and thoughts along the way. If you would like e-mail updates from the new blog, there is a sign up on the right hand column of the new blog.
Hope to see you there!
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 10/15/2008
I know I haven't blogged since I have been home, but tonight my heart is heavy and you are some of the best prayer warriors that I know. I have been praying for a friend of mine for a long time now, I have been praying that the Lord would radically transform my friends life. Sometimes I remind the Lord of what He did in Paul's life. I have been praying that the Lord would put my friend in a place where my friend would be completely dependent on the Lord. Sometimes when you pray things like this, the Lord allows difficult circumstances to break us so that we can be dependent. So right now in the midst of the difficult circumstances, my friend has a choice to turn to the Lord or depend on themselves.
In a spiritual sense, this is the difference between life and death. I feel so weak right now that I don't even know how to pray. I need you, the body to pray for my friend.
Pray for a miracle. Pray for victory in my friends life. Pray for change. Pray for an understanding of who the Lord is in their life. Pray for the Lord's strength. Pray for an understanding of the Lord's total forgiveness for all shortcomings in our life.
I would only post this if it meant a lot to me, so please pray.
And while you are praying, pray for someone else in your life who needs you to fight in prayer for them.
We don't pray for each other enough.
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 8/6/2008
I wanted to thank everybody who prayed for the Mexicali trip for praying. It was a hard week, but over all it was good. The teams learned a lot he about learning to love people that are different them them, which might be one of the hardest and most beautiful things in things in the body of Christ. Here is an entry from one of the students on the trip.
" July 31, 2008
Today was another very warm day in Mexicali, with temperatures far into the triple digits. Our group took part in what we call "ATL" (Ask The Lord). This is
where we walk through a neighborhood and follow literally where we feel God is leading us. We arrived at the new church site in the town and began by praying and listening to what we felt the Lord was asking us to do. At first it seemed that we were all hearing different directions from God, but as we took our walk one part at a time, things began to fall together. We purchased bread and water from local vendors who happened to walk right up to our group. We then took the refreshments and offered them to different people we encountered. Because of our obvious difference in nationality, everyone would ask where we are from, which often lead to us explaining our mission to bring Christ to the people. Julie and Isaac shared their testimonies and two people invited Jesus into their lives. Often times we want to see the big picture right away, but we need to learn to follow God's timing and take his instructions one step at a time, even if it seems to make no sense to us. - John (Wisconsin)"
On Thursday of this week, I will be flying to North Carolina where my fellow Lego Courtney will pick me up. We will pick up Christy along the way, and head down to Knoxville, Tennessee where we will be going to Silas and Brooke's wedding on 8-8-08. Which is same day as the beginning of the summer Olympics, which is my favorite day of every other year because Olympic opening ceremony day is the closest thing we have to heaven on earth. So many cultures comming together in peace and happiness makes me cry. It's really a beautiful thing.
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 7/24/2008
I know it has been a while since I updated, but I just wanted to ask for your prayers this next week. I will be leading an AIM youth mission trip to Mexicali, Mexico. The project starts Saturday, and goes through the following Saturday.
I was supposed to fly out today, but hurricane Dolly delayed my plans, so I will be flying out in the morning. This gives me a little less pre project setup time than I like, so please pray that everything goes smoothly once I get there.
Thank you for all your prayers. I know I can count on you all.
Love,
Elizabeth
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 5/18/2008
I have been home a little more than two weeks now...
When I was in Nicaragua, the valve that seals my air mattress broke. I realized this one night as I was getting ready to go to sleep on the floor of a barn. That was one of the longest nights on the race. I spent the night cursing the air mattress that I still slept on even though it was flat. At five in the morning when the sun was creeping up, I thanked God and got out of bed because the terrible night was finally over.
So I heard a rumor that you could take gear back to REI and return it if it didn't meet your 100% satisfaction. Lots of stores have policies like this, but they don't actually mean that you can return a stained, beaten up, broken air mattress that has been to 14 countries and has been slept on for a year without a receipt. My brother told me I was an idiot, but I took my air mattress to REI, and asked if I could have a new one. The man at the REI counter said, "No problem, would you mind picking out the new mattress yourself." I said,
"Sure." He said,
"Here is your brand new, perfect mattress would you like a paper bag, so that you can walk around the store?" I said,
"Thank you, you are amazing. Please come home with me and be my best friend." (I have been going through withdraws not having my best friends who will talk about theology while going to the bathroom with me.)
Still in the store, I called my brother to find him. (I have been told that this is what people who have phones do, you don't have to circle the store five times to find your friends and family.) He was looking at a ridiculously nice $20 water bottle. I think I saw this same type of water bottle run over by a car and shot my a gun, and it still held water. I tried to talk him into a less expensive bottle, so that he could spend the difference on a head lamp. He said, "Why do I need a headlamp." I said,
"Why do you still use a flashlight? Headlamps are brighter, smaller, lighter, the batteries last longer, you always have your hands free, the light always shines where you are looking because it is on your head, it is a perfect night time reading light, and it cost the same price as a good flashlight." I love headlamps so much I could go into door to door headlamp sales. After a few minutes, I volunteer to buy the headlamp for his birthday gift. (My brother's birthday was last week, but I didn't get him a gift.) After a quick walk by the sleeping bags, we head to the cash registers with the water bottle, the headlamp, and some batteries. The cashier gives us our total, ask for my phone number to put the purchase on my REI membership log, and then hands me change and says, "today we are giving you money." (REI has a thing they call 'dividend' where you get back something like 10% of the previous years purchase sums in store credit.)
Let me summaries what went down at the store.
1. They exchanged my broken beat up air mattress for a new one without a hassle.
2. We got a water bottle, a head lamp , and batteries for free.
3. They gave me change that we ended up using to take the tollway.
Now if only the rest of reentry was that easy. Coming back the the States has been harder than I thought it would be. I think everyone assumes that coming back to the states you will have a problem dealing with materialism, and everyone having so much. This doesn't bother me. This is what I have learned, stuff doesn't make me happy. I prefer simplicity, but if someone else wants a closet full of "nothing to wear" that doesn't bother me.
What I do have a hard time with is not feeling like I am sinning when I flush toilet paper.
But on a more serious note... I think the hardest part is finding something to talk about with people. Sometimes I feel like to get along with people, I have to pretend like the last year of my life didn't exist. I told this to a friend today, and she was really nice and started asking me questions, but when she did I didn't know how to answer her questions.
"What was the weirdest thing that you ate?"
"I don't know ...Wart Hog?"
"Did you ever feel unsafe?"
"No, not really"
"What were your favorite things?"
"I don't know, in what aspect?"
"I don't know... country"
"I'm sorry I am sure that you are tired of people asking lots of questions?"
"Not really, I don't get a lot of questions because everyone assumes that."
I feel like I can't talk about the race because I don't really care about the fun parts that everyone wants to hear about. The fact that we ate on the street, rode on buses, lived out of a backpack, slept on the ground, and bathed with cold water was normal life. When I go to bed at night in my nice bed, I think about children I met that sleep on the streets or the women in the prison in Manila that sleep smashed together on wooden boards. I came home broken. I came home with pain in my heart for children that I don't even know. I came home desperate to feel God's love and to know his hope. I really just want to sit on someones couch and cry for an evening, and thank God for what He is doing, and keep walking. The problem is I am afraid to break down and cry because I am afraid if I go there, I am afraid if I cry alone, I won't be strong enough to thank God, and keep walking.
This is my problem, I still don't have a big enough picture of God and what He is doing. I still think about myself to much. I have seen the entire world hurting, but I want to pretend like I didn't. I want to be normal, but I'm not. I still carry my headlamp in my purse.
If only life was as easy as gong back to REI.
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 4/29/2008
There were moments this year when I wasnīt sure this day would come, but tomorrow I am getting on a plane and flying back to the US. I will spend the night in Florida, and then I will be back in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday. Iīm looking forward to seeing everyone. If you are intersted in meeting up with me, and we arenīt in contact already please feel free to click on the "contact me" link and send me an e-mail. But for now just for fun...
Here is a review of the last year.
My Favorite Countries
China and Nicaragua
My Favorite Ministry
ATL In Shanghai and the Womanīs prison in the Philippines
My least favorite Country
Botswana
My Favorite Adventure
Catching a lift to Victoria Falls, jumping off the falls, and then white
water rafting the Zambezi
Biggest life lessons
God is supernatural, and cannot be controlled by human limitation
The hardest things that I saw
The streets of Pattaya where they handed you Ļ"menus" of girls
Children begging in Cambodia
Watching a kid die in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
The coolest things I saw
The Prisoner in Botswana accepting the Lord
The walls in the hearts of the women in the Philippines fall
The most sup rising thing about traveling from Country to country in a
row
That you can physically feel different spiritual realities as you move from
city to city and country to county.
What I am going to miss most
My friends from the race
What have I learned that I can live without
Everything, but my Duck
What I am most looking forward to about home
My family and staying physically well for more than a week at a time
What I am afraid of about going home
Bring lonely and being vulnerably
What does my heart want
People to become free and healed, and live with an excitment about life,
the Lord, and love in their bones.
Thank you for all your prayer and encouragement this last year. As I go
home, and reflect more on what the Lord has done this year, I will let you know
what stop is next on this journey that has only just begun.
| |
|
Posted in Team Lego by Elizabeth Uhles on 4/23/2008
Today for the first time I realized that I only have a week left with my Legoīs before we leave the race and head our separate ways.
A year ago when AIM announced our teams, I was horribly disappointed. In fact, I looked at my new team, and fell on the floor and started crying. I didnīt know how I would ever learn to love these people that were so different than me.
Now it is hard to imagine what my life was like before I new these crazy people.
Here are a few thoughts on each of my Legoīs...
Heather and I jumped off part of Victoria Falls together, and then we swam to a rock at the lip of the falls, and watched the water falling six inches next to us. Heather swears that this really wasnīt that dangerous, but some of out teammates saw this from the other side of the falls, and were so worried that the stupid people on the other side of the falls were going to die that when they found out it was us, they became livid. in fact, to this day we canīt really talk about this event without arguing. The point is that sitting on the edge of the falls with the power of the water rushing next to me was the most amazing experience of my life. I have never thought that the Lord was so big and so powerful as I did in that moment, and I would have never experienced that with out Heather yelling for me to jump. Here is the thing, I donīt think anyone else in the world could have talked me into jumping. Heather is analytical like I am, and together she and I can probably talk each other into anything. I love talking to her because she can see through my fear and excuses, and push me to keep on going.
Christy and I spent sun up to sun down together at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. That was the day that a spider bit my foot. This is the same spider that two days latter had my foot so swollen that I limped my feverish body across the Thai border and straight to a doctor in Bangkok. But the day we were at Angkor Wat, Christy had me laughing all day. Sometimes I would tell her that my foot really hurt, and that I was going to blame her if it fell off. She would just laugh so hard that both of us would have to stop and catch our breath. Here is the thing about Christy, no matter how bad things are she makes you want to keep going, and sheīll keep you going laughing. Christy is the person that I wake up in the middle of the night when I have had a nightmare and I need someone to pray for me. She is the person who I crawl into bed with when the rats get to loud, and she is the person I like to pick play fights with when I just need to feel loved.
I canīt pick one story about Tamara because most of the race, I have attached myself to her hip. Tamara is the gooiest person in the world. You can be sitting at dinner, and look across the table, and with one look she can make you laugh until you cry. Dur ring Thank giving in China, we had an improve Thanksgiving Pageant, Tamara played the Ļ"green bean of thanksgiving past" (or something like that, I am sure my fellow racers will correct me here.) Either way, she waddled around in a giant green sleeping bag, and had me convinced that she belonged in the new food pyramid diagram. The other thing about Tamara is that she has the sweetest heart in the world. I talk through everything with her. She always provides understanding, and a lot of times just talking to her brings about healing. I never feel crazy when I talk to her, even when I am an emotional mess. Tamara doesnīt always see in herself how much the Lord uses her. People all around the world love her, and I m pretty sure that she isnīt done with the mission field yet.
One my favorite moment with Courtney was when were on a bus going back to South Africa from Botswana. At this point we had been traveling for two days, we had been riding through the Kalahari dessert for about 10 hours, there were large women with things on their heads on the aisles pushing into our seats, and we both started crying. I donīt really know what we were crying about- we were hot and tired, felt like freaks, were wondering what in the world we had signed up for. That is when my heart connected with Courtney. Court and I both like to take care of people. We call Courtney "Mama Courtney" because sometimes she acts like our mommy when we need one. Courtney is always the first one to sacrifice what she wants and needs to serve the rest of us. Courtney and I have done food together all year, between the two of us we can feed anyone anytime any place. But I think there would have been times our team wouldnīt have eaten if the responsibility was just up to me. Many times I was just too tired and I felt like nothing I did was good enough. During these times, Court would just put her hand on my back, and say, "I know it is hard, but we can do it." I have learned a lot about being a servant from Courtney, and I hope I can learn to be as selfless as she is.
Brady reminds me that this world isnīt about flesh and blood and what we see with our eyes, but instead it is about the Lord and spiritual realities that you canīt always see. A couple of weeks ago, Brady and I talked about how a lot of times this year we have seen our friendship attacked my Satan. We wondered together why this was true for us, and I think the bottom line is because Brady makes me believe that the Lord can use me to do anything, even raise dead people. Back in Thailand, I felt like I had hit a wall, and I couldnīt break it down on my own, but when Brady prayed for me, I felt like we were running through the wall together. I just see her as a great offensive player in the Kingdom, she isnīt afraid to push forward. Just watching her life has taught me a lot about living without fear. One of my favorite ministry experiences with Brady was visiting our friends that lived in the underground tunnel in Shanghai. She and I sold squishy balls, taught English, and she played worship songs with her guitar down there. I donīt think that there are many experiences that are cooler than that.
What I love most about my team is that they will encourage you to anything the Lord lays on your heart. You can say,Ļ"I know we are in the middle of race day, and this is going to delay us, but I would like to buy food for that beggar and pray for him." My team would say, "Do you have money? Do you want us to go with you."
Sometimes I feel like this has been a rough race. I feel like I walked through the fire, and sometimes what came out of me was ugly. Through it all my Legoīs loved me, listened to me, wiped my tears, and told me to keep on going. I wouldnīt have been able to finish this race without them.
I have had the privilege to spend this last year with some of the most adventures, funniest, giving, godly people in the world. And I would be lying if I said that the thought of leaving them doesnīt break my heart. I am so grateful for teammates that I can not only call friends, but sisters.
(Silas was on our team this year too, but I wrote an entire blog to just him. Read "My Ode to Silioso" to read about him.)
| |
|
Posted in General Articles by Elizabeth Uhles on 4/21/2008
Today is one of those days on the race when you wake up, and realize that you aren't going to leave your room because your body has decided to cleanse itself of the street food that you have been consuming and it wouldn't be safe to be more than five feet away from the bathroom at any given time. With that said I have spent a lot of time in bed this morning thinking.
Yesterday at church, I noticed on the screen that is said, "Welcome to Pana Worship, no perfect people allowed." So I have been thinking about churches, and why people aren't honest in their struggles with each other. I was wondering why we live under some social pressure to have to have our lives all together.
So I have spent my morning asking "Why can't we as Christians be real with each other?"
And the answer I came to is because we don't know who we are in Christ.
When we truly know our identity in Christ, we don't have to pretend like our life is all together because we know that we are nothing in of ourselves, but through the blood of Jesus we are new creations.
Back in the Philippines, I read in a book that I randomly picked off a self that said the best kept secret among Christians today is that "Jesus paid it all." I have been thinking about this for three months now, and I think there is truth to that sentence.
I have noticed that we in our own efforts try to prove that we are following Christ, but we forget that it wasn't our own efforts that brought us into relationship with the father in the first place. We hide from each other because we don't want others to know that we are failing at being good people. But when I stop trying to find my identity in being a good christian, and I find my identity in being a son/ daughter of the king it doesn't matter if I am struggling.
So I was really thinking, that I want to be the kind of person that other people can be real with. I want to be the type of person who's friendship can create a place for someone to be vulnerable. We need to be vulnerable with each other. We need to be able to let our guard down, so that we can let the Father into the deep corners of our life. We walk around as broken people, who instead of being vulnerable, letting the lies out, and coming to terms who we really are in truth, walk around pretending to be all together.
Why do we pretend to be all together? Jesus has done so much for us, why can't we put our pride aside, and actually let ourselves be put together.
Sometimes we need to have days like my body is having today. We need to let all the junk out that is inside of us even if it is painful and ugly, so that we can walk around like healthy people.
| |
|
Posted in Abundance by Elizabeth Uhles on 4/19/2008
This year we have spent a lot of time sleeping on crowded, hard places,
but this month I have a double bed all to myself. I sleep right in the
middle of it with three pillows, two blankets, and my duck. I share a
bathroom that has hot water with only one other person, and at night I
can sit in the middle of my really big bed and watch Conan.
The
other night my entire team was in my room watching television. (We
thought catching up on pop culture would be helpful to our reentry
process.) While I was happy watching Family Guy in Spanish, I was the
only one in the room laughing and we ended up watching "American Idol
Gives Back."
Before I left home for the World Race, I would
watch shows that featured starving kids in poverty all over the world,
and I would usually get a little angry. I felt like the "big man"
behind the television was trying to play on my emotions, so that I
could give him money. I didnīt want to be played, so I hardened my
heart and pretended like the world really wasnīt that bad. But this
time when I watched the "sad stories" on American Idol I thought, yep that is pretty much how the world works. Or worse, I would think those people don't have it too bad. In fact, they have it better than they think, they donīt even know what true poverty is.
At one point in the show, Billy Ray Cyrus visited a family that had a real house, and he said something like that is the worse living situation I have ever seen. I thought, but someone else in the room vocalized, ĻWow Billy Ray, you donīt get out much."
Then I thought, "Wow, Elizabeth, you are a little judgmental."
I
am not trying to justify my judgmental thought, but here is the thing.
I have learned and seen that money doesnīt make people happy. Some of
the happiest people in the whole world have what most Americans would
consider nothing.
Iīm not OK sitting back and watching people
starve, but there is a certain amount of poverty that doesnīt bother me
any more. The world in my eyes no longer looks like the world I use to
see in America. By American standards, the majority of the world lives
in poverty, and this is just a way of life.
Truthfully, I am a
little bit nervous about going back to the clutter of America. I think
I prefer only having a weeks worth of clothes. It has never been so
easy to get dressed in the morning, I just wear whatever is the most
clean.
I donīt need an entire closet. Having an entire closet of clothes, but having "nothing to wear." is stressful.
I
donīt feel like I have roughed it this year, I have always had
everything I need. This is true even though I have only a fifth or less
of what I had back at home.
A couple months ago, I started to
realize this shift in my thinking. I asked one of my teammates, "What
is wrong with me, am I not compassionate? I donīt break for the poverty
of these people. It doesnīt bother me that they donīt have a home like
the one I have at home. In fact I could live like them ,and be fine"
And my teammate said, "Elizabeth, maybe you should just pray that the Lord would break you for the poverty of their spirits."
So here is the thing.
1. As far as material possessions go, by the common manīs standard around the world, I have grown up like royalty.
2.
This isnīt a bad thing. In fact, This is a gift because while most
people are stuck in the same neighborhood that grew up in, I have the
ability to go to the nations and give.
3. There is a downside to
this gift, I can be tempted to use this gift on my own selfish desires.
I can be tempted to find fulfillment in life in this gift, and I can be
tempted to convince other people to try fulfillment in my gift.
4.
Because this gift doesnīt define who I am or bring me happiness in of
itself, I can live without it, and I am OK with other people living
without it.
5. When I get away from all the noise and clutter, I find that it really still is all about the heart of a man.
I
feel like my thoughts on issues like poverty are messy, inconsistent,
hypocritical, and I am sure that even though I say that I would go
anywhere and do anything, I would cry if I ended up living under a
plastic tarp for the rest of my life asking literally for my daily
bread. But the Lord is faithful provider, and when we follow Him,
nothing else matters.
| |
|
Posted in Journey by Elizabeth Uhles on 4/8/2008
I have had a hard time writing blogs this last month because the truth is I feel beat up, bruised, heartbroken, and ready to crawl home to my mom and dad.
This last month has been one of the hardest month on the race, and it felt like everywhere I looked, everywhere I turned, every time I slept, Satan was waiting for me to try to destroy me.
This is going to sound crazy, but one night in Ometepe, I had a dream where Satan himself gave me a tour of the last month of my life. He showed me my rash and said, "See, making you sick use to be enough to keep you down, but that isnīt good enough anymore." Then He showed me conversations I had with people, and things people had said to discourage me, and he said, "See I did that to bring you down." Then He showed me temptations that he out in my path, and ways that I had failed and he said, "See the Lord canīt use someone like you, you are a mess.Ļ This went on and on, and it was so vivid and specif.
I woke up from that dream covered in my rash. It was the worse that it had ever been. I prayed so hard that night. I prayed for against all the things that I had been shown coming against me. I stated out loud that I was a child of God, and the blood of Jesus makes me who I am. I said that it doesnīt matter what I do or donīt do, that Satan canīt have a hold on my life.
That night I took a shower to help calm my rash, and when I woke up the next morning it was gone. Since e then, there are times like this morning when my hands start to itch, and when this happens, I say, "No Satan, you will not do this to me." And again this might sound crazy, but it goes away.
I know that the Lord must be doing something amazing in my life, or I wouldnīt be experiencing these trials. I am encouraged and hopeful, but at the same time I kind of just want to cry.
From where I am standing at today, it is hard to see what good came out of last month, but the Lord is faithful, His ways are higher than my ways, and I am pressing on.
| |
|
Next 10 Articles >>
|
|
|
