The reason I signed up to go on this mission trip was first of all because God called me to go. Secondly, I fell in love with the kind of ministry we were going to do in Uganda. The main goal was to take the message of purity and Christ to the people of Uganda.
As you know, AIDS/HIV is one of the leading causes of death in Africa. Many young people (as young as 10 years old) become sexually active, and with multiple partners. They see it as normal and since everyone else is doing it, they want to do it too. Unfortunately, many of these young people get infected and end up infecting others, and the chain goes on and on. We wanted to tell these young people that it is possible to stay pure. We shared Scripture verses with them to help them understand that sex is not bad, God created it and therefore it is good. However, He gave us boundaries. He gave us the command to stay pure until we marry our spouse. Unfortunately, our society and all sorts of media tell us otherwise. When we talked to students in schools, many of them said that America says it is okay to have sex and have multiple partners because that's what they see in the movies produced by Hollywood. When we told them that it was possible to stay pure until they married, many of them could not believe what they were hearing. It was amazing to see how they asked questions and desired to better understand the Word of God. Many came to know Christ and committed their lives to Him. Many more committed themselves to a life of purity. The church we worked with in Uganda, One Love Church, had these purity cards called "True Love Waits". The card had three parts to it. The first part was a contact information card. The young people would give us their personal contact information so that One Love Church could stay in contact with them, pray for them, and disciple them further. The second part of the card was the commitment to which these young people committed to by signing the card. The commitment was this...
Believing that TRUE LOVE WAITS, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my country, my friends, my future spouse, and my future children to a life time of sexual purity, waiting until the day I give myself only to my marriage partner in a FAITHFUL MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP.
So many young people signed these cards! No one had ever taken the time to tell them about purity and how that affects their lives. The third part of the card was a part that they could share with someone they trusted, and that could be their accountability partner. It was amazing to be able to take this message to these young people.
I know that the message of purity may be "old fashion" to many, but God doesn't give us a command just for no reason. He always has our best interest in mind. God knows the destruction a life of sexual immorality leads to, and how it breaks the lives of so many. So many feelings and things happen to us when we give ourselves to another person, and no matter how many people say that "it doesn't matter", it does. You always end up giving a part of your heart to that person that you will never get back. Then, when it's time to marry your spouse, you always end up with a partial heart to give to that person because you gave pieces away to each person you ever dated.
We were able to see God work in miraculous ways. Young people came to know Jesus as their personal Savior and start a personal relationship with them. That is why I go on mission trips. People need to hear the Good News and know that the God who created this world loves them more than they will ever comprehend. Furthermore, He wants the best for them, and He has plans to prosper them not to harm them, to give them hope and a future.
On my next post, I will share what happened on our very first day of ministry to a secondary school in Kampala. God did some amazing things!
Love In Him,
San Juanita
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