Moving Forward :)

Jeff and I in San Diego

Oftentimes I sit around thinking, "I need to update my blog..." but I feel like SO much is happening that I never know where to even start! So here is my attempt (and probably fail) to wrap up the end of last year and the beginning of this year :)

               The year ended and then a new one began with visitors and trips galore.  The whole family was together again for Christmas, and we even had an addition this year when my friend Vernel from South Africa was able to join us for the holiday!  It was a great time...and I hope the Wagner family didn't overwhelm him too much ;)  We also had all of our Wagner cousins from Portland, Oregon come down for a visit... and they took me with them back to Oregon for about a week and a half! It was such a great time to be with my dear cousins that I hadn't seen in TOO long! I was back for one full day before my parents, Jeff, and I took off for San Diego, California for an extended weekend. I was able to see one of my dear friends from my school in Montana, Amanda Walhof :) it was SO good to catch up with her and get to meet the man in her life!  It had been two years since I had seen her!! We has such a great trip! and I don't think my parents minded too much that Jeff and I decided to crash their romantic getaway at the last minute...


(some of the) Wagner girls in Portland!



               Time away and spent with family was exactly what I needed to be able to rest and re-focus on this year and how exactly it would all work out.  After an incredible retreat with God in the mountains at the end of last year, I felt that He really gave me direction on where He would have me go... but because I always like to ask questions,  I wondered, "But how do I get there??"  and of course, God has been taking care of everything and allowing me to come along with the incredible plan and future that He has for the nation of Uganda :) 

               So as of now, I am officially on staff with Colorado Springs YWAM.  The base here has partnered together to start a business of these little solar-powered lights, about the size of a Nalgene bottle that burn four times (or more) brighter than the little kerosene lanterns that the 600 million people in the world without electricity have in their homes (that is if they are able to afford the quickly burning and toxic kerosene that many of them use).  So our goal with these lights is to provide a more cost-effective and safe way for these people to be able to live their lives a little bit later than seven o'clock when the sun goes down.  We will be doing campaigns in colleges and churches focusing on raising lights for Uganda, India, Swaziland, and many other countries that are in need of these.  In the time that I am home, I will be helping with these campaigns and really trying to push raising the lights for our village in Uganda, we'll even get to set up tables to sell the beads that our wonderful women in Uganda are making; then in April I will start teaching in the preschool at YWAM in order to work with the children, and also familiarize myself with the curriculum that I will then be able to take back to Uganda in July to train to our Nursery School teachers so that they can in turn teach it to our children in Uganda!

               Clearly once again, God has already thought of everything that I need...and has proven that He is far more than able to provide anything we've asked or even hoped for!  And even through all of this, He is teaching me a huge lesson about trust.  I recently turned down my old job at Scott's Miracle Grow, when I felt that the Lord was calling me to pursue what He had for me long term... and not just a quick fix to my question on where money was going to come from.  So I took a leap (or a small slide off the ledge) of faith, and I am really excited to see how the Lord will continue to show Himself faithful in the area of my finances.  Surprisingly... trips back and forth to Uganda, as well as basic living expenses... cost money.  And I think this will be the first time in my life I can honestly say that I have given these areas to the Lord in obedience to what he is asking me to do... even though everything in my own earthly mind is telling me it is crazy, I have come to realize that the God I know really likes to have people do crazy things in order to show Himself worthy and faithful. 

Peace teaching at Dancing Soldiers of Christ

               As far as Soldiers of Christ in Uganda, incredible things are happening there!  My friend from Colorado Springs, DJ, will be heading out tomorrow to go to the grounds in Gulu and help out with the ministry for five weeks, laying bricks, doing Bible teachings, and of course...loving on the children!  The team in Uganda is hard at work laying bricks for our THIRD brick building!! We will be able to have our Soldiers of Christ school running before we know it :) And we just had a dear friend, Peace, come over from another part of Uganda for a week to help train our kids in their singing and dancing skills!  Peace has just recently released a music CD in Uganda, so it was such a blessing and an honor to have her come over and lend a hand, using some of her expertise (I even got word that the men were having her help make bricks during the day when the children were in school!)  Way to go, Peace!!  And also in the beginning of March, we will be welcoming a DTS team to help out on the grounds for a few weeks!!  We LOVE the body of Christ all coming together!! And we are always up to have new visitors ;)


we have AWESOME helpers :)



Life at the moment...

Well, I just recently got back home from spending 15 months in Africa.  Needless to say... it has been quite an adjustment!  But God is as always- so faithful!  I have been stretched so much in this time, and I am so thankful for everything that he has done to "create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me" although, I know I am very far from ending on this journey that He has me on, I am grateful to say that I believe am a long way from where I was when it started! 
God had touched my heart when I was fourteen years old with a documentary on the war and child soldiers in Northern Uganda.  It was about at that time that he ripped my heart out of my chest and placed it in Uganda.  And from that day forward I began to pray and to seek the Lord for the best way to do this.  Despite begging my parents to allow me to drop out of high school and move to Uganda (thanks to their wisdom and discernment that I was lacking at the moment) I finished school, and joined a missions organization known as Youth With a Mission.  I headed up to Montana shortly after high school to do a Discipleship Training School, where I spent the first three months learning more about who God is, and who I am in Christ, and then I headed out to Thailand and Malaysia for ministry for the next two months.  Uganda had always been on my heart...but after the Lord had sent me to Mexico, China, Thailand, and Malaysia, I began to see that His heart (and His plans for me) are bigger than I had ever imagined.  Though at the moment I only have a glimpse of what I feel is in store for me...I know that God will continue to show me what is needed in his faithful timing! 
After this school and coming home for a short time, I was asked to co-lead a short term missions team to Uganda! I couldn't believe it!  God is TRULY a Father that knows how to give us the desires of our heart when they are aligned with what He has for us!  So I took the team to Uganda, and ended up staying by myself in Gulu for about a month (with the Lord's direction) before embarking down to South Africa to do another Bible School with YWAM.  During my time in Gulu, I met a man named Jimmy Onen who was working hard to teach children in their village African music and dance, and then with their performances he was paying for their school fees.  We began to put our heads together and to share ideas of what we could do and where God was leading the ministry.  In the ten months that I was away in South Africa the Lord really continued to show his faithfulness and mercy to the people and the ministry in Gulu, Uganda.  Jimmy and I had prayed and really felt that the Lord had given us a passion to start a ministry of "Soldiers of Christ" and to really use what the enemy had intended for evil and use it for good.  The Lord has now grown "Soldiers of Christ" in Uganda and allowed us to be able to sponsor 131 children's school fees, as well as begin a vocational school of 70 women, training them in English, Bible, and tailoring.  We have even been so blessed as to start a nursery school for 27 preschoolers!  We are hoping to eventually take the school on our grounds through all primary levels. If you would like to help support our ministry or would like to come out to Uganda, please let me know! I would love to get you connected with the incredible things that are happening!
 I am planning (Lord willing) to be returning to Uganda in about June/July of next year for a few months with a team from all of the mysterious places the Lord has provided from so that Jimmy and others from our ministry can have the opportunity to go and do a Discipleship Training School. 
 Please pray with us as we continue to strive with God to see His Kingdom come and his will be done and to give a voice to those that were silenced for too long.