By LAURA BROOKHART / Community Columnist

This week continues the memoirs of Katie Belue’s nine weeks in Uganda this past summer on her first mission trip.

“I now view Uganda as my home away from home and, honestly, if I could go back right this second I would. Uganda taught me how to live freely and lightly—like Jesus, who didn’t even have a place to lay His head.”

“I think we all do desperately want to live like Him. To have nothing of this world that we hold too tightly to, nothing that we wouldn’t be happy to give up for Jesus and His Kingdom.”

“Uganda,” Belue says, “taught me that it’s not about me, it’s never been about me, and it never will be about me. That serving is so much better than being served. And loving people is way better than simply trying to fix people.”

“Each evening, Mase (who was over all the 15 interns) would ask us, ‘Where did you see God today?’”

“We saw God in anything and everything. In the landscape, in the children, to how we saw someone serve—God was prevalent in every moment. And, at the end of the day, there were 15 different answers.”

Continuing to reflect on this life-changing experience, Belue shared, “Being back has not been an easy adjustment—after being fully (emotionally, physically, and spiritually) immersed in a different culture.”

“There are busy days when I don’t have time to think about missing Uganda and there are also harder days when every thought I have is consumed by my time spent there.”

“But, God has been really faithful in reminding me that seasons are for a reason.”

“My time in Uganda was such a sweet season, but now it’s time for my season in Tuscaloosa as a student and that’s sweet in its own way too. He is just as much in Tuscaloosa as He was in Uganda and He loves the people of Uganda as much as He loves the people of Alabama.”

“His heart for the lost sheep is here in the United States, also, and for me to belittle that or think that He won’t do just as much here as He did over there is doubting His power. He will surely do exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ask for, hope for, or imagined.”