Book Review and a sermon, too!

I (Lorenda) have just finished reading a great book that I would like to recommend to all of you. The book is called Return to Dignity and was written by Marilyn Skinner (co-founder of Watoto).
The book briefly tells the stories of eight women’s lives- their stories are beyond anything that most of us could imagine in our wildest dreams. Each chapter could have easily been expanded into an entire book if the atrocities and horrific details of these women’s lives had been revealed in great detail.
However, Marilyn chose to tell us just enough about each woman’s life that we could get to know her and feel compassion for her, even though we really can’t imagine what she has been through. The subtitle of the book is Stories of Hope, Faith, Courage and Transformation and that is the part that is emphasized in the book. Marilyn describes how these women got connected with Living Hope (the Watoto women’s ministry) and then found Jesus, the real and only Living Hope.
I know that all of us have people in our lives that are going through difficult circumstances. Chances are those people weren’t kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and may not be HIV positive, but we all have people with needs. What is the Lord calling you to do in these people’s lives? Please note- I am not asking you what you think you should do in that person’s life (all you rescuers need to listen up here!), but what is God asking you to do in that person’s life? Seek the Lord and ask Him what your role is to be, but be careful because when the Lord tells us what we are to do, He expects our obedience (just like we expect of our children). If we sincerely seek Him and ask for direction, He will give us direction. Our response should then be obedience. It is funny to me how we ask God for direction and then treat His answer like it is a suggestion, rather than a direct command.
Sorry this started out as a book review and turned into a little bit of a sermon for a while there! Oh well- I find that I have become a little bolder since I have been here and do not fear saying what the Lord lays on my heart. I know all of you who know me well are saying, “Oh no, she will be even more obnoxious that usual when she returns.” Oh well….
I do want to encourage all of you to read this book. You can buy it on the Watoto website www.watoto.com. It really does help you to understand the struggles of the Ugandan people in a whole different way. More importantly, it shows the forgiveness and the rebuilding of lives that can only happen with the Lord.
I hope that tomorrow will find you worshiping our Lord Jesus with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We will be celebrating at Watoto South tomorrow- thanking God for the work Greg, Mike and many others did over the past few weeks to make this place ready for us to worship in.
Have a great day!