The Friendship Factor

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24 NKJV

I think one of my favourite things about life generally is the gift that is friendship. True, genuine,I’m here for all your seasons kind of friendship. I desire it. I treasure it. I honour it.

This morning I was thinking about this thing of friendship and these are my reasons for wanting it so much. Friends are a place for grace, they get you. Friends are the ones who come and ask you “what’s up?” in the private chat after you totally lost in the group chat… lol. Friends are the ones who keep wanting to believe the best about you even when you are at your worst. Friends help you remember who you are when you have forgotten. Friends help you find your way back home when you get lost. Friends give to you. Friends receive from you. Friends laugh with you (and sometimes at you…lol). Friends cry with you. Friends hope with you, sometimes they hope for you when you just can’t find it. Friends celebrate with you. Friends let you know if your clothes aren’t fit for the function (or at-least they should…hehe). Friends and friendship really are the spice of life. The mchuzi mix on this journey of ours.

A while back , God went and told someone that I am His friend. I kept wondering, “What does that even mean?” . So I asked myself who else the Lord called friend and I got Moses. That started my journey studying the book of Exodus which I just finished reading about three days ago.

“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” Exodus 33:11a NIV

You know what is really amazing about Moses’ relationship with God? It seems like He’s the only one who had it, at least at that time , in that camp. God told him things before they happened and as such Moses is rarely if ever seen to fret and worry. Moses also had the Lord’s ear. In the verses after this, Moses asks God to show him His face and the Lord responds to him. This might be my favourite conversation in the bible at the moment. The tenderness, humility and friendship in that moment is mind boggling for me. Moses also cared what other people thought about God. Can you imagine that? Moses cared about God’s reputation.

I have had and lost some friends in this short life I have lived. For some, life and space has separated us. A few of them have died. However, I am yet to experience a friendship better than the friendship I have found in and with God. I won’t lie to you that I know everything the bible says or that I have all the answers but this one thing I know and I am persuaded of. The God of the Universe is very friendly to me. He’s my best friend. I only know how to be a friend by watching how He deals with me. He calls me friend. Imagine that!

Write new things

One of my favourite books ever is Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love. I never tire of reading it. I see something new every time I go back to it. God in His great wisdom and amazing love gave it to me for my birthday this year 🙂 . It’s a story of love, romance , pain , healing ,restoration and seemingly unforgivable wrongs.

“In that day,” declares the Lord,
    “you will call me ‘my husband’;
    you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
    no longer will their names be invoked.”

Hosea 2:16-17 NIV

I have a love- hate relationship with social media especially Twitter and Facebook. There are days I absolutely love it. There are days I want de-activate all my accounts…lol. I need it for work and some passion projects. So, on these days, I make sure I stay off the general timeline. I stay in my mentions meaning unless you call me out, I won’t see your things. Same goes for Facebook, I stick to my timeline and read things that I have posted. I have been doing that a lot with this blog too. Logging in to simply read things I have written before and not always interested in writing new things. It has mostly been because I have felt that I still lived there, that place from which I wrote the things that I am reading or at least wishing I lived there.

“God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
    Expect love, love, and more love!
And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again,
    dear virgin Israel.”

Jeremiah 31:3 MSG

Starting over. This is not really one of my favourite things to do. I have been to only four schools. My nursery school, one primary school, one secondary school and one University. I am pretty content with consistency. I like to plan. I like to know what to expect. I like familiar spaces, experiences and people. Alas! In comes Jesus 🙂 , the most consistent yet dynamic relationship I have ever been in. I can trust in His steadfastness yet I don’t always know what it will look like. He finds me in Egypt and speaks to me of Canaan and doesn’t really give me details of the wilderness.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19 NKJV

I found this portion of scripture shared by me in a post I wrote on Facebook about a month back. it was a post about a movie I love called Faith Like potatoes. I have been spending some time in the book of Exodus and do you know what I am learning? God is very good at doing new things. Things you could never have imagined, things that will blow you away.

What am I saying? I’m not sure I know anymore…lol, do you?

Allow yourself to write new things.

 

The week that was : #RedSofaSessions and #WorshipHarvest11th

Last week was beautiful. Last week was a lot. Last week had me feeling overwhelmed and excited at the same time. However two things stood out for me and that was Red Sofa Sessions and Worship Harvest Ministries celebrating it’s 11th year of existence.

I’d never been to Red Sofa Sessions. The first time I heard about it I had so much on my mind and wasn’t even in a place to hear about events. I probably thought it was another one of those things were Christians are trying hard to come off as a fun group of people. hehehe. However, this time around, I was intrigued by the speakers that had been chosen. I follow Amos Wekesa on Facebook and I am a big fan of his work. Truth be told, I am mostly a fan of his attitude and outlook on life. It’s not just that he works hard and is providing excellent service in the tourism industry but that he unlike a number of Ugandans is determined to believe in this country. He is also determined to share his knowledge.

Amos Wekesa, MD Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges LTD

Truth be told, I had never heard of Peter Mukiibi until I heard the advert for Red Sofa Sessions but I had heard of Addmaya, the company to which he is a CEO. I was excited. Just incase I had never mentioned this, I have interest in all things Marketing and advertising so I was eager to hear from someone who is not just employed in the industry but actually had the guts to start an organization which is still thriving to this day.

Peter Mukiibi, CEO Addmaya

To tell you about the awesomeness of my first Red Sofa Sessions would require a whole different blogpost, so I won’t. I will tell you what my take aways were:

• First of all, it is not a bunch of Christians trying to come off as cool. Hehehe…forgive me guys. They were/are cool but that’s not even what it is about . As Ronnie Habasa the main host of the night and co- vision bearer explained that night, it was birthed out of a desire to see more Christians who had “made it” in the areas of business and wanting them to share their stories for the rest of us to learn from.
• Maybe I am getting old but I think I am now more interested in the kind of music that was at Red Sofa. I mean the unplugged sort of feeling with Abaasa, Solome and Noisey all doing a great job. I am more interested in intimate performances.
• Some things simply take time and that is okay. If you follow Amos Wekesa, you’ve probably read or heard the story of his journey. How he did not just wake up and  was a very successful business man. It took learning, growing , believing and most of all time. Peter Mukiibi shared about his anxiety and how he wanted to make his company bigger until his father shared with him this little nugget “Companies do not start small because there’s anything wrong with them, companies start small because that is the place to start”
• Cash flow is key. Live within your means and allow yourself to grow into the lifestyle you want. Do not be eager to purchase things like cars or start construction of houses before you are in a place where you can from your profits afford to pay for those things. Grow the business. First grow your money.
• Ronnie Habasa is an excellent host
• Diana Habasa is an excellent decorator, that Red Sofa set was beautiful
• Yes they are married 🙂

Ronnie Habasa ,main host of the night

Thank you Red Sofa Sessions team for a Friday evening so exquisite, onwards and upwards.

Last Sunday, Worship Harvest Ministries celebrated eleven years!!! Eleven years!!! I didn’t even know they existed until about two years ago. Imagine that! Anyway, I have been fellowshipping with Worship Harvest since mid last year. I hadn’t been to Sunday service in a while and I missed it. To cut a long story short, I asked God where I should go and the best way I can describe the answer is it felt like a drop in my Spirit “How about Worship Harvest?” So I looked them up, found out where they met and sent a Facebook message asking what time the service (a.k.a Garage) was.

Happy People

This church, this movement, this ministry, this group of crazily loved people captured my heart for a number of reasons. However top on my list is the number of times I hear the words love and grace. If there was a motto, I believe that would be it. Worship Harvest exudes love and grace. To borrow the words of Migisha Boyd “It’s like these people have discovered something exciting and they are eager to share it, and I have found that thing to be the love of God and that I am going to experience His goodness right here, right now”

I was emotional on Sunday. I was emotional before even the preacher started on the message, which was beautiful by the way. It was the stories. You see, the whole week leading up to the Sunday celebration, a number of people had been sharing their worship harvest stories on Facebook using the hashtags #MyWorshipHarvestStory and #WorshipHarvest11th. I have read some, I still have others to go through. One thing seemed to be consistent, people felt loved. On top of that, God seemed understandable. His truths were not any less astounding but they were presented in a way that even I, not a pastor I, never been to bible school I, could walk out of a Sunday service mind blown mostly because I understood the stuff! It was amazing!

Yes, we had cake

All in all, last month ended on a good note and this month started on an even better now! Let’s go out and conquer!