Murchison Falls 1

Why hello there my beautiful friends and family. Including today there are exactly 5 days left for me in the wonderful, yet odd country of Uganda. This past weekend I finally went on safari and all i can really say is, "wow", the absolute majesty of the Lord is so manifest in all of these fierce and lethal, yet beautiful and gentle creatures.

Before the pics though i think my words would be best shown if i just copy my journal entry from the night before our game drive, enjoy:

In the midst of your creation (well that statement is not really a suprise at
all since i can't go anywhere to escape your presence) here I am in Murchison
falls national park in Uganda w/ no real outside ocntact since my phone doesn't
work here, and in the midst of so many wild animal's homes.

Just on the
way to camp tonight i saw a lot of wild picgs grazing in the camp area
itself.

I am so incredibly excited to see more, even the crocodile I
managed to be about 30-40feet from today on accident really inspired alot of awe
in me as well as fear. I think of William Blake's poem, "Tigre tigre burning
bright, in the darkness of the night..." And it goes on to ask how God could
make something so horrific and dangerous as a tiger.

It's really
beautiful to be reminded of that aspect of our Lord. That fierceness about Him,
that He's definitely not tame or domesticated, He's wild (like He's made me to
be) and He's free, and along w/ His love, His danger and awe inspiring fear is
also to be embraced.

I think that can better describe the fear we think
of when fearing God. It's notthe fear of punishment that guilts us into feeling
bad, but to see His beauty and His danger and His utter unpredictability, and
yet to trust him, to see that and be afraid not because we are scared, but
because we are absolutely overwhelmed w/awe and inspiration and thus fear of
something so incredibly mighty, that is what I think we should feel
instead.

I love how N.T. Wright points out that so many people, and sadly
even so many Christians, think that the Christian God is a "spy in the sky"
waiting for you to screw up, and they really don't nkow the God of Israel who
loves, who forgives, who willingly dies for our sakes.

That is why we
find ourselves so unsuccessful hwen we seek to serve God and we find we cannot
grow, that's because that is a false God. That doesn't match w/ the character of
the God I know. I worship the God of love and awe inspiring fear, and no other.

This picture is of a baby crocodile that i arguably got too close to. But man the amazing feeling I got of placing myself in God's hands like that, I know it's wreckless and stupid, but again that awe inspiring fear and danger is absolutely incredible.


Here's some water buffalo



Here's an elephant that definitely chased our safari van, and put on a "masculine show" of sorts that I don't have pictures of but will definitely get from the other guys



Lastly, here is a massive group of giraffes. I can't possibly describe to you what it felt like to see such majestic creatures. Mark was able to get a video of one running and it was nothing short of breathtaking seeing such a massive animal gallop