I'm Back :)

It has been a long time. Too long. As much as the time away was healing and restful I'm happy to be writing here again. We have a lot of change that has happened in our family, ministry and personally. God has been so good to me and my family, beyond what I could have asked. 

*Warning* This will be a long blog so hang in there but let's be real, we have a full year to catch up on!

Starting off with why the year break from blog posts. Truly I needed time to figure out what I wanted this platform to look like now having a family. I stopped blogging right around the time Cosmas and I got married. We had received so much love from our amazing community of people, however, there were also those who judged. There were some people who I really thought were standing with me in ministry but jumped ship with the idea of me being in Uganda only for marriage not ministry. That was a hard season to live through and so far from the truth. I say this to say the space I first created to be a raw and vulnerable place to share about life on the mission field I no longer felt safe to open up or be vulnerable in. I did the unfortunate thing of letting the few small voices speak louder than the many life giving voices. I apologize to all the life giving voices that I didn't give the attention they deserved. 

It's taken much time and prayer to seek God and know what to do. That season was hard. Our financial support dropped and truthfully, it is still not back to what it was. I was on my knees asking God if we are to continue ministry here or do we need to call it quits and move back to America. Even when moving seemed easier, God remained firm in the calling on our life to be here in Uganda. Praise God for being patient when we doubt His plans and even loving us through it. 

It wasn't until recently, I remembered why I started this blog in the first place. When I was entertaining the possibility of becoming a missionary all I could find was what felt like filtered content about what “missionary life” looked like. I wanted to be the person for others I so badly was seeking to speak the truth about what life would look like for me if I became a missionary. I didn't want to add to the missionaries that made life harder for others by not sharing family vacations, buying special things, going out to eat, etc. because of fear people would stop giving financially. Missionaries sacrifice so much, it's true. It comes with the calling. However, God didn't call us to hide or suffer by any means. We still seek normalcy in our lives and we need breaks too. A missionary is what God called me to serve as. What career did God call you to serve in? We all have our calling and we are all to be good stewards of our finances. We need more people in the missionary field to not hide but be open and honest about yes, we splurge on things here and there but I can assure you it will not be at the sacrifice of ministry. 

With this reminder God restored my boldness that only comes from Him to continue this blog as the raw and vulnerable space it was originally created to be. So this is us, a normal family serving the Lord with all we have. Now I can’t promise how frequent posts will be because, spoiler alert, our family has grown and that is one of the most exciting things that happened this year. 

Meet Oliver Deo Ouma. Our sweet boy was born on May 12th, 2024. He is the absolute best and has added so much to our family we never knew was missing. There are two things, among many others, I prayed over him everyday from the time he was in my tummy until now. One, that Oliver will have the strength of the Lord, he will be strong in all he does. Two, that he will be filled with the Joy of the Lord. That Oliver may experience the joy of the Lord but also that he would bring joy to everyone he meets. Time after time after time God has shown His faithfulness in proving this to be true in Oliver's life. His strength is crazy. I mean for real he is really strong and has been able to stand for months now (he's only 5 months). He takes vaccinations like a champ now, praise God for this because his mommy on the other hand, well let's just leave it at that. But let's talk about his joy. My goodness this boy is filled with the Joy of the Lord. He is the happiest little guy filled with so many giggles and smiles from morning to night. He truly brings joy to everyone he meets. I can't tell you the number of people who he smiles at and they tell Cosmas and I how much he loves them but spoiler alert, he does it to everyone. We never tell people that because the truth is he is a testimony of prayer. I love that everyone from friends, family, ministry partners, and even random people at the store leave having experienced the joy of the Lord. It is truly so beautiful to witness. I pray Oliver always holds his strength and joy as a badge of God's faithfulness through prayer over his life. 

Another really exciting thing along with our family growing, our ministry is growing! We have a new ministry partner and have gone from serving about 20 students per year to 80 students per year! It has been such a fun and fast paced year of ministry. We have seen God restore the confidence in so many vulnerable women’s lives. We have heard so many beautiful testimonies of how God has been at work through the classes we teach. Our Partner Ministry has testified that they have never had such a respectful, committed and determined group of girls like this and they credit it to the content we are teaching them. Now that in itself makes me emotional to even write, God is just so good to us. 

There have been so many things that have happened over the past year but these are some of the most exciting. With that there are always difficulties. So here is where the vulnerability I told you about comes out so please be nice to us. First, being a mom on the mission field is stretching to say the least. For the first time since living here I am feeling the weight of living in a third world country. For the past 4.5 years I have sacrificed a lot and I am okay with that. But now having Oliver, seeing him having to sacrifice ALREADY is hard to say the least. My momma heart hurts for him at times. Now truly he doesn't know up from down but I do and that is just something I didn't expect to feel. Community is 100X more important. For one, you want your children to grow up around life giving people but two, sometimes you need a break. It's hard doing ministry full time and being a mom full time. But don't misunderstand me, I wouldn't trade this for the world! I am so so so thankful Oliver can do ministry right alongside us. Blessings are beautiful but they can be hard too, that's just the reality. 

We praise God for our ministry growing and the amount of people we reach but the reality is our finances have not grown at the same pace. That's hard. I can't say this without thanking the people who have generously stood in the gap with one time donations to help us get by but we desperately need more support to be sustainable. While we are on the topic of vulnerability let me be real with you, it is not easy asking for finances all the time. I know some of y'all get tired of us asking but let me just tell you so do we. Sometimes this gets misunderstood like we are always just asking to ask but the reality is when we are asking it is because God has opened up the door to something bigger. It's not to have more, it's because God has opened up more. 

Now as we are wrapping up it's only, well I wanted to say natural but that's not true. Lets say its only right to end on a raw note. We need help. It's not always easy to say that. I never want to come off as always asking for something and sometimes we just don't because well quite frankly not often people ask what we need or how they can help. But this is me being raw and vulnerable. We need help and here's how. 

• We really need to move and have been praying for this for years. What's holding us back is finances. There are not safe and mold free houses available in our budget. Our current home has serious mold issues, extremely loud neighbors, and recently things have “gone missing” from our balconies. This need has gone on the back burner year after year so that ministry can grow. 

• We need community and partners. This can look like a million different ways. 

  • Praying with and for us regularly (starting a prayer group would be GREAT)

  • Sharing about our ministry with your community/church

  • Hosting dinners with friends to fundraise on our behalf

  • Checking in on us (text/call/email)

• We need a new computer.. My computer died and Cosmas and I are now sharing a computer and with both of us working full time well, you can see how that is not realistic. Both of our responsibilities are falling behind because of this gap. 

• We could always use help with running our ministry in person or from a far. There is A LOT that goes on behind the scenes to run our ministry and even more things we would love to do but don't have the manpower to do it. This is from social media posts, grants, emails, sending out mail, partner relations with supporters, or just someone to bounce ideas off of. 

These are just a few of the areas we need support in. It may look like a lot but please know we have peace God will provide and joy in abundance. Now if you talk to my husband he might tell you we (I) have a breakdown here and there when these things pile up but I assure you God is faithful and these issues of the world will never come close to taking away the peace I find in Jesus. I truly mean that.  I hope this update isn't overwhelming or a cry for help in any way but gives you a glimpse into well, us. We love y’all so much and wouldn't be able to be where we are without you. So thank you for standing with us and if you made it through this long blog post you're the real MVP. We are so grateful for you. 

With much love and many blessings,

Cosmas and Lexi Ouma