Our bus pulled up and we filed out at Return Ministries and children’s home to see over 200 children seated, singing in their seats. Apparently the audience had arrived so the show began. School was canceled for the two day celebration of our teams coming. They sang some songs for us and danced some African dances for us. (This has been common on our trip. They LOVE to sing and dance for us. It is one of my most favorite things here.) A little girl wandered over to where we were sitting and I scooped her up next to me and held her. Last night I prayed and prayed that God would show me who needed some extra love while we were at Return and he answered. We were attached for the rest of the day. She would wander away for a bit and I would go and find her. I don’t know much about her but I wanted her to know that I was seeking her out, that I loved her and that she was important to me. She is 5 year old Gift and she has a permanent place in my heart.
Return Ministry is wonderful place in Kampala, Uganda. Pastor Samuel and his wife have a home for 15 children and minister to hundreds of children in the area by serving food on weekends as well as teaching them about Jesus. Return Ministries name reflects its vision to help local children return to the Lord.(look up verse) We all start out innocent and from Him. Through the brokenness of the world and the generations before us, our hearts and lives break and it can be difficult to know God and understand His great love. When Pastor Samuel spoke on this subject the night before we met the children he serves, I really felt it in my heart, I could understand myself and the children a little better. We all are orphans at times. I have been hurt, I have been broken, I was an orphan before I knew my Jesus. Since I returned to Him four years ago, His love began to soften me and heal my heart, some of which I never knew needed healing. The process has been slow but tender and exactly what I have needed.
My life, my hurt, my brokenness, though very real, is nowhere near the depth of hurt and damaged to some of these precious childrens souls. I will never understand what some of these children have been through, terrible, awful, and sinful and wicked things, but I am beginning to understand what the healing process might be. Healing looks like many different things. It comes in many different forms. For the children I am meeting, a small part of that healing comes from the bits and pieces of love from they receive from others including myself and the team I am serving with. What an honor, what a responsibility. The joy we bring them, even for a short time, IS joy and it IS love and it DOES help. The more acts of love that they see, that they feel, the more they understand the Father’s love. With those acts of love, the process healing process begins for them, continues for some, and brings them closer to the ultimate love, the love of Christ Jesus.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Amazima
So, after reading about Amazima’s ministry and feeding program for the last year I finally was able to see with my own eyes. Over 300 hundred precious sponsored children from the Jinja area come for the day to hear a bible lesson, worship, eat, and take home rice, beans, and flour for the week. They stay for the majority of the day and play and get loved on by the staff there, or mission teams like us. It was wonderful to see what an impact this ministry is having on the community.
Katie Davis, the executive director, was there and it was great to see her in action:) She was busy busy running around saying hello to the Amazima team, fetching band-aids for child's scrape, scooping up and loving on the few babies there, but I did get to introduce myself (no I didn't faint:) and later in the day she sat down with our team and told us her story and what the plans are for Amazima in the future. For any of you who have read her blog, she is how you would imagine and even more.
While we were there an old women came with a tiny tiny baby. They think he was around 7 months old and weighed around 6 pounds. The beautiful old women, the baby’s grandmother, said the mother had died and she was caring for him but didn’t have a way to feed him. This is not an unusual event, grandparents caring for children who's parents died, or not having a way to feed a child.
Katie disappeared into the house with them for awhile, assessing the situation. When she came out she walked over to Brad, the only other white employee at Amazima, and said with a huge smile, “I have to break the rule.” Although she has very little room at her home and previously agreed not to take in anyone else in for a months time, she couldn’t resist. When Katie left with her girls, the woman and the tiny malnourished baby went with them. She took them into her home to nurse there bodies and souls back to health. She is a humble servant of God, a blessing to her community, and more like Jesus than anyone I have ever met. We could all learn something from her example.
Katie Davis, the executive director, was there and it was great to see her in action:) She was busy busy running around saying hello to the Amazima team, fetching band-aids for child's scrape, scooping up and loving on the few babies there, but I did get to introduce myself (no I didn't faint:) and later in the day she sat down with our team and told us her story and what the plans are for Amazima in the future. For any of you who have read her blog, she is how you would imagine and even more.
While we were there an old women came with a tiny tiny baby. They think he was around 7 months old and weighed around 6 pounds. The beautiful old women, the baby’s grandmother, said the mother had died and she was caring for him but didn’t have a way to feed him. This is not an unusual event, grandparents caring for children who's parents died, or not having a way to feed a child.
Katie disappeared into the house with them for awhile, assessing the situation. When she came out she walked over to Brad, the only other white employee at Amazima, and said with a huge smile, “I have to break the rule.” Although she has very little room at her home and previously agreed not to take in anyone else in for a months time, she couldn’t resist. When Katie left with her girls, the woman and the tiny malnourished baby went with them. She took them into her home to nurse there bodies and souls back to health. She is a humble servant of God, a blessing to her community, and more like Jesus than anyone I have ever met. We could all learn something from her example.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Welcome to Uganda
July 15-2011
Sorry for typos:) I will clean it up when I get home......
Some how after almost two full days of travel and only 3-4 hours of plane sleeping, I am still awake and feeling up to writing this. Actually, I think I am the last one up in my room right now which, for me, is odd. I can’t help it though, I want to get my thoughts out before the slowly fade and are clouded with new ones tomorrow. What an amazing day. We made it to Cannan’s Children Home in Jinja Uganda with a welcome that made me cry. I have envisioned these precious little African children, just scooping them up in my arms and loving on them, for so long now that my heart almost couldn’t take the emotion of the dream come true. The children all ran out and greeted us at our bus and started grabbing our hands, touching our skin. My eyes filled up with tears and I tried to fight them but I couldn’t. One girl, maybe about 15 years old, looked me in the eye and asked me why I was crying. With all I had in me, fighting through the tears to talk, I looked her strait in the eye and said, “I have been waiting a really long time to meet you and I am really excited to see you and be hear right now.” She was satisfied with that and we began to unload the bus spending the next two hours bonding with the children. Some how I thought I would have to seek out a few little ones but they found me. I spend most the evening with a young girl, the one from the bus, and a four year old little boy that I picked up along the way. We just talked and hugged and, let me tell you, the are just hungry for love. These children want to be close and touching as much as possible and it was so wonderful and beautiful and I think I am in love...... Africans, Ugandans, are beautiful. From their skin to their smiles and their bright white eyes, but mostly their spirits. They are so joyful and that alone is inspiring. It was a magnificent first day.
Sorry for typos:) I will clean it up when I get home......
Some how after almost two full days of travel and only 3-4 hours of plane sleeping, I am still awake and feeling up to writing this. Actually, I think I am the last one up in my room right now which, for me, is odd. I can’t help it though, I want to get my thoughts out before the slowly fade and are clouded with new ones tomorrow. What an amazing day. We made it to Cannan’s Children Home in Jinja Uganda with a welcome that made me cry. I have envisioned these precious little African children, just scooping them up in my arms and loving on them, for so long now that my heart almost couldn’t take the emotion of the dream come true. The children all ran out and greeted us at our bus and started grabbing our hands, touching our skin. My eyes filled up with tears and I tried to fight them but I couldn’t. One girl, maybe about 15 years old, looked me in the eye and asked me why I was crying. With all I had in me, fighting through the tears to talk, I looked her strait in the eye and said, “I have been waiting a really long time to meet you and I am really excited to see you and be hear right now.” She was satisfied with that and we began to unload the bus spending the next two hours bonding with the children. Some how I thought I would have to seek out a few little ones but they found me. I spend most the evening with a young girl, the one from the bus, and a four year old little boy that I picked up along the way. We just talked and hugged and, let me tell you, the are just hungry for love. These children want to be close and touching as much as possible and it was so wonderful and beautiful and I think I am in love...... Africans, Ugandans, are beautiful. From their skin to their smiles and their bright white eyes, but mostly their spirits. They are so joyful and that alone is inspiring. It was a magnificent first day.
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