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.
No comments:
Post a Comment