Day 7: Not here by coincidence

After our day of ministry at Amazima, we left Jinja and drove back to Kampala so that we could catch our flight to Kenya later Sunday afternoon. We packed up that evening, and then were able to enjoy dinner with Pastor Samuel of Return Ministries, the church where we were to go the next morning. Before our dinner came, Pastor Samuel gave us a"mini-sermon." I kid you not the first words out of his mouth were, "You are not on this trip by coincidence; God has brought you here for a reason." Prophetic, much? It's truly amazing how God uses everything around us; our circumstances, people we meet, things we see, things we hear, and conversations we have, to reach down and assure our easily distracted minds and easily discouraged hearts that He is still there, working out all the details.

Lately, I have been feeling so overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems the fatherless and impoverished face, overwhelmed with the different avenues I could take to try to help, and overwhelmed with uncertainty about when and where to take drastic action. However, reading back over my journal, and remembering once more Pastor Samuel's words, I am reminded that God is a good God, who is concerned with details; He will never leave me hanging. What's more, God never called me to "save the world" all by myself. Quite the opposite, in fact. He himself, through Jesus, saved the world. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross paid it all. Every. single. last. thing. Your slate and my slate, wiped completely clean. That's what matters…that Jesus already saved the day, not that I have to figure out how to save a fallen world. This realization has led me to run faster towards God, to lean on Him for strength when I feel overwhelmed, and to understand that if I am running after Him, He'll use me in His plan to help the fatherless.

Oh, and Pastor Samuel's sweet kiddos, Israel and Pall, joined us for dinner! Israel had abundant energy, and Pall is probably the cutest chubbster in all of Africa!

Israel

Pall

So, anyways, back to Sunday at church, day 7 of our Africa journey. We woke up on Sunday morning, loaded up the bus, and headed to church. We showed up to a house with two large tents set up in the backyard; welcome to Ugandan church. No flashy buildings, comfy pews, fancy music, just God and His children worshipping Him. Not to say that having nice buildings or a band for church are bad in and of themselves, it's just that there are so many less distractions without them.

The congregation at Return sang praises to God like you wouldn't believe! I felt so convicted about my own worship at church in America; how could I be so lackadaisical about worshipping the God of the universe? Why did I so often feel embarrassed to raise up my hands in the middle of a song? Why was I always making sure my "not so trained" voice wasn't too loud in case it hurt other people's ears? When the people in Africa worship, it's just them and their Creator God. No one and nothing else matters. I have tried to put a little bit of this mindset into my worship since I've been back in the states, and I've loved it! What a liberating feeling to just pour out praise to God as if no one is listening or watching!

After Pastor Samuel's sermon, we fellowshipped with the people for a while and then Pastor Samuel's wife Sara made us a delicious snack, before we had to leave for the airport. We were also able to shop at the Return "market," because of which I was able to fulfill my dream of owning an "African-style" bag.

Ok, so before we went on the trip, I had been praying that God would stretch me and take me out of my comfort zone. On the bus, on the way to the airport from church, God definitely came through on that prayer! I am not exactly the most patient person in the world, in fact, that might just be the understatement of the year…I HATE to wait and I HATE to be late. Well, on the way, we got stuck in a MASSIVE traffic jam. We were sitting in traffic for what felt like 6 hours! We almost missed our flight to Addis Ababa, our connecting point for the flight to Kenya. However, God totally took care of us. There was a sweet, angel of a man at the airline desk who let us basically cut everyone in line and waived quite a few charges on over-weight luggage so that we could make the flight. Remember my point earlier about God being in the details? He definitely showed me yet another time on day 7 that He is in control. Oh, and in addition to fulfilling my dream of owning an African bag, I got to fulfill my dream of running through the airport like they do in the movies. (It's a weird dream I know, but, hey).

After Day 7, Phase 1 of the trip was complete…to Kenya we went!

Day 6: "Jesus Super Hero" Day

Team member and adopted mother of our room, Jenny Clark, told us the morning of day 6 that we were going to visit her "Jesus Super Hero" Katie Davis. Though I have never dubbed Katie my Jesus Super Hero, she truly is one. The only reason I was even on this trip to Africa was her blog, which helped me connect with Visiting Orphans. Katie is a young woman of God, who has selflessly stepped out in faith, taking seriously Jesus' words to care for the less fortunate. She started and runs Amazima ministry. Check out their website, here.

On Saturdays, Katie runs a feeding program for a whole host of hungry mouths, and we were fortunate enough to visit Amazima on a Saturday to see all of this take place.

[Just a small aside...a lot of the pics I'm using are from my team member Jenny...she captured the beauty of Africa much better than my little camera could...thanks for being awesome Jenny!]

We began our time at Amazima with worship, led by Raul. Hewas sooo good with the kids. First, we had songs, then Raul taught a lesson on the Good Samaritan.

Probably one of the most heart warming things I have ever seen happened later in the afternoon because of Raul's lesson. After all of the kids had gotten their food, some other kids who weren't a part of the program came to the fence, begging for food. These kids from Amazima went over to the fence, and started sharing the food they had just received! So, so sweet!

I spent a lot of day 6 trying to listen for God's voice. Though God had been working on my heart since we got to Uganda, when Katie told us her story, that's when He really hit me hard. Katie sat down with us and told us her story, basically how she found herself a mother of 13 living in Uganda, running a non-profit organization at such a young age. There is no way anyone could listen to her story and not feel God tugging on their heart. God's work through Katie is astounding. I felt and still do feel so inspired by Katie, but more importantly by God's story that Katie has chosen to take a role in.

That day, questions were mulling about in my head like: "Well, why can't I go?"; "Should I just up and leave after high school to serve overseas like Katie did?"; "God, do you want me here?" I actually had a hard time engaging whole-heartedly with the kids, because I just couldn't focus. I felt God prodding on my heart, and I was so confused. Don't get me wrong, I had a great day with the kids at Amazima, but for a while during the afternoon I was just walking around trying to conceal the tears that kept slowly creeping down my face. God was moving my heart in such a profound way, and I was so overwhelmed thinking about the possibility of living a life like Katie's. What would that look like for me? How would it feel to give up my family, my boyfriend, the comfort of security and safety? Did I feel this way for the right reasons, or was I just trying to copy Katie's life? Even after being home for over a month, I still haven't quite answered these questions. I do know that God has given me a heart for missions, and specifically for orphans. I do know that in the future whether that be in one year, five years, ten years, I will do something to reach out to orphans. I might live in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America. I might support orphans state-side. I might adopt, but for right now, I'll wait on the Lord. I'll pray for discernment, and I'll share His love with the people He's put in my life at this moment.

Day 5: Reality check

On our second day in Jinja, we went to visit the Karamojong tribe. I knew a little bit about this group of people through reading Katie Davis' blog "The Journey," so I was really excited to go to this community. Before we actually went to any of the communities, we sat down in a small church to listen to Pastor Andrew, whose church is responsible for a lot of outreach programs in the community. He shared his testimony and also his vision for the church and its outreach programs. I was/am so inspired by his love and commitment to helping those among the Karamojongs. Many of the women are widowed, single, HIV+ mothers, who struggle to make a living for themselves and their families.

Since there are three "neighborhoods" that the Karamojongs live in, our group split up intosmall groups of about 8. With arms covered in silly bands, we walked across a busy Ugandan street, and made our way to meet the women.

They were SO incredibly excited to see us!

The night before we went to the Karamojongs, we had put together friendship-making bracelet kits, so that we could teach the women how to make them, and then they in turn could sell the bracelets for some extra income. But before we began showing them how to make the bracelets, Jackie, a woman who works with Pastor Andrew's church, informed us that the women were expecting us to preach. Preach?? We weren't prepared for that! but God will always equip us to share His love, so two of the members of our team "manned-up" and began to share with the women. It was amazing how God used Jenny and Rebecca's courage in such a mighty way. Both of them have strangely relatable stories about single-motherhood. With two perspectives, one from a single mother and one from the child of a single mother, our team was able to connect with the Karamojong women in a really profound way.

Jenny Mo, preachin' it up!

After the "sermons," which the women commented were "good, but short" we brought out all of our bracelet stuff. Having made a lot of bracelets in my time on this earth, I was feeling pretty good about teaching the women how to make a few basic designs. God gave me a healthy dose of humility though, because I had quite a difficult time explaining with the language barrier. Still, the ingenuity and hardworking spirit of the women was so apparent on their faces. Within about five minutes, they had figured out a way to secure the bracelets on their toes! It was also so fun to see the camaraderie amongst them; they continually showed each other the different steps of the process.

After awhile of bracelet making, we brought our cameras, and the women went nuts! They kept shouting for a "snap" aka pictures. Then, they walked us all the way out to the street and hugged us for about 5 minutes straight. Their enthusiasm was so touching, but convicting as well. At home, I am often in a bad mood because of hunger or tiredness, but these women smile and laugh with so many more worries than that!

For the second part of our day, we played with some of the kids from the community after they got home from school. We decided balloons would be good for a group so large, although we had to blow up a TON of balloons at a dizzying rate. Everything seemed to be going well, I was tossing some of the kid's balloons high up into the air, but then I faintly heard a ruckus in the corner of the field. This little boy was keeled over with his balloon tucked close to his belly, screaming and crying, because another little boy was trying to pry the balloon out from under him. It broke my heart to watch these boys struggle over something as simple as a balloon.

Africa, in general, really put things in perspective for me. I place so much of my value in possessions, when really all the things of this world will fade. What's more, I'm not even thankful for the abundant blessings God has given me. I take so much for granted, while kids half way across the world fight over a plastic, unblown-up balloon. Wow. Reality check!

Day 4: Please don't make me let go

Oh, day 4, the first day in Jinja, the day of our visit at Pillars of Hope, the day four crazy ladies hopped of the bus to greet 100 enthusiastic Pillar's kids, the day I met Rose...

I'm not really sure how to begin this post, because I really just want to put a little aside about my sweet little friend Rose, first. I suppose chronological order is probably much easier to understand, though, so without further ado...

Day 4 Pt. 1

For days 1-3, we had been staying in Kampala, which is about 2 hours away from the Pillars location in Jinja, so on the morning of day 4 we hopped on our bus and made ourway to Jinja. Since we still had our luggage in tow, most of the group had to go to our hotel to unload, but we didn't want to keep the kids waiting, so a lucky four of us got to stay at Pillars of Hope while the others unloaded at King Fisher. Though I am sometimes sarcastic, I definitely didn't mean the previous statement to come across that way. We were really the lucky four to get off the bus with those kids.

Seriously, have you ever gotten this kind of greeting from kids in America???

The Lucky 4

As we got off of the bus, tons of kids came screaming and running and reaching out for my hands. I loved every minute of it! In fact, that's one of the things I miss the most about Africa: the kids holding on to my arms, hands, and legs. The director of Pillars, Godfrey, was able to pry us away from the kids for a few short moments to tell us about their ministry. I was so inspired by this man of God who has such vision! Godfrey really wants to build a rehab center that will help the kids permanently reform their old street habits.

As soon as Godfrey was finished talking to us, we went outside to play games with the kids. A few American games like Simon Says quickly gave way to Ugandan games, which were so fun to learn. The kids thought it was hilarious when we tried to sing/chant some of the songs in their language.

While we were playing games in a large group, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a shy and quiet little girl standing amongst a group of kids about twice her size.

I went over to her and couldn't help but pick her up! She didn't even really smile for much of the time I held her, though I did manage to get a few smiles and giggles out of her after awhile. She wrapped her arm around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder and never seemed to want to be put down.

Dear me, I was ready to pack her up and bring her home with me!

Ugh...this picture just makes my heart ache. Precious Rose, I could have held you in my arms for our entire two week stay in Africa without once wanting to put you down. I wish your sweet little head was still resting on my shoulder, that I could embrace your small body in one more warm hug, that I could replace your tattered dress with a whole wardrobe of clean, un-ripped clothes, that your beautiful smile would sheepishly appear once more. I pray that you feel the unfailing love of Jesus, today, and every day for the rest of your life. Know that you were created so specially by Him, and He loves you know matter what!

Notice in the picture above, Rose's torn dress. Well, thanks to the hard work of those involved in a few pre-trip sewing parties, we were able to give each girl a new dress, each boy a new shirt and hat, and all of the kids got a new pair of flip-flops! I am so glad that Rose, and all the kids for that matter, are able to have something to remember from our team. Also, I am so thankful that God was able to use our team to meet a basic need for these kids!

Day 4 Pt. 2

I'll just be honest, I was really emotionally drained after leaving Pillars of Hope. I broke down crying on the bus, because Rose had stolen a piece of my heart away. We all know that it always hurts when pieces of your heart are left in places where you're not.

My sadness aside, God, who always delivers when we're doing His work, refreshed my spirit enough so that I was functional at our next ministry, Amani Baby Cottage.

We got a tour of the complex, then were able to choose which age we wanted to go play with. I hung around in a "grove-like" area with a bunch of toddlers. They were so funny. One little boy named Jonah insisted on painting my fingernails with a yellow crayon! The whole time we were out in the grove, all you heard was "Auntie! Auntie!" because that's what the kids in Uganda/Kenya call adults.

I also spent a lot of time with this little sweetie, Jemima.

After spending a couple of hours at Amani, we headed to our hotel in Jinja, King Fisher. After killing some huge-mongus spiders and a mammoth cockroach (well, ok, I didn't kill them, but I watched!!), I was able to rest soundly after a really emotional day.

Day 3: Our God is Greater

My journal entry for day 3 in Uganda begins, "Wow, what a whirlwind day!" We began themorning early and made our way to "M" (in order to protect the interests of the organization we visited with, I will refer to our day 3 ministry site as "M").

Almost as soon as we arrived, a leader from Sixty Feet, an organization that ministers to the kids at "M", gathered up the large group of kids and began leading worship. As I listened to this group of children pour out their hearts in praise to God, raising their hands in worship, I literally got the chills. Tears poured down my cheeks as I continued to listen to sweet, small voices call out praise to their Almighty Father God. As I looked around the room, many of my team members had the same awed expression and the same alligator tears welling up in their eyes.

.

After worship, a couple of the kids got up to tell us about how much Sixty Feet as done for them. It was so awesome to hear the testimonies of how God is working through the staff at Sixty Feet! The men and women who work for Sixty Feet have made such an impact on so many lives.

Then, we initiated a healthy dose of t-shirt making mayhem with hundreds of t-shirts and some good 'ol fabric paint. I'm not sure if you've ever seen 200 Ugandan kids loose in one dining hall scrambling for shirts and paint, but it was crazy, and oh so fun! They absolutely LOVED getting to create something with their name on it. It also really made my heart smile when they asked me to write "I love Jesus" and "Jesus loves me" repeatedly all over their shirts. I was morethan happy to oblige them; after all, any reminder of Jesus' unfailing love is monumental.

.

After t-shirt making, we all went outside in a couple of the giant fields the complex had. We had brought things like bubbles, jump ropes, soccer balls, and chalk. I spent a lot of my time playing in the bubbles with some of the smaller kids and drawing chalk with them. When some of the smaller boys were too small to reach the bubbles, I lifted them up to pop the ones that were out of reach. Check out the joy on this little guy's face...

I also became the "tickle-monster" for about a half hour, chasing my little buddy Addi around. He had the most contagious laughter!

After playing with the kids for awhile, we had to leave. Sad day. We headed back to Namirembe to grab a quick lunch, and then from there we drove to Rebecca Sorenson's school Royal Hope Academy. We were enthusiastically greeted with a song, shouts, drums, and claps.

The choir got up to sing and dance for us. They had such beautiful voices! After the "show," we just hung out with the kids. I think at one point I had about six kiddos fighting for my arms and hands. Some eventually just had to settle for my legs! Rebecca had invited us to come over for dinner at her house, dubbed "My Father's House" because her house has become home to a number of orphans. It was really hard to leave, especially since a lot of the kids crowded around our bus and even tried to get on the bus with us! Once we arrived at Rebecca's, we were treated to a delicious (candlelit, because of a power outage) dinner and great fellowship with the team.

Since I've been home, I have been able to process a lot more than I could while we were incountry. God has really shown me that He is so much greater than any man-made cultural or social boundaries. His love unites believers all across the nations. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who will happily praise His name through song with us, who will gladly enjoy fellowship over dinner with us, and who will delight in the Father's love with us.

Day 2: Increasing my Shoe Size

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly, God indeed needed to increase my shoe size from day 1 of ministry on this trip. Around church, we throw around phrases like "being the hands and feet of Jesus", but when you think about it, this is no easy task. Jesus calls us to fill some pretty big shoes when we go out to show His love to others. I certainly felt inadequate as wepulled up to our first ministry site. I didn't know if I was going to be able to relate to the kids, if there would be a large language barrier; there were just so many unknowns.

Despite all the emotions and thoughts mulling about in my head, God totally grew my feet. Not only that, but He taught me how to walk in my new shoes. We introduced ourselves to the group of kids at the Remand home, and they reacted enthusiastically with claps and shouts. I loved how the kids were not content with simply knowing our names. They wanted us to tell them all about our jobs, families, likes, and dislikes. I think it must be a culture thing, because every place we went, the kids all wanted more information about us. I definitely got to know the essential facts of each team member's life after hearing them so manytimes! After we introduced ourselves, I got my first taste of Ugandan music, complete with awesome drum accompaniment.

Jenni joins in with the "band"

Despite all of my apprehensions when the day began, God gave me courage to step right out and talk to the kids without a moment of hesitation. As we made "Salvation bracelets" with the kids, explaining different colored beads as they relate to the plan of salvation, something just clicked, and God totally allowed me to connect with the kids from the get-go. The colors of the salvation bracelet are...

Black.......man's sinful heart and rebellion against God

Red..........Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins

White......our "clean slate" before God because of Jesus' death and resurrection

Green......our new, abundant, thriving life in Christ

Yellow.....our eternal home in Heaven with God because of His salvation

Some of the boys with their bracelets

Although we had originally planned on doing organized games with the kids, the afternoon at the Remand home turned into a bunch of random games and spontaneous conversations with them. Between london bridge, balloon tossing, and conversations about life in America I certainly got an abundance of laughs and smiles with God's precious children at this home. (by the way...many of the kids we met had the most BEAUTIFUL smiles...like EVER)

Some balloon toss--definitely a favorite

To everyone who asks about the trip, I usually say "It's crazy how everyone kept thanking us for blessing them, when, in reality, they were blessing us so much more!" At the Remand home, two little girls, Madrid and Justine, began what would turn out to be two full weeks of being blessed. These two sweet friends came running up to me with the biggest grins on their faces. They gingerly held out there hands as if to give me something, and proceeded to show me a pair of hand-made earrings. They were so proud of their creation and wanted nothing more than a silly Mzungu (white person) to wear their jewelry. God's love truly pours out of these kids, even when they don't realize it. They so willingly give up what little they own, just to put a smile on a visitor's face.

Day 1: Is this real life?

Well, friends, after having been home for almost exactly one month, I have finally gotten my act together and am going to begin blogging about our African adventure :) ready to hear a lotabout an awesome, all-powerful, sovereign God??

First, let me begin by saying that I had no idea that God was going to work so mightily in my heart because of this trip. Literally, He has turned my world upside down because of my experiences in Africa. I went on the trip with a "mission-mindset" so to speak, knowing that God was going to use our team to show His love to others, but I had NO CLUE that I was going to experience Him and His love the way I did. With that in mind...

Day 1: Meeting the team/Leavin' on a jet plane

You would think that I would be a little nervous about hopping on a plane half-way across the world with 21 people I barely knew, but strangely, I felt so comfortable and at peace with our team from the moment we all met. Since I'm not exactly the world's most social butterfly, the fact that I felt at ease with all of the women on our team was a total God thing!

Our team in the airport

After repeated shuttle loadings at the hotel (what with 48 bags!! not including carry-ons) and one minor wardrobe change (I put my pants on backwards the morning that we met the whole team; yep, I'm that cool), we arrived at the Dulles airport and then boarded our flight toEthiopia! I feel like a lot of people complain about long flights overseas, but I was seriously in hog heaven. I mean I could watch like 8 movies on the flight over! On the whole 12 hr. flight, I could maybe sleep a total of 30 minutes; I was just so excited to get to Uganda and see what God had planned for our team; I was definitely readyto start sharing His love with sweet African kiddos after all our months of preparation.

Once we arrived in Ethiopia, we hopped on a quick flight to the Entebbe airport in Uganda. There, we met our AWESOME bus driver Abbas, who protected us amidst the INSANE Kampala traffic! Driving into our hotel called Namirembe definitely initiated the culture shock. It was so weird to look outside my window and see things like this...

Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep on the bus ride over to Namirembe, so that I had enough energy to help sort through all of our many donations after we got settled in our rooms. God totally blessed all of our team's preparation before the trip because we had a TON of stuff to bless all of the ministries with. Once we had sorted through the donations, I started crashing and burning, so was very thankful for a (refreshingly? cold) shower, and a bed to crawl into.