Mzungu Mama: May 2013

I had a very hard time leaving home as many of you know. I am so blessed by all of my friends and family that love me so well that saying goodbye was NOT easy. To be honest the first few days here were just as difficult if not worse. There were a couple moments when I wasn't sure what I was doing here or if I was even needed. Praise God that He is faithful and He never leaves us alone. I know that many of you at home are praying for me constantly and I am so thankful for that. My prayer for myself has been that God would reignite a passion in my heart for his work here and that I would be able to see purpose in my being here.

Praise God for his faithfulness! Over the past week I have been shown many glimpses of his purposes for me here and I am being filled with new passion for what The Lord is doing here through ichooseyou ministries. The peace of God really does pass all understanding.

At some point I hope to fill you in on what we have been doing everyday but for now I just have one special day to tell you about.

Yesterday we loaded all of the IChooseYou children onto a bus and we took them to the zoo! The zoo is about 5 hours from Mbale. (6.5 with a bus full of kids that need to go potty!) When we got to Entebbe we went to eat lunch on the beach (which is really lake Victoria) and everyone got chicken and chips (which are really french fries!) The kids LOVED it. After we were done eating the kids got to go look at the beach but they weren't allowed to get in. (Apparently we had to be dry to go to the zoo!) We took group pictures at the beach with all of our IChooseYou children and then we got back on the bus to go to the zoo. When we got to the zoo the children were completely silent! They had been told by mama Aidah that we wouldn't be allowed in the zoo if they were loud. Once we got inside and started seeing animals there was no way to keep them quiet! I have never seen so much joy in one place! Every child was smiling the entire time. My "son" Teko Brian was torn between being by my side and running around with his friends. I gave him my phone to take pictures and he would disappear for a while and then come back to show me what he had done and then disappear again. It was so special for me to get to make that memory with him! After the zoo we took the children by the airport to see the airplanes. That was the first time that most, if not all of our kids had seen a real airplane. After that we went to where all of us were staying for the night. The kids washed up, we had dinner, and then they sang for us. I always love it when the kids sing for us. It is always so beautiful and they sing straight from the heart. Mama Aidah told us the words to one of the songs and explained that ichooseyou has completely changed the lives of all of the children. As she spoke I sat there with Teko Brian in my lap and just held him tight and thanked God for being the wonderful father that he is. I am still in awe that the maker of the universe had all of this planned from before we were even alive. He knew that Brian would be the first child I took a picture with in Namatala that first year, and he knew that I would be his "mama." Thank you Lord! God knew when I was little that a silly name for my first pet was so much more than just a silly name. It was the name of the child God had planned for me to love and care for as my own and send to school through the ministry of ichooseyou. How great is our God?! Once again, the peace of God passes all understanding. I hope to be able to write more soon! Thank you all for your love and support. I'll leave you with a few little treasures from our zoo trip!