A story, a video, and June 7 2011

Before I post the rest of day two from last years trip I wanted to share a few things. Today I went to downtown Buda and talked to Businesses about ichooseyou and the possibility of sponsoring my trip this summer. (Yes, I did all of Buda, the whole street!) Most of the people were nice enough to at least listen with a smile and seem interested whether they actually were or not. A couple people actually seemed excited! However, as one would expect, there was a small handful of people that obviously thought I was completely wasting their time. At first I had to convince myself I wouldn't let it bother me. I had to tell myself it's not personal, they don't know me, they just aren't interested. Then I thought about the kids and the miracles that we witness when we are there. I thought about the joy that fills my heart just imagining those beautiful Ugandan faces staring back at me. I thought about Teko, Scovia and Brandina, my baby girl, and many other wonderful things about Uganda...but then I thought about redemption.
As I sit here now it's almost to overwhelming to type! I have had the highest honor of experiencing redemption and Christs redeeming love. I have had the privilege of sharing that love and testifying of redemption. I have been blessed beyond measure to see physical and spiritual redemption working hand in hand in Uganda just the way the gospel tells us it should be! It occurred to me, as I walked away from a woman that made it clear rather quickly that she wasn't interested, that my brochures and my informational handout may be the closest physical picture of redemption these people have seen in a long time, if ever. It was a lot harder to question why I was spending time talking to people about something they weren't interested in when I thought of the story of redemption they were hearing.
I ate with my dad at our favorite restaurant tonight (Yeah Texican!!!) and I was talking to our waitress, whom we have had for a couple years off and on now, about Uganda. She had so many questions and was really intrigued but she said something that hit me hard. She said, "You hear about the need and think that someone else is taking care of it but it's cool to see someone actually getting up and going." I couldn't help but smile and say yeah it is cool! It's cool because God got up and came here. Jesus went way out of his comfort zone on a mission trip. It was a long term mission trip, it took him a very long time to get here (9 months to be exact), it was extremely costly, and it resulted in death. Thankfully it didn't end there! Jesus took his mission trip to another level, or as a friend of mine likes to say "He took it too far" and conquered the grave! Jesus rose from the dead and gave us all redemption. He achieved the ultimate stereotypical missionary goal to save the world! :-) It was a nice reminder of why I am doing this. I'm not doing this because I am in love with the Ugandan people, even though it's true, or because I think it's a good cause, which it is, but because there is a story of redemption that needs to be told!!! I hope and pray that I never lose sight of that.

On another note, I wanted to share the ichooseyou video with you! It always fills my heart with joy, I hope it fills yours as well!

The song at the end is Runaway by Mat Kearney and I just love the lyrics in the chorus

"Nobody knows the trouble we've seen
Nobody knows the price of this dream
And nobody knows what it took to believe
Nobody...

She wants to be free, like a runaway ay ay ay
Trying to believe, gonna find a way ay ay ay ay
We got just one life, tonight we're running all the lights
Trying to break free, like a runaway ay ay ay ay ay"

And now the moment we have all been waiting for...

Here are the posts from June 7 2011:

June 7 2011

Wow continued…

After we left Namatala we went to Mama Aidas house for lunch. Pastor Moris and Mama Aida have been blessed and live in a real house, just like you would imagine a regular middle class American living in. That is very rare around here. Most people live in huts or what look like shacks. Anyways we had lunch at Aida’s house and then came back to our hotel for a rest. After that we went to the sewing ladies and looked at what they were making and talked to them for a while. I played with one little girl named Joyce for a long time before the rest came home from school. She was so cute! We couldn’t understand each other AT ALL because she doesn’t go to school so she doesn’t know English but boy were we having fun! I was trying to teach her to pound it and she was so Confused. Then one of the girls from Colorado that are working with us told me to say “bonga” so I did and she did it! It was awesome :-) I also taught her some other stuff you will see when I get the chance to post pictures. Then the school kids came home from school and we got to meet them. A family that we have fallen in love with has a little girl named Esther and another girl named Florence. A friend of mine is Esther’s sponsor so I told her hello for her and and took pictures with her and loved on her for a while. Later her mother pulled me aside with tears in her eyes asking me to tell my friend how thankful she is. She would never tell anyone she needs help because she doesn’t want to burden anyone but she is so grateful that God brought her help. It was beautiful. Then the older girl Florence and I talked for a while and she kept telling me I was beautiful! Oh goodness I love that little girl :-) she was so sincere and so sweet. Speaking of beautiful, Florence is BEAUTIFUL! Oh so sweet. Well I don’t have much more to say right now but I’ll write later.

June 7 2011

Short update about today

Where to begin… Well this morning we went to the school and were introduced to each class. You would be amazed at how much they are learning at such a young age! They are so bright. For some reason it made me cry a little. They are thriving in the WORST conditions. Then we went to Namatala to look for a little boy Ted is trying to find. While they were looking for him I looked for my little girl. No one was successful. Then we walked around for a while looking for various people unsuccessfully. We each had at least two kids holding our hands at all times. I had 4 at the end! Then we stopped because we were waiting for Wasawa to come get us and an old woman holding a baby came up and wanted her picture taken. (I told you they LOVE having their picture taken.) I wanted her baby haha so I held the baby for a minute but it had never seen a mzungu before so it cried. Then this baby walked up and gave me the sweetest look so I picked (her I think) up and held her and loved her for a while. She was horribly congested. She sounded awful. You could feel the congestion in her body when she would breathe. I was so upset. I wanted to do something for her so badly but we can’t do it all. There now 20,000 people in Namatala. We just don’t have the money to help every person. Becca, one of the girls from Colorado, had some chewable fun flavored vitamins in her backpack and gave her one. I prayed hard that God would heal her. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, congestion, but when you have nothing, it is. They don’t have a CVS or Walmart to stop by and grab some medicine. And who knows why she was so congested. It really makes you appreciative of what you have. We stopped by the hospital and tried to check on the baby that had surgery twice before he was actually out today. And he has a name! His name is Loru, his moms name is Maureen, and his dads name is Sully. We have really noticed how our driver, Wasawa, has taken initiative with this family. He really cares about this baby and has been such a blessing to them. Tonight we went back to finally see Loru and Wasawa started speaking and pointing and giving orders to put the mosquito net around the baby’s bed. (I couldn’t understand a word, just figured it out when they started putting the mosquito net down.) After that he started talking again (I couldn’t understand again) and when he finished he told us that he told them to call the doctor immediately if they were worried about Loru. It is amazing the love Wasawa has for this child. Beautiful. That’s about it for now I think. OH! sometime between Namatala and the hospital we went to the market. It was…interesting…to say the least. While we were there we looked for baskets for the sewing ladies to put their material, needles, thread, beads, etc. in to store them better. We stopped and looked at some and the lady that was selling them had a TINY baby and let me hold it!!! Oh I was in heaven. I took her and she immediately got comfortable and almost fell asleep. (I shouldn’t be calling the baby a girl. I don’t know if it was a boy or girl. It’s hard to tell around here. I think she was a girl though.) Ok that’s really it for now. God is good, all the time!

God IS good all the time! Amen!!!