The week coming up to Sunday was so-so. That’s all I really need to say about that. I’ve been asking God to kill my worrying. I worry because I don’t know if I truly believe way deep down in my heart that God will continue to bring miracles. I pray for miracles, but I’m not sure that I fully believe in what I’m praying for. I found myself asking God ‘Lord, why don’t I have the faith to believe you are going to provide miracles?’ (p.s. I’m sitting in a miracle right now)
God responded with this “Sometimes the faith to believe in a miracle isn’t just belief, but it’s following God to the point of no return where the only option for victory is for God to overflow and abound with miracles. You follow me no matter where I lead you, that’s believing in a miracle.”
The faith that is needed for a miracle doesn’t come from a happy feeling in your heart, it comes from following. Think about all the people that FOLLOWED, chased after, reached out to, and hollered for Jesus, and the miracles that pursued.
(bleeding woman, dead girl, dead servant)
What some people consider one of the biggest miracles in the Bible is Jesus feeding the 5,000 men. Ok, let me break it down.
- The disciples are worn out, beat down, dirty from traveling, and want to rest in the presence of Jesus.
- Jesus leads them to a crowd of over 5,000 people (THEY FOLLOW)
- Jesus teaches for a long time
- Jesus asks the disciples to perform a miracle
- The disciples hesitate and ask Jesus to do it.
- Jesus scolds a little bit and then GIVES thanks
- Disciples pass out more than enough food.
Some of the bigger miracles not only come when we FOLLOW Jesus, but when we GIVE THANKS for what we have in where He leads us.
Sunday started with a knotty stomach.
Most of the morning I thought I was going to vomit.
Katie had a freakout.
I had a freakout.
We go to church.
In church, every worry I have goes away. We are very late (too many freakouts). Our kids are late too, it works out well.
Slowly one by one they trickle in. I watched as Sam went and shared a seat with Fahad, and Fahad spent most of the sermon playing with Sam and tickling him while Sam sat in Fahad’s lap. At one point, I looked around and only one of our 8 kids was awake.
After church, we gathered the 8. Fahad (12), Fred (11), Sam (7), Bwanika (13), Ivan (15), Edwin (14), Timothy (14), and Richard (14). We told them they were done on the streets. Unspeakable joy. An unexplainable moment.
We took them to lunch. On the way to lunch, I told Sam that he was coming to live with us, TODAY, I have never seen such a smile.
Jja Jja Gina laid down the LAW about saying please and thank you at lunch. Now everything Ivan says is...
“More rice, thank you please.”
“First, you come. Thank you please.”
“Dinner was good. Thank you please.”
...We’re still workin on it.
Then the shopping began.
I don’t know when one of our boys became so spoiled.
It started a couple weeks ago when we gave him toothpaste, and he looked at it and said “I won’t use this.”
To which Katie replied, “What do you mean?” I think both of us were thinking how is a homeless street child going to turn down something free.
“I only use colgate whitening.”
Yeah, that just happened.
Anywho, he threw a fit in Owina market, which is already crowded enough then you have 11 people walking around, trying to stay together and get everyone what they need for school. Hot mess.
He wanted JUNGLE boots. Not just school shoes, Jungle boots.
He wanted us to spend 20,000 more on him, because he wanted ‘swagger.’ That’s an exact quote.
He tried on shoe after shoe (that fit) and turned them down. At this point, every boy has school shoes, except for him.
We got to the point where he had 2 minutes to pick out shoes, or he was going to get any.
He was pouty, he was pissed, he wanted jungle boots.
He didn’t get them.
At this point, Katie and I are both like BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU GET. I don’t know who has been spoiling him, but it’s not us.
All of us sweating, all of us tired, we proceeded to leave the market. We bought an atlas, and then picked up our mattresses and blankets.
A mattress fight broke out in the middle of the road.
We lost the little one for a few minutes. He came running back, scared as all get out that we were going to leave him.
We left for our taxi, extremely thankful for our friend Joseph, who spent the crazy, overwhelming, tiring, loud, busy day helping us.
We piled in a taxi, which isn’t easy with 6 mattresses, 8 kids, 2 adults, and many backpacks.
We got to the house where we are staying, bargained our way out of an expensive taxi ride, then opened the gate to the guest house.
Now this guest house, is just a temporary fix. It’s a straight gift from Jesus.
We have a friend, who recommended a school, which we went to, met Mommy Rabina and within 4 hours this lady who is a cross between Santa and a Mafia Queen was pulling every connecting she has for us. Mommy Rabina also owns many guest houses in Kampala, one of which she offered for us to stay at.
We brought these boys from the streets, to one of the nicest houses in Kampala. They were blown away. We had many talks about good manners, pleases, thank yous, and not breaking anything. We also told them to enjoy it while it lasts, because we would not always be living so extravagantly.
When they were shown their rooms, I have never heard so many thank you’s! And from Ivan, of course it was “Thank you please!”
Some of them have never slept in a bed. Some of them have never taken a real shower.
We brought them their backpacks...full of donated clothes from our last team here, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, vaseline, and everything a little boy could need. For the past two weeks we’d been buying boys underwear at the market. It’s kind of an awkward thing, buying little boys panties in large amounts and then shoving them in your purse. Got a lot of weird looks, but what’s new?
A momentary chaos ensured.
“He got more than me!!”
“No, he didn’t.”
“Where’s my soap? I didn’t get any soap!?”
“Yes you did, it’s right here.”
Then of course, princess...
“You gave me 5 shirts and only three pants - this is too many shirts and not enough pants! You buy me more pants.”
"Princess, shut up and deal with it.”
Haha, that’s not what we said - but I can guarantee you we were both thinking about it. We then had a talk with him, our first mommy talk, about being thankful for what we have.
Soon we heard crying coming from the bathroom. I made it in there first. Little Sam, our youngest, was standing next to the shower, soaking wet, crying. Oh yeah, butt naked. He jumps into my arms, and told me that he fell in the shower. He’d never had a shower before and he didn’t know that it was going to be slippery.
About at this point Katie busts in having heard Sam cry and is declaring “Where’s Sam?” All across the rooms, and then busts in the bathroom to find us sitting there.
Sam then proceeded to make me hold the extendable shower head while he showered.
Edwin was showering next and ever so politely told me that I didn’t need to hold the shower head for him.
I told him good, I wasn’t planning on it.
About an hour later, I came out into the guest house sitting room and there were 8 clean boys snuggled up on a couch with Jja Jja Ken, a newly made friend who is also staying at the guest house. It was a BEAUTIFUL sight for my eyes. As Katie put it, God’s glory in those boys that night was too bright for our eyes. We couldn’t even fully take it all in.
Before dinner, we filled out our school paperwork and all that jazz. When dinner was ready, an argument broke out at the table.
Too many people, wanted to pray.
We held hands, gave many many thanks, and shared our first meal together.
After dinner we went over school rules, we talked about our plan for the next day, and then the boys skyped with some of their sponsors and good friends back home. the boys were in bed at 8:30 p.m. Katie and I were both quite proud of that.
I couldn’t sleep well. The anxious part of me kept expecting to hear someone crying, smell something burning, or wake up and find the house a hot mess.
Monday was a beautiful day.
We had breakfast, watched Harry Potter, skyped with Shannon and Katie.
Mark, David, and Andrew came to help us take the boys to school.
We piled in a taxi, which was quite impressive because there were more things and more people.
We got to the school, and after some minor frustrations, we got the five boys registered, moved in, and prayed over. We said good-bye, which was hard. Harder than I thought it was going to be, even though I am going to see them Friday.
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