I
have been sitting in front of a blank page on my computer for too long this
morning. I am going over and over in my
head what to write down. What will
really impact our friends and family back home?
How could we best paint the picture of life here? How can we truly equip, inspire, and motivate
people to join us and our family in doing life differently? Often we dream together with our friends here
in Uganda about how to do ministry differently.
I love the creativity that our Maker has instilled in us. I love the way he gives ideas and sets new
things in motion within our hearts and within the communities here. But really God is doing the same things He
has always done even before the human race decided to mess everything up. He is creating beauty and light out of
darkness, he is shaping His creation into His own image, and he is restoring
all things to Himself. He is using the
young, the old, and the meek to do these things. This is an old as time thing
we can get excited about.
We
had been praying about what else the Lord was leading us to do in Uganda. And days later we got a call from our friend
Scott telling us to meet him in a slum close to our home. We were introduced to a beautiful woman named
Rabina. She was leading worship in a
small building that was lacking a roof and some walls. There were about 50 children crowded together
in this small space. We started to
notice a lonely chalk board and some old school books lying around. This was a school Rabina had been led to
start a year ago. The slum is called
Namuwongo. Rabina, her husband Jeremiah,
and her 9 children live in this slum.
They decided a year ago that they would drop the little worldly
possessions they had, that they would step out in faith, and they would act as
advocates not only for their own children, but also for the hundreds of
forgotten neighbor kids. They are not a
big NGO with lots of money, they have no administrative or business experience,
they are not teachers. What they have is
better. A passion for the lost and
forgotten next door, a stubbornness that keeps on going even when their friends
told them to stop, and the eager expectation that God is going to show up at
school, in the church, and within their own hearts. They are perfect for the job.
After
speaking with them we knew within minutes that we would be involved. They were about to be vacated from the shack
school, they were running low on volunteers to help teach the kids, they had
zero funds, and they could not provide any food for the kids.
Step
one, we prayed together. We asked God to
guide us and lead us to the exact spot He wanted these children to study
from. Within a few weeks we found a
perfect building (with a good roof!), we negotiated a low price of rent, we had
a meeting with the remaining volunteers, and a week later we started
school.
We
walk into the school in the morning and we are immediately greeted by Rabina
and Jeremiah. Rabina has the strongest bear hug of any woman on earth. She has
taken over the daunting task of cooking for about 60 children and volunteers
every day. Jeremiah is an excellent
English teacher and leader in the school.
We most definitely have to give props to Rose our nursery teacher (the
nursery is the largest class and there is never a shortage of runny noses,
crying, and wandering, little feet.) Mallory, Sydney and I are usually filling
in for the classes that don’t yet have a teacher. I do feel sorry for the class that gets my
math lessons. This new adventure has reignited my hate for fractions and long
division. It has also reignited our love
for clean, healthy kids. We have started
the process of health surveys and home health care services with the families
of the kids. We see how touching them
physically, doing what we can about flu, malaria, and ringworm always leads
into the Gospel and who Jesus is. It’s a
sweet, old, new thing God is doing in this trash heap.
These
messy kids get a heaping amount of posho and beans every day at lunch
time. They have even learned how to wash
their hands with our new hand washing station (thanks to our master builder
Eli!) before they dig in. There is never
a shortage of hands to hold and songs to hear in this little area of
Namuwongo. Even if we are exhausted and
think we cannot bear any more tasks and problems for the day we look around and
see Heaven around us.
It
hasn’t been easy but life never is. It’s
not easy that the raining season is here and half of our kids’ homes have just
been washed away by flooding. It’s not
easy that this doubles the amount of malaria and infection in Namuwongo. It’s not easy that most of the time we have
no clue what to do.
It
is easy to come to the end of our rope and lean on Jesus completely and
fully. This is not a new thing God is
demanding on His people. He has always
desired that we do that. That we depend
and pray so He can work through us.
We
know this is not just a school the Lord has led us to. It’s not just about filling bellies, teaching
math, and stocking the book shelves.
It’s about showing and speaking the Gospel. It’s an entire community that He wishes to
transform and for the old story to be told so that new creations can be made
and hearts can be fully His.
We
haven’t “brought” God to these people.
God has always been in Namuwongo.
That is easy to see. God will
continue to work and create in this place and in His people. We have big dreams of clean drinking water
throughout the community, clean latrines, health care services, the church to set up camp right in the middle of it all, women’s and men’s
small groups, and small business opportunities.
Like all good things, they start with prayer. We invite you to pray and dream with these
people as we see God’s will unfold. We
invite you to get pumped about the fact that God wants to use you to usher in
new things in Uganda and in your home town.
We invite you to hate the lust and pride the world has to offer while
loving God’s people with the power of eternity.
"Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them from their distress. He sent His word and healed them; He rescued them from the pit. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for all humanity." -Psalm 107: 19-21
