Old Stuff.

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