Big Gifts

I wrote this about 3 weeks ago but never had a chance to post it, so here it is: 

We have 86 children in our school in Namuwongo this term. Our goal this term was to reach out to the families who already had some of their children in our school, and find out how many children were still left in their households that weren’t going to school and find a way to help their parents be able to provide for them to begin at Doors Primary. 

Every day we are challenged with the adventure of assessing children to determine who is hungry, who has ringworm, who is dehydrated, why does this child have a fever, and what is that rash and you say it’s WHERE? 

A few months back, a friend of ours who owned a clinic heard about our school and graciously told us that from now on we should bring all of our sick babies there and they won’t charge us for service or for medicine. 

To call it a blessing would say the least. They provided free HIV testing for all of our teachers, children, and any parents that were interested. They’ve treated ear infections, diagnosed multiple cases of malaria, put up with screaming children and aunties that faint at the sight of a needle, and have become good friends through and through. 

At five-thirty last night I got a phone call from them that they were closing down. That day. I didn’t know what to think - I had a million thoughts but my two main concerns were what about my friends who work there? what about our children who get sick? 

Then here’s the kicker....

“Mallory, I need you to come to the clinic and bring a truck. Everything is yours. We want to give our entire clinic to Doors.” 

At 9:30 pm I pulled out of the slum having just left the school with some of our boys from home. We had just packed away hospital beds, couches, an entire medical laboratory, enough medicine to last us for months, and a ton of equipment that I have no idea what I would ever do with it. All we need is a doctor, a lab technician, and a bigger space and we would be up and running. 

I’ve seen God do great miracles. I’ve seen Him provide a house for us at an astonishingly great price, I’ve watched children who enjoyed setting things on fire and had bad habits of biting people turn into men of God, I’ve watched a school rise up out of the dust of a dirty slum and become a center of HOPE in that neighborhood, and I could go on and on and on.  

To some degree, those are all things that we’ve had to pay a price for. They cost us something. They required us to lay down more of our lives, more of our fleshly desires, more of our wants; and each time we had to lay ourselves down whether it was a meek whisper or a bold proclamation we would say “Jesus, you are worthy of it all.” 

Never have we received such a BIG physical gift for free. Absolutely free. The four hours when we were packing and moving the clinic I just kept screaming “THIS IS CRAZY!” 

And in those four hours, the truth sank in more than it ever has before and it settled right in my heart that we have a Daddy who is more alive than we ever make Him out to be. 

We have a King who has a plan that we don’t need to know anything about but at times He shares with us, and all He requires is that we walk forward humbly with a heavenly mind letting Him love us. 

It is for His name that He displays His glory. It is for this crazy, reckless, holding-nothing-back love that He asks us to lay everything down to be a city on a hill for him. 

So we say goodbye to our plans, our control, and we yield to our Maker, the perfect Creator, the BEST Giver