Even This One

At the end of a long day filled with babies, rice and beans, black cherry kool-aid (thanks mom!), 17 year old moms, Big Bizarre supermarket, “mzungu!”, laughter, and Luganda sentence structure floating around in my mind, it's hard to keep myself awake until 10pm so that I can sleep through the night.

My last post was true and honest. Sometimes reality hits me hard and I catch my breath and have to hold the tears back. Sometimes it's good to recognize reality, but I don't let it internalize. We laugh. We laugh!

Life is filled with such wonder here. Life is simple. It's greeting Robert (one of our guards) in the morning in four different languages (English, Luganda, Swahili, and his tribal language). It's walking down Kisinja Road underneath the poop trees and holding our breath and running as we laugh hysterically when we arrive on the other side. It's being greeted by the boda men that sit at the corner of Kisinja and Oboja each morning and “welcomed back” when we pass them on our way home. It's literally stopping to smell the Morning Glories and the sweet white and yellow flowers that are so potent with fragrance. It's chatting at the coffee bar at The Keep with the girls and laughing as they dance their heart out. It's attempting to speak Luganda and having our friends laugh but love our effort. It's meeting a woman on the street named Mary who is a teacher at a school here, she teaches math and loves Jesus. It is talking to our friend Ruth who owns a shop on Main Street as she calls out to us on our walk to the store. It is the juice man – Adam – as he pours us a cup of delicious juice. It's filled with blessings at each corner, everywhere we look.

I don't want you the be worried that we're drained and depressed here. The reality is, life is hard. But the even truer, stronger reality is, God is good. All the time. It is in Him that we find our strength to live each day, to love each wonderful Ugandan. We're not depressed! Sure, my mind does reel and spin as I try to comprehend and cry out to God on behalf of my dear friends here, but my heart rests in knowing that He knows.

We love these people. We love Sarah, Rachel, and Robina – the Ugandan workers at the Center. We love Claire, Sarah, Joan, Anet, and Prossy – the Ugandans at The Keep. We love Jessica, Magdalene, Jennifer, Shanna, Kate, Sarah, Esther, Alice, Iesha, and the other 35 moms that are in the program at the Center. We even love Ronald – the boda man that every time he passes us yells “KaTIE!” in a high pitched voice!

We laugh with these people! We tickle (the kids!) and dance and skip and sing. We love! Not because they're so wonderful or we're so holy, but because our God loves them. As I was sitting with little Amina today (3-4 months old) I sang the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children”. As I sang, the thought that kept running through my mind was, “even this one, even this one.” As I look into each face, each face, I see His love.

At the end of the day, we are exhausted. Physically our bodies refuse to go further as we've walked many miles. Emotionally our minds can refuse to continue if we allow ourselves the dwell on the events of the day. Spiritually we wonder if we're really doing anything of value here at all. We do appreciate your prayers more than we can express.

However, at the end of the day, we still serve a God who is more faithful as the rising sun. It is in Him that we find our life and our JOY! Joy unspeakable. That comes from God and Him alone. We do want you to be aware of the reality of being here, but we want you to rejoice with us in knowing that God brings joy! The joy of the Lord is our strength. Will you rejoice with us today?

 

This is Adam, he sells juice on a bicycle. :)