Hayden and I have just returned from our very first mission trip together. We share a desire to keep our comfortable and fortunate lives in perspective. We also desire as a family to experience and share God's great love for the world He created. These hopes and prayers brought us to Uganda and we just spent a wonderful, whirlwind week there. The littles stayed home and had a blast with their grandparents, cousins, and friends.
Here's the background:
We went to visit a Ugandan church-based ministry that serves children and orphans in a small, off-the-beaten path village. I'd call this ministry "grass-roots" and God driven! It is small, but growing as it is enabled. It was started by a few people here in town that visited and saw a need, and they made themselves available. They shared their passion with others who sponsored, went, and continued to spread the word.
We went with a team comprised of people from our church and from other churches in our community, many of us who sponsor children there. Sponsored children are mostly orphans, but not always, but they are all in great need of opportunities, love, and nurturing. Sponsorship allows them to go to school (because often the greatest obstacle to overcome in them receiving an education is simply the cost of a uniform, school fees, and a few basic supplies). Sponsorship also means a place to sleep, food to eat, and a safe place to live where someone is looking after them and where they have a family. It doesn't look just like our families, but they are valued and they belong to a community. They are also given a greater purpose and hope learning that their Heavenly Father loves them and values them and offers them new life with eternal hope and significance.
Since 2007, this ministry has built a school and two orphan homes, started a piggery, dug several water wells, and has laid the foundation for a medical clinic. The support from sponsors and donors here in the States has built upon what the Ugandan church community there was already trying to do with limited resources: to care for the orphans. Before, the orphans were continually flocking to the church for help, sleeping on the floor with no where else to go. Now, they have a way to care for them!
We have struggled with how to process what we experienced in such an emotional, beautiful, and challenging week. It is very difficult to put our feelings and thoughts into words. We are also still praying and talking about how to respond, but in the midst of that, we still want to share the amazing experience with our family and friends. A sweet friend was kind enough to listen to the three hour version of our trip, but I will try condense this version, just sharing some of the most meaningful moments.
"So, what was the best part about your trip?" That's a question we have been asked a few times and that's the only easy question! Meeting our sponsor kids was hands down the best part. We have been sponsoring Godfrey for a couple of years. We have prayed for this child many, many times at the dinner table. We've seen him grow in his pictures! We have sent him letters and gifts, but to meet this precious child, to hear his voice, to hug him, and to tell him that we love him was more than worth the cost and effort of traveling half-way across the world. We tend to see things in dollars and cents. "Should we really spend the money to go across the world on a mission trip?" "Wouldn't the money be better utilized, just giving to a good cause?" That question was also answered. There are some things that have more significance than can be measured from an earthly perspective.
A few special memories about Godfrey. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I was walking by a group of children and saw Godfrey standing next to a tree. I recognized him immediately from his picture and knelt down to his eye level and asked "What's your name?" (He did not know we were coming!) "Mugisa, Godfrey", he said. "We are your sponsor parents!," I cried, barely able to contain myself. We all hugged and all he said over and over was "thank you, thank you." We were headed to the church service, but he followed along behind curiously and tentatively with his friends.
Later, we had more time to connect with him. He is soft-spoken, gentle-natured, and affectionate with his friends. He is polite and thankful. When we gave him the few gifts we brought for him, he just whispered "thank you, thank you." He was especially excited about the one small orange matchbox car that we brought for him. I imagine he has never had a toy before. We looked at pictures of our family that we had brought for him to keep and he learned the names of our children. In his gifts, we included a couple small packages of fruit snacks which he proceeded to share generously with all the children that surrounded him. (On a side note, all of the orphans, even the littlest ones did this, again and again, without hesitation, sharing everything, often only leaving themselves with the tiniest nibble of a treat! So amazing and so very humbling.)
One of the days there, we were able to have Godfrey join us for lunch with a translator so we could get to know him more. Godfrey is an orphan who has lost both of his parents, but he lives with an auntie off of the campus a few miles away. When we asked him if there is anything he needed that we might be able to provide, his request was so simple, and once again, so humbling. He shared that he would like to have his own bedroll mattress, sheets, and a blanket. He asked for nothing else. He was very sad when we had to leave and so were and are we. It was, nonetheless, a great joy and blessing to get to know him and we are confident we will meet again.
To be continued....
