UGANDA

^“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

I have been home from Uganda for a little over three weeks now. As soon as I stepped off the plane life got a little crazy. The first week I was home felt like a fog. I got home at 2pm and left at 4pm to go on my family vacation to the beach for the weekend. I had traveled for over 30 hours but was running on adrenaline to be able to spend some time with my family.

Since then life has seemed to move into full speed of preparing for the fall schedule, but every now and then, I get to sit still and remember Uganda. Africa is a continent that stole my heart a long time ago. When I was in college, I got to spend a summer in Kenya and the best way I know to describe it, was I felt fully alive. That is pretty similar to what I experienced in Uganda.

In December, two high school girls approached me and asked me if I would take them to Africa. Although, I loved their passion, I was certain that it was not possible. When I thought about going to Africa again, my heart skipped a beat, however I knew that one more trip would be hard to do with the already busy summer I had. After talking to my husband, my boss, and the girl’s parents, miraculously everyone agreed! So the planning began.

As soon as we stepped on the plane to Uganda, I was already hit with culture shock. We were about to be on a plane for 12 hours, leaving my husband, my dog, and all things that felt safe and familiar. When I decided to take these girls, I knew they were young but I also knew these girls have to be the sweetest girls around. When I got of the plane the sense of responsibility hit me like a rock. I was the one these girls would be looking to.  I was the one who had to protect them. I am only a girl that does not know any self-defense. What in the world am I thinking?

When we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda Bob and Carolyn Jacobson were there to greet us. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing these people are. Carolyn had been sick with malaria for the last two days. Malaria makes you feel like you are going to die, but with proper medicine you can heal fairly quickly.  Even though Carolyn was sick and felt terrible, she still drove 3 hours on a bumpy car ride, that you are afraid for your life most of the time, to make sure we were ok. Not only was she caring for us, but her phone was ringing with information about her pregnancy center that she runs. She probably handled 3 or 4 major crisis situations with ease on the car ride while she was sick and felt like death. These people are saints.

The pregnancy center is a beautiful place. Bob and Carolyn worked in an orphanage for eight years and now Carolyn runs a pregnancy center to keep mommas and their babies together, and bob works with students who have graduated from the orphanage to help them get adjusted to life in the real word. The pregnancy center has over 80 women who come once a week to Carolyn’s class. She has two beautiful Ugandan women working with her, Sarah and Rachel. These women help her weigh the babies, take the temperatures, teach them about basic health care and send the women with a bag of food that should last them the entire week.  I am serious when I say that every time we turned around there was a new person at the door with a need that could easily be met by American standards, but they seemed desperate.

Bob’s ministry enabled us to work with older students who had been impacted by Young Life.  We got to go to a Young Life club and campaigners. A young life club in Uganda is like a big talent show with a talk about Jesus at the end. It was one of the best things I have seen in a while. These people are so talented and have a passion for Jesus!

One of the Young Life leaders was connected with a local radio station. He invited us to be his guest for his two-hour segment that week. So, yes, we were on the Radio. This has to be one of the funnier things I have done in life. On the radio, we talked how to love Jesus as a teenager and how adults need to be invested in the lives of the younger generation. I am confident that we probably talked too fast and talked about things that don’t cross cultural barriers. But it felt like a platform where Jesus could be proclaimed, and something that we will never forget. I love how Jesus allows you to do crazy cool things not because you deserve it, just because he loves you.

The second week we were there, we spent at Good Shepard’s Fold orphanage. This place is beautiful. The land it is built on is in the rift valley of the Nile so it is very green. The teachers and the house moms might not know it but they are the hands and feet of Jesus. I have never seen a classroom so packed (50 students, and that is a small classroom) of kids who wanted to learn so badly and moms that live with 8-13 kids and do everything a normal mom would do for these kids.

There are so many memories that stand out to me from this trip, from sweet conversations I got to have with the high school girls, to funny interactions with a nurse that ended up with us for half of the time, to the hospitals and the slums, to going to church in Jinja. So many small memories that I am flooded with. The only way to describe life in Africa is purposeful. The entire time I felt purposeful. Even if I was holding a child, I knew it mattered. That is how I think God wants us to live every day.

In the quiet moments of my day, I remember the faces of these beautiful children. I remember the missionaries who have sacrificed an easy life in America to serve. I remember the kids who live in the orphanage that might not have a blood family, but they live together as family. I think my job now that I am back in America, where life is easy is to remember.  I don’t have to worry about when I am going to get clean drinking water, worry about Malaria, or what will happen if I get sick. But my responsibility now is to never stop telling people about what I have seen and experienced. To give financially as much as I can, and most of all to Pray.

Lord, I pray for the girls that I took with me to Uganda. I pray that they would be world changers. I pray for the kids that we played with and loved on. I pray that they would know that the God of the universe dearly loves them. I pray for the Young Life volunteers, the women who work with Carolyn, and the house moms at GSF that they would trust you, and that you would provide for their basic needs. I pray for the missionaries that you would give them strong community with each other and provide for them! Jesus, I pray that you would never let me forget these people that you would continue to show me what to do with what I have seen and now know. In Jesus name, amen.