I said good-bye this morning to HEAL board of directors in Entebbe. Two of my board advisors, Marti Scudder and Steve Lorenz, are staying with me for 3 more days to have a time of reflection and relaxation.
I don't even know where to begin about our last week. It was so full of wonderful times, discussions, research and visits. One of the most memorable days was the day that we took crocs shoes to the Canaan Children's Home. The kids there were so happy about their new shoes and it was so needed. It was not only a blessing to give the shoes out but it was an even bigger blessing to open the suitcases full of shoes that were donated by various people, churches and organizations. Thank you to everyone for the love outpoured to the children of Uganda. We still have shoes to deliver to Amani Baby Cottage, Ekisa and Our Own Home.
This week reflected the body of Christ working together. The love among the HEAL board of directors for God's people, the many people that have campaigned in the U.S. (and are still campaigning) for crocs shoes and children's vitamins, and the love received and given back and forth from the ugandan people and the american people.
We spent the week looking at all the different orphanages and ministries that our teams have worked with. And we visited several of the villages that I have been researching and working in. The HEAL board visited the Canaan Children's Home, Amani Baby Cottage, Ekisa, Serving His Children, and the villages of Buziika, Bukayo, Nyengo, Masese, Mbale, and Jinja District. We were even able to see a wonderful weaving project that started out as a micro-business near Bujagali.
Our visit to Masese included a short introduction to a weekly bible study that I'll be having with the abandoned women and children, handing out fruit and visiting their sweet, humble homes. The board of directors got to meet sweet Fazirra (the abandoned mom with 6 children in the village that had Shariffe helping with all the chores), and many of my Uganda friends in Masese. We laughed, we cried, we prayed, we loved.
We visited Rafiki just outside Kampala and learned about an existing family model style orphanage. What did we learn? That God has called us here for a specific reason. That an entire community can benefit from the teams that HEAL sends and that the impact of us being on the ground here will reap generational benefits for years to come. Why are we so confident? Because we serve a God that is in full control and because we have decided as a family unit to follow Him, allowing Him to lead us in every step of the journey. We will start small and HE will end BIG.
HIS BEST is yet to come! I'm praising God for HIS people in Uganda and looking forward to continuing this journey!
"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
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