A Beautiful Thing

I am sitting on the back patio of the "home" in which we are staying. The voices of children playing games and singing songs is wafting from the school next door to my left. Some awesome African sounding music is playing from the yard to the right. And in front of me beyond the manicured English garden is the breathtaking view of Lake Victoria. Did I mention this place is beautiful in so many ways? Pinch me...I'm in Uganda!

Not that all of today was picture perfect, but it was God-ordained, and therefore AMAZING! With a good 3 or 4 hours' sleep behind us, we headed to Bweya Children Home in Bweya Village to hold Day 1 of a 2 day medical clinic. Our own Kevin and Nichole Rice accompanied a team of doctors and nurses provided to us by the people of Ggaba Community Church. We all had our jobs, some of "triage assessors", some as "receptionists", others as entertainers for the children of the neighboorhood and photographers and socializers. It was a beautiful sight. The Body of Christ, from a world apart, joining together to serve the people of a community with love and using their varied abilities to meet needs.

My first observation was of mothers and babies and children, mostly,  coming for physical help for ailments of various kinds. Though sad in the sense of the physical suffering, it was not an uncoming thing to see in NC. Just change the clothes and some of the skin color and surroundings and it might be what you'd encounter on a normal day, with the exception of the need for HIV and Malaria testing as routine. But when the vanload of children from Airfield School arrived and older children were caring for younger children and sadness wore on many faces and you realized the loneliness and often hopelessness of these precious children, many without parents, it hit me. And it hit me hard. I wondered what good this small effort really was doing in these children's lives. If I only looked at today, I might feel like these do-gooder Americans were making themselves feel better about a day or two helping out those less fortunate in Africa. But then I remembered why we were here (see yesterday's post)...in answer to a call to obedience, not asking what the final outcome would be, not thinking we were the answer or had the ability to do anything on our own, but obeying a command and leaving  the result with the Commander. How fulfilling and freeing it that?

The highlight of the day for me was when, in a seemingly isolated moment, I looked around and saw more Ugandan faces than white faces, ministering to their own people, allowing us, the outsiders to be a part with what God has called them to do for their own people. To me, this was a true picture of mission. To see where God is at work, hear Him ask you to join Him there, and watch you serve beside brothers and sisters you have never met before! So, though we were still jet-lagged and mostly unwashed, today was a beautiful thing that will resonate in our minds and hearts and that the Lord will know the eternal value of. And that's a good thing.

Pray for continued health and strength, still for the missing luggage, and for day 2 of the medical clinics tomorrow. How exciting to anticipate what it may hold.