The morning went as expected, washing the feet of 60 plus children who have no shoes, doing crafts with yarn, string, and beads, and playing football or American soccer; basically just running and jumping around. However the one thing that we didn’t expect was how smooth it would go. The event was actually supposed to take all day long and it ended up taking 3 hours tops. That is due in part to the facilitation and willingness of team and a big “shout-out” to all those who prepared ahead of time upon our arrival to make things run so smoothly this time.

So when lunchtime came, it was also time to re-assess our day because the other shoe distributions were suppose to happen the rest of the week and it left our afternoon basically free. We came back to the hotel and ended up sorting beads and tearing pages out of the coloring books for the events that were yet to come. But then this afternoon when the whole point was to spend time with the kids playing games and interacting in building relationships. We ended up making some jump ropes out of some nylon rope that we brought and red duct tape. Who would have known that duct tape would prove to be beneficial even in Uganda, Africa!

Terry Blythe came up with this new amazing game called “volley football”. The kids stand in a circle and this little nerf American football is actually hit as a volley ball and Terry is the one in the middle keeping the game going.

We ended up doing everything this afternoon or this evening with the kids from singing along to the Macarena, and the Chicken Dance, and the Electric Slide to Ring around the Roses, and The Hokey Pokey.

After about 15 or 20 minutes of songs, Sam Freeman (who came up with every dance move and song known to man), Kendall Castillo, Carly Castillo and I ran out of songs and dance moves, we encouraged the kids to sing to us. They sang a song the team learned last year called Jesu Mara and sang that through several times. By this time almost a hundred kids from the surrounding bush (community) had come up to join us. They were catching on to the song as the kids sang. After we sang the song thru several times, we had a brief pause and the girls and I were thinking of something else that we could sing, the Ugandan kids launched into Jesu Mara again but this time it was in English. I had tried to be so culturally sensitive, we really wanted to make sure that the community kids didn’t feel excluded because the church kids were all together. I did not think to sing it in English but only in their native language that we learned last year. The kids started singing out loud, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves Me, and Jesus Loves Me over and over again.

It was then that I thought the one thing that we must not ever forget is Jesus. You see this afternoon when we had some down time and we were sorting the beads, the team and I sat on that front porch of the hotel and we were talking about, how do you make the longest lasting and sustainable impact in something that seems so big and so overwhelming? As we sat there and pondered that we talked about the ability that we had that we could put supplies in a container and put it on a barge and send it over. The one thing that we concluded was although we might ship dresses, shoes, medical supplies, and other things in a container and that it might actually get here to the village, the one thing that won’t come with just physical merchandise is the love of Christ, because you see that is relational. That’s when we look into one another’s eyes and we communicate with one another in physical voice. That is what matters. So when those little kids started singing this afternoon, Jesus Loves Me, that’s when the team was reminded that that’s what matters. It’s not about stuff and what we give away; it’s about the relationship that’s being built in the name of our God.

Which was actually ironic because after we finished singing Jesus Loves Me, the kids launched into another song; My God Is Big, My God Is Strong, My God Is Mighty and there’s nothing in this world that I can’t do. The Ugandan kids knew the words to My God is Big and they would sing that very clearly. When we sang that song right before the community kids came up they didn’t know the last part of the song, they only knew the first words, God is Big, Strong, and Mighty. We stopped and actually started teaching them the words ‘and there is nothing in this world that I can’t do without Christ’. What ended up just being a time killer, or so we thought, was actually a very powerful moment to share about Jesus.

That is why we are here. When we drove up today and saw the buildings for the first time on the land that a year ago we gathered together as a team and held hands in a circle and prayed that God would bless this land, little did we know that some very generous people from WCUMC and the community of folks that believe in changing lives and changing the world would get behind a mission and a vision as much as you guys have with Acres of Hope.

So this afternoon as we toured the property, we got to walk into the buildings there that have running water, electricity, and a real kitchen. We got to see people being the Hands and Feet of Christ actually bring hope to children in a part of the world that seems to have very little.

So things like jumping rope for hours on end, when Eryn O’Brien, Jan Peelle, Michele Cambell, and Becky Appleton who felt like their arms were actually going to fall off after turning the rope, those things actually are symbols of hope.

You guys have constructed symbols of hope and we are grateful. Thank you for being the church that has a passion for helping those not only globally but locally as well. We want to say thank you for recognizing that these aren’t just four buildings but soon will provide shelter and feed and clothe children that otherwise may not live past the age of 20 years. You have constructed buildings of hope. Buildings of hope that carries with these children, even in the community, that they can face all things because they know that they belong in a strength that is far greater than anything that comes in human form. It’s the strength of Christ.

So thank you for sending us here, thank you for letting us be a part of sharing the love of Christ to the world.

 

OUTTAKES:

Joe Freeman and Alec Costillo led a game of soccer that actually got teenage boys in the village to come up and engage playing with the others. Joe’s sidekick was a tiny 2 year old boy that would not leave Joe’s side.

Lance thought that it would just be great if we played a game of “Duck, Duck, Goose”! Trying to get 60 kids in a circle (not the easiest thing to do!); he decided that he and I would demonstrate the game. I don’t run in America much less in Uganda! So, I was the “goose” and having to chase Lance around the circle with of course the point was for me not to win. Then I became the “duck” and had to choose a “goose”. Well there are tiny little children from Uganda in that circle and I knew there was no way that I was EVER going to outrun them, I chose a woman who appeared to be around my age, and I got to tell you, the people here run very fast! It was like an eternal game of “Duck, Duck, Goose” that I would never win.

Again, thank you for letting us be the hands and feet and know that it’s not just stuff here in Uganda; it is people. Lives are being touched, lives are being changed and not just the Ugandan lives but ours as well, and so we are grateful.

Andrea

 

Andrea wasn’t able to post this blog message herself, but asked for the following to be posted along with this entry.

Hey folks, I just wanted to say Pat Benfield is amazing because she is letting me call her voice mail and I am leaving my blog as a very fast talking message as we have no access to a computer or Internet.