It started out like a scene in a bad scary movie, a woman surrounded with Rubbermaid Bins of dresses, shoes, a chicken scratching in the dirt….. throwing dirt up on us….. that’s how the afternoon started and ended in Pakwach, (a neighboring town of Nebbi) for me.
As I sat there with this chicken who had made it’s own personal nest right next to me and sorted through the dresses that we were giving away, Sam Freeman came up to me and said…… Andrea, they think I’m Layne!…….. you see a year ago Layne, my youngest, came on the mission trip with us to Uganda and one of the things that she did was to be an avid player with the children in the afternoons when we would go to the villages……. One of the leaders of this particular village remembered Layne and went up to Sam and said……. Oh, you’ve grown so much!…….Sam’s like “no, no, you must be thinking about Layne Smith. When Sam ran over to tell me that, it filled my heart with joy that Layne had made such an impact a year ago that they remembered her….. but it also made me sad because it made me miss her and also made me a bit nostalgic knowing that she is growing into a nice young woman.
As we stood there in front of the people, Michelle Cambell who had been one of the folks praying for the previous trip to Uganda a year ago, pointed out that one of the little boys had around his neck the cross and the beads that we made over a year ago. That was very powerful in a place where there is no running water, no electricity, no place to put anything …….. really, it was just a mud hut and 8-10 people residing in one. This one little boy had somehow managed to hang on to his cross. It was then that I was reminded how such a small thing such as a beaded cross could make such an impact on a little boy.
As I was riding back this afternoon on the bus I thought…..everything changes, we live in a world of change. I was also overwhelmed with sadness that even though it seems in our world change, over here in over a year things don’t seem to have changed that much. The people are still hungry and they still need clothes to wear. The needs still seem to be just as great as they were when we were here over a year ago….but then I was reminded that there is something that sustains us through all change or un-change and that is the love of God.
Monday and Tuesday when we were with the kids in the village, we would mention Rebecca Barker’s name periodically to the kids …… Rebecca came on behalf of Williamson’s Chapel back in July when we began building the orphanages with Acres of Hope….. she too has left a life changing impact on the kids in the village. All you have to do is mention her name and you see the kids eyes light up and their smiles seem larger.
As we get ready for our last day here, we talked tonight about how this trip impacts us with life change. Change that happens not with just the seven days that we are away from the comforts of home……. And I really mean that because Kathy and I can’t take a shower because there is no water, we procrastinated and waited too late because we were busy planning for tomorrow…..we miss those comforts of home but you see the change needs to be so much more. If everyday we would change just a little bit and grow in our walk with God then truly we could be like Mahatma Gandhi said and we could change the world. You see change does not have to be dramatic……it can be incremental…… if we will be agents of those changes, we can use the gift that God gives us to make a difference and change lives and change the world.
And Oh, One More Thing………the children today kept trying to rub the freckles off Becky Appleton’s leg. They were fascinated that no amount of rubbing would remove those parts of her skin. Sometimes there are things we cannot change regardless of how hard we try. Becky’s freckles are a perfect example. Yet that doesn’t impact her ability to be transformed. May we all search deeply within ourselves to see how we can be not just “changed” but how we can each be transformed.
Grace and Peace
Andrea
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