The team was up, fed, and ready to leave for the village…finally, to the area we have become so familiar with and with the children that became our calling months ago. We were welcomed on the drive in with the routine “Muzungu” being yelled out from any child within eyesight of the van. We entered the village from the back way and still, they spotted the van full of pale faces. The church service was everything we remembered from the last trip, with the addition of one boy who sang a solo so beautifully, I wanted to shout “Hallelujah and encore” all at the same time. The teaching was really good, as Pastor Paul explained from Luke, when Jesus told Peter that he would be sifted as wheat, He also told him that He would pray for him. Emphasizing that Jesus prays for us, that God’s will is accomplished regardless of Satan’s schemes and that prayer matters. The music was wonderful, loud, lots of dancing, lots of singing and lots of greeting of familiar faces. Children were everywhere, on us, next to us, at our feet and we were in heaven, well we had a glimpse anyway. After we were introduced, most of the team went downstairs to help with the children’s ministry.
We were shuttled to Stella’s house, an attorney who works for the sugar cane factory. While we waited for the food to be ready, Pastor Paul shared with us the very beginnings of the church in 1999. We loved hearing about all of the ways God was speaking and doing along the way. 14 years later they are a healthy, thriving, growing body of believers that really desire to serve their village and see people saved. By the time we finished lunch, it was after 3pm and we headed back to the church to divide into four groups, led by a church member/leader. Each team left and headed to different homes to visit some people they have been reaching out to. Janet took Dann and I to the area where 3 of the children coming to Chayah, live now. One grandmother who has two, Daphine and Moreen, sat on the floor and just kept thanking us, so so grateful that we will be helping these two young girls. They are 5 and 6 years. Their round mud hut is about 10’ in diameter, roofed with grass, leaking in the rain and they have nothing. The girls were quiet, but not shy. Their eyes danced and their smiles were frequent as we talked about their coming. We told the grandmother that God sees them, that He chose these girls from all the many of this village and that He loves them. We repeated that same sentiment to the mother of Shakira, one who was rescued early and has been living in Janet’s 180 square foot, two room home, sleeping on a single bottom bunk with two others. Shakira’s mother sat on a mat in the dirt. She seemed discouraged, depressed, and hopeless. She was so grateful that Shakira had a place to escape the horrors of her stepfather, but she herself seemed like a beaten down woman who needed to be rescued herself. We promised that these girls would be fed when they were hungry, taken for medical care when they were sick, enrolled in school and educated bu,t most of all, that they would grow up to know Jesus. One case was sheer celebration and gratitude, the other was surrender so that her four year old daughter could be safe and cared for.
We met back at church after praying for one other woman on the way and left the church to begin the gathering of our brood. Six had been waiting all day, standing outside the house at the road waiting, waiting. When the van rolled us they wasted no time climbing in. With our cook Mary joining us and tiny Elijah, another young boy who has been staying there, we were 19 in our 12 passenger van. Add about 50 lbs of charcoal and a cooking stove, we were packed in. As we began to drive out of Kakira, the moment seemed surreal. Janet was saying goodbye to friends, and the place she grew up. She’ll be back to minister in the church and continue to visit hurting children there, but it really was an ending that has led to a new beginning.
Too late to cook at about 8:30 when we were going to get home, we stopped to get chicken and fries for everybody. There was excitement and celebration in the van on the way, singing and laughing and just watching Shakira and Doreen riding and looking out the window during their first vehicle ride ever, seeing the town of Jinja, having never seen anything but the village was more fun than a person should be allowed to have.
Then we got to the house, 8:30pm, hot and exhausted, and the caretaker had left with the key to the gate…so we sat on the curb outside the compound and ate take out while Dann climbing over the 8 foot wall, found a ladder made from trees for the front of the wall and a step ladder in the house for the inside. In the pitch dark, kids of all sizes began climbing up the ladder, were helped over the wall and down. Squeals and running towards the home caught us off guard. We were picturing a “Christmas morning” kind of moment. You know, camera’s poised and ready to catch faces etc…
But you know, I don’t think it mattered one bit to the kids. They ran from one end to the other, their eyes wide with curiosity and amazement. We quickly put mattresses on the floor, covered them with sheets and blankets and then had a meeting in the living room. The girls were taken into the bathroom where they were given a lesson on using the “latrine”. They were fascinated and shy all at the same time.
Their bathroom baskets were passed out and explained, there was a demo of tooth-brushing and we told a bible story. Janet asked them questions about the story, we prayed and left about 10pm, to them dressed in their new pajamas and ready for bed. We would have loved to tuck them in, but we were exhausted and with every day being so so full, we left to get back for some sleep…well for me writing this blog, but then sleep.
Tomorrow, three more will be picked up and all 10 taken to the clinic for check ups. If all goes according to plan, which we all know has about a 3% chance of happening, the beds will be delivered and set up, along with the dining room table and the timber for the cooking shed. So you know…probably not, but now we have children to entertain and who will surely entertain us, so we’ll be just fine, I’m just sure of it!
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