Sobering Realities

Sobering Realities
September 18, 2007

I am officially a week removed from my life in America. I have settled in well here in Uganda. I have felt very at home here from day one, which has been such a blessing. While I can look at my surroundings and accommodations and joke about it not seeming like Africa whatsoever, I am reminded daily of what makes this place different from what I have called home my entire life.

This is Africa. I have fallen in love with a baby at Welcome Home. Her name is Juliana (she is the one in the picture). Her mother died at childbirth and her father is unknown. I was told by one of the workers that she never smiles for them. Yesterday I was holding her and singing over her. She was smiling and laughing with me…we took a nap together on the trampoline and then I fed her. Later in the afternoon she and I swung on the swings and she held my hand to her face and just smiled. I found out this morning that Juliana is HIV +. There is no telling how long she will live. Young children with AIDS is a newer reality here and therefore they can only guess. Being with her again today brought me to the verge of tears. Such beauty is locked away in her eyes. Such life. I pray constantly over her that the Lord would restore her brokenness, that He would turn her mourning into joy and that acceptance and life would be spoken over this child. I wish you all could hear her laugh and allow for your heart to melt as a result. I am different today for having known Juliana and for having the privilege of making her laugh.



Yesterday I was introduced to paper necklaces. They are handmade in Uganda and are quite beautiful. Some of the Mommies at Welcome Home make them and have them available for sale. I bought from Mommy Joy in the preemie house. Today we had a visitor from the States and I was telling her about the necklaces and she asked to see Mommy Joy’s…Joy had over 50 on her and the visitor offered to buy them all. They sell for 3000shillings which is about $1.75/each…Joy would receive 90.000shillings if all would sell. Joy couldn’t believe it. The biggest smile spread across her face. I went with her into the back bedroom and she asked if it was for real, would she really buy all of them…when I replied yes, Mommy Joy had tears in her eyes put her hands in the air and repeatedly cried “God, God...this is God, He is so Good”…I do not know why I was so blessed to be a part of that moment, but I was and I will never forget it. It is all the more special after knowing Mommy Joy’s story.

This is Africa. Mommy Joy was married for a long time but was never able to have children. Her husband gave her HIV and kicked her out of the house. She had nowhere to go and had AIDS…she found work at Welcome Home in the Preemie House and when she got there she immediately smiled and said that the Lord had blessed her with many babies. She makes the necklaces by hand at night after her shift in order to cover the cost of her medicines. Her selling those necklaces today means that she will not have to worry about affording her meds for a long time. Mommy Joy’s personality fits her name. I have enjoyed my time so far getting to know her.


This is Africa. Beauty wrapped in pain and hardship, disappointment and bitterness, all wrapped in beauty once again. You would never know the pain Joy has looking at her but it is there, it is a part of her and yet she has chosen Joy and to live no matter the circumstance or situation. I am living in a country that is filled with resilient people. All have been affected by the war in one way or another. All are affected by the AIDS epidemic. And yet, all that have crossed my path are strong beyond my comprehension, loving beyond my understanding, and fighting a fight that many would have checked out on rounds ago.

While I find my heart to be breaking here in the sobering reality of this place, at the same time I find that it is slowly being put back together. I have so long fell victim to the urgent, to the need of getting things done and the constant demands upon my time. So much so that I have begun to stray from my first love. I am discovering that love again here in this place. A place where I can spend my days rocking babies to sleep and causing Juliana to laugh and find myself fulfilled beyond description.

I was reading yesterday about deserts and how Scripture often uses the desert to represent a place of transition and/or testing. It was often a place where God’s people were challenged to obey and to trust God to lead them into the land of promise. My life since January has fit this description. Ever since I first began praying about coming here I have been in a “desert.” The crazy thing is that I haven’t felt dry or empty in fact I have felt the complete opposite. I realized last night why. One of my gifts is Faith, and while I used it often at home, it is used in a deeper way here. This desert time has allowed me and required me to rely upon that gift. It took Faith to leave a perfectly wonderful job that I loved and a ministry full of people that I care deeply about. It took Faith to trust that the Lord would meet the goal of $20,000 for this trip (Update: I received a call when I was in London from a family pledging the $500 that remained to be raised…so, the goal is officially met!!!), it took Faith to leave what was familiar and come to a foreign land trusting and believing that somehow this would all make sense and that He really was preparing the way in advance for me. I have become more fully who I was made to be as a result of this journey simply because my gift of Faith has been used.

This is Africa. She is beautiful. She is hard. She is already beginning to change me for the better.