A Never-ending Home

Today we have several different ministries going on. The men will hold their second men's conference, and the rest of the team will visit the karamojong orphans of Smile Africa Ministries.

I had some excitement today at the Prime hotel. It came in the form of electricity! My expectations were quickly shot to the ground as I plugged in my hair dryer only to find that it barely blew air. I have no idea what God is doing, well that's not true, I know exactly what he's doing. Did I have to like it, no.
I resigned myself to the fact that I just wasn't going to do my hair on this trip, and that was it. Yes, I know it sounds vain. It is.Plain and simple, and that's the condition of my hair the past few days..plain and simple.

Sommer was on the balcony and I could hear her talking. When I came out of the bathroom I saw her talking over the balcony with Bryan and Kermit who were down on the lower level driveway outside. They had asked how my hair dryer was since we now had electricity. Her response, "it isn't. It's not working for her". Bryan asked her to give him the dryer. She grabbed it and hung it down two stories, over the balcony for him to look at.
He told her he was coming up. Within just a few minutes he flipped some switches, exchanged some of my electrical adaptors and had the dryer working! Kermit grabbed the dryer and began drying my hair. It was hysterical. He is not a hair dresser, nor does he know how to use a dryer. My hair was flying in the front of my face, around the back and sideways! It actually was on super turbo mode! Almost too powerful. LOL It was a Kodak moment to be sure!
I was now able to do something with the mess that was called hair on my head for the past 4 days. I was to say the least, thankful to Bryan and to God for the favor shown me today.

We met in the dining area for breakfast, devotional and numbers this morning. Cassandra gave a great devotional. Our numbers were all still pretty high, nothing under a six today. Mine, I will say was a ten simply due to the fact that I had a working hair dryer.

For some this was the day they had looked forward to from the beginning of the trip. The day they would minister to the children of Smile Africa. A day to show those despised in their own culture that someone loved and cared about them.

The vans came to pick up the women and take them to Smile Africa. They would return to pick up the men.
All the men would head to the men's conference. The whole men's team including the youth would go. Those not speaking would come back to Smile Africa to minister to the kids. The exception would be John, as he was heading up a CPR class at Smile Africa.

As we head to Smile Africa, there's a lot of anticipation about which children would still be there from last year, and which might not. The karamojong orphans arrive each day on foot at 8:00am. The age range is one year, to eighteen years. The majority walk a minimum of three miles and carry siblings on their backs. Many are street children, some are cared for by relatives but those numbers are few, and some considered extremely high risk, now reside at Smile Africa.

Children carry siblings to get food each day

I'm reminded of this verse, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Matthew 8:20

When Christ had his ministry on earth He had no home, but His home in heaven will last forever. These children suffer in many ways, the same way Christ did. They are despised among their own people. They, for the most part, have no place to lay their heads, no place to call home. This makes our ministry to them of even greater importance. Some how they MUST know that God has a special place for them, a place they can eagerly anticipate, and an assurance of a permanent never-ending home that lasts throughout eternity!

Sharlyn and John held a CPR course for the teachers that work at Smile Africa. John is a licensed EMT. They were so eager to learn a skill that would enhance their job skills and knowledge of how to take care of someone in distress. With over four hundred and twenty children at the compound each day, you can understand the importance of a class like this! They spent all day in training and were each given a certificate of completion. What a blessing!

CPR training

Jan and I took a tour with Pastor Ruth around the compound. God is blessing her efforts in supporting the children. There is a baby room, a girls room and boys room. These are children considered high risk and are allowed to stay at the compound over-night. Aside from the babies, the older kids go off to school and return at the end of the day.
Pastor Ruth's mother also resides on the compound. She is happy and healthy now!

Babies asleep in their cribs..yes these are cribs

Jan and I are asked if we could minister to a young woman who has come to see Pastor Ruth. Pastor Ruth ministers to the local women and widows of Tororo. This woman had a vision and wanted to discuss it. Pastor Ruth filled us in on her dilemma. Her baby had died. She had a vision while walking that God had told her he was going to resurrect her baby. She was convinced it was going to happen. Her baby died three years ago. We sat with her for over an hour. We shared scripture and Jan had great compassion with stories of having lost babies too. We can only hope that seeds of faith were planted, and that Truth would fill her mind.

Jan, Rachel the woman who lost her baby and Ruth

The men and youth arrived at the compound around lunch time. The team helped to serve the children. Rice and a banana was on the menu today. In fact, it's the menu everyday, minus the banana. Pastor Ruth works with a group called Feed my Starving Children. They provide a rice supplement. It's a rice type food with added nutrients. It's not the most appetizing food, but it's food provided by God. Pastor Ruth told me of a man that came to Smile Africa and as he watched the children be fed, he began to put down the food she was feeding the children. She was in tears. She said, "my brother, this food may not be suitable by your standards, but it's provided to all these children by God. If it weren't for Gods provision through this supplement program most of them would starve to death. To tell me you despise what God has provided, is not acceptable to me." It's no surprise I was in tears at the end of this story.
A great lesson to us. Don't condemn what God provides, it could be a matter of life or death to the recipient. It shed a new light on my view of what they were eating. A meal sent by the King.

Morning Porridge (rice milk)

After lunch, the kids were separated into groups. In one group they would hear a story called "The parable of the King", a story about being the son or daughter of the King. Another group would make crowns of paper, stickers and jewels. The third group would sing songs, and the fourth group would play a game of prince, prince, King. ( a revised version of duck duck goose).
You would say that the idea was grand! The execution, not so grand. The children had a hard time understanding the story, and once the rest of the group saw those beautiful crowns, it was over! LOL
Suddenly, all they wanted was a crown! And why not, they are after all sons and daughters of the King of Kings!
They LOVED the crowns. From the youngest to the oldest! So, each group re-grouped into crown making. It's quite overwhelming to have four hundred small children, and large children clamouring around you to make a crown. Some coming back as crowns disassemble and want them put back together again. If you've not had the experience of this type of "organized chaos" before, you could lose your cool quite easily.
We are not here to lose our cool. We take a deep breath and pray for Gods direction, wisdom and eagerly anticipate the end of the line of children waiting for crowns. LOL

Loving their crowns!

Pastor Ruth sits and admires all the sons & daughters of the King!

Sean had some soccer balls for the kids. All I can say is WOW! They love new balls. They love to play!

Soccer Time!

As our time grew shorter, we still had clothes to pass out to the children. Verda Reeves has a dear friend that donated over four hundred dresses and shirts to give to the children. They were so excited to get their new clothes. It looked like a sea of rainbow colors!




A rainbow of colors and new clothes!















The men's conference is going well, and just about over. In fact, David was one of the invited men. He came from Nairobi Kenya to attend. He had emailed me prior that he was going to deliver a gift to me. I was surprised to see that he had. He brought Kenyan Tea. We talked about his ministry in Kenya. We are praying where God will lead. He has invited us to visit his village!

David, myself and Sommer accepting the tea

Our last event on the agenda today was to visit the widows shop of Smile Africa.
This is where we can purchase hand made items from the widows. It can take quite a bit of time. There are so many things to look at!

decisions, decisions!

We finally start to head back to the hotel. Because we now had the entire group at Smile Africa it would take two trips. The men had all joined us from the conference.

It did take a while for everyone to arrive back at the hotel. The driver that dropped the first group off took a detour before picking up the rest of the group. LOL It was late and not too funny by the time they arrived.

We all headed to dinner and debriefing of the day. Bryan and Scott spoke about the men's conference. It was successful. About one hundred men attended. They listened to the messages and ended in question and answer sessions. The men have deep legitimate questions. Many are family related. They all received a copy of John Pipers book "God is the Gospel"
The video below are the men at conference eating without utensils (something common in Uganda). David from Kenya sits and fellowships with them.

Shari and John shared about the CPR class. They were still pretty excited about how enthusiastic the teachers were to learn and how appreciative they were to get their certificates.

As we shared our High/Low moments, it got pretty intense. Some of our team members had difficulty with what they experienced at Smile Africa. It's with good reason. These kids are in a sad state. Even though you see their smiles in the pictures, they live in pretty horrific conditions. Most of them, no all of them are filthy. Many of them have AIDS/HIV and take ARV's. Some can't get the medicine and don't make it. They get one meal a day, and as stated above, to our standards it's not acceptable. We have to remember though, that as Pastor Ruth said, God has provided for these children. We can't condemn what He's provided. We can however be called into action to add to the blessing. Now the children receive fruit once a week. With prayerful consideration we can do more. We just have to be obedient to what God asks of us. If he cares for the sparrow, the bird considered to be the lowest of all the birds, he cares for the karamojong more!
To God be the Glory!!