After that, the boys went into town with Peter, and us girls went to the women's Life Care small group. Singing "Amazing Grace" with 6 African women is something everyone should experience. It rocked me to my core. I can't even describe it, but i had chills all over. We studied 2 John and that was interesting. It was very cool to see what the women contributed to the study. Many of them are challenging and thought provoking in their ideas. After this we took prayer requests. It was REALLY eye opening and it touched me very deeply. These women didn't pray for themselves. Not at all. They prayed for their country, for the children in the boarding schools who are at risk for sexual violence, and things like that. I think about how often i pray for me. Dear God, help me with this, Dear God, please give me safe travels, Dear God, please take care of me. Its always all about me. Hearing these women pray is completely different. I was very convicted by their prayers that see a much bigger picture than i do. There was a woman sitting next to me holding a baby probably about a year old. She couldn't have been much older than i am. I shared my Bible and song book with her since she came in late. Her sweet baby looked at me, and i was just dying to hold onto him when he fell asleep. When it came time for prayer requests, this woman spoke up. She told us that she is a refugee from Rwanda and her little boy is all she has. She lives behind a refugee project and her and her son sleep outside every night. She prayed for their safety as they are very in danger of sexual abuse living out on the street like they were. When the women asked her name again, she told them and they all smiled. Turns out that her name means God is Here and God is Real in this Place. This is when i started tearing up. I looked across the room to see Hannah's expression matching mine exactly. I wept through the prayer as Darla was saying that this woman and her baby are children of God who are precious and valuable in His sight. It was very hard to not want to promise her the world and offer her a home, but i am starting to learn that praying for these people can be the very best i can do sometimes.
After women's group we had lunch and when the boys got back, we got to see Arora, and Peter again, and we got to meet this precious little fireball of a Ugandan girl named Tasha. She is 20, and her and Peter are dating. I hung out with her most of the day and she taught me so much. She is the sweetest thing in the world and i absolutely loved spending the day with her. We all hung out until it was time for the Life Care Group for youths. It was really cool to get to have a small group time with our awesome new friends, as well as meeting others. We had some really good discussion time and Hannah, Jarron, Jake, and Tommy had a lot of great things to contribute to the conversation. It was very difficult for me, however. I just felt like a deer in the headlights when we were talking about money and whether or not it was a snare for us spiritually. I just really couldn't think of what i wanted to say, so i didn't say anything. The rest of my group did so well though. I was very proud of them, and our Ugandan friends were listening very intently. We took prayer requests again and Jameel, the leader of the group, asked me to pray for Tasha in my spare time. It was a really cool way to do things, and I am so thrilled to get to be thinking of and praying for my great new friend.
After group, we went walking around Kampala again with Peter, Arora, Tasha, Fred, and another new friend Tazo. It was a blast and we went and had juice. I am LOVING passion fruit juice and watermelon juice! I walked all over the city with Tasha and learned so much about her life, and what it is like to be a girl my age living here. I felt so comfortable asking her questions and i just feel really blessed to have met her today. She was such a blessing, and i am looking forward to becoming facebook friends :)
We came back and had an awesome dinner, all 9 of us together. Then we sat around talking about our rafting experience coming up in a week or so. We laughed so hard we cried, and i looked around the table and felt so blessed to have these people in my life. It has been amazing so far, and i can't wait to wake up to another amazing day tomorrow! my first african church experience! YAY!
For His Glory,
heidi alise
Absolutely amazing, Heidi! You could easily write a book. Take care of yourself. Our prayers are with you.
ReplyDeleteDebra & Robert Brown