Sunday: (hopefully soon my pictures will match up with my days)
We started off the day going to church at 7:30 at St. Phillip’s Episcopal church.On our way we saw the masses of people walking to their churches in their Sunday best. The church was packed. It was neat to go to the service, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. It seemed very western in ways. There were about 3 or 400 people in attendance I would guess. We sang lots of great songs. After that we went back to the ORA orphanage this morning and afternoon. We sang, danced, shared stories, had mini oral Bible studies with the children, put on a drama, played games, etc. They loved learning some English songs and games such as “duck, duck, goose” and “Simon Says”.
It was a good day and the last time that our team will be going to this particular orphanage (i'm very glad that I will be staying longer and definitely will be trying to go back to ORA as much as possible). All the children are so precious. This is the orphanage that I had previously looked up the founder's blog when I first was googling the possibility of coming to Uganda. The founders go back and forth between Arua and their home in New Zealand. We got to meet the director today. His name is Stephen. He thanked us all for coming and looks forward to me coming back in the coming weeks.
I made some especially good friends with some of the children: One girl was named Dora and another girl named Jacklyn. (Amos and Bernard were two boys that love to be the drummers and really help lead the kids in retelling our stories and acting them out).
Please be praying for a little boy named Douglas. I should explain. In Uganda, if you lose one parent you are considered an orphan...if you lose both parents....you basically become the "help" in a relative's home. At the ORA orphanage there are over 120 orphans that can come and reside there during the day.
In addition to this, ORA also houses 7 boys/girls who have lost both parents so that they don't have to become the help/or begging on the streets. Douglas is one of these. He lost both his parents to AIDS and he is HIV positive. He is very precious but you can see the weight he carries. The second day we came, he became much more social and interactive and even began to smile. That was exciting to see.
I made some especially good friends with some of the children: One girl was named Dora and another girl named Jacklyn. (Amos and Bernard were two boys that love to be the drummers and really help lead the kids in retelling our stories and acting them out).
Please be praying for a little boy named Douglas. I should explain. In Uganda, if you lose one parent you are considered an orphan...if you lose both parents....you basically become the "help" in a relative's home. At the ORA orphanage there are over 120 orphans that can come and reside there during the day.
In addition to this, ORA also houses 7 boys/girls who have lost both parents so that they don't have to become the help/or begging on the streets. Douglas is one of these. He lost both his parents to AIDS and he is HIV positive. He is very precious but you can see the weight he carries. The second day we came, he became much more social and interactive and even began to smile. That was exciting to see.
I think that the whole team would agree that these precious moments we’ve had the honor of experiencing this past week will stay with us forever. We all are thinking and processing in different ways…but God is speaking to our hearts and stirring up passions that we’ve only begun to understand. The needs are overwhelming, and our hearts are breaking. Yet, we’ve all agreed that even if we solely focus on providing the physical resources they need for survival, we really have not given them an opportunity for the hope that is within us. We desire so much more for them and I must believe that God does as well.
*I think one of my greatest moments of the day was singing and dancing for joy with the children—their joy and hope is so genuinely deep because it has pulled them through so much. Their laughter is absolutely one of the purest sounds in the whole world. I can still hear is softly echoing in my ears….
”Halelujah, Jesu Le Ma, Jesu Le Ma.”
Day 2: Group of MK's in Arua
Pictures from Day 1 in Uganda:
The School outside of Nebbe "Under the Tree"
Their choir getting ready to dance for us.
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