Richmond picked us up this morning before church to take us on a driving tour of his personal history, and MAN is his story a powerful one. Out of respect for him, I won't type it all out here, but I would love to tell anyone who wants to hear about the ways God has worked in this man's life. Long story short, he is a former Compassion kid, and God is using him and his siblings in powerful ways to impact this nation.
We arrived at New Life Baptist Church at 10, an hour before the service would begin. This gave us enough time to hear the worship team rehearse and for Richmond to show us around the area in which the church has been planted. This is a relatively new location for NLBC, as they just relocated here three months ago. The neighborhood is primarily Muslim, and, from my understanding, relatively low on the poverty scale. I've discovered I am not very good at processing things in the moment. I was somewhat numb as we walked through the very narrow alleyways and wove between laundry lines. I will be very interested to see what God places on my heart when we leave this place and I finally have time to think through it all...
When we got back to the church tent, Richmond asked for 2 volunteers to help with children's church, which began after worship in the main church. I ended up helping Rose with the 8 older children, plus Jubilee, her 2-year-old, who tagged along. Rose just fascinates me. Her children truly stand out among the others their age. They are smart and respectful, confident, leaders by nature. Rose herself is feisty, as any mother of 5 should be. She adores her children, and they, her. It has just been a blessing to watch their family this week and witness the way they love and teach about the Lord.
Rose had each child share a praise with the group, then her eldest daughter, Precious, led some more songs. She asked me if I wanted to read the Bible story. I agreed, and she handed me her Bible to read from. I asked which story they were studying, and she told me to just pick one! Humbling moment in which I wished I knew more scripture references. I flipped to Luke and found the story of Zaccheus, so we read that and I taught them the children's song about Zaccheus. Rose made them sing it over and over until they knew it by heart. She took their prayer requests and closed our little group in prayer before we rejoined the little kids for leftover birthday cake from the conference the day before. Rose made sure to distribute some to the slum children who had circled the building in curiosity.
As the main church let out, we added to the kids' sugar high with donuts that we had brought for a little reception; most people there had never had a donut. We got to chat briefly with the congregation members before we got back on the bus to go eat lunch at Fang Fang's Chinese Restaurant in downtown Kampala.
Many of the PDN staff and their families joined us for a huge Chinese lunch, which was a nice change from the typical Ugandan matooke (basically mashed, cooked bananas). I got to sit in the social work corner with Doreen (Richmond's sister), Julian (a member of NLBC and a Baylor Social Work master's graduate), and Alex Tandy (our token social work student on our accounting team). I loved hearing them talk about their classes, their hopes, the Ugandan government, just their general, genuine love for people in general. All three women have such huge hearts, and the way they see hope and potential in seemingly hopeless situations is astounding to me. I am so truly thankful for even just this brief time to cross paths with them and hear the way they think about things--God has big, big purposes for them.
We wrapped up lunch and our next stop was the tour of one of the lowest level slums, led by Doreen. We had prepared gifts for the 20 women she has invested her time in the night before, so we were told we would deliver those then visit the homes of two families. We parked at Shell station across the street from the entrance and said a prayer before following Doreen down the hill and into the slum.
I have stood on ground where hundreds of thousands of people were condemned to an entirely unjustified death.
These images are from Auschwitz, but the entire time we were walking through the slums these were all I could think of. These images kept flashing in my mind. But here's the difference between the two scenes: these photos are black and white, and they are a testament to the past. The streets we walked through in the heart of Kampala had the dreary feel of these photos and yet were very much in color, real life. This is the real, heartwrenching present. And yet the most glaring similarity is that so many of these people, too, will die unjustified deaths, simply because of the family into which they were born.
I don't say this to spark debate. I remember digesting the sights I saw in Poland and thinking I had never felt so sad or, really, angry. But today I felt that way again, and this parallel formed in my head. I'm not a social worker and I'm not very good at talking about my feelings. I'm an accountant and I don't have deep words to describe what I saw or what I felt. Neither of these places makes sense to me.
I admire Doreen more than I can even describe. She truly believes in these women, and she and Alex both were so eager to point out to us the treasures the women we met are, all of the good they are doing in their families in spite of their circumstances. One woman whose home we visited was blind in one eye, caring for 7 or 8 grandchildren. She wove rugs for a livelihood, and she was so thankful simply to have us in her home, where we gathered around her and sang Amazing Grace. That perfect, peaceful reminder that grace is still true, and it is stronger than even the most impoverished family on the planet. Another woman was the unofficial but elected female leader of the slum, and had lost a child. Her son had recently been tested HIV positive and refuses to allow Doreen go help him. He instead spends his days drowning in alcohol. Women stand in their doorways and offer you their babies, hoping against hope that they'll trick someone into giving their child a better life. All of that, and I know nothing to do but pray.
We rode in silence to the cultural center, where moods were lightened over the course of dinner. My dad went to the Rush concert this week, but I saw this:
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