We started this Sunday morning at Bulamu Children’s Village, a home and school for over three hundred orphaned children. The day was filled with the most incredible church service, craft times, soccer games, medical check ups, a Reality Check presentation, and so much more. Our Reality Check team then headed to Goshen House, a local girls boarding school for another presentation, specifically challenging youth to consider how today’s decisions can impact their futures and reminding them of their beauty, value and worth. Here are a few reflections from team members.
As we drove through Kampala to Bulamu Children’s Village, I noticed that much of the city’s landscape is yet-to-be finished. Many buildings are under construction, crop fields have been started but not yet completed, walls are cracked, structures are lacking solid foundation.
Some people were sitting, others standing…..waiting.
Waiting for an answer?
Waiting for something to arrive?
… a signal to move?
It’s not an idle “wait.” There’s a constant community laughing and talking with one another. We can find so much peace and beauty in the perfectly imperfect. At the core, we are all a work in progress. It just may look differently in one country than it would in another.
Los Angeles may be better disguised, as the majority of the exterior looks developed and new. However, the brokenness inevitably begins to reveal itself. The false ideology of fame and fortune all fall short of true joy, and poverty pours out from every city.
Regardless of our circumstances, there is hope, contentment, and joy in the fact that this land, and all lands, are in progress of being healed, being renewed, and restored. — Jessica
I said yes to this, my first mission trip, with no expectations and no idea of what to truly expect. I only knew that I was willing to serve and keep my heart open.
I had an amazing time worshipping at Bulamu and enjoyed how heartfelt the children were as they expressed their love for Jesus. I also volunteered to do medical intakes for the clinic. My heart broke over how many sicknesses could be cured, or even avoided, with better access to the medicine, living conditions, nutrition.
One moment, however, that deeply impacted my life occured during the Reality Check presentation at Goshen House. It was my first time sharing my personal testimony, which is filled with personal pain, heartache, and loss. I was welcomed with open arms. After the presentation, we encouraged the girls to ask questions. They were quite shy until their leader, Paul, suggested they write them down. That opened the floodgates and we learned so much about the young ladies. They were sincerely seeking answers to dilemmas, fears, struggles, and hurts in their lives. One young girl ended the presentation encouraging our team by saying “today, you have changed some lives forever.”
I will never forget the big hugs and pictures that capture this moment in time. I went in hoping I would teach them something, but I was the one enriched by simply engaging with them. I wish I could drop everything and move here to Uganda and work with the young people we’ve encountered. I know I can’t save the world….but I’ll accept reaching one person at a time. — Meachun
