Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Matthew 25:45
" If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it." Matthew 25:45
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot
For as long as I can remember I have felt called to work with children and orphans in Africa with special needs. It has been the biggest dream of mine, and I have decided that the time has come where I must step out in faith, trusting God and taking action on where I know He is leading me. I know that God has given me the passion I have for serving the children in Africa who have special needs and remain stigmatized and treated worse than animals as a result of their disability. In many countries in Africa, children with special needs are tied up and left outside for their entire lives and treated worse than dogs as a result of their disability.
Many of you know that I was away traveling to various places the past few years, and it feels amazing being back where I know that God wants me right now, rather than trying to control my life on my own. The verse which states “In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” has rung true to me the past few months. He has given me such a great peace which I have never experienced before as I lean on Him, grow in Him and learn to make Him my first love. Now that I am seeking and listening to Him more than I ever have before, I truly feel that He is preparing me for the plans He has for my life and it is so beautiful to see His plans fall into place effortlessly as I trust that His ways are better than my own.
Even during my time in California, Spain and France, the vision of volunteering in Africa was constantly heavy upon my heart. I knew during those times traveling that God had bigger plans for me and that He wanted to use me for His glory serving and showing the forgotten and fatherless orphans in Africa. Somehow while I was in Europe I seemed to always be sharing the vision and goal of being in Africa sometime soon with most people that I got into conversations with.
Even during my time in California, Spain and France, the vision of volunteering in Africa was constantly heavy upon my heart. I knew during those times traveling that God had bigger plans for me and that He wanted to use me for His glory serving and showing the forgotten and fatherless orphans in Africa. Somehow while I was in Europe I seemed to always be sharing the vision and goal of being in Africa sometime soon with most people that I got into conversations with.
Letting go of the plans I had for my life, I have become open to God’s leading in my life if Africa truly is where He wants me. As I have been working at being more in tune with His plans for me, He has revealed an exciting opportunity for me- to go to Uganda!
At the beginning of this semester, I started praying and researching many Christian orphanages in Africa and attempting to network as much as I could with missionaries that I know. I had my small group Bible Study girls and family praying for me daily that God would make the place which He wanted me to go clear. It was amazing how He answered this prayer! One day after class, I overheard a girl I had never before met talking about Africa and how she was going this summer. I approached her later and let her know that I had overheard her and asked why she was going to Africa. That is when she told me about Amani, gave me some information about it and got extremely excited when I told her that I had been researching orphanages to apply to for this summer in Africa as well.
I learned as we talked that Lauren was introduced to Amani when two of my best friends, Melanie and Megan, volunteered there in the summer of 2009. They had such a life-changing experience there that they dropped their plans from September to December 2011 and returned to Amani. Between the two trips Megan’s family adopted two brothers from Amani and are currently in the process of adopting another boy! Ever since they returned from their first trip to Amani, Lauren’s heart has yearned to be there as well and she has made plans to be there this summer.
After talking with Lauren, I continued praying that if God wanted me to partake in this experience that He would make it very clear to me. I looked into Amani on my own and prayed about it for a while. All the other orphanages I had looked at on my own seemed to always have something come up which caused me to feel that they were not the right one that God would have me go to. I continued to feel that God did want me to be serving specifa
I had decided to have a serious talk with Lauren about finalizing plans to go to Amani as well. That busy Wednesday as I walked to class I remember specifically that Wednesday was the only day I have classes that I don’t share with Lauren. I felt a bit saddened by this knowing that this conversation would have to wait until tomorrow. However, God works in awesome ways! As everyone in the class sat down, I was shocked to notice an adorable little Ugandan boy’s face smiling huge on the girl’s laptop desktop next to me in class. I glanced at the girl next to me, and recognized her as being Melanie herself whom I had never met before but had seen a picture of on Lauren’s facebook page. The same girl who had just gotten back from Amani 2 months ago after taking the entire previous semester off to serve there and whom had introduced Amani to Lauren.
When Melanie saw the application for Amani up on my laptop, words can't describe how shocked she was and the amazing conversation which followed her seeing that application about so many details about Amani and the babies and children there which she has personal relationships and memories with. She also shared with me information about other organizations in Uganda, such as a place called Spring of Hope.
I decided to apply with Amani, and when I heard back from Amani that they were full with volunteers June and July and only August had room in the guesthouse, I cannot explain to the amount of disappointment and confusion I felt, but I could hear God speaking to my then broken heart, asking me “Will you still trust me? Will you still chose to believe that I am in control and will you continue to seek my great plans for you? Plans so great you cannot even fathom what I have in store.” I had to make a conscious choice to believe that God did indeed have an even better plan in store, even though I couldn’t begin to think what could have been better. I had to fight the thoughts that everywhere I would want to serve would be full for the summer, and trust that the right place I was to go God had already sorted all the details out. Proverbs 3:6 continually was on my mind during this time, which says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
When Melanie saw the application for Amani up on my laptop, words can't describe how shocked she was and the amazing conversation which followed her seeing that application about so many details about Amani and the babies and children there which she has personal relationships and memories with. She also shared with me information about other organizations in Uganda, such as a place called Spring of Hope.
I decided to apply with Amani, and when I heard back from Amani that they were full with volunteers June and July and only August had room in the guesthouse, I cannot explain to the amount of disappointment and confusion I felt, but I could hear God speaking to my then broken heart, asking me “Will you still trust me? Will you still chose to believe that I am in control and will you continue to seek my great plans for you? Plans so great you cannot even fathom what I have in store.” I had to make a conscious choice to believe that God did indeed have an even better plan in store, even though I couldn’t begin to think what could have been better. I had to fight the thoughts that everywhere I would want to serve would be full for the summer, and trust that the right place I was to go God had already sorted all the details out. Proverbs 3:6 continually was on my mind during this time, which says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
The next night, after sending a short e-mail to another organization in Jinja, Uganda called Spring of Hope, I was contacted directly by their director who told me that my qualifications were perfect for the work they do and they were actually in need of help for June and July. I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and peace and astonishment at how God truly did have the perfect plans in store! Spring of Hope is a place which can directly use my very own gifts and whom truly needs me. They work with families with children with special needs, exactly what my training has been. I now felt over joyed to see God's faithfullness as I realized that if I had not met Lauren and heard about Amani, then I would never have found out about Spring of Hope! I am so happy that God stretched my faith to continue trusting that He had better plans for me than I could even imagine. Spring of Hope is exactly the place which I had envisioned serving at, and I could not create a more perfect place myself. God is so good!
Spring of Hope is a community-based rehabilitation non- profit organisation for children with disabilities in rural areas of Uganda. They currently work with 500 children and their families in the areas of education, physiotherapy, awareness raising and income generating projects. Our aim is to see that these children are able to reach their true potential. Before the work of Spring of Hope began disabled children were being abused, locked away and tied up due to the stigma of disability. They hope to see children with disabilities fully accepted into all areas of community and family life in Uganda.
To explain what my duties will be during my time at Spring of Hope, I have taken the direct words from a current volunteer’s blog whose position I will be basically taking over. Here is how she explained her duties and more about Spring of Hope on her blog:
“Spring of Hope is a community- based, Christ- centered organization that aims not only to care for children with disabilities, but to teach the FAMILY how to take care of their own child with disabilities. One of the biggest issues with special needs children world wide is that people:
#1. Don’t understand WHY their child has a disability. Many believe it is due to a fault in the mother during pregnancy. Many believe it is because they are possessed or cursed with an evil spirit. This often leads to abuse or neglect of the child. Sometimes they are tied up in dark closets, beaten, and/ or taken advantage of sexually.
#2. People don’t have the knowledge to know HOW to care for their child that is different than all the other ones.
Spring of Hope’s mission is to not only provide medication and therapy for the disabled kids, but also to educate parents/ family members on what they can do at HOME that will benefit their child and help them succeed. Sometimes, it’s just convincing the parents that their child is CAPABLE of succeeding that is the trick. There is such a negative perspective on disabled children here in Uganda.
What I do as a volunteer:
As a volunteer, I go along on home visits, where we travel out into more rural areas to give children physical therapy, and also help teach them activities of daily living skills. We do this IN the home environment so that #1. the child feels familiar and comfortable #2. To educate the parents and teach them these exercises to do themselves, and #3. To be an example to the parents and siblings of how to love on their child. Our MAIN mission is to change the perspective in the community. We do this by being vessels of Jesus’s love and having His attitude towards the children. When the parents see US having fun and interacting with the child, they are likely to duplicate these actions and attitudes.
Along with home visits, I help out when we have any sort of clinic. There are 3 kinds of clinics.
1. Drop- in clinics- these are held AT our office. Parents travel with their child to receive both medication and physical therapy, and also to get tips on activities of daily living (ADL) training.
2. Wobwoko clinics- this is basically a larger- scale drop in clinic, but it’s in a different location (about an hour from our office). We set up camp in a public health clinic building as the people roll in (well, they usually walk… but whatever!) by the hundreds to receive medication and therapy for their children. We spend a LOT of time counting, sorting, and cutting pill capsules to hand out too.
3. Parish clinics- Parish clinics are kind of like an awareness clinic. We use this time mainly to focus on the perspective issue talked about before. We play games with the kids, teach bible stories, and talk to the parents about how special children are, and how they really CAN be a blessing if they choose to view it as such."To read more from Gracie's blog about the work she has done and is doing at Spring of Hope, you can catch her blog here: http://mysunshinemills.blogspot.com/
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
