Skip to main content

Welcome Home

Some of our children come from areas around Kampala. When they are out of school, we will send them home to visit families. This holiday, they were gone for two weeks and there were five of them. The house just seemed so quiet. Sure, there was still plenty of noise, but not to the extent of fourteen children enjoying life and running wild. By the end of their stay, I was ready for them to come home!
I estimated what time they would be home, and every time I heard anything at the gate or any honk outside, I went to see if it was them. Finally they arrived home at around 8 in the evening. We had just started our nightly prayers, and were in the middle of a song. I saw the headlights through the gates and screamed to the top of my lungs, waving my arms in the air, and skipping out of the house. Everyone else followed shortly. The kids piled out of the van screaming with pure excitement. Ivan, who is just a solid rock of muscle, jumped into my arms as he shouted the most beautiful words, “AUNTIE MARY!” He then jumped from my arms to someone else's arms. Keep in mind, he is twelve. Then Moureen gave me the biggest hug, as she lifted me off of the ground. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed. Not only was I tickled to pieces that the rest of the kids were home, but those who stayed behind were equally ecstatic. Our giggles lit the night sky.
I pictured the reunion we will receive in Heaven. What a great and glorious welcome that must be! We fight the battles on this world. We are beat and tired, separated from those we love who have gone before us. We finally make it home. The pressures we have fought for so long vanish. We are soldiers returning home after a long battle. We know we are safe from the harm of the enemy. We can squeeze the necks in a glorious reunion. I am a giggly person, and I know on the day I will be laughing myself silly! Love and laughter will fill the air on that glorious day.

Above all, we will be in the presence of our Savior. He will welcome us home. We will finally grasp Christ in all His glory. No other welcome will compare to that day.

Comments

  1. Sweet!!!! You are blessing my heart by being there and loving on the kids and Uganda so very much!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Encouragement

I am overwhelmed with the reactions of people who hear about my heart for missions, and my upcoming opportunity to work with Redeemer House Orphanage. All warm my heart, and fill my soul with joy. Most reactions are filled with squeals of joy, tears, and enormous hugs. I hold them deep in my heart, and I am blessed. When I first was wrestling with the idea of applying for this position, I took a day trip to my home church in Powell Butte, Oregon. I did not share with many about what I was praying about because I didn't want to make a great big scene, and then not follow through. I hope that church will be behind me through whatever missions I do, but something in me told me to wait to share with everyone. I did share with some, and when I did, each one was ecstatic for me! Each one encouraged me to pursue this route, because if God wants me there He will open the door, and if He doesn't then He will close it, but let Him do it. Their words of encouragement blessed me more than...

Emboko

Here is a Luganda lesson. In fact, this was one of the first words I learned (first in the few that I know...). Emboko. Emboko means 'beautiful'. So many times, the children will be going around saying, “You are emboko!” And then they will go to each person, and state that they are “Emboko”. Talk about a confidence boost! Not only is it encouraging, but they say it with all sincerity! Over the past few days, we had a large team of Americans here at Redeemer House. I will be honest... I was nervous at first to have so many adults around. I have a tendency to shut down in large crowds of adults. I am so much better with large groups of kids. But these guys bonded with the kids quickly! And I felt like my personality fit in some way with all of theirs, making it easy to stay connected. Friendships were made, and relationships were established. I believe they will last a lifetime. One night, we were waiting for the team to come and join us in prayer. The kids kept coming to me,...

25 Years of Broken Dreams (Although This Is An Uplifting Post)

On my twenty-fifth birthday, I looked back on a high school goal of mine. In one of my classes, we had to make those “by this point in my life I will (fill in the blank)” and make tangible goals to reach the dream. Mine? By age twenty-five, I would own my own hair salon in Newport, Oregon. My plan was to move to the Coast and have my hair license by age twenty so I could begin building a clientele that would sustain my own salon, as I saved to make this dream possible. This July, I hit that birthday. Let me tell you, not a single one of those goals or ambitions were accomplished! Yet, not a single part of me regrets not following my dream. First of all, it was my stubborn personality that kept that dream going for so long. The dream really should have stated, “Prove to others I can do what they said I couldn’t” because if I were to boil down a very long story, that was at the heart of this dream. I pretty much refuse to spend more than five minutes on my own hair. I don’t know what ...