Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from Uganda!
We have had another blessed week. There have been some struggles, but our hearts are full today of God's blessings.
On Monday and Tuesday we were blessed to help serve at a Youth Camp for the Esangalo youth who serve each Saturday. This was their time to be refreshed, learn, and be served. Below is a picture of some of the youth and some of the food. In Uganda it is a special meal if there is meat.
The camp was teaching about purity. Some young men and women from the Word of Life Bible College used their Christmas break to teach others the Word of God.
We traveled again to Jinja to get groceries and tried to stock up. The traffic was terrible as many people are traveling to get together with their families. We were talking in our Bible study on Wednesday night how it was nice not to be in the hustle bustle of Christmas at home, but you can almost feel the stress of the Ugandans. They are trying to get the money to go home or buy meat and food for Christmas. Below is a video of the last bit of our trip.
The message in church this morning was about how God takes care of the sparrows and clothes the flowers. The young Ugandan who was preaching reminded us that Christmas is not about what we wear or what we eat. Christmas is about the great gift of Jesus Christ. If we get so caught up in the meat we don't have or the clothes we don't have, our focus will not be on Jesus and our heart will not be a thankful heart for the gift He has given us.
We are so blessed, and we many times take it for granted. The needs are so great here. I have had to remember the story of the little boy throwing back starfish. There were tons of them on the shore, and he was throwing them back one by one. A man walked by and said, "You can't save them all." The little boy threw back one and said, "I saved that one." There is no way to take care of all the needs. Please pray that God will show us the ones He intends for us to help. My heart goes out to them all.
This morning James cooked us a breakfast casserole. I am so blessed. On the porch next to us were two little miracles walking and talking. It was a beautiful sight and sound.
After church we visited the grandmother of our sponsored child and had prayer with them. That was a blessing on so many levels. The smile on her face as we were walking to her home was so special. It is little things like that which put joy in your heart. We walked down trails through the cotton field and walked across a bridge made of sticks to get to the house, but it was so worth it.
We pray you have a Merry Christmas! Remember to count your blessings; we have many. Our biggest blessing is to have a God who loves us and gave us the greatest gift of all.