Monday Dec 16:
Every morning the missionaries gather to do a devo and prayer time on the porch of the highest house at the mission. It is just really a cool thought that every morning they come together for 10-15 to just stop and listen to God and each other and to share the prayers and praise of what has been going on. After devos 14 long term, mid term, and short term missionaries loaded up a bus with the 12 special needs children on campus and headed out to kingfisher resort with a clean pool and play ground. Every single one of the kids got in the water (3 of them had always refused) and they all smiled and laugh the entire time. They were telling us just how special it was to see all the kids break out of their shell with special one on one attention. It does not happen often with any of the children, but especially the special needs children are often grouped all together or with 2-3 kids. We also got to go with a national that was a trained occupational therapist and it was awesome to see how great he was with all the children. Any child that refused to get in the water he pulled in and by the time he passed them off or set them down they were laughing and giggling and just squealing. It really was such an exciting thing to see. After we got all the kids out and a little dried off we had a meal of chicken and chips (fries) or fish and chips. Having meat was quite a treat not only for the kids but also for many of the missionaries. I wish you all could have witnessed this. The kids eating and stealing food from each other and thinking everything was just sooo funny, it just made everyone smile. Finally we got them to the play ground and got them all on the teeter totter for the first time for many of them. Some of them LOVED it, others did not know what to think about it and a couple just HATED it. But all of them were fun to watch. Again Joseph was there helping them all try it out.
After we got back we occupied ourselves in a house with about 14 toddlers 2-4 years old until it was time for dinner. We made pasta and veggies for us and Julie, Stephan, Sabrina, and Emily (another special needs teacher that was with us for the day). Sarah and I also made American boxed cake and American canned frosting for dessert and the above mentioned people were BEYOND excited. It was fun and a joy to just give them a little taste of America that we don't even consider to be a treat.
Ok so now I have to talk a little more about Julie because well she was awesome and one of those people I just knew God sent me here to meet and to encourage me even though I doubt she realized she was such an encouragement. First of all to anyone who thinks missionaries are sheltered and boring people come live in Uganda or just about any other area where there are missionaries. I have learned you can not take life too seriously, and they love to laugh. Julie is no exception, she is likely one of the top 10 funniest and yet encouraging people out there. As I mentioned she is a 5th generation missionary with African Inland Mission and went to school in the states to be a special needs teacher and lived there for a total of 10 years, but you would think she just moved to Africa with her humor and english. When you see her interact with the natives however you know this is her home. This is the place and the people God has called her to serve, bless, and be blessed by. Her love and no nonsense for the kids and her desire to see them suceed reminded me so much of my mother. You could just tell that this was not her job, this was her calling, this is the "desires of her heart" that God has given her. That was such an encouragement. Her ministry is a traveling ministry and she has 1-3 short term missionaries that has training to work with children with special needs with her at any time. She travels around and stays where ever there is room. That may be in a school, church, house, or her tent right outside the police station. For about the last 8 months I have not been able to get TIMO, a 2 year program where you are working with a people group while also getting training off of my heart and mind or out of my prayers. Well long story short as she was leaving she said she had been thinking about and praying about doing a TIMO team for special needs population, but didnt know because she would be in charge of leading it. Selfishly I hope she does and that I can go, but honestly I pray that got would just give us each direction in when/if we should participate with the ministry.
Tuesday Dec 17:
This morning we woke up and after distributing all the goodies we brought we gathered the special needs children to do some finger painting with them. We met a couple more kids that had been gone when we went to king fisher and it was fun to get to hang around them and do something so silly and fun. Julie used it as an opportunity to learn for many of them, while others just made some very interesting abstracts. When that was done we busted out the chalk and did some beautiful sidewalk art. After the finger painting the rest of the kids and MK's came out to join us so we taught them how to play hop-scotch and learned how to play some other games. It was a morning full of laughing and games and we had tons of fun.
After lunch we gathered up all of the MK's and made journals with some composition books and scrap book paper I had brought. It was really a blessing to just hang out with these kids who by defalt have given their lives to serve the people of Uganda. By the way they act you would never think it was forced on them, but it is not something they got to make the decision to do.
special needs kids finger painting and chalk
For dinner tonight we went to Claudia's house, which is the missionary my church supports, with her and her family of 7 children: Maggie, Hope, Emma, Anna, Mimi, Bobby, and Alex. As an appetizer she provided us with fried grasshoppers. I know... it sounds disgusting... and yes I did eat one. Honestly I really did not think it was a big deal, it is just a little insect, so I ate it and unexpectantly I gagged because I got a little leg stuck in the wrong spot. I played it off like nothing happen, drank a bunch of water and enjoyed the rest of the meal which was delicious. (BTW the grass hopper really just tasted like a greasy french fry... think Burger King).
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