"If you're clappy and you know it..."

That's the song a little girl staying at our guesthouse sung to me this past week..."if you're clappy and you know it, clap your hands..."!! She's 5 years old and undergoing the final adoption process by a younger Christian couple from Michigan. She's just beyond precious and still learning English ;) Her name is Abby, and she puts a smile on my face everytime I see her! (God's actually given me a new vision and used her as an inspiration and encouragement to move forward with this "crazy vision"!!)

So, this blog I'm going to share some this past weeks events...hopefully you can feel like you've actually been here in Uganda with me :)

On Tuesday, we had our last visit to the Remand Home and Wells of Hope. Wells of Hope is the place I've absolutely fallen in love with!! We spent the majority of time playing with the children outside...it was extremely hot, BUT the kids were laughing and having a blast! We were learning new worship songs with actions, playing treasure hunt with candy, running through the dirt playing other games, and just loving on all of them!! Despite all the despair and hopelessness the kids may have been "feeling" and experiencing, I believe they sincerely felt loved, had fun, and experienced joy and happiness!

For the past few weeks, we've had teachings on the Beatitudes (the Sermon on the Mount). For those that don't know, it's a teaching/preaching that Jesus gave (check it out in the Bible, Matthew chapter 5), that proclaimed Jesus' attitude and challenged religious leaders of that day. We have gone in depth through it and it's truly changing me from the inside-out. I can't even explain it! What it means to be poor in spirit...to be hungry and thirsty for His righteousness...to have a pure heart...and God's rewards for all of these. Studying His Word and the Holy Spirit and being in Uganda....man it will mess you up...and is completely changing my life :)

One of my groups had to do a teaching this week, and our topic was "sincerity". We got the topic a while ago and the day we got it, I asked the Lord to begin to prepare me...boy did He (always be careful what you pray for!!!). We had 3 days of teaching (only 30 minutes each day). The first day, everyone in the group participated...God totally wrote the program in such a creative way :) I love to be unique and creative...and He knows that (and since He is THE Creator, it was awesome)...we performed a skit that I wrote, played a song, prayed, and had the class journal about some specific questions (this program was completely different than any other groups program previously). All the glory goes to the Lord...He completely wrote the program, and I was just obedient to listen and follow His plan. Day 2, another girl taught the whole session, and did a wonderful job...and day 3, I taught the whole session. It was completely anointed. I didn't go in wanting to just teach a lesson, I wanted to get to deeper issues and change lives...use the foundation of sincerity, but go much deeper...and God totally allowed me to do that! It was incredible! I challenged some people, agitated others, excited others...but in the end, I know it wasn't ME that did anything...it was the Holy Spirit working through me...so let people get angry, frustrated, and agitated...I was just the yielded vessel...they can take their issues up with the Lord :)

Well, the night before I was preparing the teaching, I was up pretty late and sitting in the common room, and in walks a really cool missionary from the States! God is so amazing how He orchestrates us to meet people and do things! I was tired and pressed for time, but even at midnight, I will stop and talk with another missionary ;) His name is Josh and he's from Texas, in transit to Sudan for a couple months. He was there last year and helped start an orphanage. He's going back now for the ground work on a primary school. He's in his 20's, yet been all over the world already, and was sharing many of his amazing experiences with me...nothing short of incredible, miraculous, and powerful!! There's no doubt the Lord's Hand is all over his life and he is filled with the Holy Spirit. He's very interested in working with Iris Ministries at some point (Heidi Baker's foundation) and some of you know that's the other ministry I was considering to do discipleship/missions training with. It's very possible Josh and I will cross in mission ministry path's again someday! I'm very interested in doing mission work in Sudan, and he told me Heidi Baker has ministry set up there :)

So, the same day I did the sincerity teaching (and had very little sleep the night before because I was talking to Josh and preparing the teaching), we had our "seed project" in the afternoon. (I believe I blogged about the project several weeks ago). Every group was sent out to a specific area to do street ministry and instructed to find out the needs of the community, and then come back to brain-storm ideas on how to best meet the needs. In the area we went to, the LC (lead commissioner) of the area doesn't have good relations with the community and there's not good communication and there's no respect for him. People of the community dump all their trash right outside his office (to express their frustration and anger), so the area is a mess. Also, the kids are very overpopulated and very disobedient...many involved in gangs and bullying. The atmosphere of the community is just bad and you can "feel" it as you walk around. The first time we visited, it just felt unpeaceful and like everyone was disgruntled and in strife. No love. No Jesus.
Soooooo, on Friday, we went back to implement "our project". Our plan didn't happen exactly as we anticipated (TIA), and I won't tell you what we originally planned (because it would take too long), so I'll just give you a glimpse of what did happen! We had a team of 8 people (6 Ugandans and 2 Muzungus), because a couple members were out sick :( We borrowed T-shirts from the hospitality department at the church, so we all looked uniform, and had a box of water donated (to give away to people), a bunch of gloves, a couple shoves, several brooms, a couple rakes, a couple hoes, and 2 megaphones....and we all boarded a matatu. There's a large hill that you must walk up with cows and trash to the sides, and at the top is the LC's office and the community. We all stood at the bottom of the hill (looked at "our project" at the top of the hill)....got in a big circle and prayed just before walking up the muddy hill in our matching T-shirts...are you picturing this?? ;) Oh, I forgot to mention, we also got a cable to attach to the megaphone and plugged my iPOD into it. I prayed about what songs to put on the playlist (our objective was to attract the kids and youth...so we could talk with them and/or get them involved in our trash clean-up). We hung the megaphone around the back of the other muzungu on the team, and started blasting the music (it didn't sound perfect, but it honestly didn't sound that bad either). What I didn't realize, was the first song that was on the playlist was called "Unashamed" by Lecrae (it's a Christian hip-hop song). I don't normally listen to hip-hop, so I really had to allow the Lord to lead me when I was making this playlist. The lyrics at the beginning say, "We unashamed....unashamed....unashamed....we unashamed...unashamed.....". Obviously there's more depth to the song, but how appropriate that we come walking up blasting that song...God is sooo cool! Well, pretty much instantly the kids are flooding out...between hearing the music and seeing the 2 muzungus...they want to know what we are doing there?! The trash piles looked overwhelming...we are time-limited....it seems like an impossible task! Alright God, here we go...this is for Your glory :) Well, it was nothing less than awesome!! The kids see what we are doing and start grabbing brooms and shovels to help us and hold trash bags open for us. At one point I had a child in between my legs, holding the broom with me, to help me sweep. I started to think that we could get so much more done if some of the younger kids weren't there BUT God said to me, "it's much more important that these younger kids see the example that you are. They only see bad, negative examples around here, and this will leave a lasting impression on them. You just continue to work hard and hug on them and love them and leave the rest to Me".
I had several "favorite moments" during the clean-up. One was when I looked over and saw a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old, holding onto a water bottle, and breaking it down to the hip-hop music...it was beyond precious!! Another favorite moment was when some of the cows had wandered up the hill really close to where we were cleaning the trash (these are cows with horns...I guess that would make them bulls???). Anyways, about 4 little kids took their brooms (that were bigger than they are, hehe), lifted them over their heads (with such authority) and started chasing the cows down the hill using the brooms. Obviously thinking they were helping us out, which they were. HOWEVER, 2 members from our team were picking trash at the bottom of the hill and suddenly these cows/bulls come charging down the hill at them...they go running and yelling in different directions to get out of the way...oh my, it was classic, I almost had to sit down, I was laughing so hard!! Last thing...one of my other favorite parts was actually our walk home. It's about a 25 minute walk home and you have to picture this! We are walking through a main part of Kampala city...it's Friday evening and packed...people everywhere...cars everywhere....buses everywhere!! We are dressed in matching white T-shirts, which aren't so white anymore, hehe, we are sweaty, carrying brooms, shovels, and rakes. Because the sidewalks are pretty crowded, we are forced to walk in a line or in pairs...but leading us is one muzungu guy with a megaphone strapped around his back. We decided to walk the streets of Kampala and play our new "theme song", Unashamed, because the lyrics are so fitting, "...we ain't ashamed, you can call us lame....God has resurrected Him and I'm here to glorify Him, My Jesus, Jesus, Jesus....". It's a total hip-hop song and you can't help but move to the beat...we were all putting a little "move" into our step and we were rapping along with the song, or trying to, hehe :) We were laughing and having so much fun!! (The others on my team couldn't believe that I had that type of music on my iPOD, they said it was perfect to attract the people we were trying to reach....yep, God is perfect!!) It made the walk in the HOT sun, after just cleaning up trash for 2 hours, a lot less tiresome and A TON more fun :) I love my team, they are hard-working, strive for excellence, care about His People, pray, and listen to His voice...makes it very easy and pleasurable to serve alongside them...I'm going to miss them sooooo much!!! I hope we made an impact in the slum area we went to...bridging the gap between the LC and community is not easy, leading tough gang members onto a straight path is not easy, bringing peace to a community is not easy.....but we serve a big God and with Him ALL things are possible....if anything, I know we planted several seeds!!!

I think my blogs are getting longer and longer (when I sit down to write, I don't intend for them to be so long)...but I think subconsciously I know the end is soon coming to this incredible and indescribable experience! Only 2 more weeks left here in Uganda, but I'm staying fixed and focused; I must finish here before I can think about home (in Florida) :)

Love you all!

Living to know Him more and more,
Michelle