Uganda is more. More than everything I expected. More beautiful. More heartbreaking. More glorious, and more challenging. I came here to do one thing: love on people. Build relationships with the forgotten, the lonely, the poor, and the broken. And I’ve been blessed to be able to do that every single day since we got here.
The days are all starting to run together, but there’s one afternoon we had here that I won’t forget. We’ve been doing school outreach every day, and at a primary school in Gulu we had a bunch of free time and a bunch of restless children. What we ended up with was the world’s biggest, most chaotic game of Simon Says mixed with Duck Duck Goose and everyone running around in circles. I stepped back for a few minutes to watch everything unfold, and what I saw were children doing exactly what they’re supposed to: laughing, dancing, singing, chasing. Their stories are heartbreaking, and their lives have been anything but easy. Most of these kids have been affected by the war in one way or another. Some have been child soldiers; others have lost their parents and brothers and sisters. They’re been through more in their short lives than I can even imagine. I love that we got to help them forget about all that for even a few hours.
God loves these children, and the best way I can express that to them is by sitting with them in the dirt, spending time talking with them, and telling them that they are worth something. That they are loved, that they are special, and that there is hope.
