“What we expected to give out of this trip we more than doubled in our reception.”
OUR STORY
James 1 is the chapter to live by in our families house. It reminds us of our high position as children of God, but also to be careful of our pride as we are to be reminded of our lowly positions as servants of the Most High. Not one of us is great enough to enter the kingdom of God without his grace bestowed upon us.
As Kim and tried to follow the commands of James at the end of this chapter, where he talks about serving the widows and children of this world, we set off to Africa for our first trip ever outside the country. What we expected to give out of this trip we more than doubled in our reception. What little we were able to do to help the needy of this world, yet what wonderful gifts of smiles, friendships and a better perspective of the world we received.
Kim found that it was amazing that people with so little, were yet so happy. They gave us anything and everything they had.  how selfish we are in the comfort of our rich nation that we so often don’t share when we have much. Bu these people were like the widow with only a half pence, giving everything they had with a heart of joy. I beleive Kim has made a lifelong friendship with one of translators and guides there in Uganda and will look forward to seeing her again and keeps in touch via email.
For me the language was something I loved. Trying to speak in a different way, I wanted them to know I cared for them. I would rather conform to their life, than they to mine. Mark, one of the little boys there who helped me so much with my language as he laughed at my pronunciation of his tribes tongue, stole my heart. He is a Philadelphia Phillies fan and reminded me so much of my own son. I left with him my Phillies hat and money for a pair of new shoes, as the sneakers he wore were pink but also falling apart. I hear he showed up to church a few weeks ago with his new shoes.
After returning Kim and I joined the board of Word inDeed as we saw that the needs of the people there are great and what little difference we could make, might go a long way. Whatever God has in store for us in the future with Word inDeed we will be willing to follow. Uganda is a place that I know I will be revisiting and hope to take many more over with me the next time I return.
From Pete Lytle, WID board member and nurse serving on fall 2009 medical mission trip to Ntenjeru
This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 9:09 am and is filed under Uganda. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.