I told myself I was going to save this post for last. However, no matter how hard I try, I can't write about anything else...this is flooding every memory when I think back on our time in Uganda. I hate to say I'm picking favorites, but I'm gonna say it anyway. This was my favorite part of the trip....Our missionary nights of encouragement. Melissa already wrote her thoughts on these evenings here and it's a must read (as is the blog post that she links to in her post - go ahead, get lost in bloggy land for a little while).
We hosted 2 missionary nights during our trip. One in Kampala at Herb & Ellen's guesthouse, and another in Jinja at The Source Cafe. Melissa felt God leading her to do something for the missionary women in Uganda as she was planning this first trip for Mercy for Mamas. She's seen a lot of missionary women during her time in the country and wanted to do something special for them. She appreciates how hard they work to share Christ with the people there and how exhausting that can be (you can read a little more on her thoughts leading up to this on her blog post). She knew that God was leading her to plan a night for these women to connect, relax, fellowship, praise, and receive new tools for their various ministries.
These nights were tons of fun to plan. From the moment Melissa mentioned them to me, I was super excited. If you know me very well, you know a few things about me...I love to party plan, I love to encourage people, and I love fellowship! These nights had all of these components...so I, of course, felt like this was one more reason I was on the team! This was a project I could help with!
Melissa had great ideas for the goody bags - some items to remind them of home and maybe give them a little boost. We collected all kinds of things: candy, gum, notebooks, pens, coffee creamer, ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, lotions, kleenex, etc. Little things that they miss there. My favorite quote from Melissa's blog about these nights (maybe my favorite quote from a blog ever) is "After looking in the goody bags, one lady was nearly in tears over the ranch dressing mix. She told me that she had seriously prayed for God to send someone to her with ranch dressing. For reals people, ranch dressing can be serious ministry!" Who knew that such a little thing would mean so much to these ladies!? It was so awesome to see them dig through their bags and squeal in delight over little things that I wouldn't ever imagine they'd miss. This was a definite blessing to these ladies and a taste of home.
We had lots of donations to help out with collecting our various items, which was great! Even the kids in Melissa's class at church donated the gum...including my 4 year old Mason. He was very excited about getting the "big packs of gum" for the missionaries that I was going to see when I went to Africa. He told Melissa and I about 100 times each! He wanted to make sure we got it, then he wanted to make sure that Melissa saw the packs of gum and knew what to do with them. One of the first things he said to me when I arrived home was "Mom! Did you give the missionaries my gum? Did they like it?" Melissa did mention to the ladies in Jinja how excited my son was to give them their gum, so I brought several thank you messages back for him, which made him pretty happy!
We fed the women some great food at both evenings. Harriet did a great job preparing the meal in Uganda - it got pretty quiet once everyone got their plates! I've never heard so many people rave about mac & cheese before - it was pretty great to see them enjoying their meal so much! The food that they prepared for our group at The Source was great too and the ladies had a great time chatting while they had a great meal!
We had some great time of worship with our team members Becki & Kerri. This was incredible. First of all, I got to see my new friends use their gifts for leading worship and for sharing their hearts with women. This was pretty special. They are incredible ladies and are so very talented. The best part is, they know where their talent comes from and they use it so well to glorify their King. They did an awesome job leading these women in unified worship to the Father and giving them a chance to let loose and refresh their praise.
I love to sing, so I enjoyed lifting my voice with these new friends of mine, but I found myself stopping every once in a while, or getting a catch in my throat, just listening to these women that are far away from home, from our every day comforts, serving where God has asked them to...to hear them all come together and sing together about God's goodness was enough to be completely overwhelming. It was such a sweet sound, and I know God's ears were happy to hear all of his daughters' voices come together.
Melissa shared with the ladies for a while. She told them who she was, a little bit about her story and the beginnings of Mercy for Mamas. She shared her heart with them and I could see them starting to understand this friend of mine and her joy for serving God's purpose for her experiences. She shared with them about how, as great as it is to get to pass out these mama kits ourselves, she understands that often they can be much more effective as a ministry tool in the hands of long term missionaries. She told them that she wants them to be able to build relationships with the women that receive them and to be able to follow up and to continue to show Christ long after our short term missions teams would be gone.
This is one of my favorite things Melissa got to share with people when we were in Uganda. It's just so much more than a birthing kit...it's love and relationship waiting to happen...it's an open door to a mama's heart. And she got to give that to these missionaries and equip them in a new way to connect with the people of Uganda. At the end of the night, they lined up to receive their kits with huge smiles on their faces and ideas rolling off their tongues. I heard so many excited women talking about where they were going to use them first, followed with questions on when/how they could get more because it was going to be such a great tool for them. It was amazing to see it all fall into place and be understood so completely.
We had the ladies introduce themselves to the entire group at the beginning of the program and it was so amazing to hear about them, their families, their ministries, where they were from, and how long they had been serving in Uganda. We had women that had been there for decades sitting next to some that had been there for a few weeks. We had older women and younger women. We had different denominations. We had women serving in education, some in health care, some loving kids in babies' homes...all different spectrums of ministries, sitting in one space, laughing and praising together. It was beautiful to watch them make connections and meet new friends...to see them sink into fellowship with other women with similar lives, stories, and hearts and to understand how much they need each other and those relationships.
At the end of our program, we split the ladies into groups and each person from our team sat with a group and prayed with them. We asked them to share their prayer needs, to tell us more about themselves and their work there and what they needed and how God was working on them. These ladies poured their hearts out more than I ever could have asked for. They showed me their love for the people of Uganda and how God led them there. They told me their struggles, their frustrations, their worries and doubts. They asked for endurance, for guidance, and for continued joy in the work for the Lord. We laid hands on each other and took turns praying. They told me how much they needed this...all of it...and how thankful they were. They prayed for our team, that we would continue to bless people the way that we had blessed them.
They told me that they felt uplifted, encouraged, renewed, and covered in prayer...and that they would be able to carry this night with them for a long time. They raved about the evening and how they wish they could do things like this more often. I was amazed by these women and their lives and hearts. I loved getting to sit and chat with some of them for an extended time...to really get to know them beyond the surface stuff. I will carry those women and their work in my heart and can only pray that our encouragement will stick with them as well.
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