Compassion in Action Kids Bible Study Field Trip: A Day of Firsts

Singing filled our bus as we drove to Kampala for an end of the year field trip with the CIA Bible study kids. For most of these kids it was their first time to go to Kampala (especially the rich part of it)! 

Back in September, I promised my Bible study kids that if they got 70% or above, five times, they would come to an end of the year party. They worked so hard, and their work paid off yesterday as they had one of the funnest days of their lives.  

When we clambered into the bus, I asked who had gone to Kampala before and only a few raised their hands, and those who did had never been to the nice part of Kampala, only the slums. "When I lived with my grandma, I used to wash cars in the washing-bay to pay for my school fees," Muyanja, who is 15, told me. "I did that from 2011- 2014. Then when my grandma died, I   moved in with my uncle in the village, who I'm living with now." Muyanja was the only one who had lived in Kampala.  

When we arrived at the Sheraton Hotel to swim, the kids looked around wide-eyed at the towering skyscrapers and nice houses. "We're not in Kubamitwe anymore!" they agreed. We walked through the hotel to the swimming pool, and after we had changed, the kids jumped into the pool! The only place they had ever swam in was the swamp in the rainy season when it would overflow. What a big difference an actual swimming pool was to them! When they played and splashed themselves into exhaustion, they grabbed their towels and laid out on the lawn chairs. If only their beds were that comfortable!  

We then walked to a nearby mall and got ice cream at KFC. None of them had ever had real ice cream before, and they were so pumped! They kept walking up to me, giving me knuckles and a thumbs up with huge smiles over their faces. It took us around 20 minutes to get out of there because they savored every lick of their dollar soft serve vanilla ice cream. As we were walking, we passed by some street kids begging for food. "Where do they sleep and get food?" one of the kids asked me. I explained that they got their food from begging from others. "We are so blessed!" he responded. "If we're hungry all we have to do is climb a tree and get fruit or go dig in the garden and pick some food. We know where we're going to sleep at night." The other kids agreed with him, as they waved to the beggar children. What an example of thankfulness to God! These kids have nothing! Most of them don't have parents, live in mud huts, work from dawn to dusk, but still they are grateful for what they do have!  

If I wrote every detail of that amazing day I could fill a book, but to sum it up: they went on their first elevator (you would've thought it was a roller coaster), their first escalator (they were very hesitant), they ate their first pizza, drank soda, got more ice cream, and sang praise songs the whole way home. 

The insights of these kids are profound. They pointed out to me how unhappy the rich people in Kampala seemed and how even a lot of money doesn't satisfy.  

 Thank you to Word of Life at Lakeside for making this day possible for these kids.The joy of making somebody else's day has been so much fun for my brothers and me! And you can join in their fun when you watch this video of their day CIA Field Trip.   

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35). Take the time today to go and show someone that you love him! I watched one kid who I have never seen smile, smile for the first time! It's by our love that the world will see that we are different. Let your light shine to them! Let them see Christ through you!  

The Beginning of the Story...

Ministry is a really crazy thing! Some days are really encouraging and you feel like God is using you in people’s lives. Other days you wonder what’s going wrong. This month has been a somewhat discouraging month. Rehema, the girl that Compassion in Action has been sending to Legacy, was taken away by her Muslim mom, and we don’t know where she is. In the beginning of May, Rehema’s mom approached me and told me that she was taking Rehema away to work with her. When I asked her why, she tried to convince me that the grandmother that she was staying with was mean to her and the other children bullied her (her explanation of the bullying was not clear). When she told me this, I didn’t believe her because I knew that the mom was a very difficult and manipulative woman. She insisted on taking Rehema with her. After many pleas and much persuasive argument she agreed to allow her to stay with us. After a week of staying with us, I arranged for her to stay with an SOS staff family nearby. Everything was going really well. Rehema was flourishing, having for the first time a mom and dad who cared about her and doing exceptionally well in school, scoring 1^st in her class. Almost every evening she would come to our house and play outside, never forgetting to give us all hugs. I had many meaningful conversations with her and whenever we would pray together, she would ask God to save her and make her a Christian. She even asked for a Christian name because the name “Rehema” is a Muslim name and she didn’t want to be known as a Muslim but as a Christian.

In August, Legacy started its mid-year break. I decided to have Rehema stay with her grandma and cousins until school started up again. I knew that the mom was lying about how the grandma was acting. She was just trying to manipulate me into something; I didn’t know what.

Right after Rehema went back to live with her grandma, I went to America to celebrate Emma’s (my big sister) birthday. When I came home a month later, I was told by many people that Rehema’s mom showed back up and took her away. Rehema’s grandma, aunt, Zeek, Solomon Kavuma (principal of Legacy), and many others begged her to allow Rehema to go to school and get a good education, but she refused. She left a couple days later and took Rehema with her; no one knows where. Not even her relatives. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. I have asked many people how we can get a hold of Rehema’s mom, but nobody knows.

Muslims believe that God is a sovereign God, but they don’t believe He cares for them. I don’t know the end of Rehema’s story. I do know that my God is a GOOD God. His plans are the best, and He uses all things to work together for good for all those who are called according to His purpose. He has an AMAZING plan!!!

Please pray for little Rehema!

• ·      Pray that her mom’s hard heart would be softened and transformed by God’s grace.
• ·      Pray that Rehema could come back and finish her education.
• ·      Pray that God would use this situation to even bring her grandma and other relatives to Himself.

I know that God has the power to change the situation; please pray that He does, but if He doesn’t want to, then please pray that He would change us in the situation!

This world would not be the same without flowers. They make life so much more beautiful. I recently learned in science that wild flowers don’t need someone to plant them, but they can self-produce. Wild flowers don’t even require anyone to water them; all they need to grow is God’s gardening skills.

So many times I think that I am needed. I think, “So many people are going to hell. I need to do something and help. This world needs me. My friends need me. God needs me.” This last month my family has been going through 1 Corinthians. This morning we read 1 Corinthians 3:5-7:

“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” 

Who am I? I’m just the child who was given the privilege to plant and water the seed, but God is the real amazing one. He takes the souls of helpless slaves of sin, and He frees them and makes them His children and lavishes them with His grace. He clothes them in His righteousness and cleanses them with His blood that He shed on our behalf.

If God chooses to use the ministry of Compassion in Action to lead some lost sinners to Himself then may God be praised. If He chooses to not use us at all, then may God be praised. He is the only one who deserves glory… for everything!

If my brothers and I finished building a kitchen, and we display our building to the happy new owners and they say, “Wow, that’s such a great hammer you have; it did such a great job getting those nails in the board!”, it would be weird because we did all the work, and we used our muscles and energy to use the hammer to hit the nail in. The hammer was just a tool. And that’s what we are: The hammers in God’s hand. He is using us to build His Church.

My prayer is that we would use every opportunity given to us to be used by God for His work, and that it would all be for His glory, not our own.

“According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that in with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:20-21