I have more priceless treasures to add to my little stash. As I was packing myself into the van with my teammates to leave Bugolobi this afternoon, two very dear children pressed these notes into my hands. What I gripped in my hand went straight to my heart. Their words, exactly, are these:
Dear Auntie Rebecca
I will like to greet you and thank you in Jesus’s name
I will like to greet your country and all others
But don’t forget the kingdom of God
I enjoyed music so much. and I want thank for teaching us good voice (*not sure here if he meant he liked my voice or that I taught them to sing well :-))
I will like to thank for your time which you have taken to teach us music
Great (*greet) for your family
I will pray for you every day and I will miss
look down is a nice picture of a hen for you
From Nazir GB green (*meaning he was on the green team) please I have stop there Bye
God bless Auntie Rebecca and his family
Greet for me every one in your family
How is your family
And this letter, lovingly wrapped up in a homemade envelope:
Dear Auntie Rebecca,
I love you so much, I thank you for your loving for good smally for your good songs and for smat, (*not sure what the “smally” and “smat” mean, but she was grateful for them)
I thank you for lugada’s (*Lugandan) songs
you was so greatful
My mother was happy and told me to write for you are (*a) letter bat (*that) thank you very much
may God bless you allways
She went on in the back page to give me a verse that I would love to share with you if I could understand it, but as it's in Lugandan, I have a little trouble with the translation. But the hearts of these children continue to amaze me. When was the last time you got a Bible verse just for you from a ten-year old? Or a greeting in Jesus' name from a young man who is scarcely in his teens?
The program this afternoon went very well - all 3 1/2 hours of it! It was originally meant to be, I think, two hours long. Oh, and we started thirty minutes late because not even half of the parents had come by the time we were supposed to begin. This African way of keeping time really makes me laugh. The children were given their very own pencil cases, a pair of socks, some small school supplies, and - I think, the most appreciated - a mosquito net. (Malaria is rampant here, largely because of the lack of preventative care.) They were so utterly grateful for our simple gifts - gifts made possible by people back West who are not even here to see the dear beaming faces. They said again and again, “Thank you . . . We are overwhelmed . . . May God bless you . . . Thank you so much.” I was overwhelmed by their gratefulness. To think - we in the West have so much, yet are grateful for so little. Here in Africa, they have so little, yet are grateful for so much.
Dear God, bless these dear children and their families! I thank You for the time at Bugolobi. I also thank You for our team. Regardless of our weaknesses and areas of struggle, You blessed people through this team. And in the process You were glorified. That is the point.
“Then this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.” - Jeremiah 33:9
