Hey Everyone,
Below are several pictures from our recent trip to Uganda. Also, the IChooseYou Newsletter has been posted after the pics. Hope you enjoy seeing and hearing about the amazing children in Namatala....Enjoy!!!
Becky
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
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ICHOOSEYOU MINISTRIES NEWSLETTER 2013
For you are
a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God.
Of all the people on earth, God has chosen you to be His own special
treasure. Deuteronomy 7:6
This is
IChooseYou’s scripture, the following is a personal favorite of mine:
Behold,
children are a heritage from the Lord…
Psalm
127:3a
Team
members, Becky Ball, Darby Burleson, Katelyn Lipscomb, Madison Nye, Bryanna
Armstrong, Anapaulina Perez, Rachel Gober Thomas, Chase Thomas and Callie
Eacret, left Houston on May 1 for the great adventure of 2013!
We had many
highlights, choosing 3 more children for the IChooseYou Sponsorship program (we
now have 50 children!), treating wounds in the slums of Namatala, spending
quality time will all 50 children (no school…they were on holiday!), teaching
new songs, having a great personal hygiene class for the older girls and
boys…..I could keep on going! Darby, as
always spent good quality time with the IChooseYou Sewing Moms. There was a lot of sewing going on and she
was able to sit with them and talk to them about their goals, their vision for
the future, their wants and their needs.
Darby is such a blessing to these ladies…she shows them just how
important and special each one is to her, to us, to the children and above all
else to Jesus.
But the
biggest highlight for me this year was being able to experience a huge first
for the children of IChooseYou. None of
the children but 2 have never been out of the Mbale/Namatala area ever in their
lives. Well, we took them to Kampala and
Entebbe for a great two day field trip!
We loaded 47 children, 10 team members and 4 Ugandans on a bus and a van
and headed out! They were all dressed in
their new IChooseYou T-Shirts, new school shorts, new school shoes and new
backpacks. It is a 6 hour drive one way
and on the bus, we heard many songs and unfortunately some sick bellies but it
was all amazing!!! We stopped once on
the way for a potty break. It was on the
side of the road by a forest (sorry, I can’t remember the name of it) and 47
children hopped off the bus and ran into the bush!!! Oh my, this was a first for me….we could
never do this in America!!! It was
hilarious and this was just the beginning!
We drove
across the Nile River then we drove through Kampala, the capital of Uganda,
then on to Entebbe. We had lunch at the
shores of Lake Victoria; I think the 2nd largest lake in the
world. Lake Victoria is the headwaters
of the Nile and the lake itself is in 3 African Countries...just a little side
note. They ate fried chicken and fries
(another first for them). They saw a ski
boat pulling a skier, I’m not sure they understand that one yet! We then went to the Entebbe Zoo and Learning
Center…it was great! They all said that
the Chimps were their favorites….they did put on a show for us…they are very
loud! They giggled at the monkeys that
ran all around us throughout the park.
After the Zoo we took them to the airport to show them where we fly in
and out of and to show them the size of the planes that we fly on….they were pretty
amazed by that. After our day in Entebbe
we arrived at a church encampment in Kampala where we would stay the
night. We arrived and they had dinner
ready for us, the children sang and danced after dinner then it was off to
bed. I will have to admit, it did bring
a tear or two to my eye when I walked into the girls dorm. They were giggling and chattering in their
beds….this was the first time most of them had ever slept in a bed! They were not sleeping on a mat on a dirt
floor this night and they had mosquito nets over them….they were little
princesses on this night, the most exciting, fun and memorable night of their
little lives. All I could say was,
“Thank you so much Jesus for this night and for allowing me to be a part of
it”….our God is so good and so big!!
They slept through the night without anyone falling out of their bed and
after breakfast the next morning we said goodbye to Darby, Madison, Rachel and
Chase and we headed back to Mbale/Namatala where life goes on. But isn’t our God so good to give us sweet
moments like a trip to see the Nile River, a big lake, chimps at the zoo, big
airplanes and a bed to sleep in!! I am
so thankful and so blessed by these children…seeing new things through their
eyes!
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