J is for Jesus

We have walked kids to school everyday this week and it has been so awesome to be able to spend time with them on our 20 minute walk there.  We have made a routine of walking with them to school and then picking them up from school to walk home so we spend as much time with them as possible.  I have really been trying to focus my attention on Winnifred and getting to know her.  She loves playing and joking around but she is closed off when it comes to talking about anything serious but the more time we spend together the more open she has become!  I know that I want to spend the rest of my time here getting to know Winnifred and Simon Peter, which is Winnifred's dad, better but I have not figured out exactly what God wants me to do with them.  Two nights ago I prayed that God would just reveal to me my purpose with them and his plan.  I prayed the same thing the next morning before I went out to the village for the day.  Yesterday morning when I went to Winnifred's home to get her for school Simon wanted to show me the bush in his yard that he had slashed (or cut) and was very proud of his work.  He asked me if I would take a picture of him with it.  I told him I would but I would have to come back later with my camera.  After we walked them to school and came back home we left to go back out to the village and I forgot my camera.  I ran into Simon and he asked where it was so I told him I would run back to the house and get it and that I would be right back.  Jokingly he told me I had 5 minutes and told me he was timing me.  I ran to the house and when I returned he said I was 3 minutes late.  I took his picture and then took one with him.  He was so proud!  This is the picture he wanted me to take below!

After I took his picture I went over to see Consey and Emma.  As I was leaving he asked me if I would come back because he wanted to talk so of course I said I would come right back.  When I returned I sat down with him and we pretty much talked about everything you can imagine.  We talked about all the ways Uganda is different from America.  I asked a lot about Winnifred and about how she does in school and just other things to get to know her better.  He kept telling me how glad he is that we are here.  He said that sometimes Americans have come and do not even want to touch them because they think that the Ugandans are dirty.  He told me that our group does not make ourselves seem superior to them.  He said sometimes he sits back and watches us play with their dirty kids who have been laying in the dirt and watches us work alongside the people here and through that he knows that Christ is in us and he can see it.  We do not tell these people how things need to be done, but instead we learn from them and want to see how they do things.  It was so cool that he said this.  This has been our goal while here.  We do not want to try to westernize them and act like we are better than them and have a better way of doing things.  We want to work along side them and develop relationships while we work with them.  When he said this to me I knew that we are doing with God wants us to do.  We went on to talking about praying and reading the Bible.  Both him and Winnifred have a Bible and he said they read it every night.  I asked him if he prays and he told me he does all the time.  When he wakes up, goes to sleep, and throughout the day.  I was very happy to hear this because most of the people here think that they are only allowed to pray at church and no where else at any other time.  I am glad to know that Simon knows and understands that he can talk to his Heavenly Father whenever he wants.  He went inside his hut and got his Bible and a song book.  He opened the song book and read one of the songs to me in Luo and then translated into English. It sounded a lot like the 23 Psalm.  It was an awesome experience being able to do this with Simon.

We picked the kids up from school and we sang the whole say back.  Winnifred taught me a song on the way to school that goes like this: J is for Jesus, O is for others, Y yiyiyiyi is for you, you you you you you.  We sang this over and over.  I love being around her and learning about her and her life.  I talk to her about Jesus every chance I get and she listens to what I have to say.  Pouring into Winnifred and Simon Peter and just teaching them what God has revealed to me is definitely my purpose for while I am here.