The Greatest Gift!

This Christmas, God gave John & I possibly the greatest gift that He has ever given us for Christmas (besides the birth of His Son, of course)! He opened the door for us to be able to visit an orphanage on Christmas Day and share his love with 58 precious children! The name of the orphanage is “Uganda Jesus Village.” These children are displaced children from Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, who have suffered the horrible actions of the “Lord’s Resistance Army,” a terrorist group led by Joseph Coney. You may know them as “The Invisible Children,” which they have been called as many of their parents have been killed by this group and they were left and forgotten… Until this ministry came and took them in.

Some new friends of ours, the Ironside family, brought enough gifts from the States with them to share with many people over their time here in Uganda. And they were kind enough to let us share in the joy of giving! They got a list of each child’s name at the orphanage and their children made Christmas cards for each of the children, and we helped make a ton of sugar cookies! So on Christmas, we gave each of the children a gift picked specially for them by the head of the orphanage with their name on the package, and a cookie!

It was such an amazing blessing to just be able to love on these children and let them know someone cares. As they opened their presents of books, shirts, shoes, socks, jewelry, etc, their eyes just lit up! And the most precious (and surprising) thing about the day was their unselfishness and generosity among each other. We noticed right away that they would just approach each other and take each other’s gifts and just examine them… Our 1st reaction was, “Oh no, they are stealing each other’s presents!” But it wasn’t long before we realized that what the children were doing was celebrating for each other and sharing in the other’s joy! They would just admire it for a minute and then give it right back! There was no sign of jealousy at all! They were so patient as we called them one by one, and they even waited to open their gift until every child had one!

What an amazing reminder that everything that we have comes from the Lord, and it is all His anyways! And what a privilege, honor, and blessing it was for John & I to be God’s hands and feet and just show these children they are loved, cared for, and not forgotten! We hope to go back to this orphanage during our time here and visit these children again! Please pray for them as Jesus lays them on your heart!