African Hearts VBS [Day One]

On Thursday we headed to African Hearts and the Ssenge Village. 

Half of the team went with Pastor Dwight to the Pastor's Conference and the other half went to African Hearts to make concrete and then later host a HUGE VBS for over 600 kids. Both that go to African Hearts school and those who live in the village. It was such a huge blessing for all of us. Both at the Pastor's Conference and African Hearts. 

When we pulled up at African Hearts we met two very sweet children. One was a little boy and I never ever figured his name out {anyone on the team know?} and then there was a very sad, very little, and very dirty little girl named Rita. They followed us everywhere. From walking around the village to pouring concrete and slashing the jungles of Africa. They stayed with us. 

When we got to the house that African Hearts is building for their bigger boys to pour concrete, we were able to see how just plain dirty Rita was. It was heart breaking. Her belly was very round because of malnutrition and the rest of her tiny body just shrunk in. Heart wrenching, basically. 

A girl from our team, Jessica D., had brought an extra shirt which served as the perfect little dress for Rita! It looked so darling on her and we were so happy for her to have a very full tummy and a clean face and dress to go with it. Oh the difference 5 minutes of love can make in a child! It was truly wonderful. 

Once we were done pouring concrete and loving neighbors babies we headed back to AH Home and had a delicious lunch cooked by Moreen! It was so delicious and we had such a good time fellowshipping and preparing for VBS. The best part of it is that every single child, no matter where they came from {the village or the school or wherever} got a full plate of food from Moreen. Isn't that amazing? The little ministries that you just don't even think about, but that make such a HUGE impact on little lives!


We finished lunch and then began the walk to the school where we would get to hold a vacation bible school. We were all so excited! 

The vacation bible school started with Alicia and I leading Father Abraham and other classic bible songs. Then, the real fun began as the sweet African kids showed us white girls up with their singing, dancing, and song skills! They were so talented! They taught us how to 'shake our booty for the Lord' and then led into 'How Great is Our God' if you ever want to be moved. Stand in the middle of a village as African children sing to you How Great God is. Talk about perspective. 

 

As we were about to leave the VBS, my lovely teammate and friend Alicia {she's a nurse} pulled me to the side and asked for my simple medical stuff that I carried everywhere with me in Africa. {There is such a HUGE need for this kind of stuff; peroxide, antibiotic ointment, bandaids, gauze, etc} I pulled it out and went with her to see the situation. Standing before us was a tiny little boy by the name of Marvin. He had a darling face and eyes that just stole your heart. When I looked down at his legs I realized they were severely burned and left open. Flies were covering them and they were horribly infected. Nurse Alicia with me as an assistant to the rescue! Alicia quickly cleaned, bandaged and prayed over this precious little boy. We discovered that he had been burned by a pot of boiling water while his step mother was cooking. This is common in Africa because they cook over charcoal outside with big pots. It is very unsafe, especially for small children. I was so thankful and realized so much how much need there was for simple first aid. I walked away with a little bit more of a broken heart, but a little bit of encouragement too. God is doing work! 

During Day 1 of VBS we sang, worshipped, painted finger nails, colored, had a dance competition, loved a lot of kids, and overall just tried to soak in every bit of the beautiful Uganda and the people right in front of us. 

We thought Day 1 of VBS was awesome...little did we know, it was just getting started!