As I think about the past few weeks I cannot help but feel completely overwhelmed. God is so good. I know that God works for the good of His people. I know that God provides us with more blessings than we could ever ask for. I know God’s love for us surpasses all human understanding. I know God uses His people to do His work.
I know all of these things to be true, yet when so many blessings and answered prayers are fulfilled in a short time, I can’t help but think “Really?” I know God is capable of doing huge, amazing, wonderful things but it is hard to comprehend when everything seems to hit at once.
I suppose the craziness started with our annual pastor and leaders conference. For the third year, a team of 16 people from the U.S. came to Nkumba to lead over 1600 pastors, women, children, community leaders and businessmen in a weeklong conference. Nothing could prepare me for this conference. It was absolutely amazing. The team from the U.S. was incredible. I am having a hard time finding words to describe how I feel about these wonderful, Godly, genuine, authentic, AWESOME people. For five days the team taught on dozens of topics, prayed with hundreds of people and engaged in the lives of over 1600 people.
I think equally as important as the sessions the team led are the ways they connected and fulfilled prayers on a personal level for the people in our community. I saw the eyes light up in one of our kids as the team gave him a new shirt to replace the dirty, torn shirt he had been wearing for several days. I witnessed three little girls dance in joy as they were given beautiful new dresses from the team. I saw one of the team members carefully tend to a precious little girl with a horribly burned finger. I saw the love in the team member’s eyes as she scraped away the dirt and cleaned the wound of precious Sobla. Sobla is now one of my dear little friends who I visit everyday and do my best to care for her little finger as it heals. God used these incredible people to change the lives of hundreds in our community.
I have to share one other incredible story that took place during the conference. I have shared before about my dear friend Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose is an amazing, Godly woman that cares for over 7 children and truly trusts God with all that she has. Recently it has become my dream for Aunt Rose to finish her schooling in nursing. Currently Aunt Rose is a teacher at a nearby school but she shared with me a few months ago her passion for nursing and how she started the schooling but due to the cost of tuition, she was not able to complete the courses. I began to think how amazing it would be if Aunt Rose was able to finish her nursing courses and then become our school nurse. In a casual conversation with two of our guests from Arizona, I shared my dream for Aunt Rose (it was the first time I had talked about it). I promise you not twenty minutes later those same two people asked if they could pay for Aunt Rose’s tuition for nursing school!!! I almost feel out of my chair. God is so good. I am 100% confident that because of our guests and Aunt Rose, our world will forever be changed for the better and the angels in heaven are having a party over the faithfulness and generosity of our dear guests.
Since the conference I have received wonderful news that my dear friends in Chicago threw a party and raised $1000 for another party for our kids. God is so good. He continues to amaze me. Also, we received information about a doctor in Uganda that can perform a crucial surgery for one of our children.
I could write another several pages on the ways God has worked in our community this past month but I’ll leave those stories for another entry. I’ll leave you with a bit of information for those of you who are interested in sending care packages.
If you send packages, only send what can fit in a large padded envelope and declare the value is $10. You can get large international flat rate envelopes at the post office and can put all you can fit into them and sent to Africa for $18 (only send Airmail!!). You can send it to:
Cara Murray
P.O. Box 82
Entebbe, Uganda
Here are a few ideas of what to send: bandaids (all sizes are needed), coloring books, crayons, flashcards, nail polish (you can get it $1/bottle at Target), earrings (Forever 21 has 12 pair for $3.80, stud earrings only), nail clippers (seems odd but for hygiene reasons we cut nails often) Crystal Light/Propel packets to add to water (generic brand is perfect as well – I have found these helpful when kids need to take medicine), Uno cards, jump ropes and DVDs (used are great – Disney movies would be perfect or any kids movies).
