Sometimes a delay in your mind was God's plan all along...
THE DELAY:
It was 3 pm. We had arrived at the Atlanta airport with too many suitcases for hands. There was 10 of us. We all had to still drop our bags off, get them weighed, and head through security. We did not have our flight until around 10 pm. We were early. As we were weighing our bags about half us were over the limit, but God. I had all my camera equipment and they didn't even take a peak through it, God. Then we got through security in 15 minutes, God. So, now we were at our gate sitting with the people who had a plane before us. We were totally prepared to go. Completely prepared for when they called our names. Expectant. Excited. Peaceful. The plane before us start boarding, we are next. We are next! Then, the dreadful overhead announcement... "This is Turkish airlines, we are sorry to inform you the plane is having technical difficulties we now plan to board in one hour." We are were so ready. But, it is okay.. just an hour we have this! Then, another announcement after an hour..." We are sorry to inform you we are still figuring out the difficulties it will be delayed another hour..." Okay prayer time! We huddled up and prayed the Lord would provide. He would get us there. He would allow us to be intentional with the people around us. The we would board this plane only if it is safe. We sat in the front of the line. Our backpacks on, boarding passes in hand, opened snacks in our lap. Okay God has this. We started to worship and we were staying positive. Another announcement..." I am so sorry to inform you it will be another hour..." Okay. At this point we are starting to think. Starting to worry. We walked to charge our phones because now they are low on battery for the amount we have waited. We walked away from the situation to go wash our faces and change into comfier clothes. We washed off, got a snack. And started walking back. To paint the picture, we are in the international airport side. So, It is not as big as the normal. We were the only plane left that had not taken off. The only ones waiting and lined up. The only ones. We hear an announcement and look up at each other. That has to be for us. We are the only ones. We start sprinting. It is funny the fact that we patiently waited and waited and waited. And right when we decide okay it absolutely isn't up to us and the timing is now messed up on what we thought anyways, God allows it to be the time. Not until writing this out am, I realizing what God did. He did what his plan was all along. The plan was we were not leaving until 1 am. We were going to be late Earthly side but heavenly, we were right on time. As soon as we walked away and allowed ourselves to be away from it, he said it was time. And he knew by this flight being late, we would miss our other flight and be a whole day late in Uganda. That we would miss the prayer walk we were supposed to have day one. We were off schedule, but he had a specific time for something that we didn't even have one the schedule. He had this story I'm about to tell you.
Here is what happens when you let God have the timing...
THE DAY WE MET THE STREET KIDS:
We pulled our van on a city side street to start on a prayer walk around the city of Jinja, Uganda. It was now day 4 of the trip and this was to be our "rest day" so we rescheduled the prayer walk to today. My friend Madison and I were going to be a pair for the walk. We all had to be with a partner for safety and our goal was to walk and pray for people we see. Before we started walking, we had stepped off the sidewalk by a tree. Two kids stepped silently behind us holding big bags filling them with empty bottles to sell. One had a white button up short sleeve shirt that was now brown from the dirt. Broken flip flops. Another had a ripped pajama top. Both Dirt head to toe. Shaved heads. Yellow eyes. But I felt the innocence. I felt their burdens weigh on my heart. We tried talking to them, but they remained silent moving with us. They stayed in our presence. They wanted to be around. The group said we needed to start walking and I lost it. I wanted their presence too. I wanted to stay. I wanted to just know they were going to be okay. Nothing felt right about it in my heart. How could a child be this malnourished. Where are their parents? Do they have parents? What can I do ? What do they need? I turned to Madison and she turned to me both thinking the same thing. Please we can’t leave them. We need to go get them clothes or anything. Everyone was leaving us to start the prayer walk and they told us we needed to stay with the group. So, with each step my heart was breaking. We started praying. Lord, let us see them again to be able to give them clothes. That they would have people that help them if we can't. I just begged to get to find them again. I prayed they would stay where they were so I could see them. We kept walking, crying, and praying. Please Lord, let them know your name. We caught up and stopped at a corner and walked up to the door of a gas station. We started worshipping and 6 kids walked up...2 being the ones we just prayed over to see again. God, you see them too. You always have. You are the one that placed them right where our van parked. You delayed our plane. You had every detail. I went to one that stayed in the back and was shy. I hugged and danced with this little girl seeing the trust building. We got them all waters and a soda. The joy from just a sip of soda melted my heart. We decided to take them all to lunch. A 5 min prayer walked turned into going to lunch with 8 children… still not knowing what God had in store. As we start walking the girl I was dancing with wouldn’t let go on my hand. At one moment my whole hand was sweating so I let go to wipe it on my skirt. My whole right hand was dirt. Looking at my left hand, it was completely clean, just that sight alone broke my heart, “Jesus wash her hands and feet.” The little kid kept saying kevin and wouldn’t speak much but would smile everytime we made eye contact. Kept wanting us to skip. To dance. Still would not let go of my hand. Someone as we were walking stepped out of a store looked at me in the eyes and said “Jesus is here.” My whole body felt the Holy Spirit’s presence. He is here I thought. Lord you are revealing something. Direct our steps. You have more for her what do we need to do. We got to the cafe and the girl got in my lap. We started having someone that is from Uganda translate. I learned her name is Auma Kevin. Kevin being her first name, Auma being her last. With her boy basketball shorts on and ripped pajama top you couldn’t tell she was much of a girl except her face. Identity stripped from her physically, but her heart screamed beautiful. God gave me this girl. A Beautiful girl. She kept wanting to put her cheek to my cheek. Take pictures of everything. We ate pizza seeing her build trust and seeing her smile at everything like it was Christmas morning. Pizza, new. A Coke, new. A phone, new. People that loved her, new. All the things I take so much for granted, now becoming so new to me through her. And she loved so well, without even saying a word. How little we love well in America I thought. We don't speak the same language, but God is love so we don't need words. This love took one look and it has been patient, kind, selfless. There is no expectations or thought of myself. All I want is for her to be safe. To smile. To provide for her. To wash her clean. There is no thought about what she owes me. It’s genuine. I would do absolutely anything with not a single thing in return. It’s biblical. As we were about to eat I thought, we should wash the kids off in the bathroom. So, she hopped off my lap and my white skirt was filled with red clay. Jesus make her clean. I took her to the bathroom and went to the counter to purchase napkins. I got on. my knees as she stood in front of me confused. When I turned in the sink to wipe her off she immediately dove into the sink grabbing water splashing in over her pjs long sleeves. Just the feeling of water was a blessing to her. I rolled up her sleeves. Held my tears. And washed her body. Every napkins filled with dirt. She smiled down at me and grabbed my hand to walk out of the bathroom. She has now idea how much she is changing me. She is blessing me more. I got her a piece of vanilla cake and I’ve never seen her smile so big. Another little boy lit up and she waved him over to share with her. Oh how I wish I had her selflessness. She’s starving and got her first piece of cake handed to her and she wanted to share. She ate a little bit and then I started internally panicking. What are we going to do? I can’t leave her back where we met. She can't go back. By the time we got them all clothes, we had 9 kids. Nine. Two of the boys ordered a huge fish and the joy from eating that melted my heart. One tried playing guitar. One had a little American flag shirt on, he was the youngest. The one that ate some of the cake. I went to go get my camera to take pics of each kid in case we get a person to sponsor or take them to school. Daniel, the one leading the trip and was from Uganda, was standing at the van and all the kids were inside and he just gave me a hug and held it. I said I can’t let them go please tell me what to do. He said we could take them back to our house and give them showers and let them change. We told the kids and they shouted with joy. As we were putting them in the van kids started lining up on the streets asking to come. The kids started jumping out of the car to give them their bags of empty water bottles and their old shoes. Auoma jumped out and ran to her bag. She got out her half drank soda and gave her piece of cake away. Every piece of food we bought them they gave away. It was like they said “here we are taken care of now.” One of the little boys sulah said “I don’t get my back because Jesus saved me, so that is old getting in this van is new.”We rode in a separate van. As we got to the house, I had the duty of washing the boys. The joy from it being hot water. They got washed with axe soap and were obsessed with the way it smelled. They layer on the shower ground and did spins in the hot water. It was like they were claiming a totally new self. We turned on a speaker in the girls room and they all went crazy. I opened the door to come in after washing the boys and auoma had a little dress on and a ring pop on her finger. She looked like the most beautiful girls. As soon as she saw me she ran and hugged my legs. I opened my snack bag and emptied it so she’d have a bag for food. She said thank you with the most beautiful smile. We gathered them all together for a picture then Daniel said we have to take them back. It was like I was punched in the stomach. Something felt so wrong. Auoma ran over to me and stayed at my leg. I felt like I was her protection. Her two sisters started bawling. They said I don’t want to go home. Daniel talked to them in Lu gandan and found out that they get beaten when they go home. That is is pointless if they have no money. I broke down and then everyone was standing in this hallway crying. Patience one of the Ugandan people came over and hugged me saying she’s going to be okay. That’s all I wanted. She trusted me to have her, how do I take her back to the streets? More so to get beaten. Daniel promised that we have their info and he will send someone to ask the aunt that took them to the streets to find money if we could pay for them to go to school. I packed her a bag and told her I loved her and her and her little sister sat in my lap. As we started driving I saw all the scars down their backs and on their heads. The littlest girl started singing out the window. Me and madison laid our heads on each other and the girls leaned back on us. I just sat there and silently prayed over them the whole ride there holding in every tear. One of the girls was kissing kate on the cheek and saying thank you. She didn’t want to go. They all didn’t. We pulled into the village. I wish I hadn’t seen it. Cause my heart felt like it was breaking. I kept rubbing their backs and saying I love you. There was nothing I could do. We couldn’t keep them that night. Authorities could use it against us. The community had people running trying to jump on the cars. A baby was searching through a pile of animal bones to find food. Another 4 year old was carrying a 2 year old. The van stopped. I took a breath. They looked up at us and hugged us millions of times. The older sisters came to the back of the bus and said "I want to go to school." She just stood there. I felt her fear to step out. I physically wanted to take her place. I wanted to take them and run. Jesus please don’t let a hand touch them I whispered. They ran into the crowd of kids, sharing all that we gave. We had to pull away and I immediately could not control my heart. It felt like my heart just broke. I just laid on the window praying no one touches those girls. That they would be safe.
Lord, this is how you feel about all of us. This is your heart for your children. All you want is to love us. All you want is to take the burden. I am so grateful. As I was stepping out of the car there was a little shirt with the American flag under a seat. And it brought all my emotions back. I got out of the car and started walking into an empty house when their were just 9 kids. Daniel met me and madison and the hallway and just held us for a few minutes. Everything is going to be alright he said. Jesus wants you to weep. It’s okay to cry. But no matter how much I did it didn't take away the pain I felt. The wondering from going away. Can’t take away what I’ve seen. A day of miracles. A day of joy. And a day of hurt. God please allow me to be a part of their rescue. I know it will be a fight against authorities. But we are all willing.
