Sometimes God is so big and so awesome that the words escape me. I feel that it would be silly to even attempt to capture this awesome-ness in simple English... but I will try.

It is difficult, being away from my children. It seems that every time I turn on the radio I hear "i'll be home for Christmas" and I can't help but cry as I long for my babies. I crawl in bed at the end of an exhausting day and can't sleep because these little brown faces flood my head and I think that as I am warm under my blanket they have none.

To say that I am clinging to His promises would be an understatement.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."... "All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives, Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:16...25

"The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom." Deuteronomy 28:12-13

Amazing.

Amazima Ministries.
Amazima is the Lugandan word meaning "the truth of Christ." To be honest, it was chosen quickly without much thought, because the IRS needed a name. God said to me "You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you free." I opened my Bible to John chapter 8 and it said "You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you free." I went to church that Sunday and guess what the Pastor said? Yes. "You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you free."

Today, about a year after naming this ministry Amazima, I stand in awe of the TRUTH that God has presented me with. In Uganda, I strive to teach my children and all children in our program and in our villages "the truth of Christ." I know that I cannot walk into a village and tell a child the Jesus loves her. She cannot comprehend that because chances are, she has never been loved. I have to feed her, clothe her, care for her and love her unconditionally myself as I tell her that I love her. Once she can understand and see my love, I can begin to tell her about a Savior who loves her even more. That is the TRUTH for these children - that they are loved, that they are valuable, that they will not be left as orphans but that they have a plan and a hope for the future. What a beautiful Truth.

But there is more. As hard as my time in America is sometimes, I have seen the blessings, the reason God has me here. There is TRUTH that my children need to share with the people of America. Brace yourself:

The TRUTH is that there are 147,000,000 orphans in our world today. 147,000,000.

The TRUTH is that 70 percent of these precious children will never have an education.

The TRUTH is that every day, 16,000 children die from hunger related causes. That is 5,840,000 a year.

The TRUTH is that about 1 in every 3 people living today does not have access to clean water.

The TRUTH is that 10,600,000 children under the age of 5 die each year. 54 percent of these deaths are from PREVENTABLE, TREATABLE illnesses.

To some those just look like statistics. To me, they look like this:

The TRUTH is that these children are hungry and I will run out of food before they are all fed.

This is Maria. The TRUTH is that Maria had never had a bath before I took her home and gave her one. The TRUTH is that Maria has no one who cares for her. No one who tells her she is loved. The TRUTH is that Maria is a street child, and no one in Uganda wants to touch her or help her or cares that she is sick. The TRUTH is that Maria is just like you or me. A person. Real. A child of the King.

Meet Rose and Brenda. The TRUTH is that they are orphans. Abandoned. Now 2 of 147,000,000. The TRUTH is that when they go to bed at night no one tucks their blankets in around them and kisses their foreheads. The TRUTH is that when they wake up in the dark scared, no one runs to comfort them. The TRUTH is that due to someone else's carelessness, Brenda will die of AIDS.

The TRUTH is that these precious little boys were child soldiers, abducted, sold as property, and forced to kill. Now that the war is over, they are not permitted back in their villages because they are seen as traitors so they beg on the streets.

And the TRUTH is that this is only the children I know, in a very small fraction of a very small country. The TRUTH is that there are children like this all over the world, sick, starving, dying, unloved, and uncared-for.

The TRUTH is that if we call ourselves believers, we cannot sit here and not do anything about it. James says that "pure and undefiled religion is to love the orphans and the widow in their distress and keep ourselves from being tarnished by the ways of THIS WORLD". Jesus says that anyone who welcomes a little child such in His name welcomes Him. He also says that at the end of time when He comes back, He is going to separate the sheep from the goats. He says He will put the sheep on His right and He will say to them "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Notice He doesn't say to them, "Good job, you lived a life without sin." He already knows we aren't perfect. Notice He doesn't say to them, "Good job, you were intelligent, successful, made lots of money and had lots of things." He already told us to store up our treasures in Heaven. He said, "I tell you the TRUTH, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did unto me."

This is the Truth... we were given the freedom to believe it. The freedom, the opportunity to do something about it.

You will know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you FREE.