it is a house of many cultures, many languages and many colors. it is a house of laughter, and tears, and sometimes frustration, but mostly elation. it is a house of praise and worship and thanks. it is a house that is usually teeming with children, laughing and dancing and singing and just being kids, something many of them have never had a real opportunity to do. its is always a loud house, and it is always a grateful house. it is my house. but mostly it is God's house.

when i bought this house last october, i didn't know exactly i wanted to do with it; all i was sure of was that if the Lord had given me a house, it couldn't just be for me. i knew whatever i did, i was to use this house for the glory of my God. well once again, His plan for me and for my house was, IS, greater than anything i could ever ask for or imagine. my house has become a safe place not just for me but for hundreds of others. daily there are children over for lunch and dinner. they sing and play soccer in the front yard, color pictures and do homework at the kitchen table, and make HUGE soapy puddles in the bathtub in their enthusiasm for bathing. they delight in the simple things like when i shave their heads to treat their ring worm or rub their feet with paraffin to draw out the burrowing jiggers. they soak up the Bible stories i read them like little sponges and never stop asking for more. they laugh hysterically when i cuddle them or kiss their foreheads, and it hurts my heart a bit that they would find the fact that someone loves them so funny. and that is the blessing that God has given me in this house. i get to provide a home for children who are homeless. a safe haven for children who feel threatened and lost and unwanted. most of all i get to LOVE children that dont know love otherwise. i get to present them with my love and them teach them of the Father's extravagant love.

the house full of termites and bats, the house that has taken more hours and shillings to repair than i ever could have imagined. the house that i have fixed, and painted and scrubbed for hours and days and weeks, the house that i have sweat and cried over in desperation... this house has become a home. not just to me but to hundreds. it holds my heart. it holds so many lessons. it is a place where children can be children, where people can be REAL and know that they ARE important and special and loved. it is a place where people accept Christ and learn about Him and grow in Him. it is my house. but mostly, it is a house of The Lord.

hellllloooooo loyal blog-readers :)

my little brother has decided to do his research paper on poverty in Africa and being the wonderful sister that i am, i just emailed him some information. after i sent it though, i realized that it explains quite a bit about why i have decided to do what i do and that it might be interesting to you all! (eh, you all.. i really still am from tennessee i guess) so here ya go :)

here is what i know. the average Ugandan makes about 80,000 Uganda Shillings per month (about $45.00) That is 960,000 Uganda Shillings per year or 600 dollars. It costs an average of 150,000 Uganda Shillings to send a child to school for one term (nursery school starts at about 50,000 and highschool can be as much as 300,000). There are three terms in the Ugandan school year so to send one child to school would cost about 450,000 Shillings or $300.00 per year.

ok i know that is a lot of numbers but the basic idea of it is this: a single parent (most are, many die of aids, starvation and awful medical care, husbands leave wives or have multiple wives in the case of muslims) can pay for one child to go to school with a little left over for food. but no one, and i mean no one has just one child. many have ten, but the average is probably about 6. so how, on a yearly salary of $600.00 can someone send all 6 of their children to school for $300.00 each? simple, they cant. No education means no good job when they grow up, which means not being able to send THEIR children to school, and thus the cycle continues. On top of that, Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa is ravaged by war, starvation and disease, most pertinently AIDS. this causes many people to die prematurely, when their kids are very young leaving an overflow of orphans. These children have no way to get school fees other than work for them, but they can't work and be in school at the same time. Besides, they would usually rather eat with the little money they can get from digging in the fields. Of course there are other factors. War and disease also wreak havoc on the nations economy, and due to the poor economy, job opportunities are also less than ideal. But i have seen fist hand that education is the major problem, without an education, these people have no future, but an education is something that is unaffordable and out of reach for most.

Brad, I believe there is hope and I believe that I can be part of that hope and that is why I am here doing what I do. i send 150 children who have no parents, no source of income, and would otherwise have no education, to school. Its not going to change the condition of Africa, it is not going to eliminate poverty, but for those 150 kids, it makes the future a little bit brighter, and THAT is worth smiling about, every single day.

its this feeling of euphoria that overwhelms the whole of me. its the feeling i get after spending three hours slashing my grass in the hot african sun and then tumbling into my freezing shower sweaty and exhausted. its the feeling i get when there are 30 kids taking a bath in my house and soap and water is flying EVERYWHERE. its the feeling i get when i am woken up at six am by being jumped on by three beautiful girls who call me mom. its the feeling i get after a long and usually hilarious morning of teaching kindergarten as i begin the three mile walk home, sticky with porridge and covered in chalk dust. its the feeling i get when i pour out every ounce of love and passion in my small self and, miraculously, the Lord fills me right back up again. it takes control and makes me want to dance down the road and sing and the top of my lungs and run a thousand miles. it makes me laugh uncontrollably and it makes my whole body shake and my arms get covered in goose bumps. it isnt just happiness. it is this elation that only comes from the Lord. and in these moments, no matter how breif, i believe that i know just a little of what Heaven must be. and it is better that any pleasure that comes from this world. it makes me want to be a better person, to give all of myself to the Lord, because there is no better feeling than this basking in His presence. i want to stay forever wrapped in His arms.

and these moments, these little glimpses of something better and higher than the world that we live in keep my face smiling, my eyes shining and my heart dancing in my chest. it will keep me pouring out every ounce of everything that i have because there is no better blessing than the opportunity to give yourself away.