A beautiful smile adorned the face of one lovely young mother who sat next to me in church. She looked familiar and I treated her that way, but I later learned that she is a new Christian and has been coming to Calvary Chapel Namulanda for only a few weeks. I’ve never met her. Whoops.
The special luncheon following the service was delectable. Matoke, rice, gee-nut sauce, beef, and cabbage filled the plates beyond recognition. This young woman served me and then asked to come to my home for a visit. I inquired as to the topic, but she declined to reveal her purpose until we first visited.
Appointments really aren’t made here; visitors appear whenever their lives permit. Luckily, when I heard the tapping on the glass door, we were home. She entered with two friends from the church and as is the custom they were served what little food we had – sweet bananas. It’s important to always have something on hand…this might be the only food a guest gets on a particular day.
This dear woman told her story – a story so familiar to the women in Uganda. Her husband left her with their two children and she now has no way to provide for them. She specifically requested help with tuition payments for their education. I believe she was aware of the sponsorships Mercy Uganda sometimes arranges, which is why she asked for tuition rather than food.
Her children stay with their grandmother in Mukono because, like Hagar, it pains this mother to see them suffering so. It pained us to tell her that finding sponsors takes time and that we could not provide assistance. Her face fell sad and she held back the tears, as did I.
In prayer we acknowledged that God is the only one who loves our children more than a mother and that he is so much more capable of providing for their needs than we ever could be. We called his protection on them and his provision through this young woman. What a privilege to pray with them and to have absolute faith that God will indeed provide. Yet I remember freshly the times when that faith sometimes falters because the immediate reality seems so impossible.
Please join us in calling on God for this small family. Ask that she would see the love of God in a whole new way because of this situation – particularly given that she is a new Christian – and that her faith would be strengthened as a result. Pray that she would be surprised by hope. Amen.