As the two-year mark approaches since I arrived in the lush land and dusty burnt-orange roads, I am reminiscing on all the memories the last 24-months have held.
Little did I know or anticipate, one day I would look back at my first photos in Uganda - the morning after waking up in a hotel in Entebbe near the airport - and say:
that's my husband.
And little did I know, I would first be embarrassed as I proceeded to ask and take his photo with the lens cap on.
Little did I know I would gain handfuls of children, a full family, and carry their hearts on my sleeves, hug their tears away, hold their joy, share their excitement, and pour out every ounce of love.
Little did I know I would create enduring friendships that would rise victoriously through marriages, births, deaths, sickness, and disease; over distance, time, and cultural differences.
Little did I know I would experience numbing illness and body changes. From every symptom of COVID and a fever for 12 days to typhoid and malaria at the same time; a laceration on the bottom of my foot and strep throat a few days after arriving back in the country; skin rashes from water, food, and climate; weight gain from too many carbs and weight loss from distance running and a reformed diet, muddled with some stress.
Little did I know that I would not do what I intended to do, but rather create what I had never imagined. I had every intention to teach once I arrived, but a variety of circumstances, including the COVID-19 school lockdown for nearly all of 2021, prevented me. Yet God’s plan was still greater. In the time I was intended to teach, I instead was able to build meaningful relationships – with employees in every project of Father to the Fatherless, with all children at home and in the community, and with community members themselves – getting to walk and visit their homes and taste their daily lives. In my interactions with people, and through intentional conversation and relationships, I felt a need – a longing of vulnerable women in the community aching for support. I asked God what I was supposed to do:
How can I truly help and empower these women?
Out of the question blossomed the women’s crafting and empowerment group.
And little did I know, despite my disbelief, that every week the women would show up. They would walk, some many miles, from their homes to our women’s group. They would laugh. They would testify. They would take ownership over and stake in the success and function of the group. They belonged, and they held it dearly. Their lives transformed when slowly, they were able to provide for their families a little better; they had the means to buy soap and sugar and schoolbooks for their children and grandchildren.
And little did I know that after some months of the women’s group meeting, one of the women would bring her teenage daughter to the group. When we talked more and expressed the interest of the women and the target population of the group, that she would elaborate on the situation she was facing at home with an abusive husband and a lack of resources and ability to provide for her daughters. She asked for help – a place for her daughters to go during the daytime while the schools were under lockdown; a place they would be safe and protected and have chance at a brighter future.
Little did I know that conversation would sprout a group of teenage girls sitting afront the main office, insisting the organization purchase sewing machines to allow them the chance to learn tailoring. And little did I know, a few weeks later 200 girls would be registered and attending daily classes for tailoring, hairdressing, baking, bead and basket weaving, and computers. And weeks later, we would be given the support to purchase 15 sewing machines. And from there, God continued to abound in His goodness and grace as He saw our hearts and greatest desires and heard our earnest prayers. The property in Namabaale was purchased, and before I blinked, I was told the buildings were being finalized and they would become a school – Paradise Vocational Training Centre, for young men and women in the community to learn various trades, crafts, and skills for the betterment of their futures.
Little did I know or expect that in those same months my mom and aunt would travel to Uganda and we would snuggle the children, tour the compound, visit the girls project, and go on safari through Murchinson Falls, see heaps of wild animals, and experience the most epic and dreamy safari sunset.
Never did I imagine the capacity for grace, kindness and compassion; the gentleness, humility, and patience; and the nature to nurture children, to love people, and to seek God that I met in Acram. Little did I know, when I came to Uganda, I would meet the one who mirrored my own heart and desires - surely, and only by, the grace of God. He wasn't a man after my own heart. He was a man willing to stand on behalf of every child, every woman, and every person with a need or a vulnerability. He wasn't a man after my own heart, but a man wholeheartedly fearing God - seeking wisdom, praying for direction and provision, and kindling his burning passion and desire to serve and love God's children through photography and intentional connection.
And little did I know that very man would ask me to become his wife.
Little did I know, 6 months later my entire family would travel to Uganda to celebrate our marriage and welcome Acram into our family, as we were welcomed into his. Never did I expect my wedding would take place at the convergence of Lake Victoria and the River Nile; that I would order my wedding dress online; that in an extended family of over 100 people, that there would only be 25 people at my wedding with only my immediate family members, and that no matter what, the day was filled with nothing but joy getting to marry the man that will stand by my side for all of my days.
And little did I know or imagine, that after two-years of serving with Father to the Fatherless, 6 months of marriage, and the end of Acram's eighth year with the ministry, we would endeavor to begin the next chapter of our lives together, in a new place and a new capacity.
We walk with confidence as we take this next step knowing the same God that led us to Father to the Fatherless - to the people, the women, our children, and to each other, is the same God that is leading us elsewhere. And no matter where life takes us, or where God leads, we will hold the place which we have called home and the people we have called family for these past years closely in our hearts.
It is the end of an era, and the beginning the next. We welcome it with joy.
Stay tuned for the email updates recapping the last 24-months!
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