Okay, so if you saw the nice little sunrise picture I posted to Facebook after spending a week in Uganda, you may have gotten the feeling that I’m on this amazing, beautiful adventure. And I am. But, not all is majestic shades of pink and purple weaving among the clouds.
I got to CVI, immediately saw a bunch of little babies, and fell in love with this ministry month! Then, I noticed one of the baby boys wasn’t wearing any pants. It seemed strange, and I think the American interns working at CVI must have noticed our puzzled looks, because they made a point then to tell us that the kids here don’t wear diapers. “So how does that work?” we ask, full of curiosity (okay, maybe just a little). But the answer is pretty common sense- the baby pees where the baby pees, and the baby poops where the baby poops. It doesn’t matter where the baby happens to be.
So it would come as no surprise that one day, while I’m holding one of the pantless little baby boys off to the side a bit awkwardly, I get a nice old whiff of poo. I set him down and see some “dirt” on my arm where his little butt was sitting. Yep, you guessed it. I was off to the handwashing station.
I get back to the play area, and another one of the adorable little boys is crying and standing alone. I go and pick him up, and I get another whiff. This time it’s urine. I’m not wet… His shorts had dried. But my nice, freshly hand washed shirt now smelled like his pee.
Okay. So I had a dilemma. I don’t love bucket showers and I don’t love handwashing clothes, so I could just not pick up the babies. It’s not like we are required to hold them. And there are other kids here who are potty trained. I could play with those ones. Only, God has laid it on my heart this week, to love those babies. So during our team time prayer, I asked one of my teammates to pray for this for me- that I would be loving the babies even if they smelled like urine or were holding dead baby birds (yes, that happened too). And as she prayed for me, she reminded me of something.
God loved me, even when I was not so lovable.
So I am going to continue loving on these babies. I am going to soak it all in for everything it’s worth, even if some poo or pee comes with that love.
