I realized quickly that in Uganda I am a millionaire. With about $300 USD I have an equivalent of $1,000,000 Ugandan Shillings. When you leave for the World Race you don’t have any income and you become poor by American standards. But here and now, in Uganda, I feel like I have an abundance.
I can take a taxi to the mall for $0.30 USD.
I can buy vegetables for dinner for our whole team at the local market for less than one US dollar.
I can buy chocolate, a soda, and Pringles (if they are on sale) at the store for under $3 USD.
My team has struggled with the fact that we can buy a latte at the café down the street for $8,000 shillings ($2.3 USD) when that same amount of money can feed one of the kids we work with at Suubi House for a week. When we talk about poverty everyone likes to compare buying Starbucks versus donating money to charity: $5 USD we spend everyday at Starbucks back in the states can feed one of the kids for two weeks.
But this blog post is not meant to guilt people into giving or make people feel guilty for buying Starbucks because even I am guilty of getting my daily Frappuccino, this blog post is meant to change your perspective.
When we talk about poverty or people being poor do we really comprehend what that means, and does it mean the same thing everywhere?
When I got to Uganda I was floored by what I perceived at the time as poverty. But through my ministry, my host, and the people we have met, God has changed my perspective.
In Uganda an American would look at the mud houses, the piles of trash, and the children in dirty ripped clothes and say “Oh these poor unfortunate souls.” But Ugandans do not. The lives that they live are normal. The food that they eat, the mud house they live in, the lack of Internet, TV, electricity, running water, these are all things that are normal to them and not things of poverty. Yes sometimes there are children starving to death, yes sometimes there truly is financial poverty, we have seen it at Suubi House with dear sweet Vanessa. The material poor that we as Americans see is not something that I have come to fix on the World Race and it is not Jesus’ main concern. Jesus’ main concern is with the poor of spirit, those lacking his love, those lacking hope hope and those who need Him.
Playing the comparison game of saying ‘oh those poor people have to walk to the well to get water, or they don’t have TV’s’, all the material poverty that we look at and compare to our lives in America is not poverty to Ugandans.
As Christians even in our own perceived poverty we are wealthy beyond measure.
In our material poverty
In our financial poverty
In our emotional poverty
In our physical poverty
Even in our perceived spiritual poverty
We are full of Christ and no one who has Christ, who is filled with the Holy Spirit, can be poor.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:4-6
Those who are filled up with the Holy Spirit, who have accepted Christ into their lives cannot be poor. The Lord will always provide for our needs.
Our ministry is Suubi House. Suubi House is a place where children with special needs and their families can come for support and access to skills and tools to help the kids and their families. Our ministry host started the House with the intention of serving the poorest of the poor, families who live in the slums in Uganda. We have watched as one of the girls we are working with starves to death. She has cerebral palsy and her muscles are rigid and every bone is visible on her body. But we have seen how full of joy and life she is.
We have visited the families homes and seen how simply they live but how big their hearts are. At Suubi House we have been given the opportunity to fill up their lives with the Holy Spirit through bible studies with the moms, playing with the siblings and showing the kids unconditional love.
These families and children are living examples of a culture poor in the Spirit. The community lacks Jesus, it lacks the truth about his unconditional love and grace.
Luke 9:46-48 says “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, ‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.’”
In Ugandan culture children with special needs are seen as cursed. It is rare to find any kind of support or supplies for special needs children and they are cast aside, shunned and forgotten about. Even though Christians make up the majority of the religious people in Uganda there is still poverty of love. Jesus says that the least among you are the ones who are great, that by receiving them you are receiving him.
My prayer for Uganda is that the people here might be filled with the Holy Spirit and come to learn of his love and sacrifice. That the community might learn to love and accept the children in their midst who have special needs. For Suubi House I pray that the community here and those back in the states might learn of the need here in Uganda and might feel called in their hearts to help support this ministry that is so desperately needed in Uganda.
I have been studying Philippians this past week and wanted to end my blog post with this verse.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant that yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4
