As I peered through the rusty bars that served as the window to the Kindergarten classroom and saw Shaffic, the young boy I had grown to love�"hard as it was, for this particular boy�"looking intently at the chalkboard for what marked the first time in his life, I felt both elated and unqualified. I was overjoyed that he finally had an opportunity to receive an education, though I felt almost unqualified to partake in witnessing it, as it was you who sent him to school.
Two blogs ago (“I’ve Got My Backpack On, My Shoes Tied Tight”), I wrote about how one of our squad leaders, Michelle, had volunteered to pay for a child, Catherine, to attend school for a year, and how her action had inspired me to not only sponsor a child myself, but to see if my community back home wanted to get involved. I am almost hesitant to use the word “sponsor”, however, as I feel that the word almost minimizes the great initiative that Michelle took is paying for Catherine, in that the word “sponsor” brings to mind an organized process through an official organization. For Michelle, however, there was no organization to work through. Michelle’s act of compassion was not a response to a billboard or an Internet pop-up ad, but rather a response to the leading of the Holy Spirit�"an act of heartfelt compassion in the middle of logistical waters yet uncharted.
In that blog, I also wrote about how a mix up (Kelly and I ended up sponsoring the wrong children!) prompted me to write a blog with the hopes of involving the community back home in the effort to send the children of Mukono, Uganda to school. I will lay aside all suspense, and cut to the chase: it is with great joy that I can report that together, we made it possible for 56 children to pay to attend school! These last two weeks in Uganda have definitely been a journey at break-neck speed for me, as this entire process, from start to finish, has tested my faith, love, and endurance. I am tired, and my thoughts are not all that coherent, but here are two things I learned along the way:
The necessity of faith. I have never considered myself to be a man of great faith. Faith, though vital, is a spiritual gift, after all�"and one of many (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). I know that God has gifted me in other areas, but I am still in awe of the faith of my teammates and spiritual mentors. The night I posted the first blog, we were sitting around the dinner table and I told my team, “I hope I don’t look like an idiot if nobody responds to this thing.” I had even planned out how I would explain away the lack of a response�"as if I was somehow responsible for the fruit. “Maybe I will just post a new blog about an entirely different topic and hope that people a) don’t notice that I never wrote a follow up report” or b) might think that because money is involved, I will keep everything private,” I said nervously.
I was fishing for reassurance, of course, and perhaps even a compliment or two, though that is far from what I got! My teammates actually gave me constructive feedback that night. “If you legitimately believe that God’s hand is in this�"as we do, and as you’ve told us that you do,” they told me, “then you should stop doubting and making plan B’s. If God’s hand is in it, it will not fail.” I am so grateful to them for this piece of feedback, as it spurred me on to new levels of faith throughout the week.
One thing that I have prayed for this month is a spirit of engagement. I have prayed for an attitude that compels me to actively engage with both people and God and to see what comes of it. Often times, I am afraid to engage, because engagement raises the stakes. I had always been afraid that if I engaged with God in my spiritual life, and my prayers went unanswered, then my faith would decrease dramatically. Finally, I decided to truly engage myself with the person of God in these last two weeks and see if he wouldn’t answer my prayers in mind-blowing ways�"though, somewhat ironically, even this ability to engage comes from God himself.
One of first things I prayed for was for 50 children to receive sponsorships. When I finished running one morning, another squad leader, Bri, told me that she had seen the results of my blog’s first day, and had saved them for me to look at. She also told me that I’d be excited when I saw them.
Immediately, my head spun with grandiose notions of 75 or 100 people responding. When I saw that eight people had responded, I was quickly bought back to “reality”, but I was thrilled nonetheless that people had already responded.
I had a feeling, however, that we were far from finished. As we taught at the school that morning, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to skip lunch and to fast and pray for more names. Immediately, I started making mental excuses. “I need to eat lunch, because if I don’t, I won’t be able to lead Bible study well in the evening,” I said to myself. This mental war carried on, in knock-down, drag-out fashion, for almost the rest of the morning, before God finally provided me with the strength to win the war. I remember the words I had recently read in John Piper’s newest book, Bloodlines, and I decided to fast and pray:
“Over the years I have tried to wave this banner: To be a Christian is to move toward need, not comfort. Christian life means to get up in the morning and go to bed at night dreaming not about how to advance my comforts but how to advance some great God-centered cause. When we speak of multiplying and growing, we mean raising up a people who don’t spend themselves day and night pursuing self- preservation and self-exaltation and self-recreation, but who pursue something bigger and greater than themselves or their family or their church”(page 110).
I prayed that God would bring in ten more children. That day, I found out that we had people back home willing to sponsor not ten, but fifteen more children! The total of 23 quickly became 30, which quickly became 35, 43, 49, and finally, as of this morning, 57! God had answered my prayer and then added to it!
Next, taking out enough money for 56 children was an act that required faith, in and of itself. When Kelly and I headed into Kampala, to withdraw a large sum of money�"9.7 million Ugandan Schillings�"from a large British bank, the teller simply looked at me and said, “No,” before passing me back the yellow slip of paper on which I had written the amount of money that I needed. Because of this, Kelly and I spent Monday afternoon frantically running around to every ATM we could find. My credit card worked at less than half of them, and we returned home with barely a third of the money I needed in hand.
I was on the verge of panicking�"as Kelly can attest to�"because I didn’t have the time to go to Kampala every day, and I didn’t know how I was going to withdraw enough money from Mukono’s few ATM’s, over the course of the next four days, to pay for all the children up front. To make matters worse, we had already told all the parents that their children were being sponsored! I was starting to think that I would forever remember this as the time that I let down an entire village.
When my nerves cooled, though, I realized that if I could withdraw just enough money each day over the course of a week, and if I enlisted a few friends to help, I would be able to pay the money that was needed. Before I went to bed on Monday night, I literally prayed for my credit card. Again, my prayers were answered, and I have been able to withdraw enough money to pay for all of the children.
The necessity of others. I did not sponsor 57 children. I sponsored one child�"you sponsored 57 children. The deeply competitive (not necessarily bad) and prideful (very, very bad) part of me often wants to do everything myself. If I do everything there is to be done myself, I often figure, then I will get more credit. This idea, however, is unbiblical to the core (Acts 2, Exodus 18). If we ever want to accomplish anything in this world, we need each other.
Every ounce of my personal experience tells me that God has ordained that sweeping change should come from groups of people. This idea is practical, of course�"if more people are involved, then more change will be seen, but it also reaches into the cosmic realms. God, who is zealous for the glory of his own name, commands us to work together as a way of eliminating�"or at least greatly lessening (as we are still sinful human beings) our chances of boasting in ourselves when all is said and done.
I cannot thank those of you that offered to sponsor children enough. I really can’t. You represent a wide demographic of people, spanning many ages, locations, and walks of life, but your compassion has shown through all the same. You did it. We did it.
The future: I am under no illusions in regard to the limited potential of our current method of child sponsorship. What will happen after one year? If nothing changes, then likely nothing will happen. Barring any widespread financial breakthroughs, these children will go to school for one full year (this year) then drop out. However, Pastor Joseph now plans to have a website up and running�"a website with an online payment option�"in the next few months. This might even be a project for the next World Race team! It is highly likely that before next February 17th rolls around, you will be able to send in payments�"online�"for your sponsored child (or a new child!) to attend school for the following year as well.
All of this goes to say that there is a legitimate and realistic hope that this project will be sustainable. What you all have done has created ripple effects that are changing an entire community, and I cannot thank you enough.
If you see a problem: address it, attack it, have faith, and enlist every last person you know to fight alongside of you!
Here are the children's photos….
And a video of most, though not all of the children….
