My Name Is Namukisa

I have a
new name, and it is Namukisa.

One
sunny afternoon early this month, we were at New Hope Orphanage
loving, playing, laughing, singing, and dancing with the incredible
children who live there. After some time with them, they looked at
us and decided that we needed Ugandan names. Although I was getting
pretty used to hearing their enthusiastic shouts of “Auntie Irene,
Auntie Irene!”, this sounded like a great idea to me because
virtually no one in any of the eight countries we’ve been to can
pronounce my name correctly, so a new name might be helpful. They
went around to each person and gave them a beautiful, unique Ugandan
name. They came to me, looked at me thoughtfully for a few seconds
and then declared, “Namukisa!”

“What
does that mean?” I asked.

“It
means ‘the blessed one’ or ‘the one with many blessings’,” they
explained with huge smiles on their faces.

For the
rest of this month, it’s like God has been saying to me, “I love
you so much, and I am just pouring out blessings on your life. Do
you recognize them when I give them to you?”

So I
have intentionally been on the lookout this month for blessings, for
the things that God gives me just because he loves me that much.
Things like…

a new
team of incredible, strong women of God who love me, challenge me,
put up with me, laugh with me, and want to share this journey with
me,

hanging
out with the most beautiful, love-filled children at New Hope
Orphanage, hearing their voices blend perfectly as they sing worship
songs and dance with a joy that is contagious,

being
invited into homes to share the gospel with people who have never
heard it before, getting to share with them the unending and
unconditional love of God, and then leave with a new brothers and
sisters in Christ,

listening
to and learning from our contact, Pastor Rosemary, a powerful,
anointed woman of God, who hasn’t let the many trials and sufferings
in her life hold her down,

enjoying
God’s marvelous creation in the beauty of a delicate flower, the
soothing sound of thunder and rain on the roof, and the power and
serenity of the Nile River,

getting
to visit friends in Kampala from when I was in Uganda four years ago,
savoring a couple days of familiar faces and a real “American”
home,

and
knowing that I have amazing family, friends, and supporters at home
who are thinking about me and praying for me.

It’s
true. I am incredibly blessed. I have been so blessed this month by
these things and so much more. I have done nothing to deserves all
these blessings in my life, but I have a heavenly Father who loves to
give good gifts to his children, a Father who wants to demonstrate
his love in tangible ways for his children to experience. And I pray
that I am living my life with such joy and thankfulness that everyone
I cross paths with will have the same impression as the children at
New Hope-that I am living in God’s blessings-and they will walk
away blessed because of the presence of God in my life.