On February 7, 2012, I became a mother.
That's right; I became the sponsor mother of 2 beautiful Ugandan children, Pavin (7 years old) and Mwesigwa (5 years old)!
It all started like this.
The squad leaders, Bri, Michelle, and Jason had been staying with Team Deeper Roots for the first 2 weeks. As the nine of us headed to church to teach, preach, or play with children every day, we noticed several children who were always there to greet us. Among these was an adorable little girl with braids who always wore a long gray shirt that doubled as a dress. She spent so much time with us that quickly won the hearts of all of us, especially Mich. I don’t know who first nicknamed her “Beyoncé”, but the name stuck and she became “Beyoncé” to all of us.
On the first day of school (Jan 31st), we noticed that Beyoncé was among the many kids present – but unlike the other 150 or so kids, she wasn’t wearing a uniform! We discovered that her mom lacked the funds to send her to school. When it was time for Mich and Jason to leave our team, Mich had a brilliant idea and she talked with Pastor Joseph right away. What if she sponsored Beyoncé? Excitement ran in the air as calculations were done and logistics discussed. The next day it was final. Mich would sponsor Beyoncé to go to school.
That night, Beyoncé’s mom came over to personally thank Mich. Her joy was unmistakable. She had dressed Beyoncé (we found out her real name was Catherine) just for the occasion. It was a night of celebration for all sponsor, sponsor-ee, and family.
Adorable Catherine is all dressed up and ready for her first day of school.
Mich had no idea she was going to become the start to something big. But, she really was, for a few days later, Kelly and Ben also felt convicted in their hearts to sponsor children. They had originally intended to sponsor Shafik and Shakira, two children who always came to church and whom we had grown close to – but due to some confusion, Kelly ended up sponsoring a different little girl also named Shakira and her brother Rigan, and Ben sponsored a their cousin, Dion. Dion has a brother, Moses, who remains unsponsored.
Although they had not initially planned to sponsor these specific children, God used their situation in an absolutely amazing way. We learned that Rachel and Margaret, the mothers of the children, had been praying for them to be sponsored. When they learned that their children were being sponsored, Rachel and Margaret cried tears of joy. Both women used to be sex workers who came to Christ through their children attending Champion Christian School (the first year of school is offered free by Pastor Joseph). A couple days later, Rachel and Margaret invited us to their homes. In the narrow, sparsely-furnished mud-and-brick alley way that led to their home, Rachel had invited all her neighbours, most of whom were Muslim or non-Christian. She proclaimed to all of them with tears in her eyes how God had answered her prayers, and urged all of them to turn to God. It was an amazing and unexpected sequence of events planned by God, and I encourage you to read my teammate Ben’s blog, "I Got My Backpack On, My Shoes Tied Tight…", for a fuller version of the story.
Rachel's face is filled with joy as she recounts to her neighbours what God has done for her.
Which leads us to my part of the story.
A few days after I found out Kelly and Ben were supporting children, I began to feel convicted to sponsor children as well. After checking my heart to make sure I wasn’t doing it just because everyone else was or out of guilt, I decided to do it.
That night, I approached Mama Freida (Pastor Joseph’s wife) with my decision. She was delighted. As she ran the children’s names across her mind, she was able to pick out 2 children for me right away. One of them, Pavin, was the daughter of a Muslim man who left her mother when she became a born-again Christian. Rose, the mother, now struggles to make ends meet working at a hair salon. The other, Mwesigwa, was the grandson of Florence, a woman who was always joyfully serving us and Mama Freida in the background. When she heard the news, she gave the gladdest shout I had ever heard. I felt like the gift I had given was worth way more than I had imagined.
Later, Mama Freida told me how Pavin’s mother, Rose, had reacted to the news. “She was screaming in my ear over the phone!” she exclaimed. Florence also reported Mwesigwa’s reaction. “He said, ‘I have another mother now.’” I truly felt like a ‘mother’ as I heard about the joy of the children and their parents. As I met Pavin and Mwesigwa, visited them in their classrooms and learned more about them, I truly did feel a connection and pride, and concern for their well-being that I never had with the other kids. I had a tiny little taste of what it must feel like to be a mom.
A picture with sweet Mwesigwa and Pavin, as well as Mwesigwa's grandmother, Florence.
It’s been a blessing to be able to sponsor these two children and to know I have made a huge difference in their lives. But it doesn’t stop there. Already the movement is moving past our team into our families and home churches in North America. As of today, we learned that 30 people from America have committed to sponsoring children after reading Ben’s blog. That means that 36 out of 66 children who have been identified as needing funds for school have been sponsored! That’s amazing!! Today, those 30 kids were invited to Pastor Joseph’s house to have their photos taken for their upcoming sponsorship. Truly, God is doing something big for this ministry!
I also want to invite you, my readers, to participate in this exciting movement. Since we’ve been here, we’ve found that the most pressing needs for this ministry are
1) the 36 kids who still need funds to go to school and
2) the need for 2 new school vans to take the kindergarteners who live farther away to school. (More info will be provided about this in a later blog.)
Will you help?
Of course, you’ll want to know why you should choose to sponsor through this ministry. I can think of a few quick things:
(1) Pastor Joseph loves these kids. In fact, he was the one who started the school when some orphans he took in were being teased at other schools. He decided he needed to create a safe, loving environment for them to learn in. Each teacher is screened and interviewed by the Pastor to make sure that the children are treated right. Furthermore, he personally drives 4 hours/day (2 hours each way) in a beat-up van, over bumpy and narrow dirt roads, in order to pick up 44 kindergarteners and get them to school. Each of the 50 or so kindergarteners at the school cry out, “Daddy! Daddy!” when they see him. Even after 2 hours, he will get out of the van and take the time to walk the children to class. These kids are placed in a loving environment that no other school in the area offers them.
(2) It is a ministry opportunity for both parents and kids. A main concern for many parents is the raising of school fees for their children. Pastor Joseph offers every child a free first year at the school. This lightens the burdens for the parents. As well, the children are taught Bible lessons and have chapel at school. Many parents, even some who have been Muslim or were sex trade workers, became believers through their children. Those who may have been hard to reach otherwise can be reached through the kindness shown to their children.
(3) The teachers care about the children. Pastor Joseph had mentioned to us the difference between the other schools’ teachers and Champion Christian School teachers. Other teachers are paid by the government, and therefore do not really have to make an effort to care about the children. However, most of the teachers at Champion are young adults who have been helped or raised in some way by Pastor Joseph himself. They call him “Daddy”, and have the same heart for the kids as their Dad does. They not only care about teaching the kids, but also love the kids as people they can relate to.
If you are interested in what’s happening right now in Mukono, Uganda and want to sponsor one of the 30 kids who still need funding for school, you can comment on this blog, email me at [email protected], or email Ben (who has volunteered to head up this project) at bcfriedman​@crimson.ua​.edu. To sponsor a child in kindergarten, it is $115 US, and to sponsor a child in grade 1-4, it is $152 US. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in place to carry sponsorships for over a year as nof now, but there may be in the future.
You never know what joy you may bring into someone else’s, and your own life, by this one, seemingly small action.
