The holiday season is once again upon us, and I have to say I am very glad to be so far away from the commercialism that has taken all that is sacred out of our Holy days! Here, there is no bustle to buy, buy, buy, because there is nothing to buy and nothing to buy it with. Over the past week I’ve been thinking a lot about the Thanksgiving holiday and what it is, what it is supposed to be, and what it should mean for me as a follower of Jesus Christ. I remember being in elementary school having a whole day of class dedicated to celebrating the holiday. We would cut out hand shaped turkeys, make big pilgrim hats, eat a ton of sugary snacks, and talk about all of the stuff we were thankful for. I remember filling countless lists over the years of things that the Lord had provided me and my family with. And I was truly thankful for them. My lists would always include my wonderful family, great friends, and a long list of the material things that the Lord had been so faithful to provide. Being here, it would be easy to list all the things that we have the luxury of at home in America, but it would be worthless, because all of those things are essentially worthless. People here don’t have electricity or running water, or even clean water for that matter, so what good are water heaters and dish washers or washing machines? There is always an abundance of good food around the holidays as well, and in fact in many households that has become the sole purpose in celebrating at all! In America, we have so much to be thankful for that I feel that sometimes we lose track of the things that are the most valuable. The thing that we should be the most thankful for that we take the most for granted is the wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ! The work of reconciliation is the greatest, most essential, most exciting thing in the world! That our indescribably great, perfect and holy God would choose to reconcile His creation to Himself by taking on Himself the punishment for their sins for the glory of His name is beyond comprehension and should make our hearts spill over with jubilant thanksgiving!! In light of the cross, water heaters and sanitization plants, and good healthcare facilities are garbage! In comparison with the honor of being able to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, our families and friends are nothing! And what is food? It does not and cannot fill or satisfy, we can eat until we can’t even walk to the door but in the morning, we will still be hungry! Our God is able to fill us forever with His very presence and that is reason enough to give thanks!
To be entirely clear, I am so thankful for the overwhelming abundance that the Lord has blessed me with! I cannot understand why He would choose to bless me with the wonderful wonderful family that He’s placed me in; the terrific friendships He’s brought into my life that challenge, encourage and bless me so much; the opportunity to have a quality education, and live in a beautiful part of the world in a nice house, and a million more wonderful blessings that are completely undeserved! But, during this holiday celebration, these are not the things that are at the forefront of my mind, nor should they be! I am so thankful for these gifts, but my eyes and heart should be focused on giving thanks to our wonderful gift giver, the LORD!!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
"Who knows but that you have come for such a time as this?"
Wow. Sometimes the Lord shows His hand so clearly in a situation and it literally takes my breath away. Days like today, even though I have had less than 6 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, I can scarcely contain the joy that is pounding in my heart and feel like bursting into a thousand pieces and yelling and crying and laughing all at the same time! I have to be completely honest, at least a half dozen times a day recently I have had to stop myself from whining in my head about how exhausted I am and try to cling once again to the purpose for which I am submitting to the labor of being exhausted, that is glorifying the name of Jesus Christ in every situation, and not the name of Heidi Elliott. Last night as we finally pulled into our compound after a full day of travel at 2 am, and I flopped myself into the bed fully aware of the fact that I’d be up again in less than an hour to feed the baby, I had to pray hard for the ability to see beyond the moment and the momentary discomfort of not being able to force my eyes to focus for more than 30 seconds at a time.
This morning, (after the sun had actually come up) I sat down and read a note from a friend that reminded me that our God works through seemingly hopeless and thoroughly unlikely situations for the display of His glory and greatness, and reminded me of the way He’s been faithful to show this through the past. The Lord caused the words to stick in my mind all morning and as we hit the ground running seeing patients I was reminded of what I’ve been learning in my bible study on the book of Esther. Beth Moore draws out an interesting parallel between the well known words of Mordecai and words in the book of Joel. She points out that Mordecai may have purposefully framed his words to reflect and remind Esther of what had been written in Joel about Zion in a time of peril needing to be rescued by our merciful God. Or it could have been that the Lord just chose to tie together the pieces of history and leave His fingerprints clearly displayed without Mordecai even being aware of the part he was playing. I was reminded that it was only Esther that had been called for “such a time as this.” One of the points that Beth Moore had made was that “who knows?” if every mind battle that we face and have to choose between honoring the Lord and following the leading of the Holy Spirit could be that very defining moment for which we were created. The weight of righteousness is a heavy burden, but Praise God we do not have to bear the burden alone because it would not be physically possible!
So, as the day progressed, and both Renee and I were battling fatigue, headaches, backaches, and just general discouragement, but the Lord was so faithful to continue to remind me that He is always concerned with “such a time as this,” and that I needed to trust that He would work even when I thought that I could not. This afternoon I sat down with one of the children we had taken to the clinic earlier in the morning and his father to discuss his follow up injections. His father didn’t speak any English so our day guard sat down with us to help translate. I told him a few things to convey and then sat and waited and watched as their conversation became intense. I had no idea what was being communicated back and forth, but was growing impatient to move onto the next patient. After a few minutes Charles, (the day guard) sat up straight and smiled real big at me and said, “Okay. He said that he is a Muslim but because of all that he has seen here in the past week he wants to know about being born again. On Sunday he is coming and he will come to my church for prayers!” PRAISE GOD!!! I had to fight back the giant tears that were filling my wide eyes, as I thanked him for inviting his to his church. The father smiled and thanked me and shook my hand several times, and as I walked them to the compound gate to head to the hospital with the next patient I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement at the grace of our Lord for allowing me to see that He is in the business of turning back hearts! The Lord used that interaction to show me His fingerprints on this situation and remind me that all of our efforts are for “such a time as this;” times when the world is watching and seeing if we really do care about them and care to show them the love of Jesus. Times when the Lord wants to give us the joy of being a part of His work in teaching others about His character and drawing them to Himself.
When I reached the hospital where I was supposed to meet Renee, I walked in and was once again blown away by a reminder of God’s perfect plan and perfect timing. As we were sitting in a poorly lit hallway waiting for a doctor that never came, we shared the events of the afternoon and Renee began to tell me about some new ideas she has felt the Lord laying on her heart recently. As she was saying that she still wasn’t sure if they were her own ideas or the Lord’s, a white woman walked up to us and just started asking us about our ministry. It was a whirlwind of a conversation, but she left and returned with a Ugandan woman who wanted to talk to us about the very thing that Renee had just described to me! As soon as that little meeting was over, we felt like it was time to head to a different hospital since the little girl we had was not even receiving treatment. We walked away from that hospital marveling at how the Lord had placed us there for the purpose of meeting this woman; talk about a divine appointment!
The Lord is incomprehensibly great and He desires for His creation to have the joy of seeing His greatness and glory, and His plans to accomplish that are perfect!! I am incredibly joyful and humbled by the realization that He chooses to use me as a part of that plan, despite my weaknesses, my tired whining, and my blurred vision for the future. I am so thankful to be in this place for such a time as this!
Thank you all for your prayers and notes of encouragement, they mean so much! I wanted to also update you on Shaquille, for those of you who have been praying for is surgery. They finally felt that he was well enough to operate on Thursday and the surgery went well! He is feeding through his mouth and the doctors say he is healing nicely and should be discharged possibly early next week. They said that he was even laughing and singing this afternoon. Praise Jesus! Here are some pictures from before and after the operation. The tubes in his nose were for feeding through, and they said that now he is tube free so I’ll post more pictures when he gets home!
This morning, (after the sun had actually come up) I sat down and read a note from a friend that reminded me that our God works through seemingly hopeless and thoroughly unlikely situations for the display of His glory and greatness, and reminded me of the way He’s been faithful to show this through the past. The Lord caused the words to stick in my mind all morning and as we hit the ground running seeing patients I was reminded of what I’ve been learning in my bible study on the book of Esther. Beth Moore draws out an interesting parallel between the well known words of Mordecai and words in the book of Joel. She points out that Mordecai may have purposefully framed his words to reflect and remind Esther of what had been written in Joel about Zion in a time of peril needing to be rescued by our merciful God. Or it could have been that the Lord just chose to tie together the pieces of history and leave His fingerprints clearly displayed without Mordecai even being aware of the part he was playing. I was reminded that it was only Esther that had been called for “such a time as this.” One of the points that Beth Moore had made was that “who knows?” if every mind battle that we face and have to choose between honoring the Lord and following the leading of the Holy Spirit could be that very defining moment for which we were created. The weight of righteousness is a heavy burden, but Praise God we do not have to bear the burden alone because it would not be physically possible!
So, as the day progressed, and both Renee and I were battling fatigue, headaches, backaches, and just general discouragement, but the Lord was so faithful to continue to remind me that He is always concerned with “such a time as this,” and that I needed to trust that He would work even when I thought that I could not. This afternoon I sat down with one of the children we had taken to the clinic earlier in the morning and his father to discuss his follow up injections. His father didn’t speak any English so our day guard sat down with us to help translate. I told him a few things to convey and then sat and waited and watched as their conversation became intense. I had no idea what was being communicated back and forth, but was growing impatient to move onto the next patient. After a few minutes Charles, (the day guard) sat up straight and smiled real big at me and said, “Okay. He said that he is a Muslim but because of all that he has seen here in the past week he wants to know about being born again. On Sunday he is coming and he will come to my church for prayers!” PRAISE GOD!!! I had to fight back the giant tears that were filling my wide eyes, as I thanked him for inviting his to his church. The father smiled and thanked me and shook my hand several times, and as I walked them to the compound gate to head to the hospital with the next patient I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement at the grace of our Lord for allowing me to see that He is in the business of turning back hearts! The Lord used that interaction to show me His fingerprints on this situation and remind me that all of our efforts are for “such a time as this;” times when the world is watching and seeing if we really do care about them and care to show them the love of Jesus. Times when the Lord wants to give us the joy of being a part of His work in teaching others about His character and drawing them to Himself.
When I reached the hospital where I was supposed to meet Renee, I walked in and was once again blown away by a reminder of God’s perfect plan and perfect timing. As we were sitting in a poorly lit hallway waiting for a doctor that never came, we shared the events of the afternoon and Renee began to tell me about some new ideas she has felt the Lord laying on her heart recently. As she was saying that she still wasn’t sure if they were her own ideas or the Lord’s, a white woman walked up to us and just started asking us about our ministry. It was a whirlwind of a conversation, but she left and returned with a Ugandan woman who wanted to talk to us about the very thing that Renee had just described to me! As soon as that little meeting was over, we felt like it was time to head to a different hospital since the little girl we had was not even receiving treatment. We walked away from that hospital marveling at how the Lord had placed us there for the purpose of meeting this woman; talk about a divine appointment!
The Lord is incomprehensibly great and He desires for His creation to have the joy of seeing His greatness and glory, and His plans to accomplish that are perfect!! I am incredibly joyful and humbled by the realization that He chooses to use me as a part of that plan, despite my weaknesses, my tired whining, and my blurred vision for the future. I am so thankful to be in this place for such a time as this!
Thank you all for your prayers and notes of encouragement, they mean so much! I wanted to also update you on Shaquille, for those of you who have been praying for is surgery. They finally felt that he was well enough to operate on Thursday and the surgery went well! He is feeding through his mouth and the doctors say he is healing nicely and should be discharged possibly early next week. They said that he was even laughing and singing this afternoon. Praise Jesus! Here are some pictures from before and after the operation. The tubes in his nose were for feeding through, and they said that now he is tube free so I’ll post more pictures when he gets home!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Kids, kids and more kids!!
Hello my friends and family, what an adventure life is! I apologize that my updates have been few and far between! I know that all of you are eager to know how to pray specifically, and I am going to try to be better at equipping my fellow prayer warriors over this last month. Our cup here at Serving His Children is always full, and so is our dinner table! In the past few weeks we’ve had kids in and out of the house with different ailments that range from infected cuts and fungal infections to Typhoid and TB as well as severe malnutrition. To learn more about what has been going on here in the past few weeks you can read Renee’s blog; http://www.servinghischildreninuganda.blogspot.com/. How I wish I could recount all of the precious details of each child who has come through our doors and into our hearts, but with so many babies in the house it is impossible to spend that much time at the computer! I will just give a brief description of what the Lord has been doing with some specific children recently so that you can worship along with us in thanksgiving over all of the ways He’s been showing His face!
Meet Selah Grace. Praise the LORD for His gracious character and His sweet loving-kindness! Her name is a reflection of what our God has chosen to reveal to us through her. My heart is overflowing with joy from the blessing of this baby girl, and the honor of being a part of God’s plan for her life, even if only for a short time. Selah was a nameless 10 day old baby girl that was brought to us a few weeks ago by one of our neighbors. She had been abandoned by her mother, and the woman she was left with wanted to throw her in the latrine. Our neighbor somehow knew of the situation and told her that she knew of some white girls who would take her. Of course when we saw her our hearts were captured and after only a few hours of thinking and praying about what to do with the situation, Renee and I were already excitedly discussing the name Renee had thought of and all the little outfits we could put her in! When Selah came to us she was covered in a strange chaffing rash from never being bathed and she was loosing weight because of poor nutrition. She rarely cried, which generally means that they had not been holding her and she had given up on crying. Today, she is a healthy 5 ½ week old, gaining weight, cooing and even smiling occasionally in response to big kisses from her aunties! J This week Renee met with the probation officer for the Jinja area and we’ve been told that he is going to grant a foster care order so that we can continue to care for Selah legally. We are so excited for that huge answer to prayer!
This is Shaquille. (His real name is Shakul, but we have another little boy with the same name so we had to rename him so that we would not get confused!) Shaquille is one year old and is still drinking milk as his only source of nutrients. He has a cleft pallet which makes it impossible for him to suck, or eat anything that could get caught up inside his nasal passages. Because of this he is developmentally behind schedule. He is very small and has very little muscular strength. When he first came to us, we were told that there was no one in Uganda who could do the surgery, and that he was just going to die from malnutrition. This week, because of God’s provision, we’ve travelled to Entebbe twice and Shaquille is at a brand new hospital there waiting for his surgery that is scheduled for next week. He has gained a ton of weight since he’s been with us and is a happy little boy. Please pray for the whole procedure and the recovery, that the Lord would protect him from infection.
This is Shakul, a 1 ½ year old who 2 months ago was seriously malnourished and dying from HIV and malaria. While in local children’s hospital doctors tried to inject fluids through an IV in his head. When the needle fleshed out because his veins were so small, they forced the injection through anyway and caused a large chemical burn. When he came to our house he never smiled, the skin was falling off of his head and you could see his tail bone sticking out even with a diaper on because he was so emaciated. Over the past two months he’s gained about 3 or 4 pounds, has bubby cheeks and a round belly and the cutest smile ever. This boy has a very strong will, and even has enough energy to throw some giant tantrums, but we’ve grown pretty attached regardless! We’ve recently discovered that he loves hats, so we bought him an orange bucket cap and he loves to wear it all the time, he even gets mad when we take it off for bath time. He is growing in size, muscular strength, and even in good humor and we enjoy watching God work in his little life.
This is Allaphat, and Praise Jesus, after a long and terrifying battle with many ailments, this giggling, galloping little boy was healthy enough to go home! He was here about 3 months and in that time there were many many tearful nights spend on my knees asking the Lord to please let him live to see morning! (My last blog post was a reflection of a few weeks of staying up with Allaphat for feedings.) It was a painful process for all of us, but the Lord was so faithful and showed His strength in bringing healing! Allaphat is HIV positive, so he will always be immunity impaired and struggle to keep away sickness, but he’ll be facing the future with the right foot forward now since he is back to his healthy weight. He was very sad to go home because of all the fun he’s had with us since he’s been healthy enough to play, but he comes to visit nearly everyday and pops his head in to say, ”Auntie Heidi, How are you?” J Even now I can hear him outside singing his favorite song from bible study, “Pharaoh, Pharaoh” at the top of his lungs! Please continue to pray for him as he comes from a Muslim home and my heart hurts for him to grow up knowing Jesus!
Maurine is still healthy and doing great! She is learning English very well and becoming quite the little helper with her “siblings.” Faith is big and healthy and has also been well enough to go home, but her mother is now employed by SHC so she also visits everyday and comes to play. Our hearts are so full with love for all of these children! Thank you for your prayers for them, it is an indescribable blessing to watch them all grow and learn and know that our God has a specific plan for each of their lives and we get the honor of helping and watching it to unfold!
Meet Selah Grace. Praise the LORD for His gracious character and His sweet loving-kindness! Her name is a reflection of what our God has chosen to reveal to us through her. My heart is overflowing with joy from the blessing of this baby girl, and the honor of being a part of God’s plan for her life, even if only for a short time. Selah was a nameless 10 day old baby girl that was brought to us a few weeks ago by one of our neighbors. She had been abandoned by her mother, and the woman she was left with wanted to throw her in the latrine. Our neighbor somehow knew of the situation and told her that she knew of some white girls who would take her. Of course when we saw her our hearts were captured and after only a few hours of thinking and praying about what to do with the situation, Renee and I were already excitedly discussing the name Renee had thought of and all the little outfits we could put her in! When Selah came to us she was covered in a strange chaffing rash from never being bathed and she was loosing weight because of poor nutrition. She rarely cried, which generally means that they had not been holding her and she had given up on crying. Today, she is a healthy 5 ½ week old, gaining weight, cooing and even smiling occasionally in response to big kisses from her aunties! J This week Renee met with the probation officer for the Jinja area and we’ve been told that he is going to grant a foster care order so that we can continue to care for Selah legally. We are so excited for that huge answer to prayer!
This is Shaquille. (His real name is Shakul, but we have another little boy with the same name so we had to rename him so that we would not get confused!) Shaquille is one year old and is still drinking milk as his only source of nutrients. He has a cleft pallet which makes it impossible for him to suck, or eat anything that could get caught up inside his nasal passages. Because of this he is developmentally behind schedule. He is very small and has very little muscular strength. When he first came to us, we were told that there was no one in Uganda who could do the surgery, and that he was just going to die from malnutrition. This week, because of God’s provision, we’ve travelled to Entebbe twice and Shaquille is at a brand new hospital there waiting for his surgery that is scheduled for next week. He has gained a ton of weight since he’s been with us and is a happy little boy. Please pray for the whole procedure and the recovery, that the Lord would protect him from infection.
This is Shakul, a 1 ½ year old who 2 months ago was seriously malnourished and dying from HIV and malaria. While in local children’s hospital doctors tried to inject fluids through an IV in his head. When the needle fleshed out because his veins were so small, they forced the injection through anyway and caused a large chemical burn. When he came to our house he never smiled, the skin was falling off of his head and you could see his tail bone sticking out even with a diaper on because he was so emaciated. Over the past two months he’s gained about 3 or 4 pounds, has bubby cheeks and a round belly and the cutest smile ever. This boy has a very strong will, and even has enough energy to throw some giant tantrums, but we’ve grown pretty attached regardless! We’ve recently discovered that he loves hats, so we bought him an orange bucket cap and he loves to wear it all the time, he even gets mad when we take it off for bath time. He is growing in size, muscular strength, and even in good humor and we enjoy watching God work in his little life.
This is Allaphat, and Praise Jesus, after a long and terrifying battle with many ailments, this giggling, galloping little boy was healthy enough to go home! He was here about 3 months and in that time there were many many tearful nights spend on my knees asking the Lord to please let him live to see morning! (My last blog post was a reflection of a few weeks of staying up with Allaphat for feedings.) It was a painful process for all of us, but the Lord was so faithful and showed His strength in bringing healing! Allaphat is HIV positive, so he will always be immunity impaired and struggle to keep away sickness, but he’ll be facing the future with the right foot forward now since he is back to his healthy weight. He was very sad to go home because of all the fun he’s had with us since he’s been healthy enough to play, but he comes to visit nearly everyday and pops his head in to say, ”Auntie Heidi, How are you?” J Even now I can hear him outside singing his favorite song from bible study, “Pharaoh, Pharaoh” at the top of his lungs! Please continue to pray for him as he comes from a Muslim home and my heart hurts for him to grow up knowing Jesus! Maurine is still healthy and doing great! She is learning English very well and becoming quite the little helper with her “siblings.” Faith is big and healthy and has also been well enough to go home, but her mother is now employed by SHC so she also visits everyday and comes to play. Our hearts are so full with love for all of these children! Thank you for your prayers for them, it is an indescribable blessing to watch them all grow and learn and know that our God has a specific plan for each of their lives and we get the honor of helping and watching it to unfold!
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