Thanksgiving

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!

"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!

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!

Meditating the Incomprehesible

I’m finding that in the dark of night and on the edge of life where death begins to be a terrifying reality, human strength holds no hope at all. Its something we know in our heads, but are shocked by it when we see this truth in such a powerful way. The past two weeks have been so emotional and exhausting, but have given me such great perspective that only experience can bring, and ultimately taught me more about living by the strength of our powerful God and not thinking that I can by my own strength “power through.” Tonight, as I was riding with Renee on the back of a motorcycle back to the hospital, we passed a woman laying bleeding on the side of the road. We quickly pulled off the road and ran back to where a small crowd was beginning to form. She was bleeding from several wounds on her head as well as from her shoulder and for many long minutes she seemed unconscious and I seriously thought that she might die. In times such as these the only prayers that will come from my heart are cries of “Jesus, please help!” We had been bringing sheets for Renee to sleep on at the hospital so it just so happened that we had sheets to help put pressure on her bleeding head wounds to slow the loss of blood. (Another reminder that there are no chance encounters, only divine appointments) As Renee held the sheets to her head, I held her hand and the flashlight and prayed that the Lord would bring the ambulance quickly. The ambulance never came though and after about 20 minutes a man with a car finally scooped her up and told us that he would not wait for the ambulance and would take her to the hospital himself. After watching his car speed of down the road, we climbed back onto the back of our motorcycle and headed the rest of the way. I don’t know if she’ll be okay; I don’t know if she even made it to the hospital. I don’t know if my 20 minutes of holding a stranger’s hand in the dark will make any difference in her life at all. In the midst of so many unknowns that have the potential to drown my heart in discouragement, I have to cling tightly to what I do know. I know that our God is bigger than this world; bigger than corrupt governments and poor healthcare; bigger that my comprehension. I know that He can conquer fear and bring peace; I know that He has conquered death and will continue to bring hearts back to the life that they were created for in Him. I know that even though I don’t know the whole story, He does because He is the Author of life and is sovereign over all creation.

Worship is powerful!

As I was preparing for today’s bible lesson, I was listening to some praise music in the background. I continue to be convinced that the Lord has called me to teaching because of how much I have to learn! Everyday He teaches me new things about Himself and I’m blown away at the growth that comes when I am actively working towards growing others. In preparation for the lesson, I was reading 2 Chronicles 20. It says that a vast army was coming against Jehoshaphat, king of Judah and that after hearing this, “Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD.” He called for fasting across all Judah and “the people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD.” I was first of all struck by this reaction. Many different stories in scripture record the wrong reactions that we have had to different trials and troubles, but Jehoshaphat knew where real power came from and called upon the King of heaven and earth to give him wisdom and strength for the battle ahead. Once the people were assembled before the temple of the LORD, he said “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.” He immediately turned to worship in the face of trouble. I was meditating on the reality of what can come from a heart that chooses that kind of reaction when a familiar song came on describing the story told in Acts 16. “In prisoner’s chains, with bleeding stripes, Paul and Silas prayed that night. And in their pain, began to sing; their chains were loosed and they were freed.” I decided to take the opportunity to re-read this familiar story. I remember hearing it in Sunday school and even teaching about it on occasion, but had never been so struck with the fact that their response to the awful situation they were in was worship! Then as a direct result of their worship, God chose to shake the foundations of the prison and break the chains of all of the prisoners. The story does not end there either, in fact the best part comes after the earthquake, because that night the Lord brought many hearts to Himself! The jailer saw the power of the God that these men worshiped and wanted to seek Him. Acts tells us that he said “’Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved- you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God- he and his whole family.” What a powerful reminder! Because Paul and Silas had their hearts set to worship, they were prepared for ministry even in the middle of a trial in the middle of the night! The Lord used them to show His power and might because they were worshipping Him through their struggle. How I long to be used like that! But if my eyes and heart are more fixed on the size of my trial rather than the size of my God then I will not be ready for the real battle; the battle for lost souls!
I returned to my lesson and continued to study through the rest of the 2 Chronicles 20. The Lord spoke to the people and let them know that the battle was His and that they needed only to take up their positions and stand firm and watch the deliverance that He was going to give them. King Jehoshaphat and all of Judah and Jerusalem fell on their faces and worshipped God. The next morning, they suited up in obedience. But the most exciting preparation they had for the day was the suiting of their hearts for battle. “Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for His love endures forever!’ As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.” The LORD is great and His love endures forever! May that be the tune of my heart in response to every situation, and may it clothe me with readiness to watch God win every battle! He is mighty to save and faithful to do it! Worshipping Him is the only response that will fit, and He is more than worthy of it!

The lesson went well, though it rained and we had to send the kids home directly after the lesson. I know that God has big things in store if He is teaching the hearts of His little ones as much as He is teaching mine! Thank you for your continued prayers for the children who come that their hearts would be drawn to worship of our great King through knowledge of Him and His greatness, worth and power!

Who knew that heart strings could be stretched so far or that we could have the capacity for so much love? My heart has been stretched across half of the globe and somehow I still find myself falling in love with new little ones everyday! I feel like my heart breaks a little everyday, and yet it feels so full and refilled with every divine encounter and every sweet conversation that the Lord reveals and reminds me of His purpose! We have another little girl in the house named Maurine, and I love this little 5 year old like I can’t believe! This morning we had church and we got to dress her up in one of the cute new dresses we bought for her at the market this week, and she smiled so big! Not a lot of words yet, but I was thrilled to have a response that shows she understands that we love her! She comes from a home of abuse, so I know she struggles with fear and security issues. She sat on my lap for a while after dinner and was content to just sit and have her back tickled for a long while and even wandered into the kitchen and stood next to me until I hugged and kissed her tonight, so she is even feeling comfortable enough to seek physical comfort from us! Her smile is so beautiful!
Faith is getting so big, I cannot believe it! Even in the few weeks I’ve been here she has grown a ton, and is now just a chubby looking 2 year old! She is so active and has been playing and talking up a storm! Its just my favorite to run and play “hide and tickle” with her in the mornings and hear her shriek with excitement as she finds me behind doorways!
This morning I taught children’s church at Acacia Community Church, and that was pretty funny! The church is outside, and this morning was windy and threatening to rain on us, which just added another dimension to the chaos! There were about 50 kids and myself and two other helpers, which would not be too different from bible study here at the house, but I tried to do a craft and two games this morning on top of the lesson! It went much better than it could have gone, but I heard later that the adults could hear all of our activities going on the other side of the house despite my attempts to keep the activities relatively contained and quiet! I think the kids enjoyed it though, and I know I certainly did!
I cannot even communicate how the Lord continues to remind me of His wonderful faithfulness! I learn more here everyday than I feel like I teach, as our sweet Counselor leads me through each day, each lesson plan, each unexpected event and reminds me of His greatness, His glory, His wonderful compassion and sweet mercy! I find that every day I am falling more in love with Jesus as I fall in love with the people that He’s made and is continuing to make in His likeness, and as He works and moves in my heart to draw me to Himself! It is a beautiful, beautiful life!

Hello my family and friends! I have a spare moment here and want to bring you up to speed on what is going on here. We have started teaching every day instead of every other day, which I love! Last Friday, as I was preparing to start bible class, we found that we were entirely without a translator! I was pretty sure that the next hour would be a disaster, but prayed that the Lord would take over and miraculously bridge the language gap. Of course, our God is faithful and he provided more than I could have asked for and when I sat down to begin teaching, a 12 year old girl named Brenda sat down next to me and just started translating! She did such a great job too, and engaged the other kids and answered my questions in such a way to let me know that she had heard and understood the previous lessons as well! I was so encouraged and praised Jesus in my heart for the big blessing he had provided! If that had been the end of the big blessings for the day it would have been enough, but our greater-than-life God showed His providence again that same afternoon! Some of the older girls, including Brenda, came up to me and asked if I had any bibles to give them. I answered that I didn’t but that they could come early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and we could have big girl bible study. They were excited about that idea and have been so excited to be set apart! Then Sunday morning at the little missionary church that we attend, the pastor announced that they were in need of someone to teach the children’s church starting next Sunday! I was more than happy to volunteer my Sunday mornings while I’m in Uganda and was so encouraged by the opportunity to plug in here! To say the least, God has been at work this weekend in showing me exactly where he plans on using me this semester, and I am so thankful for the clarity of his direction and leading!
As I lay in bed last night, entirely exhausted and yet unable to sleep, I began to sort through the many events of the long day. I am always surprised how the Lord uses the quiet moments to speak to my heart and remind me of what He’s done through the not so quiet times! I’ve found that our God does not waste time, and He has a purpose in every moment if I’ll pay attention enough to see what it is and what He is doing!
This week we’ve had big success as the Lord has shown himself through the willingness of the older children to help not only with bible study, but also with the feeding program! Its so encouraging to see them get excited about helping their own community! I know that it is because of the grace of God that we have had a positive reaction, and am continuing to pray that the hearts of people in Masesse will be open to Serving His Children as a whole so that we can continue to build meaningful relationships that will honor Christ and show his love in real practical ways here, and ultimately draw them to himself!
I continue to thank God for you and your prayers! You cannot know how powerful and encouraging they are to me. I was reminded by my dad on the phone even this morning that God uses His body of believers to fortify and comfort each other, and that His power can be seen in the way He works in and among His people! Thank you for being an encouragement and comfort to me, my family!