by Alice Peace, Fundraising Chair
Happiness is feeling something very special, a feeling that sometimes makes your heart pound with joy or brings chills to your body or tear drops flow down your cheeks. These are the feelings you can expect to experience as you become a part of Hands of Kindness Children’s Ministry in Uganda.
Let me paint with words a picture of a mission trip to Uganda. You begin the morning riding on a dusty, dirt road to the village of Koreng. Children dressed in shattered clothing are waving, smiling and saying welcome. Adults are hoeing in the fields; they stop to wave at you and smile. They are happy to see you visiting and they know you are there to tell them Bible stories, sing songs, paint children’s faces and show them you got out of that comfort zone. You are going to share God’s love and a message that prayer and studying your Bible brings hope and comfort.
Sure, you will bring them some new clothes for the children. You will be part of a Bible School story telling them that God is love, you may be part of a medical clinic or an eye glass clinic because there is no doctor or glasses doctor for miles and miles. Many children are checked each trip for diseases or given a bandage for a cut. People wait for hours for a pair of reading glasses or your old prescription glasses.
I use the talent that God has given to make the children happy. I paint butterflies, cats, flowers and spiders and many more critters on children’s faces and hands. Since I have been to the village before, the children begin to line up when they see me. After painting and they see in my mirror, I get a big smile, sometimes a hug and kiss and sparkling eyes.
You can go on a cruise, visit a mountain or waterfall anywhere in the world, but you will not get hugs of appreciation all day; you will not see how people of other countries live and care for each other; you will not see how God’s love makes a difference in the life of believers and the joy they share.
On a mission trip to Uganda, you will finish your day feeling “dead tired”, full of joy, full of love, and shed tears of joy remembering what you have done for yourself and you have helped spread God’s love as he told us to do.
I ask first for your prayers for success in Koreng Village. Now, I ask you to consider sponsoring a child through the ministry or send a one time gift to assist with a good fence around our Children’s Center or if you would like—buy a swing, a merry-go-round, or sand box for a nice playground for the children.
