Servants in Uganda

I recently returned from a 5 week trip to Uganda and wanted to share some experiences and insights from my time there.
I was invited to Uganda by my friends, the Varga's, who are serving there as missionaries. Six months ago the Varga's left Oregon, their home, business and family behind and moved to Uganda to serve as directors for a ministry called Show Mercy. They oversee and care for 98 orphans who live in Hope Children's Home. Throughout my visit I was able to talk with the Varga's individually as they process this new life and the challenges it brings. I was also able to immerse myself in the life they are living there, spending my days with the staff and children at the Children's Home. I was able to see and experience the challenges the Varga's face each day as they care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of 98 kids. The scope of need is overwhelming and the strength it takes to walk into that vast unmet need each day is truly hard to describe. Quickly one realizes that the only hope of making it through the day is by asking the Lord to provide His perspective and love so its possible to pour a drop into that ocean of need. It was also wonderful to see the way God blesses those who are willing to share his love and truth as they enjoy a life of amazing freedom and joy that can hardly be contained. Another added blessing the Varga's enjoy is that they get to soak in the love from 98 kids every day! Not a bad gig!!

Many of my days started with a 20 minute walk through the neighborhood to the Children's Home. Mornings were spent sitting in on the English class that is held for the "momma's" 3 times a week. It was so much fun getting to know these special women as we worked on their conversational English and shared stories about our lives. I also took on the challenge of tutoring 2 teenage boys who had fallen far behind in Math. While I'm not too sure I improved their math competency, all three of us enjoyed our time together. Each day took on a rhythm of it's own as different challenges and opportunities arose. It quickly became apparent that the greatest contribution I could make was to just hang out with the kids and love them. Life is pretty simple in Uganda and children are content with small pleasures like spending a couple hours drawing and showing off their artwork, playing "football" with some sad worn out ball, sitting down and looking at a book together or just sitting on the steps and talking. I found it so satisfying to embrace the slow pace of life there knowing all I had to do was show up each day and do what was in front of me.

I also had the opportunity to visit a friend, Barb Iman, who is serving in another ministry in Uganda. Barb is an American woman who has been called to work among the very poorest women of Uganda. She has started a small sewing business called Rivers of Hope International, that allows her to hire widows, women with AIDS and abandoned women, providing them with desperately needed jobs. These women face the struggle to feed, clothe, educate and care for their own children all on their own. Each day as they come to sew, Barb is able to minister to these women and their young children as she pours out Christ's love on them and attends to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Barb daily answers the call to "make disciples" as she walks alongside each of these women loving, teaching and encouraging them into wholeness in Christ. I watched Barb do the humblest of tasks with great joy and marveled at her heart that radically loved and lived in "today". I saw all the small acts of service that add up to a life that is deeply engage in the process of dying to self and living for others. I discovered her source of strength, joy and love comes from a life that engages in a deep, abiding relationship with God that is centered around worship. The witness of Barb's life has left an invitation ringing in my ears to join in the Lord's call to love God with all my heart and be a blessing to those desperate to experience the love of Christ in their lives. Clearly there is rich life awaiting us as we embrace the process of letting go of this world and living for the one that is to come.

Many visit Uganda and are overwhelmed by the poverty and suffering but God helped me discover a richness and abundance there in the midst of all the physical need. I witnessed the upside down economy that exists for those who abandon themselves to the transforming work of the Spirit of Christ in their lives and begin to live for others. As lives are empower to pour out this "reckless love" with abandon, the wonder of God's abundance and fullness is clearly seen. As I came home I couldn't help but notice our own deep poverty as we strive to fill our lives with things that bring comfort and make us "feel" secure. No matter how hard we try to fill our lives, our poverty remains. I am convicted that I can no longer ignore the poverty here and I must ask the Lord to empower me with his reckless love for those around me. How awesome that every follower of Christ has been empowered to share the "cure" for the poverty that has overtaken our culture. May His compassion and mercy guide us!

Jill Van Gordon
Women's Discipleship Ministry
503-705-8902

Support for this ministry can be sent to:
The Table
PO Box 17355
Portland, OR 97217-0355