Monday 8/22/16

It is Monday night at 11. Crazy late for this girl...but wait...not really because it is only 4 pm your time. I should be eating dinner. My body is so confused.
Today was an awesome day. We went to the project house and spent the day with the girls and Ugandan staff. First 15 minutes of just hugs. The girls are so beautiful - beyond description. They are joy filled and glowing. I can sense anxiousness and fear although they have not said so. With graduation in a little over a week, they are not sure how to feel. Some, like a typical teenager, said months back that they felt ready and prepared to go out on their own. But now...now that the time has come they wish they were staying. But just like our own children, the time comes when you have given them as much love, protection and education as you could have and showered over them prayers and blessings and suddenly it is time to let them go. We let them go off to colleges or off to a husband or wife or off to work or the military, or to Missouri- 12 hours away.... but somewhere deep inside you have some peace knowing that they will be ok.
These girls have had 2 years of safety and food and soft beds. 2 years of nights where they could rest their sleepy heads without the fear of being raped. 2 years of home-cooked  meals where they sat and giggled with one another instead of sneaking rotten meat from garbage cans only to be beaten if they were caught. 2 years of worshipping together and encouraging one another. 2 years of clean clothes without holes and shoes instead of cracked, bloodied and blistered bare feet.
They will go out soon, just like we once had to, and try their best to make a life. But it will never be an easy life. They will work harder than I could ever imagine to just survive. BUT...they have been given a chance. A chance they NEVER saw coming. A chance to matter because they know now that they are loved. First by Jesus, then by their sponsors and lastly by the staff Uganda and state side.
I think that their mama's would tell you, "thank you for giving to my sweet baby girl what I could have never given her."
You all have saved lives. You have been a part of picking up the shattered pieces of a girl's life, and gently bringing her back to life. Through your sponsorship, donations and/or prayers, you have done for the least of these. Thank you for being His hands and His feet.
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:31