a sweet reminder

After the Americans finish camp on Friday, they are taken down the hill to the Tree of Life Children’s Village, which is (as of right now) a collection of 23 permanent residential homes for kids that have been pulled out of nightmarish situations. These kids are now the most joyful, beautiful children of God and so full of love- such a contrast to their life before moving into the TOL. Yesterday, when everyone went down to tour the homes and the school, I was given a note by one of the girls that I’ve known and loved for 3 or so years now. It’s not uncommon for the kids to write notes to Americans, but usually when I’m given a note, it usually says something along the lines of, “I love you so much, God bless you, you are my friend.” However this time, her note said and meant so much more to me. It says:

“Dear my sweet lovely mum,
How are you by the lovely moment. I hope you are doing well. I love you so much. You are like a mum whom she has a heart for her child. It took a heart for the white people. God bless you for what you have done for me and he will bless your family. Jesus loves you so much. I pray for you every day and night, my lovely mum Auntie Maraha.”

Agness is 9 years old, she’s on the Tree of Life praise choir, and is in the 5th or 6th grade. She is one of the most beautiful children I’ve ever seen and is honestly one of my favorite kiddos at TOL. For her (let alone any of the kids) to say that I am “like a mum” to her and that she is praying blessings over me for “what I have done for her” is so sweet and humbling. This little girl is full of joy and love NOW, but she has seen horrors and was living in such darkness before she came to Tree of Life, so it means so much more reading those things from this girl. I don’t know for sure whether she is a social, single, or double orphan, but for an orphan to say that I am like a mum to her is so powerful. I am truly so blessed and humbled that the Lord would use me to love on these kids for the 4th year in a row. For me, this note was simply reassurance and confirmation of my purpose here, and it was a good and much-needed reminder of the reason I come here every year. I’m here to show love to the unloved and be the hands, feet, and voice of Christ for these kids. Knowing Christ is the best gift that I could give to these kids; and even though I miss my family, friends, home, and familiarity of my life back in Texas, it is SO much more important that I’m here doing what the Lord wants for these orphans. I am so very blessed by these kids, and I love getting to be a part of how the Lord is moving here in their lives.

In other news, we have had an unwelcome guest living with us for the past eight days. He’s a little brown mouse, and every few days, he scampers around our two bedrooms and the living room while we’re getting ready in the mornings. After the first sighting, we thought he had found his way to the open front door and left us. However, a few days later, the little nugget came back. Just in case you didn’t know, mixing seven college aged GIRLS with an unexpected mouse produces quite the bundle of high-pitched screams. Anyway, when we saw him for the second time, we decided to lay out traps and poison pellets... we weren’t going to take it any longer. Another few days later, we found him racing around one of the girls’ beds. We trapped him with suitcases and made such a barricade that the only way out would be into the cardboard box that held the trap. Later that day, we came home from camp to find that the cheese in the trap was gone, but the trap was still set and ready to snap. Still, we kept it there in hopes that it would catch the little vermin. The next day, Mackenzie, whose bed was the one barricaded, was tired of having to hurdle suitcases to get to her bed, so she started to move the box and suitcases away. When she looked in the box, she saw the snapped trap and the ugly, little rodent that it had caught! Praise Jesus! We were finally rid of the mouse who had terrorized us for over a week! Anyway, thought that would be a fun picture to paint of one of the daily battles we’ve had this summer!

I know this is a lengthy post, but if you’re still reading this, you must really love me! So you probably love me enough to shoot up some prayers for me! I have a group this week, 6-8 year old little boys, so please be praying for energy, a selfless spirit, and a broken heart for these kids. Just because I’m on summer staff, that doesn’t mean that I want my camp experience this year to be any less than normal. Pray that I would be fully invested in my boys and this group. Also, please lift up the health of the staff and summer staff, myself included. Today alone, 4 of the summer staff were sick in one way or another, so we’re all kind of battling illness this week and really trying to stay afloat. Personally, this morning during church, I started to feel like I had a fever and felt that way for the rest of the day. I slept it off before dinner, but that doesn’t mean it won’t come back, so be praying against that (especially since I have a group this week)! Finally prayers for focus would be really appreciated as well. Since I put my family on a plane back home on Saturday morning, my mind is jumping ahead of me to when I get to see them again and when I’m going home. I pray that those thoughts wouldn’t overshadow the reason that I’m here, and that I would really make the most of the time I have left. I have two and a half weeks left here, and I really do want the Lord to continue to use me to the fullest during that time. I pray for a mindset of “here and now” instead of “get to the finish line”.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support for me over here! I’m blessed by all of you during my time here, even if you’re on the other side of the world!