meme's blog,
One Night in Uganda
“When will people learn the secret?” the woman asked me, I wasn't sure what this African woman meant by this? “What secret?” I asked, “God’s secret, she smiled… You don’t have to have it to give it.”
I learned this truth of this secret in a real way…. one night in Uganda.
My husband and I traveled to Eastern Africa Christmas 2006 on tour to sing and minister to those living with HIV Aids. Everything worth anything requires sacrifice, and this trip was no exception. It would mean financial sacrifice, the sacrifice of leaving our own children in the care of others at Christmas, traveling against government travel advisories at the time, and facing my childhood fear of flying. The more I thought about this task, the more I realized it was way too big for me to handle! I had to remind myself that God’s visions always seem too big because they are! His ideas are like Him: Big! And we cannot do them without His help!
There in Africa, we met God at every turn. He appeared in the beauty and even in the dearth, but most notably in the people. Jesus peered out of the eyes of the hungry and hurting. He sat on the streets with the forgotten. The Lord's joy poured out of the children there as they sang and danced. He was our Companion, Provider and Protector.
Although the trip was filled with amazing moments, one time in particular changed my life. It happened when Pastor Wilson took us to a night service at his church in Uganda. The evening trek brought us through a slum village of huts with no electricity; the minister guided us by flashlight. We couldn’t see much but could sense that there were people all around watching us as we passed by. Out of the darkness a tree-framed church with a tin roof suddenly emerged. We heard the church before we saw it—the singing, music, and celebrating of the Believers filled the night air. When we entered we saw the single, generator-powered light bulb, and the faces of God’s people… We were surrounded by such joy and celebration that I felt my heart leap!
My husband Scott preached through an interpreter. His theme: “God so loved the world that He gave us… Jesus.” Then, without the usual nervousness I get as a singer and songwriter, I took my guitar and rose to sing. As I sang… I noticed a strange thing…. a woman was coming towards me from the back of the church. I kept singing… and she kept coming. I wondered what she was doing. Was she going to sing with me? Interpret for me? Pray for me? She kept coming with a huge smile and I kept singing. Finally she was right next to me and she thrust her hand into the pocket of my cargo pants and returned to her seat. This had never happened before in America!!!! I kept singing. Next a man came forward and he too stuck his hand into the same pocket. Slowly another person followed suit, and then another and another. Finally I sat down to a shower of appreciation and we all continued to worship the Lord throughout the rest of the service.
I had quite forgotten about my pocket until the ride home later that evening. I was pretty sure that these wonderful people had given me notes like we had received many times on our travel through Africa. Heart breaking notes from people asking us to help their children.
I grabbed a flashlight and pulled out the wad of small, folded papers. They were notes but a different kind all together, the paper I pulled out was… money! Each of these people had given me 1,000 schillings (about 56 cents). These people, living on less than a dollar a day, had given me more than half their daily earnings. Here was the living example of the widow’s offering in Jesus’ teaching. With this pocket-offering, I had been given a living example of the African woman’s secret, God’s secret “You don’t have to have it…to give it”.
I myself did not have what it took to go to Africa: I didn’t have the money, the courage or the confidence. Yet God provided all that I needed to be able to give. He provided the faith to get me on that plane, and then He met me when I got off. He taught me many things there about Him and His love for us, and He showed me what it means to give, even when you don’t have it!
“Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on." Mark 12: 43-44 NIV
