Vanessa Nakirijja age 5

I wanted to begin to share these amazing children with you and the stories of how they came to live at Hope Children's Home.

Vanessa and her four siblings (Robert, Bettie, Samuel, & Alice) were abandoned by their parents. The children didn’t know that the parents were leaving – they just left. Robert would try to find work so that they could eat, and Bettie did all the cooking and cleaning for their home. Their father came home every few months, and beat Robert because he thought it’d be easier if their children just died. These kids were brave and persistent, and kept pressing on. Show Mercy became aware of their situation, and took them all in.

Vanessa is one of the 95 children who now live at Hope. I truly adore this little one. She usually gets my attention by tugging or tapping on me. I have a special spot in my heart for her.

You know my name

It was a day like many I have had at Hope Children’s Home…I was surrounded by a lot of children! If all of the children at Hope Children’s home and all of the students at Alpha Omega are present, there are nearly 300 kids. Before we came to Uganda, I had determined in my heart to do whatever I could to remember as many of their names as possible. I had seen a familiar face approach me and I bravely asked if her name was Teopista. Her shy, happy smile she gave me told me yes, that was her name. How many times has somebody remembered your name that you don’t know very well. How does it make you feel? After remembering Teopista’s name, she seeks me out to find me and spend time with me. She writes notes to me and slips her hand into mine and looks up at me with her radiant smiling face. I know it meant the world to her that in the midst of all the children that are at Hope Children’s home and at Alpha Omega school I remembered her name. We all want to be remembered. We all want to be significant. We all want others to remember our name.

As you are all approaching the holiday season, I encourage you to stop and remember somebodys name. Remind them that they are loved. Remind them that they are significant. Remind them that Jesus loves them so much that he came to earth to tell us that HE remembers our name.

Come and be a part of a winning team!

I wanted to thank all of you who support Show Mercy International! You are the ones who are helping to put smiles on all of these beautiful girls faces! Together we are changing there futures and there children's futures! Join with us! There are more children out there who need all of us to let them know they are loved and highly valued. The Field of dreams is going to be an amazing outreach to the people of Uganda. I want to encourage you to give big today! Be a part of this amazing thing that God is doing! To find out more about what the Field of Dreams is all about. Go to www.showmercy.org!

Giving my heart to the one who created it!

I thought I would sit down and just share my heart, so here goes. I never thought God would have ever created me (Heather) to do what I am doing now. In some ways it feels completely natural and in other ways completely unnatural. I have been having a conversation with the Lord lately. It goes something like this (in a winey voice), “So, Lord, are you sure you have the right woman? I mean, I can think of so many other “qualified” women to take my place.” But this is the truth, He choose me and I am truly honored. In the Bible when God chose men and women to go on behalf of him to accomplish a “mission”, he didn’t go looking for the most “qualified”. He picked people who where imperfect, they made bad decisions, they messed up!

I am no different than the men and women in the Bible. Whatever great or good thing he does through me, He will get all the attention. Because I am imperfect, my heart isn’t always full of love. I still think only about myself. I am learning in these last months that it is good to be weak and not have a clue. You may think that sounds ridiculous. But I am finding it almost to begin to become a comfort. That means (God) has this huge canvas to work with. I am his canvas and I am changing with each stroke of his paint brush as I yield to His ways. He already knows what the “painting” will look like. I can take rest in the fact that it will be an amazing “painting”!

As we are living in Uganda Africa we have are daily challenges. We get frustrated. We have our “bad days”. In this last week we have become a little more homesick. But each day we are out at Hope Children’s Home and spend time with the children, my heart beats with a fulfillment like none other. I get to love these children who are at the very center of God’s heart….AMAZING!

So I have given up a lot of my “things” in the last year. But in these last months, I am finding that I am giving HIM a lot more of my heart. To me, this has become the greatest comfort because I might not know what to do in this situation or maybe I wasn’t loving another person in that situation. Or perhaps I was just thinking of myself in this situation. I am now giving Him (God) exactly what He has always wanted, my heart. I know that in doing this, anything is possible!

~Heather

Tell a woman she is beautiful!

This is Gertrude. I adore her so much. After taking this picture of her I then showed it to her and said "You are such a beautiful woman"! She then said with great surprise, "Are you sure...no one has ever told me that before"! Are words are powerful. I chocked back the tears after hearing this. Have you ever admired a woman's beauty and never told her. I encourage you to do it. It might be the first time she has ever been told.

~Heather

The little things...

Well, it’s been 2 months since our feet landed in Uganda. It is truly amazing how quickly the time passes. Looking back, I can hardly believe how much our lives have changed in that time period, and how many different opportunities we’ve had to stretch ourselves and grow. Even with all of those opportunities, however, I still have to pinch myself sometimes to realize that yes, we are in fact living in Africa.

The one thing that’s always amazed me as we’ve picked up our family and moved to different locations around the world is that no matter where I am, I am still me. Profound, huh? I think in our American culture of films and entertainment (for those of you who live in America), we’re often sold the idea that if we could just somehow go somewhere else, we ourselves would be different, feel different, and behave differently. My experience is that this is just not true.

Perhaps for a time, the different location can change us and bring out parts of us we didn’t know where there, but this seems to be temporary. Before long, you find yourself back to square 1, with all the same struggles and issues you had in your previous life! You can’t run from yourself!

What this particular trip has been very good for is placing me in fairly unpredictable (and sometimes very stressful) situations which expose parts of my heart where I’m not fully trusting God or fully relying on Him. I’m reminded of the Bible verses where it talks about how a person can give up all that they have (including their life), but if they don’t have love, it’s worth nothing. Even after all we’ve been through as a family over the last year, I keep coming back to the basic principles of loving my wife, being patient with my kids, and spending time alone with Jesus every day. If these things aren’t right, nothing else matters.

This past week has been yet another reminder that things don’t typically go as planned here. Fluctuations in our electricity fried several of our appliances, including our fridge. It turns out that you really need what’s called a Voltage Stabilizer here to “smooth out” the wild power fluctuations and avoid damage to the appliances. Lesson learned. So, we now have a new fridge and stabilizers for our appliances. Through it all, He’s teaching me to trust Him and He’s reminding me that I can’t do this on my own. I have to keep going back to the source. I need His love in my heart to know how to not only deal with all of these situations, but how to excel in them.

Never underestimate the value in doing the “small” things well. You don’t have to be living in Africa to put your wife (or husband) and children first or to set your own needs or desires aside for someone elses. I know God honors those actions no matter where in the world we are and if we’re faithful in the “little” things, He’ll use us for truly great things.

-Danny

A glimpse into the Father's heart.

HE sees the unwanted.

HE sees the abused.

HE sees the rejected.

Now what will you choose?

I will embrace the rejected.

I will embrace the abused.

I will want the unwanted.

This is what I choose!