I saw incredible evil and pain while in Uganda. I spent two days with children who slept on beds with no mattresses, who took “baths” in plastic bowls and dried off with dirty t-shirts, who had no electricity, no toys, no shoes, no adult supervision, and who hadn’t eaten in eight days. I learned that the “pastors” who run the orphanage keep the children’s sponsorship money for themselves and that children who receive gifts are sometimes beaten until they relinquish the present. I hugged a child who was so sick with malaria, worms and starvation that he would not have lived through the night if he had stayed at the orphanage, and yet we had to insist that the orphanage leaders allow us to take him to the hospital. I gave shoes to a beautiful 12-year-old girl who had been repeatedly dragged out of her bed at night and raped by men whose faces she could not see in the darkness.
As I hugged these ragged children, held their dirty hands, and heaped rice and beans onto their plates, I felt like I was the hands and feet of Jesus. I was acting on His behalf; almost as if He couldn’t be there and had sent me instead. I had sung “Jesus Loves the Little Children” with some American kids before coming to Uganda and the words kept coming back to me: “Red and yellow, black and white - They are precious in His sight.” Jesus loves those children! They are precious to Him! If Jesus had been in Uganda with me, in the flesh, would He be repulsed by their smell? Would He be afraid to touch the heads spotted with ringworm? Would he worry about getting sick from the many ailments they had? Would He refuse to hold the baby who didn’t have a diaper and might pee on Him?
I think we all know the answer is no. When Jesus was on earth, His time was spent with the outcasts, the diseased, the sinners – the needy. He got down and dirty with the lowly of society. Matthew 9:35-36 says, “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages…healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited.” Jesus didn’t shy away from those in need. Those were the ones He had come to help! He had compassion on them and He met their needs.
I purposely kept this idea at the forefront of my mind as I struggled with an initial reaction of distaste for the dirt, smells and disease I saw. As I did this, God filled me with His love and compassion and allowed it to be poured out through me, a conduit of His mercy. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but in actions and in truth.” The hands and feet of Jesus move in love to help those in need.
The needs in Uganda are many; everything from clothes to shoes to food. Not “I need clothes” because I don’t like anything in my closet. “I need clothes” because the only shirt I have is five sizes too big, stained, and spotted with holes. Not “I need shoes” because none of the 25 pair in my closet match this outfit. “I need shoes” because I don’t own a single pair or the one pair I have is falling apart. Not “I’m starving” because I didn’t get my afternoon snack. “I’m starving” because my caretakers have declared this a week of “fasting” and have spent the food money on themselves. But the saddest need I saw, which costs nothing to remedy, was the need for love.
I met a little boy at church on our last day in Uganda. We danced together to the music that preceded the service and then sat down to listen to a concert. I put my arm around this little boy and he sat as close to me as possible. After a while, in the spirit of our previous dancing fun, I removed my arm so that I could clap to the music, hoping he’d join me. Instead, he immediately grabbed my hand and wrapped my arm around him again. This happened several times, until I finally stopped trying to move my arm. This sweet little boy just wanted someone to hold him, to show him love, to make a connection with him. I had to leave that church service early to catch my flight back home, but before I left I made sure that that little boy knew that I loved him and that God loved him – the hands of Jesus reaching down to hug one of “the least of these.”
Being the hands and feet of Jesus does not stop now that I’m back from Uganda, however. There are still people in need, both around the world and in my own town. James 2:14-17 says, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”
I am in the process of learning how God wants me to serve in Charlottesville, but He is already using me to help internationally by sponsoring a child. My sponsorship pays for Karen’s care at a Christian home for girls. She is able to go to school (schooling is not free where she lives); is taught life skills, such as cooking and paying bills; and, most importantly, is raised to love God and serve Him. But that’s only the smallest of things I can do. There is so much more I can do! I can tell people what I saw in Africa and encourage them to use their own gifts to meet needs. I can sponsor more children. I can encourage and support missionaries who are in the country on a long-term basis. I can partner with the local church to reach out in making disciples and serving the community. Helen Keller once said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
I believe the message God wanted to teach me in Africa was that we are all called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Mt. 9:37). I saw the enormity of the world’s needs during my time in Uganda. The harvest truly is plentiful. But God is using His followers to make a difference. To meet people in their neediness and bring them healing. To love the unlovely and even the unlovable. To provide shoes for naked feet, rice for hungry stomachs, or friendship for lonely widows. Being the hands and feet of Jesus will look different for every person, but we can all do something.
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