When Your Child is in a Third World Country on Another Continent

Be careful what you pray for!  When your children are small and you pray that they will grow to love, trust, obey, worship, and serve God more and more, that might take them places you never dreamed of!
Like Iraq.
Or Haiti. 
Or Uganda.

My 18-yr-old daughter, Amanda,  left Thursday for a 10-day mission trip to Uganda.  She has wanted to go to Africa for about 4 years now, but the right opportunity never presented itself until this year.  She is part of a small mission team of 6 people led by our friend Jennings Wright, who heads a ministry called Ten Eighteen.  They will be partnering with a ministry in Kampala called Father's House to put on a sports camp for 40 kids from the Namuwongo slum.  They will also be visiting the slums and delivering donated clothing and medical supplies.  In addition to ministry, they will be doing some fun things too, like going  to the National Theater and Friday markets, attending the Ndere Dance Troupe dinner theater, and going on a one-night safari to Lake Mburo, during which they will actually cross the equator!

They are actually staying at a beautiful house in Kampala that is the home to an ex-pat  American family  who have lived there in Uganda for the past 5 or 6 years. I am very comfortable with that.  I know they are with people who are wise and knowledgeable about the culture and the political situation, who know where to go and where not to go.   I know she will see and experience things on this trip unlike anything she has ever seen before, and it will change her forever.  Going to a third world country is life changing.  Amanda already has a heart of compassion, and I'm sure this trip will expand that aspect of her life. 

It is hard not being able to communicate at will.  We are so spoiled now, with nearly everyone having cell phones. I am used to being able to get hold of my kids pretty much whenever I want to.  But with Alex in Iraq and now Amanda in Uganda, I have to practice patience and trust, waiting for occasional communications via email or Facebook.  It really does cause me to be in prayer more, entrusting my children to the care of their heavenly Father.  I can't get to them if they are sick or hurt, I don't know what they are doing or where they are all the time.  It makes me marvel at the strength and faith of our ancestors, who watched their children get on a ship to travel to the New World, or load up a covered wagon and head west, or board a train or ship and head off to war, not to be heard from for months, until a letter could make its way back to their hands.  What a different world this is!

Amanda gets back on Aug. 15, and about 10 days later my daughter Sarah will leaving for Haiti.   Looks like God is giving me plenty of opportunity to work on my prayer life!