Day 12: I smiled this week

Since I wore my collar the entire trip and Uganda doesn’t have Permanent Deacons I was greeted as ‘Father’, when meeting anyone. They were right and they were wrong. Hidden within this mission trip was the relationship between a father and his daughter. This whole crazy mission of love began six years ago when my oldest daughter Peyton had a desire to see another part of the world by helping the poor people there. That very young lady was shy and had no idea who she was or what she was getting into. She knew that God blessed her with a talent to put a basketball through a hoop but that was it. Six years later I saw a young woman blossom before my eyes in Africa. I saw her discover her God-given gifts.

The gift to love children. Her tender love exudes from her when she is around them. God has blessed her with the heart of a mother. She authentically cares and loves.

The gift of courage. It’s not easy being on the other side of the world for nearly two weeks. It’s not a vacation! At some point your stomach will cramp from something you ate or drank, you will get scared of a foreign insect or animal, you will miss the comfort of your own home, you will search desperately for another American since you haven’t seen one in over a week, you’ll feel like a clown in a parade because you are literally one in a million.

I now feel comfortable that this missionary of Christ can take her beautiful smile to share the love of Jesus on her own under the guidance of her true father in Heaven !