A Scent of Uganda

          For thirty-some hours I traveled over land and sea by air and land to reach Uganda, a southeastern African nation.  The stale air of our KLM Dutch airbus quickly gave way to the balmy Ugandan air filled with a peculiar scent as I exited onto the accommodation ladder.  By peculiar I do not mean a horrible stench; rather, it is a unique smell associated with the country.  If you have ever traveled to other countries, you might understand what I am talking about. Each country seems to have a unique scent associated with it that simply is that country.  Katie Davis described it this way in her book: “I took a deep breath of the air that smells what I can only describe as ‘Uganda’ and let it fill me with the joy of being in the place God has called me.”[1]

            Words might fail me if I try to describe the Ugandan scent to you, especially since we as humans have associated words with certain scents, fragrances, and odors.  For instance, you welcome the very pungent but sweet fragrance of a rose or the warm, buttery-chocolate aroma of chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.  However, you very well might run away if you saw a skunk and caught a whiff of his ripe odor or feel queasy when you open a gallon of spoiled milk.  Rose, chocolate chip cookies, skunk and spoiled milk all, if you have smelled them, call to mind a scent associated with each of them, whether a pleasant or unpleasant smell.  So instead of attempting to describe it, you will simply have to travel to Uganda to discover the scent.

            However, I will describe a different Ugandan scent to you.  Uganda is known as the Pearl of Africa due to its lush countryside and multiple lakes spotted throughout the land.  Should you climb a mountain, a picturesque and panoramic beauty awaits you.  It is a proverbial sweet scent.  But now travel down into the marketplaces and alleyways of the cities and you will quickly discover a different scent.   One of the Ugandan men whom I met, Moses K., said that 46-49% of the country’s population is 14 years old and under!  It is a very young nation.  Out of this vast number of statistics, over one million children are orphans.  If they have relatives who desire to care for them, they are among the fortunate few; however, if they do not, which is the case for most, they will leave for the streets in hopes to escape the pain of broken homes. 

Broken homes.  Sigh.  They are quickly becoming the norm in Uganda (and the USA!) due to a recent war in the north and the AIDS epidemic that has ravished large regions of sub-Saharan Africa.  Sad to write, very sad, but I think necessary to do so:  I noticed an AIDS prevention billboard promoting safe sex, not abstinence, and perhaps even more sorrowful was the sponsor of this ad.  It was an organization from the USA.

What then is the answer to the plagues of poverty, the rise of broken homes, and the leftover orphans as a result?  The answer: “For we are the fragrant aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).  Just as a rose is known by its sweet fragrant scent, so also are Christians known by their fragrant scent of Christ-likeness.  Thus when a person acknowledges our love or patience or self-control, they catch a whiff of the aroma of Christ Jesus in us.  It is when we as Christians live out of the glorious reality of Christ in us, that we love and give and serve and heal and speak and bring the good news of hope to a broken world, whether here in the States or abroad in Uganda.

 

And part of what the ministry Little Hands of Hope is all about is to be a means of promoting the aroma of Christ to the multiple orphans in a poverty-stricken land like Uganda. 

A View of Masaka in the Ugandan country-side

 

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[1] Davis, Katie.  Kisses from Katie.  (Howard Books: New York, 2011), 93.

A Text to the Unexpected

Sometime during the New Year’s Eve party in 2014 as I played ‘telephone pictionary’ with some of my fellow co-workers and friends, my cell phone chimed and alerted me to a text.  In this technologically bound society most people would not think this odd or strange but I did.  I wonder who sent me a message before the New Year? was my initial thought.  Normally, I do not receive an abundance of texts, except from work or around holidays when my family will wish a “Merry Christmas” or the expected “Happy New Year,” which would fall a couple hours from then.

I snuck my hand into my pocket, pulled out my cell phone, and read the text: “Jeff, I’m not sure if you are on Facebook but my wife and I wanted to know if you would like to go to Uganda with her.  Little Hands can flip the bill…leaving in March.”  I reread the text to make sure I understood the entirety of it.  It came from my best friend from college, Tom Johnson.  About a year ago, his wife, Kristen, journeyed to Uganda, saw the needs of street children and orphans, and began an organization called Little Hands of Hope to feed and care for such children. 

Now I was strangely invited to Uganda.

Uganda?  Somewhere in Africa, I knew, but couldn’t place the exact location. 

March?  Three months away.

“Ok…let me pray about it.”  I typed back on my cell phone.

Uganda?  Surprise.  The invitation to Uganda flew under my mental radar as a country to consider on the edge of a New Year.  Unexpected.  Unforeseen.  This small text would later grow as I first prayed and then accepted the invitation, traveled to receive my shots, and blossom into a ten to twelve day adventure in Uganda. 

This small text began to chart the course of the New Year for me and would leave a pensive aftertaste in my mind and heart during the weeks that followed it.  Such is the reality of small things though.  Small things or words often change the course of our lives or affect them greatly without our knowing. They come in unnoticed and uninvited but decide to stay with our conscience and linger with our minds, dinning with them until they set up residence in our hearts. 

Yet it is not the nature of a small thing or word to remain such.  A small acorn when planted will grow into its destined oak tree in time and with the proper conditions.  A small word can affect a child greatly, whether for good or bad.  A small thought will produce an action.  A small action has the ability to produce a habit, which will quickly become a lifestyle if left unhindered.  Indeed, as the Prophet Zechariah said centuries ago: “Who dares despise the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10)

And so the adventure to Uganda began with a text on that cold New Year’s Eve…