Three Roosters, Two Cabbages, Several Tomatoes, and Two Bags of Ground Nuts

During our debrief time at dinner tonight, Don asked each team member to share one highlight and one lowlight from our day. Today was the day that we had the privilege to visit our sponsored children. Kim and I had five children that we were scheduled to visit. The lowlight of the day is that we were unable to meet one of our children due to unforseen time constraints. We will, however, meet him tomorrow because World Vision is making sure that will happen. We are amazed at the extent to which World Vision goes to ensure things run smoothly for the teams and sponsored children. The highlights are too many to blog in one evening, so I will focus on one thing that stuck with me on an emotional level the most. Each family we visited was so gracious and hospitable. Knowing they are living in extreme economic poverty, I was blown away by their incredible generosity. During our visits we first spent time getting to know our sponsored child and their family. We brought a few special gifts for all of them as a token of our friendship. They treated us to a prepared snack of bottled flavored soda and a special Gulu treat. We talked for a while and I kicked soccer balls and jumped rope with our sponsored children. As each visit drew to an end, our World Vision worker would explain to us that the family wanted to present us with a gift of their love and appreciation. On our first visit, we were presented with a rooster! On our second visit we were presented with two cabbages, several tomatoes and a bag of delicious raw ground nuts (we call them peanuts). On our third visit we received ANOTHER rooster and a bag of salted/roasted ground nuts. It didn't end there...on our last visit, we were given a THIRD rooster! At the end of each visit, we asked the family how we can pray for them. Several prayer requests that were consistent was good health, that the children would continue to be successful in school, and that their harvests would do well after a difficult harvesting season they just went through. These families were giving us items that are life-sustaining for them and they literally could not afford to give us such generous gifts. This reminds me of the widow's mite in the Bible where the woman gave all she had to give and her gift meant more to the Lord than the gifts of the wealthy. I found that incredibly humbling and was not able to hold back tears as I processed the enormity of what the giving of these gifts meant to these families. After expressing concern about the generous gifts to our World Vision worker, she helped us understand that in the Gulu culture, giving these types of gifts represents a life-long friendship between the giver and the receiver. I found encouragement through what I experienced today and saw first-hand how one can be economically poor yet extremely rich when it comes to the joy of the Lord. With great gratitude, Jeff G.