Today at our MOPS meeting, we had a young woman come speak. She is the mother of two children, a seven year-old girl and a four year-old boy, and along with her husband, they live in a remote village in western Uganda. They felt called to join the staff of a missions school, and a year and a half ago, they got rid of all their belongings, with the exception of eight steamer trunks, and moved a half a world away. They are on furlough right now in the US, but will return to Uganda at the end of the month, where they have committed to another 4 years with the mission, though they may stay on longer.
Her stories were enough to alternately make your heart melt and your hair stand on end. Next time you complain about the fly that got in your house when your kid left the door open, imagine waking up to find a tarantula on the mosquito netting of your four year-old’s bed. Or when you’re fretting about not having enough time to cook dinner and popping in a frozen pizza, imagine having no running water or electricity, and having to begin your dinner preparations shortly after breakfast in order to have time to make everything from scratch. Not to mention bath-time involving hauling water, heating it on the stove, and bathing the kids in basins before the water gets too cold.
She and her husband write regularly on their blog (that is, when their solar batteries can get enough charge to run the computer!), Called to Uganda. Listening to her speak, I came home and spent Kenny’s entire nap time reading her blog and the various blogs of their teammates in Bundibugyo. It is a world I can barely imagine. I have no frame of reference for it. Today’s post talks about “psychic numbing” – when we here in the US hear of the millions of people suffering in third world countries, we tune it out because it overwhelms us. But when we can see these people as individuals, we are compelled to help. That is something I can relate to. I will never forget the movie “The Constant Gardener” … when a young British couple embarks on work in Kenya, and the wife wants to help a particular person in need. Her husband cuts her off and says, “There are so many… we can’t help them all.” She replies, “But I can help this one.” Later in the movie, after her death, he eerily finds himself repeating the very words he condemned when he tries to rescue a single child from the murderous landscape.
It is amazing to me that a couple would be so convicted to help the people of western Uganda that they would uproot their entire young family and adapt themselves to a whole new world-view, in order to passionately strive to make life better for those people they have adopted as their own. God bless you, Pierce family! You are in our hearts and prayers.