I'm coming home, I'm coming home

Btw Ugandans are against smiling in pictures evidently... they were a lot happier in person.

Diddy’s song “Coming Home” seems to be very popular around here and we always hear the boys, humming, whistling, or singing it around the New Life Homes. A few weeks ago I was able to watch a boy live out these lyrics. On December 31^st one my favorite boys at the homes, Emma, asked me if I would take him home on January 15^th. I told him I would love to, but I’d have to make sure our team wasn’t doing anything that day. The next day – after deciding that it would be ok for me to go – I let Emma know that I would be joining him on his trip home. His eyes opened wide and he stuttered out, “Really?!... Yea! That’s cool!” as he gave me a fist bump and his grin grew from ear to ear. He seemed more excited than I was about my joining him, even though I was clearly the lucky one to be a part of this journey.

A few weeks later I was waking up at 7am to meet Emma and Uncle William in the taxi park for the long ride. It was only about a 3 hour ride, but 3 hours in a cramped, hot taxi on a bumpy, crater-filled road seems a little longer than 3 hours in a nice air conditioned car on a smooth highway in the states. Anyway I’m somewhat used to the public transportation here by now and the combination of the beautiful view, the talk with Emma, and the delicious, roasted plantain and the goat on a stick that William bought us when the taxi pulled over and was bombarded by street vendors made the drive seem a lot shorter. Once we got as close as we could by taxi we hopped off and jumped onto boda bodas. This boda ride was one of my favorites as we scaled down a steep, bouncy hill and then spent 20 minutes or so winding through a gorgeous valley on a tiny foot path. We soon turned off and came to a stop in front of a little house next to a few wooden huts. Emma looked over at me, trying to hold back his excitement, and told me we had arrived.

I must admit the entire morning I had been worrying so much about what would happened once we arrived at Emma’s house. It had been 5 years since Emma was last home and he had had no communication with his family whatsoever. Needless to say, I had spent the whole morning praying that they would still be living there, that they would be home, that they would want Emma back, and that they would be able to afford to have him there for the week-long visit. After a brief look around and a conversation with a neighbor we discovered that they were in the village attending church. So Uncle William hopped back on a boda and went to fetch them as Emma and I sat in the front yard and chatted. While waiting I was filled with so much joy listening to Emma’s excitement. “That hut over there, I helped build it!... Eh?! That little girl, she’s my cousin! When I left she was tiny, tiny, tiny, now look at her!!... Wow!! She say’s my sister has graduated S6 (senior year in high school)!!! That’s so good!!!” His excitement built up more and more until before long two boda bodas pulled up with Uncle William, a young man, and an old man.

The two men came over, gave Emma big hugs, laughed and started blabbering off all kinds of things in Luanda. Emma introduced the two as his uncle (whom he has called father ever since his parents died when he was young) and his older cousin/“brother”. The men invited us inside and Emma’s cousin explained that when Emma’s parents died Emma, his younger brother, and his older sister were split up between his father’s siblings. Emma went with the oldest brother who was/is a farmer and could not afford to put Emma through school so Emma would go out to the village to his other Aunt’s house and would dig ditches and do other labor with her son to earn money. One day Emma had had enough and had decided that surely he could do better for himself in Kampala so he hid in a banana truck that was heading for Kampala and made his escape. Emma’s cousin told us how they were so worried about him that they even suspected that the Aunt had sold him off since her son came back from the village but Emma had not. I could not wipe the smile off my face from all the love that was in that room. Within an hour or so Emma’s “mom” (aunt) returned and I was once again blessed to witness another joyous reunion. Before leaving Emma ran over and gave me a huge hug, told me he loved me, told me to tell the boys in the New Life Homes that he loved them and thanked me for joining him. Words cannot even begin to describe the joy in his eyes! As we got onto a boda boda to leave Emma’s family ran out with a bunch of bananas and offered them to me as a gift for bringing their son home. I reluctantly accepted, gave Emma another hug, and rode away with so much happiness from the amazing morning I had just had.

Once we got onto a taxi William told me he had to stop at another boy’s house for a meeting. After about an hour we stopped in another village and I found myself at medium Moses’ house (not to be confused with big Moses or little Moses who are also in the homes). The mother and the seven small children ran outside and hugged me, catching me completely off guard, basically pulled us inside, sat us down, brought us a huge meal, got us sodas, and just kept thanking us. William told me that Moses’ dad (who was away working) wanted to thank me and a few seconds later I heard a phone ringing. Moses’ mom handed me the phone and there was Moses’ dad thanking me so much for bringing his son home to him. William explained how the family moved out of Kampala when Moses was younger and how Moses ran away from home to stay in the city instead of moving into the village. Now the family was rejoicing to be back together, told me that Moses was not nearly as stubborn as he used to be and thanked me (as if I had anything to do with it) time after time for bringing their son back to them. Once again, before leaving I was showered with gifts as the mother handed me a giant bag full of sweet potatoes and paw paws (papayas). The family asked for a picture with me and then they walked us down to boda boda stop where William and I set off to visit his family quickly and then finally made our way home.

It was definitely a long day, but by far one of my favorite days here in Uganda. I have found that even though we come in contact with hundreds of boys on the streets of Kampala with horrible pasts and sad stories of their families, there story is not finished. God hates seeing his children sleeping on those streets… cold, hungry, lonely and feeling unwanted and unloved. He has created us to be relational and He wants to see us in loving, caring families. Being able to see the closeness and the love of two reunions that day was sooo encouraging and I cannot wait to see or hear how God is going to bring the dirty, lonely street boys we see everyday into a family. Some of the boys will be reunited with their blood family, some will have a group of friends become their family, some will/are being taken in by a couple of Muzungus (Mallory and Katie) and are just being showered by love (both the girls’ and God’s) and I pray that all of the boys will come to a saving knowledge of Christ one day and will be adopted into God’s family as His sons. I have so much hope for these boys and their future and I want nothing more than to one day hear each of their hearts singing “Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday. I know my kingdom awaits and they’ve forgiven my mistakes. I’m coming home, I’m coming home, tell the world that I’m coming home!”