Our tour has been incredible. It has been difficult. It has been filled with laughter, tears, pictures, "I love you Auntie" notes, and incredible growth.
Today I've been thinking about how this tour is so quickly coming to a close. We arrived here at Mirembe House on Tuesday - and counted joyously the high number of twenty days we had here together. How can it be only seventeen already?
Today Charity came to me and put her head in my lap and said, "Auntie, may you help me to remove from my hair the grass?" And as I picked the bits and pieces out of her hair I thought, "Often I feel like the mother monkey, if only I ate the stuff I picked..." Today I thought, "How many more times do I get to do this?"
Grace, my dear little Grace, has drawn me beautiful pictures two days in a row. On most days, her words are fairly harsh, and even in her playful laughter she tries her best to put on a tough tone. She's actually quite hilarious and very fun. She becomes the most tender, dear little girl when she secretly draws these pictures and does her best to get it to you - through others. Yesterday one of the other girls gave it to me. Today Harriet brought it to me. Both are covered in flowers and hearts and say "Auntie Amy" in giant letters, and "Grace" in tiny letters beneath. Give the girl a crayon and some paper and the rough exterior melts away and she's just a sweetie. How many more pictures will I get from her?
Brian, in devotions tonight, sat back with Stacy and I and did everything in his power to be close to us. He rested his head on Stacy's shoulder and picked up my foot and put it on his, played with my toes, was just close. Stacy and I both thought, "Brian? This is Brian? A bit odd for Brian... Brian?" But as he examined my toe-nail polish I thought, "Moments like this, they are special... and Brian, yes Brian, in all his rough and tough boy-ness knows that moments like this are special. And he's soaking them in." How many more of these moments will I have?
A few weeks ago the "Remember when's..." started flowing from our mouthes. "Remember when we convinced the children that salad was the greatest thing ever?" "Remember when we had to use a school bus to go to the 25th Anniversary Gala?" "Remember when we stayed in Uncle Gym?" "Remember when we spent an hour singing worship songs in the hall?" Often these are received with an, "Oh yeah!" from another and as we reminisce over the past 15 months on tour I am reminded of how thankful I am to have been on the road with these children and this team of chaperones. I know that it is all a part of God's plan, and the things that we've experienced over the tour have brought us to this time. Our beginning on tour was created so that the end could be even better. These children were brought to America so that they could go back to Africa. We have loved them, taught them, grown with them, disciplined them, tucked them in at night, prayed with them, sang with them, played countless games of Skip-Bo, Soccer, & matching game with them, driven across the continent with them, believed in them, and in a couple short weeks we will put them on a plane and pray that as they transition back into life in Africa the impact we have had on them will stay strong as they grow older. We pray that as they think back on their time in America, they will see God's hand stretched out over their lives and continually follow Him in all they do.
Time is coming to a close here, goodbyes are on their way. But it is good. We have been blessed to know one another. I have been blessed to be on Choir 35.
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