I think that we will meet people in Heaven from these small, African villages and realize that they had a massive impact on the kingdom of God while they were on earth. I was lucky enough to meet one of those people on this side of Heaven. Her name is Nahyuha Damalie (we call her Damalie) and she is the director and founder of Sangaalo Baby Home in Jinja, Uganda. She is also one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.

When we arrived in Jinja, Pastor Issac told us there was a lady from his church who had started a baby home and we should go and visit her. It wasn't something that had been planned for us to do, but obviously God had bigger plans. So our team set out to visit Damalie and drove up to a small house with a tin roof. We walked into what could be considered the living room and there were 2 matresses on the floor with about 3 babies sleeping on each mattress. I picked up a child who was trying to crawl out the door and she looked at me with big eyes and then started screaming. Damalie laughed and said, "She has never seen white people before." Most of the babies were scared of us, but some warmed up to us by the end of our visit.

We walked in and Damalie showed us around the house. There were 3 small rooms and one room full of chickens. She was telling us that she raises chickens and sells them to pay her rent. Her rent costs about 100 dollars a month. In one room there were 2 sets of bunk beds where 9 children slept. There was no running water in the house. The house was the home to 13 babies. She began telling us the story of how she received some of the children. There were twin girls whose mother died of AIDS after delivering them. There was no father involved. A great, grandmother was caring for them but she had no money and could only offer these babies black tea to drink. They were severely malnourished and when Damalie found out she went to help. The great grandmother explained that she could not take care of these babies and kindly gave them over to Damalie who restored them back to health. She started telling stories of the other children and all of us were blown away by her kindness and devastated by the tragedy that these babies had experienced.

Then she started talking about a little baby that she knew of that had been hospitalized and was abandoned and in need of a home. She looked around her house and said very emotionally, "We don't really have the means to fully take care of this child. But then I think about Jesus and how Jesus would take in a child in need of a family." She was planning on leaving the next day to take in another child.

Damalie has a huge heart. She also has great need in providing for these babies. She needs a house with running water. She can not afford formula because it is too expensive so the babies receive goats milk. She has sacrificed so much of her self and her own personal needs, to provide for these babies but there are times when she is not sure if she will be able to pay her rent or feed all the babies. But then she starts talking about how that's when faith comes in. She trusts that God will provide for her family. I realized that I have never prayed "Give us this day our daily bread" and meant that literally. I have never missed a meal because I simply don't have the money or because I have used what little money I had to feed 13 hungry babies. I have no idea what it means to trust Jesus to provide for basic needs because food, clothing, and shelter have always been available to me.

We had no idea what we were supposed to do when she finished talking. Some people were crying. I was staring at a wall trying to figure out how we could get formula to her. Another girl came up and said that we should go buy mattresses for these babies and deliver them to her. Another girl went out to the van and got a suitcase full of baby clothes that we had and gave them to her. Damalie started crying because she was so excited for these babies to have clothes. Some of the guys went back to the bedrooms and started knocking down wasp nests so none of the babies got stung. Then we all assembled in this small room with her and all the babies and prayed for her. We walked out of there and we didn't even have to use words, we all knew that we had to do something to help. Each person on the team will probably say that this was one of the highlights of our trip. My friend Amber said, "This is why we come on these short term trips. So we can go home and raise awareness about things like this."

Damalie called Pastor Issac that night crying because she was so thankful for our visit. Each person on the team could tell you a story about how God spoke to them through Damalie. We were able to pull together enough money to provide formula for these babies for the next 6 months and clean water to mix it with, cloth diapers, and mattresses. But we all want to do more. Since we have been back there has been more exciting things happening with Damalie's story and God has been providing in ways we couldn't imagine. In my next post, Ill share with you what has happened since we have been back in the US!! I hope there will be many more posts about Damalie and the Sangaalo babies on this blog!!