It has been a few day now since I have returned from Africa where I got to spend some time getting to know our strategic partners in Uganda. We are partnering with them to build infrastructure for abused and abandoned children. The ministry is called Noah's Ark Children's Home.
Their focus is on receiving and raising children between 0 and 2 years of age. Children who have been abandoned by their families, abused in ways you could never imagine and orphaned for all kinds of reasons including the death of their parents to AIDS.
I got to see the ministry in action first hand. Our first day there they received a call from the police in Kampala asking them to take an infant who had been abandoned on the side of the road. We drove the one and half hours to the city and picked up a beautiful little girl who we estimated to be about 2 months old. Right from the start of our trip I saw how God uses the broken moments to high lite the beautiful moments. In fact, I am learning that they go hand in hand
Walking into that police station we came face to face with the brokenness of humanity. A little baby abandoned on the side of the street. Why? How? Who? Those are the questions that raced through my mind but in the end I realized I'd never know the answers on this side of heaven. You see, you can ask questions till you are blue in the face but it changes nothing. In the end you still have to do something. You still have to act. You have to make a decision and respond to what is before you. It is at those moments in our lives that you end up discovering that beauty is often painted on the canvass of brokenness.
There in front of us was a beautiful little girl who was about to get a second chance in life. There in that police station were the eyes of Jesus communicating the truth of what He said 2000 years ago, "I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these... you are doing it to me." (Matthew 25:40).
Suddenly the words of Jesus became crystal clear. It was a moment of clarity that left me standing there with no excuses. Jesus knows how the power of being confronted with brokenness is the very thing that brings clarity to the beautiful.
I watched Pieta, our partner take that little girl and dress her, talk to her, love her and name her. She called her Huldah after the prophetess in 2 Kings 23. We took Huldah home that night knowing that she had a future, a hope and a family.
Often God will take us out of our comfort zones in order to help us see what He sees. I had to go to the other side of the world to learn this truth in my life. The fact is, whatever your situation, whatever your pain, whatever it is that is broken in your life or around you - look closely. God has painted some rich colors. He has made some vibrant strokes and is forming something beautiful. That is what God does. That is what God did. He takes the broken and He makes it beautiful.
A few days later I was given the privilege of dedicating Huldah to the Lord. What an awesome experience to offer up this precious little girl to the Lord, praying that she will encounter Him at a young age and give her life in surrender to His love and grace. What a beautiful baby girl she is and what a beautiful Savior we serve.
(You can click on the photo's for full size images)
