Matt and EB Jackson: Elizabeth's life changing summer in Uganda

My eyes get big as we step off the bus into the Ugandan slums, the community where the poorest people live. I look around me and feel like I am in a dump.

Essentially, I was in a dump. There is garbage and human waste everywhere. The smell is almost unbearable. Rags cover the tiny, skinny black bodies of the little children. They are running and playing around the shacks they live in, pieced together with cardboard, cloth, and anything else they could find. Tears come to my eyes as I try to take it all in and ask myself, “How could anyone live like this? Why, God, do they have to suffer like this?” I have never seen a place so poor in my life. We play with the kids, and feed them their one meal of the day: beans and mush.

The kids smile and laugh as we lead them in duck duck goose and red light green light. We sing songs and their little hands clap along. They grab our hands and the little ones all want to be held. As the boys start a game of soccer, we girls go talk to the other teenage girls living there. They are very eager to talk to us, and we get to share the gospel with them, and many of them come to Christ. As the bus comes back to pick us up, they cling to us, and beg for us to return soon. I hug them and tell them I will pray for them. As we drive away, I watch all the kids running after us, and my heart breaks for them. I know that my life will never be the same again.

The slum outreach was part of the work our team of 90 did in Uganda. We also worked in high schools and in orphanages. I got to work in hospitals and with AIDS patients.

In the high schools, we did assemblies, and also interacted with the students through sports and sharing our faith personally. As I interacted with these students, they would often share their questions and struggles with me. They were dealing with a lot of tough issues, and so I could really feel the Holy Spirit speaking through me and giving me words to say. One girl came to me, and told me about how she was orphaned at a young age, and now she and her siblings lived with her grandma, and they had no money for school, food, or anything. As she shared this with me, she burst out into tears, and my heart ached as I listened to her story of great suffering and pain. I was able to give her a small comfort by telling her how Jesus is the father to the fatherless, and also showing her the verses in Matthew 6 that talk about how not to worry, Jesus will provide for our needs. She thanked me and hugged me, and it felt good to have been able to give her some comfort.

Another amazing experience I had in Uganda was doing a clinic for children with HIV/AIDS. A group of us went to the hospital, and sang songs and played games with these children. They seemed like completely normal children, but their lives had been affected drastically by this horrible disease. Many of them were very young, and my heart ached knowing that they will die much too early. We shared testimonies with them, and then did a gospel presentation, and the majority of them received Christ. I took comfort in the fact that God had saved the souls of these children, because there is not much other hope we can give them.

One day, we got to shadow a doctor going though his rounds in the maternity ward. Unfortunately, I was repeatedly mistaken for a medical student, and was asked to perform medical procedures such as removing catheters, removing cesarean wrappings, and sterilizing medical equipment. It was definitely an unforgettable experience.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who gave toward my summer in Uganda and prayed for me and my team. I had an amazing time there, and God taught me wonderful things. He is awesome!

Decisions to receive Christ at a church in the slums