My Father's Love

Exactly six months ago, I remember calling my dad from my dorm room in Boston. 

"Dad, I want to spend my first summer out of college teaching in Uganda...for nine weeks. God has really placed this on my heart. All the doors have been opened...all I need now is your approval."

 I'm not sure what I expected, but the last thing I expected him to do was to stop talking to me. 

I didn't hear back from him for a month - he thought I was losing it, seriously going crazy...but in reality, I know he was so worried that he was losing sleep over me.

Over time and through prayer, my dad became gradually more open to the idea and more supportive of my desire to teach at New Hope Orphanage. By the time I actually reached Uganda, my dad had become my number one fan! Telling everyone that his daughter was teaching in Africa...writing me all these emails about how proud he was and how he was praying for me every day. 

I remember catching Malaria and feeling so weak I could hardly get out of bed. I emailed my dad with the news, expecting him to freak out and tell me to board a plane back to NY immediately. He DID freak out, but he didn't tell me to come home. He told me to stay and to pray because I would soon be healed. Literally overnight, I regained all my strength and I spent the entire next day playing with the kids, throwing baby Dan into the air and catching him over and over and over. 

Even from the e-mails my dad was sending me, I could tell that he was a different man. He learned how to let go of me. He stopped relying on his own strength as a father and started relying on GOD the Father...

Ever since I've returned home, my family feels different. When I was little, I can't remember a time when serving the poor was ever a priority for us. I remember going on family trips, and my dad instinctively locking all the car doors whenever a homeless man started to approach us. I remember walking down the streets of New york, and my mom shielding me from the homeless - telling me never to give them money because they'll just use it to buy drugs. My parents didn't really believe in sending money to non-profits because "you never know if this organization is corrupt and they are just using the money for themselves." We allowed our hearts to become jaded and stopped trusting in God. 

The kids at New Hope Orphanage were like a breath of fresh air for us. Not just for me, but for my entire family! They replaced the words poor, orphaned, abandoned, with beautiful, chosen, adored.

This is Winnie :) She has one of the brightest and most gorgeous smiles at New Hope Orphanage. She's got fashion down like second nature, and loves watching LOST at night. Her laughter can light up a room any day. She's the same age as me (21) and has just started attending Uganda's number one school - Makerere University. She's studying to become a doctor someday! 

One week ago, she didn't think attending University was even a possibility. Winnie was short $1,500 in tuition, and the last day to enroll in school was just a couple days ago. 

"Let's sponsor Winnie so she can go to college," my dad said one night at the dinner table. "We can do it together as a family." 

My sister and I were in shock. What was happening to our family all of a sudden? We were talking about making sacrifices so we could make sure Winnie could attend college....my parents didn't plan a winter cruise trip this year and are encouraging me to go teach in Cambodia instead...my dad started collecting formal clothes for homeless men to go to job interviews in and then helped me drive the suitcases down to NYC where we would give them out. 

We knew what it was like to love Jesus as individuals, but never imagined how much more powerful it could be to love Jesus as a family. To watch Him take a hold of our calloused, jaded hearts and send us whirling in the opposite direction - straight into the heart of compassion - into the gaze of a beautiful, wide-eyed girl, determined to become a doctor.

Two e-mails I will have saved onto my desktop forever:

From New Hope Orphanages Director - 

All of us here cried tears of joy when I picked the money from Western

Union and took Winnie to college. Everything worked out so fast,

picking the money so fast, riding to college so fast, banking the

tuition so fast and getting admitted so fast. Winnie never believed

seeing herself at the medical school. She just shed tears of joy until we

left. As soon as I picked the money yesterday, we just drove straight

to College and she was accepted in. I banked the tuition only 5

minutes to closing the bank and that would mean canceling her

admission until next year. God worked out miracles at the

last minute!! I saw God's hand in every step, every time. You just

sent the funds in time. Thank you very much for being a blessing to

us. God used you to bless this little soul. Please pass our warm

thanks to your entire family. I know Winnie is going to be a blessing

in our country. God bless you.
- Ken Mulago

From my Daddy:
Thanks for sending me Winnie's picture. She is very lovely like you, and glad to call her my daughter. Please let her know she is no longer an orphan because she is my daughter now.

  Love, Appa