Home Stay

Over the weekend, I stayed with my friend Laura. AIM requires all their long-term missionaries to participate in a home stay with a local family or individual at the beginning of their first term. I had already done a village home stay back in 2011 as a short-termer, so I was happy to not do that again.

Laura lives in Mbarara but on the outskirts of town in a more rural area, near my previous home. It was nice to be back in the "neighborhood" for a couple nights and spend time with such a sweet friend.

Laura has been caring for abandoned babies for many, many years. James and Emmanuel have been in her care since infancy, and she's now beginning to pursue their resettlement into permanent homes.

She recently opened her home for daycare services, as well. Laura desires to reach out to women in tough situations, so she is currently caring for another little boy, Marcus, whose mother is single and in medical school.

To see Laura with these three handsome men is to see love in action. Though she herself struggles to make ends meet, she continually turns to the Lord in trust and hope.

So what did my home stay actually look like?

Honestly, it was very relaxing. Laura employs and houses a young lady, also a single mother, to cook and clean and do the washing.This allows Laura to spend more time with the babies throughout the day. I basically did what Laura did in my time there, so our days generally looked something like this:

7:30am - wake up, play with the children
9am - children eat breakfast
9:30am - Laura, Dafeen, and I eat breakfast

breakfast/tea: lemongrass tea and white bread

10-2pm - Laura and I visit and play with the children
2pm - children eat lunch
2:30pm - children go down for a nap
2:45 - Laura, Dafeen, and I eat lunch

matoke and beans: breakfast, lunch, and dinner

3:30 - everyone rests or visits
5pm - everyone gets up, Laura and I play with the children

6pm - tea time
7pm - watch the local news...and when power cuts out, we watch the children sing and dance instead
8:15pm - children eat dinner, get washed up and ready for bed
9pm - family prayers and children go to bed
9:45pm - Laura, Dafeen, and I eat dinner
11pm - go to bed

Our Sunday looked a bit different as we attended church in the morning, had a visitor over for lunch, and visited a friend in the hospital.

going to church

Short and sweet... I enjoyed my time with Laura in her home! I will treasure those moments of exchanging words of wisdom, lifting each other up, sharing personal stories, and speaking scriptures to one another as gentle encouragement and reminders.

Please keep Laura and her ministry in your prayers!