An Evening at the Door of Hope

April 09, 2009

An Evening at the Door of Hope

I was thinking it would be fun to share with all of you what a typical night is like here at the Door of Hope. I say typical because we try and stay on a nightly schedule and have a consistency with the children. As you may know with 15 children there is always bound to be a hiccup!

The primary children, Rock, Rob, Maddy, Winnie, Imelda, John Jr., Moses all get home from school about 6:00. It is so great hear the energy in voices and spirits when they come in the gate! One of the first things they do after changing from their school uniforms to “play clothes” is to come into the main house and greet all of us. We get and give BIG hugs to them and welcome them home. Then they are off to do their nightly duties of washing their uniforms, socks, bathing and napping before dinner.

About a half hour later, as we are preparing our dinner in the mzungu kitchen, we hear the secondary children coming through the gate. Shadia, Sarah, Barbra, John Travis, Priscilla, David, and Jennifer immediately head to their dorms to change and rush to do their washing and bathing before dinner at 7:00pm.

Mummy Eunice is busy in the other kitchen putting the finishing touches on children’s African style dinner. Imelda and Winnie usually help Mummy by carrying in the large serving bowls of posho or rice and groundnut paste or beans, and cabbage to the dinning room tables. The girls also help cut up the fruit, as Mummy is portioning out the food on the 20 dinner plates in front of her!

All the children, adults and the two little toddlers file into the dinning room, it is 7:00pm and time for dinner! After blessing the food, we all dig in….yummy! There is a buzz of voices about the room as we ask how there day was and what they learned in school today. Of course it is a mix of English and Luganda as the children share with each other about their day or the day’s football (soccer) match between their mates at school or Arsenal and Manchester United! As the clanging of plates and utensils and chatter of voices subside, we break out the Bibles for our nightly Bible Study.

Bible Study is always a fun part of our evening! One child an evening has been leading the nightly study groups, but this week we started a new study. We are going through a study book nightly for the next 16 weeks. At the end of the study the children are all going to be able to get Bibles from the Masaka Bible League at half price. This is a fantastic program that the League offers, as most of the children don’t have their own Bibles.

This is a great way for them to learn about the Lord and earn a Bible for their very own! They are very excited about this study! Last night we were learning about abiding in the Lord, John 15:1-8. They had some great insight, as we worked through the questions and filled out the work books. About 8:30 we whined the study down and pick a girl to lead a worship song and then one of the children to do the final prayer. As the room is filled with the beautiful sounds of song and praises to the Lord I can’t help but to be filled with joy and the Spirit of the Lord. It is amazing!!

After worship we all start to pray out loud! There are voices of prayer in English, Luganda, Rwanda, Swahili….I think it sounds just like what Heaven will be like! Then the person for final pray starts. These children have such a marvelous gift of prayer and thanksgiving. As everyone starts to head out of the room we give hugs and talk. Most nights a few children stick around to talk about the study, ask questions that have about things they have encountered during their day, or read the Bible more. The rest head to their dorm and prepare for the next day and for bed. As I work on the computer or read on my bed, I can hear murmuring of the children’s voices and laughter until lights are out 10:00pm.

I hope you have enjoyed an evening at the Door of Hope!!