if only you knew.

Avalon has been one of my favourite Christian bands because their songs always speak to me and I recently came across this beautiful song called 'Orphans of God'. And during my recent trip to Uganda, I truly experienced in my heart the true meaning of the song. The faces that I met speak of pain only our Father will ever know. 

This beautiful baby is only three days old. Her first home is a tent donated by the UNHCR and her next home will be a mud house where her mother's embrace will be the only thing that keeps out the cold. When she was born, there were no cameras to record or celebrate her birth. She has no crib or toys and her bed is an old jacket that was donated. 

This girl, doesn't look like a girl at all, with her three month old boy in her arms. But she is only 15 years old. One fateful night, rebels attacked her home and killed her mother. One of the rebels offered to make her his wife but she refused because she said she was too young to be a wife or mother. As a result, he raped her that night. Without a family to support her, she crossed the border to join other refugees, where they were picked by the UNHCR and brought to the safety of the transit centre. 

These are only but a few of the stories but there are thousands more to be told. Each one, known and loved by our Lord. 

Oh my dear brothers and sisters, if only you knew how much you are loved. 

Who here among us has not been broken?
Who here among us is without guilt or pain?
So oft' abandoned by our transgressions

If such a thing as grace exists
Then grace was made for lives like this

There are no strangers, there are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but Hallelujah
There are no orphans of God

Come ye unwanted and find affection
Come all ye weary, come and lay down your head
Come ye unworthy, you are my brother

If such a thing as grace exists
Then grace was made for lives like this

There are no strangers, there are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but Hallelujah
There are no orphans of God

O blessed Father, look down upon us
We are Your children, we need Your love
We run before Your throne of mercy
And seek Your face to rise above

There are no strangers, there are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but Hallelujah

There are no orphans of God

- Orphans of God, Avalon 

and the dry bones shall live...

"Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here." Ezekiel 40:4

Two nights ago, I lay there in my call room reading my Bible before trying to get some shut eye before the next admission. These few weeks I had been reading Ezekiel, which had always been to me one of the less interesting books to read.

But as I read the words of Ezekiel 36, of God's restoration of Israel, I felt the words come alive. I thought of the DRC and I felt God's heartbeat within me. How he loved and longed for his people to give up their ways, so that they could return and be called his people. The next night of course was Ezekiel 37 - where Ezekiel is in the valley of the dry bones. I know that when the time is right God will breathe his spirit into those dry bones and they will live too.

Right now, there is another hour before I board the flight to Entebbe, the rays of the early morning Dubai sun shines down upon me as I type these words. As my eyes strain to meet the brightness of the sun, I imagine the words of Ezekiel 40, the vision of the new temple. I hear the words of Ezekiel 40:4… I know that God has brought me here today to this purpose, to see and hear what he wants me to know. I know that one day, all this shall pass. The corruption, the sorrow, the suffering. The sun will shine all the brighter because a new day has come.