Give it up!

Hello again, readers. I know I haven’t posted in a while; not since I was eleven. Oh, ya. I had a birthday! I’ve been twelve for almost a month, actually. Anyway, today I want to share something really important with you. And that’s the idea of giving generously.  2 Corinthians 8:2 says: Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. A few weeks ago, I met a girl named Joann at church. I met her when the pastor asked everyone to find a partner and ask them what they wanted you to pray about with them. After that, you got to pray with them. Now, as most of you know, I’m not shy when it comes to meeting new people. But praying with them? That one isn’t quite as easy. Especially when they’re not always praying in English. The first thing I did was turn to my dad. I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to pray with a Ugandan, but I was so wrong. Just then, as if he heard my thoughts, the pastor said, “Not just the person next to you. Find someone that you don’t know.” That was one of those “Really??” moments when I was like, “Okay, God. You want me to meet someone new. I’ll meet someone new. So I turned around and behind me was Joann. She looked to be about thirteen, but after talking with her a while, I found out she was 16 and going to turn 17 in the same week Jessica was. I thought that was pretty cool. We prayed together for a while, and then I went back to my seat. She motioned for me to come sit next to her, and I did. I found out that she came to church with her little sister almost every week. No mother or father was with her. I brought my bible with me, and she started looking at it. I showed her where it had my name engraved on it. She looked through it and I told her why some of the words were red. They were the teachings of Jesus. I asked her if she had a bible, and she shook her head no. My first thought was, “Give Joann the bible.” It seemed like the sort of thing Bob Goff would do. My second and third thoughts were, “No way. This is my bible. It’s been to so many different countries with me, and that was the bible I read when I was thinking about baptism.” And then, “It has my name on it. What would she do with a bible that said Jennifer Gash on the cover?” Was that selfish? Me not giving her my bible? God says that we should give with a grateful heart, and I didn’t. It’s not that my heart wasn’t grateful; I just didn’t give. Flash-forward to a few weeks later. We were doing health screenings at a place called Luzira. Not the prison, Luzira, the community. The first day, there was a group of girls giggling and constantly coming over to speak with the man that was helping me with registration.  One of the girls had on a navy blue windbreaker, even though it was hot outside. They called him Uncle Savoi. (Pronounced like Savior but without the r on the end. The next day, we came back to do more health screenings. The same girls were still crowding him. Later, I got a chance to talk to them. The girl in the windbreaker was named Grace. She was just so nice, one of the only girls brave enough to ask me questions like, “What classes do you take in school?” She was in P7 (seventh grade) and REALLY tall. For a Ugandan, at least.  Grace wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up. I played games with the girls and boys there, like their own version of hopscotch. I lost every game and they would just crack up. At the end of the day, I wanted to buy some gum from the “convenience store” on the corner. Grace was there, too. She asked me if I liked biscuits, and I said yes, thinking this was another one of her questions, but it turned out to be more than that. Grace bought a biscuit and took it out of the bag. She broke it and held out half to me. Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. That was all she had for that day. She used her pocket money to buy something to share with me. We shouldn’t be selfish with our giving, because it is all to God. Every last cookie crumb is for God.

Thanks, Jennifer