Many Mansions of Christ International-Uganda: February 2014

There’s a song I love on Christian radio that has a story behind it about a college aged girl who went to Uganda on a mission trip and ended up staying because she saw a need and felt God’s calling on her life to do something about it. Hence the name of the song. If you would like to see her story and hear the song here is the link to Matthew West’s website.

http://matthewwest.com/the-stories/the-story-do-something/

The Lyrics they are here:

Matthew West-Do Something

"Do Something"

I woke up this morning

Saw a world full of trouble now

Thought, how’d we ever get so far down

How’s it ever gonna turn around

So I turned my eyes to Heaven

I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”

Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of

People living in poverty

Children sold into slavery

The thought disgusted me

So, I shook my fist at Heaven

Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”

He said, “I did, I created you”

(chorus) If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something

I’m so tired of talking

About how we are God’s hands and feet

But it’s easier to say than to be

Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves

It’s alright, “somebody else will do something”

Well, I don’t know about you

But I’m sick and tired of life with no desire

I don’t want a flame, I want a fire

I wanna be the one who stands up and says,

“I’m gonna do something”

Chorus

We are the salt of the earth

We are a city on a hill (shine shine, shine shine)

But we’re never gonna change the world

By standing still

No we won’t stand still

If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something [x3]

All my life I have seen and had a deep compassion in my heart for those in the world who were less fortunate or suffering. As a child my mother would tell me to finish all the food on my plate “because there are starving children in Africa”. I would dutifully eat every last morsel. Or she would make me stay there till I did. I felt bad for those hungry kids because right before supper time I would be soooooo hungry and my mom would NOT give in to my dramatic pleas for a snack to tide me over. It would “ruin my appetite” she said. Of course she was right. I would have left something on my plate for the sake of the African children if I were allowed to though. But how would we get what was left all the way to Africa? And ewe! would they even want it by the time it arrived there? I actually pondered this stuff as a kid.

I was educated in Catholic schools most of my school years and from an early age I attended Catechism classes every Monday night (7pm sharp- some things ya never forget). We learned about caring for others. We cleaned houses owned by the elderly in our church. We organized street clean up days. We studied handouts about mission work in the world and caring for the sick. (I became a nurse in 1990). In school we would have in-services where we would gather in the musty basement of the school, sit cross-legged on the floor and watch hours (it seemed) of reel-to-reel movies of Mother Theresa caring for the Lepers in Bangladesh. I understood human suffering at 6 years old. It’s the age I remember feeling compassion in my heart. I didn’t understand what Leprosy was until later but even at a young age I knew it was my duty to also DO SOMETHING.

Now I am older. I still eat everything off my plate, much to my defeat in ‘successful dieting’. (Thanks a lot mom!) I spent 17 years as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Most of those years I worked in Geriatric nursing but later as a Hospice Nurse. In those years, I was diagnosed with 2 autoimmune diseases, each of which there is no known cause and no known cure. First it was Rheumatoid Arthritis and then 10 years later Systemic Lupus. I worked for years as a nurse who relieved the suffering of others WHILE I was suffering myself. In 2004 I was diagnosed Stage 3 Lupus Nephritis (kidney failure). I was forced to give up my beloved career helping others. I didn’t know it then but God had way better plans for me.

In the first years of not working it was difficult and lonely. I was a full time sick person. It was my ‘job’ now to get to all my doctor and physical therapy appointments (I had SEVEN specialists caring for me altogether) and to keep track of 18 medications a day and several injections a month. The pharmacists knew me well. In between all that I was pretty much in bed. Both diseases cause extreme fatigue and excruciating joint and muscle pain.

I would spend most my time watching television or being online. I would read and study my Bible, something as a working mother, wife and nurse I admit I didn’t have time to do but I missed. God gave me all the time in the world now. I became a member at a Christian website and started meeting people from all over the world. I had seen on the news the suffering of people in other countries, but now I was actually talking to the very people who lived it. My compassionate nature was once again sparked. I needed to DO SOMETHING.

I met my first Ugandan in 2009, 5 years into my new career as a full time sick person. He was a young man working in an internet café who was an orphan and also had Polio since age 6. He was the most sincere, humble, respectful person I’d met. He was good and kind and though struggling to survive himself told me that one day he wanted to help poor children from his village. I thought to myself, “but you ARE the poor child from your village!” He saw it differently. He had a job. No decent shoes, or a bed, but he was thankful he had a job. I bought him shoes and a bed and an Internet Cafe of his own. I did more for others there and in neighboring Kenya as I could.

It is now 2014. Since then, I have met so many people around the world. A lot in under-developed and oppressed nations. The Internet has made the world not so big anymore. I feel the pain and fear in the words written to me by my friends around the world on my Facebook messenger or Christian websites. I see the news stories almost as soon as they happen; Rape being used as weapon of war in the Congo; Corrupted and ruthless dictators (North Korea); People fighting for freedom from tyranny and dying in the streets (Libya, Egypt, Ukraine, Ivory Coast). My heart cries. There are SO many stories of suffering. So many battles of need. So many inhumane injustices uncorrected. HIV/AIDS (period) Sooooo, sooooo many orphans. Children working all day in brick-making yards, sold into slavery for a $100 debt made to a cruel man by the parents before they were born. The needs in the world are overwhelming. Which brings me back to Matthew West’s song and the girl who stayed to help in Uganda.

“If not me and you, then who? If not now, then when?” In all my years of Catechism classes, Mother Theresa documentaries and reading my Bible did I ever think that it was all up to just God. I knew as a Christian and a human being that it was up to ME. I am grateful for so many who know this too and give money or time and efforts to help our fellow men, women and children in the world. But I say to anyone who may be reading, that if you see something wrong in this world, you can react. Don’t think ‘I can never do enough so I just wont do anything’. “It’s not enough to do nothing” Matthew sings. Or ‘how can I trust my money to a person or organization when I don’t REALLY know they are legit’. Find out if they are. Please have discernment not apathy.

Mother Theresa said “If you cannot feed the masses, feed just one”. Please. If only everyone fed just one. There are 7 billion people on our planet. It produces enough food to feed all 7 billion. There are 2.6 million children who DIE every year from hunger related illnesses. Please. We are never going to change the world by standing still. I want to always be one who stands up and says I can do something. No matter how little I have to share, I still have more than someone else. In 2013, even with 2 incurable diseases and not much extra money after my plane ticket cost, I had the privilege to go to Uganda East Africa. I saw. I went. I helped. I am going back.

PLEASE......... IT’S TIME........ DO SOMETHING.........

No we won’t stand still

If not us, then who

If not me and you

Right now, it’s time for us to do something

If not now, then when

Will we see an end

To all this pain

It’s not enough to do nothing

It’s time for us to do something

Note: If anyone wants to do something and is not sure where or how, I can recommend a list of organizations, churches and individuals in various countries ( Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, DRC, Ghana, Burundi and India) that I have known personally and can verify they are doing great things to help others!

Thanks!

Cheryl Derby- Co-founder and Co-director of Many Mansions of Christ International-Uganda

Many Mansions of Christ International-Uganda

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Many Mansions of Christ International: Do Something.........Please

Do Something.........Please