The Phil Files

One week ago today, I was in Uganda making a home visit to the precious little girl we sponsor through Compassion International. One week! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and yet with jet lag and all the emotions, it seems like a month ago. But the emotions of meeting this precious little girl are as fresh and real and powerful to me today as they were one week ago!

For those that have asked, here’s a video of that visit. It took place over about seventy minutes. As you watch the video, you can detect at the beginning the nervousness on her part as well as my own. I’ve got a full video of the first few minutes and it’s painful for me to watch in its entirety because I experienced all of range of emotions as this little girl tries to figure all of this out. (You are spared all the nitty gritty minutes of this dance as we got acquainted — but she didn’t speak English and had never been around a white man.) What you don’t see are the first stages of the walk into the slum.

As this video shows, however, our interactions moved to a more relaxed, then fun, stage. At the end, we went inside the tiny little house, visited, and then came back outside and prayed together.

This precious little girl easily sat on my knee while we prayed and I got to see the smile on her face when I received the pictures from Keely about our visit — her photography is great and we were privileged to have her to ourselves for this treasured visit. My friend from Compassion, Tom Emmons, used my camera to get the digital video as unobtrusively as possible — thanks bro! Most treasured of all is the final picture that shows a joyous little girl, a loving mother, and an old preacher guy from West Texas grinning like crazy. Sweetness indeed!

Of course, no video of a Compassion child would be complete without a Michael W. Smith song in the background. This incredible artist is one of the leading advocates for children and Compassion.

I don’t know if these images tug at your heart, but I know it brings tears to the eyes of everyone in our family. It also drives us to our knees praying for God’s blessing on this child, her mother, grandmother, and siblings. (For more on this visit, please see the Heartlight.org article written immediately after the visit!)

God, please bless this child and use us and others like us to make a real difference, and eternal difference, in the lives of Your precious children. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.