The Clothes Fast: Covering Naked Booties

Wow. This was by far! the best part about the clothes fast.

It made the whole thing so very worth it!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll quickly fill you in. Two years ago God challenged me to go a year without buying any clothes for myself. I like a good challenge and I took him up on it. You can read the why's and whines HERE. And then God put injustice in front of my face and I couldn't look away and he fit it perfectly into the purpose of my fast. You can read about that HERE.

It's also interesting to note that while I try to pretend that my blog is polished, <snort> the first post is entitled The Clothes Fast and part two is entitled The Clothing Fast. 
Just keeping it real.

The bottom line of the fast:

None of this:

(for a long time)

=

to be used for 

{more important things}

I knew there were lots of needs in Uganda, but wow. My heart was pulled out of my body too many times to count. Did you know that in a country of 32 million, the median age is 15? Fifteen! And 2.5 million of those people are ORPHANS. So yes, I was able to find some Important Things to spend my clothes money on.

I thought it would be so cool to spend my money on people who really did need clothes. Sort of a little nod to myself emphasizing my huge UNneed for clothes. And God delivered.

One night over dinner, two great and enthusiastic American ladies told me of their plan to scrub and clothe some boys from a local boy's home who were itching for some new clothes. Yes, itching.

I convinced them to let me come along. When it came down to it, only one stayed behind to wash the boys and I was happy to go to the markets and buy the clothes. Especially after we got to the home and saw that most of these boys were too big for us to wash anyway. 

Maybe you can't tell, but these boys really needed new clothes. A few of the pants looked like they had been through a sword fight, one of the boys was wearing a skirt and at least one didn't have on any pants at all. 

So we lined them up by height...

...Started a list: 3 size 7/8 pants, 4 size 10/12 pants...

...And hit the market! 

Never has bargaining for used clothes in the hot sun been so fun!

It was so much more than just exchanging these clothes for those clothes. It was shouting to those boys, 

You are valuable! God thinks you are awesome!

This is the after picture. Aren't they handsome boys?

P.s. This home, the Mengo Boy's Home, is currently looking for a church to partner with them. These boys are from the streets, a lot of them addicted to sniffing jet fuel, without a home. The director's goal is to keep them clean, teach them about God and train them in a vocation before they reach adulthood. They really need financial help! If anyone is interested please contact me for more info!

I left that home on cloud nine but with money left to spend.

A few days later we were in a town nearby, driving down a dirt road when I squealed with utter delight at this sign:

It's not considered stalking if it's an organization, right? 

I am a huge fan of these two young twenty-somethings who started this really special home for disabled kids. I have read every single post on their blog, looked at the profile of every kid on their website and cried big tears over their Christmas nativity play. 

They don't just take in disabled kids who are abandoned or unwanted, they educate their community! Moms will show up at their gate wanting them to fix their autistic kid and they will invite them both in and teach the mom that her son has value and show her how to mother him. 

Ekisa is home to a dozen or two kids, some in wheelchairs, some with braces, burns or extra chromosomes. They have a small room for physical therapy and a school room for classes. "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" is painted on their walls. 

There were tears in my eyes the.entire.hour. we were there. The kids were laying down for rest time but some had their eyes open and we walked around their rooms, stroking their arms and talking to them. Most of them smiled and smiled. 

The boss lady there said they get many donations of toys and clothes but really needed help to pay their staff. If there was a better way to spend the rest of my money, I wouldn't know what it was.

Whoever said "It's better to give than to receive," wasn't kidding.

It was so worth it! Every dollar not spent on something I didn't really need anyway, made such a difference to someone else. The high I got from seeing those boys in clean clothes and visiting Ekisa was a far higher high than what I get from the sale racks on my shopping trips. Much higher.

But then, it's not about me is it? 

That's pretty much what the Clothes Fast was all about.