being Mama

Oh my. Mother’s day is fun in my life. I have soooo many children here in my home, spiritual children online, and fostered children abroad in Uganda. I love ALLL of them, all of you. And I’m honored for every opportunity I have to nurture anyone in anyway. It is so deeply a part of who God has made me to be. Today is just a way for me to say to the children God has blessed me to nurture, “thank you for making every day mother’s day.” I don’t deserve it. Really I know that. It is by the grace of God alone that I am given the title “mama Tonya”, and simply, intimately, “mama”.  There’s no calling in life greater than raising up a tender soul to become all he or she is meant to be. I have learned an important lesson the past few years.  I don’t have to be the one who carried the child, or brought him/her into this world to step in and have a nurturing role. I’m quite sure there’s some great lessons to be learned about the way women are regarded in Uganda. At a certain age all women are Aunties, others  are mamas, and others are Jjajja’s (grandmas). You are expected to be an aunt to every child, or a mama to every child, or a jjajja to EVERY child. All of the children of this world need us.  They REALLY NEED us. And because they do, we get to celebrate the privilege of being mama. More than anything in my life I value the calling God has put on my life to be “Mama Tonya”, and as many as He gives me can line up and call me “Mama Tonya” and I will hug them as my own. I am especially beyond excited to meet the new children God has given to Kirabo Seeds. These precious children, orphaned, and in great need, will be told I am Mama Tonya, and I am. But what I really want them to know is it is God the Father, Jesus the son who works through me to touch their lives and fulfill their needs. That’s that it really means to be Mama Tonya, a submission to the Father, an open channel where He can flow.

About these ads