Momma Houwa

On the way to another orphanage I was on the back of a boda and the weather was amazing and I remember seeing a tree. A huge beautiful tree that for some reason, out of all the million trees I passed that day, caught my eye. I looked at this tree and I remember it because I watched it from the time it was in sight and then turned my head around until it disappeared behind me. Most things aren’t so beautiful that you have to turn your neck to keep admiring it! I remember thinking that I haven’t paid as much attention to nature this year as I did last year I was in Uganda.

When we got to the children’s home I met momma Rachel and a woman named Houwa. I couldn’t quite pronounce Houwa’s name so after attempting a few times I asked her what it meant. Momma Houwa said it is a muslim name. I asked her if she was muslim and she said that she used to be but now she is a christian. I told her I wanted to hear her story and she said “…Oh it’s a story!” but then she put me and Climmie to work washing plastic tables and chairs. Houwa and Rachel sat under a tree near us and talked to us about life and read out of a Luganda bible. I would occasionally go try to read a few Luganda verses out of it when my back started hurting from scrubbing. Rachel was so sweet and helped my pronounciation!



After that Houwa asked what foods we like. Houwa found out I love chapatti and asked us if we wanted to make some with her! When the kids ate lunch she took me to her room and we started ironing the countless school uniforms the kids needed to wear to school tomorrow. While ironing I asked Houwa to tell me her story.

I love Houwa so much. We talked for 2 hours and she told me her whole life! She was right-she has such a story! (I want to protect her privacy and everything so I’m gonna stay pretty vague). She was so extremely poor and in such a desperate situation that she would pray day and night to Allah but nothing changed. She would go to the muslim priests and ask what to do but they would tell her that she needed to bring a sacrifice to offer Allah before he would listen to her. So she brought her last bottle of oil and even her clothes and food until she literally had nothing left to offer him but still nothing changed. She said she knew in her heart that it was in vain-that Allah was not hearing her. But she never questioned weather or not there was a God. She said she would stare at a tree or the sky or a new born baby and she knew there was something out there making all of it happen.

I remembered the tree I saw that morning and I got goose bumps! The cool thing about Houwas story was that she spent a long time talking about this part of her life. The part about her knowing God was out there because of the world around her. I love hearing peoples stories because the stories they choose to share shows so much about the moments that impacted their lives the most. I could tell that this awe at the world around her would give her such hope and that it was what she spent time talking about most because it really mattered to her a lot.

She said she began to call the maker of the world “power”. She would pray to the power to help her in her desperate situation because she knew his name was not Allah and his rules were not Allah’s rules but she didn’t know his name yet.

Then one day her son, who had a severe skin disease that was so itchy he would make himself bleed, told Houwa about how one of his friends went to an “overnight” at a church down the road and was healed of this or that. An overnight is a night long prayer time that churches do here a lot from sun down to sun up. She said her son would not stop asking her to take him and pray so his skin would stop itching but she didn’t want to lose sleep and she kept making excuses. But finally just to stop his begging she took her son to the overnight to pray at a nearby church.  She was praying and she looks up and sees her sister. Both were suppose to be devout Muslims but they were together in a Christian church prayer time. Houwa’s sister came over to her laughing and praising God and she invited Houwa to live with her in her home (Houwa was living in extreme poverty on the streets) and her sister told her about Jesus and took her to church. Houwa said her life was changed completely the day she prayed to Jesus. She got a job, her family was re-united, and she kept praying and thanking God for showing her who he was. A few weeks later her and her son were walking to the store and the son saw a little girl run by crying and her skin bleeding from the same skin disease that plagued him. Houwa said her son screamed and looked up and said “Momma! My skin! Its gone!” His skin had healed and they hadn’t even noticed.

Houwa didn’t stop there. She kept telling me story after story of how Jesus had shown up and been faithful to her. She was glowing! Houwa could’ve spent more time talking about her very very hard life or telling story after story of those who wronged her (there were many) but she chose to talk most about how magnificent is God’s creation and how faithful he is to her. Her heart is beautiful.

That night at devotional time we read a psalm about nature and I was completely 100% amazed. I really think this whole day God was trying to tell me to marvel more at his creation and to know that He is with me wherever I go.

Momma Houwa and me