Humble UMC School's Hope for Children Choir

This morning we had a remarkable experience as our church hosted Humble UMC School's Hope for Children's Choir. The South Georgia Conference has partnered with the East African UM Conference and has helped to tremendously support this school and choir. The children who attend this school are mostly orphans who have lost one or both parents to HIV AIDS, extreme poverty, or the war that has raged on their country in Uganada for more than 20 years. Many of these children were found in refugee camps and were carrying women's babies trying to earn money for food or were carrying large jugs of water to earn money for food. They were homeless and without hope, but this school has brought them a new life. They sing and dance with such passion and gratitude and love. The love of Christ just radiates from their sinewy little bodies. I was so moved by the performance and spent the majority of the service trying to keep myself from going into the "ugly cry". Stan and I were both so struck by the needs of these children and when Stan discovered that none of the leaders or children read any music, he said, "I would love to come and spend some time teaching music at your school." Winston, one of the leaders, told him, "I will begin praying that you will be able to come."
I spoke with Lydia, the choir director, after our lunch, and had such an interesting conversation with her. I told her what Stan had said about us wanting to come, and she said, "Oh, I would love for you to come, because there is no way for you to understand these children's gratitude until you see where they've come from." She said that when they were on the plane coming to America that she was seated next to a little boy in the choir who said to her, "I do not deserve this. I do not deserve this. I cannot believe I am on an airplane to America. None of my people have ever seen an airplane. They will never believe that I flew on a plane to America. Never!" Lydia said to the little boy, "I'm going to write this down in my journal, and I will read this back to you some day when you become a Methodist Bishop as you've said you will, and we will laugh with joy over this!" Lydia herself grew up an orphan and was saved by a similar organization as a child in a refugee camp. She became a member of a school choir and was eventually chosen to be a member of the African Children's Choir which granted her remarkable life opportunities. She eventually became the director of the African Children's Choir and sang with Sandi Patti, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Michael W. Smith on albums of theirs. I believe she is such a huge gift from the Lord to the Humble UMC School's Choir. She brings such talent and abilities. She is also a social worker, and I don't know what her full role is at the school, but I'm sure she is a great asset. She understands where these children have come from and knows the extreme things they have seen and experienced at tender ages. That is why she expressed gratitude over and over again to us for having them come. She said, "This is life changing for these children." Our church's foundation paid for their travel expenses to come for this lengthy tour, and so when she told them that they were to be singing for the congregation that helped them come to America, they all said, "We must sing our best performance for them!"
I know there is no way to fully explain how powerful of a performance it was. Towards the end of the concert, they sang a song that said something like, "If we believe in God, the Holy Spirit will come and Africa will be saved!" They sang this whole song through several times and the last time through they sang, "...the Holy Spirit will come and America will be saved!" Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord, for the faith of these children. Hear their prayers, Lord! Hear their prayers!
The video I'm including is when they sang Josh Groben's popular song "You Raise Me Up". Yeah, this one was a tear-jerker.