This is Eric and his family. They live in southwest Uganda, right next to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eric supports his family by farming his land and selling what he can. He is also the local pastor and looks after his ‘flock’, all those that live around him.
Eric travels many miles, often on foot, to the Community Hospital at Bwindi. He often brings other people and children with him that need medical care, and he often stays with them until he knows they are well.
Most of the children in the picture are not Eric’s biological children. But children he has opened his home and his heart to, children he has adopted into his family so that he can care for them. Sometimes these children have families of their own but they cannot care for them or feed them so Eric takes them in.
Eric has an amazing testimony of how God has transformed his life and given him a new start, and now Eric looks for opportunities to allow God’s transforming power to work in others.
When we met Eric he gave us a large pumpkin. I was excited as I’d never had pumpkin before, and when Eric found out he went away and came back with a second one! I was amazed by his heart to give and to share, knowing that these were from his own garden and could have fed so many of the children around us.
Eric has so little compared to what we might think we need to survive. But what he has he holds with open hands. Knowing that everything is given from God and is to be used for God. Hands open, ready to give to whoever might need it, ready to support, care for and bless those who are around him.
I pray that I may learn to hold the things I have with open hands. Not hoping for some kind of return or special favour. Not holding on and possessing. But hands open, directing towards others, ready to care, ready to support, ready to bless. Knowing that everything we have is from God and is to be used for God.
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