Love their Momma!

From Promise Keepers (PK) to FamilyLife Today, it’s become a precept in men’s ministry that if you want to be a good father to your children, the most important thing you can do is to love their mother.  At GO Project, God is teaching us the same lesson as we help the local church care for orphaned and abandoned children in their communities, but it hasn’t always been so.

Five, six years ago when we started visiting our partners’ children’s villages, we showered the children with “love.”   Weighed down with bags of presents, all we were missing was the red suit, sleigh, and reindeer.  The Americans had arrived, and we wouldn’t leave until everybody had a toy, a jolly rancher, and hug….everybody that was, except the Mommas.  Little did we realize we were basically ignoring the primary caregivers of the children we wanted to love.  Our visits undermined their parental authority and devalued their eternally-important role.

Enter Marsha Campbell.  Now, I’m sure there were other ladies who realized we needed to spread the love, but Marsha was a Champion for Mommas from the beginning!  As the saying goes, it takes one to know one, and Marsha is a great Momma.  She knows what Mommas need, and so she began to minister from the inside out…building relationships with the Mommas themselves, refocusing the efforts of our Vision Trip teams, and this week in Uganda, hosting our first House Momma’s retreat; letting Jesus, the great lover of our souls, heal and make all things new for the ladies who provide 24/7 to hundreds of children who were previously orphaned and abandoned.  We hope this few days is a special time of spiritual filling and friendship for them!  After all, you can’t give what you don’t have…and great Mommas are great givers.

Marsha returns next week.  We can’t wait to hear more about the retreat she led with Rose, a key leader on our GO Africa team (center photo; black dress).  From the beautiful picture we received ( Mommas sporting an early Christmas present of Father’s House shirts), it sure looks to be going well.  Praise the Lord!

We hope to co-host more of these House Momma Healing Retreats around the world….many more, because PK was right.  If you want to love your Father’s kids, one of the most important things you can do is love their Momma.