Is This a Picture of Gratitude?

Gratitude?  Well, I missed seeing it, too, when I took the picture at the medical clinic that EWT sponsored this past May in Northern Uganda.  I took the picture because, frankly, this little guy was just hard to ignore, for all kinds of reasons…

It was lunch break time – for staff, clinicians, mission team members and kids.  Hungry hands filed in to the makeshift lunchroom from the washing station to fill their lunch bowls with buffet staples that were so abundantly offered from huge cooking pots.  Since workers outnumbered chairs about 3 to 1, most sat outside or wherever possible or just stood with plates in hand.   This little guy picked a choice spot on the rough cement floor to sit down, a spot no one would probably challenge him to vacate and one where etiquette mattered little.  He was not bothered by the traffic of workers moving about him, nor was he bothered by his lack of eating tools.  His fingers did well for savoring his feast of beans and rice and you can see he savored it with his whole being.

So, where’s the gratitude in this picture you might ask?  Gratitude doesn’t always have a look or an image or even an emoji.  Gratitude may not even be on this little guy’s face, but gratitude is what makes this picture have life. See that big bowl of rice and beans?  We Americans joke that rice and beans are a poor man’s food.  So they are!  But they’re also a nutritious feast to many hungry families in Northern Uganda.  They’re a reason to be grateful! That’s a bowl of delicious gratitude!

It is gratitude that fills the bowls and cooking pots with food for the people of Northern Uganda.  It is gratitude for God’s blessings that fuels the generosity of EWT supporters. It is gratitude for the generosity of EWT supporters that fuels the work that EWT does on the ground in Northern Uganda to make a Christ centered difference in the impoverished lives of the people and families there.  It is gratitude for your support that encourages the hearts and souls of the people and children in Northern Uganda who are being fed physically, mentally and spiritually through the work of EWT.

Gratitude – we celebrate it with a day all its own – Thanksgiving.  Giving Thanks to God for our EWT Family and all their love!   

Written by Penny Dunovsky