Redefining Beauty

“-deeper, more wonderful, more like
places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want
to know.”

The Last Battle, CS Lewis

Today we went on a
hike up this rock in Tororo. The sun was rising through the trees
exposing these beautiful silhouettes of the branches and vines
against the flat land all around us, you could hear the monkeys
calling to one another and other things scurrying about, and see the
different greens and reds and oranges and blues in the flowers and
trees all about us. It was simply breath taking (Not to mention
literally being out of breath from climbing up this thing…) Once on
top you could see forever! On our way down I was reflecting on some
of the things I have seen since coming here and I was overwhelmed
thinking of the beauty all around me.

I have been to many
many beautiful places in my life; I live in Huntington Beach 2 blocks
away from the ocean and drive down PCH just about everyday, I work on
a lake each summer that is stunning by day and awe inspiring each
night when the stars and unveiled, I have been to the Grand Canyon
and traveled through out Europe, visited cities and traveled through
the country, but there is something about this place. Each scene I
take in and each face that passes by and each time I look into the
eyes of the children and the grown up children here my concept of
beauty is completely redefined. I see a story, or a hundred stories,
unfolding all around me and each one of them speaks of something so
lovely and unique that it is almost hard to know where to look.

On my team there are 9 girls and 2
boys and the concept of beauty and how it affects us and how we
relate to it, I am sure this is a shocker, but it comes up. It’s a
hard thing for girls to understand and really grasp beauty and the
way we experience it affects how we see others in it. (I hope that
makes sense) Something that has become really important to me here is
showing the young girls we meet here that they are beautiful and that
they are seen by God. We all want to know that we are seen, that we
are known. And I know for myself it sometimes seems as though it
would be impossible to be seen and known in the midst of so many
people and while surrounded by so much beauty. But I want the girls
on my team and the girls we meet here to understand this in their
heart of hearts. Real Beauty. Not the cheep crap that people talk
about but the real kind, like what I see when I read this story that
surrounds me.

Here is a glimpse of this story I am
living now: