Sheevon would hate to hear that I call her a miracle worker. And yet, after meeting her last week in Uganda, I could not help but conjure up the image of Anne Sullivan working diligently with Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf. Instead of working with one student, Sheevon opens her home twice a week to many. On a sunny day, she has the capacity to teach 60 in the outdoor space she and her husband built for the purpose of teaching. When it rains, she can only accommodate 10-20 inside her home. Rain brings her heartache because she then has to turn children away-children with various physical and emotional conditions, children who have already been rejected by both family and society.

Sheevon is a teacher. She is a wife. She is a mother of two. She is a government employee. And most importantly, she is a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. And because of this relationship, she is compelled to serve others. Out of what little she earns working, she uses to feed and teach these children, who others deem unlovable and unteachable. Any parent who has a child who cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot hear, has autism or other disabilities knows how physically and mentally exhausting it is to care for them. And she is weary.

But she won’t give in to her weariness. She looks around and she tells the story of a young girl who has difficulty walking and has crawled on her hands and knees across hills and through the streets to get to Sheevon’s home. Because there, she knows she is loved. There, she learns that she is created in the image of her Maker. There, she hears that her earthly suffering is temporal and that there is an eternal home being prepared for her without pain. There, she is given back her dignity. For this young girl and those like her, Sheevon will continue on.

I was humbled by this servant leader. My immediate thought was to give up the life I have, move to Uganda and join Sheevon in her efforts to care for these children, but that is not the purpose for which I have been called. For the past few months, I have questioned whether I am fulfilling God’s purpose for me. It took going halfway around the world and standing shoulder to shoulder with this fellow woman, fellow wife, fellow, mom and fellow servant to understand that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. From here, I am to work diligently so that Sheevon, and others like her, has the resources and encouragement she needs to fulfill God’s purpose in her life.