A Dot Com Love

I have grown accustomed 

To your voice

To your laugh

To your smile

To your smell

Accustomed 

to long conversations,

Hearty laughs,

and goofy lovesongs.

Accustomed to your dreams,

You highs and your lows..

That's why it's hard,

When we have silence,

Or monologues,

Monosyllables or loads of blue ticking.

Call me spoiled or clingy,

But loving you has been amazing,

And I am accustomed to it.

Pr. & Mrs. Twongeirwe: Parents, Friends, and Pillars

The first time I met the Twongeirwes was when I was in my second year at Law School. I was seated home on a Saturday morning and my Mom came home with this charismatic man and his beautiful wife. They had come to check on their new members' family.
"This is Pheona" my Mum introduced me. " The Pheona you told us about?" Pr. Julius asked.

He was very direct and purposeful and after learning who I was proceeded to invite me to join Agape Baptist. You see my mother had informed them that I had led her to Christ two years before and that I was an active member of Full Gospel Church Makerere.

Pr. Julius told me that as someone who had led Mom to Christ, I needed to see it through and join her church however temporarily to aid her new growth in Christ. I remember trying to resist but if you know him you know he does t take no for an answer. He even spoke to my dear Pastor at Full Gospel and I got a blessing to join Agape.

So began a very awesome and life changing phase of my life in Agape Baptist Church. Before I knew it I was leading worship... many of us grew in Ministry in ways we couldn't believe because Pastor always saw the gifts in us and would not take no for an answer.

Aunt Grace as we called his lovely wife was no different. She had me leading Bible Study and sometimes service. She trusted me so much that they once left for Ministry for three months and left their lovely children in my care.

Aunt Grace became a mentor and big sister in so many ways and to this day I can hear her quiet gentle voice as she chides me about something. She saw me through every imaginable hurdle in a young girl's life. I can't thank her enough.

Pr. Julius pushed me and all the young people at church. Because of him I overcame my fear of singing in public, i learnt to apply critical thinking to my decisions and I learnt the true meaning of grace.

His passion for God and his authenticity in seeking Him was very infectious. I had my first taste of true theology with all it's complications in Agape. But he also cared for us in a deep fatherly way. If it wasn't for him and our Agape family, my graduation, and later wedding would never have turned out the way it did.
They mentored me and my brother who is now a Pastor in Maine and grew so many of us.

I can say that meeting them lit the spark of leadership in me and transformed my life.
When I look at how amazingly their babies have turned out I am not surprised.
Pr. and Mrs Two have blessed and given of themselves in their service, friendship, leadership and parenting.
I can never thank you enough.

Happy Birthday Pr. Julius.
It's hard to mention you and not mention your better half because you have always been a great team. I love you both and owe you a debt of gratitude.

May God complete the great work He began in you. Blessings to the Berean Church.

UNLOCKING BARRIERS TO JUSTICE FOR AFRICAN WOMEN DURING COVID-19

Legal Aid Project Staff Conduct a GBV Awareness Session to the UPDF in Abim.

Following the designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic in March, many countries, including Uganda imposed restrictions on movement to stem the spread of the deadly pathogen.

Exceptions have been made for those whose work is deemed essential, permitting them to continue leaving their homes. These include medical practitioners, law enforcement and a selection of public servants.

The omission of lawyers has deprived scores of much needed legal representation and judicial services. 

Without lawyers many people were being arrested and not getting adequate representation because their lawyers were not allowed to work. Statistics obtained from prisons showed that one week into enforcement of the lockdown, inmate population had sharply risen by 2,000 new entrants who had been remanded for mainly going against the directives of curfew and lockdown.

Women's Plight Uncovid! (Pun Intended)

Disproportionately, the bulk of the victims has been women. Many women have found it difficult and impossible to access justice during this pandemic and yet the injustices inflicted against them in this period have been on the rise.

We’ve seen the horrific footage in which an elderly woman, Ms Lucy Anek was being beaten by her nephew.  The video went viral and Uganda Law Society Legal Aid Clinic staff were able to track down the woman and offer her the legal help she needed. However not all women are as lucky as Ms Lucy Anek, their distress and injustice is not documented and these women are suffering in silence with no one to come to their legal aid and rescue during this lockdown.

There have been numerous cases reported of women facing a lot of domestic violence at home due to their abusive partners staying home all day and taking out their frustrations on them. During the first fourteen days of lockdown, Uganda police recorded 328 cases of domestic violence. 

The police also recorded 102 other cases of child abuse or neglect in the country; these numbers continue to rise each day. The New Vision published a story on 9th May 2020 about a man identified as Yasin who was on the run after hacking his wife and two biological sons aged 4 and 7years to death. Yasin strangled his wife and two biological children and wrapped them in separate polythene bag.  The police stated that from the findings of the investigations, the likely cause of murder was domestic violence.

Rape and defilement cases have also been on the rise during this pandemic. Many girl children are home alone with child molesters and predators who abuse them constantly. Unfortunately because of the preventative measures of the lockdown it has made it difficult for women to report some of these cases to police. An article published on the UN Women Africa website reported that Lagos had experienced an increase in defilement cases and there is a growing concern that the lockdown will lead to an increase in rape and other forms of sexual violence as survivors remain in close proximity with perpetrators over a prolonged period of time.  

Due to the restriction in movement by banning both public and private transport, some women have found it difficult to move long distances to report such crimes; this is especially true for the elderly women who do not necessarily have the physical strength travel to their nearest police stations or local courts.

The Legal Environment 

The suspension of hearings has also greatly affected access to justice for the marginalized. Most family disputes are settled in Local Council courts however due to suspension of these hearings, women can no longer run to their local courts to settle dispute or seek refuge, this leads to disputes being settled at home where arguments get heated and lead to violence or worse, murder.

How can Uganda and the  Continent address the situation?

 Access to justice for the marginalized must be treated as a priority. This means measures must be taken to make it easier for women and other marginalized groups to be able to access justice and other legal services.

Governments should list the justice sector and law practitioners as essential service providers during this pandemic. Countries such as Kenya have included lawyers as essential workers during the COVID 19 lockdown. On April 16th, 2020 the High Court in Kenya delivered a judgement where it ordered the Nairobi establishment to quickly include lawyers on the list of “service personnel or workers”. The Kenyan presiding judge, Weldon Korir, justified his decision to order for the inclusion of defenders and upholders of the rule law on the list of essential workers so that they can be extra vigilant when the State is exercising emergency powers and offer legal aid to those in need. 

Uganda soon followed suit by recently adding Lawyers as essential workers, though they limited the number of lawyers to only 30 per quota. This did not sit well with the 3500 advocates in Uganda and many of them were quick to protest. The Uganda Law Society responded to the request for 30 lawyers urging the Government to let all the advocates be listed as essential and not limit their numbers. 

Though the number of lawyers is limited to 30 per quota, having them listed as essential service workers is still a step in the right direction. Lawyers being able to work, move and offer their services especially in hard to reach areas will make it easier for them to reach victims of abuse, clients who have been imprisoned and are in need of representation for bail hearings and any other groups of people in need of legal aid.

ULS Legal Aid Project Interventions

The Uganda Law Society through it's Legal Aid Project and with the help of Development Partners and the Advocates has provided toll free helplines for this effort. They have also run various awareness campaigns on gender based violence. A multi sectoral justice task force has been set up in different parts of the country with the Project liaising with Pro Bono Lawyers, Prisons, Police and the Judiciary to ensure that there is a quick remedy to these many injustices.

Leave No Woman Behind.

Courts should treat gender-based violence cases as priority cases (Urgent matters) during this period, for example domestic violence and those  related to sexual abuse, defilement.

Establishing temporary safe havens where women seeking justice can go for refuge, a number of organizations in Uganda are currently offering legal services and counselling to women facing Gender based violence, examples include; Reach a Hand (young people for young people), FIDA Uganda and Nyonga Women’s Shelter.

Access to justice is crucial for most women and marginalized groups, particularly in a time as this. Governments should look into how to make it easier for women in need of justice and legal services during this pandemic to get access to the same.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as   outraged as those who are” Benjamin Franklin

Breaking Glass Ceilings. Numbers 27:1-11 Zelophehad’s Daughters

The Exodus is ending, the Promised land is in site. All who had sinned and had lost the chance to see Canan are gone. The Census has been done and every Clan has been allocated an inheritance according to their numbers.

And this family of orphaned girls is left out. The laws were clear. Women had their place in society. But these girls were different. They had a relationship with God and were sure of their heritage.  They had watched their father live and die in the desert, had watched him relate with God, and had lost him. But when they saw Israel carry on like they did not exist, they spoke up.

They showed up in from of Moses and the Priests and Elders.  This was no place for women, let alone orphaned girls. They had no legal standing save for their father's good name and legacy. Remember he was not among those who rebelled. What courage it must have taken for them to come forward! I am sure it caused quite a stir in the camp. I am sure they could have waited to be married off etc. But no. 

These daring daughters knew they had an inheritance.  They sat at Moses' feet as he told the stories all the way from Abraham's promise and they knew that as Joseph's kin, they had an inheritance and no one was going to stand in their way.

And look what their courage did! Because of them Moses was able to consult God and alter the law to cater for even the least of their society at the time. The orphans, widows, nephews, nieces... they changed the whole law of inheritance and opened up opportunities because they were bold. Because they spoke up when they needed to. Because they refused to settle for the status quo.

Many times doing this is achingly exhausting especially when others do not seem to care.  It is important to break those glass ceilings because sometimes that is why were are who we are. Like Modecai told Esther, this is the reason God did this. 

This is a call to us all. Let us redeem the time, stand to be counted, fight injustice and bring about the change our society needs in order to heal.

It is lonely, it takes courage but thousands will thank you. And you will build a legacy.

God, the Promise Keeper. Gen 12:1-5/Gen 17:17/Gen 21:1-7)

 The Lord had said to Abram,
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you."
The story of Abraham has always had so many facets. But the constant one is the one of his friendship with God.
This friendship seems to have existed before the call to live his home. 

The story of the call of Abraham, God's promise of a son in his old age and the birth of Isaac are so fantastic they seem unreal.
Until you put them in context.

1. Abraham Was a Friend of God.
In Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee."
From reading this scripture, one can see that Abraham and God were in the habit of talking. It seems like this definitely wasn't the first time Abraham was hearing God. And we know from Mary's story that when God shocked or surprised people, it was written about. Here, there is not time spent on his reaction.

Abraham had a relationship with God, who told him to get up and go, and Abraham went. No questions asked.

It shows me that Abraham trusted God, and that he also knew God's voice. 

To know God's voice requires a familiarity with it. To know God's presence requires a familiarity with it.
Before we ask ourselves how we can have the faith of Abraham  we need to ask ourselves how much time we spend in the presence of our Father. How much have we trained ourselves to obey  even when it puzzles us? How well have we trained ourselves to hear Him when He speaks? How familiar are we, with God's Word?

2. Abraham Put His Faith in God
When we believe on the small things our faith grows. When a child is growing up and they are about to fall and their father catches them, pretty soon they make it a game. They start falling from heights to get a daddy catch. And that is how we should excercise our faith muscles.

I believe that the reason God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise is that He is reminding us that He does not play by our rules. He does not relate with our biases. He does not use our measuring scales. He is God Most High and His Ways are not our ways. So to know Him takes courage. To trust Him will sometimes mean foolishness to the world.

In my P.7 I was very poor in math. So poor in fact that it had become the class joke because despite acing the other subjects, maths was a trial. A real trial. So come a pre-PLE exam. I lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone. And we were due to do an exam that another school in the district had done earlier. The parents from the other school shared the paper with the parents of my school. I remember my parents asking me to revise the papers. I had been borne again two years by then and I was on fire! So I said no. That would be cheating. They encouraged me saying everyone was doing it. And I remember my classmates openly carrying the papers around. I still refused. My friends even told me that even if I read the paper, being me and my relationship with numbers, I couldn't get a 100%. I still refused.

So D-Day came and we sat for the paper. I remember going home crestfallen, knowing that they had been right. The paper was the same one. Everyone was prepared for it, and I wasn't. I who was so poor in this subject. And the paper had been tough. As I went home, I thought of all the time I had told people that I wouldn't cheat and that God would help me. I remembered some of the things they said. Like God helps those who help themselves etc. I was low. Really low.

That day, I did lose my way...a little.

I was stumbled quite a bit, because it seemed I had been presumptious, or foolish in my actions.

A week later the results came back. Our headmaster was our math teacher. I remember him calling out a friend and saying she got 100%. Everyone clapped.
Then he started adding up marks loudly

"4,9,14, Pheona Nabasa come forward!"
He called.

You could have had a pin drop!

Everyone was darting pitiful looks my way. My jaw was open in horror. I was thinking ...
"Really God? 14%?"
"Pheona are you here?" Mr Gawaya bellowed;
"Yes." I whispered barely able to breathe with all the grief that was welling up in me. As I began what was a really long painful trek to the front,I started sobbing. Big dramatic sobs that shook my little scrawny body (I was quite skinny). I picked my paper in shame, and turned dejectedly to walk to my seat.
"Why don't you tell us your mark Pheona?" The HM drawled.

"14" , I barely whispered.

"Read the mark on your paper" ,he insisted.

I looked at my paper. I looked again. And then my eyes bulged.
"Tell the class your marks" he encouraged. By now I had the attention of everyone in class. But I didn't care. I could barely breathe. "98" I gasped. "98%", I said again in wonder as what I was looking at slowly began to sink in.
"Yes ladies and gentlemen! Our Pheona got 98% And she would have got 100% but I deducted 2% because it is Pheona. I mean... we all know Pheona and maths!"

I was rooted to the spot. My friends were cheering for me. Because you see in that moment, the most wonderful thing happened. I saw Him. I saw how He saw me. I realised that I mattered. To Him. If God had filled that classroom with tulips or roses I couldn't have been more convinced in that moment than I was by this that He loved me. 

It is the most beautiful thing in the world to feel the love of God.

As Mr. Gawaya continued to read out people's names, I sat and lived this moment. This moment that God had come through for me. 

That God had honored my faith.

That God had forgiven my moments of doubt.

I remember walking home on air. 

As I entered the door my Mum was just laying the phone down. One of her friends must have been talking about how well their child had performed, because she looked at me and without greeting asked
"What did you get?"
I looked at her and the stupidest grin grew on my face as tears welled up.
"He did it Mommy!He did it!."

I shoved the paper at her. I was experiencing joy. Not the kind that makes you want to dance. But the kind that makes you want to curl up in a corner and cry. 

Mom was overwhelmed and happy and also weepy. I remember her saying,

"Kwonka Pheona and your God!" 

And it made me swell inside. Yes He was my God!

I can assure you that was a miracle in my life.  When she got born again later she testified that that was one of those aha moments for her.

And it was the beginning of many for us as a family because shortly after, not only was I the best in PLE in my school but apparently Eastern Region. You would wonder at God's reason for this until you read below;
This girl, whose Dad had just lost a job, got a fully paid scholarship for O'Level from the Uganda Commercial Bank for this achievement!

It was also the beginning of a better relationship with numbers. And my performance only got better after that.

What am I saying? You do not need to have known God as long as 75 year old Abraham, for Him to come through for you. Faith moves God. However small the issue, it matters to Him. When He calls, we need to remember to heed His call. There are moments we need to listen for. Those moments when sin tempts..those moments when it costs the most to walk the road less traveled, those are the moments He needs you to choose Him. Because He chose you already.

Your faith opens taps. Taps of blessings. Abraham's faith and obedience opened taps of blessings. Isaac came forth, Abraham prospered wherever he went. He surped with kings, found favor all over, and won every war he ever engaged in.

What is that situation in your life right now, where you need to choose him?

How much time are you spending with Him? As I write this, I am also convicted. Let us indulge in this loving miraculous God. Who knows our inmost thoughts, and wants to bless us beyond our wildest dreams.

3. Abraham Obeyed God
When God asked Abraham to leave all and move, he did. When he asked him to sacrifice Isaac, he did. Abraham's faith was visible in his obedience.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.'” John 14:23

“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:17

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

“Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.” Proverbs 10:17

God has proven over and over that He is Faithful. You and I being alive and safe during this Covid19 are living proof of that. Obedience is one of those cementing things that glue you to His will. Faith is reflected in our obedience and faith moves God.

So let's get back on this walk of faith. As we rediscover His Word, His purpose for us, and how He has promised to accomplish it.

God Bless You.

Mothers Are Chosen Vessels Luke 1: 26-33; 46-55

1.The Announcement
We first read of Mary in connection with the announcement made to her by the Angel Gabriel, that she was to become the mother of Jesus in Luke 1:26-37. Mary lived in Nazareth, a small town which was a notoriously wicked place according to John 1:46.

She was a virgin, and was engaged to be married (Matthew 1:18). In Luke 1:26-37, we read of the announcement which the Angel Gabriel made to Mary, and verse 38 tells us of Mary’s faith in God and her submission to His will.

Now you and I can only imagine the drama this wrought in Mary's life. Before she could even digest this news, she was showing. This is not news you tell your parents or your best friend. That an angel appeared? That you are supernaturally pregnant? No.

Not even Joseph her beloved, would have believed it. Thank God Joseph got his own visitation. I can imagine the whispers. However, throughout the New Testament, we see Mary keeping these things in her heart.

A great honour was bestowed upon Mary, but think of the misunderstanding and suspicion which surrounded her! To do the will of God often involves the road less traveled. It is often lonely and requires a lot of resolve. For Mary  this was the beginning of a lifetime, of strange beautiful happenings.

2. Elizabeth
After the announcement, Mary left Nazareth and went to the hill country to be with her cousin Elizabeth in Luke 1:39. Elizabeth rejoiced at Mary’s news and said a very significant thing in Luke 1:45. 

Not only did Elizabeth burst into a song of praise, but this released Mary, who for the first time in all this  seemed to suddenly realise the true import of what was happening to her and she burst out in song in 1:46-56. Sometimes, God send our loved ones to comfirm His Word, to affirm us in our calling, to recognize the greatness in us and call it out. However, those people need to be in tune with God.

Whose Elizabeth are you? Are you playing your part? Or letting Mary flounce around in doubt? 

It is not by error that she became the mother of John, who was to announce Jesus as the Messiah and baptize Him for God's work.

3. God Works With Teams
As God reveals His work in someone He requires a team, people that will fortify His child as they do the Lord's work. It might be a Miriam for Moses, a Pharaoh's Daughter, an Elizabeth, or even a Joseph. 

Remember that if God is doing something around you there is a role for you to play. So we need to stay focused and in tune.

4. Even Jesus Needed His Mum
As Mary watched Jesus grow  she remained around Him. Ready for whenever He would need her. That is why she was on hand, at His first Miracle at the wedding in Cana. You can see how she literally made Him do it! That is why she was at His death, and at Pentecost. Mary in many ways, and through her obedience, always pushed Jesus in the right direction when He needed it.

If our Lord could need Mary, how about us? My mother has always been my litmus test for life's decisions. Many of us will have to be this to our children as they grow up. But we can either make them or break them. We have to be in tune with their maker in order to steer them right. Like Moses' mother, we need to be prepared to let them go out into the world, for their sake.

5. Preparing the Chanel
In order to be the vessels of training, protection, wisdom and encouragement we need to be soaked in the Word. We need to drink of the river of life as we breathe life into our children, into their dreams, as we shape their relationships with others, as we determine their world view. We need to remember that to whom much is given, much is expected.

I will never forget how afraid I was when I first discovered I was pregnant. I was in my first year of marriage, in a new job and I was just about to start my masters.

I felt so afraid and ill equipped. Despite all my best plans (a baby should come after two years or so we has planned) here I was pregnant. But I remember what happened then. I told my Mother.
"You have been ready for this for a while Pheona," she said... "I will help you." Nothing calmed me down like that assurance.

I remembered how when I was a little girl she would hold my little hand and blow kisses into it whispering "I bless you with joy, I bless you with flowers etc".... so many blessings! My mother was prophesying over me! These things she did guided me in parenting my won children. I then started doing the same for my babies even while I was still pregnant.

As mothers we are shaping nations. There is no greater job on earth. We have so much authority over our children but we have to learn how to use it for their good.

6. Get Ready
So what are you doing as a mother? Are you using your tongue to build your children, are you training them with your hands, are you encouraging them to step out and succeed? Are you letting them go when you need to? Or are you crippling them with criticism, breaking their hearts with harshness or passing on wounds of abuse?

Someone told me that your children do as they see not as they are told. Your lifestyle might need to change... Be who you want them to be. Do what you want them to do. It is a high price. But it is worth it.

Mothers are chanels of blessings or curses. Choose this day which you will be. You have so much power as a mother. We learn from Mary how to stay around and be who our children need, whenever they do. She never interfered in His Ministry or told Him what to do. However when He needed her she was there. At Pentecost the disciples were nervous, tired of waiting, and being hunted. I am sure only Mary's calm presence, and Jesus's promise, kept them in the upper room.

Mothers are very often midwives to their children's dreams. So let us not burden our children with our own dreams. Let us not force them to be who we want. But let us facilitate the work of God in their lives as they find their destiny.

Let us wait to patch their battle wounds, salve their bruised egos, and mend their broken dreams. Let us be a channel for God's deliverance and forgiveness, and even through the rod, His discipline.

God Bless you.




.

God Answers Prayer 1 Sam 1:1-28

God Answers Prayer 1 Sam 1:1-28

This is the story of Hannah. A woman scorned by her co wife for barrenness.

A woman who looked like she had everything, a Godly husband who doted on her, wealth etc but felt that due to her childlessness she had nothing.

A woman who experienced loneliness and rejection at a level no one could understand. Let's see what this woman did in response to her pain. 

1. Hannah took her pain to Jesus

“In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:10)

We do not see Hannah going to cry to her mother, her husband, or even her girlfriends. She just took her pain to God, the only solace she knew. She took her pain and poured it out at His feet with such reckless abandon, that even the Priest Eli thought she was drunk. Hannah had a relationship with God. She went to the altar frequently and offered sacrifices.  Even her husband knew of her godliness and that is why he always gave her a healthy portion to sacrifice. So when her pain welled over  she gave God even that. She did not stew on it, or allow it to make her bitter. She did not get cynical, and allow it to mess up her relationship with God or her husband. Many of us respond like this when we have pain. We turn the guns on our loved ones. But not Hannah.

2.She Trusted God's Timing

A key verse in this chapter actually says that “the Lord had closed her womb.”(v. 5,6) 

Now this might seem cruel, but God sometimes needs fresh ground, to plant a great seed. Many times in the Bible our heroines like Rachel, Sarah, Samson's mother, and even Elizabeth were childless before God planted His children in there... and these children were the first fruits, the first borns of their mothers. But unlike Racheal and Sarah, Hannah did not get Elkanah a concubine and hurry to make a counterfeit. We all know how that ended for Racheal and Sarah; step children that were always trouble for their sons. Hannah trusted God's timing and His love for her and she took it to Him. 

In Philippians 4:6-7 it says

"6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

And boy do we see this peace coming upon her. 

3. She Surrendered 

First she lays down all her desire at God's feet.

“And she made a vow, saying, “O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will even be used on his head.” (1 Samuel 1:11)

Sometimes God requires you to surrender what you are holding on to... In the Burning Bush, it was only when Moses let go of the rod he was holding, that God turned it into the magical rod that became a serpent, and that separated the Red Sea. 

It is when Abraham laid Isaac down to sacrifice him,  that God turned him properly into the father of all nations. 

Now we see Hannah promising to give up this child she didn't even have yet, to God Most High.

And then like the drunken woman Eli thought she was, she does something else very strange.

In Verse 18

“Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast." 

This was strange behavior especially to we humans. But if we read later on in the Bible about how David rose and ate after his child had died, then we understand that these two, knew their God. They knew that once He heard, they would be sorted, and they therefore committed to trusting Him.

So Hannah went home content, that Her Father was sorting things out.

And boy did He! 

Two verses later we have Hannah conceive and bear a baby Boy.

"..so in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.’” (1 Samuel 1:18, 20)

Samuel means "God heard" . Hannah remembered her promise. Sometimes we suffocate our blessings by our reaction to them. We gloat, or abuse them or even hold them above the God who has granted them.

Hannah did neither.

God was aware of this when He reminded the Isrealites in Deuteronomy 7 not to forget who He was to them. 

Hannah did not run to Eli to show Him or to the synagogue to show off her new son and have all the gossips die of envy (as some of us women would do)

No. Hannah kept her baby with her and nursed him and weaned him.

4. A Couple of Faith

She told her husband she would only go to the temple to give up Samuel.

And Elkanah also responded unexpectedly. 

1 Samuel 1:23 "And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word."

He was ready to give up this child? From his favorite wife? Which father would do that?

I believe it is a man that had experienced God himself. A man that loved His wife's relationship with God and honored it. 

What a couple! I was surprised to read this text because instead of seeing just a barren woman get a child as I had always read it, I saw a couple sold out to God. Seeing each other through bad and good, encouraging each other in the Lord. I see a solid foundation and I believe that there in lies a message. That God can heal all barrenness, even in marriages and other relationships. 

5. Hannah Keeps Her Promise 

Back to Hannah and her new born.

I can imagine how she must have savored these moments knowing that she would give him up. Knowing that she had to even if he was the only chance she had at having a child. And then the time came for her to give him to Eli;

“’As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.’” (1 Samuel 1:24-28)

Now many women would have tried to be clever. They would have rationalized their keeping the boy. But not Hannah. You see when you have spent time at God's feet like Hannah did, when you learn His ways, you cannot doubt Him. Hannah kept her promise... she surrendered her baby boy to the Priest who had scoffed at her prayers and then this strange woman does an even stranger thing;

“Then Hannah prayed and said; ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you, there is no Rock like our God.’” (1 Samuel 2:1-2)

As she is heading home to an empty cradle, to baby clothes she will sniff weepingly for days, to the debilitating silence of her baby's room; she praises the Lord.

What woman is this you would ask. As a child I heard a song about how since the love of Jesus had entered my heart I would never be the same. 

6. A Woman After God's Heart 

Hannah was not mad or an unfeeling masochist. She was a passionate warm blooded woman like you and I. But she knew God. And she loved Him. And she revelled in that love. She allowed that love to fill all the gaps in her life. To answer all the questions she had, to wipe every tear away. She was not pretentious or artificial... she was in God.... Now let's see what this total emersion in God gets her.

The Bible shows us Hannah having more children, and always visiting her son at the Temple. How her life must have been full!

Dear Father,

I come to You today, and I ask for a fresh new revelation of You.

Help me experience You fully. I surrender all I am and all I desire to You. I surrender all the areas of barrenness in my life to You.

Because I know that only You can bring them to life. I ask that You teach me to love You like Hannah did. That my worship will be like a sweet smelling incense to You.

Thank you for this amazing story. Thank you for Hannah and Samuel and Elkannah.

In Your Precious Name I pray, 

Amen