Feel As If You Are In Heaven

Report from our summer intern Courtney Anne Langerud from Uganda

Feel as if you are in Heaven!

My name is Courtney Anne Langerud and I am an 18-year-old student at Arizona State University. This summer I am an intern for Deaf Child Hope International, spending a month in Eastern Africa visiting sponsored children. I am so sad to say my time at BDI has come to an end. BDI is a truly beautiful organization inside and out and I have cherished every moment spent here. From the moment I met Joel, the founder, and the children, I felt so loved and welcomed. When I arrived at the school for the first time each child greeted me with a hug. They all danced for me and thanked me for coming. Each child was so eager for me to learn everyone’s name. Each day I was eager to get to the school and be with the loving children. Whether I was teaching a class or dancing with the children, we all had so much fun and shared so much love. The children were all so happy that I had come all the way from America and they wanted to know about my journey and what America was like.

When the children heard I had come on behalf of Deaf Child Hope they thanked me. They are all so grateful for everything DCH has done for them. The children were so excited to receive letters from the DCH sponsors and then write them back. However, not all children have sponsors and I pray that every child will have a sponsor so that they can feel the love and joy knowing they have people praying for them and supporting them around the world.

The hardest part of being at BDI was having to leave every day to go home. Each child would give me a big hug, some cried, and some followed me all the way to the boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to give me letters they had written me. Every day I received letters from the children telling me how much they loved me and wanted me to stay. This trip to BDI has taught me a lot, not only about myself, but of the world. I have learned of some of the harsh and saddening circumstances many of these children have lived in before finding BDI.

I have experienced first-hand how the outside hearing world views these children, yet I have seen God move in this country and bring unity among the deaf and the hearing, and I am so excited to see God’s will be done as He continues to move through this world. One thing I will never forget was on my very first day when a teacher told me that “Here at BDI, we do not say feel as if you are home, we say ‘feel as if you are in heaven!'” This is the best way to describe BDI!