The Way of the Heart

What breaks your heart? For Jeremy and Jamie Phillips, it’s Africa. “If something is on your heart and something hurts you inside and you don’t feel right doing anything else, then you’ve got to do it,” Jamie says.

For most of their lives, both have been drawn to ministry and the opportunity to help other people. “I had grown up with everything handed to me and felt like I wanted to do something useful with my life,” Jamie expresses.

After volunteering separately in different parts of Africa, Jeremy and Jamie got married in 1999. They tried living in Colorado for a short time but knew that God wanted them in Africa. Soon an opportunity arose to work with children in Uganda through an organization called Uganda Children’s Charity Function (UCCF). So the newlyweds packed a few possessions, said good-bye to their family and friends, and moved to the other side of the world.

Once settled in the rural southwest part of Uganda, the Phillips realized that ministering to the village there would be challenging. “One of the things we wanted to do was be in Uganda and not feel like visitors,” Jamie explains. “[But] when you’re white, you really stand out; and everybody knows you’re different. We just wanted to be with [the villagers] as much as possible and figure out what their lives were like.”

The language barrier made it difficult for them to develop deep relationships with the people, and they experienced a great deal of loneliness. Although they went expecting to help with land development, they ended up being in leadership. Jamie served as a matron and Jeremy as the headmaster for an orphanage where they worked with more than 200 orphans, most affected by AIDS.

When their work ended and the Phillips moved back to Colorado, they had their first child and loved being surrounded by family. “We’re from Colorado, and we love it. Our families are there. We had just bought our first house, and it was so cute. We had a healthy baby. Jeremy’s job was going well, and I had a good job. And life was great. I said to Jeremy that something was a little too easy; it just felt like God was going to do something,” Jamie says.

When Jeremy was asked to start a new ministry, Empower African Children, they knew God wanted them to reconnect with their passion. Once again, the Phillips family, with a new baby on the way, packed up and moved—this time to Dallas, where the organization is currently headquartered. But it would not surprise them if they eventually moved back to Uganda.

Empower African Children is an organization that provides relief to AIDS orphans and children who are kidnapped and forced to be soldiers. It also embraces and celebrates the artistic abilities of African children. The children’s troupe shares African culture with people in the United States through singing, dancing, and drama. The organization hopes to expand to include other art forms such as painting and drawing.

“The tour is for the kids in a sense that they are developing amazing artistic skills. They are like professional singers and dancers. It would blow your mind. It helps people sense what art does for a child. It also raises awareness over here,” Jamie says.

A quote by Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God,” really resonates with Jeremy and Jamie. “Our longing and the passion in our hearts has always been for the AIDS orphans in Africa,” Jamie says. “Our hearts are broken by the children, and there’s nothing else that we can do with our lives—it would seem meaningless to us.”

This article originally appeared in Get Uncomfortable, a Threads short-term story. To learn more about Empower African Children and how you can get involved, visit empowerafricanchildren.org.