What an awesome God we serve! I have been reminded over and over again in the last month of how we can’t imagine the things the Lord has planned for us.
I led my first team and they were amazing! The Lord opened the door for them to preach at M2 where we had not been allowed to preach for over a year. When the men showed up, the head matron saw that they looked physically fit (3 army, 1 navy and 1 air force) and asked if they played football. (soccer) They said yes, and she said after the service they could play football with the boys. For the first time in two years the boys were allowed outside to play ball!! What a great time of sharing Christ and opening doors for further ministry. While the guys were outside, I was inside teaching the boys to play Go Fish, Skipbo and Old Maid. They absolutely loved it. I think they enjoyed just being children for a little while even though some were 15 – 17 years old. While the men were serving at the prison, the rest of the team – a wife of one of the men and two 13 year old girls, were serving at the hospital. They were playing games and taking care of one of our children from M3 who has been in the hospital for several weeks with a large malignant tumor. He was in excruciating pain for quite some time as they were waiting for lab results to know how to treat him. Thankfully he is now undergoing treatments, is doing much better, and is back at M3.
Our youngest child at M1 was taken home last month! We don’t know how his mother found out he was in prison, but she rode 15 hours on a bus with his younger brother to get him. Several months before, a man came into their village promising the mother he would put her son in school and give him a better life if she would let him go. Unfortunately she was desperate and believed the man. He brought the child to Kampala and did not enroll him in school, but put him on the street to beg. The child is four years old! The police rounded him up and put him in prison.
M1 is about 45 minutes from Kampala, so we brought the mother and children to Kampala to get a bus back home. What we didn’t know was that the mother had no money and was going to put the children on the street to beg in order to make money for their trip home. God intervened in a mighty way and we found out the situation. We were able to provide bus tickets and food for the family. We recently heard from them and they are back home and doing well!
Another one of our children at M1 was kidnapped from his village by a woman who was bringing him to Kampala to become a child sacrifice. On the way, she found out he was circumcised and so they couldn’t use him. She had the taxi van stop and she threw him into the swamp. He wandered until he found the police, or they found him and brought him to M1. He’s 10 years old and was living with his family and attending school before all of this happened. Our social workers were immediately summoned and last week they were able to reunite him with his family!
I have now participated in my first resettlement. “Paul” who is 10 years old, had lived on the streets for 2 months, was rounded up and put in prison for a month but then became so anemic he had to be hospitalized for a week. We thought he would heal quicker at home than in prison. He showed us where his mother was and we stopped in front of her little vegetable stand. At first I wasn’t sure it was his mother because she didn’t even hug or kiss him. We had her fill out the required papers for resettling and then left. I held it together until I got home and then I bawled my eyes out. I just can’t understand how a mother could react like that when she didn’t know if her child was dead or alive for over three months. She never even asked why he was in the hospital. These people desperately need Jesus.
After that encounter I decided I would never visit with a child in prison without hugging them! When I’m teaching, I don’t let the kids out of class without a hug and a kiss! They love it, and so do I!!
My roommate Emily’s family came last week and her brother preached at M2. Again the boys were allowed to play soccer after the service. Emily’s brother and brother-in-law were talking about how to divide the teams and the boys spoke up and said, “we’ll have those in for capital offenses against those in for petty crimes.” The capital offense team won!!
Early Monday morning some of the kids from M1 escaped. The authorities sent other kids out to look for them. One of the boys who was looking for the escapees was hit by a car and broke his left femur. “John” age 17, was taken to a clinic to be examined and then moved to a larger hospital. The next day he was released from that hospital and taken to another clinic for the night. This morning I went with one of our male staff to pick John up and take him to yet another hospital. When I looked at his x-ray I nearly threw up. The bone was broken and the two pieces were side by side. We had to move him 6 times just today to get him from the clinic into our van, then into the hospital, onto the x-ray table etc. He was in excruciating pain as his leg was not stabilized at all! He was laying on a blanket and 4 people would pick up the sides of it to move him. They are doing surgery on Thursday and will put a rod and screws in his leg to hold the bone in place. Because we don’t know who or where Paul’s family is, I signed as next of kin so he could have the surgery. The doctor then explained to me step by step what the surgery will entail and what the risks are. I asked if I needed to be at the hospital when he has surgery and they said no. Please pray for John!
I am so thankful that the Lord has planned each day and that I can trust him to guide me through it! As you can tell, I need your prayer support as I serve these children. Thank you for being part of the team!!
Love,
Ava
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