Monday, May 28, 2012

Getting Ready for Teams

The HEAL intern (Lynley Voges) is here and helping me prepare the way for three teams that will start arriving in less than two weeks.  As we went around to different areas in the villages and to different orphanages, I was reminded how much it means to the children when a friend returns.  Seeing the joy on the faces of the children as they saw Lynley again was so rewarding.  It was just as rewarding to see the joy in her eyes as she embraced those that she got to know over a year ago on a short term HEAL missions trip.

The value of these short term trips will never be fully known on this side of Heaven.  But, on this side, we get to see the love of Christ exemplified between the relationships of those we serve and those that come to serve.  It is a beautiful picture that I will get to see again with the three teams getting ready to travel across the world, cross oceans and countries to come and see what God is calling them to do.  I'm always thankful for the ones that answer call.  Some answer the call by coming.  Some answer the call by praying for us.  And, some answer the call by sending others.  Whatever the call, I'm thankful for God's people that he places together to complete His perfect plan.

We worked with the Canaan Children's Home on Saturday and this is always one of the favorite places for teams to go.  I always love seeing the children find creative ways to play and on this day we found them throwing water on a foam mat so that they could jump and up and down on it splashing water!  Several other volunteers went along with us and we taught the children a Bible lesson and made bracelets.  Charles Cranford, a long time HEAL Ministries mission team member, joined us to help out because he is here in Jinja for the summer.  After we finished with the younger children, the male volunteers talked with the older guys at Canaan and I took the female volunteers to a Bible study with the older girls.   We talked about love and relationships and then asked the girls if they had any questions.  It was a wonderful time because they were able to relate to three girls that were close to their age.   We were asked one question by one of the girls that reminded us of the trials that many young girls face in poverty.  She told us that she knows about girls at school that want good clothes and shoes and so they meet with older men that have money and give their bodies to them.  She asked the three American girls what they do when they struggle with things that they want and how they avoid temptation.  I was so proud of the three young ladies that were with me because they never acted shocked and answered each question with confidence that could have only come from God.  The Canaan girls were so happy to be talking girl talk.  It was just another example of how valuable these short term teams are because the girls here want to relate to girls similar to them from across the world.

We left Canaan and checked on Fazirra and Fred (the little boy that was burned badly two weeks ago). I am very pleased with how well Fred is doing.  The children always run out to greet us and as usual, Shariff came smiling while holding a younger sibling.  He is such a special young boy that I know God has big plans for.  And, these short term teams are bringing more shoes and school backpacks.  I'm probably most excited for the day that I get to walk up to Shariff and hand him his new backpack.  It's just one of many, many reasons that I'm anxious for the teams to arrive so they, too, can fall in love with God's people in Uganda!  Let the Summer Team Work Begin!






"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." 
- Henry Ford

Friday, May 25, 2012

Return Village Visit

Today was a return visit to the village with the Amani social worker and director to talk to the family that I blogged about over a month ago.  There is a little boy at Amani that needs a place to go because his family will not take him back.  It is a complicated story, but basically, nobody wants him because of who the father is.  The mother was 14 years old and was raped.  She did not want the child either or maybe she ran away out of fear.  Whatever the reasons, this little boy is lost in the system and this makes my heart cry.  There are children like this that are not adoptable and yet finding someone to foster them in this country can sometimes be very difficult.  We sat in the small brick hut that had newspapers to cover the holes and when we asked the grandfather's brother (the grandfather passed away and he is the one that said he could not return or he would be killed) what they wanted to do,  He very respectfully said that he had no place back in the tribe and nobody wanted to be responsible for him. Several of his family members met with us and they agreed to sign over the rights for this particular child to live with a family or institution in Uganda.  As I Iooked outside, I couldn't help but smile at all the children that could possibly be his family.




Tears welled up in my eyes thinking about how wonderful this child is.  How bright he is and how loving he is.  He has changed my way of thinking in helping Ugandans.  He has stolen my heart and tonight, I am grieving for him.  He will wonder one day what tribe he was supposed to belong to and he will wonder why they do not want him.  He will be told the truth one day when he is old enough and he will probably grieve for his young mother.  I'm praying that God will provide the right person for him and that God will provide this quickly.  Time is running out.  He is approaching the age that he must leave Amani because he is too old.  He is not HIV positive so he cannot go to any of the HIV orphanages.  He cannot go to a few of the really good orphanages that Amani has a relationship with because they are full.

Please pray for the people in authority and for Amani Baby Cottage as they make very tough choices.  Amani has NEVER had to turn away a child and they have NEVER faced this problem of not knowing where to turn.  They have always reunited the children with their families OR had families adopt those without famlies.  This night, it is extremely painful because this is a child that everyone loves automatically.  He is not mentioned by name for his own protection.  He IS a beautiful child of God and his love will forever remain in my heart.  If you are reading this, please pray for the little boy that stole my heart.


"I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody (to no one)."
Mother Teresa  

Sunday, May 20, 2012

a typical week

I had the pleasure of spending the last week with a board member one-on-one here in Uganda.  Dee Anne and I went around doing the things together that I normally do alone.  When someone asks me what my week looks like, it is really hard to answer with a simple answer.  It is much easier to just take someone on a journey with me through my week just as I did with Dee Anne.  There are things that are scheduled and there is a routine, but the schedule has to always be flexible.

Flexibility in adjusting to God's schedule rather than my own schedule is what I'm learning here.  This is what the last week looked like:
Preschool is taught every morning from 9:00 to 10:00 am at Amani Baby Cottage.  Sometimes, the preschool schedule runs smoothly and wonderfully with several volunteers and sometimes there is a hitch, and we have to adjust the day's plans.  But always, we meet.  Teaching consistency is key in early education.  Dee Anne is an educator and she was able to see first hand the benefits of consistency with the children.  They have learned so much and have come so far since January.

We visited the Crisis Pregnancy Center on Tuesday to see how the classes were going.  One of the teenage moms had her baby just three weeks ago and they both look so healthy.  Dee got to meet the young mother that I have grown fond of with twins.  Carolyn helped out by finding her a temporary place to stay since her twins are considered a curse in her village.  Holding these beautiful twins bring the crisis to a serious reality.  I cannot imagine someone wanting to sacrifice not only one child of God but two beautiful children the Creator knew before they were born.  The mother is doing great and following all the guidelines that have been set before her.  One day at a time.  That is the only way many of these young ladies in crisis can survive.  Thinking too far ahead creates too much fear and stress.  And, so one day at a time, improving daily, praying daily, and daily doing the best that she can do, this mother of twins is smiling and surviving.

I took Dee to see the village of Nyenga where we meet with a group of ladies once a week.  The ladies get a bag of food that means the difference between life and death many times for their children.  They receive rice, beans, flour, tomatoes, eggs and Oil as well as formula and baby cereal if needed.  I was able to see my friend that I blogged about a couple of months ago, Maureen.  Maureen is the lady that was sent to jail for abandonment and left her newborn baby with a 14 year old taking care of a small boy and the baby.  Now, through intervention, Maureen is taking care of her baby and learning to be responsible.  I can't believe how healthy the baby looks after just one month.  To see Maureen walking into the class smiling and to see the baby's smiles made me realize (once again) the importance of family intervention.  I see the theme over and over and over and God keeps confirming the importance of helping families stay together in a crisis instead of giving up.


We then met with Fazirra that I recently blogged about on Mother's Day.  Fazirra is overwhelmed with six children.  He oldest son, Sharif, helps her keep her sanity.  Sharif is 10 years old and more responsible in the village than most children his age.  By making weekly visits with Fazirra, I learned that Sharif needed help with school.  They could not afford to pay his school fees and for just 110,000 shillings (about $45 U.S. dollars) we were able to get the school supplies that Sharif needs as well as pay his current term's fees.  I still need to find some shoes to fit him and get him a backpack to carry his school supplies in because the 2 miles that he has to walk to school is difficult when carrying supplies back and forth but he manages.  He is a survivor and wants an education.  He is pictured with his headmaster below and holding the required broom and 2 rolls of toilet paper the first day back after holiday.

On most days that I make village visits (and I have developed relationships with several ladies that I try to visit and check on) to Fazirra, I find a crisis.  And crisis is not an exaggeration.  This past week, I visited her on Monday (the day after she accepted Christ) and found Fred (the 4 year old) in horrible pain.  He had knocked over a large pot of boiling water on his legs and entire private area.  I had to put my big girl pants on and not get sick or cry but I wanted to run for help.  Instead, we went to the Canaan Clinic down the road and made sure that someone was there to care for him and made arrangements to pay for expense.  We then went to town to get some Silver Sulfadiazine Cream for burns.  We sent Fazirra to the clinic (gave her boda money) to take care of this on her own.  The clinic did a fantastic job and the next day we showed her how to clean the burned areas and apply the cream. Working with the abandoned ladies here means so much more than sharing Christ.  It means taking the time to care, to teach life skills, to teach health and safety and to just show up.  One day while we were nursing the burn, her 2 year old girl bit her tongue badly and it began to bleed.  Pray for my overwhelmed new Christian friend, Fazirra.

Education:  that is another topic that I've learned quite a bit about during my research months here.  Sharif's class has 105 students.  Yes - that is not a typo - 105 children are learning together in one room with one teacher.  Sharif is in P3 and does not know how to speak English because school does not typically start teaching English until the 4th grade (P4).  The problem with that:  the exams after 7th grade are in English.  Imagine learning a new language and working on it for 3 years and then having to read an entire exam in every subject in that new language.  And failing the exam means repeating the 7th grade.  That is why many of the students in secondary school S1 (the next level after passing the exam after primary school) range from the ages of 13 to 17.

I spend Monday and Wednesday afternoons in Masese with a Bible lesson to two different groups of women and children.  We visited my group on Wednesday and found about 150 children ready for games and songs.  God brought me a Ugandan friend that wants to be a youth pastor.  Literally, Godfrey was walking through Masese and walked up to me and asked me if he could translate or help with singing.  He now meets me each Monday and Wednesday and leads the kids in Ugandan songs and he is so full of energy.  His shirt that he was wearing last Wednesday said "the next generation" and I thought it fit him perfectly.  He is showing the children a strong, male Christian influence.

Our last meeting with the government officials went well and we were just asking advice on the needs of Uganda.  We do not want to have our own agenda, but want to follow God's plans and so we seek the Ugandans input.  What we have learned more than anything else, is that here, in Uganda, it is best to empower the Ugandans to help each other.  To continue to follow God's calling and to serve and to be thinking of ways to help them help each other in the future.  I am thankful that God has me on this journey and thankful for HEAL board of directors, like Dee Anne, that come to visit to see firsthand what God is leading us to and to give me a shot of encouragement while reminding me where my strength comes from.

Philippians 4:13  "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."









Sunday, May 13, 2012

A special Mother's Day in Uganda

Today will mark the first Mother's Day that I will spend in Uganda.  Today will also mark one of the sweetest gifts that I have ever received and it is most special that it is on Mother's Day.  I send out a special prayer to all the mothers that we serve that are abandoned and lonely.  My prayer is that they will come to know the Lord that loves them and that they will never feel lonely again.

I have introduced Fazirra to you before.  She is my dear friend that I met through the Crisis Pregnancy Center and has the six children - one was Shariffe that many of you fell in love with.  He is the little boy that I have grown to love and he is pictured above with me.  He is responsible and helps his mother in many ways.  They come from a muslim community and have practiced the muslim faith.  Fazirra has been asking me for a few weeks to go to church with me and today was the first Sunday that it worked out.  My friend, Dee Anne, is visiting from the states and we picked up this sweet family this morning for church.  At the end of the service, Fazirra grabbed my hand to walk up and accept Christ.  This is a gift that brought tears to my eyes.  I will always remember this sweet, humble mother on Mother's Day.  We are now forever bonded and will be friends forever in Heaven...


In the short four months that I have been here, I have seen such remarkable progress in so many areas.  I have seen children transform their faces to smiles in the villages.  I have seen teenage girls transform their entire demeanor from sadness to happiness.  I have seen women in the villages open up, talk and smile as we have gotten to know each other.  And I have seen Christ work in the hearts of many.  I certainly don't claim to be doing any of this wonderful work.  God is at work in a mighty way.

I have learned about unconditional love through so many ministries.  The gift that a little girl named Alice gave me at Rafiki was a straw mat that I will cherish.  This mat probably took her a couple of months to make and it is a Ugandan tradition to give something so special to a new friend to be remembered by.  Alice is a bright young girl that was given a second chance at Rafiki when abandoned by her family.  She is in a wonderful orphanage that is teaching her how to live in this culture while spreading love to others.  Alice is one of the little girls that also helps out with sick children in the village.

Esther is a friend that I have gotten to know at Canaan.  I have been teaching her that she is a princess to God.  She is very bright and wants to be a nurse.  Her mother is not living and Dee Anne brought a pen pal letter from a lady that she mentors at the Rescue Mission in Nashville.  The letter was not addressed to anyone in particular but the outside said "PRINCESS".  Esther LOVES to write and has been wanting a pen pal.  Yes, God is at work in many ways here.

I think of Alice and Esther and so many others like her on this day we set aside as the celebration of mothers.  God fills in the gaps for all of us.  He has provided a mother for Alice.  He has provided a home with mother figures for Esther.  He has provided ministries to help people like Fazirra get food, spiritual guidance and medical attention for her children.  He was my provider when I was abandoned just as He is the provider of all the abandoned women and children that we have come to love.  And, He has asked me to be present here in Uganda, to show up and build relationships so that I can see Him at work in a mighty way.  I am blessed and overflowing with thankfulness on this particular Mother's Day.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for such a special gift of eternal life in my friends that I have made in Uganda.  Thank you for using me, the worst of sinners, to build relationships with women and children that I can relate to.  Thank you for never giving up on us and for giving us new mercies every morning.  I am encouraged and excited that I get to continue watching YOU work!


"What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—
 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit." 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10

Monday, May 07, 2012

An orderly school with high expectations

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I am so excited for the children of Rafiki because of the education that they are receiving.  From 3 year old children up, they are learning a top quality education.  The Rafiki curriculum was taken from the Ugandan educational requirements.  They added a Biblical world view to every subject and it is quite impressive.  The key to the students' well behaved attitudes is consistency in everything that they do from discipline, to dress codes, to curriculum to daily schedules.   There is a Bible study that everyone on campus participates in.  Even the mamas are in a weekly Bible Study that has the same subject as the children have in school.   Even the parade in the morning (as they call it) that leads the students to the flag pole before school mentions the daily Bible verse and what the students should be learning.  


I thought about these students alot today as I was going through the curriculum training.  I thought about how Carolyne (the director) compared them to Joseph in the Bible in the previous blog.  And I believe it is true.  These kids will be okay when they leave this place because of their consistent character development.

Today, after dinner, I walked with some of the girls around the village.  I did not take my camera because I did not want to look like that was the reason for my village visit.  The children knew many families and stopped to visit and talk.  One of the community outreach programs that Rafiki has (as required by Ugandan law) is the village children.  They allow the children to attend their school and so the Rafiki kids were excited to walk around and visit their friends.  Another outreach program that they have is the Widows Program.  This particular program reaches out to the widows in the village and helps to promote their crafts by selling them in the U.S.  The children at Rafiki benefit from this program as well because they go out in the village and learn all the local trades and crafts. 




They are also learning to care for their neighbors.  The director stopped by to visit a little girl that is not being taken care of.  She has assigned 3 girls at rafiki to keep watch on her.  They have helped to clean wounds and sores on her little body and they care for her deeply.  As soon as the little girl in the village is healed, she will be allowed to enter the school program.  She is on crutches and has sores all over her body.  We are taking her to the doctor tomorrow and the 3 Rafiki girls asked to go with her.  When we left her house, we stopped by JaJa's little mud hut and the girls ran up to greet her.  The JaJa was so excited they visited and they invited her to tea when school is out on break.  

The quality education that these children are receiving does not stop with the books.  I am learning more from the children than I am learning in the training.  The Rafiki children are learning to love their neighbors, to be a part of their village in many ways and they are learning to adapt as Joseph did in different environments.  

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?


"Love your neighbor as yourself."  

Mark 12: 31


Saturday, May 05, 2012

Reflections from Masese, Bujagali and Rafiki

I have had such diverse experiences the last week that I don't even know how to begin.  I had help with a couple of Bible studies in Bujagali and Masese from the volunteers at Amani Baby Cottage.  These volunteers made me realize the awesome servants that go through Amani.  Amani does not seek out these volunteers but instead:  the volunteers seek out Amani.  They are almost always eager to serve in various settings.  For me, this was an advantage to accomplishing goals with about 300 children in Bujagali and about 200 women in Masese.  The Amani volunteers assisted with the children while I spoke to the women about Hope.  I am so thankful for short term missions and I see daily here the impact that they have on villages.
  I rode with Agatha out to a village to visit the family of a little boy at Amani.  This particular little boy has a mama that wants him back.  She was only 16 years of age when she had him and now at 19, she wants to raise her child with the help of her sisters and mom.  A neighbor took the little boy when he was an infant for a walk and he ended up missing.  When we listened to her story about how scared she was to be persistent in getting him back (she feared that she would be in trouble with the police) we could see that she truly wanted to be the mother that God intended her to be.  Her eyes lit up at the little boy's picture.  I went away from Jinja to spend a week at Rafiki in Wakiso and so I missed the family visit.  The 19 year old mom and her two sisters went to visit the child at Amani and Danyne said that it brought tears to her eyes.  They will visit each week for several weeks before the child is placed back in the village.  This is another story that I am able to witness on the importance of family intervention.
 
Another day I was able to participate in a Justin Beiber dance - with the Ekisa kids!  Ekisa is a wonderful organization that has a special needs orphanage.  The children not only knew the songs but actually had some moves!  Their joy made my heart smile.  The scripture that is at the front door as you enter the Ekisa home is "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  from Psalm 139: 14.








I am in a village (for the next week) about 40 minutes outside of Kampala called Wakiso visiting a family model orphanage called Rafiki.  As part of my research year, I am trying to learn as much as I can in various settings.   It is a wonderful family model village that houses 8 to 10 children in each home.  There are currently 102 children here and they are no longer taking any new children.  All children here were abandoned and have no family known.  They are no longer orphans because they have a family.  What I love about this organization is that they are teaching the children the Ugandan ways.  Today I helped ( I really just watched) the girls making home-made mats.  This is actually quite impressive.

The children do their own laundry and have Ugandan mamas that make sure they know the ways of the village.  The plan is to integrate them back into the Ugandan culture when they either finish university or finish vocational training.  The youngest child here is 4 years old and the oldest child is 14.  I listened to Carolyn, the director, explain to a visitor why the children will be okay when they go out into Kampala at 18 or 20 ....or maybe even a small village. 


She explained it this way:  Joseph, in the Bible, was prince before he became a slave.  He lived in the most luxurious of all circumstances before he was a slave.  He was even imprisoned and then became the second most powerful man in the world under Pharoah.  While Joseph had different lifestyles, his character never changed.  Rafiki focuses on the character of the child, training and building strong, spiritual character in every child so that nothing can shake them later in life.  That seems to be a pretty perfect focus.


"He hears the cries of the orphan."  
Exodus 22:  22 


"Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22: 6
   

About H.E.A.L. Ministries...

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H.E.A.L.’s vision is to bring hope and healing to widows, orphans, and abandoned women and children in a Christ-centered environment. HEAL Ministries was founded on James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."