Was Jesus ever scared? Did He ever experience places or people that made His skin cringe, shoulders tense or stomach turn? I haven’t quite been able to answer this question, but this I know- Jesus loved the unwanted and He spent His time hanging out with them when others turned their backs and ridiculed them. Jesus would be hanging out with the slum kids in Kampala if He was around today.
We began our ministry in the slums last Tuesday, which is under the Raising Up Hope Uganda umbrella. I don’t know what I expected when I first heard slum ministry, but it was not what I experienced. I was excited and hopeful that it would impact me in big ways and that we would impact the kids even more.
That was not my experience on Tuesday. Our host Patrick grew up in the slums and didn’t know how to adequately prepare us. This was his life for so many years that it may not have seemed abnormal to him. He loves these boys with all his being (along with all forgotten children in Uganda) so I feel as if we couldn’t have been prepared until we fully experienced it.
We rolled up in the slums of Kampala early in the afternoon. It was a short walk from our van to the area where all the boys lived. See, in Uganda, the government is making an initiative to push kids off the streets. They demolished the bigger area of the slums where they lived and it is all becoming government buildings. Therefore, all the boys were pushed to a small section of land where they all live together. They are seen as “unwanted” by the people of Uganda.
That is how I first saw them.
Walking through the entry way to the slums we were quickly greeted by young boys holding water bottles and fists closed. Inside their bottles and fists were rags soaked with airplane gasoline. The smell filled the area and quickly my own air flow was blocked with this chemical. Boys were stumbling to come greet us with eyes rolling to the back of their head. I immediately grabbed my teammate, Makita’s hand, allowing her to comfort me and hold me up if I happened to pass out. My heart was breaking and I was flooded with more emotions than I knew how to deal with.
After greeting the boys and gathering them for the program, we began a walk that would leave me haunted for days. I walked with shoulders tense and palms sweating, as men working saw 7 white girls walking with the unwanted children. To say I was scared is an understatement.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel when we reached the rehabilitation home, but it didn’t last for long. This home is a one bedroom house that houses 25 slum boys who are longing for a better life and going through detox. Patrick pays rent by using his own salary. If the boys can truly show that they are changing their lives and have given up street life, they are given a chance of new life. This is a place of refuge where medical care and a warm meal is given to the boys that are still living in the slums.
Before the meals are given, the man in charge of the house takes the bottles of gas away from the boys. He lectures the boys that if they are using the gasoline to suppress their hunger and they are giving them a meal there is no point that the boys continue ruining their lives with chemicals. This was the most heart breaking part of the ministry, seeing just children screaming because the one thing they have control over and love in their life is being taken away.
I hated this experience at the slums. The enemy told me how horrible these kids were and that there was no way I could minister to these kids. They barely speak English and are almost not conscious – how could I ever make an impact?
I can make an impact in these boys lives in just a month. I can hold their hand to let them know they are not forgotten. I can put a bandaid on an open wound so they can heal physically. And I can feed them a warm meal twice a week with hopes that they wont need to use gasoline to suppress their hunger.
So I don’t know if Jesus was ever scared hanging out with tax collectors and lepers. But I do know that He loved these people unconditionally no matter how smelly or addicted they were. I will choose to love like Jesus and chose to love the slum boys.
