I’m inthe middle I promise
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18
The tragedies and effects from wars that last thirty years has become a terror to Northern Uganda. The whole country was affected but this area was the most and our team is here for a short few weeks to represent a loving God and speak hope to people who haven’t seen much. How can a loving God, if He is Love, allow such atrocities to happen? How when HIV/AIDS at such a high rate is killing people can we find hope in times as this? God is good, and all things work for the good of those who do love Him and are in His will, but we also live in an extremely fallen world.
The last twenty-five years has been hard from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and when the government couldn’t find safety for their people they emptied out all towns and villages and put them in camps to keep them safe with little necessities of living. The results of this made things even worse. We’ve heard of mass killings, tons people being torn apart limb to limb, children turned into soldiers, rape, the rise of AIDS from it all, loss of hope, and many things.
The last few days our team went to the Oyam District for an overnight stay to speak hope; this district was one of the hardest hit. Here we heard about the camps and lack of necessities people had. That men left their wives and women couldn’t take care of themselves, and so in order to get a piece of bread to live by or anything they would sell themselves over to sex which jumped HIV/AIDS. Because there was nothing to do in these camps men became drunkards and now since a couple years out they still are. Because of all the killings and horrid things women have seen in the camp and outside from massacres, serious traumatic effects took place.
Our first day there in Oyam our team went to a rehabilitation center to visit little kids who have been affected by the war. I met a young boy named Jolie Joel whose legs were twisted and feet backwards, he couldn’t walk without using his hands from cruelty beating of rebel soldiers. There were many kids babies with down syndrome because of trauma from their mothers during pregnancy. From there Rachael, Charity, and I went to a prison to speak hope and encouragement to inmates who made minor offenses. Dressed in v-neck yellow uniforms with smiles on actually, the prison was a poor looking place and they sat in a group to welcome us with song. There we introduced ourselves and I shared a message of hope with them that God can use our sufferings and trials for good. After that seven prisoners wanted to come to Christ and they received the Lord on their knees in humility.
I’ve seen many women here carry huge jugs of water far distances and come to water wells that have been built recently to fight the water problem. One was built by the German Red Cross just two months ago, but it makes you appreciate the simple access of tap water we have at home.
That night we did our first ever open air crusade and set up speakers in the middle of the small village center. Over an hours time with music playing loud on the speakers about three hundred Ugandans showed up and then I preached my first ever open air message to strangers and our team prayed. My message was on the love and hope of God in times of pain and I believe it caught their ears. In the end people off the street came to Christ including a man named David with such a heart for wanting Jesus, and after I prayed over his ears for hearing because it was really bad. After I put my hands over his ears and prayed with boldness he told me his hearing was already better. Countless others came up for various prayer needs as our team and the evangelist we are with prayed. What saddened me a lot was a request I received many times and that was men leaving their wives and not staying home to take care of the family or her. I pray that men in this world will become men of God and love wives like Christ loved the church.
The next day in Oyam was one of the hardest. All of my life I’ve heard of the epidemic struggle of HIV/AIDS in Africa, but it wasn’t until here in Northern Uganda in the Lango Province that we would see it for real. Our team was taken to a medical facility that is in poor condition and shape. The need for help is real and space is limited as all the rooms were always full and are always at 100% capacity of all the needs. There we prayed for many people with malaria, I held a newborn baby of three days only and prayed over it just asking God to keep the mother strong and the baby safe; that’s a huge prayer in a place like this. One little child was so malnourished that it’s stomach was so much bulged out it was like what I’ve seen in other stories as it’s mother just asked for prayer for the sick child. We prayed for full rooms of people who were sick and it was so hot in these rooms and lack what we have in America, but one lady as we walked in kept saying, “Praise God! Praise God!” Were we Jesus in this moment?
Finally the HIV/AIDS clinic where it was child day and there was a tent full of at least fifty people with mother and children, even little babies who were all HIV positive. Newborns born positively with AIDS, and this tent was full all day as people came in and out for continual treatment. The nurse said it would be full all day. The national average in Uganda of AIDS is 6% (which is devastating), but in Oyam alone it’s 9.2%. As our contact asked us to speak hope to them, he also asked us to prepare them for eternity; that’s a weird and hard thing to hear and to share. The epidemic is startling and I only cried while there wanted to hold these children and babies who don’t have much hope here; how lucky we are and I thought that we aren’t doing enough. There’s so much help that can be done and we’re not doing it except making little drips of water over something that needs a flood.
Our team was so broken from this and the hard question leaving all of this from the last couple of days is what can we do? Maybe we can’t change Africa individually but I can change a life at a time. But with so much pain and needs it just can feel so overwhelming at times, and this is just the beginning of the month. Change can be scary, and each month changes for us and we ourselves are changing. But, we can never put complete trust and hope in circumstances or people because we will change, but the truth that God doesn’t ever change whether in good or bad things is always something to take heart.
