I have made it to my next home for August and settled in a
bit. My new place is in Ngora,
Kumi, Uganda. Ministry is going very well so far. We have met the bishop, led
fellowships with people from our community (speak and sing for them), visited
the hospital and prayed with patients, spoke at a university for nurses twice,
I spoke at a girls secondary school, and we tried to speak at the jail, but we
arrived too late (they had lockup for the evening). All this in less than one
week! The land in Uganda is beautiful, lush and green with rock hills. Our
accommodations are nice as well (minus maybe the “long drop” outhouse complete
with cockroaches and other unidentified bugs). Overall, it seems we have had a
good start to the month.
My highlight thus far has been praying with the girls at the
secondary school. After venerably sharing with the girls some of my past, I had
several girls share with me what they were struggling through and I had a
chance to pray with them. Their struggles made me wish they were not leaving on
school break, so that I could return and spend more time with them. Many girls
were worried about their families affording school fees so they could return.
Many girls were daughters of their father’s first wife, whom he had abandoned
and there was not much money. One girl was worried she will have disappointed
her parents by not making good marks in school and they would refuse to pay.
The one that stuns me the most was a girl who lived with her stepfather, mother
and stepbrothers. This girl came to me crying tears that dripped down her face
and on to her yellow uniform. She said that her stepfather refuses to pay her
school fees when she does better than his sons in school. Snot ran from her
nose to the skirt of her dress as I prayed for her.
Two girls opened up to me and I was the first one they had
ever told that they had been sexually abused in their home. I wish that I could
go home with them as they do their best to courageously attempt to tell their mother
what has happened. I wish I could provide them with a safe haven and protect
them. School is that place for many of these girls. Family life is tough (that
is if they have a family). Many girls at this school, have been abandoned by
one or both of her parents and if they are not neglected it is often because
they are being abused. My heart is so full of love and compassion for these
girls; I don’t understand how a mother could abandon and ignore her two
daughters after the death of their father. Every tear that fell down a girls
face was like fuel for my heart’s compassion.
