I can’t believe we are already in August! The older I get the faster time goes. In June we were able to take two more of our kids to be reunited with their families in the refugee camps. Every time we go there is always a wonderful testimony. One girl met her older brother for the first time since she was about five years old. She is now seventeen! He was such a humble man and the family is very poor as the refugee camps have stopped giving food to families except for little children and widows. They slaughtered one of their ducks and served us the most fantastic meal. Our girl also learned that she is the aunty of two beautiful kids. It was so good to see this family connect. We always take sacks of maize flour and beans and sugar and salt and tea leaves so that we can help these families in some small way. We also left them with some money to help with medicines as the rainy season is starting up again which brings mosquitoes which brings malaria. Malaria is the biggest killer of babies and toddlers in Africa.
We visited another family where the girl’s mother died in childbirth. The father used to come and visit her in South Sudan often until the war broke out in 2016 and we had to flee. He was a soldier and died in battle. We met her mother’s sister who cried when she saw her niece. She pulled her onto her lap (the girl is 13) and said, “When you were born I never got to hold you because you were taken before I could come. Now I will hold you.” Our girl said as we were leaving that she really loved her aunty so much. It is amazing how three hours wrapped in a circle of loving family can ignite the hearts of our children and make them feel like they belong to family. There were also uncles and nieces and nephews to meet. It was an incredible time just sitting under the shade of a mud hut grass roof overhang and to breath in the clear country air and interact with the simple life of family found everywhere in the African plains. I absolutely love being in these places.
On the down side of being in these places is the lack of food and medicine now that the UN is pulling out. Refugees that have gone back have been ambushed on the roads and had everything stolen by bandits or rebels or even soldiers. One family sold all of their camp belongings to pay for the journey home just to make it home and days later they were abducted and no one has heard from them. One of the families we talked to said, “We either sit here and starve to death or we go back home and die by the machete or bullet. Either way we slowly die.” My heart grieves for all of the world nations who are at war and all of the innocent people who must suffer because men are greedy for power and riches. It’s really heartbreaking. Our children will go and stay with their families in the camps at Christmas. But now we will need to send them with food for everyone. The needs never stop. But our God knows these things and He provides for those who seek Him and His kingdom.
Last week we held our first Girl’s Conference here in our church. We invited 60 girls to come and spend the day learning about purity, hygiene, teamwork and Jesus and much more. Thirty of the girls came from the Primary School which is just down the dirt road from us. Our village has the highest teen pregnancy rate in all of Uganda. It has been on my heart for quite a while to mentor these girls but I just couldn’t seem to make things click. Then, just two weeks ago the Lord gave me the idea to mentor them, to bring teachers to teach them how to make crafts that they can sell in the local market and to eventually teach them tailoring and more advanced teaching as the years progress. Fifty-eight girls came this first weekend and they told their school teacher later that they never expected to have so much fun and make many new friends. We had a very nice tea break in the morning and a lunch break and we played team building games. The girls were treated like young ladies, receiving bottled water (which only grown ups here receive), notebooks and the good pens, not the cheapy ones. Even girls from another faith came and had a wonderful time. I am excited to see where the Lord takes us over the next five years.
If we want to change the way the world is going we must sow into the next generation intentionally and patiently, guiding them in the way they should go, encouraging them every step of the way, never speaking negatively and always cheering them on. I have seen girls rescued from the streets of Juba step into their destiny as daughters of the King. All things are possible with God.
Our church continues to grow and now we have a full house. We have more Ugandans attending than Sudanese so next week we will start interpreting in Luganda as many of the village adults don’t know English and still they come. One family comes from our old village and it is about 9 kilometers from us. They said that they just cannot leave our fellowship as they are being fed good nourishing spiritual food and love our family atmosphere as we all sit together sharing lunch after service. We all love this part of fellowship. The children run around and swing on our swings and play soccer and laugh and the joy is so evident here. It is good. God is good.