20 April 2007

What has happened since I wrote last...a lot I'm sure. Ben and Angelina saw the doctor but he couldn't do anything he recommended they go to Kampala or Gulu where they have chemo treatment. So it looks like they are making plans to go. The guys just informed me that they think he is on his death bed. They can see him get worse and worse every day. He is in a lot of pain. Josh said we need to pray that his suffering ends even if that mean God takes him home.

There has been a lot of building activity going on around here. Yesterday our yard was full of workers. Some hauling dirt, some planting grass, some digging a foundation for our guard house/garage, and some just standing around “supervising”. It is time consuming watching over building projects. Seems like everywhere you turn you hear about needs and suffering. Even with the workers. Josh said the truck driver goes down to the quorie and asks if anyone wants to shovel dirt instead of cut rocks today. Then he pays them a little of the lots he makes. They paid four young boys to plant grass for 60cents each. And there where two older women digging the foundation with the guys. Angie told them they were working too hard and the guys just told here, “life is hard here, they have no money so you do the work there is to get it.” We have it so good.

We got plants the other day. I know this does sound exciting to you but I was so excited. They are small but it adds so much and already looks nice. I put a few pretty ones in front of our house and put rocks around it. Josh said it makes it feel permenate, like we are going to be here awhile. Home. We got orange trees, lemon, avocado, palm trees, and a few other. We get quite a bit of rain here and everything looks nice and green.

We have been making orange and passion fruit juice lately. It is so good. I know it sounds funny but I am so blessed here. I look in my fridge and I have water, juice, milk, pop, tea... and they are all renewable. I can have as much as I want. I never had this in Mahula. It doesn't take much to be thankful.

I was looking at out pictures the other night and it make me think...I think too much I know. I am so thankful for all I have seen, all the places I've been, all I have been able to do, all of the special people in my life. I have been blessed! I love my kids. They change so much in a year. I want to enjoy each moment as much as I can. I don't want to forget or regret. I don't want to yell or get frustrated. I want to stop and enjoy. I want to laugh and play. I want to stop doing so much and putting pressure on myself to do. Life is too short to be too busy and stressed. I want to live knowing I was faithful with all God has given me.

Lydia has been saying really nice, meaningful prayers lately. I wish you could sit around our “table” and hear her thank God and pray for everyone. Her prayers are so innocent and real. No wonder God wants our faith to be like a child.

I heard a really good sermon from Mars Hill the other day while I was walking. It was such a good reminder that God hears the cries of the poor and oppressed. And if we hear those cries too we are close to God's heart. I keep reading it over and over in the Bible – God loves the poor and needy! He protects them and cares for them. (Is. 25:4) After seeing The Nativity I realized the same thing, God came for the poor and needy. He lived among them, helped them, taught them, defended them, and loved them. If we want to know God and serve Him we must be Jesus to the poor and needy. I know we are all needy and need Jesus, but if we can't think of people by name who are poor then maybe there is something wrong. Maybe we are ignoring it or keeping ourselves at a distance. Maybe we are just distancing ourselves from God. All I know is God loves those in need – what comfort and hope that brings. God is their answer!

Talk about poor and needy, today we went to Amecet (it means shelter). Amecet is an orphanage for sick children run by YWAM. Els is the Dutch women who runs the orphanage. I was very impressed with her. She has given ten years of her life to caring for sick children. Watching some of them grow healthy and be reunited with their families, watching others die in her arms. It brought me back to Mahula days, a premature three pound baby turning cold and grey. I don't know how she does it but I am thankful she does. She loves the children there. There are about 24 or so kids. 11 of them are older children and live there permanently and go to school. Almost all of the sick babies/kids are brought back to their families after they are healthy. They work with the families to teach them too. About half of the babies/kids are HIV positive. But if they are on medicine, which is cheap and available, the child can live a normal life.

I now know that until you see and experience something it means nothing to you. I saw the pictures and heard all about Amecet, but it wasn't until today when I saw, touched, and met these precious little ones that it became real to me. I know their names, faces, and heard their stories. My heart was touched by their need for love and care. They smiled and crawled to us just to have our attention for a few minutes. Let me introduce you to a few of the little ones:

Franco came up to us first with a beaming, toothy smile. I was shocked to hear he was two years old. He is the size of a ten month old and about half the size of my nineteen month old. He can't walk or even stand alone. But boy is he happy. He is a lover. They said he was so small when he came and almost died.

Moses is a five month old baby that looks like our newborns. Yet he smiles too! He is healthy but his mother died and the family needs help to care for him. He needs to grow and then he will be reunited with his family.

Then there was another sweet baby boy with a shocking story. His mother is only 18 and shoved him down a latrine. Someone heard him crying and saved him just as he was going under. He came to Amecet with the marks on this head from being forced down the hole but he was okay. His mother was in prison but now is working with a probation officer. She comes to visit him and will be reunited with her son some day too. She loves her son. She was just a young, desperate, and scared.

Alleybeana and Helen are two HIV positive almost two year olds. They will not be reunited with their families because they wont care for them properly. The girls get medicine every day for HIV. I guess the families wont give the medicine properly or consistantly. What sweet little girls. They were so happy to have new little playmates. Grace and Lydia enjoyed playing on the slide with them.

I don't know how we will be able to help Amecet but they touched my heart. Hopefully we will be able to visit the kids, fill in when they need help, and supply some clothes for them.