August 6, 2010
Well Lydia is now seven years old! We had so much fun celebrating with her. She chose waffles for her birthday breakfast – a good way to start. Lydia put on her dress and a necklace her grandma sent her. She was so excited for her special day. Then we decorated the house for her birthday and party. The girls helped me frost the cake too.
In the afternoon we had a party! Five of Lydia’s missionary friends and four Ugandan friends came. We played games, decorated cookies, did face paints, signed a birthday shirt for Lydia, and of course ate cake. Lydia was also thrilled with the nice gifts everyone brought. It was a great day. The kids loved being together and playing and the ladies enjoyed sitting back and talking.
In the evening we celebrated as a family. Lydia chose chips and cheese for supper – yummy. She also opened her gifts from us and her grandparents. I wish you could have heard the squeal when she saw her new electric toothbrush. Oh, it was a fun day. Lydia brings so much joy to our lives. We thank God everyday for the gift of Lydia. Happy 7th birthday Lydia! We love you!
Other family news, Luka is mimicking a lot of words and learning new ones each week. He says “Bible” and “no” this week. (Isn’t the no stuff suppose to be when he is two?!) Our watchman left the ladder out the other day and I found Luka standing at the very top of it. Almost had a heart attack! I keep telling him God saved his life once already lets not make it twice. He is all boy and very different from what our girls were like. He is really good but active. He loves airplanes (goes back to his special time watching airplanes with his grandpa at the airport) and since Soroti has a flying school we hear them often. Every time Luka hears one he stops what he is playing and runs to the window and says, “Up, up. Bo.” (He calls them boat.)
School and teaching are going well. I really do enjoy being involved but it has made my life busier. I hope I am doing a good job and they are learning what they should be. The other day for Bible I really taught and just shared the story and talked about what we learn from it. I really enjoyed that and hope that continues.
Josh is busy too. He is taking on even more teaching and is gone about three full days a week. He loves it and is go good at it. It is great to see him using his gifts and seeing the Lord work in people through it.
Other new, last weekI visited a couple sick people at the hospital last week. One was the grandchild of our watchman. She is seven and we peeing blood and vomiting when she ate. Of course they said it was malaria which frustrated us because they didn’t even test the urine, but we kept praying for her and thankfully she is better now. She was in the children’s ward there it is a sad place. The place was overflowing with sick kids. IVs where everywhere. I just thought is there hope for these suffering children. It is so hard to see and know I can do nothing for them. Especially now that I have been there with a sick kid. My heart aches for them. It is so much easier to just know the hospital is there and stay away – not see them and feel for them. But how wrong. Jesus would be at their bed side loving them. I pray I brought a little of Jesus love in my visit. I visited the girl and her family and the kids and families next to them. I brought them some food and prayed for them.
I also went to visited and brought food to Anna Grace (the one dying of AIDs) and her sister. (At the hospital someone has to be there with you to feed you and care for you because no one there will.) A few days later Anna Grace died. I am so thankful her suffering is over and she is with her Savior. As I got in my van I noticed I was packed next to a truck with a dead body in it. Suffering is all around us. I read in my Bible study today that few of us choose to confront suffering because we feel so helpless. However, we are called to deny our own desire for personal comfort so that we can confront the unimaginable suffering around us. And the salve for all sickness and suffering – Jesus.
This week I walked over with Luka and Grace to see the home for street kids. It just opened in June and I heard about it through our team. One of our teammates is doing ministry with the kids who live on the streets. Again I was struck by the fact that I heard about the kids and the ministry but until I went and met them it didn’t mean too much. Now that I have seen their faces, know some names, and have seen their great need I am moved. Maybe even convicted. I can’t now know and do nothing. There are 13 kids there (12 boys and one girl who stays with the lady cook) ranging in age from 5 years old to 15 years old I think. When we got there they were playing games and reading with Bobbie and Rachel (our teammates) but if they weren’t there there would be nothing for those kids to do – nothing. I was blown away by the fact that there was not one single piece of furniture in the whole house! Imagine that. The kids were all very nice and curious of my kids. One boy, about 9 years old, asked if he could come home with me and for some clothes. I was not surprised by the request. Sad. Every child deserves a home and family. Those kids do have a need for clothes. One boys shorts (if you can call them that) where together by threads. Isn’t it every ones basic need or right for clothes? I just kept thinking of America and how people cannot believe this is how people live or have never even given it a thought. I also thought how every church or person I know would love to give to the needs of this place. So what do I do? How can I help and bless them? What is the right thing? How can the church here help too? Where do we begin? I would like to see some basic furniture for them, some clothes and shoes for each child, a worship time with our team, help make a classroom, and some Freedom in Christ teaching done with them. I am still praying about it because I want to help and get our team involved but I also want to see Christians here helping out and seeing the need. Everyone here know about the street kids. They sniff things in a bottle (like glue or paint thinner), don’t have homes, wonder the streets, and get in trouble. This is the first home opened for them. There are bound to be problems. When you get kids who have never had rules and are addicted it is hard work. I am so thankful some Ugandans are trying. They are taking in the younger more vulnerable kids so there will always be others left on the streets. Just in the last month two of them were killed. One was shot when he was stealing something and one was killed in a fight with another street kid. I guess I tell you all of this to make you aware and hopefully to cause you to pray for these kids and this new ministry to them. Thanks everyone.
One last thing for now, today we went to our friends Sam and Esther’s “traditional wedding”. We really didn’t know what this meant but felt we should go. Sam has been a friend since we moved to Soroti. He and Esther got pregnant in high school and we walked with them through that mess. We have been proud of how they have remained committed to each other and their desire to be married in the Lord. To do that Sam has to pay the bride price which then means they are married traditionally. And that is what we went to celebrate yesterday the giving of the bride price or traditional marriage. The village was almost an hour and a half away. Once we got there we were put in a hut and left alone which, crazy to us, is what you do to honored guests. We ventured out of the hut because our kids where outside entertaining everyone dancing to the music. And that was the beginning to a very long, boring afternoon. We sat from 2:30 to 5:30 and in that time they introduced Sam’s family to the in-laws, showed them the bride price and negotiated if it was enough (he had 4 cows and seven goats for them but they added on about $400 to that), and ate. To be honest it wasn’t much at all and we felt like we wasted out time, but that is what it is like here. You go because of the friendship. Oh well, our kids did great and I was more than thankful for a newly made latrine that my girls had me in more than once.
Wow, what a lot to read. Hope it was informative, entertaining and worth the read. Till next time!
Well Lydia is now seven years old! We had so much fun celebrating with her. She chose waffles for her birthday breakfast – a good way to start. Lydia put on her dress and a necklace her grandma sent her. She was so excited for her special day. Then we decorated the house for her birthday and party. The girls helped me frost the cake too.
In the afternoon we had a party! Five of Lydia’s missionary friends and four Ugandan friends came. We played games, decorated cookies, did face paints, signed a birthday shirt for Lydia, and of course ate cake. Lydia was also thrilled with the nice gifts everyone brought. It was a great day. The kids loved being together and playing and the ladies enjoyed sitting back and talking.
In the evening we celebrated as a family. Lydia chose chips and cheese for supper – yummy. She also opened her gifts from us and her grandparents. I wish you could have heard the squeal when she saw her new electric toothbrush. Oh, it was a fun day. Lydia brings so much joy to our lives. We thank God everyday for the gift of Lydia. Happy 7th birthday Lydia! We love you!
Other family news, Luka is mimicking a lot of words and learning new ones each week. He says “Bible” and “no” this week. (Isn’t the no stuff suppose to be when he is two?!) Our watchman left the ladder out the other day and I found Luka standing at the very top of it. Almost had a heart attack! I keep telling him God saved his life once already lets not make it twice. He is all boy and very different from what our girls were like. He is really good but active. He loves airplanes (goes back to his special time watching airplanes with his grandpa at the airport) and since Soroti has a flying school we hear them often. Every time Luka hears one he stops what he is playing and runs to the window and says, “Up, up. Bo.” (He calls them boat.)
School and teaching are going well. I really do enjoy being involved but it has made my life busier. I hope I am doing a good job and they are learning what they should be. The other day for Bible I really taught and just shared the story and talked about what we learn from it. I really enjoyed that and hope that continues.
Josh is busy too. He is taking on even more teaching and is gone about three full days a week. He loves it and is go good at it. It is great to see him using his gifts and seeing the Lord work in people through it.
Other new, last weekI visited a couple sick people at the hospital last week. One was the grandchild of our watchman. She is seven and we peeing blood and vomiting when she ate. Of course they said it was malaria which frustrated us because they didn’t even test the urine, but we kept praying for her and thankfully she is better now. She was in the children’s ward there it is a sad place. The place was overflowing with sick kids. IVs where everywhere. I just thought is there hope for these suffering children. It is so hard to see and know I can do nothing for them. Especially now that I have been there with a sick kid. My heart aches for them. It is so much easier to just know the hospital is there and stay away – not see them and feel for them. But how wrong. Jesus would be at their bed side loving them. I pray I brought a little of Jesus love in my visit. I visited the girl and her family and the kids and families next to them. I brought them some food and prayed for them.
I also went to visited and brought food to Anna Grace (the one dying of AIDs) and her sister. (At the hospital someone has to be there with you to feed you and care for you because no one there will.) A few days later Anna Grace died. I am so thankful her suffering is over and she is with her Savior. As I got in my van I noticed I was packed next to a truck with a dead body in it. Suffering is all around us. I read in my Bible study today that few of us choose to confront suffering because we feel so helpless. However, we are called to deny our own desire for personal comfort so that we can confront the unimaginable suffering around us. And the salve for all sickness and suffering – Jesus.
This week I walked over with Luka and Grace to see the home for street kids. It just opened in June and I heard about it through our team. One of our teammates is doing ministry with the kids who live on the streets. Again I was struck by the fact that I heard about the kids and the ministry but until I went and met them it didn’t mean too much. Now that I have seen their faces, know some names, and have seen their great need I am moved. Maybe even convicted. I can’t now know and do nothing. There are 13 kids there (12 boys and one girl who stays with the lady cook) ranging in age from 5 years old to 15 years old I think. When we got there they were playing games and reading with Bobbie and Rachel (our teammates) but if they weren’t there there would be nothing for those kids to do – nothing. I was blown away by the fact that there was not one single piece of furniture in the whole house! Imagine that. The kids were all very nice and curious of my kids. One boy, about 9 years old, asked if he could come home with me and for some clothes. I was not surprised by the request. Sad. Every child deserves a home and family. Those kids do have a need for clothes. One boys shorts (if you can call them that) where together by threads. Isn’t it every ones basic need or right for clothes? I just kept thinking of America and how people cannot believe this is how people live or have never even given it a thought. I also thought how every church or person I know would love to give to the needs of this place. So what do I do? How can I help and bless them? What is the right thing? How can the church here help too? Where do we begin? I would like to see some basic furniture for them, some clothes and shoes for each child, a worship time with our team, help make a classroom, and some Freedom in Christ teaching done with them. I am still praying about it because I want to help and get our team involved but I also want to see Christians here helping out and seeing the need. Everyone here know about the street kids. They sniff things in a bottle (like glue or paint thinner), don’t have homes, wonder the streets, and get in trouble. This is the first home opened for them. There are bound to be problems. When you get kids who have never had rules and are addicted it is hard work. I am so thankful some Ugandans are trying. They are taking in the younger more vulnerable kids so there will always be others left on the streets. Just in the last month two of them were killed. One was shot when he was stealing something and one was killed in a fight with another street kid. I guess I tell you all of this to make you aware and hopefully to cause you to pray for these kids and this new ministry to them. Thanks everyone.
One last thing for now, today we went to our friends Sam and Esther’s “traditional wedding”. We really didn’t know what this meant but felt we should go. Sam has been a friend since we moved to Soroti. He and Esther got pregnant in high school and we walked with them through that mess. We have been proud of how they have remained committed to each other and their desire to be married in the Lord. To do that Sam has to pay the bride price which then means they are married traditionally. And that is what we went to celebrate yesterday the giving of the bride price or traditional marriage. The village was almost an hour and a half away. Once we got there we were put in a hut and left alone which, crazy to us, is what you do to honored guests. We ventured out of the hut because our kids where outside entertaining everyone dancing to the music. And that was the beginning to a very long, boring afternoon. We sat from 2:30 to 5:30 and in that time they introduced Sam’s family to the in-laws, showed them the bride price and negotiated if it was enough (he had 4 cows and seven goats for them but they added on about $400 to that), and ate. To be honest it wasn’t much at all and we felt like we wasted out time, but that is what it is like here. You go because of the friendship. Oh well, our kids did great and I was more than thankful for a newly made latrine that my girls had me in more than once.
Wow, what a lot to read. Hope it was informative, entertaining and worth the read. Till next time!
1 comment:
So worth the read!!
we will be praying for these street kids!
Post a Comment