A day of mending

We are back at the Village today after a busy, adventure-filled two day trip to the town of Gulu. We left the Village Monday morning and drove the two hours north to Gulu, stopping at the new 50 acre plot of land that was purchased 1 ½ years ago that will eventually be a second Village (Hopefully the picture of our group on the Land will be posted soon. I wanted to make a pyramid but no one else would ablige J ). We continued on to where some of the child mothers are learning to tye dye fabrics and make beautiful bags, scarves, aprons, etc with the fabrics (some of you may be recipients of their talented work J ). While the fabrics were beautiful, the eyes of the child mothers were sad and lifeless. These young women have been victims of rape by rebel soldiers and had become pregnant as a result and you can see in their eyes the effects of trauma and rejection they have sustained. But God can take the worst of messes and transform them into beautiful things and He certainly has done that in the beautiful babies He’s created out of that trauma. Our prayers are that that same beauty is felt and becomes real to the mothers too as they embrace the Love of the Father.

That evening we went to our first IDP (refugee) camp to visit some of the children who are still displaced. This camp had very young children and it’s always a bit harder to visit the young ones as they are visibly so much more vulnerable. The children sang for us and we were blessed to praise the King of Kings right along with them! The enemy clearly did not like what was happening and one of the women there began exhibiting signs of demonic influence. Cindy, Abbie and I and several other women began praying over her and after a time, she was delivered and set free. Yay Jesus! (And for those of you who doubt that satan is working still today, let me assure you, he is very much alive and well).

Tuesday we met up with a dear friend of mine, Lindsey, who is also in Uganda. She is in her third summer of doing a 6-week teacher exchange here in Gulu and our team was super excited to hang out with her all day. We took bata batas (hopefully a photo will follow) on a 45 minute trip to the school where she has taught the past two summers. It was lots of fun and we extra blessed in receiving a dust facial during the ride J. Our dear Hannah exhibited the dust in it’s fullness on her rather pale skin J

That evening we visited the second IDP camp and again the children were quite young and it was all I could do not to sob as my heart broke for their situation. I realized, though, that the Lord placed us with them for that small amount of time “for such a time as this” and so we took advantage of it and sang and prayed with the children and what a blessing it was! I also got to meet several of the children my family and friends are sponsoring and so I’m excited to share photos and stories with you all!

Today our team is tired –physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And so we are planning for a day of slightly less activity and prayerful mending of our hearts and minds. We have a few fun things planned to do with the children here and we want to bless them. I have a handwashing lesson and toothbrushing lesson to teach – oh how the nurse in me is thrilled with this!

Thanks for continuing to cover us in prayer. Our team can truly feel your prayers and God’s presence is thick and tangible despite the enemy’s attempts to thwart His great plans. “Greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world”! Can I get a “woot woot” on that?!!!