The Good Shepherd

Since our feet stepped off the plane and onto the red dirt soil of Uganda two years ago, our hearts have beat for the children of this country. The ones who are alone, suffering, and without hope. He put a young man named Isaac into our lives that has helped us to better understand the lives of street children. To help us know the struggles, the why’s, and the solutions.  We can’t help every child in this country, obviously, but we can help the ones He puts in our path. In the parable of the Lost Sheep Jesus speaks about going to great lengths, out of our comfort zones for one. I can envision our friend Sandy, who came to visit us a year ago and told the children of Uganda this very story with her wooden sheep and felt mat.  The Lord has put many children into our lives that we have become mum and dad to. We have been able to mentor them and encourage them in their walks with Christ and remind them of who they are in Christ. They are God’s children. He loves them.

James, Chris, Rachel, Kendall, with M (in the brown shirt) with his family

A few weeks ago Chris left our house in the late evening around 11pm with our friend and guard, James.   After spending an hour driving the streets of Jinja, talking to some of the kids that call the streets home, they drove past a child who was walking alone, sobbing. Of course, they stopped. It was dark, the child was alone, and obviously something was wrong.  This child whom we will call M  was 10 years old, had been living with an auntie, and according to him was being mistreated. An older street child had found him in town and convinced him life was better an hour away in a town called Jinja.  After arriving in Jinja, this older boy took M’s mat, his things, and beat him.  Shortly after is when Chris and James found him.  They brought him home and he slept in the room in the back of our home. Over the next few days we sorted out his side of the story with a couple of our Ugandan friends, one of them a social worker. Chris and our Ugandan friends went to his auntie’s home to sort things out. They found out he had only been on the steet for a week! I’m leaving out lots of details or this would be such a long blog post, but the story ends beautifully! The next day, during a trip to Kampala, we were able to resettle M with his parents! They welcomed him home, and he will be attending school in Kampala.

A week after M left our home, a boda driver stopped at our gate and dropped a small boy who appeared to be 7 years old. He said the word on the street is that we help street children. Thankfully, James was around and was able to translate for this young child who knew no English. We will call him S. From the sounds of his story, he had only been on the street for a couple of weeks. This is good news, as children are much easier to resettle with family when their time on the street has been short. I’m going to pause here with S story. His story is still in the works and hasn’t been an easy one. However, I want to share about another friend of ours.

S- the one dropped at our gate by the boda driver

 We met this young guy right after moving to Jinja. He seemed to be well known by everyone in town. His stories changed each time you talked to him, but from what we gathered, he had been on the street for about 4 years. This young boy we’ll call Z,  started coming to our home with a couple of his friends to play football and wash his clothes.  They also began coming to church with us. This wasn’t always the most

Why we do what we do- JESUS (James, Z, Chris, and Dad to Z)

pleasant experience because Chris would be pinching them to keep them from sleeping and they would find random things funny and struggled to control the giggles. Because his English wasn’t great, we took the opportunity to have our friends James and Patrick talk to him. They are both awesome Christian men. We are thankful they are part of our lives. I remember one time Patrick asked Z if he wanted to be on the street with gray hairs. They challenged these boys to not only think about today, but where they will be in the future if they don’t make changes today. After many talks with Z, he said he wanted to go home. He wanted to go back to school. Street children’s stories are complicated. They are usually mixed with half truths they use as a way to survive. This past Wednesday, we made the trek to Z’s village. It was an hour away.  He was afraid to go back. He had borrowed a bicycle, let a friend borrow it, and this friend sold it. It was a family friend. Here in Uganda, if you are accused of stealing you could be stoned to death, even if you are a child. So you can understand why he was afraid. As we pulled into his home town center, his eyes began to fill with tears. Then he saw his father in the distance and the tears flowed down his cheeks. Something I still don’t understand here in Uganda is the lack of affection between Parents and their children. In my head I picture this father embracing his son that has been lost and here we stand with them looking at each other. No emotion. But it’s a cultural difference, and one we have seen many times.  One who has not received love and affection is going to struggle to give it. But this father did love his son. We listened to his story. He is a muslim. His first wife left him when Z was only 2 years old. He remarried. He was in an accident while driving that left him nearly dead. A Christian family helped pay his hospital bills that totaled over 27million. His second wife left him after the accident. One of the first things he said to us when we arrived is that he had been sick and almost died, just two weeks ago.  We talked, we listened, for hours. Forgiveness happened. Z wanted to stay! It turned out he had really only been on the streets for about 4 months or less. And then, the most amazing thing happened. Chris and James pulled Z and his father aside. Chris shared that the reason we were helping Z is because of Jesus. He shared Jesus. We prayed. We said our goodbyes to Z and his grandmother, then proceeded in our vehicle to take his father back to work. We were only a couple minutes down the road when his father, Mohammed, breaks the silence with; “ I want to profess Christ as my Savior.” We stop the car. Tears fill our eyes. My head puts the pieces together. The seeds planted…..a Christian family who paid all his doctor bills….two near death experiences….a sister who had been reading him the Bible….a Christian family who brings back his son……The Lord had been working on his heart for some time and he was ready! Now!! We pulled over, got out of the car and prayed with him. My dear friends, we now have another brother in Christ!

Dad, Z, and S

Dad signing resettlement papers

S (who likes to be in every picture:) ) Chris, Myself, and Dad to Z)

The second half of this day, we drove two hours further down a horrible dirt road to reach S’s village, in the middle of we weren’t even sure. The rest of the day was hard, draining, and will have to wait until the next blog post.

Today, we had the priviledge of joining Z and his father for prayers! A three and a half hour service that we could not understand, but it was worth it to see this man stand in prayer with his arms raised high. We then drove to a nearby school to see if they could enroll him for the last 4 weeks left in the term. We are exploring school options for him when the new year begins in February 2015. Pray for Z and his family. It will not be an easy transition back for him. Life on the streets, no matter how long, makes a young child grow up fast. There is often a piece of them that longs to go back to that freedom. Pray Z can stay focused at school and that the Lord would continue to work in his heart.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep- Luke 15

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.