village and SHC

We visited Serving His Children which is a non-profit organization that trains moms to care for their children. Most of the children are malnourished and need assistance with getting the family back together. They care for the babies that are about to die. They are learning to care and love for their own as well as the village. The team spent a couple of hours just playing with the babies and talking to their moms and realized that it is one of the best ministries we have visited. This ministry is changing families and the next generation of Uganda. What a blessing to witness.

We then went to the open market which was a total ugandan experience: walking through and seeing all the vegetables and all the vendors was exciting. It was exciting to purchase beans, rice, potatoes, pineapples and carrots for five different families that we visited in the village but also exciting to know that we were helping a local farmer. Going to the village slum area was the most fun we have had. We had over 300 children show up and over 100 women. When we talked to them with Pastor Andrew, we asked how many moms were single moms, abandoned or widows and almost every arm went up. The ladies enjoyed making flowers out of fabric and the children enjoyed coloring and receiving sweeties.

We then visited four women to give them the food that we purchased in the village. Harriet and Juliet are positive for HIV. Harriet has five children and Juliet has 8 children. They are single moms living in a very small shack. They desire to love their children and to raise them in a pleasing way before the Lord. Praying for them was humbling. Giving them food and talking with them was great but it made us realize priorities. These ladies were so appreciative and joyful. While their circumstances are different, the pain is not. Abandonment and rejection are both real forms of pain in any culture. We gave them words of encouragement and walked away more blessed than they were by spending the afternoon with them.

We were told by Pastor Andrew that most white people will not go into their village. We never felt unsafe but were frustrated at times because of the number of children. But, that is what Satan wanted: for us to be frustrated and distracted. We walked away feeling great about the day and learning once again that all people are the same. And, in this particular village there are large numbers of orphans and widows. God is looking after these precious families and we hope that we left them with a small glimpse of hope, encouragement and love.