Kitgum

So here is how things work in Africa. Making plans is simply laughable. In the field doing research you truly do not know for sure what will happen or what you are doing until you are in the car and driving to the destination, and even then things change. Last week we spent time in Guitarama doing field research. My teammate Ben and I, volunteered to talk to different leaders of the community to see what their perceptions of the vulnerable were and ask what they were currently doing to help them, and if there were needs that were still not being met. The first place we went was to the district offices, the district leader was not there and the person underneath him was not either. They were going to be gone and in a meeting until Friday, the day we were leaving. Of course my thoughts were, “well, what the heck? This should have been known before! Appointments should have been made! It is so inefficient to just stop by!”... this happened countless times. We would travel some where hoping to talk to someone and they would be gone.  It is crazy how we Americans are so set on making plans and I am continually learning to release my expectations and try to go with the flow. Patience is certainly necessary here; I am definitely learning how to cope with things that would have previously made me want to pull my hair out. I love calendars and planners and knowing what time it is, however all my efforts to organize and compartmentalize are quite futile here.

Another wonderful example of unexpected events and needing to adjust is the new situation with Ethiopia. I am no longer going there. We found out last week that the government is cracking down and to enter the country it is necessary to have a business visa. We were going to get tourist visas but there is an election coming up and “tourists” in the past have influenced the Ethiopian people and have gotten involved more than just being tourists. So the government doesn’t want foreigners. There was recently a group of students there who were arrested for 24 hours and then deported, just because they didn’t have the right visa. Needless to say, FH doesn’t want to risk that with us.

Now I am going to Kitgum, in Northern Uganda, very close on to the border of Sudan. I will be helping a project called Bringing Hope through the New Life Center, doing HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. I will be living with many of the displaced Ugandan women at the center, which is a residential holistic rehabilitation program for mothers and their children. Many of the girls who were abducted into the LRA were used as sex slaves, a number of them producing children at a very young age. Here is more information on the center and a little history on the civil war and the atrocities the LRA committed in Northern Uganda. https://copper.fh.org/work/africa/uganda/newlifecenter

It seems to be a pretty incredible place that gives biblical counseling and strives to give these women hope and foster healing that only comes from the cleansing blood of Jesus.

I am so excited to see the Lord move through these women and their children. God is truly the ultimate healer. His love restores and renews all of us from our pain and depravity.

PSALM 103:2-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and

  tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the

eagles’s.