Children

After our recent trip to Uganda it seemed only natural to write about the children.  There are so many things we can write about, but every one of them comes back to the children.  Water, food, education, health.....children are affected by the provision of, or lack of all of those.  What we have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, felt with our hands, and been touched by in our hearts is the children.  It is a fact in Uganda that if you touch the life of a child, it impacts the whole village.  We believe that is why God has placed such a burden on our hearts for these precious little ones.  It is a fact, too, that water, food, education, and health are all linked, inseparable in their roles and their impact on the children.  A child who lacks clean water is sick alot.  A child who is hungry can't learn well, and is sick alot.  A child who lacks an education is stuck in a cycle of poverty that continues the cycle of hunger and illness.  We have seen so many children hungry, so many sick, so many lacking the opportunity for school.....it is overwhelming.  But we serve a big God, a God who knows and understands, a God who hears and answers us when we call on Him.  God is changing lives in Uganda.  God is allowing Mercy Uganda to be a part of what He is doing.  We have been able to put three wells in three different villages.  We have children receiving sponsors and go to school.  We have children getting medical care through our medical team, and through financial gifts for specific medical needs.  Last year, when I went to Karamoja for my very first time, I was overwhelmed by the extreme poverty.  There had been a drought of 5 years, cattle had been raided, a serious lack of water and food.  The village smelled like a barn due to the people in the village not being able to bathe.  They seemed a people without hope.  Then God did amazing things as He always does.....He provided rain, then a well, then sponsors for many of the children in the village.  We went back in May, just over a year after the first visit and saw a green landscape.  We saw a well (or borehole as they call it there), with a lady doing laundry, children drinking water, and gardens of food growing in every direction from the well.  The people in the village were clean, with big smiles on their faces.  Life had returned.  Hope had returned.  God was present there.  God is still present there and doing amazing things....physically, emotionally, but most of all, spiritually.  We still have much to do but know that God is our Father, our Provider, our Healer, and He has Karamoja, He has Uganda in the palm of His hand.....they are His children and He loves them.  God is opening doors for us to begin work on raising funds for land in Uganda to help the children of Karamoja and others in Uganda by building an orphanage and small school.  This, along with a plan for an agriculture and livestock program will provide safe shelter, love....God's love....our love too.....to the children. It will provide an education, and training for the future.....it will provide so much.  It will change the lives of the children, and therefore of the village, of the country.  Please pray for us, and with us as we seek God's will, direction, guidance, wisdom, and provision for this work.  Please pray for these precious children, that they would know their Heavenly Father intimately, that they will see His hand upon their lives, that they would grow in Him. Pray that what He is doing in their lives will bring hundreds, thousands of others to Him too.