We woke up early today and we were all ready to go before our driver was. He was only 30 minutes late... which in Africa isn't late at all! That's right on time...
We jumped in the bus, full of enthusiasm, and headed about an hour outside the city to a pretty rural spot - this is where M1 is located. Today we would be visiting a government run "rehabilitation" center - also known as a children's prison. 60 Feet, an incredible organization doing amazing work in Uganda, has made some awesome progress with the government and has been granted access to these facilities to minister to the children there.
Let's get the formalities out of the way first - this place IS a prison. Bars on the windows, kids locked in a solitary cell kind of prison. A prison where the punishments are nowhere near fitting to the "crimes." The environment is scary at best. Very little supervision or guidance for the children. Meals looked to consist of water mixed with flour. No safe water. Harsh living conditions. It was tough to swallow the fact that these kids LIVE here and that we weren't really just visiting some movie backlot somewhere.
But now lets talk about how much God is here. First off - the very fact that these kids are alive is a huge testament to God. Barely any water, barely any food and hardly any nutrition. What else BUT God could be sustaining them?
As soon as worship broke out in the main boys area it was clear how much God was at work there. Loud, joyful praising was taking place. A conga line broke out (when's the last time you remember that happening at YOUR church?). The incredibly intelligent, incredibly joyful Kenneth who was standing with me said:
"This is how you do it - you take two steps forward, two steps backwards, hug somebody and tell them that Jesus loves them!"How simple is that? It's so easy and so perfectly right... and so proof of God's presence in this place.
We hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon. We shared testimonies, stories, hugs and laughter. We kicked soccer balls, tossed frisbees and just acknowledged them.
About 30 minutes before we were to start packing up to head out I asked all of our team members to find some kids - 1, 2 or 20 - and just pray with them. I think it's the best thing we have to offer to these kids at this "rehab center."
It was a somber ride to Jinja that afternoon as we all tried to process what we had just experienced. I have been to multiple orphanages in various African nations and I can safely say that this was one of the harder things to see and visit. The injustice of it all has me screaming out to God even though His presence is clearly evident there. Yet again - I learned and learned and learned a ton from these kids.
We arrived in Jinja right as the sun started dipping to one of the most incredible welcomes I think I have ever seen. Pastor Isaac, of Canaan Children's Home (our home for the next few days), stood at our bus door and greeted everybody who exited with a bellowing
"Hellooooo my brother (or sister)!"and then he buried us in a hug.
After the day we had at M1 - it was JUST what we needed.
P.S. i took hardly ANY pictures on this trip - so special thanks to Taylor and Sarah for letting me "borrow" some of these for this post!
1 comments:
Was interested to hear about your experience here. Saying that it was one of the west things you've seen in Africa is very telling. So grateful that SixtyFeet gained access.
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