Greetings
once again to you from Moroto, Uganda!! Ingrid
here…
We
are back settled into our room with all our belongings. Lyle says that we are
living in a storage space but we hope that we can joyfully live each day for
our Lord no matter where we are living.
We
had what seemed like a whirlwind trip to the States as we hopped from daughter
to daughter from the East coast of Florida to the West Coast of
Washington. We are very grateful for
this unexpected gift of getting time with all those we love much sooner than we
had prepared for when we said good-bye to everyone last year. It was wonderful to worship with the parts of
the body that we know as family and to be so loved and encouraged. I have to say that I really needed this time.
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| Presenting at Redmond Assembly of God w/Pastor Robroy |
This
time away from Moroto was helpful to me to get a sense of what my struggles
have been in Karamoja.
I realized after
returning to Uganda, while still in the central region of the country, that I
was struggling with returning to living in the pain of watching a people group
day in and day out struggle and try to survive as best they know how, while
rejecting the attempts of help that both the spiritual community and the humanitarian
community attempt to offer.
Through this
realization a new facet of Romans 8:17 was revealed to me.
It says:
“…and
since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we
are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are
to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.” I have prayed that I would share in Christ’s
suffering and have always thought of this as physical suffering, but what
suffering in His heart must Jesus have felt when He gave up the privilege of
heaven to come down here and walk this sod with the people He created, who
refused the only way of life that doesn’t destroy the soul as well as the body.
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| Lyle & Ps. Noah near Lokerete |
In
understanding this truth, the Holy Spirit comforted my heart.
I have the honor and privilege to witness, to
pray for, and to shine the Love of Christ into the people here and I praise the
living God for this.
We have been here 5
days and I was given a profound opportunity to live this, instead of running
inside and curling up and pretending that the reality here isn’t real.
I hope that makes sense.
We
have a street boy we are trying to place in school, and he hadn’t shown up when
we had agreed to meet. We found out that
he had been very ill with malaria. He
showed up today with his very frail grandmother and we met her and waited for
our friend Pastor Noah to come and interpret and advise us on how to
proceed. As we waited, with little
Daniel between his grandmother, and me, he nudged me and moved his head down to
the ground. As I followed his movements,
my eyes fell on his grandmother’s feet.
Her right foot was missing the little toe completely, and the 4th
toe was bloody and about half gone. I
knew that Daniel wanted me to treat her foot, as I have treated his tropical
ulcers many times since arriving. I
believe, and Pastor Noah agrees that it probably is leprosy. The grandmother says that when she gets drunk
and falls unconscious the rats eat her toes.
The other foot looks like this one in missing toes, but not bloody. So I gloved up and cleaned up her wounds and after
talking about Daniel and getting some history on him, we gave her and little
Daniel a ride to the outpatient hospital, for both of them to get treatment as
Daniel was running a high fever as well.
We bought them books to have medical notes written in, as they cannot go
without these.
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| Children at Daniel's village |
The
grandmother gave her permission for Daniel to move into Pastor Noah’s home, as
he lives on the street, as she cannot provide for him.
His mother is around with a new husband and
baby; Daniel’s dad is in prison for murder. Daniel doesn’t live with the
mother, but we decided with Pastor Noah to visit her anyway and see if she was
willing to have him leave the environment of this slum and move into a stable
home.
When we got to the village, and
found the place the mother is staying, about 20 very small children, desiring
to shake hands with us, greeted us.
They
wanted to touch my newly washed hair with their very dirty hands
J.
As we were led back to the opening where the
mother was, my heart was deeply moved by how much our Lord Jesus loves each one
of these children, smiling and wanting attention from Lyle and me.
As Pastor Noah spoke with the mother, I kept
feeling tugs on my hair as I got “petted.”
She also agreed for Daniel to go to the home.
We now have to get the approval of the Local
Council for that area.
As
we left, I told Daniel’s mama I would be praying for her, and my heart was so
full of pain and I had to blink back the tears of how these people so precious
to God live.
Please,
Please pray for us and for the Karimojong people. I am reading a book and it said
something I really felt touched by, that we as praying Christ followers can
expect the hardest places to have the most amazing results. Prayer is truly the weapon needed here to change
hearts and transform minds. Only God can do this and He has called us to join
with Him in loving and transforming and setting free people who feel there is
no hope, eternally or now. Prayer takes
the spiritual battle out of our hands and puts it into God’s hands, and when we
in holiness of the truth of what Jesus has done for us, bend the knees in
prayer, God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
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| Peaceful spot outside of Moroto |
This
is really what is on my heart, thank you for joining us in serving the Lord
here in Karamoja.
Many have asked about
our living accommodations and they are still in process.
The newest date we have been given to move
into our home is October 15
th.
So we are determining to live each day surrendered to the Lord’s will
and let Him chose our move in date.
May
He be greatly honored through each part of each day of our lives.
Love,
Ingrid and Lyle
