orphans, widows, and girls at risk

James 1:27, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

Thursday was my first day at the Jordan House, which is right in the middle of one of the slums. I went there to get a tour and we walked around to check in on some of the women and children. There is a residential facility for orphans from young to like 19 years old or so, and the women who live in "rooms" in the slums are widows who have anywhere from 2-5 children, most with different fathers, as polygamy is huge here! They get pregnant and a lot of times the men leave them. We prayed over an old lady who had malaria, she was very weak and wasn't well at all. We visited a few different ladies, talked to them and prayed with them in their rooms. The women make beads out of paper (it's really cool!) and turn them into necklaces, and then the woman who owns the facility has them taken to Australia and she sells them and that's how the women in the slums make money. The necklaces are beautiful! You would never know they were made out of paper.

We went to see this woman who had four children, one who was younger than a year, and her oldest was 6 years old. The mother had her six year old daughter give the baby a bath and she put the baby in boiling water! The baby suffered third degree burns and the mom didn't tell anyone. Praise the Lord she's ok and she's one of the happiest babies! So we saw the mom and her children. The mom has HIV and one of her four children also has HIV. They are being treated and will probably live 15-20 years. As we prayed over them I held back tears, but as soon as we walked out they came streaming down my face. This was even harder to see than the slum I saw Wednesday with the kids. It's something undesribable... overwhelming...i was left speechless. This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but it continues to put things into perspective and is making me truly grateful for what I have. These people have nothing!! Nothing!! But they are some of the happiest people I have ever seen!

I have the blessing of being able to go there every Thursday from now on to teach a Bible study with the women in the morning and do house visits in the afternoon.

Today (Friday) I went to check out this other organization called "Bombejja", which means "princess" in Luganda. It's a project foused on women at risk and children in the community. The girls are between the ages of 16-22 and the children there are in grade school. All of them come from abusive homes, and/or their parents have left them or died. The kids go to school during the day, and some of the kids and girls live there. I will be going there two days a week, teaching a Bible study for the girls and teaching some of them English. I've never done either of those things, so the Lord is totally taking me out of my comfort zone and stretching me. I can't believe I'm going to teach English haha! I have enough trouble speaking it myself. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to share with them and teach them!

Getting home today was a trip! It's so hard to get around here, because you have to take taxis everywhere, which are big vans that are supposed to hold 14 people, but hold 16-17 people) and it's super confusing! It took me about two hours to get home, when it should've probably taken an hour at the most. The people drive so crazy here! They hardly ever stop, and pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. If the vehicle is bigger than you, you have to move! That's like the only rule of the road. Or you will get run over! In order to cross the street you have to weave in and out of cars and just pray a lot! Well, the kids were getting out of school, the taxis are driving really fast, one boy thought he could run right out into traffic and make it across the street, and my taxi driver hit him. It caused chaos in the street and I really thought someone was gonna get shot, but everyone was ok. The boy got right up and walked to the side of the road. Praise the Lord! But everyone was rioting! It was crazy! I'm absolutely exhausted today!

Lord, give me strength, give me Your love and a heart of compassion. Give me a prayerful spirit, one of intercession for them. Pour out your grace and mercy on every one of these people. Let Your hand of protection be upon them. Strengthen them. Heal them, if it be Your will. Pour out Your love on them. Lord, teach me to be content in everything and grateful for everything. In Jesus name.

Prayer requests: For the women and children here. For the Bible studies that I feel so privileged to be able to teach- that it would be the Lord's words and not mine. That the Holy Spirit would speak to them through it and they would walk away feeling the love of Christ! Please pray for the Christian music festivals that are going to the happening here. I think there is one this weekend and there's one the weekend of the 24-25, which is supposed to be the biggest festival Uganda's ever seen or something, so it's probably high risk for a bombing.