"I have no other option"

 "I have no other option..."

I John 3:16  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Thursday…Jeff, Dann & Steve have been pacing the property and meeting with builders, architects, surveyors and utility people.  Today, I think things might be coming together…PRAISE THE LORD forever more!  

I’m thinking maybe the enemy has realized they are not easy targets and has turned his focus in another direction.  I’d like to think he is beaten down and nursing wounds.  We know we win the war, but winning a battle every once in while deserves some cheering.  God has not just plain paved the way for everything, but we have waited, watched, listened and moved as we thought he was leading without a lot of affirmation, until late yesterday.

The two houses for the guard and cowboy are beginning to get some walls.  More meetings today and tomorrow will provide answers for some next steps.

 4 of us, along with Olivia and Melisa rode with Janet back to Kakira today.  There were a few we wanted to visit and follow up with.  

We had some time to sit with Rachel’s mom today and share the gospel with her.  We encouraged her that a handicapped child is no less valuable and that God is able to help her continue to raise the tiny 10 year old.  The neighbors and villagers marginalize a child like Rachel, and look down on the mother that gave birth to her.  

It would be so much better if the ones around her could encourage and support this mother and daughter, but this world responds in an upside down kind of way and doesn’t see through the same loving lens as her creator.

We prayed for Mama Betty and headed to visit an old woman, a grandmother who just buried her daughter last week.  We had visited in August and knew the girl whose mind was wracked with confusion and whose body gave way to AIDS.  There is no country where burying your own child feels right, no matter the age.

A forty five minute drive lead us to our young blind mama, Jennifer and her daughter Florence, the infant who we have been trying to sustain with powdered formula.  September’s visit gave such hope and by mid fall, her little arms, legs and cheeks had plumped up with the supplement.  

Today, the child was thin again.  It seems the young grandmother who has been managing the family has been absent for two weeks for a family burial.  No one in the house has eaten since early yesterday and it wasn’t the first or only day that things had been difficult.  

We immediately sent a family member off for flour, oil and beans.  While she was gone, the masses gathered.  When the van drives up, 4 little ones, become 10, become 50 very quickly. 

As they sat in the dirt, Micah shared the gospel and a few stories from Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  Every eager hand shot up when he asked if they wanted to pray for salvation.  A fair skinned, blonde child is probably never seen this far out, so their intrigue may have been a mixture of gospel and fascination.  Either way, they sat or listened to someone their own size encourage them to pray with friends and remember that people don’t save others, only God does.

We passed out 3 suitcases full of clothing, hoping everyone got something and headed towards town to visit another grandmother whose son had died and daughter in law left her 13 children.  We saw them all in September, but it was too much for this woman so she has given away all but 4.  Other families take them in to be house slaves…over working them, not sending them to school.   When we pressed, she heard the same answer we have heard so many times before.  "I have no other option"

At least one was taken to the capitol city of Kampala, just another child without a protector, being used in one way or another.   We tried to offer her help, rent for a couple of months and some money to start up a small business selling vegetables.  She is going to work on that and we are going to pray she doesn’t give up any more of the children.  

It was a good day in many ways, again, it’s difficult to see up close, the struggles.  We know God is big enough and allows it for his own purposes, but still…some days are uniquely sweet in a very heart breaking sort of way.  God help us all to live and love the way he directs.