Tuesday, February 4, 2014

"The Journey is Not Over for Us!"

There is a boy named Yahaya that many of you know of because he is a boy that I love so much. He is a boy I have asked many of you to pray for as well as I know that you have. I always knew that Yahaya was supposed to be in our home. He did come into our home a couple of times but never for more than two days before he would run back to the streets to do drugs to which he was so strongly addicted. He had been through so much and just couldn't trust anything good in his life. He was also so addicted to drugs, going off of them for any period of time felt impossible for him. He was so hopeless and could simply not believe that anyone could love him or be good or trusted.

Two days ago Yahaya passed away. He had eaten something and began foaming at the mouth, convulsing and vomiting. Shortly after that he died. Last year, three street children were poised and killed by women living in the slum community (who didn't like street children) and two women were convicted and put into prison. It seems that Yahaya was another victim of poisoning.

There was so something so extremely beautiful about Yahaya. Behind his scars and drugs and toughness was the heart of an extremely wounded yet kind soul. He acted tough but I know that God had created him as a soft and compassionate kid. I loved Yahaya so much and had a perpetually broken heart that he couldn't stay in our home. The doors were never closed to our home and he knew it.

I loved Yahaya so very much and it feels hard knowing now that the hope that he would one day chose a life where he would be safe and loved and happy is no longer possible. I keep remembering the hours that he spent in our home wrestling with David and rollerblading all over the place as he grinned from ear to ear. I think the hardest part is not knowing where he is right now. Yahaya, as far as I had known him turned away from everything good and loving in his life- people, places, medicine and even God.

I am a very steady person but sometimes I feel like my life is full of impossibly high highs and low lows. After hearing that Yahaya had passed away I was surrounded by my boys, all children that God had allowed me to rescue from the street in devotions as they sang with full joyful hearts to God. They are the most beautiful treasures and I wish that the whole world could meet them, because they are the most beautiful example of a life saved and transformed by God. I kept looking at Richard, our newest and smallest boy who reminds me a little of Yahaya in his cuteness yet zeal for life as he sang with his shirt tucked into his high waisted shorts with his shoelaces tied around his calves as he sang and danced his little heart out. It hurt to be reminded of Yahaya but it helped heal my heart too to see Richard and think of where he might have been. 

The journey is not over for us. There are so many children suffering on the streets that don't have a home, and someone to love them, and most importantly don't know of a God who loves them more than they can ever imagine. My heart is still breaking and grieving over Yahaya and the injustices and horror that street children go through. It isn't right and it isn't fair and he lived a life that no one should ever have to go through.  But that is exactly why we stand in the gap to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. 

This was a poem that I wanted to share that I had written last year, while praying for Yahaya actually, that still feels so painfully true for many children that we work with.

Come come come
We say, He says
Stay stay stay
We plead

But so often you slip into the night
Out of our hands that try to hold on so tightly
And forever we wonder

You thought you were invisible
Because you left and no one noticed
You hid and no one sought you out

But I see you now
and you were never lost from His sight

I think sometimes it can be hard for you
To look through to the other side
Of us who sleep in beds at night
And don't have to fight to survive
Who get food from a fridge rather than a trash can
And to believe that we could possibly understand you
That we could possibly be someone you could trust

But we do
We love you

Please jump
Off of the cliff
That you have so many times before
And trust that this time it will be different

And we will wait here
Watching you
Our faces turned up
     and our arms raised
To catch you as you fall

We will be here
For however long you need it

Thank you all for praying for our children here in Uganda. Thank you as well everyone that has given to our ministry in the last couple of months, it has encouraged our hearts so much and been such a blessing, we are doing this work together, thank you all we love you.

God bless


Abby and David Kakeeto







Monday, February 3, 2014

The "Pig Project"

A few months ago, God led us to adding a new outreach to our ministry. As we were praising God for the great work He was doing in our boys homes, we couldn’t dismiss the fact that there were many other children in our community that were in the need of our assistance. While these children had a loving family, that family was unable to provide for them education, and many other necessities… so we began community outreach! Thank you for the many people who have joined the effort and sponsored these children or donated towards this program as well as dedicating your time to pray for them. A handful of these children now attend our homeschool program, and they are improving and excelling at great speeds.

In efforts to help not only the children, but also their families, we created “the pig project.” This week we were able to deliver a mattress and three pigs to each of the seven community-sponsored families.  Yes, the little piglets are adorable, but not offered for pets (just incase you were wondering). Rearing these pigs provides means for these families to become be self-sufficient- an important value here at API.  We pray this project will be successful in improving the lives in our community and we also hope to start a chicken project in the near future. As we provide for our community, we strive to not only provide for their physical and educational needs, but we also desire to teach these families how to provide for themselves and cultivate sustainability.

What a blessing it was to deliver these piglets to so many families we have grown to love! Their expressions quickly became filled with joy and thanksgiving. Yes, A Perfect Injustice provided for a few of their needs – but ultimately it was God using your support to provide through us. We pray that these families not only feel loved by us, but also by our great God who loves them and cares about their every need. We pray that not only are the relationships of these families strengthened, but that each member of these families would form a relationship with Christ!

Deutoronomy 15:11 says, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”

We are thankful for the support that allows us to provide for the needy in our land and we pray that you also seek ways to provide for the needy in your land.
















Thursday, September 19, 2013

Snake bite, with permission of Emma

Matthew 17:20 Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

This is a verse that I have gone back to many times, because when I think about my faith, how much I can doubt and fret I can certainly say it resembles more of a mustard seed than anything big or grand. However, I have seen so many times that God can take my tiny little seed of faith that I plant when I am moving out on faith, and by the time I turn back around it has turned into a mountain that God has shifted...

Meet Emma. 

Emma in the homes now
Emma is rambunctious and hilarious and lives his life with his heart on his sleeve. 

Emma loves everyone and will go into a depression if he sees you upset, pouring all of his energy into making you smile once again.

Emma is precious to me. 

I have told him several times, if in my entire life the only thing that I ever did was be able to be used by God to take him off of the street that my life would have been worth it. I would have lived a life that mattered. 

Let me go back a little bit, so you can meet Emma when I first did several years ago on the street... 

Emma on the streets

Emma was tiny, and adorable and grabbed my entire heart when he lived on the street. He had been through so much in his life, including watching as his father died. Yet as hard as his life was on the streets, he still had the ability to smile and to bring joy to others around him. At that time, I didn't have a children's home yet and so there wasn't much I could do about the fact that he was on the street other than love him and encourage him and assure him how very much God loved him (which of course is no small thing). 

One Sunday morning I came to church to find Emma deathly ill. I had spent a lot of time around street children and seen all kinds of sicknesses and injuries and the moment I was with him, I knew in my heart that he was going to die (as I later found out, he knew too). 

He was so sick he could not sit up, drink, eat or do anything. I sat there with his head in my lap and prayed and prayed for him. We took him to a hospital where he was checked and x-rayed and a doctor confirmed that he had severe pneumonia and that his lungs were shockingly full of fluid, the doctor told us another night on the streets would have killed him. 

A group of Ugandan men that we were ministering with said that Emma could stay with them as he recovered and took his medicine. I promised to Emma that he would never, ever again return to the streets. 

In the few weeks that Emma was getting better, God miraculously made a way for us to start our home. Emma got better and came home immediately into our family. 

Emma and I a few months after he came into the home
 We have had such a fun time with Emma who of course always keeps you on your toes since he loves joking and moving around, is a little accident prone and loves any creature that moves. 

Several times in his past, God has spared Emma's life. 
God has big plans for this child. 

Very recently, I was going through a hard time. Somethings were going on and it felt like we were being crushed by the bad in the world, that the more we fought injustice, the more the unjust wanted to fight us. It was in the evening at the children's home and I had been crying over it and praying with some other leaders when I walked over towards the kitchen. I was talking to the nurse when suddenly Emma ran up and collapsed at our feet. 

He was hysterical and saying that he had just been bitten by a snake on his leg and that it hurt really really bad.

We recently had had a staff training on what to do if there is a snakebite (thanks nurse Amy!) which essentially said to immediately clean and wrap above the wound away from the heart, keep the child as calm/still as possible and rush to a hospital for anti-venom. 

The moment Emma told us, Mama Dan rushed out of the kitchen and gave us her wrapper (kind of like an "African apron") to loosely tie around his calf above the bite. I shouted to David who *just so happened* to be standing with the van keys and the van nearby who ran into the van turned it on. 

Mama Dan, the nurse Jennifer, the nearest child, Bob and I picked up Emma and rushed him into the van. Now, of all children in our homes, we have three main "guardians". Steady and soft-hearted boys who always take care of everyone around them. Bob is one of these guardians.

Bob

It was dusk and we were in the village but David floored it to the closest hospital/clinic. Bob, the nurse and I held onto Emma and began praying like crazy, all of us were crying. 
I kept telling God, "God you cannot take this child away from me! You have saved his life so many times before, please I beg you to do it again! Take me instead but not Emma... not Emma!"

We had been holding Emma in a laying position (me from the seat behind and Bob and the nurse from both sides of him on the first row). Emma began panicking again because of the pain (which is bad because it increases the heart rate and flow of poison) and so the nurse scooped him up into her arms like a baby to try and calm him. Sweet-hearted Bob, immediately cuddled him from the other side to calm him down, I kept my hand on his head and continued to plead for his life. 

About 30 seconds after David had begun driving (and remember we are in the middle of a village with no electricity and a crazy dirt road) something happened to the van.  

It pretty much sounded like the van was going to explode as a screeching metal sound filled the van and the night around us. We weren't sure what it was but knew that we had no time to stop and investigate, even if the car was completely ruined. The sound however filled the night and warned people on the road to jump out of the way far before we reached them. When we reached the main road their was construction going on and so David just...went around and over it. We reached the hospital, jumped out and carried Emma inside. 

The doctor was there and immediately gave him anti-venom. 

Almost immediately Emma was feeling no pain whatsoever. 

We looked for the bite on his foot and we could find nothing. 

Nothing. 

God had miraculously (and kind of dramatically) once again saved the life of Emma!

In the van on the way back, God whispered in my heart, "See I am in control. Satan has no control over this ministry or over the lives of these boys. Just as I have fought for Emma's life I will continue to fight for you as you stand against injustice. Do not fear for I am your God..."

I thought back over everything that had happened. 

How Emma had collapsed at the feet of the nurse, as the van was next to us, that of all the kids it was Bob who had been nearby, how the metal (which ended up being just an unimportant piece of metal on the back of the van) had fallen down to clear the road for us, how the doctor had been in, and how Emma had instantly recovered)

God had been in control every single step of the way.

Our God is so much bigger than anything else that can come up against us in this world and this was a big reminder.

Maybe I should introduce him again... Meet Emma, the boy who I am sure, God has set aside to one day change the world!


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Forever Homes Update!


Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear His voice, Psalm 95:6-7

Our forever family in Bombo!

Hello all!  We here at API pray that you are all doing well.  We thank-you so much for your continued support of the ministry.  It is truly such a blessing for us and we couldn't do it without you.  We just wanted to send a little update about what God has been doing in the ministry in the last few months and let you know how He has blessed us through your prayers and gifts.  He has been so good to us the last few months and the following are just some of the new changes in our ministry:



We have opened our discipleship house! We now have a 2-3 year discipleship house and program for our older boys 17-21 years of age, who are severely behind in school and unable to finish where they can learn how to handle independence, work, learn vocational job skills, take adult education classes (because they are sooooo far behind in school and we want them to be able to read and write!) be mentored, have daily devotions and save their money before they launch out on their own. The boys learned the skill of building as they were trained to build the discipleship house themselves. They did a great job and are looking for other building projects where they can be hired to build as well!
The d-house boys

We have started a bakery out on the land in Bombo.  The boys in the discipleship/vocational program have been learning how to make bread there and then they have been going into the village and town to sell it. They recently received bikes to peddle the bread on, but have received driving instructions and so they are hoping one day to have a vehicle to drive and sell the bread from. Having a bakery also means that the boys in the homes now get fresh bread with their breakfast.  Such a blessing!

It's no wonder we are selling our bread with such charismatic bakers as Sadic!
 
Monday showing off his bread
Now that we have the discipleship house, it has allowed us to bring in an older boy, Albert off of the streets. Albert had been on the streets for over 7 years. He was tough and very street smart. However, he accepted Christ into his heart and began to desire to get off of the streets and out of the "thug life". He began coming to our programs, working hard to be a good example, working odd jobs in the slum(for hardly any money) and turning his life around. Albert is 17, has never been to school before and is used to being independent. When we asked if he wanted to come to Bombo to be in our discipleship home and vocational program he rejoiced at the opportunity. Albert has no script on what it looks like to be merciful, a godly man, etc- but it has been beautiful to see his heart to please and become a godly young man!He is doing great and growing spiritually each and every day!  Older boys on the streets have a difficult time getting vocational opportunities or getting jobs (because no one trusts them) and so many of them give up and give in to the "ghetto life" that they find themselves in in the slums. Every time that I see Albert my heart fills with joy to see him off the streets and happy!


 Albert showing off his bread by the ovens
 
We have had some new boys enter into our forever homes and forever family. The newest is a sweet young man named Luke! Luke had a hard time on the streets. The other kids were constantly hurting him and picking on him, he was so shut down he could hardly speak or look at you. He would always simply shadow me around, silently sitting close. When his family rejected him to come home, we celebrated the addition of him into our family. The eight year old boy who was so shut down on the streets has come alive and is now an impish and happy young man! Who knew?! God is definitely at work in his life, every time I see him, my heart melts at the joy it is to see him safe and happy at home!

 
Luke Kafero

Luke is in gray on the left on the trampoline

We were recently able to take our boys from the homes on a safari trip to Murchison Falls. For so long we had wanted our Ugandan kids to be able to see their national wildlife and the beauty of their own country! We were able to go on a couple of wildlife excursions to see national wildlife, we took a hike along the waterfalls, and then we took a boat ride on the Nile back to our base camp. The boat ride was a huge hit among the boys! We also had elephants, wart hogs and baboons all around our campsite (and yes it was a big job keeping the kids from trying to ride/feed/befriend them).  The boys were also given disposable cameras and they were able to take their own photographs.  The boys had such a great time and it was such a blessing to be able to be able to take them.

Setting out!


A hartabeast?


Buffaloes!

Hakim is not going under!



The lake (there were loads of hippos!) and my beautiful mom (and my dad who was not in the picture)
 
It was kind of a long drive...
We now have a chicken project of close to 150 chickens that we raised as small chicks. They chickens are being tended to by Mama Joyce with the help of the younger boys, and very soon when they reach maturity the boys will be eating eggs everyday and the discipleship boys will be selling the remaining eggs at a nearby trading center. Needless to say, the boys are very excited for the chickens to start laying eggs!

 
Bwogi showing us the chickens


Solomon

We have also started homeschooling some of the boys out on the land.  We have hired some amazing teachers who are teaching the boys for us.  This program is specifically for the boys who need to catch up in school.  While they are on the streets the boys cannot go to school and they often fall far behind.  Being home schooled though, they will hopefully be able to make up about 2-3 years’ worth of school in 1 year’s time as well as learn in an enviornment where they do not feel ashamed for being so old for their class. The kids have been loving it! We have also been able to add some other needy children from the village to study with the boys which has been great! We want to be a light for all of Bombo!



Finally, it has been a long prayer of our ministry to be able to bring married couples to work in the homes out in Bombo as full-time caregivers, to love and raise the boys as well as give them a script of what a healthy marriage/family/father looks like.  Many of these boys do not have a good or accurate view of marriage or family because of their history which has often included neglect or abuse.  It is so important to us that they see how God intended families to function.  Our prayers have been answered and we have brought three married couples into each of our three homes. We now have a married couple and older "grandmother figure" at our two children's homes which has been a perfect combination of parenting for our kids, in addition to outside mentors like our music teacher, counselor, etc- 

Please continue to pray for a smooth transition for the families and the boys and that God would use these families in such a way to truly minister to these boys.  We praise God so much for the lovely people He has brought together to care for His children. We ask you to pray for us that we will continue to minister together in unity and that God will fill us up with love, peace, patience and understanding for His children.


Saturday, June 22, 2013

a little update

Thank you so very much for praying for David and I, for your support and for simply loving us and our beautiful kids! These last couple of months have been very full but God has been so very good to us! I am sorry that I haven't written more, I have been pretty overwhelmed with everything. Thank you so much to everyone who has also given financially to our ministry in the last couple of months, God has used you to allow us to be able to expand so that we can be able to raise even more forgotten children for Him. Thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts!

I am going to try and summarize some of the bigger things that God has been doing in our ministry API in the last couple of months. He has been so good! 

We have been doing home visits with the boys in our forever homes to see their biological families (as required by the Ugandan government for children in homes). I love our boys so very much, they are our kids, in our family and are our joy and responsibility and pride for the rest of their lives! Going home to visit their families has been so... complicated. The reasons that they run away are so varied but at the heart of it is always profound neglect and almost always abuse (and often witchcraft and/or alcoholism). It breaks my heart whenever we bring a boy to see his relative and they either deny him or state how, "hopeless" he is.  I think for some of them however, getting to come back (on their own terms) with safe people that they trust beside them just for a very short visit, has helped them connect a bit to their past and have some closure that they did not have before since most of them ran away when they were really distressed, without any goodbyes to not only their relative/parent but to any of their siblings or friends either. 

One of the boys in our home changed his name from Musoke (a name connected with witchcraft) to Paul. When we brought him to see his relatives he was afraid to visit his father because of how much he used to beat him. His dad is a drunk and homeless and we found him staggering down the street in town.  The last time he came home to visit from the streets his dad greeted him by severely beating him. When we came Paul was terrified of his dad (I made sure to stand in front of Paul, I may be small but I would do anything I had to to protect one of my boys) and so Paul kept a good distance from his father while talking to him briefly. His father however was happy to hear that Paul was in our home and going to school. His dad kept staggering around shouting to everyone and pointing to me saying "Look at Musoke's mother! He is now her son and he is in school!" Paul brought a bunch of pictures of himself since he has been in our home in his school uniform, with our dog Flint, dressed up for church, etc- giving them to his old friends and siblings,  telling everyone that he wanted them to have it to remember him by. We stayed for about an hour and as we got back into the car I told Paul over again how much we loved him, how happy we were that he was our son now and that he was going to be a different man than his father. He got a big smile and said he loved us too.

We now have a street children program every Tuesday and Thursday (in addition to the normal M, W, and Fri programs) with a deeper bible study, time of prayer and bible memory verse to help street kids have a deeper knowledge of who God is and His love for them. We also have a Sunday school class with them at Grace Fellowship Church every Sunday.  We won't be with all of the street children in our programs forever, so we want to put as much in them as possible with the time that we have!
We also started homeschooling our boys that are in first through third grade who are discouraged and behind in school. We are hoping to make learning fun (the educational system here still uses corporal punishment and teaches only through lecturing to children as they copy notes, even if they dont understand what they are writing). Our goal is for our kids to be able to develop an interest in school as well as to be able to catch up a little in school since they are all years and years behind. We started a little over a week ago but the Ugandan teachers we hired are terrific and  we are really excited about how it has been going!

Last Sunday, the older boys (18 years+)  from our home had a graduation party, time of prayer and send off and officially moved out of our children's home, Stephen's House into the discipleship house and program. Thank you so much to everyone that made that dream a reality!  They were trained to actually build the home (so that they could learn the skill) and it is just beautiful. There are house parents, kind of like RA's there to watch over them and do devotions with them at night for the two years they are there. While there they will be working and learning a vocation skill, going through business and savings classes and saving up money so that when they graduate they will be able to rent a place of their own as they get a job and never have to go back to the street. Next week we are planning on starting up our own bakery and so they are now learning how to bake bread and run it! It is another job skill and experience we think will be very helpful for them!

Joseph's House is doing very well, the home that was started almost 7 weeks ago for "special needs" street children who have so much trauma and have been on the streets so long that they are unable to go into "normal" homes for former street children. Caitlyn, the house director and mama wrote a blog update about the home here. It is truly amazing to see some of the transformations going on in that home with kids that Kampala deemed, "hopeless".
I Corinthians 1:27 says "Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? "  This verse is just coming alive in that home and it is beautiful to see the kids transformation!

We have hired a Ugandan social worker named Susan to work full-time resettling street children, getting their information on file, counseling children that have been resettled and doing follow-ups on their families once they are brought back home. Since she has come on board with API, we have resettled three street children each week home with their biological families. It is not always a fairytale ending for some kids going back home, but we have had several very successful resettlements in this last month and that always makes my heart glad. For kids that are resettled to abusive families (we only resettle children that want and request to go back home)  that do not want them, I always have to tell myself that they were able to run away to the streets before when they felt their lives were threatened and they can always do it again. God is always going to be looking out for them and makes everything work together for good for those who love Him and are called together according to His purpose.

Thank you all for praying for us and again for anyone who has given financially to make all of this possible! You love us and our kids so much, we minister to these kids together!

Please pray that God will show us which children to bring into the children's homes as we now have spaces open since the older boys graduated out. Please pray that God will continue to be the center of all that we are and do and that He will pour His love and healing into all of our boys and staff. There is a lot of pain on the streets of Kampala, but God is here and He is doing amazing things! A light shines all the brighter in darkness! Also, please pray for the success of the bakery as it is a new project that we are starting and for our d-house boys as they are adjusting to their new found independence and responsibilities! I'm proud of them but worry about them too!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Street children prayer requests, Fred and HenryHenry





Fred in the programs



Fred
Fred Natovu
 Fred is a small boy. He says his age is ten but he looks to be maybe seven at the most. What he lacks in size he makes up with spiritedness. He seems to hold his own fairly well with the other boys at program although he is definitely smaller then them all. This is part of his story.



My mother's name is Coleen. I have never known my father. I came to the streets of Kampala sometime in April and I have been living on them for a month now. I ran away from home because of my mother. She used to beat me and sometimes deny me food. When I left my home in Waskiso and started traveling to Kampala I was helped by a man. He was on a boda boda and he let me ride with him to Kampala. My plan was to visit my uncle. He lives in Kampala. The problem was that when I got to his house it was locked and no one was there. The neighbours told me that my uncle was in prison but they didn't tell me why. I didn't know anyone in Kampala other than my uncle. I came to the streets because I have nowhere else to go. I do not want to go home. Life on the streets is not good. It is hard to get things to eat. I don't have clothes like I did at home. I sleep on the ground with other boys and sometimes we get chased away from where we are sleeping at night.  When this happens we have to walk in the dark to find another place to sleep.



Please pray for me. I want to go back to school. I also want to have a safe place where I can live and be happy.

Before he came to the streets Fred reached primary 3 in school. When he grows up he dreams to become a teacher. He explained that teachers teach people new things and help them become what they dream of through education. 
Henry

Kiyemba Henry



Henry says he is 12 years old. He has started coming to program in this last month. He cut his foot and heard about the clinic through a friend. Since getting treatment there he has been coming often to the street programs. He is a friendly and engaging boy with a quick smile. This is part of his story.



I have no interest in remembering my parents names. They are both living. My father is living with my step mother. My mother lives in Kampala. I was living with my father and stepmother. We used to live in an area of Kampala called Karerwe. My father decided to move from the city to the village. The village we moved to was called Kiti. When we moved there I lived with my family for three months but all this time I did not go to school. In the morning I would do my chores but then after that I would have nothing to do. I was bored so I would walk around and often go to visit my aunt who lived not too far away. When I came back home I often found I had missed meal time. My family never kept any food for me.  I would ask why they didn't leave anything for me but they would never reply to me. Instead they would tell me to get water. Sometimes I had to fetch water three times a day. often my family only ate one time a day so it was not a good situation for me. I was hungry so I would looked for jackfruit in the bushes.  My father and my stepmother sometimes threatened to send me to Kampiringisa because I was stubborn.  One day I was out with some friends. I stayed out too late and when I came back I found that my house was locked and my family was all asleep. I was afraid to wake them up since I knew they would be very upset with me. So instead I made a makeshift bed using a sack and string. I hung it in a big tree near our house. In the morning my father was very angry with me. He beat me with a stick that also had wire on it. He also hit my foot very hard. My foot was hurting me a lot and it took some time to heal. I waited some time after this at my home but things were not getting any better. I decided to come back to Kampala. My mother lives in Kampala, although I do not often see her. When I came to her house she was angry at me for coming to her and told me that I needed to go back to my father. She refused to let me stay with her. I did not want to go back to my father's house so I stayed on the streets. I found a plastic container and started fetching water to make some money. Slowly I learned more things about street life and how to survive. I met a boy named Big who brought me to Kivulu.  I did not like Kivulu though so I did not stay there. I have been on the streets of three years now.  Right now I sleep in Wandegerya in front of a restaurant called  Chicken Tonight.



Please Pray for me. I have an injured foot right now. I would like prayer for healing. I would also like prayer for an opportunity to go back to school.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Bossa, an update

Bossa in bed with his stuffed animal

Bossa on left

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God put a love for a street child named Enoch Bossa on my heart. I hardly knew him and had only met him a few times, yet I knew he was supposed to be in our home. He nearly died, and then he disappeared.

I prayed for him constantly,  looked for him, and I fought for him, I cried for him, and I loved him so much.

And then one day God released him to us and he came home!

Bossa is doing so well and so often whenever I look at his sweet face I remember how good God is. How He knew this boy was meant to be in our family and worked everything together for good so that he could be home.

Enoch Boosa has a smile that can light up a room. He has a beautiful voice and is such a sweet kid. He loves animals and singing and playing the drums. He enjoys playing games and laughing. He now sleeps in a bed, and goes to school, he has devotions at night and plays with his toys. He is respectful and loves God with all of his heart. Bossa is doing SO well in the home, he is a great friend and leader to the other boys. He is safe and loved.

How he has remained so sweet after all he has gone through is nothing short of a miracle. But of course, when working with street kids, we see God working miracles on a regular basis- because He is good all the time, and all the time He is good.