Monday & Tuesday

Sorry I did not post yesterday but I was so tired when I got in that I went to sleep.  Matt did finally get his luggage yesterday.  We drove an hour to the airport to be told to wait...and wait,,,and wait and we were not even sure the entire time that we would end up receiving it.  But we did and all is well in Matthew land now.  Other than that we spent the last 2 days at the 91four house with the girls.  We interviewed most of them and will finish up with that tomorrow.  Their stories are so sad but all so very similar.  They all go something like this:  They left Karamoja (their homeland in northern Uganda) due to extreme poverty and lack of food and education, some as orphans but all searching for survival.  It is a 15 hour drive so you can only imagine how long it took them to walk/ride etc.  When they arrived they were sent to Katwe and Kisenyi, the 2 slum districts to live in the streets.  There they slept on the ground and dug through garbage eating old meat and the innards of chickens that had been discarded in trash bins.  They also tried to eat the rotten fruit and vegetables in the market, but were beaten for trying to do so.  Beaten for trying to eat someones trash.  Unimaginable. This is how they were existing until Recho, our Ugandan coordinator came to take them to the 91four home to live.  Now they say they are so happy and feel safe and know they will eat and sleep in  a bed.  They thank God for remembering them and for choosing us to help them.  They were all so soft spoken and gracious.  They felt that they now have hope for a future.
It was truly heartbreaking and holding their hands and looking into their big brown eyes just trying to imagine the nightmare they have been through and it is all too much.  It's too much but I need to know.  I need to try to understand how a person (a child) can have the will to withstand so much pain and suffering and yet hang on to the hope that their Savior gives freely.  Such strength and courage is foreign to most people and yet I get to sit among it while I am here.
Tomorrow we will travel to Katwe and Kinsenyi to visit the areas they were rescued from.  It can be dangerous but mostly it is heart wrenching.  It can not be put into words adequately and all I can say is that it impacts your very being in a way that you can never reverse.  We definitely need your prayers for tomorrow.
For now I will leave you with some pictures from the last 2  days.  Enjoy!

Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
He will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
He will come to save you."

Mary Banks - This is your Rebecca!

Lori Johnson - Here is Jenifer!

Happy Faces

Terra, Recho, Matt

Posing in their uniforms

Georgia S. - She is holding your picture you drew!