Why so quiet? (I told you I'd keep it real)

First, I wrote this two weeks ago, but it never got posted. There was no internet and no time, then we went a week without any electricity. So, now it's finally getting posted.

The month of August has been sort of like an emotional roller coaster. It began with a meeting at a local church. The pastor asked me to come with a few of our teachers to translate for parents. The parents wanted to apply for a sponsorship for their child to attend our school but many of them never learned to write and almost none of them speak English. Since we’re launching our sponsorship program this year, it seemed like a reasonable way to find out about the need for sponsorship beyond the children that already attend our school.

When I arrived at the church, there were so many people. I thought we had gotten there before church had ended, so the teachers and I just sat in a row.  When the pastor started talking in Luganda and pointing at me, I wasn’t sure what was up, but I quickly realized that all of the people were there for a sponsorship. We spent the next 5 hours helping folks fill out an application and taking photos of the kids.

While that was tiring, the hard part was yet to come. I had to go home and start sorting through all these papers. Every application has a summary of the family situation and why they’re asking for sponsorship. Obviously, I’ve been in Uganda enough times and long enough to know that there is a lot of suffering, but it’s different to sit down and read page after page of parents, grandparents, and guardians describing their need for help.

Within the remaining weeks of August, the process continued and the number of pages multiplied. The main church, Victory Living Word Kawempe, also collected applications and passed them on to me. Then folks from our village, the ones that can just walk to our school, started showing up to apply. To prevent the flow of people coming randomly, we decided to set a specific date for them to come. When that date arrived, I was again overwhelmed by the amount of people. It started out slow, but Madame Grace and I sat in one room from 8am to 6pm helping people complete the applications and taking photos. We ended up having to ask some to come the next day.

This time it was just us, so I heard almost every story. One time, I took several families out on the veranda to take photos and came back to see Madame Grace and another woman with tears rolling down their cheeks. The woman was kneeling on the ground and Grace had her arm around her as she wrote and let the tears fall. I know Grace’s story, so my immediate assumption was that the story was too familiar and one glance at the paper gave confirmation. I didn’t have to hear a word, my tears just came. I went behind them and put my hands on their shoulders. I just wanted to give some encouragement to them both, and let them know that they aren’t alone.

The elders of Christ Fellowship approved the development of a child sponsorship program, so that hurdle was accomplished. The new hurdle is much more difficult. All month I’ve been going through these applications, looking at situations, and trying to determine how I can possibly narrow down to the children who will actually get a sponsorship. Getting enough sponsors is a huge task, but even if the Lord provided enough sponsors, we don’t have enough facilities to help the number of children who’ve applied.

There’s one particular detail that has caught my attention. In the vision of Wells of Joy, one goal is to serve orphans. Because of licensing, construction, and other steps in the process, it will be some time before we have orphan homes on our property. In the process of receiving these applications, I learned that there are plenty of orphans who don’t need a home but need help. Many orphans have a grandparent, an older sibling, an aunt, or just a kind adult that took them in after the loss of their parents. These people are doing their best to care for the orphan but they need financial help in order to provide an education. In addition, there are many one-parent orphans. In the US, we’re very familiar with the struggle of single parents; but when one parent has actually died, the struggle is even more difficult. There isn’t another parent to give financial assistance or to take the kids occasionally. Add to the situation, a country where the unemployment rate is over 80% and the work of most women is selling their extra crops or tending a small shop with food and household items. These women barely manage to feed the children and survive, so education is not even an option.

So, between the home schooling and sorting of applications, there hasn’t been much extra time. Of course, I frequently feel nervous about mentioning financial needs because people can be sensitive in that area. Fortunately, God provides - ALWAYS. If these children need help, he will provide it.

If you hadn’t already heard about our upcoming sponsorship program, now you have. J Now you can join me in praying for the Lord to give discernment to everyone involved in the decisions and to put sponsoring our children on the hearts of people back in the US. Since my point was not to ask for sponsorship, I’ll save those details for another time. If you are already interested, feel free to ask; but either way, please join me in praying as mentioned above.