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1 - the pictures you have this week are of 1st, 4 new orphans, all children from a family, sitting with Rogers on a bench at the orphanage. They are, from the left, Isaac (about 3), Moses (1 1/2), Vanessa (about 5) and Natasha (8). The 2nd picture is me holding Moses this morning. Now the story:
On Saturday, Rogers was reading the paper and read the story of these 4 children from Mbale whose mother had abandoned them. They all have different fathers and none of the fathers are known. Natasha (the 8-year-old) has been caring for the others for the past month since her mother left. The story said some neighbors help when they can and Natasha goes out begging for food all the rest of the time. When Rogers read the story, he came to me and said, "we have to do something for these children." I agreed and we headed out to Mbale (25 km from Budaka) in a matatu (mini-van taxi that fits 15-25 people) at 4 in the afternoon to try to find them. We first went to the police station that was mentioned in the article, and waited there for someone to take us to the Local Council (lowest level of government in Uganda...like a city council perhaps?) in charge of this area. We went to their "office" and the people there knew about the story, but sent us on to someone else who could help. One piece of information we got from there, though, was the mom had committed suicide right after leaving the kids.
We ended up going 6 different places over the space of 2 hours and not finding the kids. It was getting dark (and thus dangerous in Uganda!), so we headed home agreeing that on Monday we would continue our search, starting with the newspaper that had published the story. So, Monday morning we set out for Mbale (as we always do on Monday), but knowing before anything else, we would search for the kids. We had to go 2 places before finding the newspaper office. Then the reporter said he would not take us there until we had met with the police (at a different station than where we were Saturday night). So we went there and they sent us to another station. At that station, finally, we found someone who knew about the kids and was concerned for their welfare. She also told us they had a 1-day-old baby who needed a home - she had been thrown on a trash pile and left to die. We told her to bring the baby, but we didn't know. At the same time, a Ugandan pastor from Tororo (farther south and east from us) had shown up to take the kids - she had also read the story. We all talked, and she told us that she would take the newborn if we could take the 4 kids. That is exactly what we wanted to do and we all agreed. Then we headed off to find the children, holding the baby that the police just handed over to us.
It took about an hour for them to go and find the kids again and get us to them. Rogers asked Natasha if she wanted to go with us to a new home. She agreed readily and asked her sister and brother. Everyone wanted to go. We have pictures of us in their "home", but they were taken by Pastor Ruth's camera and we are waiting for her to send them. I will send them when I receive them. Their home defines the word "squalor." It was so sad that these children have been here for 4 weeks with no one helping.
The first thing we did was get them something to eat and take them to the doctor's. As I waited with the kids, Rogers went into town and bought clothing and shoes for them - theirs were falling apart and they had no shoes.
Moses (1 1/2 years) weighs only 6 kilos - about 13 pounds...he is skin and bones, except for a large tummy - definite sign of malnutrition! He was very frail and his breathing was quite labored. He hardly moved at all. I fed him some "cake", but he ate only a small handful and seemed to have difficulty chewing. The doctor cleared the other 3 with just some cough medicine and deworming medicine, but Moses we had to take for an xray and blood tests. He has acute pneumonia and is on a drip. We were able to take him home since we have a nurse working with us who can administer medications to him. They figure he was a week or less away from death. He has had 2 treatments as of this morning when we left and is already looking well. As a matter of fact, when she gave him one of the treatments (which burns when it goes in the drip), he screamed and cried. Yesterday there was barely a whimper from the same medication. Praise the Lord - he is looking so much better!! We bought formula for him and he was actually also feeding himself a boiled egg this morning.
Please pray for us as we adjust to 4 new children and as they adjust to all the children who are already part of Cornerstone. The children welcomed the new ones with open arms - it was great! Pray for Aunt Rachel as she has primary care over Moses and this is quite a stretch from our children who are already above the baby stage. She is excited about it, but of course all the normal work has to be done too, so she has a lot on her plate.
We are amazed at what God did in all this...and know it is His hand that led us to Natasha, Vanessa, Isaac and Moses. (BTW - Moses didn't have an English name when we got him. On the way home, Rogers and I talked about it as I held Moses on my lap -- no car seats or seat belts in Uganda -- and felt we should give him an English name that befitted him. Moses means "drawn from the water" and we both felt it was appropriate to his being taken out of "deep waters" in his circumstances.)
The other great story from the week: on Wednesday night, a woman and her 8-year-old daughter came to church. The daughter's head was covered with a cloth. When she removed the cloth, I saw why. The girl looked like she had terrible burns all over her face, head and neck. She had huge pieces of skin (like 5" across on her forehead) coming off, but still attached in places. Her eyes were completely shut by the pieces of skin from her eyelids. I went and introduced myself to the mom and to the girl, Jessica. She didn't talk with me and obviously couldn't see me. After church, Rogers and I went and talked with the mom. She is a recent convert and wanted to know if we would pray. The girl has had this condition since she was 2 months - it isn't a burn, but rather a skin infection. She has been denied schooling because of her looks (perfectly legal here). I felt the Lord tell me that He wanted to heal her. So, we prayed, and through Rogers interpreting, I talked to her and told her Jesus loved her and wanted to heal her. Again, there was no response from her. We prayed and there was no instantaneous healing, but I still felt the Lord saying that is what he wanted to do.
On Sunday, they came back to church. Jessica's eyes were opened, there were no flaps of skin anywhere and she smiled at me. This, apparently, is one of those progressive healings. We have given her mother money to take her to a skin clinic in Jinja (40 km away) and see what they can do. But, the progress from Wed to Sunday was amazing to her mother and to Jessica. Jessica told her mom on Friday, after the healing had started, "We have to go back to that church!" Her mom asked if she remembered that there was a muzungu (white person) praying for her. Jessica didn't remember much at all from that night. She just kept saying, "I couldn't see and now I can see. We have to go back!"
Isn't God amazing???
Okay, enough for today. Thank you all for your continued support for this ministry so that we can rescue kids like Natasha, Vanessa, Isaac and Moses...and so we can pray and bring Jesus and His hope to children like Jessica. I so appreciate your partnership. May the Lord bless you through these stories of the lives of innocent children being changed by His grace and power.
In His love,
Laurie
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