Prayer Needed..He's been in my heart since the beginning...

**I'm copying and pasting this from the API Blog because it is so much easier than retyping things out... however, I do want to explain who this boy is..I have spoken of young Moses several times. I took him out for lunch one day and he prayed with an uncle that I would stay in Uganda for 1 year... that lots of friends would give me money and I could stay a long time.. He is a precious boy that I have wanted to come into the home since I first met! He is an absolutely wonderful little guy.. He has good English and LOVES to learn more... the few times I have spent with him walking to eat Chicken Tonight, escorting me to get a boda, going to get a tooth of his pulled, etc. he is always reading signs and asking me to help him read. It is encouraging how much he wants to learn! Anyway, he disappeared about a month or so ago and it made me so sad.. I was told his father came and got him from the streets and he was gone... Well, just about 3 weeks ago he showed back up! a wonderful surprise! And I mentioned him to Abby and David... I'll let Abby take over from here..

David and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for a boy named Moses that is a street child in our programs. We know that God wants him in our home. Today, the day before we were going to bring him in into our home a friend of ours, Heidi got a random call from his dad (who she does not know at all) saying he was coming to Kivulu to get his son. 

Moses dad is an evil, evil man. Moses ran away from his father because he was going to sacrifice him (cut off his head and other body parts in order to get "power") at one of his shrines. 

As soon as David heard his father was coming to Kivulu to "get his son" David raced to the slum where Moses was staying to find him before his father did. He located him and took him out to eat. It is generally known by the other kids why Moses is on the street but David felt he needed to talk to him before doing anything next. 

Sobbing  the entire time, Moses told David of his father, (who was in jail for two years for murdering someone) about how he uses cocaine, does witchcraft, has many shrines, beats mercilessly him and his other brothers and sisters and all of the women he brings home, and how his father would rape his sisters at night. Moses is one of the sweetest, most responsible children. In fact, when David had found him, he was cleaning the small shack where he slept with a bunch of other street kids. It breaks our heart how much he has gone through.

Because his father is an evil man with a lot of money and power (it is no coincide he was only in jail 2 years for murder) looking for his son, we have to report the case so the police and get official custody of Moses before we take him to our Forever Homes. That way we can have a case against him and immediately call the police if he ever steps foot anywhere near our village. Working with the police here is not always an easy or a straightforward thing. David reported to the police near where our streetchildren programs are but tomorrow he has to go with Moses to report to the police in Moses' home village, (where his sisters have already reported on his father for sexually abusing them, and the police also know that he went to jail for murder).

Please please pray...

1) That the police will give us quick custody of Moses

2) That God will either change his father's heart or stop him for hurting more women and children

3) For safety for Moses from his father who could try and track him down and seriously harm him for leaving him or even kill him

4) For healing of Moses' heart that has gone through so much

Thank  you so much for your prayers, we could truly not do what we do without all of you beside us!

Romans 8:31-35 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

So... my time is winding down.. Where did it go? I can't believe Michael will be arriving in 2 days and then we will head back to the states in 11 days... Wow. There are many things that I am excited to come home to, but I just feel like my work could be considered so unfinished...

The boys at the soccer field.. they lost the ball over the fence and are waiting to get it back...

Well... this post is dedicated to my street boys. I have been spending my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons with them since I arrived and I have shared the story of Joseph with them in depth. They have heard the Gospel countless times through the API team, visitors from other ministries, visitors from the states, and an incredible Providence team all week at our camp!



 
Now, our focus is to provide them with love through food, care, games, medical, etc. However, we also have a devotional time each day. So... for all of these years they have been learning all about the people of the Bible, Jesus, salvation, love, forgiveness, self-control, and so forth.... Recently I have felt more and more convicted about being accountable for the souls of these young boys. They have been in my hands of r3 months, and what do I have to show of it in the eternal sense? There is a favorite quote of mine that I have been reminded of lately..


My greatest fear is that I become significant in something that has no eternal purpose.

Now, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" is a commandment and prayer of Jesus'. We are to bring the Lord's Kingdom here on earth. We are to love and care for the widows and orphans.. but lately, I have felt such a greater spiritual burden for these boys.

Another thing to add is that just before I was coming to Uganda our church was studying our way through Mark..

Listening to the uncles speak...

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  

I truly believe some of these boys have such little faith... But I truly believe some of these boys are ready to hear more than what we are giving them... I say speak more deeply and there are some that will get it! "Enrichment" we called it in the classroom.. some won't be able to think that highly, but those who can will benefit greatly!



So, I say all of that to lead up to this.. My mom gave me Josh McDowell's Children Demand a Verdict in 2008. I thought it might be a good book to bring to the children's homes and use with our younger Bombo boys.... Caitlyn suggested I use some in the street programme as well...So, I picked out 2 more theological "God" questions and then 2 "right vs. wrong" type questions to go through with the boys..

Some of the sweet boys wanting me to take their photo...

We played the question game (big hit!) and then I started off by sharing James 1 with the boys..

⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

I encouraged the boys to ask the aunties, uncles, and pastors questions if they ever have them, and then shared with them our first question.

Now.. I barely made it through the first "God/Theological" question and we ran out of time! The boys all guessed the incorrect answer at the beginning and at the end of all of the Scripture and support I gave, they still were not convinced and stuck to their original, incorrect, answer. I was soooo bummed! But we had run out of time. I encouraged them again about James 1 and asking questions. Several of them raise their hands at that point to ask questions!! haha.. but we couldn't... we had to move on and serve food and leave the church for the evening service.

Kato... one of the extreme cases.. Rarely joins
in on the soccer games Pray for him.

HOWEVER!!!! a young boy came up to me (without getting in the food line, which is big!) and said, "Auntie Lauren... I have a question about what you said today.." We proceeded to have a pretty good theological discussion for maybe 30 or 45 minutes! and Caitlyn even came and joined in... and then another boy came up to me and said, "Auntie! I have a question for you, but I see you are sharing with him. I will save it for Friday and ask you then!" It was absolutely incredible. Now, the young boy we spoke so long with was really confused on a lot of things... supremacy of Christ... necessity of old testament law and Christ fulfilling that law... how to get to Heaven.. etc. He said he as a Christian, but so many of his thoughts were not aligned with the Scriptures. However, it was such a blessing to speak with him and on Friday we plan to talk more.

Now, I don't know about you, but I am SUPER pumped that Caitlyn is going to start having "Question Fridays" with the boys. Each Friday they can come with questions, she will record them, prepare during the following week, and then on the next Friday she will come with Scripture to give them proper answers and record new questions for the next Friday... how cool is that? These boys WANT to ask questions... they WANT more knowledge... they WANT to know what the Bible says and why we believe certain things! I am so excited.. I am just praying that the Lord will continue to allow their minds to work and to think. I pray that the Lord gives the aunties and uncles wisdom and that the young boys will have open hearts and minds.

So anyway... I just wanted to share that with you. I think that basic lesson on love and forgiveness are absolutely CRITICAL for these young boys... but I am really excited to challenge their minds and have them thinking about what it truly means to be a Christian and for them to further understand their faith.. woo! Please join me in praying for API and for these boys!

One of our smallest boys... a Karimojong child...Read the link!

 

The blessings of a breakthrough!

Well.. it has been just over a week since I made a post.. Thought it was about time I sit down and write to you another one. It is Thursday morning... 8:14am. I usually wake up between 7 and 8 when I am here in the city and I just love the quiet time here in my room. I have recently purchased The Best of Passion CD and am really enjoying this time with the Father. 

So what have I been up to? Well, I have spent a lot of extra time out in the village, something I never really thought I would hear myself say! haha... but those little boys have become sooo precious to me, and I love it! I spent this past Friday-Tuesday out there with Caitlyn and the previous Saturday - Wednesday. You know... at first the village life was really rough for me.. all of the differences were considered bad in my mind. I didn't want to admit it, but it is true. But you know what? All of those once "bad" differences have simply become differences to me now. I don't mind at all bathing out of the basin now. I have come to really enjoy the quiet moments in candlelight.. I turn on my iPod with a quiet mix of worship music and just take my time. **Something funny to add... I'm actually using Uncle Peter's iPod because he takes mine to play Angry Birds while waiting for me to finish** So... all of these things that I thought were bad before have become just normal living out there. And why shouldn't I be able to get to that point? There are millions of people who have the normal life of living in the village.. I can do it too! 

So... onto the boys. I absolutely adore these boys so much. I have felt a little guilty for favoring the younger ones, but they are closer to the age of my previous students. I can hug and kiss them all I want! They kind of push away embarrassed the first few times.. but eventually a huge smile creeps onto their face and they burst out giggling from Auntie Lauren's kisses... it is absolutely precious to me.

I want to share with you one of the sweet moments I have had out at the village...

So serious when playing marbles with his buddies...

Ibra was a young boy that I noticed from my first visit out to Bombo. First of all, he is very small, but very tough looking. He was also very serious. During devotions he is serious... during singing he has his eyes tightly squeezed closed, his body swaying, and hands always lifted up towards Heaven... He is simply a very serious young man. I would try to joke with him to see him smile and "lighten up" a little, like a young boy should be, but it was always a struggle. Well, one of my responsibilities out at the land has been to get videos of all of the boys. We had taken Ibra's the first time around, but he was so serious and seemed so very unhappy about living in the home so I was asked to re-do his video. So, we redid his video on Abby's camera. However, Abby has somehow misplaced her connecting cable and we can't upload Ibra's second video. Sooooo, I had to tell him that we needed to shoot it again. The day we were trying to shoot his video a 3rd time, he seemed so upset again. Just unhappy, annoyed by the task, and somehow angry with me. 

Watching the boys play on the new basketball court..

I explained to him the importance of being happy in the video so that all of the people in America would see that he enjoys living in the homes. I also told him something my mom and I have discuseed before.. How we really do have control of our emotions. Mom and I have shared before that we could be in an argument when I was younger, but if the phone rang, it was very easy to answer the phone like absolutely nothing was bothering us. Ibra didn't seem to care. So I told him we could do it then, or he could choose to take some time to change his attitude and we would take it later on.

We finally finished the video, but because of his bad attitude and some previous events, he was asked to return some of his special gifts (candy, pencils, coloring books, toys, etc.) to Uncle Peter for a short time. He was very upset about this (as any child would be) and went to his room crying. 

Uncle Peter, the uncle of the younger boys home and my translator for important conversations and videos, and I began talking about the situation. I told him I felt like maybe Ibra was angry at me about something that I had said or done. He responded that Ibra has always done this. He gets angry and upset about something and just has this mood swing of being upset. We talked about the fact that there must be something more serious that is burdening this little boy's heart. Something he hasn't shared from his past, or something currently going on, but we had to figure out what it was to help him work through it so he doesn't always get in these horrible moods... he was deeply hurt and needs to heal.

He absolutely LOVES salsa!

I went and spent time with the other boys while Uncle Peter went to speak with Ibra in his room. About 10 minutes later Uncle Peter asked that I come and join them. He said that Ibra told him something he had never shared before. Ibra said that about once a week he begins thinking about things that happened to him when he was living with his parents. They would feed him poisoned food that would make him burn all on his insides. He was forced to eat it even though it was burning his mouth and all of the way down in his body. He said he thinks about it about once a week and it makes him sad. We had a looooong conversation about how Jesus doesn't want us to feel sad about things in our past. How he can feel thankful that he is living in a safe home now with people that love him and would never force him to eat poisoned food. We talked for about 15 or 20 minutes. He was crying off and on and just terribly sad.

At the end I asked him what he thought he could do each time he remembered and began feeling sad. He said that praying would help him. (by the way, he wants to be a pastor and a doctor when he grows up) We all agreed that next time he feels sad, he will approach an uncle, auntie, or even one of the older boys and ask them to pray for him to feel happy for where he is living now. I asked him if I could pray for him right there. And then I took a bold risk.. I asked if he would sit close to me and let me hold him as we pray.. This precious little boy that hardly ever smiled at me.. never responded to my hugs or anything.. and sure enough, he agreed!!! I took that little boy into my arms and hugged him as tightly as I could and prayed over him.

Enjoying some games together after our breakthrough..

And the most amazing things have happened since that day. Ibra smiles so much when I hug him... and I attack him with little kisses sometimes and he just giggles! At dinner one night he even sat next to me! (big improvement, no joke) He also held my hand.. he would squeeze it so tightly ever few minutes. And I don't know how many times I have heard him say "Auntie Lauren, come jump with me.. Auntie Lauren, come play with me. Auntie Lauren, come here!" Our relationship has been completely transformed! He responds to me so much now! It is absolutely incredible.

So.. that is just one of the little stories I wanted to share with you... It was such an encouragement to me and a blessing. I felt like this little boy was just so tough and I would be here for 3 months without ever feeling close to him... but I can't wait to hear him call out my name in his sweet voice this coming weekend! Enjoy some photos of this little man! and please continue to pray for him and the other boys that go through so much and are still working through everything in their past..

Such a sweet little guy!

After the last tear falls... there is love.

Well, to all of you that actually read this and look forward to it, I apologize for not posting for so long! I have been very busy lately and still am, but am taking some time at my local American restaurant with free wireless Internet and chocolate fudge cake to update you!

Last week was camp for our street boys! I posted about it before I left and shared some photos on Facebook. There is a team from the giant Providence church of North Carolina (is that where Rev. Graham is from? or did I misunderstand what someone told me?) Anyway, they come every year (for 3 years now) to fund and run our camp for the street boys. They pay for food, crafts, blankets, shoes, etc. for all of the boys. We had over 120 in attendance! The team runs all the programs for camp during the day and we handle the boys after about 4pm until bed.

This is not Camp War Eagle...

Now, I have experience in summer camp. I worked at the wonderful Camp War Eagle in NW Arkansas for 4 summers... So... what is summer camp like with over 100 boys that live on the streets? Goodness...After only a few short hours on the first day, my teacher desire to have behavior management and structure was thrown out the window! haha... If boys didn't want to listen to the speakers, I couldn't make them. If boys didn't want to go into the main room for the Bible lesson, I couldn't make them. If boys didn't want to join the rest of the group during morning exercises, I couldn't make them. Gosh that was hard! and frustrating! (rest assured that the uncles definitely demand more respect and obedience, but this mzungu auntie couldn't get much) .

Now, the boys from our street program in Kivulu would respect me and obey most of the time, but we also had some boys from another slum in Kampala that is considered the "rough" slum. These boys were absolutely horrible at times, no joke. The second day a boy had to be taken to the hospital because he had been stoned. Yes, stoned. A large rock (bigger than a cereal bowl) thrown to the back of his head to crack it open. Yup. Angry at the other street boy that stole your chair? Run around yelling and screaming at him out of anger.. and once you catch up to him, just punch him in the face as hard as you can. Or go find a big rock and beat his head with it. Or you can even just bite them in the ribs as hard as you can if you want. Yes, each of these things happened. I have no idea how many fights I had to stop or prevent. As in using all of my strength to grab the boy and hold his arms or legs still until he stopped fighting to get free from me. They kick, scream, push, shove, whatever they can do to get free to attack the boy that maybe looked at them the wrong way, simply sat in their chair, accidentally spilled something of theirs. It was crazy.

Then the pains seeps out...

You know what though? You know what happened almost every time a boy finally stopped trying to get free?.. tears. Yes.. their big brown eyes would fill with tears. They would begin crying about how they were hurt. They would explain what happened over and over and simply cry. A young boy. His feelings hurt by the actions of another. Yes, he was angry and wanted to fight initially, but deep down I could see he was truly hurting inside. I would just hold him and hold him, try to wipe his tears if he let me, and then go on a walk to continue to cool off. I don't know how many fights I saw, but I promise, probably 95% of the time it ended in tears. These boys are hurting so much. They want to be strong and be able to take care of themselves, but they simply cannot. And they shouldn't have to! They shouldn't have to worry about all of those things. I think they just get so overwhelmed by wanting to be strong, but knowing they ultimately cannot take care of themselves.

Lord, love through me...

Please pray for my boys. They can be so very precious and sweet, they can show extreme anger and rage, but deep down inside they are simply young boys that need love and care. They need the love our Father alone can give them. I pray that His love will overflow out of me and onto them. I learned at Camp War Eagle that I have no love to give these boys. There is nothing within me that is good. But if I allow the Lord to fill me with His love, then HE can love these boys THROUGH me... Please pray for them. Pray that I remain so intimately connected to the Father's love that I can show them that love that will be the ultimate healing for their lives. And pray that they accept it.

I will end with a song by Andrew Peterson that is absolutely beautiful, then post some photos of the boys.. Hope you enjoy, but most of all I pray I can stir your heart to pray for these boys.

After the last tear falls
After the last secret's told
After the last bullet tears through flesh and bone
After the last child starves
And the last girl walks the boulevard
After the last year that's just too hard

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

After the last disgrace
After the last lie to save some face
After the last brutal jab from a poison tongue
After the last dirty politician
After the last meal down at the mission
After the last lonely night in prison

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

And in the end, the end is
Oceans and oceans
Of love and love again
We'll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms
Of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we'll look back on these tears as old tales

'Cause after the last plan fails
After the last siren wails
After the last young husband sails off to join the war
After the last "this marriage is over"
After the last young girl's innocence is stolen
After the last years of silence that won't let a heart open

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

And in the end, the end is
Oceans and oceans
Of love and love again
We'll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms
Of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we'll look back on these tears as old tales

'Cause after the last tear falls
There is love

Some boys having a blast carrying an uncle into the water!

Vincent, Denis (my new little brother), and a 3rd boy helping with food.
These are incredible leaders among the street boys. Helping to break up
fights and control the craziness.

Trevor is leading the way to carrying another uncle to the water!

Sweet, sweet smiles!

Enoch, on the right, has been in our home
2 times and has twice ran away. He is a tiny
kid but a fighter like none other. Goodness,
my heart aches for him.