Well, what a two days it’s been – some
amazingly exciting evidence of God touching the hearts of many on the trip!
Yesterday I had all three of the staff who
are non-believers chatting with me at various times about Christianity, my
faith and how it impacts my life, faith and poverty etc – fabulous
conversations, and such wonderful opportunities to go deeper on a one-to-one
basis.
Then one of the lads in the team decided
that he wanted to teach the kids in his teaching group a song, and he chose ‘My
God is so Big, so Strong and so Mighty’ – a song he’d never heard of before
Sunday when I taught it to everyone at church, but loved so much that he has
been humming it regularly since! More evidence of God moving in this team in
special ways.
I also got to meet Smiler’s mum yesterday,
whom I blogged about the other day. It was a lovely meeting between the two of
us, plus John and Harriet (our Acholi wonderwoman!) and we chatted very openly
about mum’s situation, her wish to get out of it, the realities of life re
costs of living, dreams and hopes for herself and the children etc. At the end
of it all, a possible option for a start up business had been hatched by her
and talked through with John and Harriet, and an outline of the start up costs
identified. I promised to go away and pray about it, and we parted with hugs
and smiles.
Then I went in to meet the ladies who are
part of the adult literacy group that has been started up very recently, and
which I would like to find some funding for. The ladies shared with me their
stories – fleeing from the rebels, escaping from the north, losing the chance
for education, living in poverty now due to having no qualifications; and they
shared with me their hopes of what it means to them to be able to read, and
write, and do simple sums, and have the confidence to answer questions.
Powerful testimonies, faith-filled testimonies; testimonies which I am praying
I can honour through securing financial support to ensure that the classes can
be maintained.
And then in the evening the team had a
great debrief session – sharing their thoughts on the past few days, and what
they’ve heard and experienced, and how they are feeling inspired and
challenged, and how they are changing within themselves.
Yesterday later in the evening certainly
had a bit of a downwards blip as well, which for me just underlined the
spiritual warfare angle of this trip, and how the enemy isn’t happy with what
we are doing, but even through this team grew stronger and more supportive of
each other, and got perspectives even more positively aligned than before – the
enemy isn’t having the last laugh here, that’s for sure!
Today was another great day at Acholi, but
for me the highlight had to be the news that yesterday afternoon Smiler’s
mum got herself a job as a kitchen
assistant at the local primary school! So after all the conversation about
possibly starting her own little business, she fell into a paid job that she
started today, and means that instantly she can step out of the prostitution
that she had stooped to in absolute desperation.
It doesn’t mean all her problems are over
by any means – she still can’t afford for the children to go to school, but
what she can now do is pay the rent, feed the family, and hold her head high in
her community – and that’s a good place to start. What an answer to prayer!
The team is here for 3 more days, and then
they fly home and I go down to Malawi to visit a project there. Thank you for
your prayers thus far, and thank you for all the prayers still to come – there
is lots going on in their hearts and minds, and many lives are being impacted
in many ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment