Mary Mary She is not contrary!

I have another little woman in my home named Mary.  She is such a beautiful young girl, and so full of life for the Lord, Jesus.  She loves to share the gospel with others and cares about everyone.

Mary came to live in the orphanage with me when she was 8 years old.  She had a very rough life as a young child.  She lost her father when she was four years old.  Her mother had left when she was very young for another man.  She did not see her again until she was older. 

She was growing in a home with her two older brothers.  They lived in a home that was made from sticks and mud and it was caving in from two sides.  The Grandfather and Uncles that live there brew liquor on a daily basis and sit around and drink it from long straws until they are totally drunk.  One time there was a two year old that they gave alchohol to until he fell over dead.  They were too drunk to realize what they were doing.

I knew this was no place for a child to grow up, especially a young girl with no mother or father around.  When the house was caving, I took her in with her two brothers.  Mary was very shy at first.  She was always happy to help out, however, in the kitchen or any where.  She likes making sugar cookies at Christmas time and enjoys learning to make new things.

Mary is a very bright young lady and has come to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior over the years.  She depends on Him for help in her life, and I believe she will be successful in God's eyes because of her love for Him and her fear of the Lord in a right way.  She often teaches the little ones in the orphanage.

Mary is in her 5th year of high school and actually about to finish it.  I believe she will one day work in a job where she can make a difference for the Lord.  She is only one of the many youth that we have seen changed through sponsorship, love, and most of all - the love of Christ.  Thank God for my beautiful little women of Africa.

 

Esther

We had a little girl in the ministry who was sponsored for several years.  She first got a sponsor when she was six years old.  Her parents were both dead and she lived with her Grandmother.  Her Grandmother was sickly and very poor but did the best she could.

The little girl was called Esther.  She had big beautiful eyes but they always looked sad to me.  She often got sick, usually malaria.  She was small for her age.  By the time she was seven we realized something was wrong to make her sick so much.  We had her tested first for AIDS, but she was okay, then many other things.  After months of trying to find out what was wrong, something we did not even suspect was wrong.  She had syphillis. 

We  began to wonder how she at the age of seven could possible have such a disease.  Was she the victim of sexual abuse from someone in the family?  It turned out that someone she shared a basin for bathing with was a carrier and this is how she got it. 

Esther always seemed to be trying her best to survive.  She got a bad case of malaria and was not strong enough to fight it.  She had to walk like a mile to get to the clinic for her injections and often would not go, even though it was on her way home from school.  She was afraid of injections so much.  The Grandmother was too sick to go with her.  Then the medical officer came and told us that she was not coming regularly for her injections, so we went to find out why and we found out she had passed away trying to walk home from the clinic.

It was a sad moment and to this day when we visit the Grandmother and other children in the home, I go to Esther's grave and cry.  I realize that she was very young and she seemed to love the Lord, Jesus, and believe that she is in a better place.

It is often that kids get sick and have to walk to the clinic, or even continue going to school.  They do not get a chance to rest in their culture.  We do not have a vehicle for the clinic to go and get them or to take them any where.   When there is an emergency then we are called and take them to Mbale town.

The next time your child gets sick, I pray you will pray for the children in Uganda who suffer so much, even in just getting to a clinic.  God bless you.