Read It and Laugh or Weep!

One of the little women in my life is very special and dear to my heart (they all are!).  However, I will not use her name since some of the kids in the ministry may read this and I want to protect her.  We will call her Lori.  When I first met Lori she was only five years old.  She was always dirty and running every where.  I am not sure in those days I ever saw her run!  She always smiled and no one could know what she was going through.

She always had jiggers in her feet, non stop digging out jiggers!  I always felt so sorry for her going through the digging out but it did not stop her from running and enjoying herself.  Lori always had torn clothes and it seemed that she only had about three outfits.  She didn't care either.  I always envied her attitude about life, and I never knew at that time what she was going through.

She came over to my house often just to get a bath.  She hated the first one I gave her but after that she started to make it a regular thing!!  I think she just liked being cared for!  I always hated putting the dirty clothes back on her after bathing.  Once I gave her some new clothes that I went and bought for her and she went home with them and I never saw her wear them again.  I asked her about it and she would just smile and not answer.  I then began to look into what was going on in her life.

She had lost her father to AIDS.  Her mother left her because she was so sick.  She stayed with the Grandmother on the father's side.  The Grandmother was always sick and she had a husband that was a step-grandfather to Lori.  The Grandmother made her work in the gardens, carry water, cook and do just about everything by herself.  Her Grandfather drank all the time.  He was most often drunk! 

When Lori got sick one time, and I could see the Grandmother was doing nothing to help her and she was going to die from malaria, I took her in and had her treated from my home.  She was happy to be in my home.  I made sure she got good meals, baths and clothes to wear.  She had a bed to sleep in too.  I really loved her so much, but then one day her Grandmother showed up to take her home.  This was after about one month.  She said she was old and sick and needed her at home.  I asked her if she was concerned about the young girl's welfare and life.  She just kept saying that she needed her to help at home. 

I later came to find out that the Grandfather was raping Lori nearly every night when he came back drunk.  She did not tell people anything or show it but she was going through hell on Earth.  I cried and cried wishing I had never allowed the Grandmother to take her back.  I finally got help from the government in getting her removed and put her in a foster home.  She was not raped there but still made to do a lot of work. 

Lori developed such a feeling of unworthiness and life is not worth living by the time she reached her teens.  One would never know she was the same child that ran every where and came for baths!  It took several years of help for Lori and alot of love to help her.  Most of all, however, it has taken the Holy Spirit to heal her.  When she came to Christ and gave her life to Him she changed so much.  She began to do well in school, have a little confidence in herself and not think bad of herself.

Today Lori is in University and I am excited to see how the Lord is working in her life.  I know she will be a real testimony to others who have gone through what she has.  God bless you my dear daughter and may our Lord lift you up even more and bless you so much, Mom K
 

Let the Little Children Come

I am in Tucson, Arizona right now with Momma Jan and we have been remembering so many wonderful stories and some not so wonderful stories of our time together in Uganda.  Momma Jan was with me for around three years in Uganda until she had to come back and take care of her mother. 

One of the times we remember so well was a boy I have already written about.  His name was Junior.  She remembers how we both sobbed at the funeral and how hard it was when he died.  My daughter, Violet, one of my little women of Africa, is Junior's sister.  She really cried and it was so hard for her to watch her younger brother die.  She had already watched her father and mother die, and now her brother.

Violet's Grandfather was involved in drumming for evil spirits in his youth and younger years!  He told me that he feared for us to move the graves that are on the HUM property because he had done terrible things there in worship to the demons and the Devil.  He said it would all come back on him if we disturbed any of this.  My mind races and wonders about what he did!

We were also remembering a witchdoctor that use to live near me and would do his things all night and then put up a flag to mark that this was a place open for business.  He would drum at night to call up the dead and evil spirits to help him do his bidding.  There are things that we both learned about the witchdoctors that just made us sick.  Sometimes when a person does not have money to pay for their services the witchdoctor will ask for the wife to sleep with, or daughter to have sex with and most of these witchdoctors that I know have AIDS. 

A few years ago I witnessed to a witchdoctor that lives near me and he broke down in tears and cried.  He said that he knows that what I am telling him is true but he is afraid of the demons.  He said that he had given his three children to the demons and they had given him nothing that they promised in return.  He really cried and asked God to forgive him.  He really changed for a while, but then went back to his witchcraft.  I asked him why he would go back to something so awful (like a dog returning to its vomit).  He told me the demons were threatening him and he had no means of making money to survive, no education and no one to help him.  I prayed with him but he still refused to really accept Christ in his heart.  His name is Stephen and I ask all those who read this blog to please pray for him.  He only remains with a few children now and one of them is sponsored and comes to AWANA and church all the time.  He is only nine years old and I know he is very disturbed by what goes on in his home.  His wife left him with the two little daughters and she is in church all the time.

Pray, these people need the Lord so much and they fear.  God bless you and thank you, K


 

Remembering Benard

I love Christmas time.  A time to remember that our Lord, Jesus Christ was born into this world to die for us and to take the punishment for our sins.  What a loving Lord He is and what an amazing love He has had for us and has for us.  He came into this world with nothing and left with nothing but love!  I cannot understand how anyone can deny Him their love.  He is the most wonderful person in my life and He is my everything.

I cannot say enough wonderful about my Lord, Jesus Christ and I hope that all of you are thinking of Him always too.  He cares about everyone.  He loves me, you and all people, young or old!

As I think of his love and realize that He is the one who put Uganda in my heart and He is the owner of the vision that I have for Uganda and the children there, it brings me to tears.  A country where children are not born with any dreams or hope, but when they learn about Him they have hope.

I remember one such little boy named Benard.  He was only three years old.  He was sponsored by a woman and her husband from Colorado.  Benard lived with his parents, who were extremely poverty stricken.  His father drank day and night and even brewed his own liquor.  He abused the mother on a regular basis, beating her until she would have to go to a clinic for help because of bruising.  He often would hit the little boy as well.

Benard would get up early in the morning to go to the gardens with his mother.  He had a goat from his sponsor and he would take the goat with him.  As his mother worked, he worked side by side with her and tied his goat up near by.  He would often eat something like a raw sweet potatoe for breakfast.  He was a very shy and quiet little boy and very afraid of men.  He was not in good shape at all, he had malnutrition and a big belly full of worms that were eating his food.  He slept in a mud hut with his mother and would get bites all night long from mosquitos and ants.  He had no dreams with such a life.

One morning when he and his mother were out working in the gardens, he felt something disturbing his goat so he went to see what it was.  He saw a big snake and was scared but went over and untied his goat and got a big bite on the ankle.  His mother did not know what to do and she told him to get to the clinic fast.  She sent him on foot while she followed.  She did not know that walking there was the worst thing for him.  He fell on the way and died before he ever reached the clinic.  This snake was a cobra.

We buried him the next day.  His sponsorship money bought him a sheet to be wrapped in, a coffin, and a hole dug with bricks and cement put around the area where his coffin would lay.  I cried so hard and the mother could not stop crying.  She kept saying my little boy, my little Benard.  Wow, even though this was nearly ten years ago I will never forget little Benard and how quickly his little life was ended in the village of Kamonkoli.

Please pray for his mother, she is still struggling with the husband and now resorts to a witchdoctor to help her.  She lost heart and cannot believe that there is a God who loves her so much and cares about her as Jesus does.

 

Memories!

There are so many things that I can remember to write about.  However, when I sit down to write I get this writer's block!  Where do we begin.

When I first went to Uganda the thing that really tugged at my heart was the children, their conditions for living and physical health, the lack of education, the lack of love they receive and care.  I wish I had time to go and hug and give love to every little kid there is and even the big ones!!!

I spent a lot of time giving baths to little kids when I first got there.  I bought this big plastic tub called a basin and would fill it with the big yellow jerry cans and give them baths.  It seemed to me that none of them ever bathed!  There were little critters to deal with also!  Critters like body lice and jiggers.  Jiggers are little bity red critters that dig under the skin - mainly on the feet around the toes.  They have to be dug out very carefully so that you do not break them and cause a bunch more little ones to spread.  They are a lot like ticks.  After they dig into the skin they swell up from sucking blood and they itch and hurt at the same time.

Then there was shaving off hair that was unkept.  The children seemede to really love the care and attention that they never seemed to get.  Even little kids go and get their own water and have to carry it.  Then when they get done bathing they go back and play in the dirt and unfortunately most of them have to sleep in the dirt.  If you consider that the homes or huts they live in are made of sticks and mud with grass roofs and the floors are dirt.  The floors are smeared with cow dung and left to dry to make it hard, but this seems very unhealthy to me.   The kitchens are made of the same and have three stones with fire wood in the middle of the stones for cooking on.

I feel for the children in Uganda and I know that they need more care and more love and I ask for your prayers as I continue to love on them and help them and reach out with them with the love that our God gives to them.

 Every day children die from malnutrition or malaria from lack of care or someone to look after them.  Help Hines Ugandan Ministries to make a difference - checkout our website www.hineskids.

"Religion that God considers pure and perfect is this - one that looks after orphans and widows in their distress and keeps oneself pure before the world."  James 1:27

"Whoever welcomes even one of these little ones in my name welcomes me."  Matthew 18:5
 

Another Little Woman of Africa

This week I want to write about my Violet.  Violet Namisi came to live with me when she was four years old.  She was so cute.  She was scared to death and her mother was still alive but was very sick from the AIDS virus and had developed tuberculosis.  She expected to die about six months before she did.  Her mother's name was Esther.  Esther came to know the Lord before she died and I had actually spent over a year with her in discipleship.  She shared the gospel with many people and God used her to bring her mother to the Lord.

Esther wanted Violet to stay with me when she found out she had tuberculosis because it is so contagious.  The third day that Violet was staying with me she broke a glass by accident.  Instead of telling me she ran off and hid and I spent a whole day into the evening looking for her, together with other staff and her mom.  We finally found her hiding in bushes.  She was afraid that I would beat her for breaking a glass, and I explained to her that I would never do that.  I guess her mother would discipline her for such things by beating her with a stick, which is typical in Uganda still.  She felt much better when she learned that I would not do that.

She came back to the house to live and was now happy.  She began to grow close to David as a brother like and settled in with us as a family.  She loved to climb the mango tree and get mango's for eating.   When she got her first doll to play with she really loved it and carried it around a lot. 

Violet was always shy and quiet, but could giggle like nothing you ever heard before and it would delight me so much every time she began to laugh.  She could easily get excited or tickled.  David to this day teases her like a real sister and it turned out they were cousins.

Today Violet is still shy and giggles when she gets teased about anything.  She loves to play games like rummy cube or card games.  She attends St. Lawrence Secondary School and is in her fourth year at the Crown Campus.  She likes Zac Efron and any boy who looks like him!!!  She enjoys comedies and music a lot.  She does not talk a lot but when you get her engaged she is fun to chat with and enjoy.  She always surprises mom!  Violet is good at playing the drums and has a wonderful singing voice but is too shy to sing in front of a crowd.

She is very pretty and has had it very hard.  When she was nine years old her younger brother Junior, who was seven years old, died from the AIDS virus as well.  She still has one older brother and one younger brother.  The older brother is a sponsored kid and is in a vocational training school at this time.  Her younger brother is in high school his first year and has struggled to be able to go to school.

It was hard on her to have lost both of her parents by the time she was four years old and then to loose her brother too.  We tried to help Junior but he was already too far gone to be helped by anyone but the Lord and the Lord took him home.  I really cried when he died.  Violet cried as well, and still does at times at the mentioning of his name.

Violet loves Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and depends on Him for everything in her life.  She always tells me "Mom, I know that Jesus has always been with me and because of this I will always make it until He returns and then we will all live with Him  in Heaven."

My Little Women of Africa I

I talked about my daughters that have been growing up with me for so many years now here in Uganda.  I shared a bit about Sarah and Harriet.

Let me tell you about Katie (Catherine) Amuroni.  Katie was a sponsored child since she was six years old.  Her father died when she was four years of age and she never knew her mother, who had left when she was around two years old.  Katie had a step-mother named Pauline who died when Katie was five years old.  Her father and step-mother had died from the AIDS virus. 

Katie has grown over the years to love the Lord and is now in the 6th year of high school, or her advanced level.  Next year we pray she is able to go to University.  She is a lovely girl with a wonderful sweet personality.  She likes to sing and sings well, and she enjoys messing in the kitchen.  She also likes romantic comedies for movies, such as The Wedding Planner or Ella Enchanted. 

Katie was left on my doorstep when she was seven years old by her Grandmother.  It was New Years Eve and I had gone for a dinner at Dr. Mugondi's home with all the rest of the kids and Christine.  We were there until around 8:30 in the evening visiting.  When we came home we found Katie sitting on the doorstep with a small cavera of her clothes. 

Her Grandmother had spoken with me previously about helping Katie, cause Katie had severe malnutrition, and I had talked of taking her in for some time to nurish her back to health.  I guess the Grandmother was not waiting for me to give the time!!  I believe, however, it was God bringing Katie there.  She has been an encouragement to me and such a joy.  Mom loves you so much Katie, thank you for the joy that you bring to so many, and the love in your heart that comes from knowing our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Living!

One of the first heart breaking experiences I had in Uganda was visiting in the homes of the people.  It is difficult for one to come from American and see how people are living in villages in Uganda.  Try to imagine if you can what it is like to actually live in a mud hut. . .

There are six kids in this home that I am telling you about.  Four boys and two girls and the parents.  The father has no education and he tries to earn some funds by digging in people’s gardens.  He makes around $1 to $2 a day.  Not enough to buy any food, but if he can save it long enough he may be able to get something.  He also has to work in his own gardens, so he sends the wife and kids to do this while he helps in other’s gardens. 

This morning they are eating raw sweet potatoes because there is no firewood or charcoal for cooking and no money to buy any.  The wife collected enough to boil some water, but it was not enough to cook the food too.  Three of the children have gone to get water for bathing with their 20 gallon jerry cans and it will take some time to go for the water cause the borehole well is very far away.  They will carry the jerry cans on their head to return.

Last night the sleeping was difficult because the mosquitoes were biting as well as the ants.  The floor to the mud hut is also made of mud.  The walls are made of mud as well and it was raining all night, so it was very cool.  This family does not have any blankets, mattresses or bedding of any kind.  In the night when they want to go to the bathroom they have to go out and find a bush that will work.  There is no bathroom or even an outhouse.   The roof is made from grass and often leaks when it rains.

The kids return from getting water and the first one goes to bath.  The shower is made near a tree with upside down dried out banana tree leaves.  These are the walls of the shower place, the floor is dirt and there is no door that closes just an opening.  The young boy steps in to bath with a plastic basin which is broken and begins to throw water on himself.  They do not have any soap as they cannot afford to buy any.  So he just uses water to and tries to scrub with his hands.

Last night the Dad did not sleep well wondering how he is going to raise the kids and send them to school.  He was never able to go to school himself, nor did his wife.  He teaches them everything he knows about gardening and surviving the way they have always had to. 

In this family no one knows Jesus Christ as Lord or Savior.  When someone shares with them they have a hard time believing as life has not shown any mercy to them.  Their dreams and hopes are crushed before they can really begin.  Who is this God that you say cares and where is he?  This is a common question.

One of the children is thinking about suicide but in this culture it is the worse thing a person can do.  They will not even bury the person but just crush everything around them down and burn it as it is a disgrace to commit suicide.  It is a sign of weakness.  Still, they think about it quietly to themselves.  There is no future – why do we exist? 

I believe that so many ministries use the word Hope in their name because they realize just how much the people in these countries need hope.  Everyone in the world needs hope, but unfortunately in countries where there is much there is false hope or hope in material instead of the living God.  HUM is a vision that God had, not Hines.  It is a vision that He put in my heart to share with the people in Uganda.  A vision of seeing children that have hope because they come to realize that they have a father in Heaven, that Jesus died for them and was raised from the dead.  A vision of children finding their father through Jesus and finding true hope that comes from His great love that knows no bounds.

Share this vision with me by helping the children in Uganda that I work with.  Let them see the hope that can be theirs for the asking and receiving through Jesus.  You can see how on our website www.hineskids.org  Help us to make a difference to the orphans and vulnerable children that God wants us to reach out to with His love.