After breakfast, we started on the road to Otuboi, a small village northwest of the city of Soroti. On our way we stopped at Amechet.
Amechet, meaning 'shelter', was started 7 years ago by Auntie Els, a Dutch woman affiliated with YWAM. She started the small organization, a transitional home for sick and orphaned infants and toddlers, in response to the incredibly high maternal and infant mortality rates in the area. What she witnessed was that food was giving to the healthy in the villages because 'the sick will die anyway.' The goal of Amechet is to nurse a child back to strength and health so that they can return to their family or their village after 2 to 3 months. Sometimes, the goal is to be with the child so they do not die alone, withouth being loved. Just the week before we visited, a child came in on Monday and Auntie Els and her staff knew she wouldn't make it through the week. They arranged their schedules so that someone was always sitting with or holding the child. She died on Friday, but she did not die alone. We were able to visit with some of the infants and toddlers, holding children who were HIV positive and coughing often from TB. At the end of our time at Amechet, we gathered as a team and Jennifer was going to pray for Auntie Els. She looked over her shoulder to the wall covered with over 250 polaroids, labeled with the names of children who had been sheltered at Amechet in the 7 years of their ministry. 1/4th of the pictures had stars on them. You know, the stickers you would get in Sunday School for good attendance or memorizing a Scripture verse. She told us that the stars marked the children who had died. I thought it profound. It was good that she didn't take down their pictures. It was good that she didn't mark them with a black X. She marked them with a star, because their death can be precious and because they can shine in their generation. They are stars. Auntie Els looked over her shoulder at the wall and said, 'You see the stars. I have known them all.'
From Amechet, we drove to Otuboi. The sites we had visited thus far in Jinja and Bugiri and Soroti included children of all ages, and many young ones. Trinity College, Otuboi is a secondary school. These were teenagers. And because of the lodging challenges, 60 of the 70 orphaned students in residence there are boys. It was a much different feel as we pulled into the driveway. But we all soon began to see the strategic and spiritual significance of caring for the students at Otuboi in a holistic and long-term way. They welcomed us with some songs, one of them had the lyric, 'give greeting to those in your home of residence.' So, I greet you from the young people of Trinity College, Otuboi. The stories that infected this place were horrific. The LRA had done severe damage in these communities and many of the children were orphaned because of the war. Several of them were formerly abducted boy soldiers and sex slaves. They told us their stories. Then we began to realize that caring for a generation of young men could have a significant impact on this entire nation. The average Ugandan woman has 6.8 to 7.3 children. Men do not receive adequate education or vocational training. There is no commerce in the villages and towns. They flock, as desperate and unskilled workers, to the major cities of Kampala, Mbale, Soroti, Gulu, Jinja, creating problems their of crime, unemployment, sanitation, disease, and violence. If we can significantly influence dozens of young men in Otuboi and prepare them in a holistic way for successful adult life, we will see more wives and mothers respected and cared for, more children provided for. If your church or business or community is interested in connecting long term with Otuboi, please contact me at [email protected]. It is a compassionate and strategic vision and one that I am committed to.
From Otuboi, we drove to Joseph Elotu's house. But on the way we stopped briefly at an IDP camp for internally displaced people. Thousands who had to flee war zones were now living in cramped, sub-par conditions. Like in other places, we passed out glucose biscuits and fruit drinks. The conditions and the behavior of the children was difficult to observe and manage. Everywhere we went in Uganda, we saw extreme need, but the dead-end hopelessness in this place was shocking.
We ended our day with some snacks at Joseph's home. We were able to meet his wife, Ann, and his children, Mercy, Thomas, and Zoey, as well as his sister-in-law, Margaret. The Elotus have been affiliated with TCON for the last four years and we are so pleased that through Matt and Deanne Ward and our friends at World Challenge and OnEarth, we were able also to meet them and multiply ministry partnerships.
As it was getting late, we all gathered in the family room of the home in Soroti. There was a white board - which is often the best way for me to think. So we talked strategically about the places we had been and the sites we had visited. We considered together how the communities we represent here in the US - churches, businesses, communities, neighborhoods, families - could make a holistic, long-term, and redemptive impact on the lives of thousands of orphans in Uganda.
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