It's been awhile since I've shared with you what's happening on the field these days.

This is a powerful blog written by Andrea Schiarizzi, one of our Real Life students in Uganda.   These students are having life-changing experiences and coming face to face with the harsh realities of a broken world.  But while standing in a whirlwind of despair, these guys are HOPE and LIFE.  Read on...

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Falling in Love    by Andrea Schiarizzi

 

So much has happened this week I don't
even know where to begin. This is why I came to Africa, and it's what
will bring me back. 

 

My heart has been broken for Kyampisi, Uganda and the incredible
people who live there. I guess the best I can do is summarize, and try
to convey some sense of why it touched us all in a deep and lasting
way. 

 

 I'll start by introducing the very first child we met at Jesus
House - Alan. His full story, which you can read at kyampisi.org, will
make you head spin and your heart hurt. This beautiful, mischievous,
ticklish 7-year-old has an axe wound in his skull and can't sleep
through the night because he still vividly remembers the night he was
attacked, kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead. Alan is a victim of
attempted child sacrifice, and his story is not as uncommon as you'd
think. He is a living, breathing, dancing, djembe-playing miracle, and
we all fell in love instantly.

 

Baby Moses is a 3-month, 4-pound orphan whose mother, who was
already wasting away from AIDS, died during childbirth. We'll find out
August 5 if Moses is HIV positive too. 

 

Faizo is a student at the school that Jesus House runs. Rachel and
I are going to sponsor him, so we went and visited him at his
grandmother's house. He lives in a brick hut with a bunch of other
people. It's dark and hot and smells miserable. The mattress that he
shares is honestly, not as nice as the bed we bought my dog for
Christmas. His shoes and clothes are literally falling apart, and when
we hugged him he didn't know what to do with his arms.

 

It's not okay for children to live like this. It's not okay that
the water in Kyampisi is stagnant, moldy, and dirty and diseased and
it's all they have to cook with, bathe in, and drink. It's not okay that
Alan can identify his attackers but the law's so messed up that they
can't be prosecuted, so his life is still very much in danger. 

 

The injustices I saw in Kyampisi broke me. But in the midst of all
the pain and evil and despair, Jesus House offer something greater:
Love and Hope. In a few short days of partnering with this ministry, we
can tangibly see the difference they are making. We dug wells so that
there can be clean water, cleared land for construction, taught in the
school. We rocked Baby Moses to sleep and hugged and kissed Alan almost
more than he could stand, and we left a depressed-looking wooden school
building bright blue.

We got blistered, bitten, and dirty. We spent ourselves this week
for Jesus House and for Jesus' children. This, I think, is what it means
to be the hands and feet of Christ. To be broken for the things that
break God's heart, and to let him heal you while you put faith into
action.

 

 

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