Give Us Clean Hands

Day 12 (10/11) Part 1 - Lira Orphan Home and IDP Camp

We woke up on Wednesday at Hotel Lira after a night of realization that Northern Uganda was very different than Kampala. We no longer had our nice beds, clean toilets, and (sometimes) warm showers that we had been blessed with at Kolping House. We took our cold showers and headed back over to the orphan home to pray with the orphan moms while the kids were in school.

We arrived back at the home and were pleased to find some children there. These were kids that had been at a local IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons) the week before and had been selected to come to the orphan home. With the school year wrapping up, they were not yet enrolled. We tried once again to teach "Jesus is a Winner Man" and we actually succeeded.



There was one little boy that was standing all alone, looking quite sad, and I could not help myself. I held him for quite awhile. I could have held him forever. Upon return to America, I found that one of my teammates snapped the moment.



While part of the team continued singing with the kids, the other part stepped away to pray with the moms. We made a small circle, holding hands, and lifted them up. Each orphan mom is in charge of one house of children. There are 4 rooms: 2 rooms for 18 children (9 in each), the mom gets her own room, and one common room. These are women who have been rescued from a life of poverty and find it a blessing to have a paying job and a family to care for, but as you can imagine, such a job brings great hardship. It was quite a blessing to love on them and lift them up to Jesus while hearing the children praise Him in the background. It was a moment that I wish I could have bottled to bring back.



The happiness of the children was inspiring.

Then we went to an IDP camp.

Many of us were nervous about the prospect of what we would see. I found very quickly that I never could have been prepared for it. As our van pulled up, we made a game plan to split up and prayer walk the camp for about 30 minutes. My partners were Lesley and Ashley. We walked to the back of the camp and began our journey through. At first, a group of 3 children began following us. Within moments, we were surrounded by about 20 kids. We placed our hands on them as we prayed. Many were lacking clothes and every one of them was malnourished. There is little to no food left in the camps and nearly every person is suffering from malaria, not to mention other diseases. It was immediately noticeable that the children at this camp were different than the children at the orphan home. They fought over who was going to stand next to us and hold our hand. They pushed one another out of the way. There were babies caring for babies. There were less smiles. And more sadness. There was no Jesus.









Millions of people in Uganda have been forced to flee their homes and live in these camps because of the LRA. There are literally hundreds of other camps just like this one throughout the Northern Uganda region. They have no food, bad water, and rampant diseases. Look again at the children from the orphan home:



They were at an IDP camp just like the one above one week before this picture was taken. It brings tears to my eyes even now. Christian Life Ministries is giving them hope. People right here in the United States have sponsored each of them. If you are interested in doing the same, please visit this website.

Day 12 was a day I will cherish for life, and this was only the beginning of it.