an update from cindy!

Ok, so after two weeks here in Jinja, sometimes I’m terribly homesick and really miss my family, but I can’t imagine anyplace I’d rather be right now. I’ll fill you in later on some of the sadder realities of life in Uganda, but for now I’…ll just share the kind of home our kids have made here.

I sent Jenny away for a much-needed rest this week, and have been enjoying my time with all of the kids. My roommate right now is our sweet little girl Aisha, Mukisa’s sister. When their mother died a few years ago, Mukisa fled their island and found his way to us, but Aisha was left behind, sleeping in a chicken coop until we were able to bring her here just a few months ago. Since our house is filled with boys, Aisha goes to boarding school, but she is staying with us for the school holidays. Every night, I tuck her in and read “Good Night, Moon” to her, while she snuggles with her new baby doll. She is the sweetest, most loving little angel with me, but she more than holds her own outside with the boys!

Some of the older boys went to a youth conference with the church for a few days this week, so I had a chance to really get to know the younger kids and the new boys much better. After reading to them last night (about six books!), they heard me in my room skyping with Gerry, so they all piled into my bed with me to talk to him too. Some of them don’t even speak English yet, but they still enjoy trying to converse with their “Uncle Gerry”, excitedly giggling. Then I sent them off to bed. When I arrived this trip, I brought each of the new kids a stuffed animal. It was obviously the first one they had ever received, because you would have thought I’d taken them to Disneyland! I went into their rooms to tuck them all in and two of the boys had their stuffed animals pressed up to the old radio listening to music. I tucked them in and kissed them goodnight. Each boy held up their stuffed animal to give me a kiss too. I can never express the joy that these children bring me.

I really wish I could split myself and be in two places at one time: Home in San Diego and Home in Uganda. No matter which place I’m at, I feel at home and at the same time homesick for the other. Thanks for all your support and prayers, and for helping to make this wonderful home possible!

This Brian patiently getting his nails painted by Aisha. (Yes, I took it off as soon as she left the room)! Next is me with my little roommate.

a night walk, with cindy schmelter

About 8 of us, mostly women, decided to take a walk around Jinja town in Uganda after midnight to see how many children are sleeping on the streets. Jenny, our executive director of SCP, has done this a few times to take so…rt of a census of what kids are out there and why. We walked around the dark streets and alleyways and found children hiding between stairways and in dark spots sleeping, wrapped in plastic bags to keep warm. We would wake each of them to find out their name and age and ask how long they had been without a home. Some had been there for weeks, others months or even years. We met one boy who had been there since he was 3 years old; he was 9 now. He’s had no family for as long as he could remember.

When we would wake them, they would be startled and very afraid that we were the police and they were going to get beaten. When the police want to “clean up the streets,” they beat the kids with billy clubs and whip them with wire to get them to leave. But these children have nowhere to go. Their parents have died or are so poor that they can’t feed them and are starving themselves.

After we had awakened some of the kids, they followed us. In their tattered, filthy clothes with no shoes, living on dangerous streets that we wouldn’t even want our children to see on TV. And here they were living it. Just surviving. There’s no way to describe the look in these beautiful children’s eyes. They actually still had hope once they woke up and found out we weren’t the police, weren’t there to hurt them. Most of them still have faith that there is a God that will save them. Many of them would love to come live in a home like ours if only we could fit and afford them. It’s horrifying to have to tell them we don’t have the room. But others have become so accustomed to the brutal life on the streets that they don’t want to leave, sometimes because they aren’t willing or able to, and sometimes because they don’t trust us, they don’t believe that anyone in the world would just want to help them without demanding some terrible price. This makes me realize what a great country we live in. In the US, we would never allow our babies to live on the streets with nowhere else to go. Because their parents have died from HIV, Aids, or war, or are so poverty-stricken that they cannot care for themselves or their children, these kids suffer like this.

After coming back to our home, I could not sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking of their little faces, their hopeful eyes, their bare feet and filthy, torn clothing. They didn’t want to be seen like that, but have no choice. In a way I wish I had never gone and seen these atrocities, so that I could peacefully sleep, go back to San Diego and pretend that none of this exists. As Bono says, ” Once you have this knowledge, you cannot unknow it”. I will never be able to erase this night.

A couple of nights later, I woke up to the loudest, worst rain and thunderstorm I’ve ever heard, worse than anything we ever got in South Carolina. As the younger children in our house (and some of the older ones) woke up frightened and came in my room for comfort, I couldn’t stop thinking about those kids on the street, and what that night must be like for them, with no place to go, no way way to avoid getting soaked to the bone, and nobody to hold them or tell them it was going to be okay. For them, it was not going to be okay. I’m more determined than ever to do whatever it takes to make room for every one of those kids that wants to come in from the street, and provide a home for every one of them. With your help, we can make it happen.

amazing grace

Fifteen years ago I learned the meaning of what Luke 4:18 says about Jesus coming to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, [and] to set the oppressed free.” Fifteen years ago, I was a prisoner to my sin and was set free. As a prisoner, I was in darkness and was blind. But once I was set free, I was able to see the light. And I was oppressed by my sin but was set free. For fifteen years, I always interpreted this verse spiritually. It did not apply to me physically, but yesterday this verse took on a whole new meaning to me. Yes, this verse’s purpose is to mean spiritually we are set free, but yesterday, Jesus Christ proclaimed freedom for the prisoners physically.

 

At 10 in the morning I got a phone call that said children we had been working with on the streets and were currently in prison were being transported to court and that if I showed up and testified, they would be set free. I quickly called two of the social workers that we work with and we all met at the courthouse. From there, we found nine prisoners who were all under the age of 18. Not all were street children so we had to interview each of them in order to see which child could qualify to be released and who we knew could be resettled back home or taken into an organization. We waited for hours outside the courthouse until it was our time to go in to a room where government officials were waiting to hear both the child’s stories and my own. I told the officials that they had done nothing wrong and that the children were simply sleeping on the streets. By the grace of God, the children were released into my custody. We waited a few more hours to sign paperwork and then we officially walked out of the courthouse gate. Some children cried with tears of joy and others just smiled and could not stop hugging each other. To see an innocent (at least in my eyes) child be set free from prison, was one of the greatest moments I have seen in Uganda. For weeks we had pursued these children and had tried our best to figure out how to best help them while they remained in prison, never thinking that they could actually be released. These children had not eaten in days and some were skin and bones. When we walked out of the gates, we immediately went and got some local food. I have never seen a child devour such food as fast as I did yesterday. I know the current children living on the streets are hungry, but at least they can find food in a trash can (I hate to say it). But these children had no option. There were no trash cans in prison for them to eat out of. At first they just stared at the food and then they scarfed it down like it was the best food they had ever tasted. After their bellies were somewhat full (I didn’t want their stomachs to hurt) we headed on to the transit center where we are temporarily keeping some children. We then went back to The Street Child Project house and introduced the newest boy Jose, to his new brothers. He was welcomed with open arms and fit right in. In the next few weeks we will be getting more boys as they are released from prison.

 

To describe the experience is hard because I feel like you have to be there in order to truly feel the joy. But I want to go back to the verse that I started with in this post, Luke 4:18. You don’t have to be somewhere to understand this verse’s intention because it applies to all of us. Essentially, why we do what we do is because we believe that God not only wants to set us physically free, but free in every way—free from the bondage of sin and freedom in Him. And so each child that walks through our doors, we pray he will be set free. We pray that our house will reflect God’s message of freedom to the prisoners, and an amazing grace that is only found in Jesus Christ.

 

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine

 

imprisonment of street children

Jenny here! Many of you have seen my facebook statuses about what has been going on with the street kids in Jinja. For those of you who don’t know, let me fill you in. About two weeks ago, 30 children were arrested for sleeping on the streets. Yes, they weren’t doing anything wrong (according to me) but just sleeping. So why were they arrested? Because sleeping on the streets is considered a crime in Uganda. Once you are caught sleeping on the streets, you are taken to jail where you await your time in court to plead “guilty” for sleeping on the streets. Once you have pleaded guilty, you are sentence to a prison elsewhere where you serve time. For 23 of the children, their sentence was determined to be 2 months, meaning they are “supposed” to get out sometime in May. For the rest of the 7 children, they are still awaiting trial while they are being held at a different prison. For those children already sentenced, we cannot get them out because we have to go along with the Ugandan law. However, for the children who are awaiting trial, we are trying to work with the courts to show that they have a place to go (either our home or back to their home).

 

I am not allowed to write about the conditions of the prisons, so that statement should simply speak for itself. However, we are allowed to visit the prisons and make sure the children are ok. Sometime in May, a lot of children will be released and “dumped” back onto the streets. At this time, we want to work with other NGOs in Uganda to resettle many of the children back home or bring them into our home. Many people have asked how they can help on the other side of the world. For starters, of course you can pray. We need prayer for the precious 30 children who are in prison now. They need prayer for hope. They need to know that they are loved and that there is something waiting for them once they are released. Pray that they can keep warm at night, eat proper food, and get the appropriate heath care. The children also told me that they are extremely scared at night. Pray that the Lord would comfort them.

 

Beyond prayer, we also need your money. Each time we travel to the prison, it costs us around $100 in transportation. We need to continue visiting them so that we can counsel them and love on them. We will also need more money for transportation costs once the children are released so that we can drive them back to their families or homes that will take care of them. This will cost approximately $2,000.

 

And lastly, we need more child sponsors for the children who cannot return back home and the current ones on the street. To sponsor a child, it requires $90 a month. We have already identified a few children in prison that will be taken into our house because they cannot go back home. As for the children still on the street, they also need sponsors so that they do not get arrested. We have also identified these children and know which ones are ready to be taken into our home.

 

Thank you so very much to everyone who has followed these children and continued to pray for them. I cannot tell you how much I have seen prayer work through these children already and I am excited to see how God shines His light into some of these kids’ darkest times. Please email me with any questions at: jenny@thestreetchildproject.org.

 

“O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.” Ps. 10:17-18

to love is to be vulnerable

If Uganda has taught me anything in these past few months, it has taught me to love. For much of my life I tried to not love because I knew that to love, is to be vulnerable. But I have come to realize that if I had not loved these past few months, I would not have experienced one of the greatest opportunities that the Lord could have ever given me—to love children who will not guarantee loving me back, who might fail me, and certainly the fact that I will fail them.

 

Since coming back to Uganda in December, I have built some of the best relationships I have ever had with both the children on the streets and those currently in our home. Unfortunately, some children in each case were taken away from me in these past few weeks. The ones I had invested hours of love into are now gone—but will hopefully be back soon.

It crossed my mind a few times this week—“Why am I loving these children so much if I know there is a strong possibility that my heart may be broken down the road?” These children have certainly never experienced love, they don’t know what it looks like and when they realize it, they don’t know how to respond. Why should they choose to love me back if all they have ever known is hate towards them?

 

But love is not an option as a Christian. Some days I wish it were an option—things certainly might be easier that way. But Jesus was clear when he said that our first commandment (not option) is to “Love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves” He did not skimp on explaining love to us in 1^st John 3:11-24 either.

^“11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ¹² We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶ By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰ for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

And so we have responsibilities to love, no matter what the cost. We must not do it for the benefit of ourselves, for surely that is what the world tells us, but our love should be for the benefit and growth of another. As I have seen love benefit others here, I have seen it benefit myself as well. Because I have chosen to love these children, despite the fact that I knew my heart would get broken, I have seen miracles in these children. I have seen testimonies of hope, faith, and perseverance. I have seen children whose stories should be on the cover of Time magazine, whose stories would beat any CEO or top executive’s “success stories.”  Their stories need to be told and the only way to know their stories is to take that first step of love.

 

So I will continue to love. Not because it always feels good—we know that is not a guarantee, but because God demands it and it flows from the hearts of those who have the source of love living within them. So I also ask you to love—not in words, but in actions and in truth, to open up your heart so it will be tested to prove that love is the greatest among all things. To love is to be vulnerable but to love is to be set free and to be made alive in Christ.

 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” – C.S. Lewis

 

night patrole

I am so tired but I cannot sleep until I share what I have experienced. Last night, I, along with the Street Child Project staff and other social workers went to the streets of Jinja to record the names and faces of the children that have currently made the street their home. We hit the streets at 11:30pm with a police officer and did not finish until 2:30am. I can describe the night in simply one word—appalling. Last night I was faced with more than 50 images of children’s faces that I will never forget.

As we walked the streets, we found children lined up sleeping together to protect each other and to keep warm. They ranged from ages 7-17. Some faces were new and some were old.

 

Have you ever been so scared and tired that you had to sleep with your eyes open? Last night, Brian did. I found him sitting up against a wall with his head rolled back and his eyes and mouth open. It was one of the most frightening sights I have seen as I did not know if he was dead or alive. I shook him to find him still alive.

Have you ever had to pry a plastic bottle of gasoline out of a nine year old boys mouth? At nine years old, David had resorted to sniffing gasoline to put him asleep and out of his misery. He had sniffed so much that his saliva had formed a sort of glue around the bottle that was stuck up his mouth. When I found him, it took me a few minutes to pull his lips away from the bottle. Even with me yanking a bottle out of his mouth, he was in such a deep sleep from being high that he did not wake up.

When you go to the grocery store, you get plastic bags to put your groceries in. On the bags it warns the consumer to not let children play with the bags or put them over their heads. But when you sleep on the streets at night and are cold and do not know better, would you put the bag over your head? As I walked further down the street I found Shariff with a bag tied around his head. He was so cold that he had used the bag to try to warm himself. When I saw him I thought he was dead. By the grace of God, he was alive and just trying to keep warm.

To the left of this older man, you will see a small white and blue covered body. This is Yeshua, the boy that I wrote about months ago. You can find his story here: http://streetchildproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/a-fight-for-life/

Uncle Eric finding some teenage boys

These are a few images of the 56 children that we found last night. They are images that are disgusting and make me wonder how I can sleep tonight. But in the midst of tragedy, I saw the Lord. The two do not seem to go together, but without a doubt, I was reminded that there is a God and this God has to be good and loving. These children should have been dead last night. They should have died from starvation, beatings, drugs, child sacrifices, malaria, etc. But they are alive and I know it is ONLY because God is watching out for them.

 

A few days ago, I was walking with one of our oldest boys. As we walked the streets together, he explained to me how he knew that God loved all of the street children and mad men. He explained to me that God had to love them because they did not get sick from eating out of trash cans. From this simple conversation with him, I was able to understand more about God’s love than any book could teach me.

I could go on and on about the stories of the children that I saw last night, but I don’t know what good it would do unless you see it with your own two eyes. For those that cannot come here to see it, I ask that this simple blog will be more to you than just a story, but a reality. There are certain children that I identified last night that I would like to come into our house immediately. One has been on the streets for one year and two have been on the streets for about one week. I am asking for support in getting these children. By sponsoring a child, we can immediately get a child off the streets and into a home where he receives more love than he has ever known before. I ask and beg of you for your help. There are 10,000 children still on the streets of Uganda. I believe our God is big enough and loves these children enough to rescue them all.

 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”- John 14:18

hope

Hope is something that we all want, but many of us get caught up in the day’s disappointments and we therefore fall into hopelessness. Bad things are bound to happen. And when hopelessness creeps into our lives, it becomes dangerous- even to the point of death. But when we see hope, we are able to see clearly again and to persevere towards the goal that we have set. For Christians, our hope is firmly planted in the cross of Christ—a sturdy reality that we can always look to no matter what is happening in our lives. The Lord uses the Bible to speak hope into our lives, but He also uses many other tactics to keep us going. For me, He has used the children currently living on the streets of Uganda.

Recently, Satan has been using many things to try to keep me down and discouraged from moving forward. However, when I go to the streets and work with the children currently living there, the Lord revives me again. I am renewed by the resilience of the invisible children  who live in a seemingly hopeless world. Their lives suck, but they do anything to stay alive. As I walk down the streets and talk with the children, I try to ignore the harsh comments from the locals. They wonder why I talk to the children and I wonder why they don’t. These children are beautiful and reflect God’s creation. Their smiles are filled with joy and hope for some miraculous reason. Their laughter is contagious—even at the lowest points when they wonder if they will starve to death or beaten to death in the middle of the night. G.K. Chesteron sums up their hope in a simple statement: “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances we know to be desperate.” It is from seeing their hope in desperate situations that encourages me to keep going. I wish the world could see the joy that comes from some of the world’s most invisible children.

George Iles “Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.”

i will not leave you

At The Street Child Project, part of our job is to home trace a child to see if his home situation is suitable or not. 99.9% of the time, it is not, and so the child comes home with us. Now this blog is not necessarily about the SCP boys that you usually see pictures of or hear about, but it is a story that is all too familiar when we home trace a child. In this particular blog, I will tell you about a sister who was recently rescued and has temporarily joined our home unofficially.

As we went to home trace Mukisa back in July, we went to Buvuma Island where we were introduced to his sister, Aisha. When we met Aisha, she was covered with welts on her body from being beaten. She smelled from sleeping in a chicken coop and she was exhausted from digging in the fields all day.

Seven months ago, Mukisa was reconnected with his sister on Buvuma Island.

When we met her, I desperately wanted to take her home with us, but I had no money and didn’t know what to do. For seven months the Lord did not let her leave my mind. It is easy to forget about abandoned children, especially when you see them on a commercial for just 30 seconds. But it is a different story when you come face to face with them and hold them in your arms. I had to leave her that day and my heart broke knowing that I had just abandoned another child. But I had to remember, that God was not going to abandon her. He had promised her in John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” For months and months I prayed for this little girl and on January 10^th, she was able to come off the island and into our house.

Coloring

Mukisa comforting his sister on the floor as she eats

It has been an adjustment. For the next few weeks, she will stay in my room until she goes to boarding school down the street. She has already been here for two days and we are still working on the basic skills. She does not speak my language nor I hers, but we are working hard at communicating. She is learning how to turn the water on and off, how to use the toilet, how to use a tooth brush, how to not bow down every time she sees someone, how to eat in a chair with people. Although she is behind in some of the most basic skills, it is surprising how independent she is. But why wouldn’t she be? Her former life was taking care of 10 children and cooking for them everyday. Her daily chores consisted of waking up at 4 in the morning to walk alone many miles a day to dig in the fields and haul water. So with her new life, she is learning how to play with “dollies,” how to color, and how to smile. It is a new adventure for us here at The Street Child Project. We never know what the Lord will bring our way, but we know it will be great.

“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.”            Psalm 27:10

Falling to sleep in a bed for the first time

les misérables

Certainly, a doctor would have seen in Jean Valjean an incurable misery; he would perhaps have pitied this man sickened by the law, but he would not even have attempted a cure; he would have turned from the sight of the caverns glimpsed in that soul; and, like Dante at the gate of Hell, he would have erased from that existence the word that the finger of God has nonetheless written on the brow of everyone- Hope!

~from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 

 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ~2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

 

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He’s already a friend with you. 

~2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (Message)

 

God, through Christ, was pleased to “reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” 

~Colossians 1:20, NIV

 

     When I saw the play Les Misérables in London, it instantly replaced Phantom of the Opera as my favorite musical. I have been slowly making my way through Victor Hugo’s novel this past year. And I have watched several movie versions of this story, but have always been disappointed that the powerful songs from the play were left out. So I greatly enjoyed the movie that is now in theatres.

     Do not be confused by the somber title “Les Misérables;” this work paints hope in the world- hope that through faith in God expressed in loving (albeit often difficult and sacrificial) actions towards others, a person can change and rise above their past, the expectations of others, and the oppressive, entrapping systems of society.

    A modern day example: in Uganda, the Street Child Project, along with other organizations such as the Sanctuary, Emmanuel House, and C.R.O., work with street children as rehabilitation homes and drop-in centers. These are the children that people in Ugandan society see as less than nothing, as unchangeable, hopeless cases. These are children who are caught in systems that work against them- the lack of fidelity and compassion of many step-parents towards their step-children leading to child labor, child abuse, and even death threats and attempted murder; greed tied to land possession that leads to terrible violence in a family after divorce or when the death of a father leaves a young male heir; polygamy spreading material resources so thin among a family that poverty pushes the children out and onto the streets; children orphaned due to diseases like AIDS or maternal mortality stemming from a lack of education, sanitation, or proper medical care.

     The stories in Les Misérables deeply impact people (the theatre I was in burst into applause at the end of the film) because they parallel the work that God is doing in the world- the work of redemption (a holistic redemption that brings peace to every area of brokenness- between humanity and God, between humanity and the environment/earth, and in human relationships~ see Colossians 1:20).

     God beautifully invites us to join Him in the work of redemption, spreading hope, truth, joy and love in the world. I went to Uganda for two months to do my small part of the work that many people are a part of. This may be my only trip to Africa, but I will never regret following what I believe to be God’s voice in my life- an unexpected tug on my heart calling me to a country I never expected to visit. I find that even if you only have five minutes to spend with someone- or even a few seconds give them a smile, you can choose to love them in that short time, and that love is not wasted in God’s eternal perspective.

     I now have ten stories of hope- ten names to pray for as they heal from hard pasts- ten boys that I believe can change and break free from the systems and lies that used to trap them. For in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come! These boys who used to be alone and miserable, who have been mistreated and have made their fair share of mistakes, now have people who believe in them and love them unconditionally. And more importantly, they know that they have a God who loves them so enormously that He has given His own life for them, and His Spirit working in them can change them from thieves and outcasts to leaders and fathers and godly men in their community.

May you pray for these boys today- for their protection from lies and for their ongoing healing from their past and present hurts. May you pray for those children still on the streets around the world- that those who are lonely would be set in families and know they are loved. May you choose to believe in someone in your life, and to faithfully love them, even when their change is terribly slow or hard to see. May you have the creativity and courage to love and forgive, in spite of what others expect you to say or do, or how small your actions seem. May you know the love and power of God in your own life and your own past, present and future.

-Lindsey Cooper

amazalibwa amalungi!!

Amazalibwa amalungi!! (Merry Christmas!!) Christmas in Uganda is certainly celebrated differently than in the US. It was my second Christmas here in Uganda and I (Jenny) was reminded again of the true meaning of Christmas. In Uganda, there are no lights, Christmas decorations, trees, music, Christmas cookies, snow, etc. There is a church service with dancing and a huge feast to celebrate. For the majority of the boys, this was their first Christmas ever. Many of our boys have become Christians this past year and for the first time, they were able to celebrate the birth of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

At The Street Child Project house, we started our morning at 5:00 to prepare food for the day so that we could go to church and be ready to eat by the time we got home. We opened a few presents early that morning and each of the boys received a brand new pair of shoes to wear to church. It was the first time the boys had ever received new shoes and they were ecstatic. After presents and breakfast, we headed to church to enjoy two hours of celebrating the birth of Jesus. We sang, danced, watched a drama, and listened to the Christmas story once more.

 

At the end of the service, one of our boys, J, went up to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. J had been with us for this past year and was a former Muslim who was determined to go to the mosque when he lived with us. As he has stayed with us this past year, I noticed his heart changing. I noticed the Lord working in his life and his desire to listen to the stories from the Bible. This Christmas, I was not only able to celebrate the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ, but I was also able to celebrate the rebirth of one of my own children. Although J was given many gifts this Christmas, the best gift he could have asked for was Jesus and he chose to accept Him. For the first time, J got brand new shoes that he would outgrow and soon destroy. And for the first time he also got Jesus, who he would not outgrow and destroy. For the first time, J is now able to have the best gift of all—life in Jesus Christ.

 

Although we did not have lights or a Christmas tree or any other distractions this year, I am glad. I am glad that Christmas was nothing more than Jesus. It was Him alone and that is how I wish the world would celebrate it. For Jesus is the best gift we can receive and one that will last forever. For J, this day will be marked down in history. It will be a day that the angels sang and rejoiced with joy. I hope you also enjoyed your Christmas holiday as much as we did and remembered Matthew 6:19-21.

 

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”