we NEED...we SHOULD...we WERE CREATED...

Enter the Bugabo Village in the Luwero District of Uganda. This is where I will spend a couple days helping Rachel with the health assessment and then teaching the kids about Jesus while she teaches the adults the "Family Planning" portion. When Rachel was here last Friday, she showed me several pictures of the village and God has laid a couple of them firmly on my heart. Here are what the huts homes look like in the village:

Do YOU see what I see? Is that a child on the makeshift pallet on the ground? Yes, that is a 9 pound 9 month old. Here is a closeup of her with her mother:

Meet her mother. A mother suffering from Epilepsy. A mother whose milk had dried up to the point where it was no longer supplying her child with the nutrients she needed. A mother who lives in a village that practices Witchcraft. A mother who was outcast by the village because they labeled her as demonic because of her condition. A mother who was eventually sent away because of this also. A mother who had to leave her daughter behind because she couldn't provide for her while in the village; so what more could she do for her on her own?

So this precious family has been on my heart and although I might not be able to help what happened in the past for them, I am praying that God will go ahead of me and pierce the hearts of the people in this village that don't know about Him. I'm praying that they will hear something SOMEONE through my words that gives them hope. I'm praying that they will turn away from Witchcraft and trust the love of the one who crafted them. Maybe it's a stretch but I will pray that they replace Witchcraft with Godcraft. Yes, THAT is my prayer. Because, what I understand Witchcraft to be is, for an example, say someone gets sick and they go to the leader and ask to be healed. This leader sends someone out to take the life of a child by beheading them and then offers the skull to the sick person, and they believe that this heals them. Whether or not this works is something I don't have the answer to---and by that I mean that I'm not sure if they are healed "coincidentally" by God when they are given these skulls. But what I DO KNOW is that God is THE ONLY ONE WHO HEALS. What if He heals the sick but the Witchcraft is glorified as the reason for their healing? This only deepens their belief that Witchcraft works. What if they came to know Jesus as their Healer? What if? How much different would life be for these people? These precious people and their children were created for a bigger purpose than practicing Witchcraft and deserve more than what I will see when I get to the village.


So what are WE, as Christians, as children of God, going to do about this? This is what I was praying about when I ran across yet another picture that will be forever burned on my heart and in my mind. As I have posted about several times on FB, the water supply within the village is non-existent. The women and children have to walk a little over a mile for water. And this water not clean. Matter of fact, the people upstream defecate in the water. The picture below is heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.

EVEN IF you were in the middle of the woods here in the U.S., how many of you would stop to quench your thirst with this water? If not, then why should THEY? There are about 5 of these on the outskirts of the village and during the dry season, 2 of them dry up completely. That leaves 3 of them to supply this dirty, nasty deadly water for a village of 500-600 people of God's children. We NEED to do something about this. We SHOULD do something about this. We WERE CREATED to do something about this. With His help, we CAN do something about this.

I have been researching different avenues for helping to get these people some sort of fresh, clean water into this village. Some sites I found last night had showed costs upward to $7000 for a well, and THAT was in 2007. I felt defeated last night and so I prayed and went to bed. I didn't sleep very well. I dreamed that I handed out purified water bottles full of dirty water with little handmade signs that said, "would you drink this? if not, why should they?" and people gave me money by the truckloads. I woke up refreshed, as if I had a purpose for this dream. I signed on to FB and that's when Dan said Hi to me. Dan is a Rachel's friend that she worked very closely with during the 3 months that she lived there last year. He is a professor at Uganda Christian University and founded MICAH (Mission for Community Awareness and Health). He told me that a well would cost around $2500. I WAS ECSTATIC!!! So for $2500, these precious people can have clean water! This $2500 would absolutely be life-changing to these people. I could go on and on about the benefit versus the seemingly large amount of money that God has laid upon my heart to raise. I could complain about how it's a lot of money or I could praise God that trust that He will provide! I bet you can't guess what I'm going to do? I'll give you all the time you need, I know this is a hard one :)

I remember when Rachel left me with this quote after a long night of conversation about how tough it was for me to raise the money needed for my trip: "Remember that God owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hillsides and He can sell one for you" and HE WILL!! That's the good news the promise He made to each and every one of us. He WILL PROVIDE through donations from His children. If one of those is you, please obey Him and help these precious people, these brothers and sisters in Christ.

Dan also told me that he could start contacting people about the construction of this well in the remaining 3 weeks that we have left before we get there. He also is fairly confident that it could be completed within 2 weeks! This is more than EXCITING for me. WHAT IF we all pulled together to get these people clean water? WHAT IF I was there to witness the construction? WHAT IF I was there to unveil God's gift through US for His people? WHAT IF God laid it on your heart and you found no excuse NOT to give? WHAT IF I had 25 brothers and sisters in Christ to donate $100 each? WHAT IF I had 50 brothers and sisters donate $50 each? WHAT IF I had 100 brothers and sisters donate $25 each?

We NEED to do something about this. We SHOULD do something about this. We WERE CREATED to do something about this. With His help, we CAN do something about this.