Every day God is opening my eyes more & more to the heartbreaking realities of extreme poverty in Uganda. It breaks my heart. There have been so many times in the past two weeks that I've wanted to cry out of sheer heartache for these people.
I know so many statistics on health disparities in Africa. I've seen pictures and heard stories. But to see these people right in front of me - it's so different.
They aren't just statistics on infant & maternal mortality rates anymore. I see faces, a woman standing next to me telling me about the dead baby she delivered at home a couple weeks ago with tears rolling down her cheeks. She had a severe, infected laceration that she had yet to see a doctor about because she has no money.
They aren't just numbers of children who die of preventable & treatable diseases each year. They each have a name - Corcus. He has spinal TB, a father dying of AIDS, and a mother who will openly admit she doesn't love him. This disease could very well kill him because there is no one to care for him properly and take him to the hospital for regular treatment. Instead his mother uses him to get food handouts while she leaves him to slowly die of TB.
They aren't just numbers of child soldiers. They are each precious children of God who have been stripped of family, home, and childhood to the scars of unspeakable evils.
I could tell you story after story and show you pictures of the horrible injustices that plague my thoughts every night.
Life in the slums. But no picture can do justice to the poverty.
Little Corcus. For me it was love at first sight.
I don't understand how anyone could not love this precious face.
I don't even know what to feel about all this. Burdened, angry, hopeless, angry, heartbroken, numb. At first I tried to distance myself from it because I knew it could get overwhelming if I let every story, every patient get to me. But how can I distance myself from these beautiful people who are in such dire need? And when they are right in front of me one after another after another?
It has been a blessing to be a part of the medical clinics reaching out to offer medical care to refugees, child soldiers, orphans, outcasts, and the impoverished, but it has left me with a heavy heart and a river of tears shed for these beautiful people.
My only solace in all this is the hope I have found in the Lord.
"O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!" Jeremiah 32:17
God is greater.
Kelsey; Your latest blog and picture hits me hard and brings tears to my eyes. I often wonder why people all around the world live in such poverty and we complain so much. I have asked why would God create such an unblanced world? But I always come back to the fact that God did not create this we did. We should always remember that God gave us theonly thing we need when he gave us Jesus. His death and resurection is all we need. I can give all my money away but if I have not shared God's love than I hve not done what God created me to do. You could give the people of Africa all the money you have but it would not be as important as giving then your love. You are doing just that. Do not ever feel that you have failed them becuase you can not free them from poverety. You have shared with them the greatest gift of all. YOUR HEART. There is no more that God what us to do but share with them his gift of enternal salvation. See the people of Uganda are closer to God them we are. Because they do not have all the things of the world in thier way. I know it has to be hard but becuase you want to say the right thing. But sometimes you just got to be silent and show someone you do care. And you are doing that to the kids and to everyone you give you heart to. I am praying for you almost daily and know that God has blessed me though your blog and by allowing me to know such a great lady as you. Keep loving and may God bring you the peace and love you need to continue His work through you. - Gilbert ps -- sorry for all the spelling errors.
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