Greetings from YWAM Hopeland in Jinja, Uganda where our team is hard at work beautifying the base to prepare for the HIV/AIDS conference. The property is massive and so we’ve been doing yard work everyday to get the base ready for the conference. We are cutting, or slashing, the grass the old-fashioned way, with sickles. The work is making our hands rough and calloused, as men’s hands should be! For the conference, I’m working on the Communications Team and we are super busy writing loads of letters and e-mails, editing text on the website and learning more about HTML code in the process, taking pictures and posting them online, and doing research on the application process for grants for YWAM's HIV/AIDS work. If you want to see what we've been up to and learn more about the conference you can go to the conference website: www.ywamhivaidsconf.org.
One of the best aspects of our Extended Outreach has been meeting with Ugandans in their homes, eating meals with them, and hearing their stories. They are some of the most beautiful, hospitable, and relational people on the planet. One of the highlights was when we worked with a ministry called TORCH (TOgether Restoring Community Hope) that provides medical care and counselling specifically targeted at children, widows, and those affected by the HIV/AIDS emergency. Our group (John Paul, Gina, and I) went out with an older woman named Lavisa. This delightful lady has been a counsellor for AIDS widows for many years now.
In the morning we met with the TORCH staff of the KIHP clinic for prayer and hymns before going out into the village. After prayers Lavisa lead our group on foot down the dusty, red dirt roads. As we walked we encountered dozens of grinning children who ran toward us waving enthusiastically and extending their hands to shake ours, followed by, "Mzungu! Hello, how are you?" Ugandan children are almost always unsupervised and it's not uncommon to see four-year olds looking after two-year olds. Babies taking care of babies. That's Africa, and it's particularly true of Uganda where the majority of the population are adolescents.
The first lady we met with was Florence, an HIV+ mother of four, who has only had the use of her right eye ever since the virus robbed her of her other eye and left a terrible scar in its place. Gina explained to her the long-term benefits if she continues taking the ARV’s (Anti-RetroViral Drugs). When the topic of religion came up she said she didn't have a relationship with Jesus but she knew she wanted it. With Lavisa translating, John Paul started in Genesis and summarized the events leading up to Christ coming to earth and finally going to the cross. She nodded that she knew it to be true. I read Isaiah 53 and John 3 to her and then talked with her about what God was teaching me in my own life as I have been reading the account of the Israelites entering the Promised Land. As we prayed for her, and her young son who was there, I felt an electric current passing through my hands into hers. The God of the Universe was in the room and I knew that Florence had crossed over from death to life.
The second home that we visited was the home of Alima, a joyful, lovely young Muslim widow of four shy but smiley children. Alima contracted the virus from her late husband and is now taking care of a few chickens and digging in neighbor’s fields so she can afford to send her children to school. Tragically, this is not an isolated case in Africa, due to widespread polygamy and the permissive attitude towards adultery we keep meeting more and more women who were infected by their unfaithful spouse and left to take care of their children when the spouse dies. As I watched this radiant young mother laughing and playing with her children, I couldn't help but think that what is being done to countless women in Africa is criminal and that it needs to change now. At the end of our time I reminded Alima that we were Christians and asked for her permission to pray to our God, Jesus. When I finished praying I told that Jesus is walking beside her and her family and whenever she wants she can speak to Him too.
Judith is a Christian, HIV+ widow and single mother, and her house was our last stop. We sat in the dark, in the stifling hot brick house, as Judith told us her story. She told us she wasn’t taking her ARVs because she was undisciplined and had been told that if she started the medication and quit then there would be unpleasant side effects. Gina and I shared with her how we had dealt with fear and that the only way to overcome it is to face it head-on, immersing your mind in Scripture while holding God's hand and taking small steps forward. We brainstormed ideas of how we could help Judith remember to take her medication. I suggested putting a sign on the wall. John Paul added that as she develops the habit of taking the drugs it will be just like putting on her shoes in the morning. We ended by saying that as she regularly takes the ARVs they are likely to drastically improve her health (& prolong her life!) which means that a better future for her and her son is within her grasp. Please be praying with us for a better future for Judith, Alima, Florence, and the millions just like them in Africa and around the world.
God’s grace and peace,
Jonathan Stoner
Jinja, Uganda
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