Dinner Time!

In the last few weeks we've been brainstorming how we can do more for the people around us. 

It's been hard being the white people who have so much and trying to discern where it's appropriate to give. Years and years of drought and starvation that has brought in many NGO's to fix things has developed a begging mentality among the Karimojong. If you help them once they will be back a hundred times for more help. 

It makes giving difficult. 

No matter how much a person is in need, I can never help them without thinking somewhere in the back of my mind, "Now they'll be here every day asking for things!" I wish this wasn't the case. I wish I could just help the one in front of me without ever thinking about the consequences, but that's just not how it works here. 

So...the brainstorming.

So many needs...how to help?

One place that we have been drawn to (or repulsed by, depending on the situation) is our local "hospital". It is always overrun with sickness and death, hunger and disease. You can always find a few cases (such as hydrocephalus - very common!) that are not treatable anywhere in Karamoja and know that unless we help them, no one will. 

It is a bit overwhelming. In fact, sometimes I just avoid it altogether, on purpose, because I am afraid to get involved. I am afraid of what it will require of me. More visits, more time, more meals, more sacrifice. 

But it's on the list. You know, the list in Matthew? 

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me..."
                                                                                                                             Matthew 25:35-36

Its' on the list. And those are the things I want to do, no matter the more it requires.

So...back to the brainstorming. We decided to go and take food once a week to the hospital. A HUGE pot of beans, a HUGE pot of posho, and a LOT of help :) We enlisted Zachariah's house church to help and set out to feed the hungry and visit the sick. It was an ambitious idea!  We have been going to the hospital for about 6 weeks now, once a week.  It has become our favorite night of the week.  We cook food from 9 in the morning to late in the afternoon.  When we go we meet all kinds of interesting situations.  We get to walk through the health center and pray sick persons individually.  We've prayed with a mother of newborn twins, we've prayed with tb patients, a man shot in the side, a boy shot in the abdomen with a bow and arrow, AIDS patients, etc.  It is such a blessing to us!  God has been so faithful to bless us as we try to be bring his blessings to others.  Thank you for praying for us and thank you for giving.  You buy the beans and porridge, the pots and pans, the plates and bowls.  Thanks for your blessings.

Zachariah was able to share with the people about the love of our Good Shepherd.