Amazima Ministries.

Backtracking again:

There are an enormous amount of pictures.  

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After our evening at Canaan’s, we woke to have a delicious breakfast by Mama Rebekah.  Let me tell you this Mama can cook.  She was a chef in Kampala for a while, and you can definitely tell.  Plus, the fruit here is absolutely amazing along with the freshly squeezed juice.  The best part is all of the food is natural, and almost everything just tastes better.  I believe food in heaven will taste just like this. 

Timothy.

Our kids were waiting outside our door for all of us, and while they headed to church, we walked down the road to Amazima Ministries to minister there.  We were greeted by over 200 children.  I honestly have no idea how many were there; they were just everywhere. Amazima is a feeding program that helps feed the children of the Karamajong tribe.  80% of the street children in Uganda are from this tribe, and they also were the ones at the prison that the government is rounding up.  On Sundays, the children are bused to this feeding center where there has been a huge playground built and a chapel.  I didn’t even make it to the back to see the playground; I just loved on all the children in the front.  The rest of the week, the food is brought to the place where a lot of the tribe is found. 

We loved her and her personality.

There were tons of babies whose older siblings were in charge of them.  It is SO unfathomable that the parents just let their babies be carted off for the whole day. Amazima provides a safe place where the kids can just be kids minus the ones caring for their siblings.

This boy was extremely malnourished.

The older sisters with their siblings.

You can see their pain in their eyes.

For many of the children, this was their only meal of the day.  I was sitting next to this girl around 10, and she whispered that she was so hungry.  We began talking, and she told me that she hadn’t eaten anything all day.  The look on her face just showed weariness and exhaustion, but here she knew that food was coming soon.  I’m sure that she also hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before.  

Love the clouds and of course my best friend with little man.

Another little girl that I was sitting by had such a high fever.  She was burning up and sweating.  Many of the children were severely malnourished including the girl that Allison held.  Allison’s girl had such long skinny legs and she fell right asleep in Allison’s arms.  I had 2 girls both sitting on my lap asleep, and the one girl was snoring loudly.  They were absolutely adorable sleeping so peacefully in my arms. 

Allison and the doll that fell asleep in her lap.

  

The children not able to find a seat on the benches.

As much as I love all the children falling asleep on me, it also makes me wonder if they have a safe place to sleep at night.  Do they have arms that will hold them and cuddle with them and just be?  My thoughts race and race until I can’t stand to think about it any longer because it makes me sick. 

Love my arms full.

Bryan, this was unasked for!
 He just had his shirt like this.

Children were everywhere.

I’m so glad that Amazima started up because without them all of these children would literally be starving every day.  I’m so thankful that they opened their ears to God’s calling and said, “YES Lord, use me!  I’ll go.”  

Allison with a precious brother and sister.

Nothing in Africa is complete without a game of futbol.

Many of these children rarely see mzungus.  It is so funny and precious to see them slowly come up to you and just stare, and then when they feel comfortable come and touch your skin and hair. They would rub their hands up and down my arm just to feel my skin.  Allison and I had many people touching and doing our hair.  I’m pretty sure Allison had some nice braids, while I kept having my hair slicked back as tight as it could go.  We both were in heaven with at least 20 children just surrounding us.  The girls also thought it would be fun to stick different bows on our heads.  Let me tell you, we were both lookin’ gooddddd.  I know that Allison misses and that I will miss this immensely, and will do anything to be back here.

We had no idea how many children to expect when coming to Amazima, so we only brought one huge space bag full of bows.  What we also didn’t expect was the mass chaos brought on by us beginning to pass out bows.  It broke my heart to see these children wanting a bow so badly.  Every other place we went, the children would reach up and ask for a bow, but here it was insane.  The children were scratching, hitting, and trying to pull the bows out of our hands.  There was no way we could even place the bows on the children’s heads.  These children literally have nothing. In their eyes was sheer panic.  Since they have their own language, they don’t understand English very well, and none of them would listen in fear that they wouldn’t get one. I’ll let the pictures of us passing the bows out do the rest of the talking. 

I think these pictures go to show the chaotic mess.

It was insane.  

Anothe picture of Allison trying to protect the bows.

We actually did run out of the bows that we had brought, but our group leader decided that since it was a disaster we weren’t going to go back and get the rest of the bows.   Even all the boys wanted them, and there was absolutely no way that we could pass out the bracelets for the boys.  It was heartbreaking just to watch them panicking to get the bow placed on their head, but with all the grabbing and storming there was no way.   I was stuck in the middle of a mash pit with no moving.  It was so heartbreaking, but the joy on their faces seeing how beautiful they were was priceless.  After we finished passing out, everyone went back to play and life was back to normal. I just sat with my sleeping babies.

Honor; one of the twins

The kids are fed from youngest to oldest, so part of the team was washing the children’s hands, some were feeding the children, some were getting the kids in line by height/age, and my group  member and I went around finding all the babies to take to the front.  The older sisters would say, “Madame” and would hand me their sibling.  They were so protective of their siblings and wanted them to get food first.  It was so sweet to see their selflessness while they patiently waited for their food.  

The meal.

The middle aged ones waiting.

A small part of the feeding line.  

The food being served to some of the little ones.

It was an amazing hot African day in the little village.  The view from the feeding site was absolutely beautiful.  I wish each of you could just feel and soak in God’s presence here.  I know I’ve said it a lot, but it takes your breath away.  Please pray for each of these children that they may find life in Jesus and each one of them will be healthy and receive the food, water, and love that they need. 

So sweet even with a high fever, and had her baby brother to take care of.

Doesn't God's beauty just leave you speechless.