When we embarked on this journey, back in October of 2020, to start the ministry full time in Uganda, I had no idea how it would unfold. I felt under qualified, under just about everything. I had a small idea of what may come first, but I knew it would be God who would decide. I wasn’t prepared for what lied ahead or for the speed at which it would come. However, I believe Gods word, and the words from Isaiah 60:22, fit just about perfect in this past week or so. “I am the Lord, in its time I will hasten it.”
I decided it was time to get on the ground and start doing the work to begin the Woven2Gether Ministry that God had birthed in my spirit back in 2014. I didn’t know where to start. No office, no staff, no real sense of direction from God. So I thought about what I could do that would atleast get me moving. I decided to get statistics for abortion rates in Gulu, the city we live in in northern Uganda. I had gotten the statistics back in 2017 but wanted knew ones. I worked almost a full day with an intern from the hospital going through hospital records for 2020. I love that there is no Hippa Laws here. It gives me freedom to do things here I could never do in the states. The statistics were so disheartening. Each time I read abortion on the line of care in the logs, my heart sank as I had to make a check mark for the column regarding the age of the patient. Over and over again I had to make a check, each one representing a life that was taken, a baby who never had a chance. I had to stay focused, as my heart broke and I just wanted to take the time to mourn each life that was gone. I tried to console myself by remembering they were with God and safe, but it didn’t take away my pain. Each month we totaled the number of girls that came in for post abortive care, 75, 89, 103, 107, the numbers took the breath out of my lungs. Abandoments, 7 since January 2020. So many lives forever impacted by abortion. This is only one hospital. We have more to go to to gather stats. The numbers will be higher than what we have now. We will attack this from the heavenly realm. We will push back the gates of Hell and teach the girls and boys who they are in Christ and we WILL see these numbers drop significantly and our prayer is that they drop to zero. Jesus size dreams.
While I was gathering statistics, the women in the records department asked if I had heard about the baby that was just abandoned in a pit toilet. She dropped the baby in just a few hours after she gave birth to him. Her hope was that he would sink into the waste and die and no one would ever know. But he didn’t. He lay under ground on top of the waste crying, rescued by a village woman who heard his plea for help. The police were called and they rescued him and brought him to the hospital where he was treated. He is healthy and okay. But so disheartening.
I felt compelled to check into why she abandoned her own child to death by drowning in feces and urine. Why? I had to know her story. Back in 2014, when we first came to visit Uganda. I went to a baby home, where they raise abandoned babies. I got out of the vehicle and immediately saw 8 babies under the age of 6 months on a blanket with a Ugandan woman. God asked me where their moms were? I wept. I knew He wanted me to find their moms. He doesn’t want these children to grow up having stories, that they were abandoned, that they weren’t wanted, unloved. That is no ones story. I knew one day we would be here to help keep these moms with their children. I believe that the moms here who abandon these children are scared, traumatized, and feel like they don’t have any options or support. So I knew I had to check into this moms story and find out what happened. The story as to why, doesn’t always matter here in the legal system. But for what God has called us to do, it matters more than most anything else. What is their story.
This girl is 20. She had a baby at 13, 16 and 20. She has had a hard life. I can’t go into details of the case because we are still in the process of it going to court. The police allowed us to interview her. We heard her story. It broke my heart and I had to do all I could to not cry while she talked, and wept as she shared her life with us. I was so humbled that God would bring me here for such a time as this.
Here is the thing. The fact that I was in the records office that day is nothing short of the hand of God directing our path. It took us three months to find a house. I wasn’t going to start anything until we were settled. It was just one week after we moved in I felt it was time to do something, even if it was small. There is nothing small in the kingdom of God, I am finding out. Had we found a place sooner, I would have gotten records sooner, I would have never been in the office that day to hear that this mom had abandoned this child. Even the delays, are God working things out according to His plans that He prepared even before I was born. I praise Him for His infinite wisdom and understanding. He is far to great for me to ever truly grasp.
We don’t know how this story will end but we know that God has brought us into this case for a reason. I have no staff, no office, no office supplies, no forms for keeping records of this kind of thing. I in short, I unprepared and completely unready for this. Our first client that God has chosen to bring to us, our bring us to, is a high profile, attempted murder case. Police, probation officers, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorney’s, Child and family protection services, village women testimonies. It has been a huge submersion into the ministry. I pray. I wait. I don’t know what God is doing but I am listening and following His lead. Please pray for the mother of the child and for the child. We want to see them reunited after we help the mom start dealing with the trauma she faced her whole life. Pray God gives us wisdom and discernment to do the right thing each step of the way. I feel I am in so far over my head but I know my Daddy walks on water so I don’t have to fear being taken under.
I went to the capital city and met with an organization called Child I Foundation. We are looking at partnering with them. They have a heart to see that every child has a home to live in and a family that loves them. We want to see the orphanages and group homes become a thing of the past. Our hearts have the same vision when it comes to this so we are so excited to see what God is going to do.
This means that we have to lay ground work to prepare for what God is doing. Foster Care system needs to be developed here in northern Uganda. Adoption awareness needs to be created for cases when we have kids that come that we cannot trace any family. Community Watchmen who will help be our eyes in ears in the local villages, 15 needed per village. The hiring of one to two social workers, a secretary. Needing to find an office, make business cards, and all the small and large details that we have to accomplish to start the ministry well. I will be undergoing training on how to train foster parents, adoptive parents, social workers, community watchmen, and so on. It is a big task and I know up front it seems so overwhelming but as they say here, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” So I will take one bite at a time and trust God to work it all out as I am faithful to what is immediately in front of me.
The lesson. Sometimes we have things neatly planned in our minds how things will go. They don’t go that way. We have time frames that we want things to work in. They don’t always go that way. Sometimes faster sometimes slower. But one thing I know. That when the appointed time has come, God truly does move swiftly. I love that He didn’t let me think that I had it all figured out and was ready to do what I thought would work best. He threw me in and I know that it will be what these women need. It will be developed around the women not just for them. Its gonna be beautiful but trying.
Please pray that we find volunteers for community watchmen, foster and adoptive homes, social workers, and secretary. Also that we find an office reasonably priced. We don’t want high overhead so funding can go to the moms and their children. Please pray for our partnership with Child I Foundation and all the work that it will take to develop a partnership with them. We are going to be looking at a 3-6 month volunteers, to see how they fit with our organization before we hire them full time.
I don’t know where all God is taking me. What all is in store, or when or how it will all work out. I just know that He has me in the palm of His hands and that He has my today, tomorrow and eternity already figured out. I had a prophet speak over me this verse out of Isaiah, “Those who wait on the Lord will mount up on wings like eagles they will walk and not grow weary they will run and not be faint.” I have gotten exhausted trying to “do” things for God. I am learning the beauty of this verse at this time in my life. That when we wait on Him, we can just ebb and flow with what I see Him doing. I don’t have to strive to figure it out or use my own energy to try to come up with a plan. He has it already done. I just have to wait for Him to open doors and show me what He is up to and then follow His lead. I remember when I was processing everything He was showing me He wanted to do with Woven2Gether I got a bit worked up and said to Him, “God I can’t lead this.” He instantly responded to me, “I never asked you to lead”. It was what I needed to hear. He told me He would lead and that it wasn’t my team it was His. I was just one member of the team and He would bring the others later. It wasn’t me to figure it out it was Him to. I could just relax knowing He had the team, He had the lead and I could truly just follow Him. It was what I needed to know to be able to breathe. To be able to learn to wait on the Lord. In the waiting I find strength. I will not be weary or faint if I wait on Him. Please pray I learn the art of waiting, for someone like me who is a doer, waiting can be harder than doing.
Thank you for your prayers and support. It means so much to us to have so many people helping to carry our needs before God and for encouraging us along the way. The journey can be difficult and sometimes lonely but we know that God has brought us here for such a time as this.
May God Bless each of you as you are hear for us and return the blessing on you a hundred fold. In Jesus Name.
WOVEN2GETHER 
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