Father's House Blog

I have just come back from a trip to Uganda with a team from Father’s House Trust. It has been a very special time and we have seen the Father move very powerfully in the lives of those working with the poorest of the poor. Even though the situations we met were sometimes heart-breaking, there are many stories of hope I could share.

One in particular springs to mind. This concerns an 11 year old girl whom I’ll simply call M (to protect her identity).

M lives on the Ssese Islands, Lake Victoria. These islands have the worst poverty that I have ever seen. They are the home to a number of fishing communities where disease is rife. The percentage of people who have HIV/AIDs is astronomical – a percentage that is not helped by the high level of prostitution. It is truly tragic to find such ugliness in a place of such extraordinary beauty.

M’s mother died of AIDS five years ago. Since then, she has rarely seen her father. When he has been present, he has not shown affection to his daughter.

A few months ago, M’s father was tested and it was found he had AIDS too. On his birthday, which was a Wednesday, Kathleen Burns (a missionary friend of ours working as a nurse on the islands) took M to see her father. Kathleen is called ‘Mummy Kathleen’. M took a brand new pair of shoes to give to her dad. When she gave them to him, he called her to come over. He hugged her and told her, ‘M, I’m going to treasure these for the rest of my life’. It was the first time that M had really known her father’s affection.

And it was to be the last.

Two days later, on the Friday, M’s father was taken very ill and was taken to hospital. By the time Kathleen and M arrived he was in a coma. M just sat and held her father’s hand in her little hand.

The next day, M’s father died. He never got to wear his new shoes.

Kathleen went with M to the funeral. All M’s siblings were there and they looked very sad. Kathleen asked the grandmother if she could speak to the children. The grandmother replied, ‘Mummy Kathleen, you don’t have to ask permission. You’re family’. What a privilege for a mazunga, a white person!

Kathleen opened her Bible at John 14 verse 18 where Jesus is speaking to his disciples the night before he died on the Cross. Jesus makes a promise, ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you’. She explained to the children that they were now orphans in the world’s eyes. There are two words for ‘orphan’ in Uganda – one for when one parent has died; one for when both have died. It was this second word that Kathleen used. She told them that they were each mulekowa in the world’s eyes. But she went on to say, ‘God doesn’t have any orphans’. She encouraged them that even though their daddy was no longer with them, that their perfect Heavenly Father was always with them and that they belonged to him.

With this they began to clap and cheer. ‘We’re not orphans! We’re not orphans!’

What a powerful story of hope.

Having said that, please pray for M. She has been tested and it turns out she is HIV positive too. Pray that M will be healed. We had the privilege of praying for her in the halfway house between the islands and the hospital. That house is being run by a lady who has been supernaturally, miraculously healed of AIDs. Pray with us that M is wonderfully healed and gets to live a life of caring for others, just like her Mummy Kathleen does.

It’s Christmas time. You may have noticed that. But spare a thought for those like M for whom Christmas will be tough. Pray for those who have empty chairs around their Christmas Day meal table. Pray for those who don’t have a meal this Christmas Day. Pray for those like Kathleen, Tiffany, Winette and Ingrid (on our team last week) who are working out in Uganda to bring the Father’s love to the fatherless.

In the foundling museum in London, there is a great quote from Thomas Coram (1668-1751). “Every child and every generation of children throughout history and across the globe represent the future. They are our individual and collective responsibility and none more so that the vulnerable, the abandoned, the sick, the hungry and the unloved.”

Join with us at FHT as we seek to fulfil this responsibility.