Fred in the Village: Day 19

Day 19: American at Heart

Today was the first day I missed America. As I sat down for breakfast I started to think about 4th of July and the good food, then I started to think about American food in general. Then I started to miss home. But we started the morning good, even though I had a crazy dream last night. We began with personal devotion where we read from Ephesians 4:1-7. Once that was through we ate breakfast and headed on our way to do mercy ministry.

Mercy Ministry

The first hut we went to was owned by a man named Francis. Francis was a 97 year old man whose wife passed away in 2003, and he recently fell sick. So one day his daughter came to visit him and saw how sick he was, so she left home with her son and came to take care of him. Since then he’s been doing a lot better. But still because of how old Francis is he struggles with hearing loss, eating and getting food, and his request was a bed sheet. We took note of his need while cleaning up around his compound, and once that was over Jabeth and I headed back to camp to grab him a donated bed sheet.

Before we left, Francis had told our group how he used to attend a church but because of how disabled he was he wasn’t able to go anymore. Praise explained to him why going to church isn’t the same as having a relationship with Jesus Christ. As we returned back onto his compound Praise and David were praying with him, and we later learned that he received Christ. We were able to give him bed sheets and sugar, and he was very grateful.

The next person we met was Magdalene. She is 100+ and is a widow living by herself. Her husband was killed by the Karamojong. Her challenges are that she has trouble seeing, moving, and getting and preparing food. So just as we did for Francis we cleaned around her compound. As we were cleaning Jabeth and I came across this beat up pot with a lid on top and in the pot was a peace of meat that looked like it was sitting in the pot for days. But as we were cleaning we over heard her having a conversation with her neighbor saying,

She was calling out her neighbor for not looking out for her. So for the rest of the visit she was helping out. After cleaning we sat and talked to her and she admitted to us that she was not a believer. So Jabeth told her who we was and how his mom and her were friends 15-20 years ago and how he remembers going to her house and her feeding him. He then explained how we had just sat in the road for 10mins trying to decide who we should visit next after Francis and God told him to go to her home. Jabeth said, “his mom led him back here in his heart.” So Jabeth shared the Gospel with Magdalene and she professed her faith in Jesus. She then told us she was planning on moving, but God said no. She said “God had a plan for her to meet us.”

We returned back to camp to eat lunch then headed to DBS at Omid. We were really late to DBS, by the time we got there they were almost done. Daniel O. was asking them questions about the scriptures they read. There were about thirty something people there. You see people have been attending bible study for months and it’s all about the word alone. We were able to surprise them with a few pieces of clothing for those in greatest need. Once DBS was over we returned back to the compound and I made my first fire with the help of some locals. The verse for today is Job 42:2 and my prayer this that I don’t let the destruction distraction of American ribs, hamburgers, and Mac and cheese distract me from what God has for me here. ~ Fred