Amecet N'ainapakin

Here is a recent picture of the beautiful people I have been working with, or at least most of them that is. The three other muzungus (white people) are now leaving me, returing to Holland but I hear more are coming to help out with the children.

Also I thought I would update you on my malaria condition. I am MUCH better!!! Thankyou so much for your prayers. I am still tired easily, but no other symptoms...its as if I never had it. Isnt God good?

Blessings!

,

We are NOT destroyed!

"And we know that in ALL things God works for the GOOD of those who love Him, those who are called according to His purposes." - Romans 8:28
I just want to declare this as truth to all of us. We are not in this battle alone. He promised He would NEVER leave or forsake us. We are in the center of HIS strong hands and He is working for our good. I think that writing this out write now is just a reminder to me as well as an encouragement to you. I found out this morning after being really sick last night that I am in the beginning stages of malaria. And I say this not to gain sympathy but to remind us that we are not alone. I have been working through this idea the last hour and God has been reminding me of his faithfulness through emails and encouragements that I received today. He just kept saying "Lauren, you are more than a conqueror through me." And I want to declare that to you as well. You are more than a conqueror through Him who LOVED you. I don't know each person's situation, I don't know who will read this blog, but God does. He knows your name. He knows every hair on your head, and He is so in love with you. Be encouraged. He has never and will never leave you. He is walking with you in this rough spot.
One of my best friends, and my youth pastor, Angela, wrote me today and said it perfectly "Try to enjoy it even in the tough times. Remember Romans 5:1-11 - allow everything that is hard to develop perseverance in you, perseverance - character, and character - hope. And hope will never disappoint us!!" (Hope you don't mind me using that Ang!) We might be hard pressed on every side, but we are NOT CRUSHED. We might be perplexed, but we are NOT IN DESPAIR. We might be persecuted, but we are NOT ABANDONED. We might be struck down, but in the NAME OF JESUS - WE ARE NOT DESTROYED. Declare this. It is truth. I am working on declaring it myself now. You are not alone - remember this.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may STRENGTHEN you with power through his Spirit in your INNER being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through FAITH. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in LOVE, may have POWER, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to KNOW this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be FILLED to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably MORE than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work WITHIN us, to him be GLORY in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Eph. 3:16-21)

In HIS STRONG hands,
Lauren

Sipi Falls

Sipi Falls! Today I went with a group from the YWAM Soroti base to Sipi Falls- a region bordering Kenya- and saw the majesty of Uganda. It was a much needed day off and God really gave me rest and reminded me of his amazing character and his unending love. It was a day just to rest in his arms.

I have finished my first week at Amecet and God has been teaching me and blessing me so greatly with those beautiful babies. Thankyou for praying for Dennis and Angela. Angela is now eating by herself and is eating a lot more! Dennis' fever left him and he is now smiling regularly.

"Auntie Lauren"

Auntie Lauren. I have never been an aunt and I know I am not the aunt of these little children here, but when I hear little Esther look at me and utter Auntie Lauren, my heart just breaks. It is one of the sweetest names I have ever been able to call my own. Today was my second day working with the children here at Amecet and it is wonderful and difficult all in the same breath.
There are two babies, Dennis and Angela, who are both really sick right now. They aren’t taking any of the food given to them even when they are tube fed and haven’t progressed from their sick state even with the medicine. Sometimes you feel helpless because there is nothing you can do to ease their pain, and it feels like you are just watching them die. I don’t know how to deal with that yet, and I have a feeling I never will. It breaks your heart and there is no real answer as to why it is happening to them.
Other times, I get to just hold and feed little ones that are getting stronger by the day. There is one little boy named Godfred and I am sure there has never been a baby as sweet or as beautiful as him. His smile really could melt a thousand hearts all at once. Or other times Esther, who is just learning to walk and talk, toddles up to me lays her head on my lap and just repeats over and over, auntie Lauren. Nothing is as sweet.
I guess you could say I am learning a lot right now about pain and brokenness. I don’t really know where God is leading me, but He has me in this place to teach me. I am beginning to understand the lyrics to “Blessed be Your Name” where it states, “You give and take away, still I will say, blessed be your name.”
Please be praying hard for Dennis and Angela when you have the chance. We aren’t sure how much longer they will be with us.

From Gringo to Muzungu (May 17)

Yesterday, after having spent a week and a half with Dr. Krabbendam, a retired professor at my college, I made a long journey to Soroti to begin my work with Amecet n’ainapakin. We left that afternoon around 1pm and didn’t arrive to Soroti until 8:30pm.
I made my journey with a beautiful Ugandan woman named Kristin who Dr. K called his daughter. This was one of the biggest blessings. We made our way through the dirty overpopulated streets of Kampala passing child beggars and street venders to the “bus station”.
Muzungu, my new name, meaning white person, was yelled from right and left. I tend to stand out here. At the bus station, hundreds of busses were standing but inches from one another while people squeezed through the surrounding area. I held onto Kristin’s hand for dear life, knowing that if I lost her, I would be completely lost and alone. I don’t think I have felt so dependant on anyone in quite a long time.
We made our way to our bus of choice and were shoved in like cattle along with luggage and other passengers. Then somehow the driver maneuvered out of the tightly packed station and onto the tightly packed streets. I don’t understand how more people do not die in the streets of Kampala. People move by foot, bike, motorcycle, car, bus, and there is no room anywhere. We actually saw quite a few accidents on our way to Soroti, but God went with Kristin and I and covered our bus.
Along the way, we were bombarded by hundreds of merchants at every stop, selling any and every type of necessity, including live chickens, which one passenger bought and successfully used my feet as a storage area – that was interesting.
After making our way to Soroti to the Amecet base, we were in for a little bump in our travels. I haven’t had any opportunity to use a phone, find internet, or contact Amecet whatsoever. So once we arrived late at night we stood outside the gate for about 15 minutes knocking until Els, the base director, answered. She hadn’t been expecting me until the following day and she was really busy trying to nurse one of the baby boys that she thought she might loose that night. So Kristin offered to take me back to her house to stay. We began walking, then called a borde (a man driving a bike with a seat on the back for passengers), successfully mounted, and made our way to a bus stop.
After waiting for a bus we got on and made our way back to Kumi and arrived at Kristin’s house around midnight. Her family had made preparations for a meal since we hadn’t eaten since that morning and we ate. I ate something however that made me hallucinate that night and wake up vomiting and extremely sick to my stomache.
Looking back on it though, I count every circumstance as a blessing – I know it sounds weird, but I was with a woman that I had gotten to know and who called herself my mother, her husband was a pediatrition who was able to prescribe me something for food poisoning, and I was able to sleep and get all of the food out of my system before making my way to Amecet and trying to help with the children. God is so good.
I know my mom would be happy to hear that Kristin really cared for me and nursed me back to health before I arrived at Amecet this night. Right now, I am writing this by lamp light due to the town’s electricity shut down and am about to go to sleep before my first day caring for the babies. I met them briefly tonight and my heart is already broken and completely in love.
Please be praying for my complete healing and praise the Lord for his rich blessings so far. I miss you all very much but I know that I am right in the place I need to be.

Pain (May 14)

How do we come close to understanding pain? I have never experienced pain if I begin to compare myself with the faces and stories of the people of Uganda. One set of sorrowful eyes looked deeply into mine tonight and just began to scratch the surface the life he had led. “Suffering, suffering, suffering,” he uttered as his eyes looked away from me.
Charles began to speak to me as I sat down with him. He smiled widely and put his arm around me while his other hand held tightly to an AK-47. It seemed so surreal. He began telling me about his sister who had six children. She was a single mother and had just died five days before. “I want cry, but sometimes I cannot find the tears,” he muttered as he recounted the new found responsibilities that came with her death. Now he was responsible for caring for not only his own two children but the six children of his sister. He looked out at the stars as he wondered how his salary as a guard would pay for food and schooling for all eight children.
He looked back at me and I could only see the brokenness that I hadn’t seen before. I just sat and listened as he spoke. He began to ramble about his past and my eyes just focused on his face.
“Bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet, bullet…” he just kept repeating the word until silence settled upon him. “I lost my parents,” he said “when I finished P3,” what we might call 4th grade. The rebel troops had come into his tribe while he was gone at school and shot all of the parents in the tribe. When he came home he said that the houses of the community had burned down with all the dead bodies within and then a group of his friends were taken from that place. “If your mouth wanted to smile, they would cut your mouth and if your ears wanted to hear they would cut your ears. They just cut, cut, cut.” He described this horror and showed me some of his scars. He didn’t tell me how he had gotten away, but he sat for a while until he began to speak again.
I wish I could say that this story is an exception to the other people I have met, but it is not. Brokenness is all around me.

Beg For This Nation (May 12)

This past week I have been staying with a group in Kampala, being discipled by Dr. Krabbendam and reaching out into the community by doing door-to-door evangelism while working with the churches. This is a very receptive culture and many accepted Christ as their Savior. However, while it is receptive, there are several lies that are confusing the new believers and the non-believers. Islam and Mormonism along with churches that are practicing human sacrifice and that the enemy has corrupted really confuse the Ugandan people. Pray that God would invade this situation and bring his light and his truth. Pray that eyes would be opened.
I love the song “You Said”- it has been such a promise to me as I see the way in which Satan is trying to confuse. He is the father of lies – is he not? The song says:
You said ask and I’ll give the nations to you, Oh Lord, that’s the cry of my heart. Distant shores and the islands will see your light as it rises on us.
Please beg God for the nation of Uganda and that His light would illuminate all the half-truths and lies in which Satan is entangling those around us.

Here We Go AGAIN!!!!

Family and Friends!
I am so sorry not to have written in such a long time. Once I found out that Uganda was for sure, studies really started hitting me along with preparation for the trip and now, three days before I leave, I am writing you!
I have a couple AMAZING stories to share in which God really blessed me in one of the most complex parts of my trip: travel. As many of you know and have been experiencing gas prices have gone up....exponentially. I am a little overwhelmed as I am sure you are along with our fellow friends in the airline business. Needless to say: the ticket costs a fortune. That is taking up most of the $3000 that I was raising. Problem number two: whether the price of the ticket was expensive or not, I would have been traveling alone for a very long time as a single white woman, and that was not the safest thing... (lets just say my parents weren't to keen on the idea).
So our amazing God decided to just put his hand in as an intervention and provide radically for me. First HE PROVIDED THE FUNDS!!!! Then, to top it off, there was a team from Covenant College, led by Dr. Krabbendam, that was going to Uganda at the same time I was. So, after a fifteen minute meeting with Dr. Krabbendam and an exciting phone call with my mom, I decided to travel with the team headed to Uganda. I was still needing to somehow drive north about 6 hours after the flight, and Dr. Krabbendam knew an individual from the town I am going to and asked them to come pick me up and take me. This is not some small task - this is a HUGE miracle.
These are just a couple of ways in which God has provided a way and is pushing me toward Uganda. I know and have been made aware of the many dangers I face, but I KNOW that my God has brought me this far, and He will NEVER leave me. He will NEVER let me down. He is my PROTECTION and SHIELD and I am trusting in Him.
Please, please, please, please be in prayer as I head out. I know I am going to need these prayers. Remember that the prayer of a righteous man is both POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE. Your prayers are powerful and effective and I know that as the body of Christ, we can reach out and touch the heart of God as we intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ. So PLEASE, add me to your prayer list this summer.
I will be doing my best to keep you all up to date with pictures of the little babies I will be working with and with stories of how amazing our God is!!! I am SOOO excited to be able to go. Thankyou for coming along side of me and supporting me through your words, through your money and through your prayers.
God bless,
Standing in HIS grace,
Conquered by HIS love,
Lauren Conrad