Monday, June 20, 2011

Sunday was a great day. Two of us took a Boda Boda ride to a church on the other side of Soroti to attend services at a church called Life Line. It was a long but great sermon about God's purpose for our lives. It was a great, but somewhat ironic message for me to hear. I had just spent Saturday hiring 32 men and women (mostly men) in the villages around our carepoints. Something that I have and do feel that God has purposed for me to do.

After church, it was a nice walk back to the home that I have been made to feel so welcome in. Joseph, Ann and everyone here have done so much to make me feel at home. I can never repay them for the hospitality they have shown me.

In preparation for Monday, a young man came over to work with Robert on his motorcycle skills. The knew mode of transportation is going to be a bit tricky, but I was assured that Robert would be fine. Its not that it is a motorcycle that concerned me. It was the fact that it was only Friday that we took Robert to get a drivers license of any kind. They are expensive, so having one is not a common thing here in Uganda.

Everything was ending well yesterday when Robert's phone rang. It was the leader of the group of men we had just hired in Ngariam Corner. He had bad news. One of our new employees had been murdered on Saturday night. We had just hired him that afternoon. It seems that some of the Karimojong had raid the cattle in Ngariam Corner and when this gentleman, Simon, came out of his hut to check, they shot him dead.

This is the reality they face every day. The Karimojong are real. These are IDP Camps not villages. For those who don't know, IDP stands for Internally Displaced Persons. They are refugees in their own country. It is illegal for them to have guns so they can't protect themselves. They rely on the army and staying in groups to protect themselves.

This is the reality in which our kids here are growing up. Its a hard life!

Keep praying! I have a funeral to go to now, so I have to go. Please keep praying!

Tom Cox