House of Hope :)

Hi Friends!

This week was my first week with Mirembe House; a Christ centered residential facility for pregnant teens that has been in the works for about 20 years. It was both amazing and exhausting all at the same time. Knowing that this internship will take up most of my time, I was nervous to begin. Tuesday morning, I headed to Kampala, about an hour and a half drive from where I’m staying. The drive itself is a noteworthy social work experience, and I made sure to take in the people and the culture as we were driving. I might focus on those things another time, for now I think I’ll fill you in on Mirembe House. I could fill at least four pages with the happenings of this week, but I’ll do my best to summarize for you all.

Mirembe House welcomed me with open arms—the Staff members are beautiful, service oriented people. There are about 5 paid staff members, and quite a few volunteers. Some of both stay at Mirembe House overnight and during the whole day. However, even the members who don’t stay overnight put in long hours, and are full of joy in the process. The first day, I had a few meetings with the director and my supervisor to give me background on the organization and a picture of the population that I’d be working with. I think the first day, I had to come back and just cry for these girls. From talking with the house moms, and the employees, I found out a few things that broke my heart. For one, a lot of the girls (not ALL, but a large population) that come through Mirembe House have become pregnant by a sexually abusive family member. This often means that the family then shuns the girl, wanting nothing to do with her or her baby. The youngest girls Mirembe House has had have been 11; but this isn’t uncommon. They’ve had several cases of 11 or 12 year olds. Some girls have attempted abortion, or simply see the baby that they’re having as useless, or a problem. Mirembe House addresses these things by seeking to provide a healthy environment for these girls, so that they learn to better love themselves, and love their baby. They aim to provide Christ’s hope, and an opportunity for the teens to raise their baby in a stable environment, even giving the girls a chance to go to school after they give birth through a different branch of the program. One branch also provides funds for the mother’s children to go to school when they’re old enough. Another is a teen outreach program (run by teens) that promotes abstinence, worship, hygiene, and other things that don’t often get addressed.

My role will consist of a lot of self-initiation, which I mentioned already. I get to teach the girls about life skills (or anything I would like, really), counsel them, help them cook, visit some homes of girls that have been through the program, visit girls in the hospital that have just had their babies, lead bible studies with the girls, create after-birth plans with them, and simply walk through life with them.

So far, it’s been difficult for a few reasons. I don’t entirely know my role at Mirembe House yet, and I have mostly observed so far. The girls are wonderful, but it’s going to take a while for them to warm up to me for good reason. A huge barrier right now is the local language. Although they all speak English, they’re much more comfortable speaking Luganda, and so if I really want to be able to connect with them (or even listen to what they’re saying… somewhat), I’ll have to learn quite a bit of Luganda. Prayers would greatly be appreciated for the following things:

1. Health! We start home stays in town this week, and so my environment will be changing quite a bit.

2. For supernatural language learning skills J

3. For the girls… there are 5 currently at Mirembe House, but we’ll be getting more soon. They can house up to 20 at a time. 2 are currently due in the next month! (CRAZY that I might be a part of this… huh.) Just pray that God would work in their hearts and provide a bright future. Many of the girls that come through the program end up in not so great situations afterwards, simply because after they leave, they’re faced with extreme challenges involving family, sometimes the father of the child, society, etc.

God’s given me Romans 15:13 to encourage the work that’s taking place here.

“May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The director said to me during a long, encouraging, fact filled meeting, “You know, it’s easy to get down… sometimes the girls that come through end up in a bad place again soon after they’re through. But the hope comes when I realize that either way; if the situation ends up good or bad, Christ is in their hearts. He’s the one who really works in their lives. This gives me hope.”

What a beautiful truth. Pray that the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit is in me as I rely on God’s strength to learn how to love these girls. With all the cultural, language, and situational barriers, I’ve been learning to rely more on the grace of God and the power that He gives us to love. I’m honored that He’s given me this challenge. Our God is GOOD.

Hello, Africa.

So I've made it :) . I'm now on day 4 in Africa, and it's been certainly a whirlwind, but I think I'm going to love this place. God's been so faithful in answering prayers so far and He certainly is always faithful, so I have no doubt that He will continue to answer prayers.

So far, we've stayed two nights in Entebbe (where we landed), and then after some orientation drove from there through Kampala to Mukono where the Christian University is. Here, we will be staying for the majority of our time. The orientation has consisted of a scavenger hunt in the city of Mukono, where we discovered a little bit about what it feels like to be a minority (certainly not a common feeling), learned how to barter, and learned how to stay out of the way of the crazy traffic downtown—all very valuable life skills.

The four days that I’ve been here feel more like 2 weeks. Jet lag just confuses me, but I think God’s getting me through it partially just with the excitement of being in a new place.

Today was our first day of classes, so I found out my placement (finally)! For the next four months I’ll be interning at Mirembe House, which is a Crisis Pregnancy Care center in Kampala that’s affiliated with Youth for Christ. What I know so far is that I’ll mostly just be spending time with pregnant teens that live at the house. Apparently the organization is really flexible so a lot of the work will be up to my discretion, but my advisor mentioned that some things I may do include counseling services, teaching life skills, spending time studying the bible with the girls, painting nails… those are some of the things that really perked my ears up.

God nearly brought tears to my eyes just thinking about how GOOD He is and how much I don’t deserve it. Hearing about my internship, and the internships that all the other social work students have, every one seems like beautiful work that will lead to rich experiences. I’m nearly as excited to hear stories from those working with children on the street, and those working with people dying of AIDS, as I am to work at Mirembe House.

I start my internship next week, which at first disappointed me a little. I wanted to leave that very minute and meet the girls, and my supervisor (whose name, coincidentally, is Mary J). However, I think this time will be valuable for preparing my heart to face the challenges and joys of working with these teenage girls.

Prayer would be appreciated for a few things:

         -Preparation (as I said, this will take God’s strength, and a willingness to surrender on my part).

         -For continued health as the various changes in climate and atmosphere take a toll on my body.

         -For boldness and confidence in the gifts that God’s given me.

         -For more opportunities to learn from these beautiful people.

I wish I could post some pictures to help you visualize a little bit, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for those. For now, I’ll just paint a picture of the little things that make Uganda beautifully unique.

What I’m excited to get used to in the next few weeks:

1. Driving on the left side of the road (I’m not driving, don’t worry).

2. The FOOD. Yum yum yum.

3. The powerful African sun.

4. The relief that comes with the coolness of the evening

5. Skirts!

6. Sleeping under a mosquito net (in the words of my roommate, I feel like a PRINCESS!)

7. The beautiful people and their radiant smiles.

8. The plumbing… (heh.. heh.)

9. The intense green of everything, and the red orange dirt that compliments it.

10. The DELICIOUS fresh fruit

11. Monkeys

The list goes on and on and on, and I keep adding to it everyday. I know I’m in for a ride. I already have asked my first ignorant American question (do you have any… pets? HAH, Try food..), and I’ve killed my first cockroach. I’ve had my first little slice of homesickness, and although I know this is going to get more difficult when the excitement and newness wear off a bit, I cannot wait to LEARN from this people and this country. God’s beauty is so evident here in a different way than I’m used to. It makes me feel so small, and so blessed all at the same time.

I love you all, thanks again for all the prayer and support!!!

A Small note for those of you who have supported me financially—I wish I could have written thank you’s before I left, but timing was a little tricky. You are so VERY much appreciated, and you’ll receive written thank-you’s when I get back!

Alright friends, the sun has set in Uganda and tomorrow, I eat more fresh pineapple for breakfast. I’m already giggling.