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.