We Fast and We Pray

We fast and we pray because God is our only hope and we know that He will provide a solution. The problem is beyond human power and we are out of ideas of how to meet the needs of these children. We turn to our Maker and Father for answers. We know that He will not fail us and more importantly He will not leave our children who are without a place to sleep.

The past several months’ work at our street programs with children has been good and we feel extremely blessed by the work God has done. We’ve met several new kids and been able to build relationships with many kids. My friends and I were even at the point of going out to Kampala and bringing kids to the area where we do our programs. While the kids were still calling the streets home, we knew where they were and we knew where they slept. There was a small room where 40 of them slept. It wasn’t nice and not at all where children should be sleeping but it was better than outside in the streets where they could be beaten or arrested. We knew that we would see the kids each day we went and could see that they were ok. There was some sense of security. The sick kids came to get medicine, they came to get food, soap and hang out.

However, things have changed and we don’t know what to do. We are still able to do our programs there but the children are no longer allowed to hang out in the community and they are no longer allowed to sleep in the room. A few nights ago the police went into the room where the kids were staying and beat them and then arrested several of them the next day. When my friends went to get them back, the police that made it clear the kids were not welcome in the area and would be arrested if they continued to sleep there. They have been completely chased from the area and we don’t know where to send the kids. There is definitely an argument to be made that these kids have been on the streets for a while, some years, and they are capable of finding a safe place to stay. However, that argument is crap. Kids should not have to search to find a safe place to sleep. Kids should not be wandering the streets looking for a place where they won’t be beaten. And the truth is that we want them near us. We want to know that they are safe and we want to pour Jesus into them and if they are scattered all over Kampala, I’m not sure how we do that. Many of these kids have come to trust and respect us and it feels like we are failing them by not having a solution to this. How can we hang out with the kids all day and then come night say good-bye knowing they have no place to go while we go home to nice, safe beds? It just doesn’t work and it is not at all how God intended.

They are amazing and it breaks my heart to know they are sleeping on verandas, in front of supermarkets and anywhere else they can find where the police won’t beat or arrest them. So, we fast and we pray that God would change the hearts of the police and we pray that He would find a place for these children to sleep. We trust in His power and His love.