All things are moving along well! The tailoring girls are improving everyday.
We have now transitioned the co/op girls to start their own small businesses, and the new tailoring girls will be integrated into the co/op once they are finished.
I was so pleased to know that three of our old girls have found employment in small local garment shops, using their tailoring skills.
These girls mentioned to us that the only reason they now have a full time job is because we trained them with tailoring skills and the know how to help them.
This is a great success in the developmental area. To have girls working for themselves, or for someone else, and to have them find employment because we spent the time to invest in them and train them with a bunch of holistic skills, really gives us joy.
This is what we aimed for from the very start, and you almost feel like a proud parent to see these girls now living on their own, and supporting themselves.
As C.S Lewis once wrote: The proper aim of giving is to put the recipient in a state in where he no longer needs our gift. We feed children in order that they may soon be able to feed themselves; we teach them in order that they may soon not need our teaching. Thus a heavy task is laid upon Gift-love. It must work towards its own abdication. We must aim at making ourselves superfluous. The hour when we can say 'They need me no longer' should be our reward.
How very true that is.
At the moment I am currently in the process of getting an NGO volunteering visa. I am paying an agent to do most of the work, as doing things yourself here seems to be futile. Please pray that I get that visa in the next few weeks.
Agnes and I will also start on the long process of getting her a partner visa to live in Australia. This also takes a lot of work and documentation that needs to be provided.
I had mentioned in a facebook post the other day how one of the top local Muslim leaders here came up to me while I was standing on the street, and gave me a friendly slap on the back requesting that "Mr Luka you should come over to Islam"
I had responded to him and said "I could never, Yesu is the way the truth and the light". The Muslim man laughed and said that Islam better, to which I replied it was him to come over to Yesu.
During all of this we laughed and smiled!
It was nice to acknowledge that we could totally disagree with each other, with completely contrasting world views, yet find common ground in our humanity.
I am well aware that right now in the world there is a global genocide against Christians, and I do not want to take away from that. I recognize that a huge majority of this oppression is coming from Islam. From both Islamic governments and from Islamic communities, both extremists and also moderates.
But because of this, my little experience shined a little brighter, on how it is possible for opposite religions to cohabit. Uganda has done very well compared to other African nations, with its Christian and Muslim relations.
It is also an example to the west, in which the new age of tolerance seems to dictate that any one who disagrees or does not publicly endorse a certain belief, is a bigot and intolerant.
This happens all across the spectrum, to arguments around halal, to so called same sex marriage, to indigenous issues, abortion, immigration and more. Often no one wants to hear the unpopular sides to these arguments, because a majority disagrees with them. They claim that to have a different opinion around these issues means one is intolerant and a bigot.
This never made much sense to me. Intolerance and bigotry is determined by the way you treat the person with an opposing view, not because of the view itself that you hold. By claiming and shouting 'intolerance', or 'bigotry' at the slightest hint of a different viewpoint, you shut down genuine discussion and understanding.
This is where we can learn from peoples who totally disagree with each other, but respect each other as fellow human beings.
What is interesting in Christian and Muslim relations here, is that I run a general teachings class with a mixed group of boys on all different topics including human rights, drugs and alcohol, sexual abuse and so forth.
This group has a mixture of non Christians, Muslims, and some who claim Christianity as just a title. These boys themselves asked if I could run some extra classes for them, specifically on the bible and what it teaches.
Oh how I would be honored.
Often building relationships and trust, while developing friendships, can open up doors for the Gospel to be shared!
As Christians we do not propagate our faith by force, but we attract people to come and listen. Free will is a major component of Christianity, and we attract people with our lives so we can share with them the Gospel. Unlike many of the forced conversions to Islam you see in Africa and the middle east .. the foot of the oppressor is placed on the necks of Christians and other religious minorities, to force them to convert away from their faith.
I do believe this is something that attracts many in the Muslim community over here to the Gospel.
So I will be glad to add some extra biblical classes to these new friends of mine.
Otherwise we have started another Empower course today! Agnes, Rachel from Jinja Christian School, and myself are all running a trauma rehabilitation program for eight girls from the Village of Hope.
We look forward to this next week as we go through the empower program, and hope to see healing from past traumas.
Agnes also turned 30 the other week! So we were blessed by a loved one in Australia with some money to go out for a fancy meal! We took Agnes' younger brother along and all enjoyed pizza and chicken at two friends.
Thanks again to all those people who have been praying for us, as well as financially supporting us. It means a lot.
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