John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
A love for His people - God has been showing me a love that I never knew was in my heart. A love that only he can give me for a people i've never met. For the past 4 summers, I have worked at a camp in North Georgia, a missions camp for girls, Camp Pinnacle. Here as a girl I learned about missions and I learned about Unreached people groups. I learned that more than 3,000 people groups are unengaged and unreached, meaning that less than 1% are believers and that no one is going to them - this means people are dying daily without knowing their creator! I have learned that people haven't gone unnoticed by the Lord, even when we aren't going as He has commanded us. The Lord is peaking through dreams - I've heard the stories and rejoiced as around the world Brothers and Sisters have been written in the Lambs book of LIFE! In February, I will be stepping foot in Uganda to support and join in what the Lord has called a young man to. At 6 years old both of his parents died of AIDS and he was left, an outcast in his village. God's plans are much bigger than our own - later he was taken to an orphanage and later adopted by a family. The Lord has placed a burden in this young mans heart to love his people - the people of his village that ignored him so long ago.
People have asked me what I will be doing and honestly I don't know. All I know is that I will be loving on people! I've never met these people - I've only seen picture and heard stories and the village i'm going to can't be found on a map (i've tried) however God has created these people and He has gone before us. I'm SO excited to be joining this man whose hearts passion is for the Lord to be made known to his village. there is so much more to this young man's story - you can read it below!
Emmanuel’s Story and the Angoltok Outreach
Center
THE LOST CLAN
This a true story we are going to look at here. It
happened way out in a land far, far away in the heart of Africa almost 22 years
ago. The memories are fresh in my mind as if it all happened yesterday. I
am praying you will just sit down and take time to go through this story.
I am very sorry that it has to be only me doing the talking here, I
hope that someday i will have the chance to meet all who will have the chance
and time to read this. In the same way i pray that God will fill your heart to
understand this story and the way it has come about.
I was born in 1984 in a very small village in the land called
AGOLTOK. Some of you are now wondering what kind of name this is.
This name was passed down to us by the great grandparents and I believe even
they never knew what it meant, but this is where I was born. My land of origin
is found on the eastern part of Uganda in the district called KABERAMAIDO.
I am giving you very hard names today, but it is because we are
traveling several kilometers into the heart of Africa and these are the native
names.
When I was very young, my parents kept on getting sick and I did
not really know what the problem was. I didn’t know at the time
that they were sick of AIDS. The whole village feared to come and
help me look after them and I kept on wondering what the problem was with my
home. My parents were still young and I was the only child they had
at this time; meaning they still had all the time in the world to have more
children. I kept on asking my mom to give me a sister or brother but my request
only went out in vain.
I finally realized that if i did not work hard at my age of 6 my
parents would not have food to eat or water to bath with, so I became the owner
of the home. I had to find food every day to feed my sick parents. My mom
had tears in her eyes every day and I kept on wondering why she was crying all
the time. She would tell me “I do not know who will take care of you
after I am gone”. I did not understand what she was really meaning – that
I got to understand later. My Mom saw her son at age 6 taking care
of her when the whole village had given up on them. I just tried my best
knowing that they were just sick they would be fine one day soon.
I guess them becoming better was just something I only dreamed
of. In Jan 1990, in the middle of one night, my dad woke me to tell
me that my mom was going to die. I had no time to listen to him; all I
wanted was to have my sleep. I always slept next to my mom and every
morning she would wake me so I thought it would be the same thing that next
morning… so I slept on. But in the morning, Dad woke me up and said,
“Your mom has died go tell all the people in the village to come and help us
bury her.” He said this knowing that maybe people would be too scared and
none would come. Home to home I went telling people that mom had died and
I needed help to bury her. By the time I returned home some people had
come to start the wake. I still had not known exactly what had happened to my
mom and now everyone was crying. I needed someone to explain all
this to me, but no one noticed me. I went that whole day without food.
So time came to put her to her resting place, the only way of
burial those days in my village was they wrapped the dead person in the blanket
and they are put right in the grave without a coffin. I watched my Mom
get buried and she was finally at rest, but I still faced the burden of looking
after my dad. Something happened to my Dad that I did not know at that time,
but now I understand. When my Mom died he started seeking God every time he
would lay down, with this bible on his bedhead. Only now can I understand
what he was preparing for. He knew at any time was going the same road my mom
had gone and he knew God would be on the other end waiting for him. Still the
village feared us even more. They feared me because they thought i was just as
sick as my parents, so they would not let me play with their children. They
thought if I touched any of them they too would be sick. This made me feel like
I was just meant to be ME, MYSELF AND I. I realized that I was not meant
to have friends my age and even those people who came to my home did not want
to sit down or stay long or have anything to do with the place.
in April 1990 my Dad sent me to go tell some uncle, who lived a
bit far, to collect for him some medicine. The journey was far so I came
back late. On opening the door I expected to hear my Dad saying “You’re
late..You went forever.” But, there was only silence. I went to wake him
because he was there on his bed but he never woke up. He too had gone. I
thought of this day and I still think of it today. I went to call the
villager, as always, to come and help organize the burial. They all said
it would be done in the morning. My Aunt lived very far so I could not make it
to her place. So, I ended up alone the whole night with my Dad’s body.
This night still remains in my mind till today. I got so angry with the
village and I thought it was just better if I was gone as well. I
did my part. I slept till morning and they did come and they put my dad
the same way my mom was put in the grave. The next thing everyone came to
my home to grab whatever they could all get and take home with them. I
was left there with nothing.
Now the only advice they gave to a total orphan boy was “Your
mom and your dad now is the hoe. Meaning I had to dig and grow my own food to
survive. I kind of tried to do this but I was too young to manage a
home when they had already taken everything away. So I ended up moving
from home to home looking for food and where to sleep. But even if I went
to a home they ended up chasing me after one or two meals and they would tell
me to go away and go to another home and eat their food too, that I had stayed
there too long. I started wishing my parents were still alive because at
least then I would have a home and a family to love me. Narrating this is
kind of becoming hard now because this is becoming fresh in my mind again. I
would go to a relative and he would chase me away because he would say I might
be sick. They would tell me “You are already dead, so stay away from us”.
I moved from home to home. When I was chased away, I would go to
another place. There is not a single person in the whole village and
beyond who did or does not know me even now.
I praise the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because in all
this time that I was going through, He was just right beside me. I did not know
it then, but He later showed me that He is the Father of the fatherless. He is
good and His mercies last forever.
Now we go to the second part of this story. After suffering
on my own for almost three years, somebody came to the village looking for me.
He had recently traveled 300kms to a town called Jinja and had come
across some missionaries who had started an orphanage. They were taking
in children, so this man rushed to the village and looked for me for everywhere
but no one could tell whose home I was in so he searched everywhere and gave
up. The very day he was supposed to take me I did not know anything but I found
myself in his compound. He said he was looking for me everywhere to take
me to Jinja. I was surprised because I had just taken myself to his place to
beg for some food. I was glad to get out of that village. I had never had
shoes put on my feet. I was used to walking bare feet and that is how I arrived
in Jinja. I had no clothes but i had a worn out short and a small shirt
that was equally worn out and this man was telling me I was going to live with
whites from America. I just wanted to be there and never wanted to come
back.
But, I had never seen a white before. “How do this people
look like?” this is the thought I had all the three hour journey in a car that
I had never ridden in before. But, no matter what I wanted to go.
When we entered the home, I had never seen such a good
house. I was just used to my hut. So we knock on the door and here comes
this white man, I froze, never in my whole life had I seen a white man but not
just a white man.. a white man without legs. He was seated on a wheel
chair and had totally no legs from the top, but he was alive and as I was still
trying to comfort myself, here cames this young girl who just swung
herself right up to the top of this man without legs and she seats on his neck.
At this point I was really ready to leave this place because I did not
understand it. This was all so new to me… but now the door swung open
again and here came a white lady who said she was called mom and I was to call
her mom. Of course I did not know English. I had never been to school and
I needed an interpreter to translate for the both of us. Later the man who
brought me left me there and we all began using some form of sign language
because none could understand the other. The woman took me in and said I had to
go take a shower. I had never seen a bath tub. I saw it for the
first time and had to use it. The clothes I came with..I never saw them
again. That evening I had the best meal in my whole life. I was seated on
a nice table with whites. It was like God raising you from dust and
sitting you with queens and princes. I had that come to me in just one day. God
changed my life in just one day like this.
I would get three meals every day and someone to call mom, and I
had brothers in this place. It was really good and at least all of us in
this place had one thing in common - we were all orphans. I had a hard time
understanding having power. I had never seen electricity and now I was
seeing it for the first time. Everything you see out in a normal home, I did
not know all that, but God got me out of that village and gave me a new
life. I owe Him everything. He made me who I am today and I live to
testify of His goodness.
Time passed and they brought more and more children and we
reached a very large number, both girls and boys we grew up together and went
to school together. Life became good and I forgot all my worries, because
they remained in that village the day I left.
In the year 2000 God brought a family to Uganda that I never
knew, at the time, would help me become who I am today. This family was called
the Wattiers. The Wattiers replaced the Walker family as the
directors of Good Shepherd’s Fold. I feel I should say this today, the
Wattiers did a very good job and they went through a lot here in Uganda and
were not always treated well, but God had given me the Wattier family as my own
family. I finally got a real Mom and Dad who loved me as one of their
own. and now I am forever part of the Wattier family. I had never
thought God would still bring me a Mom at this age, but she loves me so much that if I do not get on net once a day my
Mom will be wondering where her son in uganda is and she will do all it takes
to make sure am fine. I have Dad who loves me and my prayer is that God brings
them both back to Uganda for ministry. I know He will because He called them
here. They have a large family here too.
Now days if I go to my village of Angoltok, everyone acts like
“hey, Emma is like our son”. Our son hahahahaha… I really wonder where
they were all that time when I needed them the most. I could be angry and
bitter, but I have no time for that now. I have a much better life.
God made me to find Jesus and this Jesus I want to take to them
too. The village has a population of 2000 people and the word of
God has never really reached to these people. The area is far from any
town and because of this, no one will go there and evangelize. But this is
where God has called me to go back and minister. The number of
orphans is larger there than during my time. AIDS has killed people, but
also Kony’s rebels passed through the area killing a large number, leaving many
children to take care of their fellow young ones. The area has just one primary
school and with the large number of children, and the low quality of the
school, most of them see no point in going to school. They have never
seen a nursery school and this one of the great needs in the area now. The
sub-county has like almost 9 villages that are really large and there is only
one clinic to help all this people, and in most cases the doctor is not there
or the drugs are finished, yet very many people line up daily for treatment.
We need Jesus in this area. People die because they have not got
treatment and they have nothing to do about it. There are no cars to
transport any sick person to hospital. And they are dying without knowing
Jesus. I just wish God can remember them.
The few churches that do exist in the region do not know what to
teach in church just because the preachers have no sort of biblical training.
The locals have resorted to drinking alcohol most of the time, even at
church. Jesus needs to be taught in this place. We need to get both the
old and the young. If we had a nursery school we would train these kids on
daily basis on the bible so that they will grow up different from the rest and
in the long run the village will be a better place to live.
It is my prayer that anyone who will get time to read this, that
God will put in your heart the willingness to serve him in Uganda. We need to
have a Christian school and a church and a clinic in the area. The one thing my
parents left me is a large section of land, which happens to be at the very
center of all of these villages. I have given this land back to God
to be used to reach these people for Him.
We can be able to change so many people in this area. I just
hope that God will give the craving to serve Him in this ministry. These
people had rejected me, but now I have great influence with them and now is the
time for us to bring them to the Lord.
I can only request for your partnership in this ministry. I
believe God will use all of you to build this school and church and clinic in
this place. Any amount of money given to this ministry can do a great work out
here. For God who made me who I am will bless all who will help me build this
school. I NEED YOUR HELP. Please pray for me.
Thank you so much for your time may God bless you all
Emmanuel Erebu
