I’m home from a short trip to Uganda east Africa. It was just myself and two fireball college students, Bethany Hartzler and Stacey Shaw. They were taking video footage on location of the building site of Abba House. We stayed with missionary Alma Jones and we were working with Richard and Debra Kaaya and Paul Basulawa. As we toured the Kaaya’s primary school we found about 30 out of 250 students which had not gone home for Christmas break. They had no home to go to. The girls began to shoot some footage while Debra began to tell us some of their stories. Bethany was drawn to a little girl in a yellow dress. Her face was stern, giving the impression that She had been through a lot considering She wasn’t much more than an infant. Here is her story.
Rose is 3 years old and She lives with Her Mother and Grandfather. Her Mother is 15 years old and by doing the simple math we know the Mother was 12 at the time of the birth. We found out that the Mother had conceived during a rape. I will mention at this point that the Mother has mental illness. In America this would make a classic liberal case for abortion but thank God not this time. God seems to have thundered from heaven with this little girl that ALL life is precious and worth living. She truly lives up to Her name Rose. Precious Rose you have captured our hearts, you are beautiful. We had pastor Kaaya take us to buy some food, and We delivered it to Her Grandfather. He was so grateful and began to tell us how Rose at 3 years old did the washing and cleaning, seeing that he was old and the Mother was just not mentally capable.
My heart is hard, I admit it I have been all over the world and I have seen things that made me vomit, close my eyes turn away and cry, and here I was just numb, yeah numb that describes it. The next day we took some beanie babies, bracelets and candy to the 30 orphaned children. Rose was there and we noticed She drifted off by Herself. When She was asked what was wrong, She said that She was just putting back part of the candy to share with Her Mother. What a display of love this little girl demonstrated. Finally the hardness gave way and my heart did not hold back tears, I cried. I thought how Rose was conceived in rape and hatred. I thought of the prison of emotional pain that Her mother lives with yet They are a picture of pure LOVE. Rose will serve as a reminder of how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. We are created by God, not by our circumstances, nor are we limited by them.
Abba Father, I have been given a fresh look at the gift of life and have again found it precious. Raise this precious Rose up for all to see the handy work of your creation. Let Her be a reminder that you are the Spirit of Adoption and you are the father of the fatherless and the defender of the widow. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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