Faith

During the school holidays we had the privilege of hosting a beautiful young lady from Uganda in our home. Her name is Faith and that is what she inspires when you hear her story. Her maternal Grandmother was murdered by rebels, her father became a pastor and her Auntie who had many friends abducted, raped tortured and murdered by rebels now runs a ministry that nurtures and heals young women who are able to escape from the rebels.
Faith told me how she basically grew up in a boarding school many days travel from her parents and with very little opportunity to contact them with no reliable mail or phone services. Her family come from an area called Gulu, where it is still unsafe for children. The african people refuse to join the rebels so to find recruits children are abducted, tortured and turned into killers themselves while still young. Children walk for many miles every night to find somewhere safe to sleep or if they are "lucky" they go to boarding school. Faith told me of fleeing into the jungle as even the boarding school came under attack one night during a war. Amidst gunshots and explosions she ran toward the river but was unable to cross it, so she hid in the jungle beside the river and when she awoke in the morning she had many, many mosquitoe bites all over her body and suffered very bad malaria many times while still a child and staying at boarding school with no-one to comfort her.
And yet despite all that she has suffered and witnessed, she radiates love, joy and peace and a sense of hope. She says that no matter what happens God is always faithful in protecting and providing for her and her family.
Just an amazing young woman. She is now in her mid twenties and working on her second and third Uni degrees!