Pray for the Karimojong

I am in Uganda training our staff on ways they can recognize and fight child trafficking and modern-day slavery. Today I was talking with ECM's new National Director, Charles Obwoon.

My conversation with Charles started in a very ordinary way. He wanted to know if I would consider other sponsorship projects in other places in Uganda, besides the three we have now in Kamwokya, Gayaza, and Gulu. It was the kind of question people ask me all the time. Eventually, yes. As soon as what we are already doing is strong and stable enough and as soon as there is adequate support. Not immediately, but yes, certainly in the future.

His next question stopped me in my tracks. Would I consider a sponsorship project among st the Karimojong? Immediately he had my attention. In the past few weeks before coming to Uganda, I'd spent a considerable amount of my "spare" time researching the Karimojong. No one knew that--certainly not Charles. I had examined the Karimoja territory in northeastern Uganda on Google earth. I had read the reports of the very, very few missionary efforts there. I had even written a page on the Karimojong for a prayer guide I am compiling called "Prayer for the Dark Places".

An interesting people, the Karimojong. One of their central cultural beliefs is that God gave all the cattle on earth to them. Since they believe they have a divine right to all cattle and neighboring tribes have cattle, I'm sure you can see how this makes for a difficult life--especially since some of those neighboring tribes have similar beliefs.

The Karimojong are one of the groups I was planning to discuss in the staff training on child trafficking. You see, ECM has learned that Karimojong children are sold regularly in cattle markets along the border between Kenya and Uganda. We have learned that every Friday, certain cattle stalls are reserved for selling children!

Some Karimojong parents are selling their children, apparently out of desperation because of their extreme poverty. It is not yet clear whether they sell them to brokers who perhaps make false promises that the children will have a better life elsewhere and even be able to send money home (such false inducements are very common). Whatever the parents think, the children are sold at the markets and bought by slave masters. One common destination is Kampala. The masters beat the children to make them cry, then set them out on the streets to beg. Watching from a distance, the master's helpers quickly swoop up any aid given to the child. Little children commonly sit in the sun without food or even water to drink for long hours. At the end of the day they receive a skimpy meal just designed to barely keep them alive. The masters don't want them to look healthy, because they bring more money in looking sickly.

Yes, I was very much interested in the Karimojong project, and I considered his interest a confirmation of the burdent God had been growing in my heart. If ECM can successfully plant sponsorship programs in the home area of the Karimojong, it could dramatically decrease the number of parents who would try to sell their children, as well as those who would be vulnerable to the deceptive promises of the child traffickers. In addition, very little Gospel work has been done amongst the Karimojong, so such a project could help build the church of Jesus Christ there.

Here are a few ways people can pray with us: 1. The selection of a place. The Karimojong are a semi-nomadic cattle herding people. Sponsorship is nearly impossible where people don't stay in one place. But some of them do! Pray we'll find the right spot. 2. Connections with other Bible-believing Christians and preferably churches in the area. We want what we do to help build the church of Jesus Christ. 3. The selection of children and families. The Karimojong traditionally value knowledge related to their world of cattle herding. School type knowledge is little appreciated, yet this is causing their group to be scorned and left behind in the modern world. Pray we'll find some families who desiere their children to go to school. 4. The timing. Every Child Ministries is making significant strides at recovery following some difficult attacks in Uganda. We don't want to stretch ourselves too thin. Pray that we'll know when it's time to move forward with this project.

THE VALUE OF A CHILD, EVEN A GIRL CHILD

I just found out yesterday that I am going to be a Grandma for the dozenth time. Our oldest daughter Carrie is expecting her seventh. As we drove home from Carrie's I envisioned myself cuddling and loving that new baby we are soon to welcome in our family.



I couldn't help also remembering things I'd read recently about what is done to babies in some parts of the world, especially if they happen to be girls. (I couldn't help but think about that since so far, Carrie has five girls and only one boy.) I read that some mothers feed their newborns rice with the hulls still on, so that the rice will slit the newborn's throat. For economic reasons, mind you. Families can't afford the huge dowries that are required by their custom.



I thought about parents in some parts of Africa where our mission, Every Child Ministries, works, who sell their children into prostitution to gain a few dollars, give them as slaves to idol shrines, sometimes just to obtain a good crop or success on some business venture, sell them to traders to serve as bonded labor, diving into the river to gain a few oysters to sell.



What is the value of a child? As a Christian, I see every person at every age from the moment of conception to the grave, at every shade of ability and non-ability, of every color and language and culture to be made in the image of God, carefully crafted by His hand. That's what it says in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. "So God made man in His own image. In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). If people don't believe this, if they believe human babies are just animals or biochemical machines, then I can understand how it is that they treat life as cheap. For them, they can treat children as economic pawns to be bargained for their own comfort and convenience. For me as a Christian it is not so. As a Christian I value human life because God made us all special and gave to us a unique dignity in His creation.



That's the underlying base that has caused me to become a mother to millions. That's the reason I "adopted" my BIG African family. And it's the reason we will welcome Carrie's baby. And it's the reason we will vote Pro-Life in the upcoming election. The value of a child can never be overestimated.